Why is the standard A-F system bad ?

Med school and students in general these days are getting soft.

Being graded is too scary and mean?

As an MD who didn't graduate in the dark ages, the P/F system has gone too far imo. I do not think it was done mainly so med students will do research. Step 1 is now P/F….now Step 2 which is not P/F is what residencies are using. Grades and Step scores are not everything but they are important. TX med schools will still get great students b/c there are tons of smart kids in TX who want to take adv of living "near" their hometown and getting instate tuition.

There is a massive push for making everything Pass/Fail because physicians don't always "look like" their patients, and we all know that the mark of a good physician is that they share your skin color, gender identity and sexual orientation. Our journals are full of the divisive rot known as DEI, and making Step 1 and Step 2 pass/fail is often proposed as one of many ways to rectify any discrepancies between the (especially) racial makeup of the top performing students and the population at large.

With regards to doing research and having other extracurricular activities during medical school, other than the summer months between the first and second years and during elective periods as a fourth year, there was essentially ZERO time available for a medical student to squeeze research into their schedule. As it should be.

I like it. "Trainees" these days for the most part are terrible. They are coddled the moment they face any adversity. In reality what you need to become the best doc you can be is for someone to tell you that you're not cutting it when your effort and dedication is not sufficient.

HECUBUS said:

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UTSW ten years ago, Dell maybe since they started. McGovern claimed to be going to 1.5 on interviews a year ago. Most of the rest are still two years. I only have a class of '28 perspective.

I think the P/F deletion will only affect the out of state applicants which are typically the highest stat students. Since that acceptance rate is about 2%, and I would guess most don't end up in a Texas residency or practice, it's not a huge deal. The top in state will go out of state for bigger name med schools regardless.

The other part of the bill is great and should be applied to undergraduate as well. Demographic blind should be the only option. Education needs to be fixed in elementary school. What the heck are the politicians doing with all that Robinhood money that was supposed to have solved this issue?

P/F Step 1 isn't what most people appear to think. Everything is graded. it's just kept internal to the med school, because residencies don't care about it. It's another stupid political stunt to impress the uninformed.

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Not really buying that top applicants, who obviously have the highest stats and strongest backgrounds, are the ones who would be intimidated by not being P/F. I can see how it would be stressful for students and that many wouldn't like it but I don't see that being the issue with the folks at the top of the scale.

I completely agree that demographic blind is the only sane policy for Med school. When you are talking about a doctor it should only be about merit, period.

Money will never fix this issue and it will never fix it at the lower levels either. Parents that support education and are involved with their kid's education will trounce money every time. Having a big and beautiful school and paying teachers more also has a very limited impact. The best teachers rarely do it for the money and they would take policy changes that allow they more freedom and less bureaucracy and students that want to learn over money almost every time. Typically when more money is thrown at education it goes to administration as well and special programs with minimal impact. That's why if you look at schools from the lowest level to the highest you have seen more money spent than ever in the last 50 years with a very small growth in teachers and an explosion in administration who are typically paid far better than teachers.

I also can understand that many who are supporting this bill don't really understand P/F's purpose and politics are involved but that's how things always work.

I see your point but the problem is it's often not 89 vs 91...it's 69 vs 91. And someone who gets a 69 simply doesn't know the material as well as someone who got a 91.

Other docs can weigh in...but about 95% of the doctors out there are terrible. Like scary what on earth are you doing terrible. And I'm afraid with the increasing emphasis on wellness etc it will just get worse.

It's simply human nature that people don't put in as much effort into a pass/fail course as they do into a traditionally graded course.