HELP! failed step 1 3x, dismissed from school

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pmkin

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i have failed step 1 3 times...and this last time i was so close with 181/73 :scared:. Now i have been dismissed by my school. can anyone tell me which schools accept transfers in situations like mine. come to far to give up now. thank you
 
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I'm sorry to hear that 😕
I have heard that US schools are tough when it comes to all of that... but please don't take my word for it! maybe check it out!? check out DO schools, too, it technically is a different system...

Otherwise, Europe may be your best bet and unless you are fluent in another language, try England/Scotland (duh) but also Sweden and the Netherlands, they often teach in English only. They also teach in English and use all English texts in the Middle East (no joke!) you might have to technically start over but they should give you credit for the courses you completed that are equivalent.

Good Luck!
 
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DO schools will not accept a transfer w/out making you repeat your M1 & M2 years. The COMLEX exam has OMM on it & you would need to have the two years of training in OMM before taking the COMLEX.
 
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Krazykritter said:
DO schools will not accept a transfer w/out making you repeat your M1 & M2 years. The COMLEX exam has OMM on it & you would need to have the two years of training in OMM before taking the COMLEX.
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why did you fail 3 times? did you not study? is english your 2nd language? prob best for you to repeat the first 2 years anyways... the only thing you can do is call up other carribean, foreign, and DO schools. a US md school prob won't take you...
 
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Blondbondgirl said:
I'm sorry to hear that 😕
I have heard that US schools are tough when it comes to all of that... but please don't take my word for it! maybe check it out!? check out DO schools, too, it technically is a different system...

Otherwise, Europe may be your best bet and unless you are fluent in another language, try England/Scotland (duh) but also Sweden and the Netherlands, they often teach in English only. They also teach in English and use all English texts in the Middle East (no joke!) you might have to technically start over but they should give you credit for the courses you completed that are equivalent.

Good Luck!
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Uhh, although they teach in English for the most part, fluency in Swedish or Dutch are required to apply bachelor's program (which medicine is in Sweden and Holland). So unless you are fluent and a very, very good student, don't bother. Plus, there's no way they would take someone who essentially flunked out of a US med school. Places like Karolinska in Sweden are some of the top medical universities in the world, not some diploma mill looking to take in as many students as possible to make a profit.

I sincerely doubt any US DO school would take someone who failed Step 1 3 times coming from a Caribbean school. Try the lesser-known, lower-"tiered," Caribbean schools, I guess: Spartan, Caribbean Medical University, anywhere that doesn't allow grads to practice in California (usually they seem to be far less competitive to get into). What was your GPA at med school?
 
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my basic sciences gpa was 3.40
and as for why i failed..i do not know..if i knew..i dont think i would have failed
 
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pmkin said:
my basic sciences gpa was 3.40
and as for why i failed..i do not know..if i knew..i dont think i would have failed
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E-mail every school you can in the Caribbean... with the exception of St George's, Ross, AUC, or Saba... doubt they'd be interested. Do/did you go to one of these 4 schools?
 
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If you have failed 3 times already, how do you know you'll ever be able to pass?
 
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MWillie said:
If you have failed 3 times already, how do you know you'll ever be able to pass?
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The question posed by MWillie above may sound a bit crass, but I completely agree with it.

Aside from the issue of transfers, what, in your opinion, are the reasons for failing Step I?

Any school that may be willing to even consider accepting your application for a transfer will want to know the answer to this question.


Also, are there any circumstances under which your school will readmit you (i.e. taking Step I a fourth time and earning a passing score? repeating your sophomore year?)

I truly do wish you all of the best 🙂
 
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Sorry to be so blunt, but if you're at a Carib school and you failed Step 1 3x, then you should start thinking about another career.
 
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pmkin said:
i have failed step 1 3 times...and this last time i was so close with 181/73 :scared:. Now i have been dismissed by my school. can anyone tell me which schools accept transfers in situations like mine. come to far to give up now. thank you
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I am so sorry to hear your story. Best of luck to you. I recommend doing what the other poster suggested: e-mail as many caribbean medical schools to see if you can transfer. If you can get in, then don't resume your education until you have passed Step 1. If you have failed it 3 times, my friend, the last thing you need to do is attend school while you study for the exam.

