Don't be that guy/girl who brags to classmates about Step 1

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golfman

golfman

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I still don't have my score, but it's a little annoying to see some of my classmates brag about Step 1 scores on Facebook/other sites. It's equally annoying to have someone just randomly tell you in school their awesome Step 1 score without you asking.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive, but there are a lot of sensitive people out there. Don't be that guy/girl who just wants to brag all of the time. Makes plenty of people feel bad with scores that they normally would have been happy with. If you got a 260, you beat 95% of people. You start bragging and you will have a lot of people start to dislike you.

That being said, I have no problem with announcing scores on a public forum like this or telling people if they ask you. I just think it's tacky to post it on Facebook, a Blog, or randomly tell your classmates without them asking or caring.

Just my two cents. And some of my fellow classmates are annoyed with a few braggers in my class that are throwing their scores around everywhere.

If you did great, congrats. But be humble about it.
 
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golfman said:
I still don't have my score, but it's a little annoying to see some of my classmates brag about Step 1 scores on Facebook/other sites. It's equally annoying to have someone just randomly tell you in school their awesome Step 1 score without you asking.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive, but there are a lot of sensitive people out there. Don't be that guy/girl who just wants to brag all of the time. Makes plenty of people feel bad with scores that they normally would have been happy with. If you got a 260, you beat 95% of people. You start bragging and you will have a lot of people start to dislike you.

That being said, I have no problem with announcing scores on a public forum like this or telling people if they ask you. I just think it's tacky to post it on Facebook, a Blog, or randomly tell your classmates without them asking or caring.

Just my two cents. And some of my fellow classmates are annoyed with a few braggers in my class that are throwing their scores around everywhere.

If you did great, congrats. But be humble about it.
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There were a few people in my class like this who acted like huge douches after Step 1 scores came out last year. Everyone loathed them. Basically, don't randomly announce to people what your score was, and definitely don't ask other people how they did unless you're good friends with them and/or know they won't mind you asking. Med students can be socially ******ed sometimes, so just think twice before discussing scores with your classmates.

The worst guy in our class, by the way, posted several Facebook status updates about how high his score was, complete with thanking God multiple times. A couple of months ago, I was on a rotation with him, and he told me and a few others that he's really worried about Step 2 because he's heard program directors want to see a >10 point increase between steps, and his Step 1 was so high that it will be hard to do that on Step 2. It took all my restraint not to clock him.
 
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golfman said:
I still don't have my score, but it's a little annoying to see some of my classmates brag about Step 1 scores on Facebook/other sites. It's equally annoying to have someone just randomly tell you in school their awesome Step 1 score without you asking.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive, but there are a lot of sensitive people out there. Don't be that guy/girl who just wants to brag all of the time. Makes plenty of people feel bad with scores that they normally would have been happy with. If you got a 260, you beat 95% of people. You start bragging and you will have a lot of people start to dislike you.

That being said, I have no problem with announcing scores on a public forum like this or telling people if they ask you. I just think it's tacky to post it on Facebook, a Blog, or randomly tell your classmates without them asking or caring.

Just my two cents. And some of my fellow classmates are annoyed with a few braggers in my class that are throwing their scores around everywhere.

If you did great, congrats. But be humble about it.
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I couldn't agree with this more.👍 I learned this the hard way when I mentioned a shelf exam test score in a comment on my own fbook status and it was all over the newsfeed and pissed some ppl off. Even though I didn't blow the exam out of the water I've made sure to only tell family and close friends and ppl who straight up ask. It's poor form to brag and no matter how high your score is there is always someone out there with a higher one.
 
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Thank God there are people on this site with some sense. If it's not with close friends, sharing scores pretty much always goes poorly.
 
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I try to be very mindful of this.

I keep a very straight face. If anyone asks I just say I did well got the score I had wanted.

I am disgusted by people who walk around with their scores tattooed on their foreheads.
 
