DIP Episode 216 - Pass-Fail and The USMLE Step 1 in 2022 (Thoughts and Recommendations)

Okay, welcome. My name is the Vine Number resident. This is episode 216 of the Divine Intervention Podcast. In this podcast, I'm just going to be giving my tick on the recent changes by the MBME with regards to the USMLIS step one exam and also along the we try to give some advice that can position people for this change. Although for the most part, I will say that if you're second year or like a third year, probably doesn't matter much for you. It's the people that are M1s and people coming after that that will essentially be at the brunt of this decision. But most of this podcast will be focused on the implications of this. But again, along the way, I'll just give some advice I think should be helpful to people that are kind of dealing with this change. So the first thing I will say, I mean, obviously the big thing with the step one exam is they said, okay, it's not going to be pass-fail. And this is starting in our 2022, January of 2022. The first thing I will say is guys, just guys and gods. Just relax. Just chill. That's not a very answer to this news. Yes, those of you have some fiery changes, it will. But there's one thing I've there's this principle like, I think of it as it's something that I used to do in my investing days back in the day. There's this principle known as Abitrage where essentially if you create mismatches, then somehow those mismatches are closed in some way, shape or form. So the thing is, let's not overreact.

Like yes, again, this will have changes, but after a while things will kind of level out. Although there's some people that cannot get shafted by the decision. And one thing I think people need to be careful about is that MBM is worthy of the report. And we were like, oh, this is going to change in 2022. The MBM said that the earliest this will be implemented will be in 2022. Right? So it may not be implemented in 2022. That's one thing I feel like kind of gets lost in the detail. You can't hold them to having to implement it by January of 2022. So that's just something to keep at the back of your mind. The thing is, essentially people at higher pedigree mid schools, they're going to benefit a ton from this. Right? So like people like the Harvards, the Hopkins, the UCS Fs, Stanfords, they're the people that are going to benefit the most. Right? Because think about it. If you're a program director and you see a pass from Sonda went to Harvard and a pass from Sonda went to some other mid school that's not as well known or well-ranked, right? You kind of know who you're likely going to go with. Right? So you know, you kind of shaft people at lower internet schools, people at people that are for your medical graduates and things like that. So again, I'm not going to try to like mention these big mid schools here too. I don't want to, you know, like because every mid school has its own merits. Right? Every mid school has its advantages and disadvantages.

So I'll try to be as as a burden to as I can in my ward, enough stuff here. But basically, the lower end mid schools and the people at four medical schools, I mean, it's going to hamper them quite a bit. Right? Pedigree is going to matter a lot. So then I'll just say if you have friends or relatives or siblings that are planning to apply to a mid school in the future, tell them to better sit up their butt and study for study for the MCAT. You know, study for the MCAT. Do they're very best because pedigree matters. Pedigree matters. I mean, like even with step one being a scored exam, pedigree matters. It's just having a step one score, you know, kind of give you a little more leeway there, but pedigree matters. Even with this step one currently being scored. I mean, I know where I am. I mean, I, I mean, many of you that listen to my podcast probably already figured that I went to Johns Hopkins from head school. Right? That pedigree certainly helped in many facets of my medical education. And even currently now, in many facets of me, like being a residency trainee and applying for one opportunity after the other. But that's just one of those things you kind of want to keep at the back of your mind with this.

Now, the thing I will say is, um, to be honest with you, sometimes I feel like this step one change was almost like some way to justify some less than ideal medical curricula that kind of, you know, like, because I mean, like you see this big push over the last couple of years, you know, there's, there's all these test prep resources and all that stuff that frankly in many situations, right? Do a better job than some medical curricula. So I feel like this is almost like a way to say, okay, this esoteric first year, second year curriculum, I have well since the exam is now pass fail, I can justify this curriculum, curriculum of mine. I mean, it kind of sucks, but it is what it is. And there's really not much, well, there are actually some things you can go about in and I'll talk about those things as we go along, right? Now, the key thing I will say is, regardless of this change, work hard, work hard. That's the thing like people that work hard in general get rewarded, not just on step one, not just a step two, not just in med school, but just in life in general, just work hard, right? Just have that as your model. Um, one thing I, and I'll give you like, I'll talk about like, I'm on popolo, but that's kind of what I want to use to conclude this podcast. I will give someone like a sort of popolo opinion in the end that I feel like if you follow that on popolo opinion, I feel like it will just set you up in general to do pretty well, to do pretty well, going forward, right?

