Step 1

[medreno]

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I know as pre-med students its pretty early to think about medical school tests. However, I recently read a report pertaining to residency matches. Since I will most likely prefer the ED I looked up emergency medicine matches. In the. report it showed that if a person failed their step 1, 77% of residency programs seldom take applicants who failed their first time, 16% never accept first time failed applicants and only 7% often accept applicants who have failed. (This pertained to emergency medicine, I didn't look at other specialties)

Personally, getting in medical school is possible. You can retake the MCAT. You can work to get your GPA to an acceptable level. what's scary is that if the step 1 is failed then there's slim chances to get in a residency of my choice. Any thoughts?

 

[SamyLSF]

Why are you already assuming you are going to "fail" step 1 lol. That's not a good mindset!

 

[Mdtichen]

Don't fail step 1....

 

[mimelim]

It is pretty darn hard to fail Step 1.

 

[def1]

I think like 97% of US students pass the test. Dont be that 3%

 

[IncognitoGuy]

I didn't even know what Step 1 was until after I sent my application in during the summer.

Chill out, deal with it when the time comes - this is not something you should concern yourself with. The numbers are with you.

 

[Daodejing]

Don't worry about it. Stop thinking about failing. It's a beast of an exam but is heavily dependent on your ability to retain a huge amount of information and apply it to clinical vignettes (the preferred format for step q's these days). Completely different testing philosophy from the mcat. Get into med school, do well in your classes while there, then review and do practice q's like there's no tomorrow once the second half of MS2 hits. The rest should take care of itself.

 

[music2doc]

I know as pre-med students its pretty early to think about medical school tests. However, I recently read a report pertaining to residency matches. Since I will most likely prefer the ED I looked up emergency medicine matches. In the. report it showed that if a person failed their step 1, 77% of residency programs seldom take applicants who failed their first time, 16% never accept first time failed applicants and only 7% often accept applicants who have failed. (This pertained to emergency medicine, I didn't look at other specialties)

Personally, getting in medical school is possible. You can retake the MCAT. You can work to get your GPA to an acceptable level. what's scary is that if the step 1 is failed then there's slim chances to get in a residency of my choice. Any thoughts?

Umm... don't be the bottom of your class. Seriously. Out of our 200 M3s, I think like 5 failed last year and our average score was a full 2 standard deviations above the pass/fail line. If you flunk Step 1.... Also, there are MUCH bigger barriers to getting EM than failing Step 1.

But more seriously, why the heck are you even looking this crap up? You're a premed. Beat the MCAT and get into med school, then it might be worth talking about...after your M1 year.

 

[amazing tekkers]

If med schools accept you to their institutions, then they know you can step up.

 

[thesauce]

Umm... don't be the bottom of your class. Seriously. Out of our 200 M3s, I think like 5 failed last year and our average score was a full 2 standard deviations above the pass/fail line. If you flunk Step 1.... Also, there are MUCH bigger barriers to getting EM than failing Step 1.

But more seriously, why the heck are you even looking this crap up? You're a premed. Beat the MCAT and get into med school, then it might be worth talking about...after your M1 year.

Could you clarify?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Dude... Get into med school first.

 

[ClemsonFirst]

http://www.usmle.org/performance-data/default.aspx#2011_step-1

It's pretty hard to fail Step I if you take the time and study. Just don't blow off studying as a MS2, and you should be fine to pass.

 

[music2doc]

Could you clarify?

What I meant was that failing Step 1 should be the least of his worries. Simply not failing Step 1 is the "easy" part. Being in the upper 50% of your class, breaking average on Step 1, etc. are much tougher by definition (since at least here some 97-98% pass Step 1 on the first try and that rate isn't much lower nationally).

 

[mmmcdowe]

If you can get a decent score on the MCAT, you have a high probability of passing the Step as long as you put in some decent effort. Honestly, a lot of medical students start out in the low-passing range before they even start studying (though this is based on practice exams obviously).

 

[medreno]

Sorry didn't know the pass rate was so high for step 1. I guess I thinking the pass ratewas lower such as pre hospital staff. The pass rate for paramedics national test is 70% (some states around 50-60% pass rate) I know, two seperate professions just use to being around people taking EMS tests.

 

[medreno]

Ill focus more on getting into med school first. Thanks everyone!

 

[Mdtichen]

Ill focus more on getting into med school first. Thanks everyone!

👍 good luck!

 

[medreno]

Thanks!

 

[JJMrK]

Sorry didn't know the pass rate was so high for step 1. I guess I thinking the pass ratewas lower such as pre hospital staff. The pass rate for paramedics national test is 70% (some states around 50-60% pass rate) I know, two seperate professions just use to being around people taking EMS tests.

It's very easy to pass the test; what you'll be worrying about in a few years is doing well enough to match into your specialty (and location/program) of choice.

 

[NickNaylor]

It is pretty darn hard to fail Step 1.

And yet also pretty darn hard to do exceptionally well (though you are likely the exception here given your specialty).

 

[fahimaz7]

And yet also pretty darn hard to do exceptionally well (though you are likely the exception here given your specialty).

You can get interviews in all specialties with a 230 or so, which isn't an outstanding score at all. With that said, plenty of 250+ people go into obgyn, peds, em, internal medicine, etc instead of the super prestigious SDN ones.

It's one of the funnest conversations I have with MS1 and MS2's at my school. It always goes the same... They have questions about step 1, I give them advice, they question my advice then ask me what I matched in to. I tell them what I matched into and you can almost see themselves say "well, forget this guy's advice". About that same time I just go ahead and tell them I was in the 250's and 270's on step 1 and step 2, which promptly shuts them up and they begin to drink the kool-aid.

 

[leon sandcastle]

dont fail step 1 man

 

[mimelim]

And yet also pretty darn hard to do exceptionally well (though you are likely the exception here given your specialty).

Depends on how you define "exceptionally well". 240+? 250+? 260+? You don't need an exceptional step 1 to get into any field, an above average score (230s) will get you interviews in any specialty if the rest of your application is solid. We interviewed someone in the 220s this year.

I think with proper preparation the average medical student can easily break 230. As a blanket statement, I think if you score below that, you could have studied better. Going up from there though is more about test taking ability and other less modifiable things.