Best and Worst comments on clinical evals?

[93732]

okay, this is why 3rd year evals are so damn subjective and dangerous...

best: "best medical studnet thus far"

crappy one: "no obvious deficits"

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[ginger_flower]

I love the classic: "needs to read more" SUPER annoying....Shows absolutely no thought put into the comment.

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

okay, this is why 3rd year evals are so damn subjective and dangerous...

best: "best medical studnet thus far"

crappy one: "no obvious deficits"

I don't know if someone who got a comment like the first one should be complaining about evals...

 

[Espion]

"Performs at the level of an intern" (woo! woo!)

"Is nice to the staff" heh

 

[bts4202]

Best one I got: "Seems to know his own name, at least"


Thats a good one right?...

 

[sacrament]

I got one that went something like "Shows up on time, participates in the morning meeting." And that was it. It was a psych attending, too, so you know he wasn't just too busy to fill it out.

 

[Doc_Thks_JC]

Best: "The best all around student I have ever had", "Student was in the top 10-15% in basic science and application of knowledge in clinical setting of all the students I have taken"--> Internists, Pediatrics attendings

Not So Good: "The student was sometimes too enthusiastic and asked too many questions"--> Surgery attending, so it figures

Really Not Good: "The student sometimes did not grasp the concepts of Obstetrics and Gynecology"--> Ob/Gyn attending that liked slime way too much

Bad: A 2 page letter stating the student was belligerent to the residents and "hurt their feelings."--> Peds attending

Really Bad: "I would be more detailed but I really can't remember the student"-->Cardiologist

Really Really Bad: "Oh I thought he was a nursing student"-->Infectious Disease

 

[Lonestar]

Surgery attending: "Student made an effort to consistently improve himself throughout the rotation. Very Professional and hard working. In the top 20th percentile in the class."

Peds attending: "Student consistently performed below average on clinical performance. Somewhat unprofessional and uncaring at times." (Not the first student to recieve this sort of statement from this particular attending. I am sure he will terrorize other upcoming students every year.)

Medicine attending: " A true team player. Excellent clinical skills compared to his classmates. Very good formulation of differential diagnosis and treatment options..... Certainly deserves honors"

OB-GYN: "who is this guy" (sweet!!! My job was done. )

 

[Dr.Evil1]

From one of my surgery seniors:

"This student needs to take medicine more seriously"

That was the only thing written on the back "comments" portion of the eval. I was glad that the attending (well respected) actually had some great comments for me.

 

[bigfrank]

Best: "Best student I've ever had."
Worst: "...was, at times, difficult to find."

 

[AF_PedsBoy]

I got the coveted, "Worst medical student EVER. NEVER got it," from the colorectal chief resident famous for being the biggest dickhead in surgery. He gave me all 1's, which made it even more satisfying when I got the second highest score on the departmental. The cherry on top was when he failed to match in colorectal - rumor has it that his mentor had written him a personal letter recommending him to the mentor's alma mater, and then found out that the resident hadn't ranked it number one...

 

[Doc Oc]

"Shows up. Good Notes. Always available." (surgery attending who didn't like me)

My school puts quotes of positive comments into our Dean's letter. Some idiot thought that this was a good comment. I consider it negative by omission.

I got "Needs to read more" from the same attending - and the entire rotation, I never got a pimp question wrong. I did, however, correctly identify the long thoracic nerve as the nerve responsible for the "winged scapula"/serratus dysfunction, but was told by her that I was wrong, it is the thoracodorsal n. I wonder how much reading I have to do to learn stuff like that...

 

[kcrd]

I love the classic: "needs to read more" SUPER annoying....Shows absolutely no thought put into the comment.

Oh, I absolutely HATE "needs to read more." Especially when I was reading constantly during 3rd year.

I think my worst comment was during my hideous scut-work-filled surgery rotation. I got a comment along the lines of "average medical student." Nice.

