

Instead of relying on their medical school curriculum, the students instead focused heavily on third-party study materials.

Santen, students started to study for Step 1 during their preclinical curriculum and increased the intensity of their study time until it reached a maximum of 11 hours a day over the period of a month before the exam. According to Chaudhry, the new policies will “address concerns about Step 1 scores impacting student well-being and medical education.” Because students put so much emphasis on getting a high USMLE Step 1 score, they often skimmed the medical school curriculum that they deemed to be not as relevant in order to get the maximum score on the USMLE Step 1.

One of the main motivating factors behind making this change was due to fears over the mental health of students. And one of the most significant stressors is the USMLE Step 1 because of the critical role it plays in med students’ futures. Now that Step 1 scoring has been eliminated, it might be harder for IMGs to make themselves attractive to competitive residency programs. Since each domestic and international school has its own unique clinical grading system, the USMLE Step 1 was one of the most objective ways to compare med school resident applicants. To distinguish themselves, international medical graduates (IMG) often strived to get the highest possible USMLE score, as this was the most objective way for them to be compared to other U.S. Residency programs also put a heavy emphasis on letters of recommendation from doctors within the specialty and the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE), which is a summary of clinical grades. International Medical School Students and DO students Whether this is an advantage or disadvantage to you, you will still have to perform well to get a competitive residency program. Just as before, you’ll get a numerical score, and it will continue to be one of the biggest factors you are evaluated on when you are applying to residency programs.ĩ8% of programs across all specialties expect that their applicants take the USMLE Step 1, with 64% stating that they require their applicants to hit a target score. This change will not affect you if you are planning on taking the USMLE Step 1 before the transition in 2022. Here are the effects of the policy changes. This controversial move will have serious implications for all first-year medical students and incoming classes.
