forgive me for necromancing, but i think good 'ol gary ruska has some good insights into the situtation (from a prior speculative thread about the same topic):
"Gary "Nothing Beats My Ego" Ruska here,
This is a mixed blessing. While it does offer an fast, cheap alternative to creating a new OMFS-specific residency test, it does also create a particular set of problems for 6-year programs, as correctly pointed out above.
However, not all is lost. There are a number of reasons not to get too worried just yet:
1. The NBME, while a proxy for the USMLE Step 1, is an imperfect substitute. There has been no discussion about how the test will be administered (i.e. will students take it at Prometric? Their own school with a faculty proctor like the shelf exams? etc.). It would be premature of a medical school admissions committee to base suitability on admission to medical school on the results of this test. Especially since the majority of OMFS residents in 6 year programs go into the SECOND YEAR of medical school...The astute OMFS residency director, if faced with a complaint regarding NBME performance from OMFS prospectives, will simply ask how medical students at the end of the first year of MS do on the same test.
2. #1 does pose a problem for programs that go right into the third year of medical school - however, one just needs to pass the NBME, not knock it out of the park. Any dental student who is smart enough and hardworking enough to get into OMFS will be able to buckle down for a month and pass this thing. The study strategy will be the same as for Step 1 and the materials are the same. Easy to prepare for.
3. Dental students pass Step 1 every year - just ask those who have to take it prior to STARTING intern year (UConn, etc.). These guys can do it during the very busy fourth year of dental school, where they have been out of medical basic science for 2 years and have only a few weeks/month to study. Second year dental students will do just fine.
4. Has anyone said when this test needs to be taken? One could make the argument that, since one applies to OMFS after third year, the test only need be taken and the score available by PASS application time. No biggie here - just study and pass NBDE 1 and then spend the bulk of time third year studying for NBME.
5. No one really knows how dental student performance on NBME will predict USMLE Step 1 performance. Yet. An OMFS program somewhere will look into this after the system has been in place for a few years and then, with data in hand, a discussion and guidelines can be set. This is what happened with the NBDE Part 1 and where the "magic 90" came from..."
Very good insight as always. I have no doubt that dental students, even 2nd years, can
pass the NBME and USMLE Step I given enough time to study the material on their own. My biggest concern, however, is that just as increased competition in a free market brings down cost, building competition around this exam will very quickly yield extremely high scores needed for admissions. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in theory, however, the majority of dental schools with the exception of a few that throw their students in medical school for the first 2 years do not cover all the material or nearly as in depth of what is covered in Medical school.
Students are already spending 3 months, 6 months, or even up to a year studying for the NBDE Part I in order to be competitive for admissions, an exam who's material is supposed to be covered in it's entirety in the first 2 years of dental school. obviousely if students are spending that much time studying for an exam that only covers material that is covered in dental school, how much time will students spend studying for an exam whose difficulty and content is far beyond that of the NBDE Part I? It's a simple concept, create competition around the exam and very quickly extremely high scores will be yielded and the amount of time/effort spent preparing for the exam will increase dramatically and in this case excessively...
In our current system, students after their 2nd year of residency (for most) are required to pass the USMLE Step I. What is now being proposed is that students, after only 2-3 years of dental school, will be required to have the knowledge to not only pass the NBME/USMLE Step I, but to outscore the competition to get into residency, be bored out of your mind in the 2nd year of Medical school, and then re-study the same material enough to just pass USMLE Step I.
As far as selection early on before a "magic number" is set, it's not rocket science how residencies selection will occur. The highest score always wins and simply ranking applicants based on academic performance and then considering all of the other criteria for admissions such as CV's, interview, LOR's, etc. will determine who gets the spot.
One last thought...the statement that "no one really nows how dental student performance on NBME will predict USMLE step I performance", haven't there already been tons of studies correlating NBME scores to USMLE Step I performance for medical students? Isn't that the NBME's fame to claim? Why would it be any different for dental students?
