For us new med students, could some you more experienced ones fill us in on the score ranges for the USMLE I, II, & III?
What is the “below this you failed” score?
What is poor? average? and competitive?
Thanks for the info!!
Danielle
Quote:
For us new med students, could some you more experienced ones fill us in on the score ranges for the USMLE I, II, & III?
What is the “below this you failed” score?
What is poor? average? and competitive?
Thanks for the info!!
Danielle
Hi there,
The speciality that you apply to will determine whether your USMLE Step I score is competitive or not. For Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Family Practice a pass will do. If you are interested in the above specialties at competitive locations, you had better do much better than just passing. The passing score has been rising from year to year but is now around 183 or so. That score is given a scaled score of 75. Anything under this is a failure. You re-take the test only if you fail.
For specialties like Derm, Neurosurgery, Ophtho and Orthopedic Surgery, you had better do extremely well (Better than 240) on USMLE and in your classwork to even get an interview. Almost any residency location in the above is a good residency location.
For the other specialties like Anesthesia, General Surgery etc. you need to comfortably beat the mean (around 215) and do exceptionally well for residencies in competitive locations. For example, UVA General Surgery didn’t invite anyone for interview this year with USMLE Step I scores less than 240. Almost no General Surgery program will interview you with a score less than 215.
Step II does not generally figure into your residency application unless you fail the exam. The good residency programs will want to see that you took this exam fairly early. It is a good idea to take Step II as soon as you finish Third year while the info is fresh in your mind. A passing score on Step II (both parts) indicates that you are ready for residency. Remember that Step II contains a Clinical skills Assessment Exam that must be taken and passed. Step III is taken after you graduate from medical school and only requires a pass. (A passing score on Step III is required for a permanent state license and DEA number. Most people do much better on Step II and Step III than Step I. It just works out that way.
What can you do to score well on USMLE step I? You can do as well as possible in your coursework. After you finish second year, you can do a thorough review including plenty of practice questions and take the test. Can you start studing for Step I before you start medical school? No. This test asks you to take your pre-clinical science material and apply it to clinical situations. Since you haven’t had any coursework, you can’t apply what you don’t know. None of the USMLE tests are memorization tests and, like MCAT, you have to have a fund of knowledge and application of that knowledge to answer the questions so sitting a memorizing review books is not very helpful and generally a waste of time. USMLE makes MCAT look like kindergarten so study hard and wise in your pre-clinical years and do a thorough review. Again, you don’t get to take practice runs on this exam.
Natalie
No more USMLE Steps for me!
While not disagreeing with anything Nat says above (what do I know, after all?) I think it is worth emphasizing that the USMLE itself emphasizes that differences in USMLE scores are not validated as predictive measures for who will do well later on, and should not be used as residency selection aids. This does not mean that they are not used this way, just that they should not be.
Or so I am telling myself as I wait for my score which is destined to be… rather weak.
joe
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While not disagreeing with anything Nat says above (what do I know, after all?) I think it is worth emphasizing that the USMLE itself emphasizes that differences in USMLE scores are not validated as predictive measures for who will do well later on, and should not be used as residency selection aids. This does not mean that they are not used this way, just that they should not be.
Or so I am telling myself as I wait for my score which is destined to be… rather weak.
joe
Hey Joe,
There is no way to predict your score based on how you felt coming out of the test center. From my extensive experience (three exams), I didn’t feel great about any of them. The only thing that I can say for sure is that I recognized many things on the test and that I guessed at some too. In every case, I was quite surprised at my score. I was downright amazed at my Step I score.
Don’t make any predictions unless you are holding that score in your hand. You just can’t call this one. Believe me, I saw just the opposite in that one of my classmates came out of Step I sure that she aced the exam. To her surprise, she failed it by one point.
Celebrate that it is behind you and that you did your best. Take comfort in knowing that if you applied yourself during first and second year; if you did a reasonable amount of review; and if you did not talk yourself out of too many correct answers, you did just fine.
Residency directors are not “supposed” to use USMLE Step I as a selection factor but everyone does. I know of no one in any of the surgery programs that I encountered that scored less than 210 on USMLE Step I. Every single residency director that I spoke with made a comment about my Step I score.
I also know that for most of the non-surgical specialties, a pass is all that is necessary and the application begins from there although many of the very strong-university based academic programs demand more than just a pass. Again, you pick your programs based on what you want to do and whether or not you may be a good fit for that residency program.
In the whole scheme of things, you get what you get when you get it and you can’t change it so you live with it. Isn’t life in general like that?
Natalie
“I’m feeling philosophical today”