Chances...another post but looking for some genuine advice

[wayfarer701]

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[premed bedhead]

Hey wayfarer701,

Just wanna offer my two cents as someone who matched into a top PM&R program and my number 1 choice. I struggled in med school, had to remediate a class, and also scored in the low 200s on Step 1. My test scores were consistently below average, but I got rave reviews from my clerkship directors because I was enthusiastic and got along well with people. My advice would be to continue being yourself and letting your enthusiasm and personality shine. PM&R is a field that emphasizes "fit" much more than test scores and grades. If you have a program you want to match into, try to do a rotation there. Make sure to have fun and get to know as many people as possible. PM&R programs understand that candidates are much more than their test scores, and ultimately a program wants someone who's trainable, dedicated, and a joy to have around.

With subpar test scores and grades, it IS possible to get into your dream program!

 

[wayfarer701]

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[j4pac]

Shelf exams...I'm not going to say that they don't matter...but they largely don't matter. Now...you don't want to remediate a year...that would be a red flag. The concern of doing poorly on shelfs is that they are usually a pretty good representative of how you will do on your step 2. Your steps are what matter and if you don't do well, it will greatly hurt your chances of matching.

 

[pmrhopeful]

Shelf exams...I'm not going to say that they don't matter...but they largely don't matter. Now...you don't want to remediate a year...that would be a red flag. The concern of doing poorly on shelfs is that they are usually a pretty good representative of how you will do on your step 2. Your steps are what matter and if you don't do well, it will greatly hurt your chances of matching.

For almost all of my rotations, there are cut offs based on shelf scores for the overall honors vs high pass. Do you guys ever look at comments in the deans letter from actual rotations rather than just "did this person get H or not"?

Also to the OP, I took the advice of some posters here and despite my below average step 1 score applied to my dream PM&R program for an away rotation. I just heard back a few days ago that they are taking me for their rotation. Whether this was a first come first serve type of thing or if they actually looked at my supplemental docs I don't know. I guess my mentality is that I'm going there to work my butt off, meet some amazing people, learn more about the field, and maybe get a foot in the door for an interview. If nothing else it will be a great experience and I have nothing to lose by doing it.

 

[DMBandFan86]

I agree, the board exam scores are what matter the most and not the shelf exams. Most programs will be impressed if you do significantly better on step 2. They like to see improvement and it's a good opportunity for you to show them that you can bounce back.

There are programs that have minimal cut off scores to accept applicants, so I would also look ahead and see what those cut off numbers are where you want to go. This happens in every specialty.

 

[wayfarer701]

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