Making sense of USMLE stats.

[Sprit2Serve]

Below are the statistics for the USMLE Step 1 test for examinees by year from US allopathic, osteopathic, and foreign medical graduates with passing rates respectively. Can anyone please explain how it is that caribbean schools boast a >90% passing rate:

2002
US 18,500 (88%)
DO 1,000 (67%)
FMG 17,000 (55%)

2003
US 18,500 (90%)
DO 1,000 (73%)
FMG 18,500 (57%)

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[ER-ER-Oh]

Below are the statistics for the USMLE Step 1 test for examinees by year from US allopathic, osteopathic, and foreign medical graduates with passing rates respectively. Can anyone please explain how it is that caribbean schools boast a >90% passing rate:

2002
US 18,500 (88%)
DO 1,000 (67%)
FMG 17,000 (55%)

2003
US 18,500 (90%)
DO 1,000 (73%)
FMG 18,500 (57%)

This is mainly because FMG means ANYONE who graduates from a foreign school and then takes the USMLE. Most FMG's are foreigners who graduate from schools in their country and then imigrate to the US and are required to take the USMLE before applying for a residency.

The big difference is that most schools in foreign countries are not preparing their students to come to the US for residency. These MDs are most often totally unprepared for the USMLE because of the huge difference in teaching and subject matter.

Carribean schools are simply grouped in with the 14,000 or so truly foreign MD's who take the test. And most Carribean schools, particularly the top 3 SGU, Ross, AUC prepare specifically and intensly for the USMLE, just like US schools, and are made up mostly of US citizens.

Hope that clears it up.

 

[dmitrinyr]

SGU has had step 1 pass rates of avg. 90% for at least the past 5 years. Ross has probably had good pass rates too although I don't know their numbers. Besides these schools, most caribbean and foreign schools have a much lower first time pass rate probably anywhere from 30-40% to 60-70%. Reasons for this probably vary from worst admission standards which result in substandard students taking the exam, worst education in the medical school which makes it harder to pass the test, worst preparation after the first two years of school, etc.

These are just my assumptions of the top of my head and might be totally off base but seem logical to me.

 

[Jason_AZCOM]

Below are the statistics for the USMLE Step 1 test for examinees by year from US allopathic, osteopathic, and foreign medical graduates with passing rates respectively. Can anyone please explain how it is that caribbean schools boast a >90% passing rate:

2002
US 18,500 (88%)
DO 1,000 (67%)
FMG 17,000 (55%)

2003
US 18,500 (90%)
DO 1,000 (73%)
FMG 18,500 (57%)

Statistically, it would be possible. Just like the average income in Beverly Hills is higher then the average income of Los Angeles county. Caribbean schools are only one component of FMG's.

I much more telling stats are the mean and standard deviation. (I'd much rather go to a school that had a mean of 240, standard deviation of 30, and pass rate of 85%, then a school with a 95% pass rate, mean of 195, and standard deviation of 5.

 

[thirdangel]

The scores also tend to decrease the longer people wait to take Step 1 after they leave a Caribbean school. If you look at the people who take it as soon as they leave, that pass rate is much higher... I guess some schools would rather look at that rate than the overall rate.

Below are the statistics for the USMLE Step 1 test for examinees by year from US allopathic, osteopathic, and foreign medical graduates with passing rates respectively. Can anyone please explain how it is that caribbean schools boast a >90% passing rate:

2002
US 18,500 (88%)
DO 1,000 (67%)
FMG 17,000 (55%)

2003
US 18,500 (90%)
DO 1,000 (73%)
FMG 18,500 (57%)

 

[Shah_Patel_PT]

Below are the statistics for the USMLE Step 1 test for examinees by year from US allopathic, osteopathic, and foreign medical graduates with passing rates respectively. Can anyone please explain how it is that caribbean schools boast a >90% passing rate:

2002
US 18,500 (88%)
DO 1,000 (67%)
FMG 17,000 (55%)

2003
US 18,500 (90%)
DO 1,000 (73%)
FMG 18,500 (57%)

Caribbean schools tend to have extremes in the normal Gausian distribution. Around 20-25% have very high scores....the majority just pass...and around 20-25% fail the test on first attempt. At least that is how I see it at Ross.