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Totally agree. Everyone around me is just saying whether they are happy or disappointed. And that means different things to different people, obviously. But being "happy" given your expectations is all that matters in the end, not the actual score

Though it has been hard for me not to say "I'm ecstatic beyond belief." No one wants to hear that either -- except my mom.

Thanks mom!!!
 
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one thing i've found interesting is that it's ok to talk about your athletic achievements- how many points you scored in a game, etc- and it's ok to publicly rank athletes or publish their scores in the newspaper or give the highest scorers trophies at award ceremonies, but when it comes to academics everything is super secretive. However, both fields are competitive in nature. Just like how well you do in a tournament depends on how many other people you beat, how well you do on the USMLE depends not only on how many questions you answer correctly, but how many other people's scores you beat. So why aren't academic achievements treated the same?
 
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Because athletes that brag about themselves (a la TO, Chad Ochocinco, Deion Sanders, etc.) are typically considered arrogant tools. I disagree that this sort of self-aggrandizing behavior is viewed favorably among athletes and their fans. We know they're awesome already, they're professional athletes
for crying out loud. Likewise, let your "game" speak for you when you're a medical student. It's usually pretty easy to pick out the standout students, so there's no need to brag about your performance, especially in light of the fact that there are people busting their butts only to barely pass or worse, fail. If you don't derive enough satisfaction from the simple act of kicking ***** and from the praise and encouragement of your close friends and loved ones, then you have ego issues.
 
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AggieSean said:
Because athletes that brag about themselves (a la TO, Chad Ochocinco, Deion Sanders, etc.) are typically considered arrogant tools. I disagree that this sort of self-aggrandizing behavior is viewed favorably among athletes and their fans. We know they're awesome already, they're professional athletes
for crying out loud. Likewise, let your "game" speak for you when you're a medical student. It's usually pretty easy to pick out the standout students, so there's no need to brag about your performance, especially in light of the fact that there are people busting their butts only to barely pass or worse, fail. If you don't derive enough satisfaction from the simple act of kicking ***** and from the praise and encouragement of your close friends and loved ones, then you have ego issues.
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I didn't mean it's ok to brag. It's not ok to brag about yourself, ever. I've never done that. I was just wondering why in fields other than academics, such as athletics, scores and ranks are always made public by default, but in academics it's usually not ok to make scores or ranks known publicly. Baseball players don't complain that their batting averages are published, but if someone were to publish everyone's med school GPA or board scores I'm thinking there would be a huge protest.
 
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vr123 said:
I didn't mean it's ok to brag. It's not ok to brag about yourself, ever. I've never done that. I was just wondering why in fields other than academics, such as athletics, scores and ranks are always made public by default, but in academics it's usually not ok to make scores or ranks known publicly. Baseball players don't complain that their batting averages are published, but if someone were to publish everyone's med school GPA or board scores I'm thinking there would be a huge protest.
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If this were the case, everyone would certainly work a bit harder. I could use that sort of kick in the pants 🙂
 
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Because in this culture, individual accomplishments are values and celebrated except when it comes to things that require brain power. Then keeping score is seen as arrogance.
For some reason everyone is more comfortable comparing physical abilities but not the mental/intellectual. Maybe people feel that bragging about your score means you think you outworked everyone. Or maybe athletics is seen as more blue collar and academics as more ellite. Same reason why its ok for a teacher to tell you how much he makes a year but a CEO cant.

Personally, i dont advertise my grades but i dont hide it when asked either. And i dont get offended by those who choose to brag about it. Your 260 has no bearing on me.
 
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vr123 said:
I didn't mean it's ok to brag. It's not ok to brag about yourself, ever. I've never done that. .
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I dont get that. As long as you're not putting anyone else down or acting like you're better than them, i dont see anything wrong.
When you got into med school, did you feel uncomfortable telling your college buddies? I know i didnt.
 