So regardless of the change, just work hard, put in the work, don't say, oh, step one is now pass fail. So because it's now pass fail, I just need to do the minimum required to pass or whatever. That's just not, not a very, not a very prudent thing to do, right? So what do I need by that? The thing is, let me, let me maybe talk you through a mindset, I think you should have, right? So the thing is the step one grade, right? Is now going to be pass fail again, at least the earliest being 2022, right? So the thing there is essentially, since you are not going to be graded numerically, the way you should interpret that in your mind is that, okay? Let me actually try to not just be on key in my whole first and second year knowledge, let me actually try to like learn this stuff for a change, right? So like, you know, like, instead of just memorizing like mindless nomonics and all that stuff, like actually sitting down, building a good foundation and learning stuff. Again, I'm not there's, because I feel like some people that listen to my podcast receive Divine Heats on key, I don't hate on key. I love people that use on key after they have mastered and understood the material first, right? That's when Anki makes sense. Anki should not be your first contact with information. That's just not a prudent way to go about your medical school life, right? So the thing is, get your look at this as like an opportunity to get your foundation right. You're like, okay, you know what?

It's almost like they've almost said, okay, you know what? And I don't know if this is necessarily the NBA means intention, but essentially what I'm thinking, my thought process on this is, okay, you're not going to be getting a scored exam anymore, right? So why don't you just might as well just take that two years you have, really learn this material well and give yourself a good foundation? Because the thing is, many people, for whatever is the thing that the first two years of med school, like the material learned is kind of like mindless and stupid. The thing is, there's nothing that could be further from the truth. The thing is, in my life, I've known or let me just maybe talk about my own personal experience. The thing is, well thankfully I crushed step one, crushed step two, I crushed all the USM exams thankfully. The thing is, the thing I feel like that set me up nicely for every blessing I have had from an educational perspective, especially with regards to medical education, has just been having that good step one foundation. The thing is, yes, do you need to know all the steps of the crep cycle to be a good clinician? No, you don't. But the thing is, there are certain thought processes that may not even necessarily be like, oh, like, oh, this thought process relates exactly to the exam or whatever.

But there are certain thought processes that are relevant the way you solve clinical problems that you can only gain just from going through that process of studying for step one. So the thing is, and the thing is having that in depth, understanding of like physiological processes, pathological processes, biochemical processes, it can really help you with just, I don't know, I just feel like it makes you more ingenious in solving clinical problems. And again, this is one of those things I feel like many people do not believe me on, but I I kid you not, at least I did a transitional year. In my transitional year, during like my ICU rotations and my internal medicine rotations and whatnot, there's some like clinical problems that are just a lot easier to reason through if you have a solid step one basic science foundation. And the thing is, many people just say, oh, step one is all basic science. Yes, it's basic science. Don't get me wrong. But the thing is, many times, those basic science concepts have a lot of clinical applications. Right? What do I mean by that? Think about it. If you take an MDME practice example for step two CK, for example, I can almost promise you that at least half of those questions that you see are answerable with some first aid for the USMT step one knowledge. That's just the truth. Right? That's just the truth. And the thing is, if you couldn't answer many of the, at least the questions that are supposedly more clinical, right?

Like if you could not answer like a big proportion of them from like, oh, just studying first day for step one, then that kind of lengths credence to the argument. Right? So the thing is step one is one of those exams where if I read you, I still will take very seriously. I really do think that again, preparing well for that exam will just set you up nicely from because think about it like people that you know that like this is almost like a one-to-one relationship. The people that do well on step two CK tend to be people that have done really well on step one. That's just the truth. And again, I know there, people are always very good at picking out one or two stories of people that got like in the 190s on step one and then they brought it on step two. In fact, to be honest with you, I have many of those personal stories from people who have figured, I mean, I've figured many people that had like super, super, I mean like usually why would people seek tutoring because they have like pretty low scores, right? Or let's say, you know, there are some high scoring people that still seek tutoring because they want to score even higher or whatever. But again, I've worked with tons of people that you know got pretty low scores and then brought it on step two CK.

