USMLE Attn: December 9th 2015 Step 2 CS score results with CIS fail

[greatime]

I took Step 2CS in early October 2015 in Los Angeles and received my results today. I failed the CIS subcomponent. I believe I fulfilled all the requirements for this component to pass. I would like to know if anyone else was shocked about not passing this portion. I would like to get a group together to contest the results or perhaps instill some change in the scoring process.

Briefly, I have worked in the medical field for 6 years and have seen thousands of patients as a mid level provider. I have strong step 1 and 2CK scores and prepared for Step 2CS with First Aid and did all the practice cases with a standardized patient timed as if it were the real thing.

My thought is that this test is not scored appropriately to test clinical skills. It seems it is more of an unfair barrier to some students. Given how much rides on this test, I think it deserves strong feedback from the people who have taken it.

Hope there are others that feel the same and are interested in this. Thanks.

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[medstudent234]

I just saw your post on my thread. I also took the exam in LA but in mid-Oct. It seems so weird, I was shocked that I had failed that part since looking over the requirements I believe that I fulfilled all of them. I have always been told that I have a great bedside manner with patients. I just have no idea how I will study for my retake! I would be great to contest but it just seems like a no-win situation, I have no idea how one would go about it successfully. It really irks me that I can't get any personalized feedback about what went wrong.

 

[greatime]

I just saw your post on my thread. I also took the exam in LA but in mid-Oct. It seems so weird, I was shocked that I had failed that part since looking over the requirements I believe that I fulfilled all of them. I have always been told that I have a great bedside manner with patients. I just have no idea how I will study for my retake! I would be great to contest but it just seems like a no-win situation, I have no idea how one would go about it successfully. It really irks me that I can't get any personalized feedback about what went wrong.

Yea, I agree. I wrote a letter to the ECFMG and sent it today. I am mailing the score recheck form as well. I emailed a few lawyers as well. I took my test October 10th. The whole process is kind of a scam. They don't look at videos which would be the most definitive measure. They use checklists filled out by SPs. They tell you on their website not to even bother contesting the result and they charge you money for it. If they fail a student they also get the joy out of making another grand or so because what other option do you have.

Given how much is on the line there needs to be specifics as to why we failed. I am hoping that if enough people have the same issues they will see that the CIS portion is not effective at measuring clinical skills and is doing a disservice to well qualified students/future physicians. I think if we can get several people with similar situations we may be able to get somewhere.

If you can also write something to them it may start to raise some flags on their end that the test needs work.

I just think that we feel the way we feel for a reason and just simply turning over and retaking the test without letting them know what happened is not right for us and to anyone else who may have the same problem in the future.

I will let you know if I get anywhere with what I'm doing.

 

[medstudent234]

I am definitely interested in doing this, but I will likely do it after I take (and hopefully pass!) the exam in a few weeks. Sorry, I am just uncomfortable doing it before. Has your school given you any insight about what you should do next as far as studying? I'm meeting with an administrator next week. I called the USMLE and they would give me NO info as to why I failed that section. I think they used to do this in the past.

 

[Plasmatron88]

I took Step 2CS in early October 2015 in Los Angeles and received my results today. I failed the CIS subcomponent. I believe I fulfilled all the requirements for this component to pass. I would like to know if anyone else was shocked about not passing this portion. I would like to get a group together to contest the results or perhaps instill some change in the scoring process.

Briefly, I have worked in the medical field for 6 years and have seen thousands of patients as a mid level provider. I have strong step 1 and 2CK scores and prepared for Step 2CS with First Aid and did all the practice cases with a standardized patient timed as if it were the real thing.

My thought is that this test is not scored appropriately to test clinical skills. It seems it is more of an unfair barrier to some students. Given how much rides on this test, I think it deserves strong feedback from the people who have taken it.

Hope there are others that feel the same and are interested in this. Thanks.

People have tried in the past and failed to get any changes made to any portion of the exam, instead it seems to get harder and harder to pass the USMLEs with each year, let alone get a decent score in either Step. Seriously bro I can feel your pain, I too passed on the second attempt and that too only after doing an expensive review course. The people making this exam will just turn a blind eye to anyone who fails, nothing gets changed, even I had filed for a score recheck, no outcome came out of it, only empty hopes for 12 weeks and endless time wasted thinking that it would change, trust me I'm sure you're skills sets are even way more superior than what this test capable of measuring, but personally I think this is a Customer Service test rather than a Clinical Skills exam, from what I learned from my review course for CIS, I think I would have saved the money and actually learned the same thing by working by working at a restaurant as a part time waiter or hotel customer relations person, because what they are measuring is Communications & interpersonal Skills in CIS with a strict emphasis on certain subcomponents and questions we would do in a PR kind of job , "Let me help you with this, we can arrange for that, this test is like this, you may be having this, have you understood the information, do you have any questions, any confusions, any additional questions, I'm sure that must be hard, don't worry we are here for you, we will take care of it, hows your life, how has it affected your life, whats your support network like, how have you been coping?"
What do these questions tell you? empathization? do we do all that for every patient? not really.....do any of these questions project CLINICAL SKILLS? NONE, its communication and handling Patients i.e. Clients.