 

[scootad.]

worst comments were from my first rotation which incidentally was medicine - "was always on time. however, was shy and was overshadowed by his more outgoing peers. therefore it is difficult to assess his true fund of knowledge."

it was a prayer in disguise having those comments from my first rotation because it changed the way i approached my rotations. i became the opposite person - super phony, started talking out of my asss making sure to beat my classmates to the punch at every opportunity whenever questioned by attendings in group settings, became mr. chatterbox i wouldnt shut up. guess what, got straight As the rest of my rotations. i wish i had known to be like this before my first rotation, i would have made AOA.

 

[bigfrank]

worst comments were from my first rotation which incidentally was medicine - "was always on time. however, was shy and was overshadowed by his more outgoing peers. therefore it is difficult to assess his true fund of knowledge."

it was a prayer in disguise having those comments from my first rotation because it changed the way i approached my rotations. i became the opposite person - super phony, started talking out of my asss making sure to beat my classmates to the punch at every opportunity whenever questioned by attendings in group settings, became mr. chatterbox i wouldnt shut up. guess what, got straight As the rest of my rotations. i wish i had known to be like this before my first rotation, i would have made AOA.

That stinks that most schools' AOA selection process is so phony and political. We have ours in a month or so and, needless to say, I've got a "bad feeling" about the whole process.

 

[scootad.]

AOA is all political at my school. kinda funny how the class presidents and social chairs make it year after year. i dont even think grades are the main criteria, and boards certainly are not used at all as a criteria.

 

[14022]

best: "best student i have ever worked with"
worst: "second best student i have ever worked with"

 

[bigfrank]

AOA is all political at my school. kinda funny how the class presidents and social chairs make it year after year. i dont even think grades are the main criteria, and boards certainly are not used at all as a criteria.

I haven't kept up with the quality of past AOA electees at our school, but when our class is announced, I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[InsatiableId]

Best (neurology chief resident): The student functions at the level of an intern. He is an integral part of our team. (etc.)

Worst (psych attending): The student is unprofessional and consistently leaves after morning rounds without checking out to the residents, despite being warned to do so. He has no rapport with his patients, and is all-around unprofessional.



In my defense, the psych attending is known for totally screwing people over. I don't think he ever once watched me talk with my patients, and in fact he himself has absolutely no rapport with his patients, and is constantly belittling them behind their backs. For all the other students, he'd ask 2-3 questions when pimping them, while for me, he'd keep asking questions until I finally got one wrong, and then sit there with a smug look on his face. I seriously think he had a Napoleonic complex and was intimidated by my stature, as he is like 5'6", 140 lbs, and I'm more like 6'2", 255 lbs. From the very beginning, he looked at me with spite in his eyes.

 

[bigfrank]

Best (neurology chief resident): The student functions at the level of an intern. He is an integral part of our team. (etc.)

Worst (psych attending): The student is unprofessional and consistently leaves after morning rounds without checking out to the residents, despite being warned to do so. He has no rapport with his patients, and is all-around unprofessional.



In my defense, the psych attending is known for totally screwing people over. I don't think he ever once watched me talk with my patients, and in fact he himself has absolutely no rapport with his patients, and is constantly belittling them behind their backs. For all the other students, he'd ask 2-3 questions when pimping them, while for me, he'd keep asking questions until I finally got one wrong, and then sit there with a smug look on his face. I seriously think he had a Napoleonic complex and was intimidated by my stature, as he is like 5'6", 140 lbs, and I'm more like 6'2", 255 lbs. From the very beginning, he looked at me with spite in his eyes.

Sounds like the shrink is Projecting.

 

[Pili]

"Performs at the level of an intern" (woo! woo!)

"Is nice to the staff" heh

A coupla attendings wrote I performed at the level of a 2nd year resident. Too bad they did not say a 3rd year, so I could go on directly to fellowship.
Worst: surgery chief wrote I did not take orders from him. And it was true. He was such a pathetic dick.

