Guide to EM applying + WAMC?

[blah2468]

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Current OMS-3 here thinking about EM. Its end of December and I heard EM requires lots of prep. Is there a guide somewhere? When do i apply for away rotations to get SLOEs? Also WAMC with 230 USMLE and 485 COMLEX preferably in a big city? So far only honored IM. Struggling with these comats though.

 

[borderlineinCle]

Current OMS-3 here thinking about EM. Its end of December and I heard EM requires lots of prep. Is there a guide somewhere? When do i apply for away rotations to get SLOEs? Also WAMC with 230 USMLE and 485 COMLEX preferably in a big city? So far only honored IM. Struggling with these comats though.

I’d suggest checking the EMRA website for the first question


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Current OMS-3 here thinking about EM. Its end of December and I heard EM requires lots of prep. Is there a guide somewhere? When do i apply for away rotations to get SLOEs? Also WAMC with 230 USMLE and 485 COMLEX preferably in a big city? So far only honored IM. Struggling with these comats though.

It will heavily depend on your SLOE performance on EM rotations, so you can't answer WAMC based on boards. But if you aren't honoring many 3rd year rotations, you are unlikely to all of a sudden get Top 10% level SLOEs. EM rotations are generally more competitive than the average DO clinical clerkship grading in 3rd year, and while that is a big generalization since every school grades differently, there certainly are trends I see in terms of top heavy grading at DO schools on MPSEs.

All that being said, you can match EM. You just may not have the option of being picky geographically (many people want to live in a city, you may have to compromise, etc).

I've attached a guide from CORD about applying EM for DO's.

Best of luck!

 

[blah2468]

It will heavily depend on your SLOE performance on EM rotations, so you can't answer WAMC based on boards. But if you aren't honoring many 3rd year rotations, you are unlikely to all of a sudden get Top 10% level SLOEs. EM rotations are generally more competitive than the average DO clinical clerkship grading in 3rd year, and while that is a big generalization since every school grades differently, there certainly are trends I see in terms of top heavy grading at DO schools on MPSEs.

All that being said, you can match EM. You just may not have the option of being picky geographically (many people want to live in a city, you may have to compromise, etc).

I've attached a guide from CORD about applying EM for DO's.

Best of luck!

I'm doing pretty well on the clinical environment, but due to personal problems right now I haven't done well on the COMATs. Is there an end of rotation exam for EM that SLOE uses to rank their applicants? or is it purely how well you perform in the hospital? Thank you so much for your reply and that website!!

 

[gamerEMdoc]

Many EM rotations have some sort of standardized exam. Probably the most commonly used is the SAEM CDEM exam, but its certainly not the only one used.

 

[Darth Doc]

I'm doing pretty well on the clinical environment, but due to personal problems right now I haven't done well on the COMATs. Is there an end of rotation exam for EM that SLOE uses to rank their applicants? or is it purely how well you perform in the hospital? Thank you so much for your reply and that website!!

Many programs use the SAEM exam but it doesn't appear on your SLOE unless you do particularly well and is then mentioned in the comments section of the SLOE.

You end up applying for EM rotations in early to late spring - exactly when depends on that program. I started prepping for it in February. There are a lot of documents to upload - vaccination records, personal statement, your program uploads something, a passport photo, etc...

Being a DO limits you, but if you are a strong candidate (have good scores and a personality that can be extroverted and appropriate during interviews) and are smart about where you apply (programs that not only state that they are open to DO applicants, but currently have DO residents) you won't waste your money and will find a home.

If you don't score well on something, be sure to have a strong answer when asked about it. Strong answer = own it and explain what you'd do differently next time. When I've interviewed candidates about a weakness they acknowledge in their essay (and/or is also brought up on SLOEs), I expect them to have a really good answer for why it is actually a strength or what they are doing to work on improving the weakness. If they have a weak answer, I won't rank them well.

For interviews, I don't care if people honor in home rotations. I don't know about other interviewers, but I care more about comments in SLOES, scores on the STEP exams, and (mostly) about the resiliency, life experiences, and personality of the person I'm interviewing.

The EMRA guide is the best written guide, but my best tidbits were on SDN. Read the EMRA guide, then for all your other questions, come here and search through old threads.

(A DO friend of mine matched to a new program in Las Vegas. Big cities can be done as a DO.)

 

[blah2468]

Ohh also should I take step 2?

 

[gamerEMdoc]

The answer to that is probably, but it depends. It's also been asked 1000 times here on the forums. You are going to get different answers. The general consensus is, you should take both sets of boards. It sucks. I personally don't expect students to take two sets of boards, and I'm perfectly comfortable only looking at COMLEX scores, but if you don't take the Step exams, it can shut doors at some places. A counter argument to that is that if places refuse to look at COMLEX scores, they probably aren't that DO friendly to begin with, and are unlikely to take DOs in the first place.

So there isn't a good answer to this. You can match in the ACGME match without taking the Step exams. But I think the safest thing to do is to take them, even though I hate saying that.