USMLE low step 1 score

[babloos]

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I received my score... its 212. M very sad. I don't have any friend or senior to ask what should I do from here on... I think its over for me. I hope each and everyone of you here get your desired dreams. All those who are helping your juniors, keep up with this good work and all those who are struggling, work hard for your dreams.

regards

 

[PowerDan]

I received my score... its 212. M very sad. I don't have any friend or senior to ask what should I do from here on... I think its over for me. I hope each and everyone of you here get your desired dreams. All those who are helping your juniors, keep up with this good work and all those who are struggling, work hard for your dreams.

regards

It might be possible to turn things around with a good Step 2 CK score, especially if you're applying to the lesser competitive fields like psychiatry or FM.

Also, can I ask how much you had scored on your NBME forms?

 

[W19]

I received my score... its 212. M very sad. I don't have any friend or senior to ask what should I do from here on... I think its over for me. I hope each and everyone of you here get your desired dreams. All those who are helping your juniors, keep up with this good work and all those who are struggling, work hard for your dreams.

regards

Are you a US student? What are the specialty (ies) you have in mind?

 

[babloos]

Are you a US student? What are the specialty (ies) you have in mind?

I m graduate(2014)... I want to get into IM 🙁

 

[premedicalstudent]

Is USMLE much harder than the MCAT?

 

[sedlari]

Is USMLE much harder than the MCAT?

I have the same question.

 

[Instatewaiter]

I received my score... its 212. M very sad. I don't have any friend or senior to ask what should I do from here on... I think its over for me. I hope each and everyone of you here get your desired dreams. All those who are helping your juniors, keep up with this good work and all those who are struggling, work hard for your dreams.

regards

It all depends on what you want and where you are from. If you are a US grad, things aren'tt so bad. You will be able to match to some IM, FM or psych program without too many problems.

If you are a foreign grad, you still have a chance if the rest of your application is strong but you are going to have to apply to a ton of programs. Take step 2 and do better. Take step 3 if you are a foreign grad.

212 while low is not the end of the world... Now if you want to match plastic surgery, things are a little different.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Is USMLE much harder than the MCAT?

Depends on what you mean by harder... The bredth of knowledge for the USMLE is many, many times larger than for the MCAT. Plus for the MCAT, much of the imformation you need is provided in the question/passage.

USMLE is even more of a knowledge test than the MCAT so in this way, for some it would be harder and for others easier. You can prepare more for the USMLE so for those who struggled with the MCAT because much you couldn't prepare for many parts, the USMLE may be easier.

If you are asking which is harder to do very well on, think about the cohorts. Most who take the MCAT are never going to cut the mustard and get into medical school but everyone who takes the USMLE is already in medical school. So the cohort is much stronger for the USMLE and therefore, getting above the mean is harder on the USMLE.

 

[premedicalstudent]

Depends on what you mean by harder... The bredth of knowledge for the USMLE is many, many times larger than for the MCAT. Plus for the MCAT, much of the imformation you need is provided in the question/passage.

USMLE is even more of a knowledge test than the MCAT so in this way, for some it would be harder and for others easier. You can prepare more for the USMLE so for those who struggled with the MCAT because much you couldn't prepare for many parts, the USMLE may be easier.

If you are asking which is harder to do very well on, think about the cohorts. Most who take the MCAT are never going to cut the mustard and get into medical school but everyone who takes the USMLE is already in medical school. So the cohort is much stronger for the USMLE and therefore, getting above the mean is harder on the USMLE.

Ohh ok. This makes sense.

So would you advise first year medical students to start studying for the USMLE step 1 exam? I didn't perform well on the MCAT (though I'm still applying to medical schools) and I read that your performance on the MCAT is correlated to your board exam performance in med school.

 

[premedicalstudent]

Depends on what you mean by harder... The bredth of knowledge for the USMLE is many, many times larger than for the MCAT. Plus for the MCAT, much of the imformation you need is provided in the question/passage.

USMLE is even more of a knowledge test than the MCAT so in this way, for some it would be harder and for others easier. You can prepare more for the USMLE so for those who struggled with the MCAT because much you couldn't prepare for many parts, the USMLE may be easier.

