Worried about pass fail step

[HappEness]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I got accepted into a mid tier school (ranked in the 60s/70s by US News)

The Step exam is going to be pass/fail.
Does this mean that I won’t be able to match into competitive specialties despite working hard?

 

[ciestar]

Nobody can answer this

 

[whoknows2012]

I got accepted into a mid tier school (ranked in the 60s/70s by US News)

The Step exam is going to be pass/fail.
Does this mean that I won’t be able to match into competitive specialties despite working hard?

I don’t understand how the fact that step 1 has gone p/f makes it less likely for you to match into competitive specialties. I see what you mean, going to not a top x school you have to distinguish yourself but this still allows you to take step 2 early and kill it and distinguish yourself in other ways, grades research aoa etc. it’s on residency programs to figure out a better way to evaluate applicants and I don’t necessarily see mid tier med students suffering

 

[Chelsea FC]

I got accepted into a mid tier school (ranked in the 60s/70s by US News)

The Step exam is going to be pass/fail.
Does this mean that I won’t be able to match into competitive specialties despite working hard?

Dont worry about it. Alot of us wont get into competitive specialties regardless of the change of Step

 

[efle]

I got accepted into a mid tier school (ranked in the 60s/70s by US News)

The Step exam is going to be pass/fail.
Does this mean that I won’t be able to match into competitive specialties despite working hard?

People matched to competitive specialties just fine in the 1990s and early 2000s when the Step exams didn't exist and/or nobody cared at all about your score. Don't freak out.

 

[la flame]

People matched to competitive specialties just fine in the 1990s and early 2000s when the Step exams didn't exist and/or nobody cared at all about your score. Don't freak out.

So what did residency programs use to differentiate candidates? Like what was the “step” of the 90’s?

 

[efle]

So what did residency programs use to differentiate candidates? Like what was the “step” of the 90’s?

There wasn't a step of the 90s. It was a mix of all the other stuff still present now - Letters, audition rotations, clinical grades and AOA, research, MSPE and class rank, if the school gives a class rank, etc. The idea that we could take a basic knowledge-check licensure exam, pretend it was an aptitude test, and use it to screen and prioritize applicants, was a relatively recent phenomenon.

 

[Phloston]

Focus on 2CK and grades the way you focused on MCAT and undergrad classes. It's just the reality moving forward.

 

[Anonymous Lurker]

There wasn't a step of the 90s. It was a mix of all the other stuff still present now - Letters, audition rotations, clinical grades and AOA, research, MSPE and class rank, if the school gives a class rank, etc. The idea that we could take a basic knowledge-check licensure exam, pretend it was an aptitude test, and use it to screen and prioritize applicants, was a relatively recent phenomenon.

In the 90s, program directors didn't have 1000s of applications for a dozen spots and as a result, PDs could realistically read through all of the applications and evaluate them holistically. Nowadays, there are too many applications for the old system to work. To say that we used to get by without step 1 ignores the fact that our situation has changed.

 

[GoSpursGo]

We don't need multiple threads discussing the step 1 P/F decision. A lot of your question has been discussed already in-thread, but as others have said there's no clear answer: Step 1 P/F: Decision