But the thing is like studying well for step one and crushing step one just sets you up to do like basically like you are essentially able to fulfill your your potential if you've prepared very well from the beginning, right? So yes, again, can people come back from a bad step one score? Absolutely. I mean, I've had more success stories than I can even remember from that perspective. But the thing is you just make your life a lot easier and you almost make like your success more sure of higher by just doing well from the very beginning. So it's just one of those things that again, you should keep at the back of your mind. And again, like I said, if you have any siblings that are going to be applying to med school, the MCAT now matters a lot, right? I remember back in the day when I took the MCAT, it was like a three and a half hour exam. But now it's almost like seven hours and whatnot, tell them to actually like tick that MCAT seriously because that that exam right kind of determines, I mean, I've been on the admissions committee of like a top two med school. So that exam kind of matters whether you like it or not. Yes, your research, your insure curriculas and all that crap matters, but your MCAT exam like is kind of like the thing that will open the doors to those very good med schools to you. And then the thing is with this change right or the parts of the application then become very important, right? So like things like your research, research that matters, right?

Because I know some people apply without research and much very well, right? But the thing is that's not really going to be the case in the future. So whether you like research or don't like research, you better make sure you're doing research, like pretty good research, like published research going forward, right? And then your rec letters also matter, right? You can not just get any fly by night rec letter because again, all those parts are the things that I will be available to program directors to use. And the thing is your rotation grades, it won't matter a lot like going forward, right? So try to do well on your rotations. And that's one thing that I guess kind of pissed me off with this change, right? Because the thing is rotation grading is extremely subjective, right? Like if you're if you're the kind of person that can you know like let me know you's what I want to say. It's not very appropriate to see on to see on a public actually it's not appropriate to see out of, right? But basically if you're the person that can fess up to people like really well, right? Then you can get very good rotation grades even if your clinical knowledge and everything is in the toilet. So I feel like third year will just become a lot more brutal going forward because people will now try to like one of their classmates even more than they already do and people will get stressed with rotation exams and all that stuff.

Because the thing is I kill you not rotation exams are going to get very important, right? Like essentially the most important exams for med students from a numerical perspective going forward will be step to CK and will be the shelf exams, right? Those things will be really really really really important going forward, right? And the thing is you see it's some people that you know crushed the point hard or whatever and say okay you know what I will take step to CK after I apply it's not going to be a thing anymore essentially, right? You're essentially going to have to um half scores in place before September 15th and the thing is it kind of puts some people in a precarious situation to be perfectly honest with you. Um if you're if you're let's say God forbid you take step to CK like in July and the results come out August and you fail that's bad, right? Because essentially you're not going to have enough time to retake the exam and apply for scores to come out before September 15th. Now you better believe it with this new chain that's happening if you don't have scores by September 15th you will vastly limit the number of interviews you're going to get. That's just the truth. You will vastly decrease the number of interviews you will get, right? So the thing is I feel like there will be this kind of like odd change where some people will actually start taking step to CK as early as like January or February of the year that they plan to apply.

Um I remember back in the day I mean I crushed step one so I really need to step to CK like at an accelerated schedule but I think they took mine like I don't like in June or whatever because I kind of wanted to get it over with after a third year but I'll say that um especially if you know that you'll foundation like just essentially keep timing let me not give any blanket blanket or recommendation but I'll see keep timing in mind when you're scheduling your step to CK exam. Just in case you don't crush the exam just in case you fail the exam right and you want to make sure that oh okay at least I have some time to retake it or something right so that's one thing to keep in mind and then another thing I would also like to say is that um with step one being reduced to pass field you better make sure you pass step one I'll say that again with step one being reduced to pass field you better make sure you pass step one if there is a fail on step one or your transcript or your ERAS application that's gonna be really hard to recover from. Is it irrecoverable?