 

[VALSALVA]

Best: "I thought he was a third year resident" (I was a third year student)
Worst: "He may learn to become a good physician some day." I thought this one was weird.

 

[ucladukes]

Worst (psych attending): The student is unprofessional and consistently leaves after morning rounds without checking out to the residents, despite being warned to do so. He has no rapport with his patients, and is all-around unprofessional.

I seriously think he had a Napoleonic complex and was intimidated by my stature, as he is like 5'6", 140 lbs, and I'm more like 6'2", 255 lbs. From the very beginning, he looked at me with spite in his eyes.[/QUOTE]


I'm sure that's it.....It's not that you sucked at Psychiatry...it's that he's jealous of what a big awesome man you are....
I can't believe these posts, they show almost no insight....is anybody else tired of reading posts where people talk about how cool and smart they are, and tell some story where the sole purpose is to make them look great. "So I got like the highest shelf score in my school's history..." SHUT UP!!! NO YOU DIDN'T!!!
I am on these forums WAY too much, I admit, mostly because it's entertaining to read such complete crap from what I'm sure are average medical students exaggerating there accomplishments to an audience that has no way of calling them out on it.

RULE OF THUMB: If you got a bad evaluation, you probably deserved it. Every bad eval posted so far is followed by "that guy was such an unfair jerk." Give me a break. I'm picking on this massive cool guy because his eval said his attitude sucked and he was unprofessional, and trying to disprove that he showed just how much his attitude sucked.....

 

[SLUser11]

UCLAdukes,
I don't think you heard the guy.....he's REALLY, REALLY, like, SUPER-DUPER BIG! What Psychiatry attending wouldn't be unfair and overcritical out of straight jealousy? I mean, it's not like he had any FACTS to base his bad review on....oh wait....didn't the guy skip out right after rounds....and not check out with his residents....and didn't he just prove to us that he didn't show his attending any respect............hmmmm......nope. That can't be it. It must be because he's a big strong manly-man.

 

[Pili]

Worst (psych attending): The student is unprofessional and consistently leaves after morning rounds without checking out to the residents, despite being warned to do so. He has no rapport with his patients, and is all-around unprofessional.

I seriously think he had a Napoleonic complex and was intimidated by my stature, as he is like 5'6", 140 lbs, and I'm more like 6'2", 255 lbs. From the very beginning, he looked at me with spite in his eyes.

I'm sure that's it.....It's not that you sucked at Psychiatry...it's that he's jealous of what a big awesome man you are....
I can't believe these posts, they show almost no insight....is anybody else tired of reading posts where people talk about how cool and smart they are, and tell some story where the sole purpose is to make them look great. "So I got like the highest shelf score in my school's history..." SHUT UP!!! NO YOU DIDN'T!!!
I am on these forums WAY too much, I admit, mostly because it's entertaining to read such complete crap from what I'm sure are average medical students exaggerating there accomplishments to an audience that has no way of calling them out on it.

RULE OF THUMB: If you got a bad evaluation, you probably deserved it. Every bad eval posted so far is followed by "that guy was such an unfair jerk." Give me a break. I'm picking on this massive cool guy because his eval said his attitude sucked and he was unprofessional, and trying to disprove that he showed just how much his attitude sucked.....[/QUOTE]
I for one think that his claims might be legitimate. One of my F classmates who is a looker got a crappy evaluation from an unattractive F resident, that I am positive she did not deserve (I saw her perform and the eval is not true). These things happen. I'd say a good 50 to 75% of evals are not fair, whether good or bad.

 

[14022]

I seriously think he had a Napoleonic complex and was intimidated by my stature, as he is like 5'6", 140 lbs, and I'm more like 6'2", 255 lbs. From the very beginning, he looked at me with spite in his eyes.