If you don't find a school that takes you, the only thing I can offer is encouragement: the harder you fall, the higher you bounce... Maybe you might have to repeat the first 2 years but keep your head high. When it's said and done, you will be a doctor and it doesn't matter how you got there but that you crossed the finish line.
 
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pmkin said:
my basic sciences gpa was 3.40
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I'm not sure that's particularly meaningful -- the whole point of standardized tests is to devalue good grades that are not borne out when compared to the standard.
Did you do anything differently to study the second and third time around? Sounds like maybe you need(ed) to change things up a bit. Your best bet at re-enrollment is likely another caribbean school, as others have suggested. Good luck.
 
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thanks for the encouragement from some of you.
as for what i did, i basically went thru fa over and over, memorizing the detail. looked thru kaplan for my weak areas, and did uw.
and no, my school wont let me write again. this las time..i was ready, but i lost a family member 3 weeks b4 my exam. i should have rescheduled my exam, but unfortunately did not.
 
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MadameLULU said:
I may be wrong, but I don't think NBME will let a person take the test again if he/she has failed 3X.
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You can retake it, but some states won't license you if you failed 3x. Also, it will be very difficult to get most US residencies as a foreign grad who failed step I 3x. There are lots of foreign grads who didn't fighting over the spots. Could it work out? Sure, anything's possible, but you are also setting yourself up for 2 more years of debt with no promise of getting a residency or a job on the other side. Think carefully.
 
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Sorry for your situation, but I think there's something valuable to be learned from your experience. If people can't get into an MD or DO school in this country, I think they should really, really consider another career. By not accepting you, schools are telling you that either a) you're not bright enough b) you have some kind of antisocial personality. The Carib schools in general don't care either way and they just want your money. Either flaw will get you into lots of trouble later on and may prevent you from reaching your eventual goal. In the process, you will accumulate a ton of debt and waste many years of your life.
 
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Taurus said:
Sorry for your situation, but I think there's something valuable to be learned from your experience. If people can't get into an MD or DO school in this country, I think they should really, really consider another career. By not accepting you, schools are telling you that either a) you're not bright enough b) you have some kind of antisocial personality. The Carib schools in general don't care either way and they just want your money. Either flaw will get you into lots of trouble later on and may prevent you from reaching your eventual goal. In the process, you will accumulate a ton of debt and waste many years of your life.
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Ths is why I feel real bad for the OP.... any school willing to accept someone who failed three times probably doesn't have the best rep to begin with, and the fact you've already failed can keep you out of a lot of residencies, as has been mentioned.

Hopefully the OP can move forward and do something proactive about this situation.
 
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Honestly, I'd recommend taking some time out for say a year or two minimum, and do some soul searching. Travel, maybe work for a while. Something will come to you.
 
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Taurus said:
By not accepting you, schools are telling you that either a) you're not bright enough b) you have some kind of antisocial personality.
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I think the thousands of carib students who go on to productive careers demonstrate that going that route does not necessarilly mean either of these two things -- the cutoff in the US applicant pool is sufficiently high that quite a few competant people reportedly need to find alternative routes. I have met more than a few working caribbean grads who appear to be both bright and personable. But it does mean that you have a lot to prove to get to your goal. Thus failing Step 1 multiple times probably doesn't help one's cause. But the OP has to decide what can be done to salvage his/her career. And that probably means finding a carib school to take him/her and passing the test. Not sure if this will open many doors, but they really can't get shut any tighter than now. I personally don't think taking a year or to off now makes any sense, because that will just make the material that much more remote, and I can't imagine anyone would do two years of med school, miss passing Step 1 by 4 points, and pitch it in. At least getting an MD would give you a credential that might open certain career options even if a residency isn't going to be in the cards.
 
