Major national med school test changes from a score to pass/fail

I'm not seeing where they discuss the patient; I must have missed it

This is awful.

Weird even.

Let's call it what it is.

Dumbed down in the name of diversity.

This isn't education, democracy, or meritocracy.
This is socialist totalitarianism.

of all the professions, yes lets do away with making sure doctors learn and know what the frick they are doing and go to participation trophy diplomas instead

I dont see how changing to pass/fail matters much. It's not like barely passing an examn in high school or undergrad. If you pass, you're doing well.

I'd like a doctor who had high test scores... opposed to a doctor who just barely passed.

Sounds like going to a doctor.

You're either better or you're not.

(no message)

quote:

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Major national med school test changes from a score to pass/fail

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Over the past decade, Med Schools largely dropped grades, at least through the first two years.
Many dropped class rank.

The tendency began at perceived "Top Schools" which were seeing their middle and lower-tier grads struggling to compete with top-tier state school grads. Once the major private programs dropped grades and rank, competing schools followed suit.

Without grades or class rank as guides, top residencies need a way to sift through qualified applicants. The challenge is to identify outperformers and underperformers relative to individual schools.

So residencies turned heavily to comparative Step 1 scores. As they did, schools began to teach to the exam, and award large blocks of time for test prep. Reliance on a single test on a single day always seemed problematic to me. Then again, underachievement on Step 1 could still be countered by crushing Step 2 just prior to residency interviews.

IMO the solution is for Med Schools to return to grades and rank, and let the USMLE do its thing. But that won't happen, because the name brands want to advantage their underperformers. Sad, and dumb.

The result? All eggs will be piled into the Step2 bucket. The more clinically-oriented Step 2, which will still be graded, will assume infinitely more relevance in the process.