[fuckstick]

I didn’t necessarily think of that as an oddity though. There’s a lot of stigma associated with dropping out of something like medicine combined with very few people out of medicine knowing any details of the training and licensure process. That said, the overwhelming likely scenario is either quitting or getting kicked out and using the “board” failure as a cover (colloquially doctors hardly ever call them boards in the US, they just call them “step”. Boards usually refer to exams taken for specialities after one is licensed and has completed residency). Regardless of the posters possible embellishments I wouldn’t expect them to know any of this. Also some people assume it’s like law where there’s some type of bar exam with a terrible first pass rate. There isn’t. Specialty board exams have lower pass rates, but failing those won’t prevent you from being a licensed practicing physician.

[caminante]

Wayyy off topic, but here are some thoughts.

> There’s a lot of stigma associated with dropping out of something like medicine...

Sure, there's external stigma, but IMO, the larger driver for stigma is self-imposed. Med school enrollees are filled with "most likely to exceed" personalities who are harder on themselves and catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world."

> (colloquially doctors hardly ever call them boards in the US, they just call them “step”.

Anecdotally, I've only heard friends in medicine (US) refer to them (the USMLE exam[0] and steps) as "boards," while in med school. I'm sure that some call them steps, too. I'm also aware of post-residency/fellowship specialty boards. Those are usually singular because you only need one and sometimes they're oral, like a thesis defense where you get grilled on a schedule of of your cases over the past couple years.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Medical_Licensin...

[fuckstick]

> catastrophize a minor setback v. peers as "the end of the world."

The counterpoint to this is that most medical trainees endure a tremendous number or setbacks during training that they must overcome. If anything residency teaches it is grit. I would say trainees generally tend to evolve in this respect from premed undergrads and 1st/2nd year med students who are relatively insufferable throughout the rest of training where there is necessarily a personality shift.

> Anecdotally, I've only heard friends in medicine (US) refer to them (the USMLE exam[0] and steps) as "boards,"

Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.

> Those are usually singular because you only need one

No. If you subspecialize - you will board in two or more things. For instance an interventional cardiologist will be boarded in internal medicine, general cardiology and interventional cardiology each with their own training requirements and exams.

> sometimes they're oral, like a thesis defense where you get grilled on a schedule of of your cases over the past couple years.

The vast majority of even the oral exams are standardized tests with standardized cases. I can only think of OBGYN that does the case review.

[caminante]

Again, I'm not qualified to get at the nuance so I defer to you if you're in the industry.

> No. If you subspecialize

Sure. I agree that you need a singular board for a terminal specialty and potentially interstitial boards along the way.

> Yes, probably when talking to non doctors to keep it simple. But everyone inside usually just says specifically Step 1, Step 2 etc or USMLE.

Again, I'm not in the field, but see a lot of references on the web using "boards" language. From a quick google search "USMLE called steps or boards", I get a test prep site [0]. I'm assuming this is a matter of "precise v. common" usage.

> The United States Medical Licensure Exam (USMLE) Step 1, commonly called “the Boards,” is a standardized test

[0] https://www.boardvitals.com/blog/9-things-to-know-before-tak....