USMLE Pass Rates?

[Acheron]

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Does anybody know of statistics for the USMLE step 1 pass rates amongst Australian-educated doctors?

I'm mainly interested in the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, and Flinders.

 

[Transition]

In a brochure emailed to me by Tony Edwards (admissions chair), it said the average USMLE Step 1 scores of Flinders grads is above the mean and they have a pass rate of 95%.

Edit: I've attached the brochure from Flinders. Good information on the school in it.

 

[shan564]

The USMLE pass rates of some schools will be deceptive for a couple of reasons:

1. A lot of people here just take the USMLE to see how they do, without actually investing the time to study for it. This is because they know they have an internship waiting in Australia (or at least they did a couple of years ago), so they take the lazy way out and just blow it off.

2. Some Australians (especially at USyd) take Step 1 just because they'd like to do a clinical elective in the US. They don't really study for it either, so they might fail it.

3. A lot of students are only in Australia because they're subpar students in the US. USMLE scores have been shown to be strongly correlated with a person's MCAT scores, and we've seen that UQ has been accepting people with 24's on their MCAT. If a person has a low MCAT score, they're likely to also get a low USMLE score.

You'll be hard-pressed to find any data for Melbourne; they didn't really start accepting many international students until this year. I'm at Sydney, and I haven't seen their stats floating around anywhere either.

If you talk to the people who actually invested a substantial amount of time studying for the USMLE, they usually seem to score 220-230 (with plenty who score higher or lower).

 

[Acheron]

In a brochure emailed to me by Tony Edwards (admissions chair), it said the average USMLE Step 1 scores of Flinders grads is above the mean and they have a pass rate of 95%.

Edit: I've attached the brochure from Flinders. Good information on the school in it.

Wow, Flinders seems to have very good results when it comes to the USMLE. Is that because they only admit great students or because their science program is designed to help students prepare for the USMLE?

 

[shan564]

Wow, Flinders seems to have very good results when it comes to the USMLE. Is that because they only admit great students or because their science program is designed to help students prepare for the USMLE?

To some extent, both of those. But be careful about the statistics that people try to tell you - 95% sounds a bit too high, even for an American school. That might be the percentage of people who eventually pass the USMLE rather than just the people who pass it on the first try (there are a lot of ways to play with numbers and make them sound really big; to know for sure, you should look at the actual data). Also, consider that you don't just need to "pass" the USMLE... if you want to get a residency, you need to get a pretty solid score.

 

[Acheron]

To some extent, both of those. But be careful about the statistics that people try to tell you - 95% sounds a bit too high, even for an American school. That might be the percentage of people who eventually pass the USMLE rather than just the people who pass it on the first try (there are a lot of ways to play with numbers and make them sound really big; to know for sure, you should look at the actual data). Also, consider that you don't just need to "pass" the USMLE... if you want to get a residency, you need to get a pretty solid score.

Not necessarily true. If you pass the USMLE, go to a recognized medical school, and are a US citizen you are almost guaranteed to get a residency in the United States.

However, a great USMLE increases your chances of getting into a more competitive residency. Sure you could pass the USMLE with the absolute minimum score but you will probably be doing a family medicine residency at a backwoods hospital in Arkansas (no offense to AR).

But your point is taken, Shan.

 

[Saipan]

But if we get back to the original question....the answer has to be that the asked for information does not exist.

Information provided by indiviual schools is somewhat anecdotal, and suspiciously self-serving. It's not to be trusted.

There is no objective data for USMLE results for individual overseas schools, and the small number and ecletic nature of these students makes any anecdotal data worthless.

 

[shan564]

probably be doing a family medicine residency at a backwoods hospital in Arkansas (no offense to AR).

Oh, you don't have to say "no offense"... you'd be hard-pressed to get me to go to backwoods Arkansas, and I grew up just north of there in Missouri.

 

[Acheron]

Opinion: Which school best prepares students for the USMLE-1?

 

[Transition]

Opinion: Which school best prepares students for the USMLE-1?

I don't think any particular Aussie school prepares you better than any other. From what I've read about the curriculum of each of the schools, they all are non-USMLE oriented. You will most likely be doing a lot of independent study.

That being said, the only school I know of that is particularly disadvantaged is Monash-Gippsland because they do 1 year class 3 years clinical, thus cutting down on the science stuff quite a bit. This is at least from what I've read about the curriculum from paging dr. and the response by internationals (they said that you will need to study a LOT independently).

Otherwise, I'm not sure anyone can really answer that question because no school in Aus is meant to prepare you for the USMLE.

