having failed the boards....

[kellysmith]

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i'm trying to figure out where i stand in terms of being competitive for residency applications. the first time i took the boards, i failed by a few points. when i retook it the second time i got a 220. i'm not sure where these two scores leave me -- i know that a 220 is a respectable score but i'm not sure how i'll fare with the failure in my past. im applying for internal medicine and have had a few pass/ high pass / honors on my clinical rotations. any ideas?
thanks

 

[whispers]

Did you honor medicine?

 

[Ice-1]

I know a guy who failed Step 1 three times but still got a good residency. He did a rotation at the place and really impressed everyone with hard work and getting along. Anyone can have a bad day on any test, so look at it like that and keep your chin up!

 

[kellysmith]

no -- i passed internal med.
thus far, my grades have been as follows:
surgery: honors
pediatrics: pass
psychiatry: high pass
family: high pass
internal: pass

haven't done ob yet

 

[Buck Strong]

Just do well on step 2, get good letters, do aways if you're interested in specific programs and you should do great. If you're concerned with fellowships after IM, step one has almost no bearing on that, so no worries. IM isn't too competitive, so you should have no problems matching. If you're applying to big name programs (hopkins, penn, harvard, etc) you should apply very broadly and make sure you include some middle tier programs, because the top name programs may screen out your application based on step 1. The middle tier programs probably wouldn't care as much. Good luck to you.