Failed a test two weeks into med school. Need help!

[DermViser]

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Iowa as well.

Really? Iowa is graded Honors; Near Honors; Pass; and Fail in basic sciences.

 

[AspiringERMD]

Really? Iowa is graded Honors; Near Honors; Pass; and Fail in basic sciences.

One of my close friends is an MS1 at Iowa, and he said that they changed it this year so that 80 is passing instead of 70.

 

[touchpause13]

Really? Iowa is graded Honors; Near Honors; Pass; and Fail in basic sciences.

How is that any different than A, B, C, fail? Seriously what's the point of this. Why don't they just have P/F or regular grades.

 

[DermViser]

One of my close friends is an MS1 at Iowa, and he said that they changed it this year so that 80 is passing instead of 70.

Wow. Usually schools try to ease the undue stress on medical students, instead of making it that much worse.

 

[AspiringERMD]

Wow. Usually schools try to ease the undue stress on medical students, instead of making it that much worse.

I had the same thought. That sounds so hard. But my friend passed his first exam with a 95. Woohoo!

 

[DermViser]

How is that any different than A, B, C, fail? Seriously what's the point of this. Why don't they just have P/F or regular grades.

So these are the schemes I've seen:

P/F -- although grades are kept internally and thus you're still internally ranked; your transcript will only say P or F

"true" P/F -- 70 is passing, and grades aren't kept internally so you're not ranked during the first 2 years.

H/P/F
H/HP/P/F
H/HP/SP/MP/F
A/B/C/D/F
A/AB/B/BC/C/F


In theory, not having letter grades is supposed to decrease competition.

 

[touchpause13]

So these are the schemes I've seen:

P/F -- although grades are kept internally and thus you're still internally ranked; your transcript will only say P or F

"true" P/F -- 70 is passing, and grades aren't kept internally so you're not ranked during the first 2 years.

H/P/F
H/HP/P/F
H/HP/SP/MP/F
A/B/C/D/F
A/AB/B/BC/C/F


In theory, not having letter grades is supposed to decrease competition.

Dumb. I wish things were just straight P/F everywhere but that's just me.

We have letter grades with pluses and minuses for some stupid reason.

 

[DermViser]

Dumb. I wish things were just straight P/F everywhere but that's just me.

We have letter grades with pluses and minuses for some stupid reason.

It's bc of the caliber of the matriculating student. For example, at a school like the University of Chicago-Pritzker which is so selective as it's in the top tier, you don't need to differentiate students bc everyone there is high achieving and will strive to do well. Same for Vanderbilt, Stanford, UCSF, Yale, Harvard, etc. All students are high achieving who are naturally conscientious and will strive to excel in coursework and on USMLE Step 1. Not surprisingly they have very high average Step 1 scores.

It's different for public state MD schools and DO schools, where the barrier to entry is much much lower (and I'm not referring to MCAT/GPA here, although this may be the case) when compared to med schools in the top tier. So with respect to residencies, esp. the more competitive ones, those people going for them from public state MD schools/DO schools will want to separate themselves in the top of their class, so medical schools are able to do that by segmenting the class early on.

 

[DermViser]

I had the same thought. That sounds so hard. But my friend passed his first exam with a 95. Woohoo!

Well when you're tested on the organelles of the cell on your first exam - something that's taught in high school biology, one would hope you'd get it by the 3rd shot.

 

[TwinsFan]

The biggest issue with this is for those at top schools (10s-20s) that don't have a P/F curriculum. Similar students (3.8+/90%+MCAT avg) but fully ranked...

 

[AspiringERMD]

It's bc of the caliber of the matriculating student. For example, at a school like the University of Chicago-Pritzker which is so selective as it's in the top tier, you don't need to differentiate students bc everyone there is high achieving and will strive to do well. Same for Vanderbilt, Stanford, UCSF, Yale, Harvard, etc. All students are high achieving who are naturally conscientious and will strive to excel in coursework and on USMLE Step 1. Not surprisingly they have very high average Step 1 scores.

It's different for public state MD schools and DO schools, where the barrier to entry is much much lower (and I'm not referring to MCAT/GPA here, although this may be the case) when compared to med schools in the top tier. So with respect to residencies, esp. the more competitive ones, those people going for them from public state MD schools/DO schools will want to separate themselves in the top of their class, so medical schools are able to do that by segmenting the class early on.

Yeah, I've been worried a bit about that myself with respect to getting into a competitive residency, actually. I'm applying right now and have four IIs, but all to low-mid tier state schools. Going to have to really differentiate myself to get the residency I want (though EM isn't as competitive as a lot of specialities). But yeah, I agree with everything you said.

 

[DermViser]

Yeah, I've been worried a bit about that myself with respect to getting into a competitive residency, actually. I'm applying right now and have four IIs, but all to low-mid tier state schools. Going to have to really differentiate myself to get the residency I want (though EM isn't as competitive as a lot of specialities). But yeah, I agree with everything you said.

From a ranking standpoint, it's automatic - state schools will want to stratify you from the beginning (some exceptions - USF is P/F first 2 years). At med schools in which the barrier to entry isn't that high, you're going to capture more students who don't care or aren't going for something competitive. At top tier schools, a higher percentage of the class will likely be initially going for something competitive.

 

[GUH]

Edit: I'm also shooting for the top end of the class. If that's not important to you, you definitely don't need to put in those sort of hours. My guess is around 1/2 to 1/4 of what I do could get you on the margin of passing....but I think that would be stressful

That's about right. Believe me, I know.
My classmates would stress out the week before exams. I stressed out in the interval before grades were released.

