discouraged, needing words of advice

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bluelover656

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Hi guys!
So my first round of exams did not go well as I'd like it to be in medical school. So therefore, I studied harder and changed some of my study habits (put in more time, effort, hours and talked to some of the professors). Now, after my second round of tests, I studied very hard the whole quarter and still could not achieve the results that I wanted (I barely passed). At this point, I feel pretty drained and feel very discouraged. I was wondering if the community could give some words of encouragement to get me back into the mood again. At this point all I want to do is to NOT study and just eat and watch netflix. Coming from somebody who was such a high achiever in college, it's really hard for me to deal with such a drastic difference.

Any Thoughts?
Thanks

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Hi guys!
So my first round of exams did not go well as I'd like it to be in medical school. So therefore, I studied harder and changed some of my study habits (put in more time, effort, hours and talked to some of the professors). Now, after my second round of tests, I studied very hard the whole quarter and still could not achieve the results that I wanted (I barely passed). At this point, I feel pretty drained and feel very discouraged. I was wondering if the community could give some words of encouragement to get me back into the mood again. At this point all I want to do is to NOT study and just eat and watch netflix. Coming from somebody who was such a high achiever in college, it's really hard for me to deal with such a drastic difference.

Any Thoughts?
Thanks
Thought 1: everyone in your class is more or less a high achiever in college, so in a sense it is harder to get your old class ranking
Thought 2: don't stress out so early in the game, we've got people who barely passed the first quarter, but still ended up in the top half of the class by the end of 1st year. Keep working hard, it's only what, half a semester so far?
Thought 3: if there's no immediate exams coming, do take the time to eat and watch netflix, you need that sometimes
 
On the other hand - all you need is to pass. Chill out. 70% will make you a doctor. You don't have to get 95%. What you need to do is to learn how to become more effective in studying so you can pass easily. That's all you need. If you are passing let's say at 72-74% - try to modify you studying efficiency to pass with just a bit more confidence like maybe up to 76-78% - this is enough. And majority of students first year get low scores from time to time and a good chunk like maybe a quarter of all students are same as you - just passing barely - they just don't admit it. You should be fine, but instead of going into depression, try to improve just a bit and that's all you need - it's very achievable - you are almost there
 
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Did you do practice questions? I'm not talking like 20, I'm talking like 100+ per subject. Practice questions changed my C's to A's and B's.
 
Where do you get them?

BRS (used for board review) is a great resource for questions for all of your subjects. It sucks having to comb through them for what you're currently studying but second years may have already done this so ask around. I also like blue histo for histology. Princeton or Yale has a similar histology website that I hear is really good. For anatomy lab I used U.Misch- amazing resource that got me a high A in lab. If you're consistently scoring 80+ on those low res images you will get an A on your lab practicals.(http://www.med.umich.edu/lrc/coursepages/m1/anatomy2010/html/courseinfo/mich_quiz_index.html)

I also like this website for biochem (http://www.namrata.co/category/chem...le-choice-questions-chemistry-of-nucleotides/)

Also, if your school offers tutoring DO IT. The second years who tutor make really great questions that focus on high yield stuff.
 
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Hi guys!
So my first round of exams did not go well as I'd like it to be in medical school. So therefore, I studied harder and changed some of my study habits (put in more time, effort, hours and talked to some of the professors). Now, after my second round of tests, I studied very hard the whole quarter and still could not achieve the results that I wanted (I barely passed). At this point, I feel pretty drained and feel very discouraged. I was wondering if the community could give some words of encouragement to get me back into the mood again. At this point all I want to do is to NOT study and just eat and watch netflix. Coming from somebody who was such a high achiever in college, it's really hard for me to deal with such a drastic difference.