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It's a touchy situation because Step 1 scores mean so much to us. If you got a 260 then you probably want to shout it from the rooftops. But for every 260 person, there is another person who worked their butt off and barely passed - how are they going to feel hearing Mr. 260 and his amazing score? I think it comes down to tact and just generally not wanting to hurt people's feelings.

I posted on FB that I passed but I think it would be incredibly douchey to post an actual number. Sure if someone asks me privately I would tell them, but publishing it for all to see is quite a different matter.
 
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Mr hawkings said:
I dont get that. As long as you're not putting anyone else down or acting like you're better than them, i dont see anything wrong.
When you got into med school, did you feel uncomfortable telling your college buddies? I know i didnt.
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I don't think just telling someone is "bragging". I think bragging is when you are acting like you are better than them because you got something and they didn't and rubbing their face in it. It's perfectly fine to tell your friends about your achievements, because as your friends they will be happy for you and share in your joy (or at least they should if they're good friends). But if you go and use your achievements to make them feel bad about themselves and put yourself over them, that's what I would call bragging, and it's also not being a good friend.
 
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HappyG0Lucky said:
It's a touchy situation because Step 1 scores mean so much to us. If you got a 260 then you probably want to shout it from the rooftops. But for every 260 person, there is another person who worked their butt off and barely passed - how are they going to feel hearing Mr. 260 and his amazing score? I think it comes down to tact and just generally not wanting to hurt people's feelings.

I posted on FB that I passed but I think it would be incredibly douchey to post an actual number. Sure if someone asks me privately I would tell them, but publishing it for all to see is quite a different matter.
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I see what you're saying. I just dont understand how my feelings could be hurt by hearing someone elses score unless if he is actively comparing his score to mine and saying how much better he is.
I agree that posting scores on FB is tacky but i think people are a little too sensitive about knowing other people's scores. This is why people pretend like they barely pass every test in med school. I just dont get it.
I mean even posting that you passed will hurt the feelings of those that didnt.
 
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vr123 said:
I don't think just telling someone is "bragging". I think bragging is when you are acting like you are better than them because you got something and they didn't and rubbing their face in it. It's perfectly fine to tell your friends about your achievements, because as your friends they will be happy for you and share in your joy (or at least they should if they're good friends). But if you go and use your achievements to make them feel bad about themselves and put yourself over them, that's what I would call bragging, and it's also not being a good friend.
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I guess we're saying the same thing 👍 differently. The thing is that some people obviously see it as bragging. thats the very point of this thread. The OP sees the act of telling people about your score as bragging, which i dont agree with if yo're not trying to put someone else down.
 
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golfman said:
Don't be that guy/girl who just wants to brag all of the time. Makes plenty of people feel bad with scores that they normally would have been happy with. If you got a 260, you beat 95% of people.
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A 260 is top 1.2% percent or 98.8th percentile of all test takers. That's like 1-3 per med school class. The Step 1 is not normally distributed, it skews toward the failing end.

I bet some of the 260s reported on SDN this week were BS.
 
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HappyG0Lucky said:
It's a touchy situation because Step 1 scores mean so much to us. If you got a 260 then you probably want to shout it from the rooftops. But for every 260 person, there is another person who worked their butt off and barely passed - how are they going to feel hearing Mr. 260 and his amazing score? I think it comes down to tact and just generally not wanting to hurt people's feelings.

I posted on FB that I passed but I think it would be incredibly douchey to post an actual number. Sure if someone asks me privately I would tell them, but publishing it for all to see is quite a different matter.
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I've never been hurt by seeing someone else do better. In fact, it's only served to inspire me and motivate me to do better myself. A friend of mine went to a med school in india and he said they used to post everyone's scores publicly on a bulletin board and that was a huge motivating factor for him to work hard every day because he didn't want to end up at the bottom of that list. So he pushed himself to the max on a daily basis.

