How important are anatomy grades, and for which residencies?

Listing the grades - corresponding to percentages (I know various med schools have different grading systems), what residencies should you be eliminating off your list?

90-100
80-89
70-79
60-69
fail

Obviously you're going to want pretty much A's in everything for those fabled plastics, ENT, ortho, derm, and neurosurg spots. Talking specifically about anatomy, I'd say you'd have to explain a C or below for surgery or radiology with a few words in your personal statement and during interview. It's all pretty much on a sliding scale, though, so one grade in one course won't make or break anybody for anything (except the aforementioned gunner fields) provided you make it up elsewhere. BTW can you really get a 60 at your school and still be considered passing?

don't most schools have integrated curriculums? our anatomy grade is part of a larger course encompassing histo and some basic science/little physio...although we do have a completely seperate physio course and genetics & biochem course as well

On the same note as Tic said, if you want to get a great residency at a top notch or awesome geographical location, those year 1 and 2 scores will help. However, if you honor ever course and bomb Step I, then you have no chance at them.

At this juncture, try to do the best you can to learn the material because you may see it again on Step I...i wouldn't freak out about having to screw up the curve or get the highest grade, since the most important things that residencies will initially look at will most likely be 1) Step I and 2) Clinical rotation grades. Everything else (LORs, Deans Letter, Interview, Pre-clinical grades, away rotations, etc, etc) will most likely fall in the spectrum of "not as important, but possibly something to differentiate applicants"

Does any med school out there even have a D grade? At my school it is

90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
Below 70 Fail

we're top 10% honor next 15% high pass then non-scaled above 70% pass, I'd say means are around 84/85, so the top 25% high passing/honoring must be getting like 89/90s. Definitely below 70 is fail

How important are anatomy grades, and for which residencies?

Everything counts, but on the continuum of what is important, first year grades tend to be pretty low on the totem pole. Things like honors and AOA look good, but on the other extreme few doors will be closed to you on the weight of your grades on this one course. From what I've seen and heard, folks who do well in second year and on Step 1 tend to match fairly well even with a few less than impressive first year grades.
And FYI, as a prior poster indicated, many med schools consider any grade below a 70 an F (requiring a retake).

At my school, a 75 is passing!! Anything below 75 is a fail and you remediate. Kinda stinks.

75 - 83 = Pass
84 - 92 = High Pass
93+ = Honors

(NOTE: I am at a "center campus" and not the Indy campus. I believe Indy has a pass as low as a 70...sounds fair right, given that we get ranked among each other across the state?).

Percentage grades are absolutely meaningless outside of a particular school. An antomy exam could be written such that 95%+ is defined as passing, anything below failing and have nearly everyone pass. On the other hand an exam could be written such that 50%+ is passing and it could be so difficult that few would meet that standard.

It is useless to compare grading systems between schools unless they use the same exams.

End rant.

People--Do your flipping best, whatever your best is. That's it. End of story. You can't change past grades, but if you come here looking for somebody to justify a lack of effort, you shouldn't become a doctor anyway.

People--Do your flipping best, whatever your best is. That's it. End of story.

Agree. Your best is as good as it's going to get so just run with it. Ideally ignore grades and how everyone else is doing, and just look at the tests as your own personal challenge.

people with a photographic memory should be identified and placed in a grading curve of their own aside from the rest of us mortals for anatomy

You guys probably get some pretty high marks. We don't have those things here. The scale starts at 50% anything less is a fail. 65% to 75% is honours and 75% and above is distinction. My year started the new integrated curriculum and our first anatomy exam the class averaged 65%. The next day the Sub-dean dropped by to let us know that the exam was "sub-par." The man actually told us it was too easy and we should minus 10 % from our score to see our true grade. They let us keep the scores (made a huge deal about it too because it was such a major sacrifice) but since then the exams have been much harder.

A = 90+
B = 80 - 89
C = 70 - 79

Anything else is an F.

I know that CatsandCradles currently has a 78.9 in anatomy - but that can change in the space of a a few weeks - so if C&C is not careful, he might just fail by the time March roles around:eek:

On the other hand, if C&C is careful, he might just get that B in anatomy he so desperately desires.:)

At my school, a 75 is passing!! Anything below 75 is a fail and you remediate. Kinda stinks.



Wow,

May I ask what school this is?

At my place a 70 - 73 won't fail you but will cause you a lot of administrative probations...but that's a pretty high bar if your school set it at 75%

Wow,

May I ask what school this is?

