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Who's with me?
2nd yearitis...
- Thread starter ACSurgeon
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+1 And it's not even a desire to completely "check out", just definitely ready for a change.
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I thought that second semester of second year was probably the absolute nadir of my attitude...it's just an awful place to be - still stuck in the classroom, so ready to be done with that but then you're staring boards smack in the face, and then the great unknown of starting 3rd year. But trust me, things are going to get better soon.
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Yup... it just feels like it's about time to move on to the next level!
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I agree. I am thouroughly sick of this stuff. I would be much happier to just have uninterrupted study time for the boards, but they keep on teaching us crap.
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The only problem is that 3rd year can become the exact opposite. Instead of being ready for it to be done, you are constantly moving on to the next thing just as you begin to become remotely competent in whatever you are doing. I think my low point was probably when I was on a series of rotations I wasn't that into and continuously sucked for about 4 months.
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yep. leave me alone and let me learn. we have a self learner curriculum and they keep bugging us with silly wastes of time. I can learn this material faster than you can teach it to me if you you would let me. Venting is good. thank you all
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we are finishing up GI this week and then have 3 weeks of "behavioral med," which is kind of new. And of course the director of the class has us doing tons of busy work (site visits, reflection paper, research paper), all of which I wouldn't have complained about 2 months ago. Having it now though just makes me irritated.
on a side note: lazymed, we have very similar 3rd year schedules. I go - OB/GYN, peds, psych, surg, FM, medicine
on a side note: lazymed, we have very similar 3rd year schedules. I go - OB/GYN, peds, psych, surg, FM, medicine
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Research papers in med school?!? What a nightmare. But I can totally relate to the frustration with busy-work. It seems like these last 6 weeks of school have tons of extra stuff packed in when all I really want to do is lock myself in a room to study for boards. This includes 3 tests for our regular lectures and our foundations of clinical medicine has an OSCE, an oral exam, and a written exam all at the beginning of May. Not to mention the 3rd H&P writeup and 1 more focused encounter note in 2 weeks. It's a good thing I have 26 days of crunch month studying before Step 1.
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during doctoring(we have a two week long rotation called doctoring) next year I get the joy of writing a book report. seriously a book report.
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I have never wished so much that I could just be a housewife. We've got exams next week, finals in a month, boards a month after that... then 3rd year starts 3 weeks after that. It just seems like there is no remaining "me" time for the rest of (my life) the year. I'm trying really hard to stay positive but I'm just drowning (my current avatar says it all). 🙁 Third year better be better than this.
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I have never wished so much that I could just be a housewife. We've got exams next week, finals in a month, boards a month after that... then 3rd year starts 3 weeks after that. It just seems like there is no remaining "me" time for the rest of (my life) the year. I'm trying really hard to stay positive but I'm just drowning (my current avatar says it all). 🙁 Third year better be better than this.
Come on, put a more positive spin on it...
In one month you will never have to be a "student" who has to prepare for class or study for an exam that way. Granted, you have a lot of board exams/ shelf exams awaiting you, but it's a new phase in your education/career. Since I'm a boring trad student, 6 years of book work (after high school) has been more than enough, and I'm ready to move on!
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umm i would love to encourage you but i dont wanna lie to you. third year will be difficult because of all the hours you put in. and mostly your frustration on a daily basis will be predicated on the type of people you have around you. If you have a malignant team. by golly you will wish you were driving a cab. I had four months of straight malignant rotations. but hang in there. ITs too late to quit. Just find a residency that is lifestyle friendly..
I have never wished so much that I could just be a housewife. We've got exams next week, finals in a month, boards a month after that... then 3rd year starts 3 weeks after that. It just seems like there is no remaining "me" time for the rest of (my life) the year. I'm trying really hard to stay positive but I'm just drowning (my current avatar says it all). 🙁 Third year better be better than this.
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Interestingly enough, I was suggesting being a cabbie earlier today.
I'm a little more positive today than yesterday, probably b/c I got more accomplished today. I have a count-down ticker on my myspace page that is counting down the minutes until the end of second year. I look forward to never being a student again, but I am anxious about the unknown of life in the real world of doctoring. I can't help but worry I'll hate it 🙁 because you never really know 'til you're there. I don't expect this as I always knew I'd hate the first two years and thought I'd love the rest of it, but I'm nervous that I was wrong.
If I hate it, my new plan is to be an online doctor and provide medical advice over the internet.
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I agree that end of second year is a downer. I can't seem to get into my groove for Step I studying. Unit exams and other distractions keep getting in the way.
Dang, you guys are really scaring me about 3rd year.
I'm so comfortable right now, and I know next year will be
stressful, likely not enjoying >75% of rotations and all time sucked
out of you, I cannot picture how that can be any better than
1st/2nd year, please, someone enlighten me.
I'm so comfortable right now, and I know next year will be
stressful, likely not enjoying >75% of rotations and all time sucked
out of you, I cannot picture how that can be any better than
1st/2nd year, please, someone enlighten me.
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Why the shelf exams?
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I think by this time people are ready for a change. Plus we came to med school to become doctors and treat patients, not to sit in a library and read all day. I'm sure 3rd year is going to be just as stressful and crazy at times, but I'm am SO ready for a change of setting and material. I think 2nd year has been pretty crappy so far.
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You shouldn't be responsible for anyone's care as a third year.
We did come to med school to be doctors and treat patients for sure,
I'm wondering how much 'treating' we will actually be doing as 3rd
and 4rth years.
