Help...

[avery7]

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I just started MS2 and we've already had an exam and got our scores back yesterday. I've got a lot of Cs during MS1 even when I put in a lot of effort, and same thing happened again for this exam. Now I'm starting to think that there might be something wrong with me and I am afraid that I may even fail my step 1 next year. I'm pretty sure I'm in the bottom quartile at least...

Do you guys have any advice on what I could do to improve myself? I really hate always being on the verge of pass/fail...🙁

 

[CrimsonKing]

You can try to study more efficiently and work on your understanding of material. That will help you when boards and the wards come around. Honestly, M1/M2 exam prep is highly dependent on the quality and type of questions that your professors write. All you can do is do your best to master material, and see if there are any helpful hints from upperclassmen in particular courses or with particular professors.

The more you master this material the more likely you are to do well on Step 1, but that association is not absolute.

As much as I usually hate the statement, remember: P=MD

You aren't failing, so you don't need to worry too much, particularly if you didn't fail any courses last year either.

 

[xffan624]

I just started MS2 and we've already had an exam and got our scores back yesterday. I've got a lot of Cs during MS1 even when I put in a lot of effort, and same thing happened again for this exam. Now I'm starting to think that there might be something wrong with me and I am afraid that I may even fail my step 1 next year. I'm pretty sure I'm in the bottom quartile at least...

Do you guys have any advice on what I could do to improve myself? I really hate always being on the verge of pass/fail...🙁

Contact your school's learning specialist if you have one. They're there for that exact reason.

 

[avery7]

Contact your school's learning specialist if you have one. They're there for that exact reason.

I've already met and talked last year but he wasn't helpful at all...

 

[avery7]

You can try to study more efficiently and work on your understanding of material. That will help you when boards and the wards come around. Honestly, M1/M2 exam prep is highly dependent on the quality and type of questions that your professors write. All you can do is do your best to master material, and see if there are any helpful hints from upperclassmen in particular courses or with particular professors.

The more you master this material the more likely you are to do well on Step 1, but that association is not absolute.

As much as I usually hate the statement, remember: P=MD

You aren't failing, so you don't need to worry too much, particularly if you didn't fail any courses last year either.

How do you become more efficient?

What's the ideal number of hours MS2 dedicate to study school lecture materials and do board prep along with it?

 

[CrimsonKing]

How do you become more efficient?

What's the ideal number of hours MS2 dedicate to study school lecture materials and do board prep along with it?

Efficiency comes with doing your best to learn the most important information first. When you're learning about autoimmune diseases, for example, it's far more important to focus on differences in presentation and treatment then it is to memorize the specific HLA subtypes associated with particular disorders. Once you master the high-yield stuff you should still try and master the minutiae, as those particular differences can still come up in questions, though less often than big picture stuff (unless your professors are a-holes).

The "ideal" number of hours varies widely. I knew some people who studied upwards of 60 hours/week in addition to class, and I also knew a guy who streamed all the lectures Friday morning, went over the powerpoints again in the afternoon, and took every exam at 5PM on Friday (this particular guy spent 3-6 hours per day exercising, and made a 271 on Step 1 after a couple of studying). He is obviously an insane exception, but useful to illustrate the variance in hours people need to study in order to do well. I'd say on average people spend 20-40 hours per week on top of streaming during M2 year, at least in my class.

Put however much effort you need to in order to excel. Best of luck 🙂

 

[Priapism4tooLong]

one of the best advice anyone has ever given me is, Don't be an idiot. Before I do anything I ask myself “Would an idiot do that?” And if the answer is yes, I do not do that thing.

 

[operaman]

I've tutored a lot of people and frequently get asked by our dean's office to work with underclassmen who are repeating/remediating. What I've found to be universally true for all the people I've worked with who aren't performing at the level they'd like to be:

They aren't working nearly hard enough. Not even close.

Now, you aren't failing at this point so you're doing something right, but I would be willing to bet any amount of money that you aren't putting in 25% of the effort you should be. Most people I work with who are failing (even just barely failing) have no concept of just how hard you have to work and how consistently you have to work that hard.

So here's a rough schedule for typical class days:

6am: wake up, shower, eat breakfast
6:30am: arrive at library
6:30am-8am: Work through any Anki or Firecracker cards you have due; repeat pre-reading for any especially tough lectures
8am-12pm: Classes. Go to them. Take notes. Use paper. No non-class internet/texting/email during this period
12-1:00: lunch
1:00-3:00: rewatch every lecture from that morning at 2x speed
3:00-3:15: break
3:15-5:15: Make anki cards for any memorizeable factoids from that day's lectures; read supplementary sources/textbooks
5:15-6:00: dinner
6pm-8pm: Read other sources/watch videos covering any topics from that day (pathoma, Kaplan, firecracker, robbins, etc)
8pm-9:30: pre-read all of tomorrow's lectures; finish any due anki cards
9:30-10:30pm: Relax
10:30: lights out

Repeat.

For weekends, take 1/2 a day off; review past week's material and preview Monday's lectures with the rest of the time (10-12 hours one day; 4-6 hours on the other)

Do that for this next block and see how you do.

