Consequences of a decelerated program?

[zz13216]

My school offers a decelerated program that lets you do M1 classes over the course of 2 years. I'm considering going this route, but would like to know what people think the consequences of this may be when it comes time to apply for residencies.

My situation: did really well on the first set of exams (top 10% of class). We have our second set of exams coming up at the end of the month. I've been suffering from severe insomnia for the past week or so and have started to fall behind (can't study on less than 1 hour of sleep). Second set of exams are the end of the month and I'm not sure if I'll be able to pass them. If I do fail, then I may seriously consider going the decelerated route for a less stressful existence while I get this insomnia issue figured out.

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[swamprat]

Your not thinking rationally thats for one. You did really well on your first set of exams and are already worried about failing exams that haven't even happened for another 3 weeks? Your worries are to be expected, med school is a big adjustment but your reaction to these worries is not rational - at least not yet. Unless you bomb these exams hard and the reason behind it is because you literally can not keep up with the work - then and only then should you CONSIDER splitting the year. Even then I'd talk to advisors and maybe give it one more go. Obviously taking anymore time than 4 years to graduate (besides research or some extenuating circumstances) will negatively impact your residency options. Second, you'll feel bad when you see all your classmates go on to MS2 and your behind with a new class, new friends to make etc. It can even be embarrassing. Third, second year is much more work and if you'll end up in the same situation again with no fall out. I think you should work on stress reduction techniques that'll help you sleep more, even seeing a doctor for some sleeping pills... not preparing for a split year.

 

[zz13216]

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I essentially need to get this anxiety/insomnia issue figured out ASAP and get back on track. Last month, I felt great, I was easily keeping up with the workload. Then this just hits out of nowhere. I literally cannot function the next day when i get zero sleep. It sucks.

 

[Morsetlis]

Sleeping well is a habit that consists of scheduling the rest of your day properly and eating properly at the right times. After all that has failed, consider medication.

 

[Brewmeister]

Decelerated? I thought most of my first year material was irrelevant garbage that could easily be accelerated into 0.5 or 0.75 a year...

 

[Brewmeister]

Btw, this program sounds like a ploy by the admin to suck an extra year's worth of tuition out of you...

 

[isoquin]

I think you should see a doctor and visit your school's psych services about your problem while continuing to try to study. It seems shortsighted to give up on an entire year of medical school after one week of insomnia. In fact the very lack of logic in that decision leads me to believe that either you really are so sleep deprived you're not thinking clearly, or there's something else going on here you didn't quite elaborate upon.

Either way, step 1 is addressing the problem. Speak to your course director about it as well and see if you can delay the exam while seeking medical attention.

 

[drizzt3117]

Better living through pharmacology.

 

[officedepot]

OP that is not smart. In fact NO school should do this. That's just plain absurd. There is no way you'll remember all the stuff (especially M1) you learn over 2 years. No way. Also the stuff during M1 year isn't even that high yield for the boards or for life in clinical medicine. I could maybe see them doing perhaps 1.5 years for M2 but even then that's dumb. Just suck it up OP. We all did it. So can you.

If you have anxiety issues you'll have to wait more than 1 week to be diagnosed with anything by psych. Granted we don't know your whole history so it might be wise to see a general practioner regardless.

 

[mdeast]

I agree. What's the point of decelerating through material that is extremely low-yield for boards, not very interesting, and not nearly as hard as M2 material?

 

[FiremedicMike]

Excuse the "I don't like wasting my time on bullcrap" attitude, and recognize that I'm a pre-med. With that said, I see several of you talking about how M1 is essentially worthless drivel with little clinical relevance and not highly useful on the board exams either. So my question is, why do they even bother teaching it?

 

[mtwop]

Gotta know the normal before you can understand the abnormal

 

[Jack is Back]

Excuse the "I don't like wasting my time on bullcrap" attitude, and recognize that I'm a pre-med. With that said, I see several of you talking about how M1 is essentially worthless drivel with little clinical relevance and not highly useful on the board exams either. So my question is, why do they even bother teaching it?

^
l
l
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what he said.

You build a pretty good vocabulary to learn the other stuff.

 

[Morsetlis]

Because you can't be a doctor without knowing how to draw the brachial plexus.

People just won't trust you!

 

[mmmcdowe]

Because you can't be a doctor without knowing how to draw the brachial plexus.

People just won't trust you!

 

[Brewmeister]

Excuse the "I don't like wasting my time on bullcrap" attitude, and recognize that I'm a pre-med. With that said, I see several of you talking about how M1 is essentially worthless drivel with little clinical relevance and not highly useful on the board exams either. So my question is, why do they even bother teaching it?

Because no matter what people say, a lot of M1 material IS relevant both to Step-1 and clinical medicine. Physiology is the backbone of everything you learn in M2, immunology is hit on constantly and anatomy comes up much more than you'd think. I'll give you the fact that most biochem (maybe it comes back a little in pharm?) and general neuroscience isn't extremely relevant, but they are important. The question is, do you want to be a physician or a technician?

 

[zz13216]

Thanks for the replies everyone. However, no one has really answered my original question. Obviously, doing med school in 5 years isn't going to look good, but how bad will it really look? I'm sure the answer is variable depending on PD/program and specialty, but I just wanted to get a perception of whether or not its detrimental to one's chances or just something that needs to be spun in the right way.

For the record, this is a program that students self-select, usually due to personal issues or academic difficulties and problems adjusting to med school. Tuition is also half of what it normally would be each M1 year. It's not a very popular program but I've heard around 10% of students do this.

Also, it's highly unlikely that I will actually enroll in the program. I was just and still am curious as to what something like this would do to residency chances. It's definitely a nice safety net in case things get bad.

 

[DrBowtie]

On ERAS, you'll have to explain why you took a non standard length/curriculum.
How that is viewed is up to the PDs.