is step2 ck going to become pass/fail?

[galkim]

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i heard dome rumors about it. is it true?

does it have any implications, such as putting greater emphasis on step1 or on the cs part?

 

[tarlovcyst]

i heard dome rumors about it. is it true?

does it have any implications, such as putting greater emphasis on step1 or on the cs part?

False rumor.

Let's address step 1 first. This is the test that is more being debated to become a pass / fail, but I personally don't think it will happen. Statistics have shown, in addition to opinions from a number of PDs, that step 2 CK is more important than step 1. Also, step 1 tests knowledge that most practicing physicians do not use, when compared to step 2 or even step 3. However, step 1 is the only standardized exam that can compare applicants across the board, since it IS required to apply to a US residency.... step 2 CK is not.

Step 2 CK is evolving to incorporate more of the basic sciences. This is evidenced by the NBME adding more basic science questions to the 2009 USMLE changes.

Step 2 CS is also of much debate because it costs so much money and I've heard other PDs at the conferences say that CS is a waste of money, time, and effort. However, other PDs have said that the patient encounter is dying and that some standardized way should be implemented / tested. Keep in mind that these days, orders can be done on a computer miles away without even seeing a patient.

No talks currently for step 3.

The current talk right now is to combine step 1 and 2 CK into one big exam. This would be a monster of an exam, and I'm personally voting against it.

Again, none of this is likely to happen soon or radically.

 

[IM Substance P]

I was at a national conference AAMC a couple years ago, and all the talk was that Step 1 was going to be disappearing someday. There was even a presentation from the NBME people basically projecting that around 2013 Step 1 would no longer exist.

I haven't heard anything since. I take that silence to mean that (a.) the idea has not evolved further or (b.) the idea was scrapped.

If the NMBE wanted to make the Step exams pass/fail, they would have done so by now. They could simply stop reporting the two- and three-digit scores.

It's actually kinda funny that they eliminated reporting of score percentile on the score report almost twenty years ago to address the very issue of those percentiles being used by PD's to rank applicants. Obviously, it didn't do anything to curb that...

PD's for more competitive specialties absolutely need those scores to screen applicants and limit their interviews. An ENT PD doesn't have time to read a bunch of letters and reports; he's going to look at your scores and grades. The attitude of PD's in the competitive specialties is very clearly in favor of keeping the USMLE scores if you hear these guys talk.

 

[thesauce]

It's actually kinda funny that they eliminated reporting of score percentile on the score report almost twenty years ago to address the very issue of those percentiles being used by PD's to rank applicants. Obviously, it didn't do anything to curb that...

Yes it did. They can no longer use the percentile, which was set for a given year and couldn't be compared across different test-administration years. Now PDs have to use the 3-digit score which CAN be compared across different test-administration years.

A 240 back in the 80s is the same as a 240 today. However, it might have been 95th percentile in the 80s whereas now it's more like 85th percentile. That was the point to changing it.