Pass/Fail is unquestionably more cutthroat than H/HP/P/F: A Case in Point

[theWUbear]

Once upon a time there was a school with a grading scale of Honors/High Pass/Pass/ Fail. There was no limit on how many people could get each category. For example, in the Biochemistry course, 40 to 50% of the class one year received honors. Nice work med students. If a student was doing really well in a course (i.e. 95% halfway through), he/she knew he could take it easy for the rest of the course and still get honors. A small quiz didn't mean anything. Go have fun med student. At the end of four years, students were put into quintiles based on how they did in each course (honors, high pass, pass, fail).


As the national trend of "destressing" students by changing to pass/fail curriculum gained steam, this medical school stayed on the forefront of this trend and changed to a true pass/fail system. Now, there is no stress whether you have a 95, 85, or 75, right? Just relax med student: self motivate if you want, and get a well rounded education. At the end of four years, you will be grouped into quintiles based on not how many classes you passed and how many you failed, but your exact percentage score in each course added up and averaged to one numeric score.

Wait, what?

That's right med student. In the pass fail system (this 'hypothetical' one at least - not claiming this is how it works everywhere), every single point possible matters toward your final standing as a med student, for use in quintiles or other rankings. Remember when you had a 98% in anatomy and you went out instead of acing the next quiz? Could have made all the difference in making up for your performance in second year micro. Gun harder pass fail med student, because every single point throughout the entirety of your pass fail years counts. Whether you're passing with a 65%, 85%, or 99.5%.

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[chiz2kul]

 

[mmmcdowe]

Once upon a time there was a school with a grading scale of Honors/High Pass/Pass/ Fail. There was no limit on how many people could get each category. For example, in the Biochemistry course, 40 to 50% of the class one year received honors. Nice work med students. If a student was doing really well in a course (i.e. 95% halfway through), he/she knew he could take it easy for the rest of the course and still get honors. A small quiz didn't mean anything. Go have fun med student. At the end of four years, students were put into quintiles based on how they did in each course (honors, high pass, pass, fail).


As the national trend of "destressing" students by changing to pass/fail curriculum gained steam, this medical school stayed on the forefront of this trend and changed to a true pass/fail system. Now, there is no stress whether you have a 95, 85, or 75, right? Just relax med student: self motivate if you want, and get a well rounded education. At the end of four years, you will be grouped into quintiles based on not how many classes you passed and how many you failed, but your exact percentage score in each course added up and averaged to one numeric score.

Wait, what?

That's right med student. In the pass fail system (this 'hypothetical' one at least - not claiming this is how it works everywhere), every single point possible matters toward your final standing as a med student, for use in quintiles or other rankings. Remember when you had a 98% in anatomy and you went out instead of acing the next quiz? Could have made all the difference in making up for your performance in second year micro. Gun harder pass fail med student, because every single point throughout the entirety of your pass fail years counts. Whether you're passing with a 65%, 85%, or 99.5%.

Some schools legitimately don't record the numerical scores of the p/f semesters, which is why it is absolutely crucial to get a straight answer about it when considering schools post-interview. I totally agree that it is super shady, and I had the pleasure of catching one school in the act when I was going through interview season.

 

[ppfizenm]

Some schools legitimately don't record the numerical scores of the p/f semesters, which is why it is absolutely crucial to get a straight answer about it when considering schools post-interview.

^This.

 

[mauberley]

Once upon a time there was a school with a grading scale of Honors/High Pass/Pass/ Fail. There was no limit on how many people could get each category. For example, in the Biochemistry course, 40 to 50% of the class one year received honors. Nice work med students. If a student was doing really well in a course (i.e. 95% halfway through), he/she knew he could take it easy for the rest of the course and still get honors. A small quiz didn't mean anything. Go have fun med student. At the end of four years, students were put into quintiles based on how they did in each course (honors, high pass, pass, fail).


As the national trend of "destressing" students by changing to pass/fail curriculum gained steam, this medical school stayed on the forefront of this trend and changed to a true pass/fail system. Now, there is no stress whether you have a 95, 85, or 75, right? Just relax med student: self motivate if you want, and get a well rounded education. At the end of four years, you will be grouped into quintiles based on not how many classes you passed and how many you failed, but your exact percentage score in each course added up and averaged to one numeric score.

Wait, what?

That's right med student. In the pass fail system (this 'hypothetical' one at least - not claiming this is how it works everywhere), every single point possible matters toward your final standing as a med student, for use in quintiles or other rankings. Remember when you had a 98% in anatomy and you went out instead of acing the next quiz? Could have made all the difference in making up for your performance in second year micro. Gun harder pass fail med student, because every single point throughout the entirety of your pass fail years counts. Whether you're passing with a 65%, 85%, or 99.5%.

Hypothetically, I am shocked and appalled.

However, all I've got is a stirred pot and nothing to show for it.

 

[Morsetlis]

My school has A/B/C/D/F AND percentages.

 

[lpmarcus010]

UCSD is P/F with no internal rankings or running tallys. Also, there is no AOA and it is pretty much awesome. But this is for sure something you want to check out. Many schools with P/F still do internal rankings for AOA and what not.

 

[bucks2010]

would you rather have:

(a) AOA w/ internal rankings

or

(b) no AOA but no internal rankings

because it seems like AOA (and any kind of published class rank, for that matter) cannot exist without percentile grades.

I'm sure it's hard to know whether you're real AOA material at this point, but say you rock Step I and do well in your rotations ... would you be disappointed that some residencies use AOA as a cutoff and you may be eliminated from consideration based on that alone?

My opinion right now is that internal rankings/AOA make the best applicants significantly more competitive for the best residency slots (which may use AOA as a cutoff) while the rest of the class will be less affected by the existence of rankings/AOA. With a grading scheme like H/HP/P/F, the AOA applicant is going to look better than the non-AOA applicant with or without having an AOA chapter at the school, so you might as well include it to help those at the top vie for the best residencies.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Once upon a time there was a school with a grading scale of Honors/High Pass/Pass/ Fail. There was no limit on how many people could get each category. For example, in the Biochemistry course, 40 to 50% of the class one year received honors. Nice work med students. If a student was doing really well in a course (i.e. 95% halfway through), he/she knew he could take it easy for the rest of the course and still get honors. A small quiz didn't mean anything. Go have fun med student. At the end of four years, students were put into quintiles based on how they did in each course (honors, high pass, pass, fail).


As the national trend of "destressing" students by changing to pass/fail curriculum gained steam, this medical school stayed on the forefront of this trend and changed to a true pass/fail system. Now, there is no stress whether you have a 95, 85, or 75, right? Just relax med student: self motivate if you want, and get a well rounded education. At the end of four years, you will be grouped into quintiles based on not how many classes you passed and how many you failed, but your exact percentage score in each course added up and averaged to one numeric score.

Wait, what?

That's right med student. In the pass fail system (this 'hypothetical' one at least - not claiming this is how it works everywhere), every single point possible matters toward your final standing as a med student, for use in quintiles or other rankings. Remember when you had a 98% in anatomy and you went out instead of acing the next quiz? Could have made all the difference in making up for your performance in second year micro. Gun harder pass fail med student, because every single point throughout the entirety of your pass fail years counts. Whether you're passing with a 65%, 85%, or 99.5%.

Very few schools work like this. And its why it is important to ask how class rank, dean's letters and AOA work when you go to interview (ask a 3rd or 4th year, 1st and 2nd years are unlikely to know).