Question on USMLE passing rate.

Started by PomiliaAnthony13
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PomiliaAnthony13

PomiliaAnthony13

Full Member
7+ Year Member
I may be looking a bit too far into the future(I am only pre-med, as for the moment😉); however, I'd like to know the statistics as far as the passing and/or failure rate of those who have taken the USMLEs. I'm assuming that most students pass..

Answers, please!
 
PomiliaAnthony13 said:
I may be looking a bit too far into the future(I am only pre-med, as for the moment😉); however, I'd like to know the statistics as far as the passing and/or failure rate of those who have taken the USMLEs. I'm assuming that most students pass..

Answers, please!
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1. You're right, asking this question as a premed is pointless.
2. Learn to use google. I found the answer in about 30 sec.
3. You're welcome
 
US MD students rarely fail their step 1s so it's not a useful metric in comparing schools. Average step score can be more useful, but it is usually just more indicative of the students than the quality of the school.
 
there is also no legitimate source of average step data, the US news numbers are bogus according to SDN ad com members that have access to the raw data for a couple top schools
 
efle said:
there is also no legitimate source of average step data, the US news numbers are bogus according to SDN ad com members that have access to the raw data for a couple top schools
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They are not entirely bogus, but I do believe they are self-reported and a few years behind. At least at my school, the scores do roughly correlate. I've also seen the raw data for the top schools, however they are usually anonymized.
 
darkjedi said:
They are not entirely bogus, but I do believe they are self-reported and a few years behind. At least at my school, the scores do roughly correlate. I've also seen the raw data for the top schools, however they are usually anonymized.
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That would make them pretty useless then
 
Yeah I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people aren't stressed out of their minds about passing Step I, but rather if their scores will be enough for desired specialties.
 
1) If you have above a 3.0/27 as an undergrad, your chances of passing boards aren't much different than anyone else who might have higher stats. The reason admission is competitive isn't because lots of people aren't capable of passing boards.

3) You get second chances to pass. If on the re-take(s), where you have that much more time to study for it you still can't pass(note this isn't the MCAT with abstract verbal passages some very bright people can't hack), the field of medicine simply one that isn't for you. Keep in mind even failing a board test a second time isn't often enough to drop out; you get additional chance(s) after that.
 
GrapesofRath said:
1) If you have above a 3.0/27 as an undergrad, your chances of passing boards aren't much different than anyone else who might have higher stats. The reason admission is competitive isn't because lots of people aren't capable of passing boards.

3) You get second chances to pass. If on the re-take(s), where you have that much more time to study for it you still can't pass(note this isn't the MCAT with abstract verbal passages some very bright people can't hack), the field of medicine simply one that isn't for you. Keep in mind even failing a board test a second time isn't often enough to drop out; you get additional chance(s) after that.
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I've had a lot of current MD medical students tell me that Step 1 is more "studyable" than the MCAT was for them. They all made around 28-32 MCATs
 
md-2020 said:
Yeah I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people aren't stressed out of their minds about passing Step I, but rather if their scores will be enough for desired specialties.
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Exactly why top MD programs maintain such high MCAT averages: so their students murder the step and go on to impressive residencies, not so they pass.
 
Gandyy said:
I've had a lot of current MD medical students tell me that Step 1 is more "studyable" than the MCAT was for them. They all made around 28-32 MCATs
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I've heard the same for all USLME tests from various medical students. The MCAT is not a content based test. While I don't want to just generalize USLME "as just a content memorizing test" where there's "no reasoning required"(which is blatantly false) the USLME and MCAT test far different skills.
 
GrapesofRath said:
I've heard the same for all USLME tests from various medical students. The MCAT is not a content based test. While I don't want to just generalize USLME "as just a content memorizing test" where there's "no reasoning required"(which is blatantly false) the USLME and MCAT test far different skills.
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And yet MCAT is the best correlate of step1 performance at .67ish iirc
More alike than different perhaps
 
efle said:
And yet MCAT is the best correlate of step1 performance at .67ish iirc
More alike than different perhaps
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Actually after a 27 there is no real correlation between MCAT scores and Step 1 scores. If there is, its very very marginal.
 
efle said:
There's no or little correlation for pass rates
There is a .67 (iirc) for score/percentile
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Interesting. That I can understand. .67 is still not proportional to the amount of emphasis that is placed on the MCAT for admissions though.
 
Gandyy said:
Interesting. That I can understand. .67 is still not proportional to the amount of emphasis that is placed on the MCAT for admissions though.
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Its pretty massively important relative to other metrics though, since stuff like clinical XP or altruism has no correlation. GPA is fairly weak even iirc, though I'd wager it becomes significant if you filter for Top 20 GPAs which compose majority of the class at top MD programs
 
Gandyy said:
Interesting. That I can understand. .67 is still not proportional to the amount of emphasis that is placed on the MCAT for admissions though.
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.67 is a huge correlation. I didn't know it was that high before

Consider that the correlation for one's personality to one's behavior is around .3
 
Lancer said:
.67 is a huge correlation. I didn't know it was that high before

Consider that the correlation for one's personality to one's behavior is around .3
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.67 is still lower than one might expect for the MCAT since that is universally 1st or 2nd in consideration
 
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