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What is really sad for the OP's situation is that USMD and DO schools will do everything they can to catch you before you fall, Academic advisors, peer tutors, and more. They try so hard to keep you all 4 years and eventhrough the acceptance numbers can vary greatly, the schools attrition rates are very similar.
 
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Toohotinvegas33 said:
What is really sad for the OP's situation is that USMD and DO schools will do everything they can to catch you before you fall, Academic advisors, peer tutors, and more.
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That's true about the courses, but I'm not sure that's true about the boards. In the US most people are left on their own to prepare for and pass (or not) those tests.
 
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The reason I suggested time off is because at this point the OP has no idea why he/she failed. Its better to have figured out the problem, distanced yourself from it and corrected it, than to rush into things too soon and repeat the same mistake again.

Just my two cents.
 
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FrogE7 said:
The reason I suggested time off is because at this point the OP has no idea why he/she failed. Its better to have figured out the problem, distanced yourself from it and corrected it, than to rush into things too soon and repeat the same mistake again.

Just my two cents.
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Yeah, I see your point. My thinking was that with a 181 the OP would only have to pack a few more things into his/her brain without losing the old stuff, so a lot of time elapsing is not his/her friend.
 
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It's interesting how views differ so widely on FA. I think the answer to the question "is FA enough" or if FA is crap vs gold is very individual-dependent. I studied for Step 1 for about 3.5 weeks and went through FA once thoroughly with some minor FA review 2 days before my exam. I had never opened FA prior to this. And I read around 2/3 of BRS pathology once and completed about 35% of Kaplan's QBank. And that was it. I didn't score an unbelievable SDN type score but still good score (247), but FA was really it for me in terms of prep. I studied really hard the first 2 years of med school, so I really think learning it well the first time is absolutely key. If you've already developed a strong foundation, then FA can really be enough for you. But, on the other hand, if you barely got by or didn't put in the time, then you're going to need a hell of a lot more than FA for Step 1.
 
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I didn't mean to post here without meaning good to the OP so sorry for the tangent my last post went into.

But, I agree with what others have said... is there someone you can talk to at great length about what kind of prep you did and what went wrong in the USMLE process for you? Maybe you weren't studying efficiently/effectively? Maybe you need to alter some test-taking skills or habits? Maybe you didn't do enough practice questions to gauge your understanding of the material?

I would try to call the different Caribbean schools like the others have suggested. Also, try to research online or elsewhere for people who have been in your shoes and see what they did. Did they find a school that took them, did they change their strategy/approach to the USMLE, or did they change career paths? I'm not sure where you would find this information, but I bet there are a lot of forums online with people in similar shoes.
 
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pmkin said:
thanks for the encouragement from some of you.
as for what i did, i basically went thru fa over and over, memorizing the detail. looked thru kaplan for my weak areas, and did uw.
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Pmkin,

Just another comment. Memorizing First Aid details, "over and over," really is not a good way to validly assess your understanding of what's being asked on Step I. Before taking Step, I went over First Aid twice, but this was only after 1) I had thoroughly gone through the concepts in my Kaplan review books 2) Had gone through tons of practice questions before, during, and after each complete review in First Aid. It's good to know your facts, but it's even better know how to use them within the context of a question.

(As a side note: anyone who expects FA to be the "be all and end all" of concepts to know for Step I is setting himself/herself up for possible failure..)

Btw, how did you fare on your practice questions? Certainly, doing questions would help you to identify your weak areas.
 
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pmkin said:
i have failed step 1 3 times...and this last time i was so close with 181/73 :scared:. Now i have been dismissed by my school. can anyone tell me which schools accept transfers in situations like mine. come to far to give up now. thank you
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It is not likely that any school in the United States will take you. Most schools require both good standing and passage of USMLE Step I BEFORE transfer under the best of circumstances. Under the circumstances of being dismissed from another school (you would not be in good standing), a transfer is likely not an option for you. You might be able to get into a school somewhere like Cuba (very grave shortage of doctors on that island) but your chances of practicing medicine in the United States after three failures on USMLE Step I are pretty low even if you get into medical school in another country. Most (if not all states) are not going to license you with three failures on Step I even if you started over as a M1 somewhere else as USMLE failures stay on your transcript and are reported to state license boards.