If you are asking which is harder to do very well on, think about the cohorts. Most who take the MCAT are never going to cut the mustard and get into medical school but everyone who takes the USMLE is already in medical school. So the cohort is much stronger for the USMLE and therefore, getting above the mean is harder on the USMLE.

Also, is applying to residency the same process as applying to medical school? Meaning, you have to have certain extracurriculars, a compelling personal statement, letters of recommendations, good medical school GPA/standing (if that's a thing?) and solid board exam scores?

 

[Instatewaiter]

Also, is applying to residency the same process as applying to medical school? Meaning, you have to have certain extracurriculars, a compelling personal statement, letters of recommendations, good medical school GPA/standing (if that's a thing?) and solid board exam scores?

Residency matching is basically about board scores + clinical grades + letters of recommendation (often in that order).

ECs are nice to talk about on the interview trail. The personal statement means very little and can do more to harm you than help you.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Ohh ok. This makes sense.

So would you advise first year medical students to start studying for the USMLE step 1 exam? I didn't perform well on the MCAT (though I'm still applying to medical schools) and I read that your performance on the MCAT is correlated to your board exam performance in med school.

The best way you can prepare for step 1 during first year is to do well in your coures and learn it in such a way that you will remember the important points.

MCAT performance is correlated to board scores for two reasons: First smart people tend to keep doing well on tests and second because people who may not be that smart but are good at taking these tests tend to keep doing well on these tests. That said, your MCAT score doesn't need to define how you will do on the boards.

 

[babloos]

It all depends on what you want and where you are from. If you are a US grad, things aren'tt so bad. You will be able to match to some IM, FM or psych program without too many problems.

If you are a foreign grad, you still have a chance if the rest of your application is strong but you are going to have to apply to a ton of programs. Take step 2 and do better. Take step 3 if you are a foreign grad.

212 while low is not the end of the world... Now if you want to match plastic surgery, things are a little different.

I am foreign medical graduate... i want to get into IM. what do you recomend me... what should I do from here on?

 

[Instatewaiter]

Take step 2 CK and CS and do well on CK (pass CS on the first attempt). If you do well enough, apply. If you don't get above a 220, consider taking step 3.

What country did you do your medical school in?

 

[babloos]

Take step 2 CK and CS and do well on CK (pass CS on the first attempt). If you do well enough, apply. If you don't get above a 220, consider taking step 3.

What country did you do your medical school in?

I graduated from Kyrgyz republic? Does that matter?

 

[tennischamp822]

.

 

[OlgaW007]

I graduated from Kyrgyz republic? Does that matter?

It matters because in order to get into the residency you need as much american clinical experience as you can get. Without it you have very low chances to match even with a good scores.

 

[OlgaW007]

No, but most people these days need US clinical experience and letters of recommendation to match (which will cost $)

Totally agree!

 

[jqueb29]

Is USMLE much harder than the MCAT?

I barely studied for the MCAT and scored better than 88% of test takers.

I studied for Step 1 for 3 months, including a roughly 40 day period where I did nothing but wake up, study all day, go to bed, and repeat the next day. I scored better than only 80% of test takers (still a great score obviously, but did worse in regards to % of other test takers I scored better than).

Step 1 is a million times harder than the MCAT. It's certainly possible to do great on it, but it takes much more work than the MCAT.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I barely studied for the MCAT and scored better than 88% of test takers.

I studied for Step 1 for 3 months, including a roughly 40 day period where I did nothing but wake up, study all day, go to bed, and repeat the next day. I scored better than only 80% of test takers (still a great score obviously, but did worse in regards to % of other test takers I scored better than).

Step 1 is a million times harder than the MCAT. It's certainly possible to do great on it, but it takes much more work than the MCAT.

LOL can't believe you scored that well on those tests and not even understand how populations of those tests work. 50% of students scored a 24 or below on MCAT. Do you think they are in medical school? That means including those in the caribbean, DO and AMG, you scored better than the 80% remaining of the 50% that made it into some medical school. That's an improvement in score, not a drop as a percent.

 

[Wildflower7]

Hey did you match?