I will not bore you with, I decided to pursue residency training in the U.S. History, and with frequent visits to the cadaver lab. ForĪ 17-year-old, medical school felt like American college but without the arts and International medical graduate (colloquially referred to as an “IMG”), I wentįrom learning how to shave to becoming a medical student seemingly overnight. TheĪnnouncement made me think of my path to residency training in the U.S. I have always felt that Stepġ was the single most important factor in securing a residency interview. Those who were writing vehemently against a 3-digit score rejoiced when the FSMB/NBME announced on February 12 that the Step 1 will finally become a pass/fail test as early as January 2022! Students’ fate is being determined by a single test. However, the emphasis on the Step 1 score means that medical What is tested on the Step 1 is actually useful medical knowledge! It may beĭue to a combination of the above that the Step 1 has found itself in such a Idolizing higher scores, some believe it is a metric that can predict future The reasons for itsĮxistence are many: residency and fellowship programs allow it to exist by Trivia that almost always has no bearing on how to approach a clinical problem. Their curriculum on teaching what the Step 1 wants you to learn – medical This animosity towards the Step 1Įxam originates from the reality that medical schools have increasingly focused Score and instead report a pass/fail score. For many years, blogs, Twitter feeds, and opinion pieces have beenĪccumulating urging the presidents of the FSMB/NBME to stop reporting a 3-digit National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), has been the exam that people love The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Stepġ, a test co-sponsored by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and the

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