Any Thoughts?
Thanks

I am assuming your study methods and resources are ok, if not look into that. It is very common to see first year come in expecting to get rockstar grades. News flash... it doesn't matter. Residencies don't care about your class rank, the praise you get in your deans letter or if you got an A in biochem. They care about Board scores, if you failed a class or had to repeat a year and if they can work with you or if you will make life worse for them. Everything you are doing in med school is to get into residency so you can finally learn how to be a real doctor! It has nothing to do with getting a higher grade than the class or even beating the average on a test. For class tests you should be thinking what scores do I need to get to pass bare minimum this class and move on. Pat yourself on the back on passing your second round of test because there are millions of people that can NOT do that but you did. Don't let yourself get down because the opp nerd got a 98 and you got a 73 ... guess what? You both passed... whooo. You are in medical school that is a high achievement that millions fail to accomplish. If you pass all of your classes .... Boom another high achievement. Ask around bro not too many people do that either. You want something to reach for go for that rockstar board score. Hit an 800 level 1 and a 240 USMLE.... Boooyah. Hit that and all of those things you always wanted will be yours.... Yeah you know what I am talking about... That custom license plate that nobody understands.... KltBrds..... Does he hunt birds, wear kilts made of bird feathers or did he do very well on level 1 ? Not too sure.... You can get that special tattoo. MedLife 800 240.... Tell them to put it 4 cm lateral and inferior to your ILAs... Will the artist know what that means? Not likely but you will why because you are a high achiever. Take that opp nerds.
 
Get thee to your school's learning or education center, STAT. Whatever you're doing, you're not doing it correctly.

Read my post on guide to medical student success.

If you have test taking anxiety issues, get those fixed.


Hi guys!
So my first round of exams did not go well as I'd like it to be in medical school. So therefore, I studied harder and changed some of my study habits (put in more time, effort, hours and talked to some of the professors). Now, after my second round of tests, I studied very hard the whole quarter and still could not achieve the results that I wanted (I barely passed). At this point, I feel pretty drained and feel very discouraged. I was wondering if the community could give some words of encouragement to get me back into the mood again. At this point all I want to do is to NOT study and just eat and watch netflix. Coming from somebody who was such a high achiever in college, it's really hard for me to deal with such a drastic difference.

Any Thoughts?
Thanks
 
I did horribly on my first test while the class avg was like high 80's. so trust me I've been there and it feels so incredibly discouraging. All I can say is that chances are you will find your study style. By my 3rd exam I was at average, and ever since I've actually been well above. Just know that this is definitely not unusual, learning how to sort through all the material for what's most important takes time. Just stay in the game!


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Study smarter, not harder. Took me a LOOOOONG time to figure that one out.
 
Get thee to your school's learning or education center, STAT. Whatever you're doing, you're not doing it correctly.

Read my post on guide to medical student success.

If you have test taking anxiety issues, get those fixed.
Goro, this is probably the only aspect I disagree with you (agree with all your other posts). In my experience with learning and educational centers they only offer VERY basic stuff that 99% of students already know and getting same info is NOT helping. In fact it's wasting time that students already don't have enough to begin with. Second year tutoring is a BIG hit or miss too - in my experience 2nd year students only made it worse and wasted my time. I don't blame them, they have STEPs to pass and their mind was focused on STEPs rather than genuinely wanting to help MS1. Luckily for me, I learned that early and ditched those centers and students away asap. I had enough time left to study and pass exams - no one will do it better than you yourself. IMHO the worst advise here on SDN is that one to direct poor MS1 to educational centers - I've been there and I know how they work and what banal things they tell wasting your time. I get it - they are required for institution to have and people working their are just making their best in current situation, but it's not helping and I think it's time for them to step up and acknowledge that they are not helping at all and wasting time - they need to change their process to be really helpful - like for example if teaching faculty member, the one who reads lectures can tutor for a small group - then this would be really helpful, but they don't offer that of course.
Anyway, just my 2c
 
I am assuming your study methods and resources are ok, if not look into that. It is very common to see first year come in expecting to get rockstar grades. News flash... it doesn't matter. Residencies don't care about your class rank, the praise you get in your deans letter or if you got an A in biochem. They care about Board scores, if you failed a class or had to repeat a year and if they can work with you or if you will make life worse for them. Everything you are doing in med school is to get into residency so you can finally learn how to be a real doctor! It has nothing to do with getting a higher grade than the class or even beating the average on a test. For class tests you should be thinking what scores do I need to get to pass bare minimum this class and move on. Pat yourself on the back on passing your second round of test because there are millions of people that can NOT do that but you did. Don't let yourself get down because the opp nerd got a 98 and you got a 73 ... guess what? You both passed... whooo. You are in medical school that is a high achievement that millions fail to accomplish. If you pass all of your classes .... Boom another high achievement. Ask around bro not too many people do that either. You want something to reach for go for that rockstar board score. Hit an 800 level 1 and a 240 USMLE.... Boooyah. Hit that and all of those things you always wanted will be yours.... Yeah you know what I am talking about... That custom license plate that nobody understands.... KltBrds..... Does he hunt birds, wear kilts made of bird feathers or did he do very well on level 1 ? Not too sure.... You can get that special tattoo. MedLife 800 240.... Tell them to put it 4 cm lateral and inferior to your ILAs... Will the artist know what that means? Not likely but you will why because you are a high achiever. Take that opp nerds.
Now see, every SDN member tells different story on that one and it only adds to a confusion for MS1
 
