Student Doctor Network Anesthesia (2024)

FAQs

How hard is anesthesia match? ›

Anesthesiology is considered a medium to highly competitive specialty to match into for medical residents in the United States. It attracts a considerable number of applicants due to its diverse and challenging nature, offering a combination of critical care medicine, pain management, and perioperative care.

Many anesthesiology residency programs have threshold or cut-off scores. Applicants below the threshold score may not receive any further consideration. “USMLE Part One is essential: Most programs have cut-off score of 210 - 230, but not absolute,” writes the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University.

Becoming an anesthesiologist requires a strong academic background with a focus on mathematical proficiency. Aspiring anesthesiologists usually start their careers in medical school. They receive comprehensive instruction in a range of medical specialties while there.

Average Stats for a Matched US IMG in 2023:

USMLE Step 2 CK score: 242. Research: 2.1. Abstracts/Presentations/Publications: 5.3.

BASIC is the first written exam of the ABA board certification process and is administered to approximately 1,600 residents at the end of their first clinical year (CA-1). The first-time failure rate for this exam nationally is about 10%.

Anesthesiology Residency Match Rates

DO seniors had a match rate into anesthesiology of 48.3%, and a fill rate of 15.2%. A total of 127 international medical graduates (IMGs) matched into the specialty.

There is no universal number of residency interviews required to land you a spot, but typically candidates may have up to 10 interviews during the match process.

The anesthesiology position fill rate was greater than 99% from 2020 through 2024 match years (Figure 3). The anesthesiology position fill rate in 2024 was comparable to several specialties, including orthopedic surgery, diagnostic radiology, general surgery, neurology, obstetrics-gynecology, and psychiatry (Figure 4).

And finally, while anesthesiology is less competitive than some other specialties, it's still extremely challenging to get into a strong and desirable residency program. And who better to learn from and be mentored by than anesthesiologists themselves.

In order to be accepted into an accredited CRNA program, mathematics prerequisites play a significant role. Particularly, statistics sticks out as a fundamental prerequisite for CRNA programs in many educational institutions.

What bachelor's degree is best for anesthesiology? ›

Physicians who specialize in anesthesiology begin their academic careers with an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university, typically majoring in pre-med or science.

As mentioned earlier, anesthesiologists must have a strong knowledge of pharmacology to select the appropriate anesthetic drugs for each patient. Understanding the chemical makeup of each drug is as solid a base as any, and chemistry accomplishes that goal.

The 75th percentile corresponds to around 258 and at this point, anything above that is gravy. The 25th percentile corresponds to around the score 235. Most students should aim to have this as their floor, if possible, especially international medical graduate students.

Report on Residents

For example, the average STEP 1 score for 2019-20 first-year residents entering Anesthesiology was 231.9, and the average Step 2 CK score was 242.6. Data are for graduates of MD-granting and DO-granting U.S. and Canadian schools and of graduates of international medical schools.

To shed some light on the matter, here are some numbers: In 2022, over 3,000 medical students applied to the categorical general surgery residency and 1,619 matched successfully for an overall 52.7% match rate (NRMP). For US grads, the numbers looked a bit better, with US MDs matching at 81.60% and 61.50% for US DOs.

Here are the numbers. In the 2021-2023 match cycles, 100% of anesthesiology residency positions were filled. For some perspective, there was a 95.5% fill rate in 2024 for emergency medicine, and overall across all specialties, for 2024, a 93.8% fill rate.

What is the ABA ADVANCED Exam pass rate? The pass rate has slowly been declining since 2018. In 2022 the pass rate for all test takers was 84%.