 

[avery7]

You're right...I wasn't sure how much I would have to work to not be in a situation like I always am. Everyone around me always make it seem like they don't study that much. Upper years have told me going to classes this year would be a waste of time, but it turned out that I was even more stressed out before my first exam because I was trying to catch up on actually watching the lectures online for the first time. Time management issue, I guess?

That's quite an intense schedule. I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the advice guys.

I've tutored a lot of people and frequently get asked by our dean's office to work with underclassmen who are repeating/remediating. What I've found to be universally true for all the people I've worked with who aren't performing at the level they'd like to be:

They aren't working nearly hard enough. Not even close.

Now, you aren't failing at this point so you're doing something right, but I would be willing to bet any amount of money that you aren't putting in 25% of the effort you should be. Most people I work with who are failing (even just barely failing) have no concept of just how hard you have to work and how consistently you have to work that hard.

So here's a rough schedule for typical class days:

6am: wake up, shower, eat breakfast
6:30am: arrive at library
6:30am-8am: Work through any Anki or Firecracker cards you have due; repeat pre-reading for any especially tough lectures
8am-12pm: Classes. Go to them. Take notes. Use paper. No non-class internet/texting/email during this period
12-1:00: lunch
1:00-3:00: rewatch every lecture from that morning at 2x speed
3:00-3:15: break
3:15-5:15: Make anki cards for any memorizeable factoids from that day's lectures; read supplementary sources/textbooks
5:15-6:00: dinner
6pm-8pm: Read other sources/watch videos covering any topics from that day (pathoma, Kaplan, firecracker, robbins, etc)
8pm-9:30: pre-read all of tomorrow's lectures; finish any due anki cards
9:30-10:30pm: Relax
10:30: lights out

Repeat.

For weekends, take 1/2 a day off; review past week's material and preview Monday's lectures with the rest of the time (10-12 hours one day; 4-6 hours on the other)

Do that for this next block and see how you do.

 

[Dral]

That's the type of schedule you need to keep for the month prior to step I. If you study that way now, shifting to board review with the same schedule will be that much easier.

When you study for step I, you should study enough, that on day 27 of review, you look over stuff you knew cold on day one of studying but since kinda forgot...then go through all of it again. Won't take nearly as much effort second time.

This concept will repeat itself each year as you go through residency. Get used to it now.

 

[PL198]

i feel like lecture is a complete waste of time. like not only going, even watching the videos. I can count the number of times my profs have said something that I wouldn't have gotten with just the notes and my resources, that I thought was important for the material. I literally completely ignore the lecture except for using the notes.

 

[Keona]

I feel the need to comment, as I felt the same way through 1st and 2nd year, along with doing very poorly in some courses. When I met with some instructors and faculty members they were less than helpful which put me into a downward spiral of doubt, and caused me to put off seeking help for longer than necessary. One thing one of our professors told me was there are 2 things I see in medical students who previously performed very well and aren't now that they are in school. 1) They aren't working hard enough. (she didn't feel that was the case with me). 2) Undiagnosed learning disability. I went to a physician and was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, which was causing me to obsess over every single page, and not be able to make it through the material I was studying since I was so worried while studying that I was going to fail/wasn't learning the material well enough. A constant mantra of I'm going to fail this exam... oh no what does that enzyme do? is not conducive to proper studying. After 2nd year I was also diagnosed with mild/borderline ADHD. The biggest thing for me though was learning I had an eye issue causing me to not read properly what was in front of me, which really came out while reading lists, filling in bubble sheets, and reading for extended periods of time. I got glasses for this, and it was like someone had pushed an easy button on the studying front. I'm not saying I don't have to study, just that my study quality vastly improved once I only had to read the line 2-3 times instead of the 7-10 times my eyes were doing without my knowledge. I was able to take step 2 ck, and CS without any medications and pass them both. I would highly recommend for you being tested for a learning disorder. You do not want to find out about one after doing poorly on a board exam. I have had vision problems my entire life, but I'm very good at compensating for the one I have, to the point I was able to fool an optometrist into diagnosing me with the wrong one due to head tilt, and body positioning. Her boss, who has been practicing for much longer was able to catch me at, but I do it on the subconscious level since I've most likely been compensating for it my entire life. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk anymore about any of this.

 

[cbrons]

Contact your school's learning specialist if you have one. They're there for that exact reason.

Lol.... the kid is fricken passing... Plz stahp...


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[cbrons]

I've tutored a lot of people and frequently get asked by our dean's office to work with underclassmen who are repeating/remediating. What I've found to be universally true for all the people I've worked with who aren't performing at the level they'd like to be:

They aren't working nearly hard enough. Not even close.

Now, you aren't failing at this point so you're doing something right, but I would be willing to bet any amount of money that you aren't putting in 25% of the effort you should be. Most people I work with who are failing (even just barely failing) have no concept of just how hard you have to work and how consistently you have to work that hard.

