What are "Good Grades" in medical school?

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sonofva

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Just got my grades back from first semester of my M1 year. Ended up with mid to high "B's". I don't really have any point of comparison, and wanted to know how that stacked up. I know a lot of people say seven-o DO...

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LECOM places a lot of weight on B's across the board (3.0GPA). Evidently, everybody from LECOM that went into the boards with a 3.0 passed. That's what I'm shooting for as a bare minimum, but if you want something competitive for your residency, you're going to want to seriously overshoot it. While getting a 2.0 will pass you through, it doesn't look good to residency programs. Also, you're going to be essentially responsible for people's lives one day--I feel like you owe it to them to learn as much as you can.
 
I wouldn't worry too much, just try to pass every class your first 2 years. You would be surprised how many of your fellow students won't be there at the end of 2nd year. Only thing the residencies care about are your step 1 scores (which tend to reflect how much you learned the first 2 years) and clinical year grades.
 
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Its a good footnote to have "good grades" but your step scores will overshadow it by a long shot. Just pass your classes.
 
I wouldn't worry too much, just try to pass every class your first 2 years. You would be surprised how many of your fellow students won't be there at the end of 2nd year. Only thing the residencies care about are your step 1 scores (which tend to reflect how much you learned the first 2 years) and clinical year grades.

You guys have people leave the program? We have lost 1/190 students in the past 3 semesters.
 
You guys have people leave the program? We have lost 1/190 students in the past 3 semesters.

What school do you go to? We've lost about 20% of our class, I believe (last time I counted). Many were dismissed, some took leaves, some just dropped out.
 
What school do you go to? We've lost about 20% of our class, I believe (last time I counted). Many were dismissed, some took leaves, some just dropped out.


Medical College of Georgia (MD)
 
What school do you go to? We've lost about 20% of our class, I believe (last time I counted). Many were dismissed, some took leaves, some just dropped out.

From LECOM? That is really surprising. Are you guys PBL or is that just bradenton? Maybe people didnt like PBL. I think we lose less than 5 people @ PCOM...or so they claim. I am halfway thru M1 granted...but weve only lost 1 I think so far.
 
From LECOM? That is really surprising. Are you guys PBL or is that just bradenton? Maybe people didnt like PBL. I think we lose less than 5 people @ PCOM...or so they claim. I am halfway thru M1 granted...but weve only lost 1 I think so far.

I'm pretty sure that poster attends KCUMB, not LECOM.
 
Its a good footnote to have "good grades" but your step scores will overshadow it by a long shot. Just pass your classes.
Bad advice. :thumbdown:

Aim high and study hard. Honor as many classes as you can. Honor as many of your 3rd year clerkships as possible (particularly internal medicine and gen surg).
 
Bad advice. :thumbdown:

Aim high and study hard. Honor as many classes as you can. Honor as many of your 3rd year clerkships as possible (particularly internal medicine and gen surg).


I don't think honoring the classes is as important as ensuring you have a deep, thorough knowledge of the material. Case in point: we had at least a couple of classes last year where the profs heavily recycled questions from old exams. Consequently, it was literally possible to honor at least one of the classes without learning diddly squat about the subject matter - you just had to memorize old test questions. Some people clearly did this because this year they seem to have a very tenuous grasp of central concepts.
 
I don't think honoring the classes is as important as ensuring you have a deep, thorough knowledge of the material. Case in point: we had at least a couple of classes last year where the profs heavily recycled questions from old exams. Consequently, it was literally possible to honor at least one of the classes without learning diddly squat about the subject matter - you just had to memorize old test questions. Some people clearly did this because this year they seem to have a very tenuous grasp of central concepts.
Thats all terrific. But the bottom line is, getting honors and maintaining a strong class rank is important when it comes to matching a competitive residency.
 
Thats all terrific. But the bottom line is, getting honors and maintaining a strong class rank is important when it comes to matching a competitive residency.

Everything I've seen and heard implies that board scores (esp Step 1) are far more important when it comes to matching - especially on the allopathic end of things. The 3/4th years interested in matching an allo residency at my school all tell me that the first question that comes up in any discussion on matching is "what was your Step 1 score?" It seems most allo residency directors value grades far less than board scores, and the NBME surveys on the subject have consistently backed this perception up. After all, many allo med schools are P/F, and many schools that aren't P/F don't rank. I gather that the osteopathic side seems to take grades more seriously for whatever reason, but whatever.

That said, I'm not saying that the grades absolutely "aren't important" - I'm always gunning for honors without a doubt, and every additional thing you can do to distinguish yourself helps. But when you go to a school where the curriculum isn't particularly boards focused, you can honestly ace the classes and still set yourself up for a mediocre performance on the boards if you don't fill in the gaps (and it's happened a fair few times around here, as far as I can tell). I guess my point was more that people absolutely shouldn't get too overconfident about the boards just because they've done well in their classes. Strong class performance doesn't always translate into strong boards performance, and it's clear that the latter matters much more than the former.
 
Everything I've seen and heard implies that board scores (esp Step 1) are far more important when it comes to matching - especially on the allopathic end of things. The 3/4th years interested in matching an allo residency at my school all tell me that the first question that comes up in any discussion on matching is "what was your Step 1 score?" It seems most allo residency directors value grades far less than board scores, and the NBME surveys on the subject have consistently backed this perception up. After all, many allo med schools are P/F, and many schools that aren't P/F don't rank. I gather that the osteopathic side seems to take grades more seriously for whatever reason, but whatever.

That said, I'm not saying that the grades absolutely "aren't important" - I'm always gunning for honors without a doubt, and every additional thing you can do to distinguish yourself helps. But when you go to a school where the curriculum isn't particularly boards focused, you can honestly ace the classes and still set yourself up for a mediocre performance on the boards if you don't fill in the gaps (and it's happened a fair few times around here, as far as I can tell). I guess my point was more that people absolutely shouldn't get too overconfident about the boards just because they've done well in their classes. Strong class performance doesn't always translate into strong boards performance, and it's clear that the latter matters much more than the former.

First year grades don't matter. Second year matters because it predicts your board scores well.

Third year grades are very, very important and arguably just as important as board scores, to some program directors, more important.
 
First year grades don't matter. Second year matters because it predicts your board scores well.

Third year grades are very, very important and arguably just as important as board scores, to some program directors, more important.

Second year performance is a more accurate predict of board scores, but first year performance is not as far off as one would expect. Another solid predictor is NBME performance for one's classes.
 
First year grades don't matter. Second year matters because it predicts your board scores well.

Third year grades are very, very important and arguably just as important as board scores, to some program directors, more important.

Yes, true. I guess I should have clarified that I was talking about 1st/2nd year grades. Rotation grades are a whole other ball game and something that should obviously be taken very seriously.
 
Just got my grades back from first semester of my M1 year. Ended up with mid to high "B's". I don't really have any point of comparison, and wanted to know how that stacked up. I know a lot of people say seven-o DO...

You're doing fine; stop stressing. t our school, GPA (in med school) directly correlates to success in COMLEX, so you'll do fine if you keep it up like this.

"70 = DO" I never heard that one before! It's really ">85 = DO", based upon how my students do.
 
Yes, true. I guess I should have clarified that I was talking about 1st/2nd year grades. Rotation grades are a whole other ball game and something that should obviously be taken very seriously.

Really? I've never heard this. Everyone told us that residency programs tend to look at things in the following manner: interview >> board scores >>>> grades. Nobody mentioned rotation grades at all really, other than to try to get honors in whatever specialty you're looking to go into. We only have pass with honors, pass, or fail, so there isn't even much differentiation possible. Do other schools give actual scores?
 
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