Premeds: Just Breathe (AMA)

[TJM329]

Hi all.

I'm a regular SDN reader who has in the past posted as a premed and even as a medical student during the first couple of years, and I've been following this site since 2005 when someone suggested I check it out when thinking about applying for med school. I want to provide some insight into the path I took and how things worked out for me, and maybe provide some inspiration to others. I want people to realize that yes, the road seems long, and for me at MANY points seemed completely insurmountable, but great things are possible. I came from a rather nontraditional background, and was very poor growing up/all through college.

The tl;dr:
1. 2.89 GPA first two years of college
2. Non premed major
3. 33Q MCAT
4. Applied to med school, got accepted into 8, including my top choice
5. Ended up honoring all my preclinical courses, mostly high passes in clinical years
6. 260 Step I, 267 Step II
7. Matched first choice Derm residency

Edit: I apologize, I had posted a very long diatribe here but immediately removed it because of some errors. I will correct and repost!

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[Deekle]

I'll change my original post from "I'm the queen of England" because your follow ups at least sound legit, and the advice is sound. My original feelings of doubt still remain slightly... Why create a new account to share this info? Why not use the same acct you used to post as a pre-med?

 

[seafood92]

What was your major and when did you begin taking the pre reqs? What were your ECs like? MD or DO?

 

[Slowpoke]

What piece of advice would you give to all of those getting ready to start medical school?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Probability

 

[mipp0]

inb4 URM inquiry or troll mention

 

[Hipster]

Hi all.

I'm a regular SDN reader who has in the past posted as a premed and even as a medical student during the first couple of years, and I've been following this site since 2005 when someone suggested I check it out when thinking about applying for med school. I want to provide some insight into the path I took and how things worked out for me, and maybe provide some inspiration to others. I want people to realize that yes, the road seems long, and for me at MANY points seemed completely insurmountable, but great things are possible. I came from a rather nontraditional background, and was very poor growing up/all through college.

The tl;dr:
1. 2.89 GPA first two years of college
2. Non premed major
3. 33Q MCAT
4. Applied to med school, got accepted into 8, including my top choice
5. Ended up honoring all my preclinical courses, mostly high passes in clinical years
6. 260 Step I, 267 Step II
7. Matched first choice Derm residency

Edit: I apologize, I had posted a very long diatribe here but immediately removed it because of some errors. I will correct and repost!

Can you add the physician verified symbol to your posts?

 

[TJM329]

My apologies to all, I was in the middle of trying to update the original post when something rather emergent came up.

Anyway, before I do that, let me address the posts so far:

What was your major and when did you begin taking the pre reqs? What were your ECs like? MD or DO?

I majored in Exercise Science, thinking I might go to PT school originally. But I only decided on that major after I transferred schools (after two years at a small private liberal arts college). The first two years of school I was aimlessly taking random courses and had no direction in my life, hence the rather poor GPA. I took one Biology course during that time and got a C in it. I didn't start taking any of the other pre-reqs until my 4th year of undergrad (2nd of 3 years at the school to which I transferred). I ended up with a 3.96 over the course of those 3 years so that my graduating GPA was 3.96, but my cumulative GPA for applying to medical school was ~3.55. After transferring and deciding I was going to do PT or med school, I ended up really focusing on doing well in school, and that made all the difference.

EC's included Division I athletics, some music ensembles, leadership in a club on campus, and working as a medical assistant for a year or so.

I applied only MD. I applied to 14 schools, got 9 interviews, and accepted to 7 outright, and waitlisted at the other two (eventually got in off one of the waitlists, although I didn't end up going there anyway).

 

[TJM329]

What piece of advice would you give to all of those getting ready to start medical school?

Relax and recharge your batteries as best you can. I took a year off between undergrad and medical school because I didn't decide on med school until pretty late in the game and would've been rushing to apply (I didn't take the MCAT until August after graduation, for example). Having a year off was great to let me kind of recharge and then hit the ground running the first day of med school. It's made things easier, I think, and a lot of my classmates who took no time off or crammed in a ton of busy things the summer before med school felt the burnout pretty quickly it seemed.

