Average board scores for ER?

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ocean11

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Hey guys what are the average board scores for ER? also.... is research important?!?

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ocean11 said:
Hey guys what are the average board scores for ER? also.... is research important?!?

Hello. Nobody knows what the average board scores are for emergency medicine. Some people have posted their scores on this site, and if you search for them you may find them. I think there is probably a reporting bias, however. I tend to think competative step 1 & 2 scores are at or above the national average. This is strictly my opinion though.

Also in my opinion, research is the icing on the cake of your application. It will not substitute for a stong preformance in your clinical rotations, good board scores, and excellent letters of recomendation. Some programs may emphasize research more than others, but they won't ever read about your research activites if you bomb the three categories I mentioned above. I had no clinical research experience, and still matched exactly where I wanted.

Hope this helps.
 
It is less than the derm forum that you post on regularly. But I don't think you need to sweat it either way.
 
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I do agree with the above posts, your performance on your third year rotations, in particular, your EM rotations is very important. While strong board scores will no doubt help you, I don't think it is as heavily weighted as other fields such as radiology or ortho. I have heard that some EM programs have a hard cutoff for scores, but I think they are far and few inbetween. While research is nice, I do agree it is more of icing on the cake. Unless you did ground-breaking research, it won't make up for other more important areas. I feel the following are key to a strong application:

Clerkship grade (esp EM)
Boards
EM LOR

While EM-related activities are nice, from my own exp (I had none), I don't think it affected how many interviews I got. Good-luck!
 
From Rules of the Road, residency programs look for

1. EM rotation grade
2. Interview
3. Clinical grades
4. Other
5. LOR's
6. Grades overall
7. Elective at the PD's institution
8. Boards overall
9. Step II
10. Interest expressed
11. Step I
12. Awards
13. AOA
14. Medical school attended
15. EC's
16. Basic science grades
17. Publications
18. Personal statement

in that order
 
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