So here's a rough schedule for typical class days:

6am: wake up, shower, eat breakfast
6:30am: arrive at library
6:30am-8am: Work through any Anki or Firecracker cards you have due; repeat pre-reading for any especially tough lectures
8am-12pm: Classes. Go to them. Take notes. Use paper. No non-class internet/texting/email during this period
12-1:00: lunch
1:00-3:00: rewatch every lecture from that morning at 2x speed
3:00-3:15: break
3:15-5:15: Make anki cards for any memorizeable factoids from that day's lectures; read supplementary sources/textbooks
5:15-6:00: dinner
6pm-8pm: Read other sources/watch videos covering any topics from that day (pathoma, Kaplan, firecracker, robbins, etc)
8pm-9:30: pre-read all of tomorrow's lectures; finish any due anki cards
9:30-10:30pm: Relax
10:30: lights out

Repeat.

For weekends, take 1/2 a day off; review past week's material and preview Monday's lectures with the rest of the time (10-12 hours one day; 4-6 hours on the other)


Do that for this next block and see how you do.

You want him to not only go to EVERY lecture but then rewatch them again later? U trying to put him on suicide watch? I personally have found med school preclinical lectures to be by far the biggest waste of time in the world.



Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile

 

[xffan624]

Lol.... the kid is fricken passing... Plz stahp...

Our school encourages students to contact the learning specialist whether passing or not if we wanted extra help or felt like our study methods needed changing. OP clearly feels this way so I would think that's resource they could use.

 

[operaman]

You want him to not only go to EVERY lecture but then rewatch them again later? U trying to put him on suicide watch? I personally have found med school preclinical lectures to be by far the biggest waste of time in the world.

Haha yeah I never said it wouldn't be painful! The reason that kind of schedule works is because it 1) guarantees 4-5 repetitions through all the material (more for difficult stuff if you're using anki) and 2) uses all modes of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc). Once people are doing well and getting higher scores, they can peel back some of it and titrate to a level that balances sanity with performance.

I found our preclinical lectures to be pretty helpful and was a little surprised to see just how much "not boards relevant" material found its way onto my step 1. Even now in 4th year I've found myself looking back at certain lectures that were particularly well done and full of clinically useful information.

 

[PL198]

Haha yeah I never said it wouldn't be painful! The reason that kind of schedule works is because it 1) guarantees 4-5 repetitions through all the material (more for difficult stuff if you're using anki) and 2) uses all modes of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc). Once people are doing well and getting higher scores, they can peel back some of it and titrate to a level that balances sanity with performance.

I found our preclinical lectures to be pretty helpful and was a little surprised to see just how much "not boards relevant" material found its way onto my step 1. Even now in 4th year I've found myself looking back at certain lectures that were particularly well done and full of clinically useful information.

The problem is that after like 500 lectures or whatever, I still can't find one like that...

 

[DermViser]

The problem is that after like 500 lectures or whatever, I still can't find one like that...

Well you just started M2. That's what lectures @operaman is referring to.

 

[mcloaf]

Well you just started M2. That's what lectures @operaman is referring to.

Yeah as another new M2 I have also been getting much better lectures this year...they've all been given by Dr. Sattar.

 

[Southplains]

Yeah as another new M2 I have also been getting much better lectures this year...they've all been given by Dr. Sattar.

My school has also apparently decided to suck it up lecture wise in MS2.

 

[operaman]

Yeah definitely had more lectures that were directly clinically relevant in MS2, though still some really good ones in M1.

I guess what I'm finding now is that some of our lectures were really good but maybe given too early in my learning for me to truly appreciate them. Many of our lecturers by people that I now recognize as real bada--es clinically and they were full of pearls that didn't mean as much to me then as they do now. It's tough because I definitely had to triage what I learned and how well I learned it back then -- after all, clinically relevant and exam relevant were often very different things.

 

[avery7]

ok...I think I might be doing something wrong here. I've been trying to model operaman's schedule but it takes me way longer to go through the notes after lecture and to make anki cards. For example, one of today's path lecture was 70 slides and it took me about 2 hr to go through it, make outline/notes (I hand wrote them...debating if I should just type) and also made anki cards with images, etc. At this pace, I don't really have the time to go through supp. material/FA.

Is handwriting the notes a waste of time? Should I just make anki cards and leave at it?

 

[operaman]

If you're new to anki it may take longer at first until you get good at making cards. You may also be spending too much time on each lecture. Try to figure out the timing so you get through most everything you need to. There's a lot of repetition built in to help you retain it. You may also need to add an extra hour or two sometimes, and weekends are great for reviewing.

The idea is not to master it all at once. You'll get 3 passes of the lecture in the first 24 hours, anki cards for minutiae, another review pass over the weekend, and a final review pass before the exam. Add in some pathoma and Kaplan for good measure and you should feel really solid.

Sometimes it helps to play with the order. Maybe for a path behemoth I would watch pathoma for the topic before rewatching the lecture. This can help with understanding and also help triage what's worth an anki card and what's not.

Some days and some lectures are just brutal though and may require late nights or more time on the weekend.