If you are willing to practice medicine in another country, look into other countries that are searching for physicians (such as Cuba) and see what options might be there. In addition, if you are set on having a career in this country, you may want to look at other options outside of medicine such as physician assistant (you have the pre-reqs) that would pay high enough salary for you to be able to pay off your present loans and educational expenses plus allow a high degree of career satisfaction but unfortunately for you, that third USMLE failure was a very deadly blow.
 
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Assuming the OP finds a school that will take him, and can pass Step 1 on try 4, do you think they could at least get a job with a pharm company? As what, I don't know, but I've heard they hire MDs. Or do they require a residency and state licensure?
 
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Hey I know the story of someone who failed 7 times and is now a practicing pathologist makin good money. Keep ure hopes up and dream alive man. It may seem like a stretch at this point but anything is possible.
 
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Billy Sexcrime said:
Uhh, although they teach in English for the most part, fluency in Swedish or Dutch are required to apply bachelor's program (which medicine is in Sweden and Holland). So unless you are fluent and a very, very good student, don't bother. Plus, there's no way they would take someone who essentially flunked out of a US med school. Places like Karolinska in Sweden are some of the top medical universities in the world, not some diploma mill looking to take in as many students as possible to make a profit.
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Hmmm since I am in med school in Europe myself I'm gonna have to go ahead and say that there are programs in English only-even in Poland (Jagellonian Institute has both a 4 and 6 year program, and is close to CA approval) and there are a ton of hungarian schools in English, no you don't need to speak the language, but of course it helps and if you are planning on going there full-time, I would recommend it! but it is NOT a requirement!!!

I am also fully aware of the prestige of some european schools and I don't think it's fair to refer to the OP as some dumb flunkie.

You know what, sometimes there is a lot of pressure and a lot of personal stuff. Maybe european med school would mean a fresh start, new surroundings, their system is harder in a sense that you have less support from teachers but you learn to be very independent. You have more semester breaks which means you have free time to pursue hobbies, build up your resume with research, etc.

And pharm reps are sometimes BA's with a degree in chem or business, so if you add 2 years of med school to that, the knowledge you have can only be a plus! Maybe you were meant to be more in the business or research side of medicine, beyond pharm reps there are lots of things you can do with your knowledge, should you decide that medicine isn't for you. But maybe you just need a change of scenery.

Good luck!👍
 
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Blondbondgirl said:
Hmmm since I am in med school in Europe myself I'm gonna have to go ahead and say that there are programs in English only-even in Poland (Jagellonian Institute has both a 4 and 6 year program, and is close to CA approval) and there are a ton of hungarian schools in English, no you don't need to speak the language, but of course it helps and if you are planning on going there full-time, I would recommend it! but it is NOT a requirement!!!

I am also fully aware of the prestige of some european schools and I don't think it's fair to refer to the OP as some dumb flunkie.
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Actually, it's no longer close; it's complete. It's a fully retroactive approval for both 4 and 6 year English programs. It's not up on the California boards website yet, but you can e-mail them for confirmation.

I don't know if the comment about implying the OP was a dumb flunkie, as you put it, was directed at me. I simply stated your suggestion that they should study in Holland or Sweden was not really a viable option, since they do not accept students that are not fluent in Dutch or Swedish (check the websites), and even if they did, due to heavy state subsidizing, there are very, very few out-of-country students. The only non-Dutch or non-Swedish students I've heard of studying medicine there are from Africa or former colonies. Scandinavian schools like to take some students from underserved countries in hopes they will turn out physicians that will go back home and serve their country.
 
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I am soooo sorry about your situation and I have friends in a similar situation. Please dont listen to all the negativity from others and focus on what you can do next to improve your score. Believe me, I have friends who have failed 3 times and the fourth time they passed due to taking a course. Have you thought about taking a review course? I heard those are very very helpful...particularly the one offered in Kansas City (for 1 month or 2 1/2 months).