That, and keep an open mind and be willing to alter your study habits if necessary. Tweak your already-successful habits, and do NOT get caught up in how everyone else studies.

 

[TJM329]

inb4 URM inquiry or troll mention

I'm a white male and totally legit.

Can you add the physician verified symbol to your posts?

I'm actually a graduating 4th year medical student now, so I will officially be a physician in a month and a half.

 

[flatearth22]

What rank school do you go to?

What did you do prepare for Step 1?

Why did you pick Derm besides amazing lifestyle, low stress, and high salary?

Any overall tips for matching into a competitive specialty?

 

[TJM329]

What rank school do you go to?

What did you do prepare for Step 1?

Why did you pick Derm besides amazing lifestyle, low stress, and high salary?

Any overall tips for matching into a competitive specialty?

1. School is in the 30-50 range (often closer to 50, but the rankings tend to fluctuate so people will keep buying US News).

2. In all honesty, the best thing I did was worked my ass off all of M1/M2. While other people may spout things like "you should just focus on the big picture and then study from board review books during M1/M2", they fail to realize that by really learning EVERYTHING you can, you make your job so much easier when dedicated boards studying comes around. For instance, I took a practice NBME the day after my last day of M2 (the day before I started my dedicated boards study time of 4.5 weeks) and scored a 236. That said, I used the Taus method (with slight modifications). I didn't really do any boards prep specifically until starting in Jan or Feb of M2, where I'd start to slowly review some key topics in FA/Goljan. Also, I did listen to Goljan audio for much of M2 as I walked to and from class or when I was in the gym. That was definitely key. There are no shortcuts to success, and I'll reiterate that my main sources were FA, Goljan, and UWorld, with a few other books to supplement the Taus method (HY Neuro, Kaplan Biochem). Took UWSA1 2.5 weeks out from the real thing and got a 254, took an NBME (whichever was the most recent) 1.5 weeks out and got a 262.

3. I originally thought I'd want to do a surgical subspecialty like Urology, but during 3rd year realized I really didn't want to be operating all day, even in a specialty like Urology that has a nice mix of surgery and clinic. I do still like procedures, though, and being able to do smaller procedures on a fairly regular basis is nice, although I've always kind of enjoyed outpatient/clinic settings more. So on that front, Derm appealed to me, and I will of course admit the lifestyle/pay influenced that decision too. But I looked into a lot of things (medicine subspecialties like GI or Endocrine, for example), but at the end of the day Derm just sorta made sense, and as I started to investigate whether I really would like it (via shadowing/research during 3rd year when I had down time), I realized it was perfect for my personality and for how I learned things and related information to patients. It's hard to verbalize to people at times, but it's one of those "you just know you belong" type feelings. I'll admit that it was pretty scary having that feeling and then realizing that it was still a very difficult road to climb to reach my newfound goals (i.e. matching Derm is tough for anyone).

4. Overall tips: approach med school from Day 1 as if you want to do a very competitive specialty. If you aim high and achieve great things, you're set for pretty much any specialty. If you aim high and don't quite reach your goals, you will likely still be in a good position for most things on your plate. I know lots of people who would say stuff like "oh I'm just aiming for Family Medicine so I don't need to worry about scoring too well on this class exam/Step I/whatever", and that kind of attitude not only does your patients a disservice, but it may close doors to you in the future. One of my best friends was dead set on Family Medicine until he did a Derm rotation during 3rd year and found he loved it. But his bottom 25% class rank/215 board score may preclude him from ever reaching those dreams, unfortunately (although I will say he just recently matched at his top Family Medicine residency and is thrilled and will be a great doctor, I am sure).
Additionally, don't freak if you don't know what you want to do from day 1. I literally decided for sure on Derm like 1 year (almost to the day) prior to match day. Which means I had to work a little harder to fit stuff in like research/scheduling aways/etc, but it was certainly doable. But if you think you might be interested in certain specialties, investigate them as much as possible. I thought for sure I was gonna do Urology, and got two pubs out of some Uro research after M1, only to find during third year that I really didn't see myself in the field (or any real surgical field) at all. It would've been nice to figure that out sooner, if possible. But that leads me to one more thing: Research. I had minimal derm research to my name when I was interviewing, but I had a few pubs from Urology research and a good LOR from my PI, and that definitely showed programs that I was capable of research, even if I was not yet published in the Derm field.

