<p>
DS called before weekend, and told us he was happy with his STEP-1 score, which is 15 points higher than his target score which he set when he was preparing for this test and 29 points higher than the mean STEP-1 score (for matched US seniors) in the Table 2, row 3, the 1st number, posted by WOWMom in post #740. (I guess his “sleepy head” was still functioning during the long, grueling test.)</p>
<p>I would say so. Congrats to him.</p>
<p>curm, Thanks!</p>
<p>BTW, it appears he always said he would like to be in some specialty in IM (neurology or urology - I forgot which one he referred to.) It belongs to the “next or second” category in WOMMom’s post above.</p>
<p>Probable neither of those, as those are not subspecialties in IM.</p>
<p>mcat2,</p>
<p>I’m guessing it was nephrology since as trapezius said, neither neuro nor uro are IM, but nephrology sounds like neurology and nephrology deals with the kidneys and urine which sounds like urology.</p>
<p>Congrats to mcat2’s son! </p>
<p>I have been interacting with a third year resident lately in IM whose non-university hospital allows for going to nephrology next internally if someone there wanted to. The perception seems to be that spending more time doing that fellowship won’t result in much more money.</p>
<p>Can’t say I know whether it is valid or not.</p>
<p>Trapezius and IWBB, I looked up these terms from wiki. I think you are probably right. It seems he has mentioned kidneys (but not surgery part of it.)</p>
<p>DS was actively shadowing in order to find what specialty might be what he likes. He did this when he was an MS1 as it was more convenient to shadow a doctor as a med school student and the teaching hospital is right next to his dorm. He really did not shadow doctors as a premed (he had a difficuly in finding the opportunity in shadowing back then) and luckily it appears med school adcoms did not think this is a great concern. He did volunteer in two hospitals though.</p>
<p>Earning big money may not be his top priority as long as he could pay back the loans (in 15 years?) He prefers not to have a life which is too hectic though. (Pathology then? No calls!)</p>
<p>MCAT2, Congrats to your DS on his Step1 score!</p>
<p>One more hurdle down. Some school required practical thing in conjunction with UConn. Don’t ask me. Simulated patients? Something. I dunno. I think mcat2 and I are neck and neck in the “poorly informed parent” race. </p>
<p>Step2 CK next up.</p>
<p>Oh, DD just had to do something for her school that is like a the Step 2 CS, but apparently the marks don’t come back for a couple of months, not sure how much help that is.</p>
<p>Step 2 CK coming soon.</p>
<p>Gee. Now I think I said that wrong. Step 2 CS would be clinical skills, right? And CK is clinical knowledge. So I guess it is CS coming up.</p>
<p>It appears not many med schools publish their STEP-1 average score. But UVA publishes it in the public domain (kudo to them, just like Cornell college publishes the GPA/MCAT grid (and thei success rates) of their premed students who apply to med schools - at least for some years as I have seen it before.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-12.pdf[/url]”>http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-12.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-11.pdf[/url]”>http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-11.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-10.pdf[/url]”>http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-10.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-09.pdf[/url]”>http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/handbook/pdf/usmle1-09.pdf</a></p>
<p>Since some med schools (e.g., the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern, and its similar school, Case?) claim that, in some year, their average is 240. I would imagine that the “best” average score a med school could get is likely between 233 to 240, roughly speaking, depending on how aggressive the students (and their school to a certain extent) pursue this. I think some schools (and their students) could possibly place more emphasis on preparing their students for MS3/4 and residency, rather than overly focus on this board test. I think (or just guess) this is especially true for those less expensive med schools which produce more generalists than specialists. It could be true that the more expensive the med school is, more students from there are more motivated to pursue competitive specialties as they carry higher debts.</p>
<p>From the data provided by the link for 2012, UVA had about 24 students who scored 255 and above in 2012. This is because
<p>^ This may not be right because the distribution of STEP-1 score is not a normal distribution. Actually, i learned it is very negatively skewed (skewed to the left.) I guess i would fail the statistics class if i take one.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that I still do not know much about how many high STEP-1 scorers at UVA med.</p>
