Class of 2013!!!

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olemissbabydoc said:
Second year 😍👍😍
Immunology in and of itself :barf:

But second year is still >>>>>>> first.
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I'll give you that second year is "OK," but I don't think all those hearts are necessary (or accurate haha).

I 100% agree about immunology. I would also like to add in pharmacology as something that sucks.

For me, first year was ten million times more laid back. I start studying around 8 in the morning and I don't usually stop until around 11pm, taking about 2-3 hours total for lunch, breaks, dinner, etc. I do this 6 days a week, then do a half day on one day.

Last year I went weeks at a time without cracking a book or going to a lecture.

I haven't had an exam yet, so I'm not sure if:
1) I'm doing more work than is necessary
2) I'm doing just the right amount
3) My butt will get handed to me and I need to figure out how I can do even more... (please no)

DrYoda said:
Hi everyone!
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Hey!
 
Hey, so the class of 2015 is applying now. Doesn't that make you feel a little "old news"?
 
WashMe said:
For me, first year was ten million times more laid back. I start studying around 8 in the morning and I don't usually stop until around 11pm, taking about 2-3 hours total for lunch, breaks, dinner, etc. I do this 6 days a week, then do a half day on one day.

Last year I went weeks at a time without cracking a book or going to a lecture.

I haven't had an exam yet, so I'm not sure if:
1) I'm doing more work than is necessary
2) I'm doing just the right amount
3) My butt will get handed to me and I need to figure out how I can do even more... (please no)



Hey!
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Yeah, I feel like I'm working a lot harder this year. But I'm also doing lab work, so I'm not sure if it's just that cutting down on my free time or what.
 
DrYoda said:
Yeah, I feel like I'm working a lot harder this year. But I'm also doing lab work, so I'm not sure if it's just that cutting down on my free time or what.
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Yeah, people have always said that 2nd year is better, but the class work is much worse and more plentiful. I guess I'm not flirting with a nervous breakdown like I was first year since I'm used to it, but that's not much of a consolation.
 
I think it isn't so much that second year is better, but more that you are (somewhat) used to the work load and what the expectations of your performance are.
 
Myuu said:
I think it isn't so much that second year is better, but more that you are (somewhat) used to the work load and what the expectations of your performance are.
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It sucks to go from pass/fail to real grades though! I know not everyone else is in my position, but I went from just aiming for comfortably above 70% (and scoring high-80's on average) to now being graded on scales like:

x greater than 90 = Honors
x equal to 90 or less, but greater than 85 = High Pass
x equal to 85 or less (but greater than 70) = Pass

So an 85.00 is just a Pass, while a 90.01 is an Honors!
holy shiz that's a narrow range...

And the tests are horribly written multiple choice questions with bologna answer choices. On a test with 59 questions, getting 6 wrong would knock you out of honors range.
 
Myuu said:
I think it isn't so much that second year is better, but more that you are (somewhat) used to the work load and what the expectations of your performance are.
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For me part of it is the material is more interesting. Not that I love memorizing the compliment cascades, or drug mechanisms... but it's more engaging than relearning krebs cycle for the 5th time.
 
Idk, Im kind of starting to come around to Yale's perspective that the biggest problem in medical education is grading. In terms of what you're doing though, m3 >>>> m2
 
WashMe said:
It sucks to go from pass/fail to real grades though! I know not everyone else is in my position, but I went from just aiming for comfortably above 70% (and scoring high-80's on average) to now being graded on scales like:

x greater than 90 = Honors
x equal to 90 or less, but greater than 85 = High Pass
x equal to 85 or less (but greater than 70) = Pass

So an 85.00 is just a Pass, while a 90.01 is an Honors!
holy shiz that's a narrow range...

And the tests are horribly written multiple choice questions with bologna answer choices. On a test with 59 questions, getting 6 wrong would knock you out of honors range.
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That sounds like it sucks. My school is just H/P/F and each course gets to set whatever Honors criteria they want (just as long as not too many people get it).

They don't even put our class rank on our transcripts unless we want them, so as long as I'm scoring >72% on most things, I'm happy.
 
Has it really been over 6 months since anyone's posted in the ORIGINAL class thread!?!

I admit I do have far less time to waste on sdn like I did back in the pre-med days. So much has changed in the last year and a half.

Hope ya'll are doing well!
 
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Aw yay hello everyone!

I'm taking my last real lecture-based class of my life, which is basically the weirdest thing ever, and in typical VMS fashion P = 80%. Which is ridiculous. Really, they say they're pass/fail, but with pass being an 80...

Anywho, ready to get this shiz over with and move on with my life. The-test-that-shall-not-be-named is scheduled for June 27th. How about you guys??
 
I'm June 14th! Our last final is May 13th and they give us 5 weeks to study, then straight to orientation to clerkship. Last year's class only got 4 weeks, luckily for us, they were effective complainers. 😉

How many weeks does everyone else get? Does your school give you any sort of review prep course? I wish we could get Dr. Goljan in the house.

LET, you've been P/F this whole time?! I don't know, I kinda like the sound of that...

We get:
Honors >90%
Near Honors 85-90
Satisfactory 70-85
and below that basically D (50-65) and Fail <50

I love that an 84% nets you a 1.0/3.0 on our GPA scale. :laugh:
 
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airplanes said:
I'm June 14th! Our last final is May 13th and they give us 5 weeks to study, then straight to orientation to clerkship. Last year's class only got 4 weeks, luckily for us, they were effective complainers. 😉

How many does everyone else get? Does your school give you any sort of review prep course? I wish we could get Dr. Goljan in the house.

