Bombed Step 1 M2 --> 2027 P/F

[Canamerican]

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M2 MSTP student at Mid-Tier program. Took Step 1 scored this march (school didn't really give us a choice to delay to make it pass/fail). Was expecting a score in the mid-high 230s based on my practice exams, but ended up devastated to get back a 210. not sure what happened. covid hasn't made learning easy for anyone, and I think I choked on test day :/

had a 520 mcat and traditionally a decent test taker so I'm pretty rattled

I want to do med/neuro PSTPs and I know my future will rely heavily on how productive I am during the PhD. I'm grateful for that.

BUT -- is there any indication that my scored Step 1 might be retroactively converted to P/F by the time I finish my PhD? Hindsight is 20/20, and I now wish I could have delayed Step 1 until the P/F was officially implemented.

 

[FalconSlice]

M2 MSTP student at Mid-Tier program. Took Step 1 scored this march (school didn't really give us a choice to delay to make it pass/fail). Was expecting a score in the mid-high 230s based on my practice exams, but ended up devastated to get back a 210. not sure what happened. covid hasn't made learning easy for anyone, and I think I choked on test day :/

had a 520 mcat and traditionally a decent test taker so I'm pretty rattled

I want to do med/neuro PSTPs and I know my future will rely heavily on how productive I am during the PhD. I'm grateful for that.

BUT -- is there any indication that my scored Step 1 might be retroactively converted to P/F by the time I finish my PhD? Hindsight is 20/20, and I now wish I could have delayed Step 1 until the P/F was officially implemented.

As USMLE and NBME have stated in the past, scored USMLE Step exams will not be retroactively changed to a pure P/F.

 

[Fencer]

@Canamerican You can't change it any more. Do not worry, just excel at your science, produce manuscripts, apply for F30, etc. Your life has not ended... Some specialties might be out of reach, but there are always back-doors if your desire is to get one of them. I have had trainees who excelled at the science, manuscripts, F30, and match to terrific PSTPs at research-intensive institutions with Step scores considerably lower than yours. Put it behind you... Enjoy working on your science.

 

[Dormouse]

I would think that Step 1 score is going to become essentially meaningless by the time you're applying to residency...

the main reason it was a big deal is because programs in some competitive specialities will screen applicants based on their step 1 score, to reduce the number of apps they have to read. So if your score was too low, your file is never even seen or discussed. That's been less of a problem for MD/PhD candidates because there are generally way less of research track applicants to begin with, so your app is read and after that, your publication and grant record and clerkship performance become more important. Now that step 1 is P/F, only some applicants may have a score and others won't, so it's essentially impossible to fairly use it as a metric. Your future classmates in M3/4, who have not even been admitted yet, won't even know what scored step 1 means.

Go celebrate and enjoy your life!

 

[ClimbsRox]

Haven't gotten my score back yet, but pretty sure this is going to be me. I did most of of Uworld, was averaging 70-85 percent on blocks with all systems selected for the last week of studying, did a whole bunch of anki review, took three practice tests (220, 230, 232), and then took the test last week. There was so much on my test that just did not come up studying. I was only highly confident in my answer for about 1/4 of the questions. Definitely the worst test I have taken. Maybe I am wrong and my score will be better than expected, but I am pretty sure I'll be clocking a low score.

That being said, I bumped up my test date because I spoke to 4 different faculty at my program who review applications for 4 different residency programs at my home institution (peds, med-peds, psych, IM). All of them said the score does not matter anymore. Two of them are starting to blind app reviewers to step scores starting next year and the other two said they are definitely not going to matter by the time we apply even though they hadn't formally decided to blind reviewers (yet at least). Furthermore, a classmate of mine attended an info session on PSTP residencies with residency directors across multiple fields and multiple institutions, all of which agreed step 1 scores were only an initial screening tool for research track residencies and that they were going to stop using them as soon as some of the pool did not have a score and possibly even sooner.