 

[Transition]

To some extent, both of those. But be careful about the statistics that people try to tell you - 95% sounds a bit too high, even for an American school. That might be the percentage of people who eventually pass the USMLE rather than just the people who pass it on the first try (there are a lot of ways to play with numbers and make them sound really big; to know for sure, you should look at the actual data). Also, consider that you don't just need to "pass" the USMLE... if you want to get a residency, you need to get a pretty solid score.

Th exact quote from the brochure is:
"Flinders graduates have a first-attempt success rate with USMLE Step 1 over 95%, with scores averaging above the mean for all test takers."

Seems pretty impressive. It is a first attempt success rate, and with means cores above the average for all test takers. Interesting... didn't read into it that much when I glanced at it before.

I'm not sure how they would collect this data, though. The thing is that those that fail may not be reporting their scores to the school (they would have no way of knowing, unless there's some scheme associated with the USMLE I'm unfamiliar with that automatically discloses scores to the school). This could be where the skew comes in?

 

[JanikeyDoc]

In a brochure emailed to me by Tony Edwards (admissions chair), it said the average USMLE Step 1 scores of Flinders grads is above the mean and they have a pass rate of 95%.

Edit: I've attached the brochure from Flinders. Good information on the school in it.

I wouldn't take the success of Flinders and assume that all students ace the USMLE, also a much smaller number of people take the exam.

 

[JanikeyDoc]

Not necessarily true. If you pass the USMLE, go to a recognized medical school, and are a US citizen you are almost guaranteed to get a residency in the United States.

However, a great USMLE increases your chances of getting into a more competitive residency. Sure you could pass the USMLE with the absolute minimum score but you will probably be doing a family medicine residency at a backwoods hospital in Arkansas (no offense to AR).

But your point is taken, Shan.

That is not true, a lot of people I know who went overseas are now wishing they did not. I know quite a few Americans who went to medical school overseas, passed the Steps, and did not get a residency. Honestly, you should look at DO schools, if MD is difficult to gain admission, in many ways these days in the US they are equals.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I would also ask Dr. Edwards how they compile that data as my Step 1 score was NOT ABOVE the mean; close, but definitely not above. The brochure says that Flinders students score above the mean for ALL test takers which implies that no one has scored below the mean who passed.

 

[Transition]

I would also ask Dr. Edwards how they compile that data as my Step 1 score was NOT ABOVE the mean; close, but definitely not above. The brochure says that Flinders students score above the mean for ALL test takers which implies that no one has scored below the mean who passed.

I believe the correct interpretation is above the mean as compared to all other test takers (aka Flinders students have scores above the national mean).

I'm gonna shoot an email off to him for clarification.

Also, do you remember whether disclosure of scores is/was required?

 

[Winged Scapula]

I believe the correct interpretation is above the mean as compared to all other test takers (aka Flinders students have scores above the national mean).

I'm gonna shoot an email off to him for clarification.

I realize that is the definition, but I thought I read somewhere above where it said that ALL Flinders grads who took USMLE Step 1 and passed scored above the mean, which isn't the case.

Also, do you remember whether disclosure of scores is/was required?

As I recall it was...but that was a very long time ago.😀

 

[shan564]

Doesn't Flinders have any students who just take the USMLE without really studying? Just today (sitting around at my clinical school), I heard at least 3-4 different 3rd/4th-year Aussies mention that they'll probably take the USMLE just to open extra options or to do a couple of clinical electives in the US. It's not uncommon for people to do so here, and a lot of them don't score too well because they don't put any time into preparation like the Americans/Canadians do.

That's not to mention all of the Americans/Canadians who also take the USMLE without really studying because they're expecting an internship in Australia. Of course, that won't be true for future graduating classes.

 

[Transition]

I realize that is the definition, but I thought I read somewhere above where it said that ALL Flinders grads who took USMLE Step 1 and passed scored above the mean, which isn't the case.



As I recall it was...but that was a very long time ago.😀

Haha, thanks Dr. Cox.
I've sent an email to Dr. Edwards.
I'll update this thread when I hear back.

As a side, I did some digging and found some threads from way back saying that you were required to give said information (this was back in 2005 or so). But I didn't remember to save the threads. I'll try to find them again.

Doesn't Flinders have any students who just take the USMLE without really studying? Just today (sitting around at my clinical school), I heard at least 3-4 different 3rd/4th-year Aussies mention that they'll probably take the USMLE just to open extra options or to do a couple of clinical electives in the US. It's not uncommon for people to do so here, and a lot of them don't score too well because they don't put any time into preparation like the Americans/Canadians do.

