Failed Course--Any advice is helpful!

[lostbutneverfound16]

So, unfortunately, I failed my last block of this first semester (I'm an OMS I), which was renal by 2 points. What frustrated me the most was that I felt like knew the material, but I also felt rushed for time as there were 55 questions total and I had 30 min left and I was only on question 22. My issue was that I'm usually not someone who takes this long on exams, but I'm beginning to become more and more anxious on exams as I've failed a multitude of exams my first semester and it's been. . . disheartening to say the least. Renal was hard and the questions were...complex and they took a lot of thinking on my end. However, I still felt like I did plenty of practice questions and did well on them.

I think I know what I need to do study better and everything because I'll be honest that I'm not consistent with watching my lectures and I also procrastinate my studying and do it toward the last 3-4 days before an exam. It's not helpful and it's definitely not allowing me to do as well as I know that I can. I also suck with Anki (even though I tend to do better when I do Anki) because I feel that it is dull and takes me a few hours to 'learn' the new cards.

I guess my questions are: what are other ways that I can do to study besides just Anki? I also write out comprehensive reviews, but I'm beginning to think they take too long to write out. I'm also wondering how this may affect my chances of matching for residency--especially given that both Step and Complex are P/F? Finally, last question: my remediation exam dates are either the first day back from spring break, the next week after we start summer break, or the second week of summer break or even like a few weeks into summer break? Is there a benefit of when I should take this remediation exam so that I can get a break but also not get out of the habit of studying and such?

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[Osteosaur]

So, unfortunately, I failed my last block of this first semester (I'm an OMS I), which was renal by 2 points. What frustrated me the most was that I felt like knew the material, but I also felt rushed for time as there were 55 questions total and I had 30 min left and I was only on question 22. My issue was that I'm usually not someone who takes this long on exams, but I'm beginning to become more and more anxious on exams as I've failed a multitude of exams my first semester and it's been. . . disheartening to say the least. Renal was hard and the questions were...complex and they took a lot of thinking on my end. However, I still felt like I did plenty of practice questions and did well on them.

I think I know what I need to do study better and everything because I'll be honest that I'm not consistent with watching my lectures and I also procrastinate my studying and do it toward the last 3-4 days before an exam. It's not helpful and it's definitely not allowing me to do as well as I know that I can. I also suck with Anki (even though I tend to do better when I do Anki) because I feel that it is dull and takes me a few hours to 'learn' the new cards.

I guess my questions are: what are other ways that I can do to study besides just Anki? I also write out comprehensive reviews, but I'm beginning to think they take too long to write out. I'm also wondering how this may affect my chances of matching for residency--especially given that both Step and Complex are P/F? Finally, last question: my remediation exam dates are either the first day back from spring break, the next week after we start summer break, or the second week of summer break or even like a few weeks into summer break? Is there a benefit of when I should take this remediation exam so that I can get a break but also not get out of the habit of studying and such?

Sorry you failed. It's a bad feeling and it's easy to place all your self esteem on your performance on dumb tests as an M1. But you've said yourself you can study better. You need to space out your learning over the entire block from day 2. It's a full time job. Ultimately active learning where you need to regurgitate and apply what you have learned has been demonstrably superior to all that "imma do my third PowerPoint pass today"

Best route is practice questions because that builds up pattern recognition too. I think BRS has some good M1 physiology stuff.

But you say yourself you do better with anki? It takes hours to use, yes, but it can also be all you use. Just skim to get the lay of the land and do anki to hammer it in. Are you doing all your lecture stuff and zanki on top of it?

As a disclaimer I was a pretty middle of the pack student who valued by free time and QOL a lot.

 

[Goro]

So, unfortunately, I failed my last block of this first semester (I'm an OMS I), which was renal by 2 points.

Whether you failed by 2 points or 20, you failed to display mere competence in the material, much less any mastery of it.

What frustrated me the most was that I felt like knew the material, but I also felt rushed for time as there were 55 questions total and I had 30 min left and I was only on question 22. My issue was that I'm usually not someone who takes this long on exams, but I'm beginning to become more and more anxious on exams as I've failed a multitude of exams my first semester and it's been. . . disheartening to say the least.

Test taking anxiety is fixable. I also get the sense that you're falling into a common downward cycle that affects struggling medical student. The more you do poorly, the more anxious or depressed you get. The more anxious or depressed you get, the worse you do, ad finitum until you fail. So it's time to break this cycle. Go visit your school's counseling center. This is NOT giving medical advice.

Renal was hard and the questions were...complex and they took a lot of thinking on my end. However, I still felt like I did plenty of practice questions and did well on them.

I think I know what I need to do study better and everything because I'll be honest that I'm not consistent with watching my lectures and I also procrastinate my studying and do it toward the last 3-4 days before an exam. It's not helpful and it's definitely not allowing me to do as well as I know that I can.

You are self-sabotaging. I'm getting a whiff of depression here, or a learned behavior to inappropriately cope with the anxiety that your academics are causing.

I also suck with Anki (even though I tend to do better when I do Anki) because I feel that it is dull and takes me a few hours to 'learn' the new cards.

Forget about Anki. While many med students do fine with it, as a studying mechanism, it's not for everyone.

I guess my questions are: what are other ways that I can do to study besides just Anki? I also write out comprehensive reviews, but I'm beginning to think they take too long to write out.

You are correct, you can't waste time in study strategies. You need to visit your school's learning center ASAP. In the mean time, read this:

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2019 edition)

I'm also wondering how this may affect my chances of matching for residency--especially given that both Step and Complex are P/F?

Oh, it will hurt. But right now, your priority is learning how to learn and deal with medical school.

Finally, last question: my remediation exam dates are either the first day back from spring break, the next week after we start summer break, or the second week of summer break or even like a few weeks into summer break? Is there a benefit of when I should take this remediation exam so that I can get a break but also not get out of the habit of studying and such?

You need to figure out what is the best time for you to master the material so that you can pass the remediation.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Whether you failed by 2 points or 20, you failed to display mere competence in the material, much less any mastery of it.

I don't agree with this type of criticism. 2 or 20 points is a huge leap. You guys in the PhD world never have to deal the volume that we do and the type of questions we get for exams. In my experience, you can be very strong in subjects and still fail exams. The worst part is these exams never translate into how we practice in the real world. OP is just suffering from test anxiety and not understanding how to play the game. Once OP does, they'll be passing classes comfortably

 

[Ho0v-man]

Test anxiety plus procrastination is a bad combo. You need to get organized. Sounds like you’re doing the right stuff with practice questions and whatnot. But you just need to grind harder.

What you should do in first year is go absolutely b***s out on your exams until you find what you need to do to murder them. Then you titrate back the intensity for sanity to find the zone where you’re comfortably passing.

That’s easier said than done. I know I always felt like if I backed off 10% I went from crushing it to failing. But most people are pretty good at this by second year.

As far as how this affects residency, it depends. Some schools will not give programs any clues that this happened so long as you pass a makeup exam. My school was super transparent and put it on the MSPE. If you end up repeating the year, it’s going to hurt a lot. And if that’s the case and you came in not being okay with a primary care field, then you may want to consider cutting your losses. But we’re not there just yet.

Lastly, I’ll just say that renal in first semester is just…cruel. You’re still learning how to learn ffs! That’s one of the harder (if not the hardest) blocks at most schools. These test results don’t mean you can’t be a good doctor. It just means you’re still finding your rhythm.

 

[Mav13]

Forget the Anki.
Study your schools PPT material. Use B&B/pathoma/sketchy.
Do some type of question bank relevant to your exam subject. Do as many problems as you can manage then do some more.

Keep your head up!!