CS in 5 days and not really sweating it...

[GatorsWearJorts]

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I have my CS in 5 days. My school makes us do a practice CS at the school with standardized patients and gives us 70 pages of feedback on what we missed on exam, history, and documentation. I did this a couple of weeks ago and dont really see what the fuss is about. This was pretty much like all the other 40 thousand OSCEs we had to do in the first 2 years.
I know its generally more of a problem for foreign grads who dont speak English as their first language or learn history taking skills differently, but this seems like no problem for American grads (although I know it is sometimes). I feel like I am missing something.
Would you all recommend studying too much besides the feedback I got from my school? I got this audio book on for CS and listened to about half of it, but it really seemed geared to foreign grads.
Also, in the feedback it didnt really seem like my differential and plan were too important as long as I mentioned a few key things, anything other than that didnt really matter, and it also seemed to reward over-testing.
I guess basically, my question is- whats the big deal? Am I foolish for not really worrying about this too much and not planning on studying too much more than my feedback?

 

[IHeartNerds]

You are right to not worry. CS is a joke for anyone who has done significant time with SPs as part of their med school curriculum.

Just know how to play the game, ie what things to put on the "tests to order" (like rectal exam, gyn exam, etc), and be sure you can churn out the notes clearly in the time allotted.

Also be sure to leave time to counsel patients before you leave, since that's a significant part of the encounter evaluation. Just "I think you might have X, Y, or Z, we're going to run tests A, B, and C to figure it out and I will let you know the results. Do you have any questions for me?"

Don't sweat it.

 

[mumd2011]

If someone can loan you a copy of First Aid just so you can flip through the cases and look at the some of the differentials/plans for the common CS cases, I might recommend that. My school does a similar thing at the end of 3rd year and I didn't freak out about CS, I took it a week after the end of my 3rd year and did fine. Surprisingly, my lowest bar was in "spoken English" which is odd since I am pretty sure I have been speaking English my whole life. Maybe the people in Philly were confused by my slight Southern accent...who knows.

 

[jtlc2345]

As said, as long as you've seen a couple of patients during your rotations and know how the exam works, you'll be fine.

I also got my lowest score in 'Spoken English Proficiency' and I have lived in the UK my entire life!

Jonathan

 

[alwaysaangel]

CS is a joke and I'm hoping someday soon a med student whose parents are lawyers sues for the loss of money and time for a useless test that 98% of people pass. There is no reason for all of us to pay $1200 for an English exam. USMLE needs to stop being so money-grubbing.