At my place a 70 - 73 won't fail you but will cause you a lot of administrative probations...but that's a pretty high bar if your school set it at 75%

They are at Indiana University...not at the main campus, but at one of the satellite campuses for now, until clinical.

i go to the main indiana university campus and the levels are the same to pass, etc as the satellite campuses for anatomy

How important are anatomy grades, and for which residencies?

Listing the grades - corresponding to percentages (I know various med schools have different grading systems), what residencies should you be eliminating off your list?

90-100
80-89
70-79
60-69
fail

someone is worried about that vicious practical :laugh:
At least most of us are in the same boat

I just finished anatomy finally... and I have to say that it was hard. we are on a block system so that was all we were doing for 3 months.

I discovered some resources just late enough to help on the last test... I wish I had known earlier about them.

practical quizes online...
http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/index.htm

practice quizes and learning modules
http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/home.html

there are alot of dissection videos online as well, watch those before lab and before the tests.

anyone with tips for Biochem, physiology or histology?

Wow, my school must be nuts. Our passing levels are usually around 50 (that's what it is for anatomy and histology anyway). A 75 on an anatomy test at my school would be honoring the course, with most people scoring around the 65% mark or so

Yikes! All our first year courses were a 72.5 and up was a pass. 2nd year they all appear to be a 75.0, which is intimidating, as one classmate put it: "in undergrad if I got an 80 I was like Well ok, at least it's a B, not so bad. Now I get an 80 and it's like Crap I was 5 pts from Failing!" Kinda weird really...

people with a photographic memory should be identified and placed in a grading curve of their own aside from the rest of us mortals for anatomy

Yeah next time I go in to see my doctor, I'll ask him if he was graded on the photographic memory curve or the mortal curve. I'm only going to doctors who were graded on the photographic memory curve.

Do you want separate board exams too?

Tell ya what--studying equalizes everybody. I memorize things quicker than my classmates, but I'm the offspring of fat parents so I have to work harder than my classmates to find a breeding partner. I somehow think it's going to get tougher before second year is over.

Yeah next time I go in to see my doctor, I'll ask him if he was graded on the photographic memory curve or the mortal curve. I'm only going to doctors who were graded on the photographic memory curve.

Do you want separate board exams too?

Tell ya what--studying equalizes everybody. I memorize things quicker than my classmates, but I'm the offspring of fat parents so I have to work harder than my classmates to find a breeding partner. I somehow think it's going to get tougher before second year is over.
Hahahah....that post made me laugh. Thx :D

"in undergrad if I got an 80 I was like Well ok, at least it's a B, not so bad.

In undergrad I'd get a 65 and say, whoohoo! 15 points above the median! Really depends upon the subjects you studied.

...but I'm the offspring of fat parents so I have to work harder than my classmates to find a breeding partner.

Ooh breeding partner! We have a closet romantic over here. :laugh: :laugh:

Wow, my school must be nuts. Our passing levels are usually around 50 (that's what it is for anatomy and histology anyway). A 75 on an anatomy test at my school would be honoring the course, with most people scoring around the 65% mark or soAnatomy is probably taught at different levels of difficulty at different campuses - one it might be as easy as identifying the sartorius, another it might be "what structure forms a border of the quadrangular space anteriorly but not posteriorly, and what nerve innervates it?" With the wealth of information available within the field, you can make it as hard or as easy as you like.

Just like any other class, it's all relative to your classmates, and between-school comparisons are of little worth.

I just finished anatomy finally... and I have to say that it was hard. we are on a block system so that was all we were doing for 3 months.

I discovered some resources just late enough to help on the last test... I wish I had known earlier about them.

practical quizes online...
http://ect.downstate.edu/courseware/haonline/index.htm

practice quizes and learning modules
http://anatomy.med.umich.edu/home.html

there are alot of dissection videos online as well, watch those before lab and before the tests.

anyone with tips for Biochem, physiology or histology?Thanks, Flyfisher. We're also on a block system, but we link anatomy to systems, so we dissect for the whole year. These links were immediately added to my bookmarks.

Yeah next time I go in to see my doctor, I'll ask him if he was graded on the photographic memory curve or the mortal curve. I'm only going to doctors who were graded on the photographic memory curve.

Do you want separate board exams too?

Tell ya what--studying equalizes everybody. I memorize things quicker than my classmates, but I'm the offspring of fat parents so I have to work harder than my classmates to find a breeding partner. I somehow think it's going to get tougher before second year is over.

good for you, but it was a joke. girls like guys that get jokes. use your memory to learn a few good ones and you'll be fending off the ladies