Board Score Question

[GeddyLee]

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Hey guys...just wanting some feedback here.

My Step I = 247
My Step 2 = 231

I just got my Step II score. Does that look bad? Or do you guys think I'm in the clear as far as board scores go?

Ged

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by GeddyLee
Hey guys...just wanting some feedback here.

My Step I = 247
My Step 2 = 231

I just got my Step II score. Does that look bad? Or do you guys think I'm in the clear as far as board scores go?

Ged

I think they look fine. 😉

 

[Redhawk]

I went from 257 to 228 and I got in.😛

 

[jonnyboy]

geddy,
you got robbed! that's all there is to it, unless you really did wear the pot leaf on your lapel 🙂. same goes for beefy (and i'm sure a few others). it's just so random, it's really not fair. your board scores are perfectly fine--i wish i had done that well.

 

[STAC]

Maybe this is a little premature...but how did y'alls MCAT scores compare to your board scores? Do my crappy MCAT scores relate in anyway? What does it take to get the #'s you guys are getting on your boards and into ophtho?

Thanks, from a paranoid MSO--six months out before school starts dork.

 

[Marcus Gunn]

The MCAT has absolutely no bearing on anything you will ever do in medicine.....EVER. The MCAT is a rule out...designed to seperate presumably academically gifted future med students from the "other guys." In all honesty, it probably does a poor job at that. Once it's past you, forget it....if you can! My board score was average at best. In med school, I feel I did above average, my Step I & II scores were both greater than a standard deviation above the national mean, and I got into a great Ophtho program!

Bottom line...MCAT has no bearing on USMLE scores. Work hard in med school and you'll do fine. Ophtho is competitive but compentations can be made for "lower end board scores." Good luck!!

 

[STAC]

Okay, so if I crank it out during my first two years in school then I should do well on the boards...BUT you never know.

So what type of compensations are there during school?

Do I have to do research? How do you get into research in ophtho?

What other kinds of crap are the residency admissions people wanting you to do besides make good grades, get great LOR's and make great scores? I know what they wanted when I applied for medical school, but how does it chage for residency?

Do they care if I work at a homeless shelter anymore?


signed,

*confused baby tool dork---six months before school starts*

 

[ckyuen]

First of all a good attitude and a genuine interest in the field. Don't look at all those things as "crap", look at them as ways to further your interest in ophtho

 

[STAC]

I don't know what those things are though...they are an unknown so that's why I said that. What else is there besides grades, boards and LOR's...seriously I don't know or understand the whole process.

 

[ckyuen]

research is definitely a way to see if you are interested in the field of ophthalmology. at this early point in your career, shadowing and ophthalmologist probably wont give you much benefit as you wont know what is going on. Talk to some of the faculty in your department to get an idea of what their typical day is like, why the find the field rewarding, and just so you can get a feel for the type of person who tends to go into opthalmology. Then maybe approach them about doing research. If you are still interested, as you approach your clinical years do a rotation in ophthalmology. Remember though, watching someone examine eyes is very boring, so is watching most of the eye surgeries. However actually performing the surgery is a lot of fun. It's extremely difficult, but rewarding when your patient comes back post op day one 20/20 and thanks you for changing their life.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by ckyuen
However actually performing the surgery is a lot of fun. It's extremely difficult, but rewarding when your patient comes back post op day one 20/20 and thanks you for changing their life.

What's the cataract volume at UTSW? Are you doing any trabs during this year, or will you do them next year?

Thanks for your continual input in this forum. I know many appreciate your opinions!

 

[ckyuen]

Cataract numbers counting class one only, b/c class 3 dont really count for cataracts.
phacos approximately 150-200 depending on how aggressive you book cases
ecce about 25

they still teach us to do extracaps here so that if you have a phaco gone wrong and need to convert you can do so, or if you have a rock hard nucleus mature cat with count fingers you can consider doing an extracap. Other reason I can see it being beneficial is third world country missionary work where you may not have a phaco machine.

trabs are usually third year, you can assist on some second year.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by ckyuen
Cataract numbers counting class one only, b/c class 3 dont really count for cataracts.
phacos approximately 150-200 depending on how aggressive you book cases
ecce about 25

they still teach us to do extracaps here so that if you have a phaco gone wrong and need to convert you can do so, or if you have a rock hard nucleus mature cat with count fingers you can consider doing an extracap. Other reason I can see it being beneficial is third world country missionary work where you may not have a phaco machine.

trabs are usually third year, you can assist on some second year.