Finally, a major key to success no matter what you want to do is to be nice and personable. This will carry you far during third/fourth years, on interviews, and even in your day to day interactions with your classmates and with your administrators. I was inducted into our school's Gold Humanism Honor Society based on peer nominations, so clearly having had a track record of positive interactions with people (even if I wasn't the most sociable person in my class) helped. And, I will admit that there seems to be a political slant on AOA selection (not always purposely, but it's definitely part of the process), so keep in mind you want to be a nice, likeable person that anyone would want to have on your team.

 

[flatearth22]

1. School is in the 30-50 range (often closer to 50, but the rankings tend to fluctuate so people will keep buying US News).

2. In all honesty, the best thing I did was worked my ass off all of M1/M2. While other people may spout things like "you should just focus on the big picture and then study from board review books during M1/M2", they fail to realize that by really learning EVERYTHING you can, you make your job so much easier when dedicated boards studying comes around. For instance, I took a practice NBME the day after my last day of M2 (the day before I started my dedicated boards study time of 4.5 weeks) and scored a 236. That said, I used the Taus method (with slight modifications). I didn't really do any boards prep specifically until starting in Jan or Feb of M2, where I'd start to slowly review some key topics in FA/Goljan. Also, I did listen to Goljan audio for much of M2 as I walked to and from class or when I was in the gym. That was definitely key. There are no shortcuts to success, and I'll reiterate that my main sources were FA, Goljan, and UWorld, with a few other books to supplement the Taus method (HY Neuro, Kaplan Biochem). Took UWSA1 2.5 weeks out from the real thing and got a 254, took an NBME (whichever was the most recent) 1.5 weeks out and got a 262.

3. I originally thought I'd want to do a surgical subspecialty like Urology, but during 3rd year realized I really didn't want to be operating all day, even in a specialty like Urology that has a nice mix of surgery and clinic. I do still like procedures, though, and being able to do smaller procedures on a fairly regular basis is nice, although I've always kind of enjoyed outpatient/clinic settings more. So on that front, Derm appealed to me, and I will of course admit the lifestyle/pay influenced that decision too. But I looked into a lot of things (medicine subspecialties like GI or Endocrine, for example), but at the end of the day Derm just sorta made sense, and as I started to investigate whether I really would like it (via shadowing/research during 3rd year when I had down time), I realized it was perfect for my personality and for how I learned things and related information to patients. It's hard to verbalize to people at times, but it's one of those "you just know you belong" type feelings. I'll admit that it was pretty scary having that feeling and then realizing that it was still a very difficult road to climb to reach my newfound goals (i.e. matching Derm is tough for anyone).