So I guess my point is by discouraging public competition in the name of not hurting people's feelings, maybe we are doing them a disservice. Sometimes you need to be hurt in order to be able to motivate yourself to work to the best of your abilities. I'm not talking about the Step 1 neccessarily, but life in general. If you did work as hard as you can though, and you reached your goal, it shouldn't matter what Mr. 260 got. You should be confident in yourself and proud of your own accomplishments.

For every doctor, there's also somebody who didn't get into med school or make it through, despite working their butt off. Would you not tell them you graduated as to not hurt their feelings?
 
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vr123 said:
So I guess my point is by discouraging public competition in the name of not hurting people's feelings, maybe we are doing them a disservice. Sometimes you need to be hurt in order to be able to motivate yourself to work to the best of your abilities. I'm not talking about the Step 1 neccessarily, but life in general. If you did work as hard as you can though, and you reached your goal, it shouldn't matter what Mr. 260 got.
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Dude, you totally contradicted yourself.

I think it's best to keep ones scores to oneself (or take it online anonymously if you really need to release). I'm reminded of the nouveau riche flaunting their wealth at every opportunity versus old money or the truly rich who are generally pretty thrifty people.

When you boast in front of other people, there's always an implicit "I'm better than you" declaration. It's just not necessary IMO.
 
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womp said:
Dude, you totally contradicted yourself.
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Not true dude. If you know you are working your absolute hardest and you know that and you got what you want/are capable of, it doesn't make sense that you would be hurt by somebody doing better. I'm not hurt by somebody being a better basketball player than me because I know I suck at basketball. If you can do better though and you aren't working your hardest then yes, you should be motivated and inspired by others doing better because it will make you work harder and reach your full potential. Holding that motivation from people is what I said may be a disservice. For a lot of people, myself included, when you see other people doing way better than you, it makes you strive harder to get there, not feel crappy about yourself. If you are happy with how you're doing though and know that you are doing your absolute best and can't possibly be better, then seeing others doing better shouldn't affect you at all because you've reached your max. That's what I said, and I don't see any contradiction there.
 
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I don't think someone who makes a good score needs to hide it from people. I don't see anything wrong in posting your score on facebook for your friends to see and share your excitement with you. It's not like you can't do the same if you get that score. If you are upset by the fact that he did better, that should motivate you to do better in the future so you can show that you're just as capable. Work your butt off and get an even higher score than that guy so you show that you're awesome too. That's how competition's always worked and that's all I'm saying. If you can't do it, then tough, but that's life.
 
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vr123 said:
I don't think someone who makes a good score needs to hide it from people. I don't see anything wrong in posting your score on facebook for your friends to see and share your excitement with you. It's not like you can't do the same if you get that score. If you are upset by the fact that he did better, that should motivate you to do better in the future so you can show that you're just as capable. Work your butt off and get an even higher score than that guy so you show that you're awesome too. That's how competition's always worked and that's all I'm saying. If you can't do it, then tough, but that's life.
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lol @ your McMansion outlook of life

No one needs to "show" that they're awesome. If they're really awesome, everyone will know it without their boasting about it on Facebook or giving out scores unsolicited.

People aren't upset by the fact that someone else did better, they are upset by the other person's complete obliviousness to common sense tact and etiquette.

Competition for the sake of competition is what got us the McMansion subprime crisis. Let's not lose our sight on the ball, which is to be the best doctor we can be. Step 1 scores are important, but having enough social skills, humbleness and awareness not to boast your scores unsolicited is also pretty important.
 
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womp said:
lol @ your McMansion outlook of life

No one needs to "show" that they're awesome. If they're really awesome, everyone will know it without their boasting about it on Facebook or giving out scores unsolicited.

People aren't upset by the fact that someone else did better, they are upset by the other person's complete obliviousness to common sense tact and etiquette.

