How were your grades as an MS1 or 2?

I'm an MS1 pretty set on ortho, having done research in it for a few years, but I am concerned about my grades.

Do grades the first two years matter that much? (please say they don't)

My school is Honors, High Pass, Pass, Fail and I just seem to keep missing the High Pass margin by a point or so. The aggrevation is killing me.

everything matters ... but please place it in perspective …

AOA usually will have something to do with you 1st 2 years if you are in a honors, high pass, pass, fail system … so you know AOA matters at some programs … the research is out on that …

but, if you are stronger clinically, you may be able to in your second 2 years … but honors usually is somewhat linked to an exam (shelf exam) … so if your problem is test taking, you may have a problem there …

then it comes down to USMLE and ortho rotations …

hope that helps

generally, are clinical grades considered one of the more important aspects of our application? i'm asking because our school gives out clinical grades based heavily on subjective eval (e.g. professionalism, pt interaction, ...) instead of giving equal weight to objective (shelf exam) and subjective (clinical eval) components; thus, it's hard to honor something without surpassing your peers in kissing up because only a certain percentage of students could get honors.