Failed COMLEX PE, decent other stats, applying EM, wait to send COMLEX scores to ACGME programs?

[Mr. MCAT]

First, stats:
DO student at WesternU
COMLEX 1 : 704
COMLEX 2: 657
STEP 1; 238
STEP 2: 250
Top quartile of my class.
Scribe for 2.5 years prior to medical school.
Lots of extracurriculars, one oral presentation at conference, one publication (not research), good personality, I think I will get good SLOEs.

Failed my COMLEX PE in the humanism portion, found out 1 week ago, devastated. Should I not send out my COMLEX scores to ACGME programs until I pass my PE? Or will that make my application incomplete? Please advise. I honestly don't even know if this is frowned upon so please let me know if this is considered bad behavior ha. I am just really worried about not matching now. I thought I had everything lined up well to match into a decent program but now I'm not sure I will even match at all. I am retaking my PE in October but won't get the results until close to December... How bad will this hurt my chances? Any program directors specifically have any advice, or are even on here? I discuss my failed PE on my personal statement and think I have good reasons to counter my failure in humanism in the sense that it doesn't truly reflect my personality. I have received scholarships for volunteerism and a "CareMore Award," I am very helpful on rotations, my patients get along with me, I once even had a patient go from crying about his diagnosis to laughing later during my interview when I went to admit him. (Don't worry, I was empathetic too, I just read the patient well and fed off him, as he was also joking despite being sad).

Also pretty much bombed my SVI, again a surprise because I have always thought I interview well and usually get jobs I apply to as long as I get to the interview stage. Le sigh. Feeling pretty discouraged right about now.

Also, random other quirky question but I was going to include on my experiences that I was a radio DJ during college. Is that too long ago? I just think it may be an interesting point on my application to help me stand out. Otherwise, not really mentioning stuff from college times on there.

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[Rekt]

First, stats:
DO student at WesternU
COMLEX 1 : 704
COMLEX 2: 657
STEP 1; 238
STEP 2: 250
Top quartile of my class.
Scribe for 2.5 years prior to medical school.
Lots of extracurriculars, one oral presentation at conference, one publication (not research), good personality, I think I will get good SLOEs.

Failed my COMLEX PE in the humanism portion, found out 1 week ago, devastated. Should I not send out my COMLEX scores to ACGME programs until I pass my PE? Or will that make my application incomplete? Please advise. I honestly don't even know if this is frowned upon so please let me know if this is considered bad behavior ha. I am just really worried about not matching now. I thought I had everything lined up well to match into a decent program but now I'm not sure I will even match at all. I am retaking my PE in October but won't get the results until close to December... How bad will this hurt my chances? Any program directors specifically have any advice, or are even on here? I discuss my failed PE on my personal statement and think I have good reasons to counter my failure in humanism in the sense that it doesn't truly reflect my personality. I have received scholarships for volunteerism and a "CareMore Award," I am very helpful on rotations, my patients get along with me, I once even had a patient go from crying about his diagnosis to laughing later during my interview when I went to admit him. (Don't worry, I was empathetic too, I just read the patient well and fed off him, as he was also joking despite being sad).

Also pretty much bombed my SVI, again a surprise because I have always thought I interview well and usually get jobs I apply to as long as I get to the interview stage. Le sigh. Feeling pretty discouraged right about now.

Also, random other quirky question but I was going to include on my experiences that I was a radio DJ during college. Is that too long ago? I just think it may be an interesting point on my application to help me stand out. Otherwise, not really mentioning stuff from college times on there.

Bombing both SVI and Humanistic portions of the PE kind of tells me you have some personality problem. I'd opt to not mention your PE in your personal statement as your wording makes it sound like an excuse rather than a true reason for failure (death in family, diagnosed with something horrible, etc). Judging by how highly you speak of yourself, your main goal should be to not be overconfident or annoying during your aways so it doesn't show up in your SLOEs. With that being said, from what I've heard, it won't be that big of a hit to have a failed PE. Sign up ASAP and pass it as you want a passing score by rankings. I'd go ahead and send since your COMLEX scores are decent.

 

[Darth Doc]

Bombing both SVI and Humanistic portions of the PE kind of tells me you have some personality problem.

You could have a personality problem and be in denial about it. However, I neither of these tests is a good judge of you as a person.

I don't know how the humanism grading works for the DO Comlex PE since I'm an MD. However, I've heard it's similar to our STEP 2 CS. I failed the humanism portion of ours the first time - and I'm a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. I do not have an issue connecting to people. However, I did not prepare well enough for all the little things they expect you to say and give you points for. It's a game with expectations, just like other parts of medical school. I can say this because I maxed out the humanism portion of the exam the second time I took it, so I know what it takes to do well.

SVI - also not a good standard. I've talked to multiple PDs, and the ones who look at the results only look at the high scorers and the low scorers. Those who do say they can't tell the difference in the responses. No one I've heard of is using the SVI to keep anyone out of a program.

Your STEP numbers are solid. Correct the errors in the PE and pass the next time. If the failure comes up, own it. Say that you didn't study properly, hard enough, etc... but have found people who also failed then passed and are using their advice to correct your mistakes. Don't make excuses, but use it as an opportunity to show humility and the ability to learn from errors. We all make them. It's how we respond to them that matters.

