OBGYN Comlex only

[DOsomethingright]

Hey everyone. 3rd year DO Student here just wanting to ask advice about my current situation. I was pretty hard set on going into IM residency and knew that there were plenty of programs out there that took COMLEX only, so due to not scoring well on NBME exams, I opted to not take Step 1. I scored 596 on COMLEX Level 1. During my OBGYN clerkship, I fell in love with the specialty. I know OBGYN has become more competitive recently, and I am just wondering if I messed up my chances of matching OBGYN by not taking USMLE. I am a male (have read that that may or may not matter), go to a low tier school, in top 25% of class, and not picky about academic vs community or about location. Do I NEED to (gagging at the thought) go back and start studying for Step 1?

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[DO2015CA]

With a 596 you probably would’ve done well enough on usmle. It’s a teaching point for others reading this thread. Take the usmle even if you think you are dead set on one specialty because things change. There are a decent number of former AOA obgyn residencies you can audition at but honestly if you think you can swing it and still have time study for step 2 I would. I had a few friends that took step 1 December of 3rd year then step 2 in May-ish. They didn’t regret it

 

[FutureDoctor5000]

There are 26 former DO programs, and other traditional community MD programs that you still have a shot at, audition at the former DO programs that will still consider your comlex. But without a step score it will be definetly be harder to match obgyn but not impossible. I would take step 2, I don’t know if you have the time/energy to study for step 1 at this point tbh...

 

[Dr. Death]

DO Male who matched last year. If I was in your shoes I would plan on taking Step 2. You should plan on doing 4+ audition rotations to be safe. If you do both of those things I think you have a high probability of matching.