Competition for the sake of competition is what got us the McMansion subprime crisis. Let's not lose our sight on the ball, which is to be the best doctor we can be. Step 1 scores are important, but having enough social skills, humbleness and awareness not to boast your scores unsolicited is also pretty important.
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I didn't say people need to show that they're awesome, but if someone wants to they can do it too, that's all I meant.

Common sense etiquette does not say you have to hide your achievements from everybody to prevent some people from feeling inadequate. It says you shouldn't use your success to bring other people down. That's what boasting is. I haven't seen anyone on this forum doing that. I don't think simply posting your numerical score on facebook for your friends and family to see is "boasting" at all. If that's true, then posting that you go to a top med school on facebook is also boasting to others who don't. Posting that you are in med school at all is "boasting" to someone who didn't get in. Maybe you should take that off of your profile too. If you also posted that you did better than everyone in your class and you were smarter than them, that would be boasting. Your friends are supposed to be happy for you when you do well. That's what good friends are for.

We are all med students here and we are all in this together for the benefit of being the best doctors we can all be as a whole. We should be the type of community that expects the best from everybody, and when someone comes on here and posts their high score, we should be congratulating them on their achievement and offering encouragement because our colleagues doing well is good for our profession as a whole. We should be happy for them.

Also, competition is not just for the sake of competition. We are competing so that we can be the best doctors and be the best for our patients. Whatever means takes us there doesn't matter as long as we get there and anything that motivates us to try harder is a good thing.
 
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womp said:
lol @ your McMansion outlook of life

No one needs to "show" that they're awesome. If they're really awesome, everyone will know it without their boasting about it on Facebook or giving out scores unsolicited.

People aren't upset by the fact that someone else did better, they are upset by the other person's complete obliviousness to common sense tact and etiquette.

Competition for the sake of competition is what got us the McMansion subprime crisis. Let's not lose our sight on the ball, which is to be the best doctor we can be. Step 1 scores are important, but having enough social skills, humbleness and awareness not to boast your scores unsolicited is also pretty important.
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I dont understand your "fake humility is good" outlook on life either.
This country has reached where it has by celebrating and rewarding personal achievement.
I actually think the the ones who dont have social skills are the ones who take someone admitting their scores as somehow poking fun at them or see it as a lack of ettiquette.

And frankly, i dont want a surgeon who is so insecure that he gets upset when he hears that his classmate scored 20 points higher than him operating on me. You cant blame someone for how you react to what they say. Its YOUR reaction. To say that they are douchey because YOU got upset at learning their score tell me that YOU lack the social skills to handle the prospect people doing better than you.

And btw what would you say to people who make all that noise about matching their #1 ranked program. Kinda insensitive to those that didnt match and still have to scamble, isnt it?
 
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I'm willing to bet the above two have never worked a fulltime job in the US with any sort of supervisory or managerial responsibility.
 
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womp said:
I'm willing to bet the above two have never worked a fulltime job in the US with any sort of supervisory or managerial responsibility.
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wow, way to make assumptions about people dude. did you learn that at your managerial position?
 
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womp said:
I'm willing to bet the above two have never worked a fulltime job in the US with any sort of supervisory or managerial responsibility.
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Not that it has anything to do with what we're talking about but I'm actually a 35 year old microbiologist with a wife and kids and managed a microbiology lab in a major hospital for several years before coming BACK to medical school.
Yes, i started and quit medical school in 2002. My wife is an attending at that same hospital. I also used to own my own business when i was in grad school with 8 employees.

What does that have to do with the issue at hand?
 
