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[mrnight]

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so i have been very interested in pm&r for some time i am a third year osteopthic student who took comlex only and did not take usmle. But i actually failed comlex on my first 2 attempts but passed 3rd time with a below avg score.

Do i still have any hope of a spot in pm&r and if so can anyone please recommend programs that might look past this.

 

[PMR 4 MSK]

Brutal honesty here. Read at your self-esteem's own risk.

Hope? Sure, the bottom-tier programs often have to reach way down their ROL. You won't be near the top of anyone's list, so you better make sure you have something else to get them to even rank you - superior interview skills, rehab-related experience, excellent LORs - several, if possible, excellent grades, etc.

I think you seriously need to re-think your career goals here and your priorites. I know not everyone is at the top of their class (I was right in the middle), and someone has to be near/at the bottom. But to fail COMLEX twice and pass poorly a third time indicates a severe deficit in your fund of knowledge in medicine and science. That or a significant cognitive deficit that makes you a terrible test-taker. If the latter, consider getting some realistic testing as to why you do so poorly on this test, even after 3 tries. You can blame your school for not adequately educating you, but you need to look inward to figure out what the basic problem is.


From the COMLEX website -"The mission of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners is to protect the public by providing the means to assess competencies for osteopathic medicine and related health care professions." You have shown your competency to be lacking, and I do not believe you are going to do yourself or your future patients, nor the field of PM&R, any favors by entering the field.

You also have to consider that you have more tests to go - finish COMLEX exams and then PM&R written and oral boards. Can you pass those?

Perhaps practicing medicine is not in your best interest, or maybe doing primary care will be better for you. Apply and interview widely and you might get a spot somewhere. But then what? Even PM&R programs have let people go who could not master the knowledge required.

 

[topwise]

I agree that applying to the top programs is probably going to be a waste of your time. But if you love PM&R, I think that you will be able to find a spot somewhere.

I respectfully disagree that the fact that you failed COMPLEX makes you either deficient in your knowledge or means you have a cognitive deficit... or that you should leave medicine entirely (or become a *gasp* primary care doctor 😉). I don't really know exactly what COMPLEX is about since I'm an MD, but I assume it's like step 1, right? Step 1 has a lot of random stuff on it that isn't necessarily clinical, like biochem. There are some people who didn't do great at the pre-clinical stuff and then did much better during third year. I also don't think being a bad test-taker means you have a cognitive deficit... some people just get anxious during exams or are bad at eliminating multiple choice answers. It sucks, but it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be an awful clinician.

I think your third year is going to be very important. If you're doing well in your clerkships and impressing attendings, that's a good start. And if you do a PM&R elective and impress people there, that's even better. 🙂

Good luck!

 

[rehab_sports_dr]

I think I come in a middle position on the failing boards issue, but I tend to be pretty critical about it as well

When I see a candidate has failed the boards, what I really want to see is that it served as a wake up call, and that there is objective evidence they got their act together. I think this also applies to people who scored poorly on the boards the first time around, but didn't quite fail.

Truth is, most residents who fail the boards are usually not stellar in other areas either. Most solid candidates are solid across the boards.

I will note, though, that I have seen candidates who failed or scored poorly on the boards, and DID make objective changes that made them into solid candidates. And that does come across positively. There is something admirable about someone bombing, but then coming back to score highly on the boards, make national presentations, write a paper, start a PMR student organization, etc.

Bottom line- if you hit some stumbling blocks, it's not enough to say that you've seen the light and now you care. If you can't PROVE that you care, you aren't going to be fooling anyone, except perhaps for yourself.

 

[drusso]

Well, in all honestly, you've put yourself behind the 8-ball. It's not like you *CAN'T* recover and match at a quality PM&R program, but you didn't make things easy for yourself.

First, critically appraise "what went wrong?" Are you just not a good standardized test-taker, have a bad day, or plain old unprepared. I would try to bolster your application with as many PM&R relevant experiences as possible. Consider doing a rotating internship/transitional years and applying to PGY-2 matches. Work your butt off at a good internship (not a country club community hospital) and get good LOR's from attendings. Try to scramble.

Accept the fact that there will likely be programs that you will not make the "paper cut." Half of life is just getting your papers shuffled from one pile to another. But, with failing boards your application will likely not get pushed into the "interview pile" most places.

Persevere.

 

[Ludicolo]

so i have been very interested in pm&r for some time i am a third year osteopthic student who took comlex only and did not take usmle. But i actually failed comlex on my first 2 attempts but passed 3rd time with a below avg score.

Do i still have any hope of a spot in pm&r and if so can anyone please recommend programs that might look past this.

Will some programs look past your poor boards performance? Perhaps. But it depends on what else they have to look at.

You did pass the COMLEX eventually (which must have been COMPLEX…sorry), so congrats for that. You need to explain why you did so poorly. Knowledge deficit? Learning disability? Performance anxiety? You’ll need to be able to address this honestly, intelligently, and maturely in your residency applications - possibly in your personal statement, definitely during your interviews. Get help, if you haven’t already. Demonstrate that you’re taking ownership of the problem and trying to remedy the situation. Take step II early, and rock it (I know, I know…easier said than done). Your step II score ideally should be way better than your step I, because you’ll need that score to counterbalance your poor showing on step I. At the very least pass it the first time. You’ll need to excel on your clinical rotations, especially during your PM&R electives. If you perform OUTSTANDING on an away PM&R rotation, there is the possibility that program will take a chance on you. Seen it happen.

There is still hope, but you have your work cut out for you. Good luck.