Medical Students Need to Fail More Often. Here's Why.

But here's my point. The only metric, the only result, of the first two years that really matters is how well we medical students know medicine for Step 1, third year, and beyond. Whether or not someone memorized more material in a week than someone else is relatively inconsequential compared to how well that person will remember that material when it matters. Our system of medical education promotes short-term retention; I have friends in my class who focus on long-term retention when studying and actually do worse than those who cram!