Originally Posted by flatearth22

A student at a US school that barely passes Step 1 and Step 2 with scores below 200 would now be seen as "equal" (actually more than equal since he's not an IMG) to an IMG that gets >260 on both of them because all that program directors would see is "Pass" for their combined exam and not the extreme discrepancy in scores.

Same thing with a student at a top level school with low USMLE scores competing with a student at a mid-tier school with high USMLE scores for the same spot. Any advantage the mid-tier student would have previously had is now lost since it's just P/F.

There would be a lot more emphasis on clinical grades and preclinical grades though, but with no non-P/F standardized test to distinguish the applicants the prestige of the med school would play a larger role in how residency programs ranked applicants, favoring students at higher ranked schools.