Thanks Dr. SLC. Really good info and glad to hear you were well prepared for your residency. One further question, how was the academic studying during the second year? Was it most of your time or a lot of time in clinic. (X% of time studying and X% in clinic is what I'm looking for). Feel good going into your boards and whatnot? Thanks again for logging in to answer questions.
2nd year I pulled 4hrs per week in clinic, mainly just shadowing though I got to go in and get H&P plenty too. Preceptor generally assigned a topic or two for me to study and give him a 5 minute lesson on each week. No big deal.
>90% time available for studying.
Some classmates had 8-12hrs week but those of us in Stumptown only had 4, which I appreciated.
Class and study obligations were minimal (some perspective is warranted here, it is still med-school, and my wife will tell you I was still very busy). We all had our own routines down pat by then. Mine consisted of watching lectures on double speed from home, studying for a few hours per day, and the rest of the time I was able to chill with the family, visit the coast, sample the Portland food truck scene etc. I'd say it was rare that I didn't have the weekend free for recreational stuff, and I could spend most evenings with the wife and kids after 4 or 5pm. I was able to do this and still make high 80's-low 90's in my courses, and I'm not particularly smart, the curriculum just made a lot of sense to me. Like it was written for the way I learn and think or something.
Part of the beauty of SOMA's curriculum is that a lot of stuff gets repetitive by midway through 2nd year. You're usually pretty good with the basic and clinical sciences, enough that you can anticipate what they're going to teach and you end up not needing to spend much time on it because you've either seen it before or you can pretty-much guess what's relevant to the particular organ system you're in. The curriculum is demanding at first, but becomes more and more efficient and smooth as you go along. It really is pretty awesome in that sense.
Because of this, 2nd year was pretty chill for the most part IMO, though I know of classmates who struggled in 2nd year.
Either way, I had more than adequate time for board prep during 2nd year, including about 2 months of time dedicated completely to it before I took the tests in mid-June. I felt ready for both COMLEX and USMLE and did well on both. On 3rd year, I had a medicine rotation where my evaluation comments said that I understood pathophysiology better than the residents, and a few other things that seemed to indicate that I must've learned my stuff well in M1 and M2.
SOMA is geared toward teaching students to think like physicians from day1; you assimilate knowledge and apply it in an clinically relevant manner right away or you struggle with the exams. Every single test you take is board style, with questions that draw on everything you've learned thus far, and as it applies clinically whenever possible. This begins from day one of 1st year. If you can make it work with this curriculum, you'll be ready to perform on rotations and in residency at the end. That's my honest opinion.
That doesn't mean I don't have complaints about the school, I definitely do; but the actual education I got (which is the absolute most important thing in the end) isn't one of them.
No worries about logging in, I'm on overnights in L&D this week, not a lot going on as I'm generally a bit of a white cloud. I've got time on my hands right now. I enjoy talking with the folks coming up under me, I was one of the "ambassadors" who'll you'll meet on interview day so I'm sorta into talking about the school anyway.