That's not to mention all of the Americans/Canadians who also take the USMLE without really studying because they're expecting an internship in Australia. Of course, that won't be true for future graduating classes.

I would have expected this too.. dunno? 😕

EDIT: got it! Man, was it hard to find this again... Dr. Cox's post on an email from Dr. Edwards. Hah, I guess time flies eh?

 

[Transition]

Got some confirmation on numbers from Dr. Edwards. He informed me that he knows the number of individuals that take the exam (as he has to sign off on it), but that reporting one's scores are by choice.

Thus,
- The pass rate is 95% for reported scores
- The rate of reporting is at about 80-85%

So, let's low-ball it and say it's an 80% report rate. Of that, 95% pass, so ~4% overall fail that report. Now, looking at it as a glass half-empty situation, we'll say that 90% of the non-reporters fail (a big assumption, but worthwhile for the sake of argument).

Thus,
Overall failure rate = (.05*80 + .9*20)*100 = 22%... worst case scenario (in my books, unless my math is off).

I say worst-case because 90% non-reporters failing just seems a bit high (but I may be wrong) and I took the low-end estimate of 80% reporting instead of 85% (Dr. Edwards did not give me official numbers, so please don't take it as such). So, 78% pass rate still isn't bad. This also does not take into account all the individuals that take the exam half-heartedly.

Hope this helps

 

[Alphonsine]

It really depends on who you ask. According to Janikeydoc and his sources including his imaginary girlfriend (aka "straight from the horse's mouth"), it's only 10% for Australian medical school students because Australian medical schools are so bad at teaching basic sciences

I had a look at USMLE step 1 stuff for the blocks we covered and it wasn't hard at all. I was a biochem major in undergrad so I got that covered. Medical school is not like undergraduate/pre-med with focus on hard sciences. It's more practical stuff: like how to treat a patient, some medical ethics, various diseases, etc... There's not that much basic sciences on the USMLE either by the way. It's just a lot of pathology and stuff.

 

[theologian]

...leave the horse out of this.

 

[Raigon]

Hope you don't mind me waking up a really really old thread, but I just realized a play on words...

In National Average - was it the mean of all test-takers or the national mean as in... the Australia National Mean for USMLE? (which would be significantly lower as most of the Aussie docs will choose to stay in Australia than go for the US for no reason).

But perhaps, if all are above national averages, then it's driven by a need to score better because they know they're disadvantaged. Where's the proof that IMGs with US citizenship will be advantaged over those without? From what I've gathered in the previous threads IMGs will be disadvantaged with or without citizenship, simply because we did not graduate from an American medical school. Arrogant, but understandable. Most countries do that same with international medical graduates. Home-turf advantage is scary.

I majored in biochemistry (the science and technology) and that's obviously my best subject, but there are a ridiculous amount of material to be covered on our own as Australian Universities are not USMLE-oriented (why would they be? Are they going to train doctors in their country that lacks doctors just so they could ship them to the US?) That means most of the stuff, aside from anatomy and some pathology, must be self-studied. Unless we have enough money to buy Kaplan's web-prep or online course, (a few thousand bucks), we'll be using books as our main material.

I suppose the only real way to make it through is to form study groups. Hell, if I make it to Flinders, I'm forming a study group on my first day of school. =P

 

[pitman]

3. A lot of students are only in Australia because they're subpar students in the US. USMLE scores have been shown to be strongly correlated with a person's MCAT scores, and we've seen that UQ has been accepting people with 24's on their MCAT. If a person has a low MCAT score, they're likely to also get a low USMLE score.

Shan, be careful with inferences. The acceptance scores to UQ for Americans really hasn't changed from when I knew the stats (2004-2006) compared to what's been claimed for the past year. Meanwhile, I think it's still the case that only 1 person from UQ in the past 5 years (except I don't know about this past year) has failed the USMLE.

I think it's important to remember that those who have come to Australia with the intention of returning are self-selected, that is, are probably pretty motivated to work hard enough to get above average scores. On average, that is 😛. Similarly the percentage of Canadians who've gotten spots in Canada in the past couple of years from UQ is way above the international average (e.g., 9/11 for 2009 if I'm recalling my own past posts correctly). Such self-selection bias may also help explain part of Flinders' high scores.

