Step II Petition to End Step 2 CS

Started by MudPhud20XX
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Anti-PD1 said:
Just took CS. What a load of garbage.

Also, why do we have this pervasive attitude among ourselves to put up with just about anything? "Yeah this exam sucks but what are you gonna do?" Why do we like being screwed over. There should be collective outrage over this scam. Who gave the NBME divine authority to screw us so badly?
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Imagine one has to spend an extra year because they take that exam late (November/December) and fail it. I can't believe med students have to put up with BS like this... If AMA were really against this BS exam, they would have lobbied state legislatures to not require that stupid exam for licensure...
 
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Ismet said:
Didn't they try this like a year or two ago and then NBME ended up raising the cutoff for passing?
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True, but they went the wrong way about it. The burden should have been on the NBME to prove that the system was producing physicians that are inept. Of course, NBME was going to raise the cut off for passing if your argument was that almost everyone passes. Regardless, raising the cut off shows they were using arbitrary metrics for that test. They weren't interested in really catching students who don't have the "skills" to become physicians.
 
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Anti-PD1 said:
Just took CS. What a load of garbage.

Also, why do we have this pervasive attitude among ourselves to put up with just about anything? "Yeah this exam sucks but what are you gonna do?" Why do we like being screwed over. There should be collective outrage over this scam. Who gave the NBME divine authority to screw us so badly?
Click to expand...
I am with you 100%. I feel like we've worked our axx off and borrowed tons of money to get through this and yet we don't get to say anything about how things are being done in our education. Kudos to those Harvard medical students who launched this movement.
 
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W19 said:
Imagine one has to spend an extra year because they take that exam late (November/December) and fail it. I can't believe med students have to put up with BS like this... If AMA were really against this BS exam, they would have lobbied state legislatures to not require that stupid exam for licensure...
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Hey man, I know the person who was 1 year ahead of me. She had never failed any exams in throughout her med school had average step 1 and 2 scores and had a decent number of interviews and to her surprise she failed CS. All the programs dropped her app right away. She was jobless upon graduation.
 
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MudPhud20XX said:
Hey man, I know the person who was 1 year ahead of me. She had never failed any exams in throughout her med school had average step 1 and 2 scores and had a decent number of interviews and to her surprise she failed CS. All the programs dropped her app right away. She was jobless upon graduation.
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It's a sad situation... I might end up like that person.
 
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W19 said:
Imagine one has to spend an extra year because they take that exam late (November/December) and fail it. I can't believe med students have to put up with BS like this... If AMA were really against this BS exam, they would have lobbied state legislatures to not require that stupid exam for licensure...
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I'm presenting this to my state medical society. I don't care if I'm a resident and still have to see this through. I feel cheated. This won't end here for me. I simply find it *****ic that a group of smart, young and capable people can't exert influence on their own fate.
 
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W19 said:
True, but they went the wrong way about it. The burden should have been on the NBME to prove that the system was producing physicians that are inept. Of course, NBME was going to raise the cut off for passing if your argument was that almost everyone passes. Regardless, raising the cut off shows they were using arbitrary metrics for that test. They weren't interested in really catching students who don't have the "skills" to become physicians.
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So here is the thing, if you look at the stat, most AMG pass this exam. However, that's not the case for IMG or foreign grads. I really think the CS exam should weed out foreign grads whose English is not there 1st language or culturally have a different background (Forgive me if this doesn't sound PC, I am trying to be straightforward). Handling patients in the US is different and in most cases, I feel like it's a cultural thing. I've seen plenty of horrible foreign grad residents who treated patients/staff like crap (of course, most of them are excellent folks and overqualified I am sure...). As I mentioned before we as AMG take numerous clinical skill exams that I can't think of any of my classmates who would not be qualified to be out there taking care of patients. I think the getting into med school and getting trough med school and passing step1 and 2 are rigorous enough to weed out unqualified candidates. I do agree with we need a standardized CS exam for foreign grads who want to practice here in the US, but to force us to take this exam to AMG, I am beginning to think what the point is.
 
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W19 said:
True, but they went the wrong way about it. The burden should have been on the NBME to prove that the system was producing physicians that are inept. Of course, NBME was going to raise the cut off for passing if your argument was that almost everyone passes. Regardless, raising the cut off shows they were using arbitrary metrics for that test. They weren't interested in really catching students who don't have the "skills" to become physicians.
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This is so smart. I agree. But yes, them now increasing the fail rate speaks to the whole test's artificiality.
 
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It doesn’t get any better with the ste 3 CCS cases that are so awkward and against the normal flow of medicine that you’ll wanna rip your hair out. It’s just another cash grab hurdle to jump through.
 
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Medical students should collectively just protest it and stop going to take it. After about a month of no one showing up at any of the exam centers, that should get their attention, wouldn't you think?
 
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valleyrekt said:
Medical students should collectively just protest it and stop going to take it. After about a month of no one showing up at any of the exam centers, that should get their attention, wouldn't you think?
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Only about 20% of med students at most would actually go through with the boycott, especially since at least 80% of us will do anything it takes to match at our dream programs, including take the step 2 CS. Additionally, 90% of us are confident when we see a statistic showing 90+% of AMGs pass it. This combination just isn’t enough to convince the majority of our personalities to go into full fledged “activist mode”.
 
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The attempt in 2016 to end Step 2 CS attacked the NBME because this fake acting and typing exam in front of fake acting civilians in a fake, made-up, contrived scenario was ridiculously too inconvenient and expensive (it still is, now more so than before) and also because it allegedly didn't fail enough students. The point that they should have focused more on is that there is no proof whatsoever that this exam actually improves patient care and patient safety...and that the NBME is simply using this to rob students blind. All of the arguments supporting this fake acting and typing exam are made by the people who are making millions off of having it in place. It should be a crime to use this fake acting and typing exam to derail the careers of students with regards to obtaining residency...never giving any explanation to the student what went wrong with the exam other than showing "*" marks estimating their CIS, ICE, SEP performances on an "objective" report. Especially with regards to the CIS component, this fake acting and typing exam is far from objective. Putting the future careers of medical students on the line in front of civilians being paid $15/hour acting out fake cases that are just "so realistic to the actual encounter of working with a patient" and assuring us that these standardized patients won't make any mistakes or biased assessments in their grading of the student...give me a break. Medical students are being played for fools. There is such a lack of transparency with the grading of this fake acting and typing exam, it honestly makes me ill.
 
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