No but the thing is program sooth because put yourself in the shoes of a program director right you're like hmm we look kind of sort of kind of lower the standards by making this exam pass field and you still failed right it's not a good look so just uh again actually like yes step one oh yes like uh two ten me mean the same as a two sixty but you better actually get that to ten or whatever score you need to pass just one of those things you want to keep at the back of your mind and the thing is I very strongly suspect that the mbm will mix step one a lot harder than it is now I mean personally I feel like step one right now is pretty hard right so I feel like you're probably making a lot harder um kind of like the same thing with step two c as you know the when people were like complaining like ooh step two c is we should do it without exam you know you know you know right and then the failure it started increasing right I suspect that this fit uh the failure return step one will probably start going up right so again don't blow step one it's just one of those things because it's just one of those things where like oh I do point in step one I can make up on step two if you fail step one after like gener of twenty twenty two that's a terrible look that's a bad bad bad bad look so just kind of keep those things at the at the back of your mind um um and then um I mean I guess if you also kind of look at it for one perspective you know if people did not like necessarily give your acts together for the first two years and you know maybe they just passed step one even if they know like man I'd be pretty poorly on this uh on this exam um it almost kind of gives them a second chance right but again it's always good to lay that foundation straight from the beginning that's just the truth right and I know that schools like like this is one of these things that will have like e

ffects just in schools like I know that I would hope that medical schools begin to find like unique ways of making be a curricula most standardized making the test scores more standardized in fact to be perfectly honest with you I suspect that one change that will come from this is that more med schools will start implementing mbme shelf exams in the first two years of med school so like having like a physiology shelf a pathology shelf a neuro shelf so that you can actually get grades on those and be able to compare like so because it will just be another objective means of uh of comparison right so just yeah I so like if I were a med school to be honest that is one thing I would do to counter this change I think it will help students out a lot actually because it's almost like taking step one but spreading it over two years instead of taking it in one in one fell swap on one on one exam and the thing is to be honest with you I feel like it will actually encourage students to like really study hard and learn by block because you see some people just kind of bluff some blocks and all that stuff so if I if I were a med school I would and I mean obviously that's gonna be more money for the mbme clearly right but that's one thing I would actually kind of recommend that med schools do and then one thing I'll also say is the mbme I strongly suspect and this is not even something a matter of strongly suspect is something they've already started doing like there's a lot of step one stuff that's beginning to make its way to step 2ck right because step 2ck you know back in the day was like do you know the buzzwords of these diseases albumino cytologic dissociation and all that crap they're not really doing that anymore right I mean like I'll say is this change became especially more prevalent like from like April me of last year right because again I tutor I've tutor tons of pe

ople for these exams I currently tutor tons of people for these exams so I kind of have my temperature like the directions the mbme is taking with these things and it's not even just that like if you look at the practice exams the mbme is now beginning to emphasize mechanisms on step 2ck right well where do you think those mechanisms come from starting for step one right so again and again I'll give you my own populartic at the end but one thing I will say is again I strongly suspect that there'll be more step two step one material on step 2ck because again you might as well move the gold to the place where it matters where it matters the most right and one thing that people should also not forget you can again this is something that can't get lost in the details but when the mbme implements this change one thing they're actually done is they've actually decreased the number of times that you can fail step one right because now you can fail step one six times before like you're like okay that's it you can't take this exam anymore essentially like you know like script permanently right that's not the case with that's not the case anymore now it's now for a tent because it's like they're like okay we've sort of kind of lowered the standards right so let's more give people as many chances as they had before right so again you better make sure that if you're taking step one you're like absolutely ready for it's just one of those big things you want to keep at the back of your mind and one thing I would also say again this is probably more of a suggestion to med schools but I'm kind of like making these suggestions because this is one of those things that you can actually take back to your med school and see if this is something they'd be willing to implement the thing is I would actually be an advocate of med schools like just across the board reducing their preclinical y

