How are students graded in Medical School?

[nysegop]

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I always hear things like "5th from the top in his Harvard medical school class" in movies. However, I thought medical students were usually assessed as Pass/Fail/Honors. So if two people "pass" all over their classes how are they any different? How is someone the top of their medical school class? Is this ranking done by USMLE scores?

 

[GUH]

I always hear things like "5th from the top in his Harvard medical school class" in movies. However, I thought medical students were usually assessed as Pass/Fail/Honors. So if two people "pass" all over their classes how are they any different? How is someone the top of their medical school class? Is this ranking done by USMLE scores?

Many schools still have traditional grading systems. Not sure about Harvard.

 

[impact2d]

Most schools have moved to some form of P, F or H, HP, P, F in preclinical. They still rank internally, but usually in quartile not specific number. Some schools still honor the number 1 and 2 students. Students scores on rotations will vary greatly also. The 5th from the top thing sound more like law school than med school to me.

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[DrYoda]

Varies by school. Some have traditional grading (pass/high pass/pass/fail) all four years. Some do H/P/F. Some have P/F all four years. Some have P/F for the first two years and then H/HP/P/F for the clinical years.

For class rank it is just your grades, not USMLE score (at least at my school, I can't speak for others).

For your hypothetical of two people with identical grades, it can happen and then you have a tie. They don't do any valedictorian type big deals out of it. Ranking is really just for residency programs to measure your performance level against your classmates. At least from my school residencies don't get a specific rank number, they get a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or quartile designation (some places may do it different again, i can only speak for here). So it's not like having a tie is going to create a big problem.

 

[nysegop]

Thanks all!
🙂