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2012mdc said:
I couldn't agree with this more.👍 I learned this the hard way when I mentioned a shelf exam test score in a comment on my own fbook status and it was all over the newsfeed and pissed some ppl off. Even though I didn't blow the exam out of the water I've made sure to only tell family and close friends and ppl who straight up ask. It's poor form to brag and no matter how high your score is there is always someone out there with a higher one.
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YES LIKE ME I GOT A 300 AND YOU DON T SEE ME BRAGGING:laugh::laugh:
 
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2012mdc said:
I couldn't agree with this more.👍 I learned this the hard way when I mentioned a shelf exam test score in a comment on my own fbook status and it was all over the newsfeed and pissed some ppl off. Even though I didn't blow the exam out of the water I've made sure to only tell family and close friends and ppl who straight up ask. It's poor form to brag and no matter how high your score is there is always someone out there with a higher one.
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If people are getting pissed off at you for just mentioning your shelf score in your status, they're the ones that have a problem not you. Unless you actually put them down in your status message, then it's not bragging. I bet if the score you put in your status was lower than theirs, they wouldn't be pissed at all because it would inflate their self-worth.

People who actually get pissed at others for sharing their success are sad, pathetic people. If somebody came to me and said hey i did awesome on a shelf, i'd say congrats dude, way to go, i'm happy for you. People you know doing well in life is a good thing unless you are an insanely jealous type as many med students are, and that is not a good thing. There's plenty of success to go around.
 
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vr123 said:
If people are getting pissed off at you for just mentioning your shelf score in your status, they're the ones that have a problem not you. Unless you actually put them down in your status message, then it's not bragging. I bet if the score you put in your status was lower than theirs, they wouldn't be pissed at all because it would inflate their self-worth.

People who actually get pissed at others for sharing their success are sad, pathetic people. If somebody came to me and said hey i did awesome on a shelf, i'd say congrats dude, way to go, i'm happy for you. People you know doing well in life is a good thing unless you are an insanely jealous type as many med students are, and that is not a good thing. There's plenty of success to go around.
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It's really not an issue of someone getting mad. It's about how unbelievably douchy it looks.

If that's what they're going for, well then full speed ahead.
 
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Do physicians/residents, etc. on MSIII rotations ask what your Step 1 score is? I imagine this varies, of course, but am wondering what the norm is.

Also, do students typically answer with a specific score or just something general like "very well"?
 
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unsung said:
Do physicians/residents, etc. on MSIII rotations ask what your Step 1 score is? I imagine this varies, of course, but am wondering what the norm is.

Also, do students typically answer with a specific score or just something general like "very well"?
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I hope not because I'm not telling them anything beyond the fact that I did "Okay" and that I was "satisfied".
 
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I got especially annoyed at this. Many people put " PASSED STEP I ! " which is fine, but when people put "I am gonna be a dermatologist" or " I rocked that test" it annoys me. If your arrogant in medicine, that is ignorance at its finest. Youll NEVER know it all, which you would think otherwise by some peoples facebook postings. Yeah your highly educated, and will eventually be in a power position. But guess what, your brown stuff still smells bad.:laugh:
 
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This guy was bragging about his 260

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TugslL45aXk&feature=popt00us02[/YOUTUBE]
 
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I think there are good ways to do it and there are the ahole approach. I don't mind my friends telling me their score at all. They're excited and they want to share. I totally get that. But if you aren't friends with me, I don't care what you got and I guess I don't really want to know.
 
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vr123 said:
one thing i've found interesting is that it's ok to talk about your athletic achievements- how many points you scored in a game, etc- and it's ok to publicly rank athletes or publish their scores in the newspaper or give the highest scorers trophies at award ceremonies, but when it comes to academics everything is super secretive. However, both fields are competitive in nature. Just like how well you do in a tournament depends on how many other people you beat, how well you do on the USMLE depends not only on how many questions you answer correctly, but how many other people's scores you beat. So why aren't academic achievements treated the same?
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Didn't read all the responses, but...

It's simple - the main goal of athletics is to win, to score the most points, to run the fastest, etc.

In academics the main goal is to learn and help out patients. Do discover new truths, to teach, etc, etc. The goal is not to score the most points (on step 1). We are working towards something larger together - it is competitive but in a totally different way.
 
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I'm putting my score up on Facebook the moment I get it.