ears to like a year and then having people spend more time on the words right and then create like good evolution metrics for that second and third year right because the thing is to be honest with you yes third year does it come with its quibbles of course it does come with its quibbles but the thing is I really do feel like I would have learned a lot more if I had like more time on the words right even the stuff I learned at Hopkins right I mean I have 30 years is phenomenal right but even the stuff I learned in that show up here really helped me but I can imagine if I have more time to be grounded in like let's say like there are more rotations like oh let's see you can have like like for example like disagree with the internal medicine or rotation like you know you have like your general medicine or rotation but let's say you have like a rotation that is just like he munk for like two weeks the forology for like two weeks like being on different kinds of services I strongly suspect that that would prepare people a lot better for residency than they are currently currently that's just the truth but yeah it just kind of sucks because with this change third year is going to be super super caught throat like people will try to one of each other because they know that those clinical grades matter right and I suspect that in the MSP East and the thing is you would be surprised that this will be something that will be more prevalent at lower ranked med schools I suspect that the MS Ps will start putting like proteins because they're like oh I have students at this my lower tired med school I might as well do my very best to help them so that if they actually like where people that passed step one but oh they are from this lower ranked med school but oh you know these people personally you know they did very well in all the exams and all that stuff you would try to help th

em out in some way shape or form so I really really do suspect that those MS Ps essentially the Dean's letters they will start including a lot of wording that talks about how a person is relative to their classmates right that's why again I'm saying this I know step one is pass fail but do not bluff your performance across your three years of med school because whether you like before you apply essentially because whether you like it or not Dean's offices they have all this data right they know how your performing all your exams they know how you're performing on your shelf exams all those things are kind of aggregated when they are making these Dean's letters and to be honest like I won't be surprised if Dean's letters almost become like slows that you see in emergency medicine right where like you know they're like a standardized letter when they rank you essentially relative to other people from your class or from your cohort right so that's one thing I would strongly recommend still do well right still do well that's the thing still do well because you never know how that will play in the future like Dean's letters will almost become like a graded scheme going forward right so again it's just one of those things you want to keep at the back of your mind right because again your Dean will have like like like because program directors they only see you at one point in time when you shop for your interview but Dean's it's almost like a parent's like they've seen you from the beginning of your first year to like when you apply right so again take your first your pre-cleaned career seriously right because again Dean's they have every right to make comments in your MSP is that relates to your performance like oh like I mean like for example right I've been again like I said I've been on admissions committees if for example a person is writing a letter and they say that y

ou're in the top 5% of the students that they have worked with in the entire careers that's gonna carry a lot of weight right so if in a Dean's letter they say oh this person was definitely across all three years of med school in the top 5% of his classmates then a residency program director is gonna say okay I mean people read people are not dumb right they they're gonna be able to read between the minds we're like oh okay so that means this person can do this can do that can do this can do that you'll be able to extrapolate that okay this person probably works hard and this and that and this and that that's why again don't blow off your first two years of med school essentially is what I'm saying just again kind of keep that at the back at the back of your mind right the good thing about and one other thing I guess I should say is the soap process you know for people that don't much into residency again it's still gonna be like if again people at law-tired med school foreign med schools they're gonna be the one shafted during the soap process because think about it right if again you're having two people from one person from the number one med school in the country and a person from like a med school in some area that no one even really knows much about or foreign med school they are both trying to soap into the same specialty you're gonna go for the person with a bigger pedigree that's just a truth right so the soap process is kind of gonna be like almost like a bad thing for people right so again make sure you crush step two CK hard right make sure you crush step two CK hard and the good thing about step two CK is don't get me wrong is step two CK easy exam no it's not right but step two CK again just in my experience as a tutor and I mean I've tutored people for for step one for step two CK step two CK step three and even like you know like board exams for like r