Why are you so concerned about your psych eval anyways? From the sound of it, you will be going into orthopedics anyways.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

So far the most perplexing eval logic I have seen:
Plastics Attending: "Excellent student. Superior knowledge of surgical techniques and principles. Will make excellent houseofficer."
Eval: Pass

 

[bigfrank]

So far the most perplexing eval logic I have seen:
Plastics Attending: "Excellent student. Superior knowledge of surgical techniques and principles. Will make excellent houseofficer."
Eval: Pass

Welcome to the subjectivity and absurdity of 3rd year evaluations. I've been enjoying it too!

 

[Blue Scrub]

I'm obviously not in med school yet, but b/c im curious, I was wondering what kinds of questions you're asked during your rotations. What happens if you dont know the answer to any of the questions you're asked? Does that contribute to a worse evaluation? Did you guys feel worried about this before your rotations, and how has it turned out? I almost expect a backlash of sarcastic replies from this post since you probably view me as a naive, little soon-to-be MS1, which I probably am, but if anyone answers this post seriously, I would totally appreciate it! Thanks

 

[14022]

It depends who your attending is and how stupid your answer is. Some attendings are cool about it and make you think about the right answer. I have attendings that have criticized me when I gave the right answer. So it all depends. No one keeps track of right and wrong answers, but people who generally gets questions right usually gets a better evaluation than those that usually gets them wrong. This of course is assuming that the tqo students perform similarly in other areas, such as professionalism, patient rapport, presentations on rounds, work ethic, etc. Generally, those that work hard, have good attitudes, are enthusiastic, and have a geniune interest in learning get good evals...from my experience at least.

 

[Dr.Evil1]

RULE OF THUMB: If you got a bad evaluation, you probably deserved it. Every bad eval posted so far is followed by "that guy was such an unfair jerk." Give me a break. I'm picking on this massive cool guy because his eval said his attitude sucked and he was unprofessional, and trying to disprove that he showed just how much his attitude sucked.....

Geez dukes you are a bit snippy, were you post call when you wrote this? I think that it does suck when you show up, work your ass off, then get no recognition for it because the attending you were working for is too busy or just has a personality disorder

I did not get many bad evals during my clinical rotations and none from attendings (other than the "needs to read more"). When I did get a bad eval from a resident it was usually more because of a personality difference then because of the way I took care of patients or my fund of knowledge. That sucks and when it impacts your grade (and possibly your residency) then the system is flawed.

 

[OhFace]

Best Comments (by a female attending): Best sex I've ever had!
Worst Comments (by male attending): My wife says this student is the best sex she ever had!

 

[irrka]

a personal pet peeve: when they write one thing in the actual text evaluation and fill out a completely different number. as in "excellent interviewing skills" in the text eval and checked off "average interviewing skills"--too bad the checks are the ones that actually add up to the actual grade.

 

[irrka]

So far the most perplexing eval logic I have seen:
Plastics Attending: "Excellent student. Superior knowledge of surgical techniques and principles. Will make excellent houseofficer."
Eval: Pass

i got one like that too. and they'll say it to your face too and not think that there's any contradiction. you'd think it'd cost them money to raise the grade to something corresponding to their comments. who's bitter?

 

[PairODocs]

4th year is beautiful: Best and Worst

Uro rotation (Entire comments section):

Outstanding student. Not too punctual. Grade A

A huge victory considering I was away on interviews 8 of 10 days. They thought I was late..... I was actually not even in the state. Pretty good, huh?

 

[Doc Oc]

4th year is beautiful: Best and Worst

Uro rotation (Entire comments section):

Outstanding student. Not too punctual. Grade A

A huge victory considering I was away on interviews 8 of 10 days. They thought I was late..... I was actually not even in the state. Pretty good, huh?

I have an evaluation for an anesthesiology rotation in my file. It is filled out for me, and the grade is honors, with the highest column marked for everything, but the guy wrote absolutely no comments. Want to know why? He probably couldn't remember who I was. Because he didn't know who I was. Because I didn't do an anesthesiology rotation. Or any other rotation at that hospital. I don't know who he is either.