<p>Hmmm. I don’t know if I am following the line of thinking here." MCAT results are based on individual effort not in any way tied to UG schools" but “Step 1 scores are somehow school dependent”? Somebody needs to 'splain this to me.</p>
<p>Theoretically any nationwide standardized test will show how well your school (and you) prepared for that test. So, the MCAT should show how well a student was prepared, but should also allow for that brilliant kid at Podunk U to shine when compared to Mr Average kid at Fancy U…theoretically.</p>
<p>I would guess that the med schools we saw as numbers driven in the app cycle likely put out strong Step scores as they chose numbers driven applicants and likely teach toward that goal. </p>
<p>But I’m just guessin’</p>
<p>curm, if you read what I posted above, nowhere i claimed the average STEP-1 score is school-dependent.</p>
<p>What I did was to play with the mean and the standard deviation numbers by UVA. By making an assumption that the distribution of the STEP-1 scores is a normal distribution (this is not a valid assumtion as I found out later), I tried to find out how many students at UVA med school have the score which is 1 standard deviation higher than their mean.</p>
<p>In passing, I also spread some rumors about the school’s average score of Northwest (from SDNers many years ago, in 2011 maybe?) Some SDNers swore that NW sent an email to their students about it. But since NW did not publish it officially on their web site, I think it is still a rumor until i actually see the source myself.</p>
<p>Some IMG claimed he had spent 7 months full time on studying STEP-1. I do not think any med students in US med schools would “waste 7 months of their lives” exclusively for this. However, some US med schools teach to the test more than others (i heard wustl and h will never do this but UTMB may have the incentive to do so.) Two other factors are how long the school allocates the prep time for their students and how many percentage of the students are ambitious to go for a competitive specialty.</p>
<p>Btw, some SDNer said that Umich and (likely this one) Vanderbuilt actually have a slightly higher school average then a NE elite med school or wustl. I do not know if this is true though. BCM used to be “up there” for theor school average also as their students tend to spend more time on this than, say, UTSW.</p>
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<p>Unless a school has a class called “Taking the MCAT 101”, a school doesn’t prepare a student for the test beyond very very basic background knowledge in the basic sciences. The MCAT is much more of a test of your ability to read a chunk of information and apply that information in a series of questions. From what I remember, I needed very little background information.</p>
<p>And mcat2 is correct that the USMLE does not have a normal distribution.</p>
<p>On page 13 of this link, Feinberg’s average STEP-1 score up to 2007 (so it is older) is posted. Their average score in 2007 (about 234?) seems to be not much higher than that of UVA.</p>
<p>[Northwestern</a> University The Feinberg School of Medicine Fact Book](<a href=“http://www.docstoc.com/docs/129136194/Northwestern-University-The-Feinberg-School-of-Medicine-Fact-Book]Northwestern”>http://www.docstoc.com/docs/129136194/Northwestern-University-The-Feinberg-School-of-Medicine-Fact-Book)</p>
<p>If I remember it correctly, BDM seems to have said at one time that those med school students who were graduated from a state college but then attended a “top” research med school, tend to be capable of devoting more hours to study, as compared to those graduated from a top private college, statistically speaking. The intensity of the study is much more important for STEP-1 than for MCAT. So some of the superstar students originally from a state university may have an edge here. (But in college, DS met two students at his private college (one in the same suite, the other in a nearby suite) whose work ethics is much better than the most. They would likely do the same at the med school. So there are always exceptions. Both of them are not Asian Americans. So tiger mom/son/daughter could be in any ethnic group.)</p>
<p>Edit: If we compare the 2007 average score between Feiberg and UVA, the former is indeed higher. Somehow in years 2008 and up, the mean score for UVA is much higher as compared to, say, 2005-2007. I do not know why.</p>
<p>“Step 1 scores are somehow school dependent”? Somebody needs to 'splain this to me."
-As I have mentioned in another thread, some SOM allow more time to study, more specifically the ones with the shorter pre-clinicals. But again, this is just an opinion of my D. She strogly believe that because her program is pre-clinical shorter, they have more time to prepare for Step 1. I cannot add anything, never was anywhere close to medicine.</p>