Does failing CS affect starting internship?

[rhasta]

I have already matched earlier in march and am slated to start internship soon. I also just found out I somehow managed to fail Step 2 CS (apparently I lacked interpersonal skill but was perfect on everything else). Aside from having to shell out another 1k to retake the exam, will this impact me in anyway, especially with regards to the internship I am about to start? Anyone know?

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[chintu]

I think this topic was discussed before. It really depends on the program. You can check on freida whether your program requires a passing cs or not. For the most part if your school didn't require a passing score to graduate I think you should be okay. Residency program will probably not try to hunt you down and specifically ask for a passing score before you start internship. Having said that I really think you should go ahead and reschedule the test asap and get it out of the way as I believe eras will not let you register for step 3 without a passing cs and I believe it is required for licensing, etc. I would not try to volunteer this information on purpose unless your program specifically asks about it and if its not obvious I would certainly not release the usmle transcript at this point with failing cs on it.

 

[Amy B]

I had a classmate that failed it.... They have an intership. So they were given a new contract that states they will start it once they pass this exam. So they didnt lose it they are merely starting it later than the rest of teh interns. Sucks, but they still have the spot. Good luck!

 

[rhasta]

thanks for the feedback, it seems most programs, including mine requires you to pass Step 2 CS. Should I go ahead and tell them? However the test has been booked all the way to January so I'd end up having to take a year off if the program does not budge on it's requirement that I pass it.

 

[MedGoatTX]

In some cases it may even be out of the hands of your program director. At least where I'm at, I know it's required for hospital credentialing. I think you definitely need to talk to someone at your program about it. In this case, the sooner they find out about it, the sooner they can start working with you to figure out what to do.

 

[keeping-it-real]

This is completely variable from program to program. Some don't need CS to start, others must have it.

MS4's should really know this because it can be potentially devastating, even more so since some medical schools don't require that CS be passed to graduate (just taken/attempted).

I think the interns and medical students need to actually get together and try and get CS completely eliminated for AMGs, though. It's a completely unnecessary exam given that the ACGME has to credential every single medical school, and it should be their job -- not the job of lay volunteers in 5 select cities -- to ensure that students receive adequate clinical training. Plus the fact that this exam costs over $1K and takes 2-3 months to receive the results is simply unacceptable, especially given the elusiveness of the exam criteria and grading. Add to that a passing rate of 94-98% for AMGs and you have a completely unfounded exam.

 

[FutureInternist]

I believe as of 2008 the powers-that-be have decided that students must pass step 1 & both parts of step 2 in order to graduate & since you cannot start Residency until you have graduated, I guess it follows that you must have passed all three exams.

 

[rhasta]

Just for the future reference of anyone who might end up in my position (hopefully CS won't be around), it seems as long as you graduate, it doesn't matter if you passed CS. But if your school require that you pass CS to graduate then you'll need to pass it. My school just require that I sit for it before graduation.

I agree CS is totally flawed in many ways and if they don't release any result other than p/f, then it's completely arbitrary. In the end, it's a tax that around 5% of us will have to pay more than once. It's an unnecessary burden to impose on medical students already over 120k in debt.

 

[SamusLives]

My school requires CS for graduation. However, I heard of folks getting waivers to graduate anyway. So maybe I should have put "requires" in quotes? I didn't know this when I took the CS (luckily I passed), it certainly would have saved me quite a bit of worrying.