Semester Two: Block I Results and Revisting the Idea that AUC is the Best Medical School in the Caribbean

It wasn't too long ago when I shared AUC's 2010 USMLE Step 1 results with you all. In case you never saw the post, I took the liberty of re-posting the results that were put together by our Associate Dean of of Academic Affairs, Dr. Y, who also happens to be my Biostats professor (class started this past Tuesday).

If you don't know much about the USMLE and how it's scored, the results to the right may not mean anything to you. If this is the case then please go ahead and take my word for it that these results are pretty amazing. The first time pass rate for US medical schools in 2010 was a 94% and AUC matched it. The average score for US med students was a 222 and at AUC it was a 217. What is even more astonishing about the AUC statistics is that approximately 1/3 of the 2010 test taking class scored a 99! To really put this in perspective please refer to the graph below. Notice that the cutoff for a 99 was a 231 in 2010. Also notice that if you scored a 99 you were  AT THE VERY LEAST in the 70th Percentile out of all test-takers in the United States and countries around the world! One-third of the students in this tiny little Caribbean school were among the top scorers and I think that is something to be very proud of.

I didn't just pull all the stats on this page out my ass, by the way. After Biostats today I stayed after and spoke with Dr Y about all the USMLE scores. She is the woman responsible for collecting and compiling the GPAs, MCAT scores, USMLE Step scores, AUC GPAs, Residency matches of every single student who has graduated AUC in the last ten years. She frequently travels around the United States giving presentations about AUC and these statistics in conferences with other medical schools deans and heads of residency programs sharing their information. She actually told us in class yesterday that she had just come back from a conference in Boston (home sweet home) where other medical schools reps from Harvard, Boston University, Case Western, etc were in attendance and the people in the conference were astounded that a school of our size, with "lesser" students could score just as well and even better than the students attending their schools!  FOR EXAMPLE: If you would please notice in the chart above, the best Step 1 score among the 2010 AUC test taking class was a 262/99. Do you know what that boy's MCAT score was? A 21. 21. Let me say that again.... he scored a 21. Naturally he wasn't accepted to any US medical schools and yet after his basic science education here at AUC, he still managed to score a 262 which pretty much puts him in the 98th percentile of all test takers from the United States.

So what does all this have to do with my block 1 results? Dr. Y told me that there was little to almost no correlation between MCAT scores and how well a student will do in the USMLE Step 1 (from her data on AUC students at least, I know many US schools say there is a correlation). She said the single factor that has the greatest chance in determining your success on the USMLE Step 1 is your AUC GPA from the first 5 semesters. Don't settle for an overall grade of an 80, she told me. Try to honor every single exam and every single class. The students who put the most work in these 5 semesters are the ones who score the 99s. And with that ridiculously long introduction here are the scores of the new, studious me:

MCB II-
Average: 85%
Me: 100%

Immunology-
Average: 88%
Me: 91%

Physiology I-
Average : 86.5
Me: 92%

And that my friends is a Med School Hat Trick.

Related articles

• Re-evaluating Caribbean Medical Schools (flusteredgrad.wordpress.com)
• Caribbean Medical Schools (pankeys.info)
• Why AUC? (caribbeanmedstudent.com)
• Why AUC Opposed to St. George's? (caribbeanmedstudent.com)
• What Led Me to Choose AUC: Objective (myplasticity.com)
• What Led Me to Choose AUC: Subjective (myplasticity.com)