I want the straight dope...

[Shades McCool]

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Ok I know this has been covered time and time again, but here we go.

I have been told to imagine my application for residency as a yard stick. Then I was told that on that yard stick, my grades during my first two years is about 4 inches. I know a lot of you have dealt with the issue. So what is your take? Are Step 1 and 3rd year scores along with letters that much more important?

TIA

 

[Gotcha!]

Ok I know this has been covered time and time again, but here we go.

I have been told to imagine my application for residency as a yard stick. Then I was told that on that yard stick, my grades during my first two years is about 4 inches. I know a lot of you have dealt with the issue. So what is your take? Are Step 1 and 3rd year scores along with letters that much more important?

TIA

Some people think 4 inches is a lot to work with.

I tend to disagree - but then again who Am I to judge?


* haha sorry couldn't help it.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

They're not that important unless you fail something. At my school I think our Medicine clerkship weighs as heavily into our GPA as almost our entire first year.

Disclaimer: don't let this be your excuse to blow stuff off. Take it from someone studying for Step1, if you don't learn it the first time, you have to learn it later on. Plus Path suuuuuuuuucks if you don't have pharm and immuno nailed down.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Consider that many schools have Pass-Fail or Honors-Pass-Fail preclinical grades. How do you compare a B+ with a Pass (P/F system) with an Honors (H/P/F system)? You can't. I can't say I know much about how residency directors operate but I imagine they use other measures to compare people.

I suppose your preclinical grades could have an influence on your Dean's letter.

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

Well yeah, boards and 3rd year are more important, but when you're going through your preclinical years, what else are you going to do?

Also agree with the above - if you don't know it, or at least vaguely recall it, Step 1 review is going to be rough. Don't think you can just turn on a switch and cram it all in.

 

[lil pook]

this is not the place to look for dope. nobody around here does it.

go downtown if your looking for dope

 

[Arctic Char]

right, i think its probably more an issue of PD's having to discern what your pre-clinical grades actually mean. clinical evals are more important measures of competence, and step 1 is a good barometer.

 

[Shades McCool]

We get graded in quartiles:

P1 = Top 25%
P2/P3 = Middle 50%
P4 = Bottom 25%

With this system it is easier to see how one is doing compared to their peers.

 

[Law2Doc]

We get graded in quartiles:

P1 = Top 25%
P2/P3 = Middle 50%
P4 = Bottom 25%

With this system it is easier to see how one is doing compared to their peers.

I think the prior poster meant that while you may know how you are doing within your school, you have no clue how that translates when being compared to folks at other schools when applying for residency. Eg you are coming with your "P2" and someone else with their B+ and another with their P. Residency directors are thus going to just look at the step 1 for the preclinical stuff as there is a means of cross comparison. As such, your preclinical grades are much much lower on the totem pole than most other things.

 

[neutropenic]

My MSPE had about 10-15 lines devoted to my first two years of medical school. It basically stated (like everyone else) that I passed the preclinical curriculum. Not much else. We have no preclinical grades, one kid who graduated years ago who barely passed preclinical years ended up at Hopkins IM and we've had people who repeated a preclinical year match into some pretty hard matches (as in hard matches for anyone with very few non US allo grads in the field) so I am not sure how much they matter.

 

[EvoDevo]

Cross-posted to multiple forums. Closing.