USMLE & COMLEX Tutor in Charlottesville

Charlottesville's medical school is the University of Virginia School of Medicine, a public MD school founded in 1825 (school list). The LCME has accredited it since before 1942, and its next full survey is due in 2030-31 (LCME).

In 2025-26 UVA had 7,148 applications for 156 first-year places, and 51.9% of the entering class came from Virginia, so close to half of each class arrives from out of state (AAMC FACTS).

The University of Virginia Medical Center on West Main Street is the town's entry on the CMS teaching hospital list (CMS teaching hospital list), but UVA students do not all train there: clerkships run at both the Charlottesville and Inova campuses (UVA Phase 2).

Facts about Charlottesville

Accreditation: LCME directory; applications, places and in-state share: AAMC FACTS, Table A-1.

ABIM internal medicine certification exam by residency program: ABIM residency program pass rates.

• UVA requires students to pass USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 to graduate, allows three attempts at each, and dismisses a student who fails either on the third attempt, without recourse to appeal. (UVA School of Medicine)
• For May graduation, UVA students must document passing both Steps by May 1, and every graduation requirement, Step 1 and Step 2 included, must be met within six years of matriculation. (UVA School of Medicine)
• Phase 1 of UVA's curriculum, the pre-clerkship phase, lasts 18 months and includes Classroom to Clinics, a case-based course in which students make the transition from classroom learning to patient care. (UVA School of Medicine)
• UVA's Phase 2 opens with a two-week Clerkship Readiness Course; clerkships then run 39 weeks in three 13-week blocks, at the Charlottesville and Inova campuses. (UVA School of Medicine)
• Within those blocks, UVA's inpatient internal medicine, outpatient medicine and pediatrics clerkships are 6 weeks each, surgery with women's health and anesthesiology is 12 weeks, and psychiatry and neurology are 3 weeks each. (UVA School of Medicine)
• UVA's Phase 3 adds 4-week required rotations in an Advanced Clinical Elective, emergency medicine and critical care, and a 2-week Internship Readiness course around Match Day; electives fill most of the phase. (UVA School of Medicine)

Sources: LCME, directory of accredited U.S. programs (checked October 29, 2026); AAMC FACTS, Table A-1, 2025-2026 (checked October 29, 2026); UVA School of Medicine, Policy on Academic and Professional Advancement (checked November 1, 2026); UVA School of Medicine, Phase 1 curriculum (checked November 1, 2026); UVA School of Medicine, Phase 2 curriculum (checked November 1, 2026); UVA School of Medicine, Phase 3 curriculum (checked November 1, 2026); ABIM, residency program pass rates 2023-2025 (checked October 29, 2026).

UVA's Step rules are stricter than Virginia's

UVA's Policy on Academic and Professional Advancement makes passing Step 1 and Step 2 a graduation requirement and allows three attempts at each. A third failure of either exam means dismissal from the School of Medicine, and the policy says that decision cannot be appealed (UVA advancement policy).

Virginia's medical board and the USMLE program each allow four attempts per Step (FSMB; USMLE eligibility rules), so for a UVA student the school's limit is the one that binds, a full attempt earlier. We plan every UVA Step as a single attempt with a margin: no test date until practice exams have cleared the passing range more than once, and a fallback date agreed in advance in case they have not.

The policy sets two more dates. For a May graduation both passes must be documented by May 1, and every graduation requirement, both Steps included, must be met within six years of matriculation: nine years for MD/PhD students, eight for MD/JD and seven for other combined degrees (UVA advancement policy).

Clerkships at UVA: 39 weeks in three blocks

Phase 1, the pre-clerkship phase, lasts 18 months (UVA Phase 1). Phase 2 opens with a two-week Clerkship Readiness Course, then runs 39 weeks of clerkships in three 13-week blocks with a week of vacation between blocks, at the Charlottesville or Inova campus; some rotations also use the Salem VA hospital or Bon Secours in Richmond (UVA Phase 2).

The clerkships inside those blocks are uneven in length. Inpatient internal medicine, outpatient medicine and pediatrics are 6 weeks each, surgery with women's health and anesthesiology is one 12-week rotation, and psychiatry and neurology are 3 weeks each (UVA Phase 2). UVA's policy covers the NBME subject exams taken in Phases 2 and 3 (UVA advancement policy).

The short rotations are where students get caught out: three weeks of psychiatry or neurology leaves little time to cover a whole shelf subject, so we start those question banks in the block before. The 12-week surgery and women's health rotation has the opposite problem, two shelf subjects with little overlap, so we split review across the whole block instead of saving it for the last week.

Phase 3 and the Step 2 calendar

Phase 3 adds 4-week required rotations in an Advanced Clinical Elective, emergency medicine and critical care, a 2-week Bedside to Community course and a 2-week Internship Readiness course around Match Day; electives fill most of the rest (UVA Phase 3; UVA advancement policy).

The UVA pages we checked do not fix a month for Step 1 or Step 2, so each student picks the dates inside the May 1 deadline. For most, that means Step 2 CK early in Phase 3, before residency applications and while clerkship material is fresh, and we build that schedule from the shelf scores of the three blocks.

Medical school in Charlottesville

University of Virginia School of Medicine lists 700 students on Wikipedia.

School list: LCME and COCA lists, via the list of medical schools in the United States, checked October 2026.

Teaching hospitals in Charlottesville

On the CMS teaching hospital list (October 2026):

• University of Virginia Medical Center, 855 West Main Street, Charlottesville, VA 22908

When Charlottesville students must take the boards

University of Virginia School of Medicine states: “Passing USMLE Step 1 and USMLE Step 2 is required for graduation. Students are allowed a total of three attempts to pass Step 1 and a total of three attempts to pass Step 2.” (Academic & Professional Advancement Policy - UVA School of Medicine).

The exams Charlottesville students take, in order

UVA grants the MD, so Charlottesville students take the USMLE: Step 1 and Step 2 CK, both UVA graduation requirements (UVA advancement policy), then Step 3 in residency. NBME shelf exams close the Phase 2 clerkships.

Internal medicine residents later sit the ABIM exam: 97% of 97 first-time takers from the University of Virginia Medical Center program passed it in 2023-2025 (ABIM).

Virginia board rules for Charlottesville graduates

Virginia's medical board lists four attempts on any USMLE Step, the same four the USMLE program allows, so the state adds no tighter limit (FSMB; USMLE eligibility rules). UVA's three-attempt rule is the one a Charlottesville student plans around. The full Virginia rules are on our Virginia tutoring page.

How much Charlottesville searches for board prep

Charlottesville has two Google Trends results over the past five years: 12th among US metro areas for “USMLE,” with a score of 58 out of 100, and 10th for “USMLE Step 2,” with a score of 54 (retrieved October 2026). Step 2 is the stronger of the two ranks, and UVA requires students to pass it as well as Step 1 (UVA advancement policy). Scores are relative, not counts of students.

• “USMLE”: number 12 among US metro areas, score 58 of 100
• “USMLE Step 2”: number 10 among US metro areas, score 54 of 100