Practicing Physcian vs Step 1

[minwoo]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Sorry this is kind of random but...

I was studying for a path exam this morning and running through First Aid and with all this info we have to know/memorize/understand...I started to wonder:

Could a physician who is currently in practice take Step 1 right now and expect to do well? Or even pass? Hell, what about the MCAT? The MCAT is so irrelevant to med school / medicine that I'm willing to bet that any doc would probably get <25 on it 😛

I just wonder if we're learning all this crap just to jump through a hoop and if it's all mostly stuff we're going to forget anyways. Kinda like the PS section of the MCAT. I'd be alot more motivated if I knew that memorizing all symptoms for Bloom's syndrome and Buerger's disease are really going come in handy later..

 

[mmmcdowe]

Sorry this is kind of random but...

I was studying for a path exam this morning and running through First Aid and with all this info we have to know/memorize/understand...I started to wonder:

Could a physician who is currently in practice take Step 1 right now and expect to do well? Or even pass? Hell, what about the MCAT? The MCAT is so irrelevant to med school / medicine that I'm willing to bet that any doc would probably get <25 on it 😛

I just wonder if we're learning all this crap just to jump through a hoop and if it's all mostly stuff we're going to forget anyways. Kinda like the PS section of the MCAT. I'd be alot more motivated if I knew that memorizing all symptoms for Bloom's syndrome and Buerger's disease are really going come in handy later..

As for the MCAT, I doubt I could get within 5 points of my score in any of the sections except for VR even now.

Pass, yes. Do well, probably not with some variance depending on their career (i.e. an academic MD/PhD internist responsible for writing the exams for the entire basic science block vs a private practice psychiatrist).

I would point out, however, that while you may not need to know all the nitty gritty details to be a practicing physician, learning them will help you retain the things that will come in handy. Studying for step 1 definitely helped solidify a lot of disease processes into my head.

 

[Bane]

I just wonder if we're learning all this crap just to jump through a hoop and if it's all mostly stuff we're going to forget anyways.

This is mostly true for most specialties.

 

[oanjiwks]

They would do a hell of a lot better on step 2 than step 1.

 

[Aclamity]

Even MS3s and MS4s would have trouble with Step 1 again. I'm only a few months out and I can tell I've become rusty.