While I obviously can't say for certain, I think a lot of programs will end up blinding themselves to Step 1 scores by the time we apply, and even if they don't, scores will likely not have a significant impact on your likelihood of getting a residency spot. You passed, I am pretty sure I passed, and thats all that matters. Plus its not like many MD/PhDs are going unmatched in neuro or IM even with poor step scores. Only time I have heard of an MD/PhD going unmatched in chosen specialty is ophtho and that person still matched pathology at a reasonably high ranked institution.

 

[wondervisions]

Haven't gotten my score back yet, but pretty sure this is going to be me. I did most of of Uworld, was averaging 70-85 percent on blocks with all systems selected for the last week of studying, did a whole bunch of anki review, took three practice tests (220, 230, 232), and then took the test last week. There was so much on my test that just did not come up studying. I was only highly confident in my answer for about 1/4 of the questions. Definitely the worst test I have taken. Maybe I am wrong and my score will be better than expected, but I am pretty sure I'll be clocking a low score.

That being said, I bumped up my test date because I spoke to 4 different faculty at my program who review applications for 4 different residency programs at my home institution (peds, med-peds, psych, IM). All of them said the score does not matter anymore. Two of them are starting to blind app reviewers to step scores starting next year and the other two said they are definitely not going to matter by the time we apply even though they hadn't formally decided to blind reviewers (yet at least). Furthermore, a classmate of mine attended an info session on PSTP residencies with residency directors across multiple fields and multiple institutions, all of which agreed step 1 scores were only an initial screening tool for research track residencies and that they were going to stop using them as soon as some of the pool did not have a score and possibly even sooner.

While I obviously can't say for certain, I think a lot of programs will end up blinding themselves to Step 1 scores by the time we apply, and even if they don't, scores will likely not have a significant impact on your likelihood of getting a residency spot. You passed, I am pretty sure I passed, and thats all that matters. Plus its not like many MD/PhDs are going unmatched in neuro or IM even with poor step scores. Only time I have heard of an MD/PhD going unmatched in chosen specialty is ophtho and that person still matched pathology at a reasonably high ranked institution.

Thanks for posting, I really needed to read this. I am testing this week and struggling to keep things together psychologically.

 

[Lucca]

Haven't gotten my score back yet, but pretty sure this is going to be me. I did most of of Uworld, was averaging 70-85 percent on blocks with all systems selected for the last week of studying, did a whole bunch of anki review, took three practice tests (220, 230, 232), and then took the test last week. There was so much on my test that just did not come up studying. I was only highly confident in my answer for about 1/4 of the questions. Definitely the worst test I have taken. Maybe I am wrong and my score will be better than expected, but I am pretty sure I'll be clocking a low score.

That being said, I bumped up my test date because I spoke to 4 different faculty at my program who review applications for 4 different residency programs at my home institution (peds, med-peds, psych, IM). All of them said the score does not matter anymore. Two of them are starting to blind app reviewers to step scores starting next year and the other two said they are definitely not going to matter by the time we apply even though they hadn't formally decided to blind reviewers (yet at least). Furthermore, a classmate of mine attended an info session on PSTP residencies with residency directors across multiple fields and multiple institutions, all of which agreed step 1 scores were only an initial screening tool for research track residencies and that they were going to stop using them as soon as some of the pool did not have a score and possibly even sooner.

While I obviously can't say for certain, I think a lot of programs will end up blinding themselves to Step 1 scores by the time we apply, and even if they don't, scores will likely not have a significant impact on your likelihood of getting a residency spot. You passed, I am pretty sure I passed, and thats all that matters. Plus its not like many MD/PhDs are going unmatched in neuro or IM even with poor step scores. Only time I have heard of an MD/PhD going unmatched in chosen specialty is ophtho and that person still matched pathology at a reasonably high ranked institution.

bless up, honestly this is probably gonna b me on the same boat when i test in 6 weeks.