I want to tell my friends my score. It's the best way to let all my friends know what I got, and only my friends can see my page anyway. And whatever score I got, I'm going to be proud of it, because I earned it.

If people do better than me and act smug, or if they do worse and get jealous, that's THEIR damn problem. Not mine.
 
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NotMeNow said:
Didn't read all the responses, but...

It's simple - the main goal of athletics is to win, to score the most points, to run the fastest, etc.

In academics the main goal is to learn and help out patients. Do discover new truths, to teach, etc, etc. The goal is not to score the most points (on step 1). We are working towards something larger together - it is competitive but in a totally different way.
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👍 well put
 
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golfman said:
I still don't have my score, but it's a little annoying to see some of my classmates brag about Step 1 scores on Facebook/other sites. It's equally annoying to have someone just randomly tell you in school their awesome Step 1 score without you asking.

Maybe I'm a little sensitive, but there are a lot of sensitive people out there. Don't be that guy/girl who just wants to brag all of the time. Makes plenty of people feel bad with scores that they normally would have been happy with. If you got a 260, you beat 95% of people. You start bragging and you will have a lot of people start to dislike you.

That being said, I have no problem with announcing scores on a public forum like this or telling people if they ask you. I just think it's tacky to post it on Facebook, a Blog, or randomly tell your classmates without them asking or caring.

Just my two cents. And some of my fellow classmates are annoyed with a few braggers in my class that are throwing their scores around everywhere.

If you did great, congrats. But be humble about it.
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Don't worry man, and by the way I have been huge into golf since the early days, and I won't brag about my score! These chumps that brag about step numbers, that doesn't meen they are any smarter than someone who obtains a lower one, its just they were ready for the exam, and knew how to perform on it. That also doesn't mean they will have a good practice some day, just do your own thing, make progress, and don't think about your buddies. Pretty soon those bragging ones will be looking up to the ones that used to be on the lower end.
 
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Interesting opinions on this one. I guess it just depends on what you see as bragging, and how conscious you are, and how much you care, about other people's feelings.

I will do fine on Step 1, my practice scores were just in the range I wanted.

I just think of some classmates that I've talked to that got way below their goal, and they mentioned that it bothered them that some of our classmates are bragging about their scores, posting it on Facebook, etc...

Just because you don't think it's bragging, doesn't mean others won't see it as bragging. And many of you are saying you don't care if others are jealous, and you don't care what they think or if it hurts their feelings. That's fine. I am just the type of person that tries not to offend other people. But apparently announcing your score to the whole world (bragging, in my opinion) without people asking is more important than trying not to step on your classmates toes that weren't as fortunate to do as well as you.
 
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I also look at it from this angle: The people who would always tend to ask other people "what'd you get? what'd you get?" on in-house exams at my school are also all around douchebags (for reasons other than this, but this contributes).

These are also the same people who are more than willing to share their scores to anyone who didn't ask but is in ear shot.

This is not a coincidence.

The people on here vehemently defending changing one's facebook status to "UserName scored a 250 omgomgomg gonna do radz/onczorz!" are likely the ones guilty of this in the first place.

A pretty good friend of mine scored 269. He's also the most humble person I've ever met (he also smashed the hell out of exams in M1/M2, but hardly anyone knows this [and I only found out a few months ago when we became better friends] because he never bothers to speak a word of it). He's obviously very happy about the score, and it will take him to wherever he decides he wants to go, but when people ask "so how was your score?" his answer is simply "oh it was right around where I was scoring on practice exams, so everything worked out the way it was supposed to."

I guess what it boils down to is, I would feel like the biggest tool in the med school shed if I went around doing the old "I'm gonna ask you how you did so that I can then tell you how awesome I am" routine. But some people are cool with that. So, go for it I guess.
 
