From that email: "The Level 2-PE measures the ability to demonstrate core and fundamental competencies and values for DOs, including communication skills and connection, empathy, hands-on physical diagnosis/OMM and OMT"
Let's take a moment and appreciate how ridiculous that above statement is. So we are to pay $1,300+hotel+airfare+food so that we can be evaluated on:
1) communication skills
2) empathy
3) OMM
All of the above will be evaluated in a standardized (aka fake) patient encounter in <14 minutes. Yet, 4th years will have have over 200 hours of OMM training in 1st/ & 2nd year, and over 3500 hours of 3rd/4th year clinical training to work on communication skills and empathy. If we were deficient in any of the above, there's no way we would have made it to or this far in medical school. This is not only an asinine, utter waste of money and resources, but it's incredibly patronizing to us students and the professors, preceptors, and attendings that taught and evaluated us along the way. Oh, and on top of all of that, we're in a global pandemic.