United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 scores and obstetrics-gynecology clerkship final examination.

Abstract

To determine if scores from first attempts at the United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 correlated with obstetrics-gynecology examination scores and identified students at risk of failure. All students in obstetrics-gynecology clerkships at the University of Illinois at Chicago from July 1995 through June 1998 were studied. The clerkship length was 8 weeks. Six clerkship sites were used, each of which assigned students to obstetrics-gynecology for the same length. Only first attempts at the obstetrics-gynecology clerkship examination and United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 were evaluated. Among 522 students the mean (+/- standard deviation [SD]) United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 score was 205 (+/-24.4). The mean score (+/-SD) for the standard obstetrics-gynecology examination was 69.5 (+/-8.1). The obstetrics-gynecology examination score correlated significantly with the United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 score (r = .662, P<.001). Sixty-five students failed their first attempts at the United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 examination, and ten failed their first attempts at the clerkship examination. Students who failed their first attempts at the United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 were more likely to fail their first attempts at the clerkship examination (relative risk 18.6; 4.6, 72.6; P<.001). More than half the students who failed their initial United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 examinations failed or finished in the lower 25th percentile on their obstetrics-gynecology finals. United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 scores correlated with obstetric-gynecology clerkship examination scores. Failure on the first attempts of the United States Medical Licensure Examination step 1 examination predicted students at risk of failures of the obstetrics-gynecology final examination and those who finished in the lower 25th percentile.