Hey @smores98,
So I think there are several reasons that you get different answers to that question:[ul]
[]It depends who you’re asking (as you get further and further away from Spring/Summer Year 4, people easily forget how correlative the actual exam was to what they learned while they were taking coursework, since those classes are over and done, and just because it’s such a long exam (7 hours) in which you take quite a number of hours to study for and simulate questions with, and then you jump right into Year 5 clerkships and start studying for their specific final exams, USMLE Step 2, setting up auditions rotations, applying for residency, blah, blah blah. So you talked with alumni who were at least interns, so they’re already 3+ years away from when they took Step 1, so they likely will not be able to tell you how close Step 1 really was to their coursework. It’s best to talk with people who are much closer, so for this year it would be Classes of 2018 (who are taking it this year), 2017, 2016 (who are still in school). You can go on Facebook and cordially message people for that specific question so that at least you get a more recent and accurate answer.
[]People have very different baseline study methods and strategies (although you can always learn new ones), different work ethic, different long-term memory retention, etc.
[]People have different specialties they are aiming for – certain specialties don’t emphasize Step 1 scores as much as others do.[/ul]
So let me answer your other questions – these are my opinions, so take it for what it is worth:[ol]
[li]I don’t think the school has “no effect” on Step scores. Clearly they have some effect, as they’re the ones that introduce and present to you basic science material (the way they want to) and then assess/evaluate your mastery of that knowledge, usually thru exams. You usually learn things initially the way they are taught and the way they are tested, when you try to recall things later. I think what that person may have meant, which @Watang alluded to, is that you get to a point in which you have to study and go thru the material, then be able to understand and apply it on your own, independently - even if you didn’t learn the information in class, either because it was never taught, talked about, or presented, or it was taught very poorly at the time. You can’t say, for example, “We never covered this in Path or Dr. _____ taught this topic really badly, it’s not fair for the USMLE to test us on it, so I’m not going to learn it!” You’d have to be utterly insane. Yes it sucks (majorly), yes it’s unbelievably frustrating, but everyone kind of grins and bears it for the most part it.[/li][]I would say on average, UMKC students take about 2, maybe 3 months, of actual solid review before taking the Step 1 exam. This ISN’T counting slowly re-introducing yourself to the material that you’ve long ago forgotten or having to fill in basic science knowledge gaps on the topics/concepts that either were never taught, were quickly skimmed over, or were taught very poorly, which you then have to “teach” yourself for the first time. I’m talking about AFTER you’ve done both of those things. As you can imagine, that can take some time to learn the information the way you were supposed to have learned it, and again, can be very frustrating.
[li]As far as me personally, I agree with @Watang’s post, in terms of my own personal experience as well. I do not believe my coursework really prepared me well for my boards (luckily, we figured this out long before, from classes ahead of us, so it wasn’t a huge shock, but it wasn’t any less frustrating), which is a shame, because I think there are so many (even little) things the faculty could have done to change things to make it more helpful and beneficial. But it’s not like this is a new problem. Basic sciences has always been a perennial problem for us. We were literally freaking out when we started looking at actual USMLE questions just because our course exams weren’t at all structured like that, and we were noticing certain topics/concepts not being covered (not even talking about being taught poorly, I’m saying not even taught/skipped).[/li]
Being a good standardized test-taker is a very important skill to have and unfortunately the combined program, by itself, does not give practice and sharpen those skills for our students over the years like you might hope: i.e. we don’t take the MCAT, we don’t take standardized basic science shelf exams, the way KU Med does (or at least they used to until 2014. They now just have their students take the standardized CBSE every semester in their first 2 years: http://www.kumc.edu/Documents/ome/Curriculum%20Connections%20–%20Spring%202014.pdf), to give early indicators of students’ progression. So by the time we take our CBSE for real in order to be able to qualify to take Step 1, it’s been 4 years since many of us took our last standardized exam, the ACT/SAT (the Year 3 CBSE that have students take is relatively useless because we’ve only completed Biochem and HSF and have a lot more to go). Again, if you’re already a gifted standardized test taker (I wasn’t, it always took hard work) then it won’t matter, but if you’re a slightly above average/average/below average standardized test taker, then knowing whether you’re on par or not, while you’re going thru classes, is very beneficial.[/ol]