4. Overall tips: approach med school from Day 1 as if you want to do a very competitive specialty. If you aim high and achieve great things, you're set for pretty much any specialty. If you aim high and don't quite reach your goals, you will likely still be in a good position for most things on your plate. I know lots of people who would say stuff like "oh I'm just aiming for Family Medicine so I don't need to worry about scoring too well on this class exam/Step I/whatever", and that kind of attitude not only does your patients a disservice, but it may close doors to you in the future. One of my best friends was dead set on Family Medicine until he did a Derm rotation during 3rd year and found he loved it. But his bottom 25% class rank/215 board score may preclude him from ever reaching those dreams, unfortunately (although I will say he just recently matched at his top Family Medicine residency and is thrilled and will be a great doctor, I am sure).
Additionally, don't freak if you don't know what you want to do from day 1. I literally decided for sure on Derm like 1 year (almost to the day) prior to match day. Which means I had to work a little harder to fit stuff in like research/scheduling aways/etc, but it was certainly doable. But if you think you might be interested in certain specialties, investigate them as much as possible. I thought for sure I was gonna do Urology, and got two pubs out of some Uro research after M1, only to find during third year that I really didn't see myself in the field (or any real surgical field) at all. It would've been nice to figure that out sooner, if possible. But that leads me to one more thing: Research. I had minimal derm research to my name when I was interviewing, but I had a few pubs from Urology research and a good LOR from my PI, and that definitely showed programs that I was capable of research, even if I was not yet published in the Derm field.

Finally, a major key to success no matter what you want to do is to be nice and personable. This will carry you far during third/fourth years, on interviews, and even in your day to day interactions with your classmates and with your administrators. I was inducted into our school's Gold Humanism Honor Society based on peer nominations, so clearly having had a track record of positive interactions with people (even if I wasn't the most sociable person in my class) helped. And, I will admit that there seems to be a political slant on AOA selection (not always purposely, but it's definitely part of the process), so keep in mind you want to be a nice, likeable person that anyone would want to have on your team.

Wow...very thorough and insightful. Thank you and best of luck

 

[TJM329]

Wow...very thorough and insightful. Thank you and best of luck

Thank you. SDN was a huge inspiration to me (even though it can be daunting reading people's posts on here sometimes), and literally got me from the "uh, maybe I'll try to apply to medical school even though it seems impossible" stage to the "wow, I'm actually doing this and things are working out" stage. The advice on this site, while a bit neurotic at times, can really help you sort through the whole process and allow you to be better prepared for what lies ahead.

I honestly credit SDN for not only helping me me get into medical school, but for helping me develop good study habits for class and Step I, for helping me manage 3rd year well, and for figuring out how to apply successfully for arguably the hardest (or second hardest) specialty out there.

So, while I'm still poor and money is tight, I wanted to "donate" to SDN in any way possible. Until I have a little more in the bank, my advice will hopefully suffice.

 

[TJM329]

Is all that stuff about having your life completely consumed by med school and you have to put in 14 hours a day and have to fully commit yourself if you want to be a doctor and all that stuff true? What can you tell us about the lifestyle of a med student? Is it true that students who want to be doctors are almost like martyrs lol?

Well, here's where the ugly truth may rear its head: M1/M2 was not the happiest time in the world. In fact, there were times during M2 where I got a bit depressed, I'll admit. Not like jump-off-a-cliff depressed, but significant enough to bother me. Having friends outside of medical school to rely on really helped.

Since I was hell-bent on doing as well as I could during medical school, and since my successful study habits tend to be fairly time consuming (I end up having to hand write all my notes which are very extensive and this slows me down), M1/M2 years were very all-consuming for me. I still stayed in good shape by going to the gym several times a week, although not the kind of shape I am now (4th year really is wonderful and allows you more time other than interview season to focus on becoming a normal person again).

Everyone, however, is different. Your overall goals may be different, and the law of diminishing returns certainly applies to medical school. While I probably spent 14-16 hours daily for more days than I'd care to admit, I could've probably spent significantly less time with maybe not a HUGE drop in my performances, but enough of a drop to make me uncomfortable with it. I realize not everyone will honor everything or score a 280 on Step I, and so keeping that in mind is key. Many of my classmates were better than I was during the first two years at maintaining more of a social life I'd say, although I certainly was no hermit. There was just the ever-present guilt that whenever I was out on the town having a good time, I felt like I was missing out on valuable study time. In retrospect it worked out for me grade/score-wise, but it did kinda suck. I'm happy it's behind me, but the bottom line is that I'm happy I really did put in the time and effort to get me where I am today. It's all about perspective and goals. Other people probably think the amount of time I put in was more than they'd want to, and are more than willing to accept a different outcome with perhaps lower scores. That's not a bad thing, I just wouldn't recommend anyone willingly sell themselves short. Try to do as well as you can to learn for yourself and your patients while still maintaining what you can of your life. I won't lie though, you won't have the same kind of time as you did in undergrad, that's for sure. There are always outliers (the girl in my class who went to NYC to visit her friends literally almost every weekend during M1 and honored every single test/class), but it's best to assume you're not a super gifted savant.

