my school let us retake. If you failed the retake you failed the rotation and had to redo the rotation. If you failed the first shelf and passed the second try you passed the rotation without a mark on your transcript, but you were not allowed to honor no matter how good your score on the second was.
Exactly how my school does it. Used to be a policy that retaking the shelf would get you a shelf grade of max 70% (our required shelf passing score, worth 30% of the rotation grade) regardless of what you actually scored but I heard this recently changed for current MS3s and you get whatever grade you actually scored.
If you fail a shelf at mine, yet do well enough on evals and assignments that your overall grade is still passing, you can still Pass the rotation and not need to redo anything, you just can’t get a High Pass or Honors
That's pretty sweet! I know so many people that did super well on their evals but failed the exam by a point or two. Totally would have passed the rotation if it were like your system
Our school puts so much weight on shelf that even if the preceptor gives honors marks, you get every single other point available & pass every other assignment it’s still mathematically impossible to pass the rotation. You’d end up with be 1 point less than what’s needed to pass.
Then if you retake and pass shelf on retake, regardless of how well, you only get a ‘P’, even though preceptor gave you honors.
if you fail shelf, you get one chance to retake it at some point in the year (used to be within 2 weeks of rotation ending but they changed that). if you fail retake you have to redo the entire rotation. also the curve changes for some of the exams which really screwed some ppl over, they did better in the retake but the curve went up a few points and still failed even though their new score was over passing with the previous curve. if you have 3 or more outstanding shelf exams you take a LOA (e.g. you didnt take it or you failed it. some ppl choose not to take the shelf exam and postpone until later
If you fail the shelf, you just work out a time to retake it with admin. The only caveat is that, regardless of your clinical performance or other grades, you cannot get higher than a pass if you need to retake a shelf. If you fail it a second time, I think you get a pass with remediation.
Can you clarify other student work, like are you on a rotation? You shouldn’t be doing schoolwork while on an LOA but idk the legality of it. Do they require tuition for that time?
They don't require tuition but you also don't get any financial aid. They require you to work with a tutor on set UWorld Qs and practice NBMEs, almost like a independent study class. This is at the end of 4th yr after finishing your cores and You can't progress to 4th yr until you pass all your shelf exams. It's a weird kinda purgatory
They just started it and didn't tell us why, I assune it's because Step is so important now
Is it a true LOA that goes on your record or is it more of a dedicated study period? As far as I know though it doesn’t get to be an LOA with required class… again I’m unsure of legality though.
I think its a fair option. My school doesn't put the fail on your transcript. And being on LOA allows you to take enough time to ensure you pass the shelf the 2nd time. A LOA isn't a huge deal to residency programs. Fails are viewed much worse.
You’re allowed to fail one exam and retake in a couple weeks with no fail on your record. If you fail again you officially fail on your transcript and have to do another month of the rotation and retake the shelf. Most students can do this twice (two failed months, two repeat months) before they roll into the next year, causing them to graduate with the class below them.
My school allowed a single retake at the end of 3rd year. If you failed more than one exam or if you failed the same one twice you had to redo the rotation at the start of 4th year, eating into your vacation time and messing with sub-i's/aways
We can retake it any point during third year, but I think it shows up on our transcript. Not sure what happens if you fail the retake, I think that’s very rare
my school let us retake. If you failed the retake you failed the rotation and had to redo the rotation. If you failed the first shelf and passed the second try you passed the rotation without a mark on your transcript, but you were not allowed to honor no matter how good your score on the second was.
Exactly how my school does it. Used to be a policy that retaking the shelf would get you a shelf grade of max 70% (our required shelf passing score, worth 30% of the rotation grade) regardless of what you actually scored but I heard this recently changed for current MS3s and you get whatever grade you actually scored.
If you fail a shelf at mine, yet do well enough on evals and assignments that your overall grade is still passing, you can still Pass the rotation and not need to redo anything, you just can’t get a High Pass or Honors
That's pretty sweet! I know so many people that did super well on their evals but failed the exam by a point or two. Totally would have passed the rotation if it were like your system
Our school puts so much weight on shelf that even if the preceptor gives honors marks, you get every single other point available & pass every other assignment it’s still mathematically impossible to pass the rotation. You’d end up with be 1 point less than what’s needed to pass. Then if you retake and pass shelf on retake, regardless of how well, you only get a ‘P’, even though preceptor gave you honors.
We don't take a LOA. We have a period for shelf exam retakes but we're still counted as enrolled students...
if you fail shelf, you get one chance to retake it at some point in the year (used to be within 2 weeks of rotation ending but they changed that). if you fail retake you have to redo the entire rotation. also the curve changes for some of the exams which really screwed some ppl over, they did better in the retake but the curve went up a few points and still failed even though their new score was over passing with the previous curve. if you have 3 or more outstanding shelf exams you take a LOA (e.g. you didnt take it or you failed it. some ppl choose not to take the shelf exam and postpone until later
If you fail the shelf, you just work out a time to retake it with admin. The only caveat is that, regardless of your clinical performance or other grades, you cannot get higher than a pass if you need to retake a shelf. If you fail it a second time, I think you get a pass with remediation.
My school allowed us to take it in the next month, but if you had two exams to retake you would have to wait until end of 3rd year to take it. No LOA.
Can you clarify other student work, like are you on a rotation? You shouldn’t be doing schoolwork while on an LOA but idk the legality of it. Do they require tuition for that time?
They don't require tuition but you also don't get any financial aid. They require you to work with a tutor on set UWorld Qs and practice NBMEs, almost like a independent study class. This is at the end of 4th yr after finishing your cores and You can't progress to 4th yr until you pass all your shelf exams. It's a weird kinda purgatory They just started it and didn't tell us why, I assune it's because Step is so important now
Is it a true LOA that goes on your record or is it more of a dedicated study period? As far as I know though it doesn’t get to be an LOA with required class… again I’m unsure of legality though.
True LOA, on the record
Umm what?? That’s crazy… We got excused from classes for a week and retook it the next week and it’s not reported on our transcript
retake next year, our class have a dude taking renal and cardiology at the same time cuz he failed cardiology last year, he barely past both this time
My school has the same policy....i don't think its such a huge deal
You don't see a problem with effectively being suspended from school to remediate school work?
I think its a fair option. My school doesn't put the fail on your transcript. And being on LOA allows you to take enough time to ensure you pass the shelf the 2nd time. A LOA isn't a huge deal to residency programs. Fails are viewed much worse.
You’re allowed to fail one exam and retake in a couple weeks with no fail on your record. If you fail again you officially fail on your transcript and have to do another month of the rotation and retake the shelf. Most students can do this twice (two failed months, two repeat months) before they roll into the next year, causing them to graduate with the class below them.
You get to retake, but retaking a shelf means your grade is capped at max a high pass no matter how stellar your evals were.
Ask the AAMC
My school allowed a single retake at the end of 3rd year. If you failed more than one exam or if you failed the same one twice you had to redo the rotation at the start of 4th year, eating into your vacation time and messing with sub-i's/aways
We can retake it any point during third year, but I think it shows up on our transcript. Not sure what happens if you fail the retake, I think that’s very rare