I wish we had more scheduled ECCE at Iowa. We do them when there is a rock hard nucleus or a phaco gone wrong, but we don't schedule many ECCE. Do you use a cryo probe or lens loop to extract the lens?

We start doing glaucoma surgeries as a PGY-3 here, but the volume is not high. We do more trabs/glaucoma filtering surgeries as a PGY-4 at the VA.

150-200 cataract case average is awesome. The residents at Iowa perform 140-170 on average. I agree with you that Class 3 doesn't count. I will have 3X the Class 3 experience than Class 1. It's nice to watch, but surgeons can't be proficient by just watching!

 

[ckyuen]

we dont use a cryo probe or lens loop. after the capsulotomy we rock the nucleus with the cystotome then apply manual pressure at 6'0 to tilt the nucleus and pressure at 12 after to express the nucleus, it works great. post op care is much more involved than phaco though.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by ckyuen
post op care is much more involved than phaco though.

How long is the steroid Gtt taper, and is there a need for PF/Acular Gtts to reduce post-CE CME?

 

[ckyuen]

usually we give about 4 weeks of maxitrol, if va is poor at pow #3 we dilate and look for cme, if we suspect it start acular, switch to pf + or - ciloxan or just leave maxitrol. when to taper is a different story. we do these mostly at the va and thank heavens for their 7.00 copay for a month supply of acular. This affords us the ability to taper them much more slowly. I havent done a lot of cases, but most times we leave them on for at least 6 weeks.

Depending on who does the suturing, the biggest challenge is with the rule cyl. Recovery can be quite a while, but most will see 20/20-20/25 with correction. some remarkably will come back 20/40 or better pod #1.

 

[Primate]

Naive question, but do you ever admit your patients s/p surgery? If so, who follows them? Haven't done my Ophtho sub-I yet (coming up in May), just followed a couple faculty, so I don't have a sense of the longitudinal aspects of ophtho care.

I've been really digging general surgery (clinic and OR both) but have NOT much cared for the inpatient management of 35-50 patients, half of whom are s/p Whipples or THEs. I know ophtho, at its worst, won't be like that, but is there any inpatient work?

 

[Kalel]

Originally posted by Primate
Naive question, but do you ever admit your patients s/p surgery? If so, who follows them? Haven't done my Ophtho sub-I yet (coming up in May), just followed a couple faculty, so I don't have a sense of the longitudinal aspects of ophtho care.

I've been really digging general surgery (clinic and OR both) but have NOT much cared for the inpatient management of 35-50 patients, half of whom are s/p Whipples or THEs. I know ophtho, at its worst, won't be like that, but is there any inpatient work?

Most optho's admit patients to medicine services. I don't think that most hospitals have enough in-patients to make it into a separate service. Most optho procedures are out-patient procedures.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Kalel
Most optho's admit patients to medicine services. I don't think that most hospitals have enough in-patients to make it into a separate service. Most optho procedures are out-patient procedures.

Most ophthalmology procedures are out-patient surgeries. If their only issue is ophthalmology, then we admit to our own service and follow them. Some post-ops are kept for 23 hour observation/recovery on the eye service, and some major operations require a little longer inpatient stay. We do have our own service.

If the main problem is medicine, neurology, or surgery, then the patient is admitted to those services and ophthalmology will follow them as consultants.

 

[ckyuen]

I second what Andrew said. However, here we have to admit probably more to our own service than we would like to. I've had an inpatient service of 11 at times, and while this may not seem large we also have to do consults and see clinic patients at the same time. Though even on my worst day it was nothing like my intern year where I was the only intern on the trauma service for a month and admitted about 15 patients a day and had about 35 on my service to round on.