My school does lecture from 8-10 in the morning and lab 10-12, so you have all afternoon/evening off to study (or do whatever). I study better on my own anyway so this worked well for me. It also gave me the freedom to go to the gym, the post office, the mechanic, etc during the day during normal business hours, which was nice. Usually we had exams every three or four weeks, so the weekend after a test I might go out one or both nights, the next weekend maybe go out one night, and then the weekend or two prior to the test I'd tend to stay in). During M3, your schedule is up to your rotation requirements, but it's safe to assume that for the most part you'll be spending much of your waking hours in the hospital/clinic. I really enjoyed this time though, and you get to work closely with classmates you didn't get to know too well during M1/M2, which was surprisingly fun and exciting for me. Some of my best med school friends now are the ones I met during third year rotations.

All in all you don't have to be a martyr, and your ratio of work put in to success achieved will vary somewhat, but med school can be a trying time for any, academically and emotionally. I don't want to pretend it's not, but I do want to emphasize that as a 4th year looking back on it, I realize that spending the preclinical years working as hard as I did has really paid dividends now.

 

[Dr. Ducky]

Well, here's where the ugly truth may rear its head: M1/M2 was not the happiest time in the world. In fact, there were times during M2 where I got a bit depressed, I'll admit. Not like jump-off-a-cliff depressed, but significant enough to bother me. Having friends outside of medical school to rely on really helped.

Since I was hell-bent on doing as well as I could during medical school, and since my successful study habits tend to be fairly time consuming (I end up having to hand write all my notes which are very extensive and this slows me down), M1/M2 years were very all-consuming for me. I still stayed in good shape by going to the gym several times a week, although not the kind of shape I am now (4th year really is wonderful and allows you more time other than interview season to focus on becoming a normal person again).

Everyone, however, is different. Your overall goals may be different, and the law of diminishing returns certainly applies to medical school. While I probably spent 14-16 hours daily for more days than I'd care to admit, I could've probably spent significantly less time with maybe not a HUGE drop in my performances, but enough of a drop to make me uncomfortable with it. I realize not everyone will honor everything or score a 280 on Step I, and so keeping that in mind is key. Many of my classmates were better than I was during the first two years at maintaining more of a social life I'd say, although I certainly was no hermit. There was just the ever-present guilt that whenever I was out on the town having a good time, I felt like I was missing out on valuable study time. In retrospect it worked out for me grade/score-wise, but it did kinda suck. I'm happy it's behind me, but the bottom line is that I'm happy I really did put in the time and effort to get me where I am today. It's all about perspective and goals. Other people probably think the amount of time I put in was more than they'd want to, and are more than willing to accept a different outcome with perhaps lower scores. That's not a bad thing, I just wouldn't recommend anyone willingly sell themselves short. Try to do as well as you can to learn for yourself and your patients while still maintaining what you can of your life. I won't lie though, you won't have the same kind of time as you did in undergrad, that's for sure. There are always outliers (the girl in my class who went to NYC to visit her friends literally almost every weekend during M1 and honored every single test/class), but it's best to assume you're not a super gifted savant.

