The Match, Part 2: Getting under the hood – how does the Match work?

In Part 1 of this series, I reviewed the early history of the Match and explained how this unusual system evolved. Now, it’s time to get under the hood and see exactly how the residency matching algorithm works. Fair warning – I’m going to take my time getting there. See, I had originally envisioned that […]

The Match, Part 1: Why do we have a Match?

Not long ago, I interviewed an applicant for our residency program. She explained how, after each one of her interviews, her grandmother calls her and excidedly asks whether she got the job. “It doesn’t work like that, Grandma!” she says every time, before launching into another explanation of the Match. I laughed when she shared […]

Step 2 CS, Part Two: The Resistance

Welcome to the second part of our trilogy on the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam. In Part 1, I reviewed how the Step 2 CS examination came to be. We traced the history of the test from its roots in the early NBME comprehensive exams through its initial demise and eventual resurrection (both […]

How is the three-digit USMLE score calculated?

Last year, as part of my quest to convince whoever will listen that USMLE scores aren’t as useful for residency selection as we act like they are, I wrote about how many points each USMLE Step 1 question is worth. I hypothesized that passing USMLE Step 1 probably required answering around 65% of questions correctly […]

Step 2 CS, Part One: How did we get here?

Back in the fall, a medical student sent me a link to this post on Reddit. You should read the whole thing. In just five short paragraphs, this Redditor captures much of the prevailing student sentiment on the USMLE’s Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) examination. Ever since I started speaking up about problems with USMLE […]

Why do we have residency training?

Surely every resident has had the experience of trying to explain to a patient or family what, exactly, a resident is. “Yes, I’m a real doctor… I just can’t do real doctor things by myself.” In many ways, it’s a strange system we have. How come you can call yourself a doctor after medical school, […]

The USMLE for DOs: How to stop fleecing osteopathic medical students

In 2018, 21,611 examinees from MD-granting medical schools in the U.S. and Canada took USMLE Step 1. They didn’t have any choice. See, the USMLE is a licensing exam – so if you want to practice as an allopathic physician in the United States, you’ve got to take it. But there were also 4,136 osteopathic […]