esidence spring the thing I will tell you right now is that step two CK is because step one there's a lot of like random on step one step two CK is not really like that that's the truth step two CK is not really like that and yes I suspect they're gonna make step two CK harder because of these changes but the thing is step two CK is one of those exams where if you put in the right amount of studying and you put in the right amount of gamesmanship what do I mean by gamesmanship being good with test taking you can do extremely well on step two CK you can I mean trust me like I know there's like there are people that I've worked with where they have like initial like let's say they took step one and they were like in the high 190s on step one and then bring their dedicated periods as they were taking practice exams you know kind of I would kind of you know teach them test taking strategy or whatnot and you see these same people they're like man how did this person get in the 190s on the actual step one exam and in the taking these NV Me practice exams for step two CK and they're scoring into two seven days right I have had many of those kinds of cases before right so the thing is step two CK is one of those exams that you can really prepare for right and do really well right so yes step one is pass fail but step two CK do your best give yourself every advantage to really crush that exam because again that's the thing no one will argue against the person absolutely destroying step two CK right so if you're a foreign medical graduate or you're going to a law tier that met school again 2022 whatever make sure that you crush step two CK you crush it hard because that's almost like the only thing you can use to set yourself apart from many people although it does sound like the USMLE like if you kind of listen I think they made a podcast like couple days ago it does appear tha

t they may ultimately mix step two CK pass fail in the future it's not something that's going to happen now but maybe like who knows like 10 years from now whatever they may make it our pass fail exam right so again just one of those things you want to keep you want to keep at the back of your mind and then what are the two things I'll end with well the first thing I will say is this thing I'm going to say is a very popular opinion but it's something I feel is very helpful right the thing is if you're even if step one is going to be a pass fail exam study for step one like it's still going to be a scored exam I'll say that again study for step one like it's still going to be a scored exam right the thing is if you have if you're putting that process of really studying hard for step one it will set the tone for the rest of your medical education that is the truth that is the truth the vast majority of people have seen that cross step one also cross step two and the thing is these people they tend to just be very better like just a lot better from many perspectives in med school right so I'll encourage you again I know it's an unpopular opinion right but the thing is study for step one like this pass fail change should not make any changes in the way you study for for step one it should still study as hard as as hard as you study for the test like if it was like a still like a scored exam right still put in the work I promise you like and the thing is some of these things because I know like you know you read on Reddit you read on SDN you see people say what does this person know like this person doesn't know what they're talking about and unfortunately many of them would have seen these things that people that like in their first year of med school that just have no experience with these processes but again I'm not saying to believe everything I say right again because

I also recognize I'm a human being I make mistakes right but I promise you like I have seen many generations of medical students and I've been blessed to tutor like thousands of people in my lifetime right and I have seen how preparing like having a good foundation can set you up nice the things that benefits you may not even realize right now that's kind of like a crew to your life from just setting that good foundation like for me like to be honest with you to this day I still enjoy some benefits from the good foundation that was set for me by studying really hard for the MCAT and doing really well on it right or studying really hard for step one and doing really well on it is just one of those things where there are just some things you don't think that you benefit from something but you're like hmm like there will be some times as a resident I just like wow this thing like you know I'm kind of reading something from like a textbook or something and you know I kind of like read that and I'm like man this thing makes a lot more sense in the context of something that I've learned in the future so again I will tell you study for step one like it's still going to be a scored exam that should be your mindset your mindset should not be oh it's going to be a pass field so I'm not going to put it in more I'm just going to do minimum effort that's not a brilliant way to go about life that's the first thing I will say the second thing I will say is do your best to stand out but stand out in humility I'll say that again do your best to stand out but stand out in humility right so again like try to find unique ways to set yourself apart without being obnoxious right don't don't like try to walk up on your classmates or try to like sabotage your classmates that's just not a good way to live life right but try your best to stand out I mean like one of my favorite verses in the

bible is that many will kiss the lips of him that has the answer right so it's the person that stands out that will get all these opportunities right so I will encourage you I will encourage you try your best to stand out right but stand out the right way don't stand out by you don't stand out by pulling other people down that's a very common mindset unfortunately amongst students and you kind of don't blame them because you know magical is a competitive process right residency applications are a competitive process but the thing is I'll tell you this you can stand out and do it in a clean way right you can stand out in a clean way so just have that as your mindset right because I don't know like they're just certain like in again this is me maybe proselytizing at this point but the thing is in my the way I think of life I think I feel that there are two kinds of success in life right success is that body language I think there are two kinds of successes in life there are good successes and there are bad successes right so like you can become successful by you know being ruthless crushing everyone out of the way but if that's the way to get success I don't want to have that kind of success personally I want to have the good success where I build good relationships along the way I help people along the way and like I make other people prosper along the way from me succeeding right I love win-win relationships I love win-win propositions so that should be your mindset going with this again like essentially with all this advice I've kind of given in this podcast so I think I'm gonna go ahead and stop now as I do at the end of every podcast I'd offer one or one tutoring for step one step two C case step two C step three pre clinical med school exams 30-ish-off exams if you're a medicine resident you need tutoring for the entry exam or the EBI and board exam I tutor for al