My school does lecture from 8-10 in the morning and lab 10-12, so you have all afternoon/evening off to study (or do whatever). I study better on my own anyway so this worked well for me. It also gave me the freedom to go to the gym, the post office, the mechanic, etc during the day during normal business hours, which was nice. Usually we had exams every three or four weeks, so the weekend after a test I might go out one or both nights, the next weekend maybe go out one night, and then the weekend or two prior to the test I'd tend to stay in). During M3, your schedule is up to your rotation requirements, but it's safe to assume that for the most part you'll be spending much of your waking hours in the hospital/clinic. I really enjoyed this time though, and you get to work closely with classmates you didn't get to know too well during M1/M2, which was surprisingly fun and exciting for me. Some of my best med school friends now are the ones I met during third year rotations.

All in all you don't have to be a martyr, and your ratio of work put in to success achieved will vary somewhat, but med school can be a trying time for any, academically and emotionally. I don't want to pretend it's not, but I do want to emphasize that as a 4th year looking back on it, I realize that spending the preclinical years working as hard as I did has really paid dividends now.

^Great Info...SDN at its finest. Thanks so much for putting in the time to write this.

 

[TJM329]

^Great Info...SDN at its finest. Thanks so much for putting in the time to write this.

As I said, I'm more than happy to help. SDN was such a helpful and inspirational resource for me, so it's pretty surreal to feel like I'm on the other side of the fence now.

I still remember the day I found SDN. I was in a campus computer lab posting on a college football messageboard that had a subforum about random stuff, and I mentioned something about wanting to apply to med school in the future, and someone suggested I come here for advice. The post was something to the effect of "Check out studentdoctor.net . . . it's often times neurotic and everyone there worries about whether a 3.99 will keep them out of med school, but it should help you with what you're looking for."

I spent the next hour or two browsing the site, and it became a permanent bookmark in my internet adventures ever since.

 

[TJM329]

Also, while I've already covered much of what I originally wanted to with my last few posts, let me add a few things about my story:

I attended a small private liberal arts college with no real major/direction. I transferred after two years to a larger school and planned on doing PT school, although I knew I had a lot of work to do after pulling down 4 semesters of a sub 2.9 GPA. I really made a huge turnaround with regards to my study habits, and having a very real goal made it so much easier to study. I eventually changed from PT to Med school, but it was a difficult choice to make. Even when I did find SDN, everything sounded so daunting and impossible. I thought the only people who got in were 4.0/37T's who had published research papers and cured cancer.

For what it's worth, I did zero research in undergrad. Maybe that kept me out of the Harvards or Yales, but I got more invites/acceptances than I ever dreamed, to be honest. I firmly believe that having some good LORs (not from big names, but from people who knew me well) and my fairly decent personality helped all along the way during the application/interview process.

I also come from a large family (6 kids, single mother), so money was definitely tight. I didn't even know about FAP when I applied, but I probably was eligible for it. I ended up working for a year between undergad and med school, and much of this money (and money I saved from working in college) went towards AMCAS fees.

My best friend from college will vouch for me when I say that I doubted myself daily. Whether it was the cost, the difficulty with studying for a test or the MCAT, the time commitment, or just the reality of the number of hoops I had to jump through, I worried a lot. I worried that, despite my "cumulative" GPA of 3.5+, people would look at my first two years of college and write me off. Fortunately, it only even ever came up in one of my interviews, and it was not done so in a negative way. It was more of a conversation about "so I see you started out poorly but really overcame that, what did you learn from this?"

I could go into more detail about once I got to med school, but I realize premeds probably prefer to hear more about the process getting into medical school, and for at least the first two years of med school there's not much to say anyway except "I studied my butt off and was just so thankful to be given a chance to prove myself that I didn't want to screw up." I wanted to show people that not only did I belong, but that I could excel. And coming from a poor family, I really wanted to find success in my own way. It felt like a gamble taking on so much med school debt, and almost irresponsible to do so with no real family backing me for emergency situations, financially, which maybe drove me to work a little harder in order to be able to set myself up for a well paying specialty if that ended up being what I was interested in. I will be honest and admit that drove my study habits at times.