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more than we are treating as 1st and 2nd years.
nlax, we too are taking 2 shelves: basic science and pathology. "just to let us know how prepared we are." we take them 5 weeks before step 1. and they don't count for grades, just for our own knowledge
nlax, we too are taking 2 shelves: basic science and pathology. "just to let us know how prepared we are." we take them 5 weeks before step 1. and they don't count for grades, just for our own knowledge
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My opinion of upcoming 3rd year: we'll be "playing doctor". We'll put on the clothes, do the rounds, talk all doctorly... but we'll also be running around doing tech, nursing, and secretarial jobs. No, we won't actually be treating the patients so much, be we will be intimately involved in their care. This is >>> reading about every disease ever experienced and being tested on every mundane detail about the rarest diseases in existence.
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Don't we learn how do some procedures in 3rd year? Like chest tubes, IV's, suturing...etc? I'd like to think we get to do a tad bit more than just watch (although that sounds a gizzillion times better than being stuck at school till midnight cramming micro!)
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I hadn't been feeling it until this last week, but it has hit me hard! I am sooooo ready to do something besides sit and study all day.
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Yeah, I'm now on all of my shorter rotations, and I keep getting bumped from one site to the next, and I have no idea what's going on for the first week or three.
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4 tests to go....... and then board review, ACLS, and Step 1.
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As a premed/M1 I thought that schools like Duke that do an accelerated pre-clinical program were crazy - I didn't see how it was possible to fit it all in.
As a springtime M2, I thought those schools were brilliant - I felt like I was wasting so much time and that a semester (or year) could have easily been lopped off our curriculum by cutting out the fluff and redundancy.
As a springtime M2, I thought those schools were brilliant - I felt like I was wasting so much time and that a semester (or year) could have easily been lopped off our curriculum by cutting out the fluff and redundancy.
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Oh yeah, you get to do stuff like that (though personally I've only ever started like 2 IVs - our nurses do most of that on the floor and I didn't do an anesthesia rotation) - it's just that the ratio of time spent learning/actively doing procedures to time spent watching/doing nothing is like 1:1000000000.
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I'm an MS2, and to be honest I'm really sick of it right now. Tests are brutal and cover so much material its absolutely insane. Plus I hear friends not matching, having to scramble for a prelim intern year. There ain't no light at the end of the tunnel.. oh wait.. I got step 1 to look forward to 😱. [I know, I'm reeking of optimism]
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There is light but it aint bright and its low light cloudy overcast and raining. lots of wind
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I know a lot of docs who love their job. I'm sorry you don't feel the same way.
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It's hard work trying to figure out what your are going to do weekends when you've just about hit up every club or eatery in the state.
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Nice.We're down to only our comprehensive finals for path & pharm (and our principles of clinical medicine, our learning doctor skills class) in a month, followed by boards another month later. It is so hard to pull the motivation out of an empty well to prepare for these. Unfortunately, this is the most important part of the first two years.
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ok. congrats for you. medicine in 6-10 years will be a world of pain
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Well, thanks to having a lovely shelf exam in every rotation, you'll still be doing this on your off time 😱!
If I may ask, what do you do for a living?
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Or not. I studied waaaaay more as an M1/M2 than as an M3 - overall, my hours are still definitely much longer as an M3 - and I've been doing fairly well on the shelf exams (took medicine, peds and surgery). If you learn on the fly, you don't have to study as much. I honored the medicine shelf, and as I was going through the test, I kept thinking "Okay, so this situation is like that patient I had with this disease, and how did we treat it? Okay, so the answer is C."
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Ditto.
The boards looming isn't really stressing me out. I actually kind of enjoy board review, since it weeds out a lot of the nitty gritty stuff you needed to know for classes that made the pre-clinical years suck. But it definitely contributes to my apathy towards class at the end.
Just leave me be and let me do what I need to do, instead of what you want me to do. Don't make me write "book reports" when its 6 weeks till the most important exam of my early medical career. Don't take me on mandatory "ward walks" when I'm going to be in the wards full-time in 2 months anyways. I don't care that stage 1a prostate cancer has a 5% greater 5 yr survival than stage 1b.
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I have never wished so much that I could just be a housewife. We've got exams next week, finals in a month, boards a month after that... then 3rd year starts 3 weeks after that. It just seems like there is no remaining "me" time for the rest of (my life) the year. I'm trying really hard to stay positive but I'm just drowning (my current avatar says it all). 🙁 Third year better be better than this.
haha - Jwax, i can't lie, i'm with you. second year is wearing as hell - and sometimes i can't help but wish i could marry rich and my biggest accomplishments daily would include long work outs and long lunches.
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I agree with some of the others here.... 2nd year has been a fair amount worse than 1st year. I think med school also tends to be a pressure cooker...... different personalities seem to emerge from people as stress can do some strange and bad things to people.
Done with finals now and I've officially passed everything so now it's "official" board time and then to the wards, can't wait. 😎
Done with finals now and I've officially passed everything so now it's "official" board time and then to the wards, can't wait. 😎
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is there first-yearitis?
have a physio exam tomorrow. 4 of the lectures I know basically nothing about; didn't go to the classes, don't want to memorize the notes cause they're in paragraph form and really poorly written. not interested in the topic. Basically know nothing about it, don't even have the energy to study for it the night before (usually I start freaking out and hit the books hard but not this time). go to a p/f school, my grade is solid, could not care less if I miss half those questions..
definitely feel for you second-years though, I am not looking forward to second semester next year..
have a physio exam tomorrow. 4 of the lectures I know basically nothing about; didn't go to the classes, don't want to memorize the notes cause they're in paragraph form and really poorly written. not interested in the topic. Basically know nothing about it, don't even have the energy to study for it the night before (usually I start freaking out and hit the books hard but not this time). go to a p/f school, my grade is solid, could not care less if I miss half those questions..
definitely feel for you second-years though, I am not looking forward to second semester next year..
