For the rest of us...

[vtucci]

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The fact that some of you have 90 as the average on tests is amazing to me. Maybe I am old school but I think average should be between 70-75. At my school, it is more typically a B- but still that is far from a 90. Damn.

 

[cmeshy]

ok, so i walked out of the cardiovascular physio test yesterday with my nards deep in my throat thinking that was the worst test ever in my life...pleased to find my test score at 72 i said, ok still got a B in the class...then look to see the average...it was 88...seriously people...go get a drink or watch a movie and quit studying so much....sheesh...gunners make me sick...

question: is your class getting the rep of being uninvolved with extracurricular affairs (which is basically stated by the second years) like mine? we go to class meetings being told that we are "un-professional" and that we need to make sure that our resumes have more than just grades in it. BUT then the professors after each exam say that we are scoring the highest by a wide margin in the past five years..so how is that unprofessional? and is it just every 2nd year class that thinks they are high and mighty and that they were soooo involved. those silly talks make me wanna gag 👎

 

[indo]

Our anatomy average is 94%.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

ok, so i walked out of the cardiovascular physio test yesterday with my nards deep in my throat thinking that was the worst test ever in my life...pleased to find my test score at 72 i said, ok still got a B in the class...then look to see the average...it was 88...seriously people...go get a drink or watch a movie and quit studying so much....sheesh...gunners make me sick...

question: is your class getting the rep of being uninvolved with extracurricular affairs (which is basically stated by the second years) like mine? we go to class meetings being told that we are "un-professional" and that we need to make sure that our resumes have more than just grades in it. BUT then the professors after each exam say that we are scoring the highest by a wide margin in the past five years..so how is that unprofessional? and is it just every 2nd year class that thinks they are high and mighty and that they were soooo involved. those silly talks make me wanna gag 👎

Maybe we should buy people a freaking dictionary and have them look up the word professional. Just 'cause you don't like something doesn't make it unprofessional. Or are med people just super cr@ppy with words and unable to think up better adjectives?

Anyway, I am curious how much extracurriculars matter. None at my school seem that interesting to me, and I honestly don't have the emotional strength right now to spearhead something that I would actually like to be a part of, like say med students for choice. All our class volunteering activities are about kids with cancer because that's the thing our volunteer coordinator is into, and I honestly don't feel driven to do that (I'm not saying it's not wonderful -- it's just not how I want to spend my volunteer time).

 

[Sophie]

Anyway, I am curious how much extracurriculars matter. None at my school seem that interesting to me, and I honestly don't have the emotional strength right now to spearhead something that I would actually like to be a part of, like say med students for choice. All our class volunteering activities are about kids with cancer because that's the thing our volunteer coordinator is into, and I honestly don't feel driven to do that (I'm not saying it's not wonderful -- it's just not how I want to spend my volunteer time).

The residency directors I've spoken with have all said extracurriculars don't matter. Most say something along the lines of "they really aren't given much weight - your grades, test scores, interview, letters of recommendation, and research are much more important". The bluntest residency director I spoke with (general surgery) just said outright "Extracurriculars do not count AT ALL. I honestly don't even look at them. Except research. Research is very important. But anything else, only do it if you really want to, because it won't help your application any."

 

[da8s0859q]

The residency directors I've spoken with have all said extracurriculars don't matter. Most say something along the lines of "they really aren't given much weight - your grades, test scores, interview, letters of recommendation, and research are much more important". The bluntest residency director I spoke with (general surgery) just said outright "Extracurriculars do not count AT ALL. I honestly don't even look at them. Except research. Research is very important. But anything else, only do it if you really want to, because it won't help your application any."

I would've hoped so, honestly (although they really ought to have at least some benefit for the ones that are involved in them without significantly nicking those that aren't) - at least as far as ec work goes. Research, meh, I still dislike doing research.

 

[justsomeguy]

Maybe we should buy people a freaking dictionary and have them look up the word professional. Just 'cause you don't like something doesn't make it unprofessional. Or are med people just super cr@ppy with words and unable to think up better adjectives?

I find this comment to be utterly unprofessional. In fact, the other day, I went to Starbucks and asked for an extrafoamy half-milk, half-coffee, half-sugar vanilla-choco-mocha-taco-grande latte and the dude gave me an extrafoamy half-milk, half-coffee, half-sugar vanilla-choco-mocha-taco-venti latte. I told his manager that his employees were unprofessional beverage makers who made unprofessional coffee. All-in-all, I had a really unprofessional day. Even the TV shows on that night were so unprofessional. I should have just stayed in bed.

 

[Sophie]

What is it with 'professional' being the new it word? At my school we have a weekly class called 'Professionalism in the Practice of Medicine', and we spent one of the 2 hour class sessions solely discussing what it means to be professional.

 

[Biscuit799]

At my school every first year class has a tradition of getting reamed by admin for being unprofessional. Last year we all had a lecture about how we were being unprofessional and not taking our clinical skills course seriously (probably bc we weren't), and focusing strictly on the basic science courses (probably bc we were). The current first years recently were told that they act unprofessionally by having too many parties and not focusing enough on studying. I've also been told that I'm unprofessional bc I don't participate, not in extracurriculars in general, but in specific extracurriculars (in my case AMA, AMSA..basically all the socialist medical groups that I don't like).