The US feds have in recent years been requiring foreign schools to collect information on their American students' USMLE scores, as part of continual assessment of whether to allow their students to get Stafford loans. So unless that policy has changed recently, the schools at least ask students for their scores, and collate them (self-reported as they are). Whether the schools want to share that data is another matter though, just as few schools here will publicize the GAMSAT scores or GPAs of their entry class (unlike in the US where it's easy to find such data). It can't hurt to ask, though.

I didn't realize Winged Scapula was FKA Kimberli! Cheers.

 

[Transition]

Shan, be careful with inferences. The acceptance scores to UQ for Americans really hasn't changed from when I knew the stats (2004-2006) compared to what's been claimed for the past year. Meanwhile, I think it's still the case that only 1 person from UQ in the past 5 years (except I don't know about this past year) has failed the USMLE.

I think it's important to remember that those who have come to Australia with the intention of returning are self-selected, that is, are probably pretty motivated to work hard enough to get above average scores. On average, that is 😛. Similarly the percentage of Canadians who've gotten spots in Canada in the past couple of years from UQ is way above the international average (e.g., 9/11 for 2009 if I'm recalling my own past posts correctly). Such self-selection bias may also help explain part of Flinders' high scores.

The US feds have in recent years been requiring foreign schools to collect information on their American students' USMLE scores, as part of continual assessment of whether to allow their students to get Stafford loans. So unless that policy has changed recently, the schools at least ask students for their scores, and collate them (self-reported as they are). Whether the schools want to share that data is another matter though, just as few schools here will publicize the GAMSAT scores or GPAs of their entry class (unlike in the US where it's easy to find such data). It can't hurt to ask, though.

I didn't realize Winged Scapula was FKA Kimberli! Cheers.

I agree with your latter points but certainly not your former. In speaking with UQ, they (and Oztrekk) informed me that anyone meeting the minimum requirements for entry (8/8/8/M MCAT, 2.7 GPA) would get an offer. It was an almost guarantee. Indeed, I proceeded to see people I know getting first round offers with 25-27 MCAT scores. I can see why they're doing this, considering the number of internationals has skyrocketed (210 internationals this year - I'm surprised there are that many students interested in going to Australia that can afford $50K/year tuition). I just wish they wouldn't make it so obvious that internationals are a cash cow for them. Insofar, I would be careful using previous anecdotes for future predictions of test scores or admission standards.

 

[Transition]

But perhaps, if all are above national averages, then it's driven by a need to score better because they know they're disadvantaged. Where's the proof that IMGs with US citizenship will be advantaged over those without? From what I've gathered in the previous threads IMGs will be disadvantaged with or without citizenship, simply because we did not graduate from an American medical school. Arrogant, but understandable. Most countries do that same with international medical graduates. Home-turf advantage is scary.

I majored in biochemistry (the science and technology) and that's obviously my best subject, but there are a ridiculous amount of material to be covered on our own as Australian Universities are not USMLE-oriented (why would they be? Are they going to train doctors in their country that lacks doctors just so they could ship them to the US?) That means most of the stuff, aside from anatomy and some pathology, must be self-studied. Unless we have enough money to buy Kaplan's web-prep or online course, (a few thousand bucks), we'll be using books as our main material.

I suppose the only real way to make it through is to form study groups. Hell, if I make it to Flinders, I'm forming a study group on my first day of school. =P

As for citizenship, it's vitally important. If you do not have US citizenship, then you have to get one of 2 working visas - H1b (getting incredibly difficult to attain and requires the program to sponsor you specifically, something a lot of programs are not willing to do) or a J1 (limits your options, requires you to leave the country afterwards and has a few stipulations attached to it). If you have citizenship, it's one less headache, and a big one at that.

Yeah, self-studying is the only way to go. It's gonna be difficult, but it's obviously do-able and it seems the Flinders crowd has some good study groups going. No worries.

 

[Raigon]

As for citizenship, it's vitally important. If you do not have US citizenship, then you have to get one of 2 working visas - H1b (getting incredibly difficult to attain and requires the program to sponsor you specifically, something a lot of programs are not willing to do) or a J1 (limits your options, requires you to leave the country afterwards and has a few stipulations attached to it). If you have citizenship, it's one less headache, and a big one at that.

Yeah, self-studying is the only way to go. It's gonna be difficult, but it's obviously do-able and it seems the Flinders crowd has some good study groups going. No worries.

The problem is that... well... in the matches, less percentage of US citizen IMGs get matched over foreign IMGs... I've seen that on ECFMG that their education committee is not pleased that more and more US citizens are studying medicine outside their own country. They don't understand why.