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I am assuming your study methods and resources are ok, if not look into that. It is very common to see first year come in expecting to get rockstar grades. News flash... it doesn't matter. Residencies don't care about your class rank, the praise you get in your deans letter or if you got an A in biochem. They care about Board scores, if you failed a class or had to repeat a year and if they can work with you or if you will make life worse for them. Everything you are doing in med school is to get into residency so you can finally learn how to be a real doctor! It has nothing to do with getting a higher grade than the class or even beating the average on a test. For class tests you should be thinking what scores do I need to get to pass bare minimum this class and move on. Pat yourself on the back on passing your second round of test because there are millions of people that can NOT do that but you did. Don't let yourself get down because the opp nerd got a 98 and you got a 73 ... guess what? You both passed... whooo. You are in medical school that is a high achievement that millions fail to accomplish. If you pass all of your classes .... Boom another high achievement. Ask around bro not too many people do that either. You want something to reach for go for that rockstar board score. Hit an 800 level 1 and a 240 USMLE.... Boooyah. Hit that and all of those things you always wanted will be yours.... Yeah you know what I am talking about... That custom license plate that nobody understands.... KltBrds..... Does he hunt birds, wear kilts made of bird feathers or did he do very well on level 1 ? Not too sure.... You can get that special tattoo. MedLife 800 240.... Tell them to put it 4 cm lateral and inferior to your ILAs... Will the artist know what that means? Not likely but you will why because you are a high achiever. Take that opp nerds.

You need to read the SDN forums more if this is what you believe to be true. You're not going to turn into a USMLE superstar overnight by having just passing grades in medical school. It is a time to figure out what gives you the most bang for your buck in terms of understanding and retention. You take this understanding and retention and apply this to your board studying. Those dudes that you see rocking the board, but getting B's and C's are taking a hit on their grades for their board studying. Its not like they magically got their act together during the last 6 months of 2nd year.

Now do first year grades and second year grades matter in the grand scheme of things? Definitely not. However, proper study habits do lead you to good grades and good board score and this is best started early. Of course, you still have to prep specifically for the boards (around year 2), studying for classes alone won't cut it.
 
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Well, maybe my school has a stellar center, and yours is lousy, and you are different form the OP. Plus, whatever, OP is doing, maybe they don't know the stuff 99% of students already know? All I can say is that my learning center has helped students turn around, but work ethic also plays a role in student success.




Goro, this is probably the only aspect I disagree with you (agree with all your other posts). In my experience with learning and educational centers they only offer VERY basic stuff that 99% of students already know and getting same info is NOT helping. In fact it's wasting time that students already don't have enough to begin with. Second year tutoring is a BIG hit or miss too - in my experience 2nd year students only made it worse and wasted my time. I don't blame them, they have STEPs to pass and their mind was focused on STEPs rather than genuinely wanting to help MS1. Luckily for me, I learned that early and ditched those centers and students away asap. I had enough time left to study and pass exams - no one will do it better than you yourself. IMHO the worst advise here on SDN is that one to direct poor MS1 to educational centers - I've been there and I know how they work and what banal things they tell wasting your time. I get it - they are required for institution to have and people working their are just making their best in current situation, but it's not helping and I think it's time for them to step up and acknowledge that they are not helping at all and wasting time - they need to change their process to be really helpful - like for example if teaching faculty member, the one who reads lectures can tutor for a small group - then this would be really helpful, but they don't offer that of course.
Anyway, just my 2c
 
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Now see, every SDN member tells different story on that one and it only adds to a confusion for MS1

Everybody goes to different schools, hears different lies, believes different things. Truth is this info is public knowledge and is openly published by multiple residency directors. Believe whatever you want i am going with whatever the guys that make the decisions say. The order of priorities generally goes OMS1- survival OMS2- boards, OMS3 and 4- dont do anything stupid.
The point of my post was the op just needs to chill and be ok with not being the best because that crap doesnt matter.