(My Step 2 CS failure came up in ALL of my interviews, because the score was on my transcript. I placed at the most reputable place I interviewed, and I'm doing well here. I owned my failure, explained what I'd done to correct it, and said I'd be sure to forward my scores to them as soon as I received them.)

 

[Mr. MCAT]

You could have a personality problem and be in denial about it. However, I neither of these tests is a good judge of you as a person.

I don't know how the humanism grading works for the DO Comlex PE since I'm an MD. However, I've heard it's similar to our STEP 2 CS. I failed the humanism portion of ours the first time - and I'm a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. I do not have an issue connecting to people. However, I did not prepare well enough for all the little things they expect you to say and give you points for. It's a game with expectations, just like other parts of medical school. I can say this because I maxed out the humanism portion of the exam the second time I took it, so I know what it takes to do well.

SVI - also not a good standard. I've talked to multiple PDs, and the ones who look at the results only look at the high scorers and the low scorers. Those who do say they can't tell the difference in the responses. No one I've heard of is using the SVI to keep anyone out of a program.

Your STEP numbers are solid. Correct the errors in the PE and pass the next time. If the failure comes up, own it. Say that you didn't study properly, hard enough, etc... but have found people who also failed then passed and are using their advice to correct your mistakes. Don't make excuses, but use it as an opportunity to show humility and the ability to learn from errors. We all make them. It's how we respond to them that matters.

(My Step 2 CS failure came up in ALL of my interviews, because the score was on my transcript. I placed at the most reputable place I interviewed, and I'm doing well here. I owned my failure, explained what I'd done to correct it, and said I'd be sure to forward my scores to them as soon as I received them.)

Did you still receive a comfortable amount of interviews? I'm hoping to get the magic 10-12 number... :/

 

[Mr. MCAT]

Did you still receive a comfortable amount of interviews? I'm hoping to get the magic 10-12 number... :/[/QUOTE

You could have a personality problem and be in denial about it. However, I neither of these tests is a good judge of you as a person.

I don't know how the humanism grading works for the DO Comlex PE since I'm an MD. However, I've heard it's similar to our STEP 2 CS. I failed the humanism portion of ours the first time - and I'm a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. I do not have an issue connecting to people. However, I did not prepare well enough for all the little things they expect you to say and give you points for. It's a game with expectations, just like other parts of medical school. I can say this because I maxed out the humanism portion of the exam the second time I took it, so I know what it takes to do well.

SVI - also not a good standard. I've talked to multiple PDs, and the ones who look at the results only look at the high scorers and the low scorers. Those who do say they can't tell the difference in the responses. No one I've heard of is using the SVI to keep anyone out of a program.

Your STEP numbers are solid. Correct the errors in the PE and pass the next time. If the failure comes up, own it. Say that you didn't study properly, hard enough, etc... but have found people who also failed then passed and are using their advice to correct your mistakes. Don't make excuses, but use it as an opportunity to show humility and the ability to learn from errors. We all make them. It's how we respond to them that matters.

(My Step 2 CS failure came up in ALL of my interviews, because the score was on my transcript. I placed at the most reputable place I interviewed, and I'm doing well here. I owned my failure, explained what I'd done to correct it, and said I'd be sure to forward my scores to them as soon as I received them.)

Thank you for telling me this though. It definitely made me feel slightly better ha. I'm sure that must have been equally devastating for you.

 

[Mr. MCAT]

Sorry, that above comment was supposed to say, "Thank you for telling me this though. It definitely made me feel slightly better ha. I'm sure that must have been equally devastating for you." But I guess it put it within the quote which made it hard to see.

 

[Darth Doc]

Sorry, that above comment was supposed to say, "Thank you for telling me this though. It definitely made me feel slightly better ha. I'm sure that must have been equally devastating for you." But I guess it put it within the quote which made it hard to see.

It was hard - I went to a friend's house and we got drunk. It really helped. LOL. Then I pulled myself up and worked my butt off on my rotations.

I did get enough interviews. I limited myself to programs south of the Mason Dixon line (I'm not a fan of cold weather) and outside of major cities (for family reasons), which I know limited me. I applied to 70+ programs. I got 13 interviews. (and half of those were added a week after the start date because my home program PD told us that any more than 40 was wasting your money. For me that was wrong because half of my interviews were in the 30 programs I added.) Apply broadly. Good luck!

 

[Mr. MCAT]

Hmm okay good to know. Thanks for the info. So you DIDN'T apply to programs in major cities? Or you didn't apply to programs outside of major cities?

 

[Darth Doc]

Hmm okay good to know. Thanks for the info. So you DIDN'T apply to programs in major cities? Or you didn't apply to programs outside of major cities?

I didn't apply IN any major cities. I applied to programs in community settings and college towns primarily. (There were a few larger cities that I interviewed at, but nothing like Detroit, New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, etc...) That doesn't mean you shouldn't.

 

[Mr. MCAT]

Okie doke thanks again for all the advice. It means a lot.