My advice spend the time reviewing what you think might have gone wrong, Do Kaplan core cases in addition to first aid (I found them useful), practice them with someone who has passed the exam and give it it again, BEFORE they make CIS even harder than it currently is, trust me they are making changes faster than we can adapt and its very stressful, right now you will be able to get accurate feedback from ppl who passed recently (2014 onwards according to new changes), before they make any additional testable components. Who knows what they will add?? complex OB/GYN counseling, maybe even child actors with actor parents? sounds weird right? but you never know, so just register as soon as possible and reschedule as early as feasible for you

 

[greatime]

Thanks Plasmatron88, I think you're right. Thanks for your input, it helps me understand what they might be looking for. I did give a fair amount of reassurance, sympathy, compassion, etc. Enough to think that I would pass at least borderline. But you're probably right, I should just accept it and move on.

 

[greatime]

Here is a response from an attorney.

"I’m very familiar with the exam. Appealing scores on the Step 2 CS are something you can do on your own. Because these testing entities are given deference about the construct of the exam and how they score it, there is not much I can do that would differ from you own efforts. Accordingly, from the stand point of your financial resources, it does not make sense to higher an attorney to handle your appeal. Good luck."

 

[greatime]

I'd still like to get an idea of how many people are out there with strong clinical skills who surprisingly failed Step 2 CS.

 

[Plasmatron88]

Well the attorneys answer tells you everything, like I said people have tried and and it doesn't work, ppl who make these exams have done their legal homework and are protected from all claims made by us. Unless some internal board review on their own looks up things and decides to change them no lawyer can help out.

There are many good and strong candidates like you who have failed the first attempt, I personally know a few myself, some are even top tier medical grads who went to even better medical schools than I did. Just dont lose hope and don't doubt yourself no matter what anyone else says. The reality is that you werent able to meet a bunch of invisible requirements on the exam which you didnt know about, had the exam authorities made it clear, you would have definitely known how to "Act it out" right?

Just focus on registering and reappearing,
Which exam centre did you go to?

 

[Patho_logical]

I agree that the test is ridiculous. Unfortunately, it definitely seems like it is impossible to bring about any type of change. You can look online and see posts from several years ago about trying to do away with the CS. I failed the ICE portion the first time, but that also relies on some checklists filled out by a "standardized patient" with likely zero medical training. How ridiculous is it that medical school seniors are graded by people with no medical background? And not only that, but they have to go off of memory of a 15 minute encounter! It's not ideal in any way. I passed with great scores the second time and all I did was read FA by myself. I didn't even practice with patients. Ehh...I hate that exam...so subjective. Hope you pass it the next time. I don't think I've ever been happier to pass anything in my life. It probably cost me about 3 grand and 4 days of my life if you count travel time. It's absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Plasmatron88]

I agree that the test is ridiculous. Unfortunately, it definitely seems like it is impossible to bring about any type of change. You can look online and see posts from several years ago about trying to do away with the CS. I failed the ICE portion the first time, but that also relies on some checklists filled out by a "standardized patient" with likely zero medical training. How ridiculous is it that medical school seniors are graded by people with no medical background? And not only that, but they have to go off of memory of a 15 minute encounter! It's not ideal in any way. I passed with great scores the second time and all I did was read FA by myself. I didn't even practice with patients. Ehh...I hate that exam...so subjective. Hope you pass it the next time. I don't think I've ever been happier to pass anything in my life. It probably cost me about 3 grand and 4 days of my life if you count travel time. It's absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with you, the test isn't testing anything medical, especially the CIS part, which has to be rushed in 15 minutes while being "Super nice" to the patient, how can one be fast and not robotic while doing so, then they EXPECT that we have all the details and all the information from the Pseudo Interrogation we just did to fill out the patient note as accurately as possible in even less time.

 

[Unite]

is it possible to pass CIS and ICE portion of the exam with high performance and fail the SEP