United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 Scores Directly Correlate with American Board of Neurological Surgery Scores: A Single-Institution Experience

Background Neurosurgery residency is becoming an increasingly competitive match. The process of screening and ranking applicants is a multifactorial process that lacks uniformity across residency programs. A significant factor is the applicant's performance on the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1. USMLE Step 1 scores are often used to project future success in residency and performance on specialty boards like the American Board of Neurological Surgery (ABNS) examination. The authors of this study investigate the strength of correlations between USMLE Step 1 and ABNS scores. Methods Data were extracted from records of graduating residents from the neurosurgery residency program at the University of California, Los Angeles, between 2003 and 2010. Twenty-one residents were selected. USMLE Step 1 scores were deidentified and paired with ABNS scores. Correlation and regression analyses were performed. Results Higher USMLE Step 1 scores significantly correlated with higher ABNS scores (P = 0.01; Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.7). Conclusions USMLE Step 1 and ABNS scores are directly correlated. USMLE Step 1 scores will continue to be a valuable measure of projected success on ABNS written examinations, but more sophisticated measures are needed.