Well... DUH, look at my case and see if they have a right to complain. As for now, I just find that they don't understand why we're studying abroad to be extremely hilarious.

But they did mention a significant issue: that US citizens who studied outside the US are probably rejects from regular US medical schools while those foreign IMGs are probably top candidates in their whole country and generally do better on the USMLEs. I guess I can see that, seeing as you mentioned that most people who studied abroad have a specific trait in their application that would make them less of a good if not impossible candidate in their own country. The quality of US citizen IMGs are lower than the top foreign candidates. Which, I suppose why we need LORs from US electives.

But yeah, I guess with citizenship there are a lot of cleared hurdles such as working permits and such. Too bad you can't marry into citizenship like in Australia. Otherwise I'll just get an Australian chick, marry her - she gets US citizenship and I get Australian citizenship. Problem solved. Sigh...If only things were that easy...

Wish that Kaplan would hold live prep courses for USMLEs outside the states as generally there are a TON of IMGs. Online courses are good, but the atmosphere of an entire class studying with you is better. Then again... study groups =D.

Well for the USMLEs, I guess I'll start studying as soon as I get in (if I get in, actually. I still can't get rid of rejectphobia). I'll want to cover every little corner and form study groups as soon as I get in. Then again, not sure if people will come;some will probably call me insane. It's 2 to 3 years away damn it!

Basic sciences... well I guess I can study it on my own if I had to. Something like patient-doctor qualities that only Australian doctors have is why I chose to go to Australia over Caribbean medical schools.

 

[sunshinevet]

No offense guys... and I mean that really, just as an Australian student, I find it kind of funny how you guys seem to "b1tch" about Australian schools preparing you adequately for American tests. They're Australian schools... why would they? We really don't give a **** about the USMLE (or the veterinary version, BSCE) here!

 

[redshifteffect]

No offense guys... and I mean that really, just as an Australian student, I find it kind of funny how you guys seem to "b1tch" about Australian schools preparing you adequately for American tests. They're Australian schools... why would they? We really don't give a **** about the USMLE (or the veterinary version, BSCE) here!

Sunshinevet,

Normally I'd be the first to agree with you, because Australian schools really should be training their students to Australian standards, however to play devils advocate here you should keep a few things in mind

- International students are big business, in fact ~1/4 of the current UQ class are internationals and most schools have at least a 10% international rates, and these students account for a huge portion of the Australian economy. So if Australia is willing to take their money, they should help train them in a way that they can return to their country.

- The more international students that pass the USMLE the less competition/pressure there will be for local jobs - so essentially Australia can provide it's own students with jobs rather then having to worry about international students as well (who will undoubtedly complain if they don't get jobs during internship).

 

[Transition]

No offense guys... and I mean that really, just as an Australian student, I find it kind of funny how you guys seem to "b1tch" about Australian schools preparing you adequately for American tests. They're Australian schools... why would they? We really don't give a **** about the USMLE (or the veterinary version, BSCE) here!

To follow up on redshifteffect's comment, where did you see anyone complaining about Aus schools not preparing you for the USMLE? We've all but agreed that that is the case. This thread was simply created to try and tease out what the USMLE pass rate is for students in Aus regardless of the training.

As for redshift's first point, it's not just 1/4 now. It's more like 1/3rd. And do you know how much they pay for tuition? Close to $50K per year... tuition alone. I'd imagine paying that much tuition over 4 years should count for something with respect to adding to Australia's GDP. Furthermore, I think a bit of liability on the school's parts in training us properly isn't unreasonable. This is especially true when you have massive schools like UQ taking in 200+ students, creating programs made specifically (or advertised at least) for people to go back to the US (UQ-Ochsner, a forum search will reveal the pros and cons) and then not even providing the basic sciences training required to pass the first set of exams to go back. Please, don't troll here with your self-righteous attitude. The issues are far more complicated than internationals merely 'b1tching'.

 

[Raigon]

No offense guys... and I mean that really, just as an Australian student, I find it kind of funny how you guys seem to "b1tch" about Australian schools preparing you adequately for American tests. They're Australian schools... why would they? We really don't give a **** about the USMLE (or the veterinary version, BSCE) here!

Have to agree with the posters above. We get the same education and benefits you guys get, but at a price of 5~10 times the price you local students have to pay. I understand that Australian schools have the need to make money to support Australian economies. It's also good for us who have the capabilities but are not admitted into US schools. We're not losers, as proven by many international students, but just don't get some advantages normal students get. Thus we go abroad. If we pay that much tuition to the point that we pay 5~10 times, at least dish out even a little of the money to give us some prep-courses or electives that can prepare us for USMLEs and other major home country licensing exams. I mean, they're earning a lot from us already (we students that will be neck-deep in debt while you aussies are happily working as junior officers). They can also spare some of the money to help us, can't they?

