Another "failure" thread from a gunner's* perspective

[ArcGurren]

it is because they are dicks

True that

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[OveractiveBrain]

I didn't understand hyperbole when I was a kid either.

Thank You. Sometimes people just don't get it...

 

[iPod765]

If you're not as smart as your classmates, you can always work harder. That's a fact that you can take to the bank.

That's a good rule to live by.

 

[da8s0859q]

Speak for yourself dude. Many of us chemistry majors all went on to take quantum mechanics, thermodynamics etc. We had to actually get A's in those classes too, while the engineers were pretty damn content with a B.

You might have slacked off in a state school undergrad with a bio or "premed" major and barely scraped into medical school, but that doesn't represent all of the rest of us. There's nothing weak sauce about someone who ends up getting AOA in medical school and that's what we're talking about here. The people who go into derm, ortho and rads would likely do well in any white collar profession.

As they'd say in Trainspotting: what a ****.

Good God.

I think my favorite comparison thus far was given to us in our first week. A professor likened us to Navy SEALS, Army Rangers, etc. That was a good laugh.

I think we might have gotten that too. You mean I don't get to carry a weapon in a thigh holster over my scrubs next year?

 

[Radonkulous]

Med students are smart enough to get into med school and dumb enough to actually go through with it.

As a group med students are pretty smart but most of us would not make the 30,000 smartest people in this country

Truer words were never spoken on SDN.

 

[45408]

Not sure about that statistic...you have a source? It seems mighty high.

When I was applying for med school, the acceptance rate overall into med school was like 45%, and the number of applicants was less than half of the number of people who took the MCAT that year (you could only take it twice back then). That right there would be nearly 80%, and at my undergrad, a lot more than half of freshman pre-meds never even made it to the MCAT.

But, even, assuming there is an 80% attrition rate, I know a lot of pre-meds who didn't have their hearts in the whole process and still got in. Sure, they wanted to be doctors, but they scraped by doing the bare minimum. With BUD/S, you have to give full effort all the time, with your whole heart in it, or they'll break you. The BUD/S instructors literally have hypothermia tables memorized so that they can keep the students immersed in the ~55-65 degree water as long as possible. Seriously, just to get an understanding of how bad that sucks, go take a shower with the water as cold as it will go. That's what I did--I was watching a video of a cold water swim they were doing, and watching it on a screen, it looked easy. So I took a 10 minute shower as cold as it would go. Wow, talk about a wake up call.

I never said it wasn't an extreme of physical endurance, but I don't know anyone who got into med school by doing the bare minimum.

 

[CaptainSSO]

I never said it wasn't an extreme of physical endurance, but I don't know anyone who got into med school by doing the bare minimum.

Man, plenty of people at my school were lackadaisical. I think most are hard workers and did their best, but I know many who didn't. My point is just that with SEAL training, you won't have people making it who are nonchalant about the whole process like some pre-meds are (this was at least the case at my school, but I admit I am making a subjective call by saying several were lackadaisical). For example, though, one guy at my school didn't even study for one of his finals, and it was a bio class. He was content to not study and get a B, instead of putting forth effort and getting an A. His reason was that he "didn't care." There's nothing wrong with getting a B, but most people get B's despite their best effort, rather than just settling for one. He also didn't get his med school app submitted until October, which isn't uncommon, but not because he was busy in the summer, but just because he didn't care all that much about it. Now, he was a great guy, a friend of mine, and I'm glad he got in, I'm just saying in BUD/S that attitude wouldn't fly. There wouldn't be an equivalent situation of not studying and being lazy, for instance. You'd be kicked out. But, yea, I know my opinion is pretty subjective. Just by sheer numbers, you're right, the attrition is the same.

 

[SaudiMed]

Well I bet you havent seen the MBA and Finance kids then almost every one of them thinks they're going to be the next Gordon Gekko

 

[AggieSean]

I think we might have gotten that too. You mean I don't get to carry a weapon in a thigh holster over my scrubs next year?

It's probably a good thing. I might have offed myself during IMED rounds.

 

[failedatlife]

Step 1 is going to be the biggest determinator. Your residency will be decided by Step 1. All the rest is just more or less icing on the cake, but it doesn't really detract from a good cake. Doing well on Step 1 forgives a lot of mediocrity.

Agree with the above OP. In your 3rd and 4th year you will see medicine first hand. You will see babies being born and people dying. You will see people at their most vulnerable states. Decisions will need to be made on the spur of the moment, and you will need to remain composed in very stressful situations. Attendings will depend on you.

To this end, medicine is NOTHING at all like a multiple choice exam. A multiple choice exam has absolutely no prediction who will be best suited for the actual facets of medicine. YET, that exam defines you. It is you. You are your score until the day you start residency. It is how you will be perceived by residencies. Step 1 forgives the fact that you may be a terrible person to work with, never contribute to research, and be unreliable to the team. On the hand, a low score means you are mediocre.

None of it makes sense. It is what it is. Play the game. Just remember the game is not reality and at best is a miserable misconception of what a good physician really is. Some day you will be able to pick out the residents who are just at a certain prestigious residencies because of their score, and the ones who are there despite their scores. The latter are of course the more promising to the future of the speciality.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Agree with the above OP. In your 3rd and 4th year you will see medicine first hand. You will see babies being born and people dying. You will see people at their most vulnerable states. Decisions will need to be made on the spur of the moment, and you will need to remain composed in very stressful situations. Attendings will depend on you.

To this end, medicine is NOTHING at all like a multiple choice exam. A multiple choice exam has absolutely no prediction who will be best suited for the actual facets of medicine. YET, that exam defines you. It is you. You are your score until the day you start residency. It is how you will be perceived by residencies. Step 1 forgives the fact that you may be a terrible person to work with, never contribute to research, and be unreliable to the team. On the hand, a low score means you are mediocre.

None of it makes sense. It is what it is. Play the game. Just remember the game is not reality and at best is a miserable misconception of what a good physician really is. Some day you will be able to pick out the residents who are just at a certain prestigious residencies because of their score, and the ones who are there despite their scores. The latter are of course the more promising to the future of the speciality.

Not only did you awaken a 6 year old thread, you edited out a lot of what @Law2Doc was stating. 1) Research 2)Third year grades 3)LORs These things also matter, they're not just icing....

 

[Gorne]

did this guy say he was a gunner in the bottom half of the class? That's next level gunning

 

[username456789]

did this guy say he was a gunner in the bottom half of the class? That's next level gunning

Most gunners are gunners because they're doing poorly/not at the top. Gunners are not the "hard workers" or "overachievers."

Gunners are the ones who will figuratively gun you down to get ahead. They are the ones who usually cannot get to the top so they try to sabotage others ahead of them.

Almost by convention, many gunners are in the bottom half of the class.

 

[ortnakas]

How did I know who would have necrobumped this thread...

you're more than your first year grades, you're more than your Step 1 score, your life isn't over if you don't wind up in ENT or ortho, and OP is likely a few years into residency by now.

 

[Goro]

How did I know who would have necrobumped this thread...

you're more than your first year grades, you're more than your Step 1 score, your life isn't over if you don't wind up in ENT or ortho, and OP is likely a few years into residency by now.

Logic doesn't work on drama queens who feed off of histrionics, young colleague.