Hope this helps....and BEST of luck :luck:
 
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JohnnieBlue said:
No, I agree with Mil. FA is crap for the boards because it doesn't tell you WHY anything happens. The boards don't test facts anymore. They test the "why."
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I disagree. First Aid contains many diagrams that do explain why things happen. In addition, a large portion of the USMLE is still remembering stupid little facts and First Aid excels at helping you learn those facts. On top of that First Aid gives structure to all that information and makes it easier to digest.
 
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Law2Doc said:
It's not crap, just not enough.
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im just wading in this mess to say FA is NOT Crap
its crappy of anyone to use it as a solo if you i.e you were asleep 2 years
but any one who can remember 1/4 of the stuff from yrs 1 and 2 can fill in with FA and be okay
just my 2 cents..now resume bashing and sorting out of this issue...op you have my best wishes, take time off to recoup and re-attack would be my suggestion.
 
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I'm so sorry. I'm sure this is frustrating for you and I agree...please don't get bogged down by the negativity.

I have to second the opinion that you should talk to someone for advising purposes. Is there not someone at your school that can help you recommend what the next course of action should be? I think it's important to get a solid plan and know all your options before you proceed with any decision.

Is there anyway your school would readmit you if say you repeat a year or two? If you can take the USMLE again (I'm not sure about the policies of how many times you can repeat), I would go ahead and take a review course as well. First Aid is awesome as a resource, but I would think reviewing concepts and practicing questions are just as important.

Keep your head up - there are bound to be suitable options out there. 🙂
 
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thank you for the support. in no way will my school let me write again, their cut off is 3 attempts. they wont even consider the fact that i am 2 pts off. anyways, i will take everyone's suggestions, and try to find a way to make my dream come true.
 
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pmkin said:
thank you for the support. in no way will my school let me write again, their cut off is 3 attempts. they wont even consider the fact that i am 2 pts off. anyways, i will take everyone's suggestions, and try to find a way to make my dream come true.
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Not to pile on here... but the current passing score for USMLE step 1 is actually 185. It is no longer 182.
 
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i understand that the cutoff is 185 now, i meant 2 pts off 75, b/c i got 73
 
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pmkin said:
thank you for the support. in no way will my school let me write again, their cut off is 3 attempts. they wont even consider the fact that i am 2 pts off. anyways, i will take everyone's suggestions, and try to find a way to make my dream come true.
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I agree with whomever said don't let all this negativity get you down. It's like Will Smith said in "The pursuit of Happyness" : "If you have a dream, you've got to protect it...if you want something, go get it. Period!" Personally, if I'm more than 100K in debt and there's no mortgage tied to that debt, then I'm damn sure going to finish whatever course I was on that gave me that debt in the first place so I can eliminate it!
 
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pmkin said:
i understand that the cutoff is 185 now, i meant 2 pts off 75, b/c i got 73
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And I hate to be redundant in asking but again, you're absolutely positive that there's NO way you can reenter your school. I mean I"m sure you've explored many avenues, but it seems like there are very few "absolutes" in med school...you would think there must be some type of appeals process. I mean it's not like you turned the Dean's daughter into a crack head or something.....wait, you didn't, did you?:laugh:
 
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Sorry to hear that this happened to you pmkin. This must be horrible for you. What school do you go to (if you dont mind saying) ? I am wondering if maybe the school's curriculum just isn't preparing you the way it should have?

Going by what people have said, I think there is a lot of variation between the different test forms, so I'm willing to bet that both the FA lovers and FA haters are right - just talking about different forms of the test. 🙂 For my own form of the test, FA was a God-send...but I definitely can believe that part of that was just luck for me, and that they must have a lot of questions in their question bank that don't come straight from FA that would have given me a much lower score if I had been unlucky enough to get them.

In any case, good luck with deciding on what to do from here, pmkin. I'm sure that you will find a way to make the best of this. 🙂
 
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