We're not "b1tching" about how courses are not USMLE oriented and to tell you the truth we're not expecting it to be. I mean, your school is in Australia and should be training for Australian doctors. But you should know, though in states like NSW where there's a medical tsunami (too many medical graduates and too little intership places), we internationals don't have a guaranteed spot. We're paying a ton of extra cash with little hope of staying and many of us opt to return to our home countries because well... it's home, we have family there. And Australian schools know that, too. Thus, it would be nice to show us a little appreciation for the extra money we pay by giving us some prep-courses or test-preparation electives.

But we're already happy that your country accepts internationals. And a first world country with excellent medical schools. Better than going to Poland or Latin America or whatnot. We're appreciative of the fact that you're willing to open up to people like us whom medical schools won't accept because we don't meet their stupid qualifications.

So please, suggestions does not equal complaining. And even if we were, complaining does not equal "b1tching".

 

[BCJ]

Wow, Flinders seems to have very good results when it comes to the USMLE. Is that because they only admit great students or because their science program is designed to help students prepare for the USMLE?

I went through the Flinders PBL program starting in 2000. I don't know how the program is run now, but the ones of us that did well on the USMLE, and even those that passed with more modest scores required significant amounts of extracurricular study. The PBL program in and of itself had a totally different focus, and it is my opinion that it didn't serve to prepare one for the USMLE to any significant degree. I took two extra 6 week blocks to study full time from the top rated USMLE prep books, and went on to review material and do prep. Q's over the course of three additional months, part time, as I completed three 1 month long rotations in the U.S. The effort was well worth it, and very necessary in my opinion.

Good Luck.

 

[shan564]

No offense guys... and I mean that really, just as an Australian student, I find it kind of funny how you guys seem to "b1tch" about Australian schools preparing you adequately for American tests. They're Australian schools... why would they? We really don't give a **** about the USMLE (or the veterinary version, BSCE) here!

I don't think anybody is complaining that Australian schools don't prepare us well enough... we're just trying to understand the facts thoroughly.

For comparison's sake, I have a friend at Stanford med school whose curriculum seems to be strikingly similar to mine at USyd... he says that they're very self-directed, and a lot of it is independent study. Of course, Stanford only selects the top students, so you'd naturally expect them to do well on the USMLE, but I don't think anybody expects any school to spoon-feed USMLE material.

I have another friend at Mt. Sinai med school, and his experience has been similar overall. It seems like they do a better job of teaching biochem, but they don't cover as much anatomy as we did at USyd. I was talking to him about a very basic USMLE anatomy practice question (one that anybody at USyd would be able to understand, and maybe 60% of us would be able to answer), and he didn't even have a remote idea of where to begin.

Shan, be careful with inferences. The acceptance scores to UQ for Americans really hasn't changed from when I knew the stats (2004-2006) compared to what's been claimed for the past year.

I didn't make any inferences. I was basing my claim on the fact that on this forum, everybody with an 8 on every section of the MCAT has been admitted to UQ. The only people who were rejected were people who had lower than an 8 on any section. There may be other factors involved (i.e. getting your application in early), but it's essentially been first-come-first-serve for anybody with an 8/8/8/M score.

Meanwhile, I think it's still the case that only 1 person from UQ in the past 5 years (except I don't know about this past year) has failed the USMLE.

This past year, three people took the USMLE from UQ (according to Pollux), and they all got great scores. With a sample size that small, you can't really say anything... my guess is that only the top few students even bothered to take the USMLE. All of the international students were offered internships in Australia this year, so if a person knew that they wouldn't do well on the USMLE (people usually know based on their practice test performance), I don't see why they'd bother to even take it (considering that you can't re-take it if you get a low passing score).

I was basing my "inference" on the series of studies suggesting that MCAT score is correlated to eventual USMLE score. Of course, there will be plenty of exceptions (for instance, I'm a lazy bum who spends more time posting on forums than actually studying, so my USMLE score will probably be much lower than my predicted score based on my MCAT), and it's reasonable to believe that UQ somehow introduces a confounding variable - but the trend still holds true on average.

I don't know about all of the people who took the USMLE from UQ, but we know that Pollux's excellent USMLE score was preceded by an excellent MCAT score.