l those things and then if you're a college student or you have a college body that needs tutoring for essentially any of the pre-med subjects like or the MCATO like Gen CAM or CAM physics biochem histology physiology I offer tutoring for all those things and then if I also do these booster courses it's it's 20 hours for step one and 15 hours for step two C case step three where we're essentially in a Q&A format very rapid review we review the most notes for these exams and essentially everyone have done these booster courses where they have founded to be extremely helpful the thing is if you're seeking one or one tutoring essentially the way I do want to one tutoring is I you know I charge on an hourly basis or you can get a package obviously a package of hours will be cheaper like a package of like 20 hours or 40 hours or 80 hours or 160 hours right so if you're interested in any of those things you know either reach out to me through the website or you can send me an email at divine intervention podcasts with an S at the end at gmail.com so and then if you're a college student applying to med school so like an amcass application or med student applying to residences or like an ERAS application I do again offer like one-on-one coaching and advice for those processes like rec letters editing personal statements editing applications mocking interviews and again like I have a lot of experience with many specialties like the vast majority of people have worked with them all much at their first choices so if that's something you're interested in feel free to reach out and then like I said I'm gonna make a podcast probably within the next two days or thereabouts on like a weekly online private study group I'm gonna be starting that's gonna be focused first on like med school subjects and usmly like subjects so I'll make a podcast on that to kind of explain the format and i

f you're interested just send me an email kind of building up a list of people that are interested and send me like oh this is the subject like cardiology or indoctrination or whatever that I'm most interested in I will essentially try to organize those study groups around what more people request them right like you know the study groups will have like there'll be like some lecture time but they'll also be most of the time will be spent on questions why try to integrate concepts amongst like amongst a multiple fields like it's one of those things that I mean I've held these kinds of things before and people have found them to be extremely high you would extremely helpful for the exam right so that's just it'll be like it'll be like an integrated review where or even be cardiology themed but by the end of that cardiology session you rent things from micro from him from uncle and stuff like that right so if you're interested in that just reach out to me and then please like I say please a subscribe to the youtube channel subscribe to the podcast I have the podcast on apple podcasts on reddit I mean sorry on a Spotify and on google play and again if there any podcast you want me to make just reach out to me I'll be more than happy to make them timing is just my limiting factor essentially so I wish you all the best I hope you find this podcast to be helpful I'll see you in the next podcast God bless you thank you for this day and have a good night

It is transitioning from a scored exam to a pass/fail format, starting around January 2022.

Study hard and maintain a mindset that it is still a scored exam; do not minimize effort.

Deep understanding of physiological, pathological, and biochemical processes (foundational basic science).

Step 2 CK and shelf exams.

Pedigree matters greatly; students should take the MCAT seriously because it remains a key factor in gaining admission to top medical schools.

It can be very difficult to recover from on an ERAS application and may negatively impact program director perception.

The concept of arbitrage (mismatches eventually being closed).

It builds a strong, comprehensive foundation that enhances clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills applicable to later years.

Step 2 CK and shelf exams.

Implementing objective shelf exams (e.g., Physiology Shelf, Pathology Shelf) during preclinical years.

They may become standardized and function like graded schemes, comparing a student's performance relative to their entire class/cohort.

The student's performance relative to their classmates (i.e., ranking).

The concept of arbitrage (mismatches eventually being closed).

It builds a strong, comprehensive foundation that enhances clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills applicable to later years.

Step 2 CK and shelf exams.

Implementing objective shelf exams (e.g., Physiology Shelf, Pathology Shelf) during preclinical years.

They may become standardized and function like graded schemes, comparing a student's performance relative to their entire class/cohort.

The student's performance relative to their classmates (i.e., ranking).