Residency Application Tips for Candidates with failed USMLE Attempts

People with multiple attempts do get into residency programs, albeit with more difficulty than the first-time passers and may not always be the best programs. Here are some thoughts and pointers for candidates with more than one attempt on USMLE Steps


1. Unfortunately, it does bring down the number of programs you are even eligible for applying - if you look up the individual programs requirements on my IMG friendly Residency Programs list Blog, you will notice quiet a few programs mentioning 'first attempt' or 'not more than 3 attempts' on their criteria list. Thus, a sound advice to IMGs, [especially the rich IMGs ;-)] is - do not rush through the steps, take your time, a better score is anyday better than a failed attempt

2. An excellent score can and often will offset the effect of previous failed attempts. Now, if you will be taking a step AFTER you apply in September, and you are not too sure you will do good, it makes sense to keep your ERAS transcript settings on 'manual transmission' rather than 'automatic transmission'. Why ? the reason is more psychological than technical and I shall update that soon here (am revising a previous entry which I found errors on)

I shall anyways be covering the basics and benefits of both Automatic versus mechanical transcript transmission in a later post.

3. It is important for candidates with failed USMLE attempts to consider buffing up their application resumes with other avenues - US Clinical Experience, Research with publications and US LORS [and yeah - contacts ;-)]

4. Lastly, candidates with failed USMLE attempts must make good use of their personal statements in justifying the attempts and highlighting the strong points.




Q. Can you retake the USMLE Steps if you passed with a dismally low score ?

A. No - you may only retake it if you failed the USMLE Step, if you passed it - you may retake it only after 7 years.


So, remember :

"Failures are stepping stones to success - but Failures on USMLE Steps Stone your Success"
- So take ur steps only after performing good on self-tests"




Search keywords to this blog article:

- "residency chances after failed USMLE"
- "how many attempts USMLE for match"

Missed or Absent during an USMLE Exam : Does it Matter ?

For various reasons, some candidates are unable to take their exams at the date they book and it may be either too close to the exam date to book a new date or there may not be anymore eligibility period left to extend.

1. This is what USMLE.org says:

"If you register for but do not begin an examination, no record of the test will appear on your transcript" - which implies a missed attempt should not be of any consequence. Some people might confuse this with 'incomplete attempt' - an Incomplete attempt is when a candidate begins a block but does not complete it.

Even if a missed exam were to be reported on the USMLE transcript, it would not be a bad thing ..coz' you could always be absent coz' you were sick ;-) ..if you know what I mean..hehe - something you can easily justify during the interview. And secondly, your score is not averaged after future successful attempts.
[ Like an IMG wrote to me asking if he passed a step after being absent for the first time, would the scores be averaged as (zero + 90)/2 ? No - does not, the score is what your first successful attempt is :-)]

2. You will receive a letter saying that you missed the exam - but again, it is NOT reported on the transcript.

3. A Missed exam attempt is NOT refunded - which means you lose a lot of cash ! Which I think is the biggest drawback

4. Even with that monetary drawback, it may be a wise thing at times to not take the exam if the candidate is not sure of his/her preparation. At times, the candidate may in fact be well-prepared, yet, if the candidate does not feel sure about self - he/she may under perform - coz', he/she tends to go to the exam center with the mind-set of "Boy ! I am screwed"..hmmmm...USMLE takers will agree with me that this mindset tends to depress candidates, give them that sinking feeling and makes them lose patience when confronted with those long long long USMLE question stems.