But apparently since most evaluations are deserved, I am quite proud of myself

 

[RonaldColeman]

Best Comments (by a female attending): Best sex I've ever had!
Worst Comments (by male attending): My wife says this student is the best sex she ever had!

Dang, this guy got banned! This is the funniest post yet.

 

[CallawayDoc]

Best: Superior student. We should actively recruit him for our program.

"Worst": from peds..."didn't seem comfortable continuing with physical exam when child was crying from fear or pain"-----I considered that a compliment.

 

[Carbon]

My personal favorite so far has been "Very good manners."

 

[gunit07]

Best: Superior student. We should actively recruit him for our program.

"Worst": from peds..."didn't seem comfortable continuing with physical exam when child was crying from fear or pain"-----I considered that a compliment.

i had a similar comment on peds! i dont get them - they ENJOY torturing children??

i think some attendings assume that if you do an excellent job, you get an average eval, because excellence is expected. I had a family medicine attending try to convince me daily to go into family medicine, and every single patient was like, "wow, she's great! you should give her an A ++" and i got the eval and got straight 3/5s. i emailed her just to ask how i can improve upon my skills, and she replied saying i did a great job and i'll be successfull in whatever field i choose. she had NO suggestions for improvement! she just reaffirmed that i did a good job - so why not a good eval?!?!

it's so frustrating, becuase you know that there are some attendings who give people average evals even if they suck, just because they dont want to fail them.

grrrr!!

 

[josh's dad]

i had a similar comment on peds! i dont get them - they ENJOY torturing children??

No, but in some parts of the exam (e.g. ears) it's often easier on the kid if you just keep going and finish it as quickly as you can while still getting adequate visualization. If you stop and wait for the kid to stop crying, they often will start up again as soon as they see you approaching with the otoscope.

 

[kaos]

So far the most perplexing eval logic I have seen:
Plastics Attending: "Excellent student. Superior knowledge of surgical techniques and principles. Will make excellent houseofficer."
Eval: Pass

That seems to happen to me all the time. What is with these people??

OBGYN department chair: "Excellent student. Sometimes overzealous. Stayed more hours than any other medical student. Hard worker, excellent bedside manner. Loved by patients. We would love to have her enter the field of OBGYN."
Grade: B

Chair's response when I asked him about the discrepancy: "Didn't you read the comments? I gave you a great eval! I don't see what's wrong with the grade!"

I can't wait to see what my Surgery evals are like.

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

my best friend is an MSIII right now and had a horrible time in her surgical rotation... the attending basically told her that he didn't think that, as a woman, she had the physical stamina and future willingness to be able to put in the same kind of hours and be as dedicated as a male student, after all they're not having babies. and they're not fragile. ha! what a mess.
she was so upset, as she wants to go into general surgery

 

[quideam]

my best friend is an MSIII right now and had a horrible time in her surgical rotation... the attending basically told her that he didn't think that, as a woman, she had the physical stamina and future willingness to be able to put in the same kind of hours and be as dedicated as a male student, after all they're not having babies. and they're not fragile. ha! what a mess.
she was so upset, as she wants to go into general surgery

wow!! what a jerk - that's just crazy. Was this attending an old guy? Maybe it's just one of those "good old boy" mentality things....!?!

 

[gunit07]

i figure, why torture the kid twice?
sometimes, the attending had to have me and the mom hold down the kid so she could look in the kid's throat. (i always found throats harder than ears anyways)
and when the kids were supersick, i didnt want to do that to them when the attending was going to do it regardless.
poor kiddies

i had a similar comment on peds! i dont get them - they ENJOY torturing children??