I was told by my premed adviser that I should focus on DO schools, but SDN told me otherwise and I went with that and never looked back (and please don't take this as a slight to DO schools, I just was not interested in that). I was looked at with almost condescending surprise by my committee when they saw my MCAT score (not an amazing score by SDN standards, but higher than many premeds at my school apparently). I just never let this get me down (at least not for too long).

If you had to ask me for the most important - albeit generic - piece of advice for success in this process, I would say: Be Persistent. Not to the point of stubbornness, and don't have wholly unrealistic goals, but at least aim high and continue to work as hard as you can. There really aren't any shortcuts in this process . . . at least not any that you should reliably count on.

 

[xxhopefulxx]

Wow this is some great advice...thank you for taking the time. It gives me a little hope that these things are possible. Best of luck to you.

 

[sbuxaddict]

Wow, great story, congratulations on the Derm residency!

Any tips/advice about conquering the MCAT?

 

[TJM329]

Wow, great story, congratulations on the Derm residency!

Any tips/advice about conquering the MCAT?

Well, there may be others better qualified to speak about the MCAT (I "only" scored a 33Q and I know plenty of SDNers score higher than that), but I'm happy to give my advice.

I almost exclusively used the ExamKrackers Study Set (or whatever it's called, with all the subject books) along with the EK Bio 1001 questions, EK Verbal 101, and EK Audio Osmosis (if you notice, there's a trend with me using audio resources when walking to and from class or driving/taking the bus . . . for me, it really helps drive home the ideas I've already studied, and lets me "learn" during time that's otherwise spent listening to music). I also got my hands on some of the Kaplan subject exams (which were so so) and the AAMC practice exams (which were definitely awesome).

I graduated from college in May of 2006, but still had not taken Organic Chem I/II or Physics II. So, in a bit of a gamble, I decided to take all 3 courses during the summer of 2006 immediately after graduation (graduated on a Saturday, started classes two days later on Monday). I did this while also signing up to take the August MCAT, which was scheduled for ~1.5 weeks after my summer courses would end.

So, knowing this was my plan a few months in advance, I started the EK workbooks in February or March of 2006 during my last semester of school before graduation, and slowly worked through them when I had "free time" away from my other classes. Since I knew I would be fairly busy with classes of one type or another up until a week or two before the MCAT, I figured a slow and steady approach would have to do. I also knew that Organic I/II and Physics II would obviously be tested on the MCAT, so taking those courses (and working on the appropriate EK passages during those courses) would be great MCAT prep as well. So it's not like the classes I took over the summer weren't also helping my MCAT prep.

I tried to follow the schedule that EK gives you (I think it comes with the book set, or maybe I just downloaded it from someone on SDN), and made sure I did lots of practice problems. My strategy (which is sorta how the books are set up) was to review a subject, then immediately take practice test questions on that subject (say, electrochemistry for example). I didn't take any full length exams until the middle of June, I think, about two months out. And at that point, I began taking one full length AAMC exam each Saturday leading up to the real thing. My last two AAMC full lengths were a 32 and a 35, so the 33 I ended up with was fairly well predicted, I'd say. (Incidentally, my school offered a free Kaplan diagnostic exam randomly on a Saturday in February, which I took right as I was about to start my long slow EK prep, and I scored a 24 with 8's across the board).

My overarching advice would be to figure out what resources you will use and stick with those. For me, EK was amazing, and helped turn an otherwise monotonous process into a (gasp) almost enjoyable couple of months studying. Try not to spread yourself too thin, but find a nice balance of review books and practice questions. As you get closer to the real thing, hopefully you will be able to increase the ratio of practice questions to review books you're using, because once you lay the foundation with all the review books, getting used to the actual passage styles and such is essential. I don't know that I have a get rich quick scheme for Verbal, as I was scoring mostly 10's (and a few 11's or 12's, as well as a few 8's or 9's) on my practice exams and on EK 101 Verbal. I did find the EK Verbal practice passages as close to the real thing as I could find, and I agree with what someone else said on another thread, namely that you should try to figure out WHY you disagreed with/did not answer the correct answer for questions you got wrong. Don't get indignant and try to reason that you're smarter than EK/Verbal passages in general. Instead, try to figure out how the question writers arrived at their answers (which EK does a good job of explaining), and apply that train of thought to all future passages.