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If OP were to be getting a B, then it really isn't a issue. The problem here is that OP is BARELY passing when he/she put in extra work.

Now, OP you are starting to realize that studying harder doesn't always amount to getting better grade. You have to critically think about how the exam was a and what was the problem. Start making it a habit after exams to think about the questions that caused you the most problems. Is there specific professor's questions that are giving you a hard time? Or is that you are forgetting concepts? Or is it memorizing details? Start figuring out patterns in your learning and try to find ways to fix your weak areas.

Have you also tried doing practice questions from sources like BRS, firecracker, or other medical school websites?
 
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I'm a first year like you who's trying to find out my studying style. I'm consistently at the average or slightly above the average on my tests. I think the key is to actually make 3-4 passes on the materials before the exam. I am consistently average by making one full pass 48-72 hrs before the big day. From my research, my yield based on my grade for just one pass is exceptionally good. For the exam that I did 2 SDs above the mean, I made several passes at the materials.

I personally am going to tweaked my study habits a little bit for my final exam in 2-3 weeks. I will let you know how it goes. One huge change will be to peread lecture ppts and make about 10 Anki slides per lecture. For anatomy, our lecture slides weren't available until after lecture so I didn't really develop a strong routine.
 
Everybody goes to different schools, hears different lies, believes different things. Truth is this info is public knowledge and is openly published by multiple residency directors. Believe whatever you want i am going with whatever the guys that make the decisions say. The order of priorities generally goes OMS1- survival OMS2- boards, OMS3 and 4- dont do anything stupid.
The point of my post was the op just needs to chill and be ok with not being the best because that crap doesnt matter.
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It's more like
OMS1 - average is good. Tweak and refine your study routine for big boy league.
OMS1 - average is good. Spend more time on board prep.
OMS 3- Super important and is the second most important factor after Step 1. Be flexible and a team player. Bust your ass to impress the attendings for those letters.
OMS 4- impress your auditions and chill.
 
It's more like
OMS1 - average is good. Tweak and refine your study routine for big boy league.
OMS1 - average is good. Spend more time on board prep.
OMS 3- Super important and is the second most important factor after Step 1. Be flexible and a team player. Bust your ass to impress the attendings for those letters.
OMS 4- impress your auditions and chill.

I am with you until this whole OMS3 impress the attendings part... no med student is going to impress an attending. Go for trying to suck less by showing up early, study and know as much about your rotation as possible, when you get pimped and miss study so you dont miss again, be pleasantly persistent about doing things and stay late.


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I am with you until this whole OMS3 impress the attendings part... no med student is going to impress an attending. Go for trying to suck less by showing up early, study and know as much about your rotation as possible, when you get pimped and miss study so you dont miss again, be pleasantly persistent about doing things and stay late.


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Agree... It's hard to impress these people. One of our attendings told us that if you show up early, respect patients and the staff, that's already a passing grade in his scale. If you answer his pimped questions and ask intelligent ones, he might bump you up to a high B or even an A.

There is so much variation in clerkships among schools and even within schools, so I wonder if program directors take these 3rd year grade clerkships seriously...
 
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Agree... It's hard to impress these people. One of our attendings told us that if you show up early, respect patients and the staff, that's already a passing grade in his scale. If you answer his pimped questions and ask intelligent ones, he might bump you up to a high B or even an A.

There is so much variation in clerkships among schools and even within schools, so I wonder if program directors take these 3rd year grade clerkships seriously...

Well from what I have heard most PDs dont take much from DO schools very seriously unless they personally know the dean, preceptor or professor which is not uncommon. Everything turns into a check mark except USMLE step 1 scores and audition rotation. Sometime step 2 scores.


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Did you do practice questions? I'm not talking like 20, I'm talking like 100+ per subject. Practice questions changed my C's to A's and B's.

how do you find time to do that many practice questions? It takes me so long to go through the material that doing that many practice questions is difficult.
 
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