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- Oct 21, 2014
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Hey all, I posted this in the allopathic forum, and was told that I could get some advice here as well.
I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and have seen that many of you are very helpful. It's nice to see such a close community. This will be a long post, but if you could bear with me, I would really appreciate it.
I need some guidance about my path. I'm a US citizen in my final year of medical school in Asia. I didn't come here because I couldn't get into medical school in america - I was in a well reputed Biomedical Engineering program with plans to attend medical school. Financial issues and a desire to attain my goal drove my decision to attend this program and end up as a doctor.
I had difficulty adjusting to the system here and my gpa was quite low.. I pulled myself together in the last two years, but my gpa is still not ideal. I have, however, scored very well on most of my rotations. I feel like my basic sciences (except anatomy and pathology) are weak, but I can somehow work around all of my weaknesses on the wards. I never studied as hard as a few of my classmates have, as I've found that I learn better with hands on experience. That shows with my low basic sciences gpa and my relatively higher clinical grades. I want to start at square one. I want to understand all of medicine (I learn by understanding, not by memorizing.. everything I have learned I have done so by understanding. I haven't memorized a word throughout my 5 years here, and it's worked for me so far)..
my goal is to end up as a general surgeon initially and later to pursue a fellowship in colorectal or cardiothoracic since integrated programs are near impossible for IMGs. I can't see myself doing anything else. I don't care where I end up or if it's a community program, but that is what I want to do.
I feel like surgery is the right fit to me because it all just makes sense. I read our entire textbook once for surgery, and did amazingly on my exams. Everything just clicked. And I loved it. I love surgical patients, the whole thought process that goes into treating them, and of course I love operating. I've scrubbed in many times with the head of surgery as a first assistant (which is generally prohibited here for students). I have walked residents through procedures under his supervision. I have presented for many surgical conferences at his request.. it's my passion, to say the least.
So now that you know a bit about my background, the following are the issues I need help with:
-I'm studying for my internal medicine and pediatrics finals at the moment.. I've scraped by in my internal medicine rotations with high grades but I feel like I never understood the material.. I never felt comfortable with it, and honestly I feel like I've been cheating myself because I've gotten through it with little effort whereas others have had a harder time and not scored so well but know so much more than me. As such, studying for this final is difficult. Where reading the surgery textbook was a pleasure, I can't understand internal medicine at all. I can't visualize medicine mentally like I could surgery. I don't know how to study for it and feel satisfied with my knowledge.
-I need to take a year off after I graduate to do my steps.. I want to minimize the chances of this hurting my chances of matching into general surgery. I'm going to try to knock out step 3 as well so that I have even more of a fighting chance in the match.
-I have 2 electives lined up in general surgery, and may be doing a third. One of them may be with an osteopathic attending. Would a letter from a DO hurt my application for an allopathic residency?
-last but not least.. how do I start at square one? I want to study for the steps in such a way that I cover everything and understand it. I want to be more than proficient in anything that I study. I'm not asking for a schedule, more an approach. I don't take notes, for example, as I find that reading the text or listening to the lecturer is better for me and I remember these things longer. The problem is that whereas with surgical topics (including gynae/obs, ent, ophtho, etc) I still remember things I learned 3 years ago that I only learned once, I forget medical topics in about a month or so.. the interest is there, but since I can't visualize anything for those topics I don't remember. 90% of my learning depends on me making these mental images and I just can't do that with medicine because I don't understand it.
I don't know how to overcome these hurdles.. but I will do anything I have to to end up doing what I love for the next 50 years.
Thank you very much for your time. I hope that you can help me out with these issues. I look forward to being a contributing member of the SD community.
I've been a long time lurker on this forum, and have seen that many of you are very helpful. It's nice to see such a close community. This will be a long post, but if you could bear with me, I would really appreciate it.
I need some guidance about my path. I'm a US citizen in my final year of medical school in Asia. I didn't come here because I couldn't get into medical school in america - I was in a well reputed Biomedical Engineering program with plans to attend medical school. Financial issues and a desire to attain my goal drove my decision to attend this program and end up as a doctor.
I had difficulty adjusting to the system here and my gpa was quite low.. I pulled myself together in the last two years, but my gpa is still not ideal. I have, however, scored very well on most of my rotations. I feel like my basic sciences (except anatomy and pathology) are weak, but I can somehow work around all of my weaknesses on the wards. I never studied as hard as a few of my classmates have, as I've found that I learn better with hands on experience. That shows with my low basic sciences gpa and my relatively higher clinical grades. I want to start at square one. I want to understand all of medicine (I learn by understanding, not by memorizing.. everything I have learned I have done so by understanding. I haven't memorized a word throughout my 5 years here, and it's worked for me so far)..
my goal is to end up as a general surgeon initially and later to pursue a fellowship in colorectal or cardiothoracic since integrated programs are near impossible for IMGs. I can't see myself doing anything else. I don't care where I end up or if it's a community program, but that is what I want to do.
I feel like surgery is the right fit to me because it all just makes sense. I read our entire textbook once for surgery, and did amazingly on my exams. Everything just clicked. And I loved it. I love surgical patients, the whole thought process that goes into treating them, and of course I love operating. I've scrubbed in many times with the head of surgery as a first assistant (which is generally prohibited here for students). I have walked residents through procedures under his supervision. I have presented for many surgical conferences at his request.. it's my passion, to say the least.
So now that you know a bit about my background, the following are the issues I need help with:
-I'm studying for my internal medicine and pediatrics finals at the moment.. I've scraped by in my internal medicine rotations with high grades but I feel like I never understood the material.. I never felt comfortable with it, and honestly I feel like I've been cheating myself because I've gotten through it with little effort whereas others have had a harder time and not scored so well but know so much more than me. As such, studying for this final is difficult. Where reading the surgery textbook was a pleasure, I can't understand internal medicine at all. I can't visualize medicine mentally like I could surgery. I don't know how to study for it and feel satisfied with my knowledge.
-I need to take a year off after I graduate to do my steps.. I want to minimize the chances of this hurting my chances of matching into general surgery. I'm going to try to knock out step 3 as well so that I have even more of a fighting chance in the match.
-I have 2 electives lined up in general surgery, and may be doing a third. One of them may be with an osteopathic attending. Would a letter from a DO hurt my application for an allopathic residency?
-last but not least.. how do I start at square one? I want to study for the steps in such a way that I cover everything and understand it. I want to be more than proficient in anything that I study. I'm not asking for a schedule, more an approach. I don't take notes, for example, as I find that reading the text or listening to the lecturer is better for me and I remember these things longer. The problem is that whereas with surgical topics (including gynae/obs, ent, ophtho, etc) I still remember things I learned 3 years ago that I only learned once, I forget medical topics in about a month or so.. the interest is there, but since I can't visualize anything for those topics I don't remember. 90% of my learning depends on me making these mental images and I just can't do that with medicine because I don't understand it.
I don't know how to overcome these hurdles.. but I will do anything I have to to end up doing what I love for the next 50 years.
Thank you very much for your time. I hope that you can help me out with these issues. I look forward to being a contributing member of the SD community.
