There's not much truth to this article. The anecdote is almost not possibly true, as our attendings never have a clue what type of scores we get on our exams. The meat of the article is also not generally true, and a comment from a residency program director supports this [1].<p>Failing med students fail. They have to retake clerkships, and that will prevent them from getting into competitive residencies. Like most schools throughout nearly every level of the US educational system, failure doesn't mean you'll get kicked out, so yes, they will generally be able to become doctors eventually.<p>[1] = <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/why-failing-med-students-dont-get-failing-grades/?comments#permid=48" rel="nofollow">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/why-failing-med-stu...</a>