In Med School, It Can Pay to Skip Class. What’s Wonky Here?
Every hour in which future doctors are cramming for a standardized test is an hour in which they’re not preparing to practice medicine.
Harvard Medical School: Lecturing since 1782, whether students are listening or not.
Source: Moment Editorial, via Getty Images
First comes “back to school,” and then, for some, it’s back to playing hooky. Disturbingly, that would include many future doctors. According to one recent survey, a quarter of medical school students almost never attend lectures.
Many are skipping class to study for a standardized exam called the Step 1, according to a story in the medical news website STAT. Scores can stifle or catapult careers because residency programs use them as a main selection criterion. In the past, it only mattered whether students passed or failed this test, and their opportunities after graduation depended more on their grades in medical school. But that’s now reversed, with med school classes being graded with a pass-fail, and the scores on the test determining career trajectories.