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I think anyone who is annoyed or bothered by someone who puts "Username rocked the boards!" on his facebook is either jealous or insecure. If you're seeing this person's facebook status then you are this person's friend. It shouldn't annoy you if your friends do better than you. You should be happy for your friend and congratulate the guy. That's how I treat my friends. If you're annoyed by this it means you only care about your friend in relation to yourself, which makes you pretty selfish. Ask yourself if you would be annoyed if your friend posted on facebook that he got a score way lower than yours. I bet you'd be feeling pretty smug, though you'd never admit it.
 
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vr123 said:
I think anyone who is annoyed or bothered by someone who puts "Username rocked the boards!" on his facebook is either jealous or insecure. If you're seeing this person's facebook status then you are this person's friend. It shouldn't annoy you if your friends do better than you. You should be happy for your friend and congratulate the guy. That's how I treat my friends. If you're annoyed by this it means you only care about your friend in relation to yourself, which makes you pretty selfish. Ask yourself if you would be annoyed if your friend posted on facebook that he got a score way lower than yours. I bet you'd be feeling pretty smug, though you'd never admit it.
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I assure you that I am neither jealous nor insecure. Bragging is just a pet peeve of mine, I think it's tacky and there is way too much of it in this world. My absolute favorite people in this world are, for the most part, humble. Those that annoy me are, for the most part, all about themselves and are constantly bragging. And some, like you, disagree that saying on Facebook "I got a 260!!" is bragging. That's your opinion. Like I said, bragging is just a huge pet peeve of mine and I'm a little sensitive to it.

I'm actually very happy for an acquaintance of mine that got a 260. He worked his butt off. But I do think it was incredibly tacky and braggy for him to post it on Facebook. Like I've said, some of my classmates have been turned off by this as well.

And your whole "If you're annoyed by this it only means you care about your friend in relation to yourself, which makes you pretty selfish" comment I disagree with completely, for reasons I stated above. One can be happy for a friend but think it's tacky how he's handling the situation.
 
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I don't think there is anything wrong with having some pride. There are many great philosophers, such as Aristotle, who felt that pride was a virtue and that individuals should celebrate their own excellence. This idea of never showing pride or anything that may make you seem better than others does not really seem to have a logical basis to me. It seems more likely that it began as a defense mechanism of the weak against the strong or a method employed by those in power to keep others suppressed that was perpetuated throughout time and now upheld without any thought (or in many cases, for the exact same reasons).

I am not trying to offend anyone here. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm just offering an alternative viewpoint that you may not have considered.
 
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100% agree with this. I know people that ask "how did you do?" just so they have a reason to tell you how awesomely they did. It's unbelievably annoying and toolish. Like GWDS said, some of my friends in school who are absolutely killing it are some of the most humble, quiet people I know.

GuyWhoDoesStuff said:
I also look at it from this angle: The people who would always tend to ask other people "what'd you get? what'd you get?" on in-house exams at my school are also all around douchebags (for reasons other than this, but this contributes).

These are also the same people who are more than willing to share their scores to anyone who didn't ask but is in ear shot.

This is not a coincidence.

The people on here vehemently defending changing one's facebook status to "UserName scored a 250 omgomgomg gonna do radz/onczorz!" are likely the ones guilty of this in the first place.

A pretty good friend of mine scored 269. He's also the most humble person I've ever met (he also smashed the hell out of exams in M1/M2, but hardly anyone knows this [and I only found out a few months ago when we became better friends] because he never bothers to speak a word of it). He's obviously very happy about the score, and it will take him to wherever he decides he wants to go, but when people ask "so how was your score?" his answer is simply "oh it was right around where I was scoring on practice exams, so everything worked out the way it was supposed to."

I guess what it boils down to is, I would feel like the biggest tool in the med school shed if I went around doing the old "I'm gonna ask you how you did so that I can then tell you how awesome I am" routine. But some people are cool with that. So, go for it I guess.
Click to expand...
 
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everyone lets stop this silliness. dont let other ppl push your buttons, and thats the end of it!
 
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