I'm working on changing that this year.

 

[AspiringERMD]

From a ranking standpoint, it's automatic - state schools will want to stratify you from the beginning (some exceptions - USF is P/F first 2 years). At med schools in which the barrier to entry isn't that high, you're going to capture more students who don't care or aren't going for something competitive. At top tier schools, a higher percentage of the class will likely be initially going for something competitive.

Okay, thanks very much. It looks like I still have a lot to learn and will do some SDN searches in the near future. Thank you for taking the time to answer 🙂

 

[skillfullhello]

I just got done taking a test in our Foundations course (think of cell bio and biochem together). Each test you need 80% to pass and I got a 75%. Test was 28 questions and I missed 7. I spent all weekend studying for the test. I reviewed all my notes over the three days and wrote the key points from each lecture into a notebook. I also made note cards. Has this ever happened to anyone before. I really need some advice. Thank you in advance.

your schools sounds like my school. We are in this fundamentals block too and we have a quiz every friday and then at the end we have three end of block exams...im not even passing right now when you average my quiz scores. Each day i wonder if i am supposed to be here or not...i try and push through but i feel an impending doom that i will be failing this block.

 

[Kahreek]

it all depends on the difficulty and how the tests are curved , but 80% seems quite high.

 

[Theralist]

your schools sounds like my school. We are in this fundamentals block too and we have a quiz every friday and then at the end we have three end of block exams...im not even passing right now when you average my quiz scores. Each day i wonder if i am supposed to be here or not...i try and push through but i feel an impending doom that i will be failing this block.

I'm sorry I haven't replied, but I just haven't been on for a while. Our setup is similar to yours. I hope things have gotten better for you in the past week. I'm finally doing a little better now that I've got a few weeks under my belt, and I hope things are moving in that direction for you.

 

[eablackwell]

Ours is 75, but it's with a curve. My first exam in M1 I got a 73% and about had a heart attack because I'd failed my first exam. I went to the advisor and he told me the average was a 70, so I hadn't failed. My school doesn't adjust grades on the curve until the end of the course, not sure if OPs is the same way. I would suggest a session with a school advisor.

And in regards to studying, I had (and continue to have) horrific study habits due to having it easy in HS and undergrad. I hate studying and had to force myself to do so during M1-M3 year, M4 is a little more chill. 😉 15 hrs is too little, and 80 hrs was way too much for me. It tried it for one test and ended up with 3pts higher on the exam than when I had studied about 35 hours a week. There are diminishing returns at some point (at least for me).

 

[compstomper]

So these are the schemes I've seen:

P/F -- although grades are kept internally and thus you're still internally ranked; your transcript will only say P or F

"true" P/F -- 70 is passing, and grades aren't kept internally so you're not ranked during the first 2 years.

H/P/F
H/HP/P/F
H/HP/SP/MP/F
A/B/C/D/F
A/AB/B/BC/C/F


In theory, not having letter grades is supposed to decrease competition.

It does, but I think to the detriment of the students themselves. Many (maybe most) of my M1 classmates aren't aware that even though we have a H/P/F system, we're all ranked by quartiles.

 

[darklabel]

From a ranking standpoint, it's automatic - state schools will want to stratify you from the beginning (some exceptions - USF is P/F first 2 years). At med schools in which the barrier to entry isn't that high, you're going to capture more students who don't care or aren't going for something competitive. At top tier schools, a higher percentage of the class will likely be initially going for something competitive.

USF does have something that above a certain % (I believe around 87-90 for each course), for all 2 years = honors, but aside from that, no ranks. UF is P/F, last time I checked but I' not sure if its true P/F or if students scoring high = some sort of distinction. Absolutely true P/F is difficult to find outside of the top tier schools. There are some P/F schools that are similar that you're not necessarily ranked against each other but the top % of students get some sort of distinction of honors or that they did well in their letter.

For my own sake of stress, I try not to care about that since it would just lead to me to be overstressed and depressed. I suggest OP does the same and just try his best in future tests. The school probably has a remediation for the test and to study more longitudinally than just the weekend before.

 

[xffan624]

USF does have something that above a certain % (I believe around 87-90 for each course), for all 2 years = honors, but aside from that, no ranks. UF is P/F, last time I checked but I' not sure if its true P/F or if students scoring high = some sort of distinction. Absolutely true P/F is difficult to find outside of the top tier schools. There are some P/F schools that are similar that you're not necessarily ranked against each other but the top % of students get some sort of distinction of honors or that they did well in their letter.

For my own sake of stress, I try not to care about that since it would just lead to me to be overstressed and depressed. I suggest OP does the same and just try his best in future tests. The school probably has a remediation for the test and to study more longitudinally than just the weekend before.

It's 87% for the first year and 80% for the second year. Both those scores are uncurved so if the entire class were to somehow qualify for it, they'd be cool with that (words of the Dean). Never gonna happen, but it's a nice thought. You have to get it for every course (4 integrated courses plus biostats) throughout the year and perform well in Doctoring. I missed out my first course by one point so I stopped really giving it my full effort. This year, I've kinda increased my efforts for board prep so I'm doing above that this year. Still won't get me the commendation letter, but as long as I get a decent step score it's all good.

 

[skillfullhello]

I'm sorry I haven't replied, but I just haven't been on for a while. Our setup is similar to yours. I hope things have gotten better for you in the past week. I'm finally doing a little better now that I've got a few weeks under my belt, and I hope things are moving in that direction for you.

they are much better than week one! I am curious to see how things will be after the fundamentals block