All in all, it's an unprofessional life...

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I find this comment to be utterly unprofessional. In fact, the other day, I went to Starbucks and asked for an extrafoamy half-milk, half-coffee, half-sugar vanilla-choco-mocha-taco-grande latte and the dude gave me an extrafoamy half-milk, half-coffee, half-sugar vanilla-choco-mocha-taco-venti latte. I told his manager that his employees were unprofessional beverage makers who made unprofessional coffee. All-in-all, I had a really unprofessional day. Even the TV shows on that night were so unprofessional. I should have just stayed in bed.

My cat ran away when I tried to pet her. Pretty unprofessional. 😡 My other cat woke me up at six this morning begging for food. Really, he should consider whether or not that presents a professional image. My third cat keeps on stepping on my laptop and turning on the caps lock. I've never seen such unprofessional behavior.

Supposedly, no one used the word "professionalism" in med school until the last few years. It's a fad, and it'll disappear (mercifully). The problem is that it really doesn't mean anything, or at least it doesn't mean what the schools are acting like it means. My problem with it is that it's never used to mean that we should be good, competent doctors, which I think should be at the root of being a professional. Instead it's used solely to describe appearance and superficial matters rather than getting at any objective quality issues.

 

[DoctorFunk]

Our class was told this year via a 15 minute lecture by one of our course directors that we were being highly "unprofessional" by not returning the chairs to their original positions following our small group meetings. This diatribe did not take into consideration that most of the rooms were not "set properly" to begin with and students simply put their chairs back where they found them. Evidently it is "unprofessional" not to do the facilities management's work, so much so that we were threatened to have our grades docked.

I'm expecting to be forced to sweep and mop hospital floors third year for the sake of professionalism.

 

[Ashers]

Our class was told this year via a 15 minute lecture by one of our course directors that we were being highly "unprofessional" by not returning the chairs to their original positions following our small group meetings. This diatribe did not take into consideration that most of the rooms were not "set properly" to begin with and students simply put their chairs back where they found them. Evidently it is "unprofessional" not to do the facilities management's work, so much so that we were threatened to have our grades docked.

I'm expecting to be forced to sweep and mop hospital floors third year for the sake of professionalism.

All in all... it's unprofessional to not be able to read people's minds to know how to do things properly, including how to set up a room, or know what exactly the path departments wants us to learn from anything ending in _BL.

 

[lilnoelle]

So, I failed an exam today. Got a 67%. I won't fail the block (I think it'll end up being a 77% without adjustment). Theres quite a good chance that my grade will be brought up to passing once they look at the tests (usually there are questions thrown out because they were poorly written).
We have the opportunity to retake the exam on Monday.
So what do you guys think? Do I study like crazy all weekend to retake the test and improve my grade or do I just take a break that I badly need and spend time with my hubby and kids?

 

[Doctor Bagel]

So, I failed an exam today. Got a 67%. I won't fail the block (I think it'll end up being a 77% without adjustment). Theres quite a good chance that my grade will be brought up to passing once they look at the tests (usually there are questions thrown out because they were poorly written).
We have the opportunity to retake the exam on Monday.
So what do you guys think? Do I study like crazy all weekend to retake the test and improve my grade or do I just take a break that I badly need and spend time with my hubby and kids?

You have all the hard questions. 🙂 I have an exam block coming up next week, so my emotional response is to take the break and skip retaking. This is coming from a place of complete mental exhaustion, though.

 

[peace84]

So, I failed an exam today. Got a 67%. I won't fail the block (I think it'll end up being a 77% without adjustment). Theres quite a good chance that my grade will be brought up to passing once they look at the tests (usually there are questions thrown out because they were poorly written).
We have the opportunity to retake the exam on Monday.
So what do you guys think? Do I study like crazy all weekend to retake the test and improve my grade or do I just take a break that I badly need and spend time with my hubby and kids?

if it was me i'd keep the grade and enjoy the weekend off. that way you'll feel refreshed and energized and ready to start learning new material next week.

 

[lilnoelle]

Thanks guys, that was my initial response.... and then I thought "well, I did fail the test, maybe I should try to do better."

Have you guys ever failed a test that you thought wasn't all that difficult? I submitted my test feeling pretty great about how I did.... until I saw my grade. There were quite a few (physiology) questions that I was CERTAIN about my answer because I eliminated three of the four answers in addition to believing the fourth answer was correct. I felt like I had reasoned well through the test instead of just going off impulse and memory. Well, I missed a ton of those questions that I reasoned through.
The first test of the block I did poorly on as well, but passed (barely). The odd thing about that one was that I was so frustrated with that test. It was impossibly difficult. I didn't even try to go back through my answers that I didn't know because I had NO clue. So anyway, the test that I felt terrible about was the test that I did better at.

 

[da8s0859q]

if it was me i'd keep the grade and enjoy the weekend off. that way you'll feel refreshed and energized and ready to start learning new material next week.

Agreed, for the sake of this person's username.