LET, you've been P/F this whole time?! I don't know, I kinda like the sound of that...

We get:
Honors >90%
Near Honors 85-90
Satisfactory 70-85
and below that basically D (50-65) and Fail <50

I love that an 84% nets you a 1.0/3.0 on our GPA scale. :laugh:
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June 13 for me.

Our grading scale is even worse. There's no curve technically, but the scales are set based on previous years performance. So for some of our classes (anatomy, cell and tissue biology, etc), the Honors threshold might be set at 94.5 and the High Pass one might be set at 86.
 
Raryn said:
June 13 for me.

Our grading scale is even worse. There's no curve technically, but the scales are set based on previous years performance. So for some of our classes (anatomy, cell and tissue biology, etc), the Honors threshold might be set at 94.5 and the High Pass one might be set at 86.
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😱 That boggles my mind. It's as if they punish you for not improving...over the bar someone else set.

So I always wondered...does anyone taking the exam on any given day get one of many possible exams? Is there one for each day? I'm not a fan the ambiguity of the entire scoring process in general. Kind of reminds me of the MCAT...on steriods.


DrYoda said:
We get 8 weeks. And we do have a prep course, it's optional though so I'm not going to it.
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8 weeks, nice. Hopefully that gives you plenty of time to squeeze in some nice vacay before 3rd year.
 
airplanes said:
So I always wondered...does anyone taking the exam on any given day get one of many possible exams? Is there one for each day? I'm not a fan the ambiguity of the entire scoring process in general. Kind of reminds me of the MCAT...on steriods.
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I guessing there's multiple different exams, but who knows. It seems there's always a large degree of weirdness in how these things are set up.

8 weeks, nice. Hopefully that gives you plenty of time to squeeze in some nice vacay before 3rd year.
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Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I left a week for vacation. I'll probably spend some time chillin' early in the 8 weeks too, before it's really crunch time.
 
DrYoda said:
I guessing there's multiple different exams, but who knows. It seems there's always a large degree of weirdness in how these things are set up.



Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I left a week for vacation. I'll probably spend some time chillin' early in the 8 weeks too, before it's really crunch time.
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Happy Birthday!
 
DrYoda said:
I guessing there's multiple different exams, but who knows. It seems there's always a large degree of weirdness in how these things are set up.



Not sure what I'm doing yet, but I left a week for vacation. I'll probably spend some time chillin' early in the 8 weeks too, before it's really crunch time.
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Pretty sure everyone gets a random exam with ~300 questions pulled from the full set of several thousand.

But I could be wrong.
 
My last exam is on May 13 and I'm taking S*** 1 on June 15th... then I have 3rd year orientation on the 17th and I start on the 20th. Have I started studying? No 🙁. We don't get any prep courses or materials from the school, so we're basically given a max of 1 month and left to our own devices (for better or worse).
 
WashMe said:
My last exam is on May 13 and I'm taking S*** 1 on June 15th... then I have 3rd year orientation on the 17th and I start on the 20th. Have I started studying? No 🙁. We don't get any prep courses or materials from the school, so we're basically given a max of 1 month and left to our own devices (for better or worse).
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Your school also recruits 120 of the best standardized test takers in the country every year.

Somehow I doubt it does that badly? 😉
 
Raryn said:
Your school also recruits 120 of the best standardized test takers in the country every year.

Somehow I doubt it does that badly? 😉
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Yeah... average is around 237-8, so not the worst but not the best.
 
Raryn said:
Rumor has it our averages range from 222-226, depending on the year.
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The thing is, though, that your score will be an n=1 statistic. You could get a 260, and there's a decent chance you will (you're on SDN, aren't you? lol). As far as your school at 222-226, and my school at ~237, just remember that there are schools in the low 240's that put us both to shame haha
 
The best advice I can give about step 1 is to really understand the stuff you're learning and put it in clinical context. Just memorizing random facts won't really help you in either doing well on step 1 or in your medical career. It sounds really obvious but you'd be shocked... Never mind that you'll all be on the wards in ~3-4 months...
 
WashMe said:
The thing is, though, that your score will be an n=1 statistic. You could get a 260, and there's a decent chance you will (you're on SDN, aren't you? lol). As far as your school at 222-226, and my school at ~237, just remember that there are schools in the low 240's that put us both to shame haha
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I take any school who's mean claims to be more than 1 full SD above the mean (240 or so) to be lying their socks off or manipulating the data somehow. Statistically, that's impossible without them somehow knowing some secret method to selecting a better population of medical students. Half of their students can't be at the 85th percentile or above.

But yes, I plan on doing a fair bit higher than the school average. Though G-d only knows if I'll succeed, I really should be studying more, but I procrastinate. I pulled it off for the MCAT and the SAT, but every time it gets harder 😉
 
Looks like this thread could use a bump and my absent A** is just the one to do it.

Now that we're facing yet another application/interview process... Does the ultimate group of medical students know what they're going into and where they plan to do it?
 
09medstudent13 said:
Looks like this thread could use a bump and my absent A** is just the one to do it.

Now that we're facing yet another application/interview process... Does the ultimate group of medical students know what they're going into and where they plan to do it?
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Don't make me laugh...
 
I'm a c/o 2017er, but know tomorrow is match day. I wish you all the best! I hope you get some sleep tonight!

:luck:

EDIT: For any of you at Vandy, I'll be watching tomorrow via the webcast at my desk!
 
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