No, but in some parts of the exam (e.g. ears) it's often easier on the kid if you just keep going and finish it as quickly as you can while still getting adequate visualization. If you stop and wait for the kid to stop crying, they often will start up again as soon as they see you approaching with the otoscope.

 

[Hurricane]

My school puts quotes of positive comments into our Dean's letter.

They only put in the positive comments and omit the negative ones? That's odd. Our evaluations have a "comprehensive eval for DL" section that goes into the DL in its entirety - good and bad - then a "constructive criticism" section that doesn't go into the DL that lists areas of strength and areas needing improvement.

Anyway, my worst/most puzzling comment came from one of the "areas needing improvement" sections: "Hurricane should work on being a little less compulsive in her thought processes." Wha? From a psych elective that I honored.

Best comment: "Hurricane develops good rapport with difficult patients, is a self-starter, dependable and responsible, interested in improving herself and thinks independently. She was a joy to have in the office and will do well in any field of medicine she chooses." From Family. Then the preceptor - who I really liked - gave me all 4's because he said that he rarely gives anyone 5s, and he doesn't really like the kind of student who gets all 5s, and he liked me. WTF. Missed honors by 0.1 point. Bah.

Oh well, I can laugh about it now. I matched where I wanted to go and that's all that matters

 

[carrigallen]

What happens if you dont know the answer to any of the questions you're asked? Does that contribute to a worse evaluation?

An attending often pimped me on anatomy, and I know I got almost every question wrong. On my eval, under "fund of information/clinical knowledge base" he just circled "No chance to observe". In general, I think answering questions right looks good, but not knowing the answer isn't going to doom you.

 

[loveumms]

I'm sure that's it.....It's not that you sucked at Psychiatry...it's that he's jealous of what a big awesome man you are....
I can't believe these posts, they show almost no insight....is anybody else tired of reading posts where people talk about how cool and smart they are, and tell some story where the sole purpose is to make them look great. "So I got like the highest shelf score in my school's history..." SHUT UP!!! NO YOU DIDN'T!!!
I am on these forums WAY too much, I admit, mostly because it's entertaining to read such complete crap from what I'm sure are average medical students exaggerating there accomplishments to an audience that has no way of calling them out on it.

RULE OF THUMB: If you got a bad evaluation, you probably deserved it. Every bad eval posted so far is followed by "that guy was such an unfair jerk." Give me a break. I'm picking on this massive cool guy because his eval said his attitude sucked and he was unprofessional, and trying to disprove that he showed just how much his attitude sucked.....

I for one think that his claims might be legitimate. One of my F classmates who is a looker got a crappy evaluation from an unattractive F resident, that I am positive she did not deserve (I saw her perform and the eval is not true). These things happen. I'd say a good 50 to 75% of evals are not fair, whether good or bad.[/QUOTE]


Dude - I def feel ya, and have made several comments on these boards to the same effect but sometimes I think the posters are just being comical.

When I was waiting for my step I results people would post how they got 280 and didn't study blah, blah and then degrade someone who asked a question on one of the boards that was already answered like six months ago. That is just the nature of internet forums. No one knows who you are or what your evals, scores, grades or anything else for that matter really is/are. Therefore people are going to try and fib in order to make themselves to look cooler.

 

[rachana]

dude thanks to all of your for posting your crappy evals of "needs to read more". i got that on my medicine rotation in the fall and luckily it's the worst one (so far, knock on wood). glad to hear everyone else gets crazy, random evaluations that make no sense!

 

[xaelia]

....people would post how they got 280 and didn't study blah, blah and then degrade someone who asked a question on one of the boards that was already answered like six months ago. That is just the nature of internet forums. No one knows who you are or what your evals, scores, grades or anything else for that matter really is/are.

My step 1 score made it back off the USMLE forums into misc. circulation at my medical school. Imagine my surprise when the nosy old guy who camps out at the coffeeshop we all study at was congratulating me....

Large schools, semi-anonymous posts...you never know who will read what you write.