I hope that's not too long a description, and hopefully I've touched on some key things. I know my study plan was a tad unorthodox (with taking summer courses right up until the real thing), and I know some people do better by just cramming in a couple weeks of intense studying and getting it over with, but for me I found that a long term steady study plan worked best (for both the MCAT and for Step I, actually).

 

[Hemorrage]

your the most well worded advice giver i've ever seen on SDN. Thanks. Your post gave me a hint of relief.

 

[TJM329]

I also don't want people to misconstrue my posts to mean that you should bank on crushing med school after doing poorly in undergrad. I really did change the way I studied and made changes in the way I approached school in general and that helped tremendously. I also will admit some of what got me to where I am today was probably some dumb luck.

But I do hope that my story helps people realize that others who have come before you have struggled with finding their rhythm and have worried incessantly about each and every step, but have still been able to find success.

 

[DavetheMD]

When I read your story - I started feeling like we were the same person. I just wanted to say thank you for the inspiring posts. I often feel like there's no study method that I can find to hit my GPA out of the park, but definitely an audio learner as well.

Once again, thank you. It's threads on SDN like this one that make it worth being a member.

 

[Big N Tasty]

Thanks for all the insight! Thread sub'd for future reading.

 

[EvilSponge]

Thanks for your time. I had a few questions.
1) Is your school P/F? If yes, how does that affect the dynamics of grading/ranks in terms of matching?
2) I'm assuming you were AOA right? Is that "mandatory" to match into a competitive specialty?
3) How important are EC's in med school (like volunteering, misc activities)?

 

[TJM329]

Thanks for your time. I had a few questions.
1) Is your school P/F? If yes, how does that affect the dynamics of grading/ranks in terms of matching?
2) I'm assuming you were AOA right? Is that "mandatory" to match into a competitive specialty?
3) How important are EC's in med school (like volunteering, misc activities)?

1. My school has traditional A/B/C/F grading. Which, in reality, is no different than Honors/High Pass/Pass/Fail grading. I think grading is a good thing (but then again, I got good grades), because it helps program directors get a good idea of where an individual falls within a continuum of his or her peers (along with other metrics like Step I and such). Most P/F schools do still rank their students internally and report this in the MSPE ("Dean's Letter"), so it's somewhat of a moot point.

2. I was AOA, yes. For some fields at the upper echelon of competitiveness (Derm, Plastics) it's extremely beneficial. I know that in Derm, ~50% of successfully matched students are AOA (and of the other 50% who were not AOA, at least some of these students are from schools that do not offer AOA). It's certainly not mandatory, even in Derm, but it most certainly helps (both in matching at all, and in getting interviews/matching to "better" programs than you may have otherwise). Even if you decide on applying to Internal Medicine, AOA status may be the difference between interviewing at a bunch of quality state university programs and interviewing at a bunch of upper tier "classically elite" academic institutions. As with any accolade, AOA status can only help you, regardless of your chosen specialty. This is as good an argument as any to "excel" in the first two years of med school (since many schools use your M1/M2 performance as criteria for AOA selection), despite SDN's membership's persistent insistence that P=MD and Step I is the only thing that matters (although, in a vacuum, Step I is more important than preclinical grades, but I argue that you ABSOLUTELY do not have to sacrifice one for the other, and that they actually complement each other).

3. EC's are of "lesser" importance in medical school compared to things like grades/Step I/research. That said, my school values med school leadership/involvement in AOA selection, so that's a consideration. But residency directors are going to be much less impressed with your "President of the Surgery Club" than your published manuscript in a given field. I would still try to maintain some involvement in things in which you are interested during med school, but NOT at the expense of doing well in class/on boards.