Honors and High Pass Students -- How Did/Do You Study?

[RainerMaria]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I was wondering if high pass / honors med students out there on SDN could advise an M0 on how to preview, study, and review for preclinical courses.

For example, do you:

-Rewrite your own notes? Read the scribe?
-Make outlines?
-Review with Board books? (eg, BRS or FirstAid)
-Exercise often?
-Go to lecture? Watch at home?
-Take notes on laptop? MS Word or Onenote?

The way I made it through pre med was to write a "cheat sheet" and cram as many notes in tiny writing on a landscape page as I could. This helped me to distill boatloads of information into a nice overview. Not sure if this will fly in med school, however...

Many thanks. 🙂

 

[Jolie South]

I don't know that there is ONE way that works for everyone. Med school is about finding what works for you.

Chances are that you'll have to change some study habits when you get here. However, there are some general things that will probably help regardless of your specific study habits. The most important of these is not getting behind. There is a lot of material. The more you get through during the block, the less stressed out you'll be come test time and the better prepared you'll be.

I would also say to get sleep and work out regularly. This will keep your energy levels up and you'll function much better.

 

[ChiDO]

You'll find your own way to study. For me, paid attention in class, took written notes on a printout, and then review notes everyday until the day of the test.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[bambi]

I pretty much relax most of the semester, I make very thorough notes though and make sure everything is organised then when exams are coming up I hardcore revise-hours wise, for 2-4weeks during which I just read all my notes twice. I think I am unusual though and it's a pretty stressful way to do things but I tend to work better under stress. It depends how often you are tested too, my way wouldn't really work if you had tests all the time.

 

[Dedikated2liftn]

The secret is to not fall behind and review the material multiple times before the test (for me, it takes about 2-3 passes). Additionally, honors at my school is top 10% (w/ the only other options being to pass or fail--no high/low pass), so the difference can literally come down to one test question; consequently, there's always the luck factor that comes into play. Regardless though, if you go through the material several times, you increase your chance of answering/reasoning through those obscure questions that quite often make the difference between just passing and honoring.

 

[ClockworkDoc]

I mainly just cheat relentlessly and steal notes from my competitionjk

I avoid reading the required material (too dense)
Look over notes constantly and rewrite them to make them more concise.
Some BRS books are good review before an exam and to fill in any holes.

Oh yeah, and I have no life...its a trade off🙁

 

[Jolie South]

I guess I'll give my actual strategies, but most people don't study like me.

• I read the actual texts. No review books.
• I go to class.
• I don't rewrite anything/make my own notes
• I annotate the powerpoints for lectures and study directly from them to save time and not miss gunner type details
• I make flashcards for each lecture when I study during the block

 

[bambi]

Look over notes constantly and rewrite them to make them more concise.
(

I wish I could do that! I always feel everything is too important to cut out, even when I know it. I'm the same with highlighting- I highlight pretty much every word.

 

[roflcakes887]

Don't go to class ever. It is a waste of time.

Memorize every word on the notes and know that you will be tested on minutae and insignificant crap you will never see in real life.

 

[njbmd]

I was wondering if high pass / honors med students out there on SDN could advise an M0 on how to preview, study, and review for preclinical courses.

For example, do you:

-Rewrite your own notes? Read the scribe?
-Make outlines?
-Review with Board books? (eg, BRS or FirstAid)
-Exercise often?
-Go to lecture? Watch at home?
-Take notes on laptop? MS Word or Onenote?

The way I made it through pre med was to write a "cheat sheet" and cram as many notes in tiny writing on a landscape page as I could. This helped me to distill boatloads of information into a nice overview. Not sure if this will fly in med school, however...

Many thanks. 🙂

What got you into medical school will get you through with some modifications for the volume. Trying to copy another learning style that you are not familiar with is a good way to crash and burn.

Wait until you get to medical school before trying out anything.

 

[surgs]

It's easier said than done, but for tough courses, I usually reviewed the information prior to each lecture. It made a big difference...class is actually a review rather than a presentation of new material.
I also recommend reviewing past lectures... there's a lot of new info an reviewing helps to keep it fresh...

 

[87138]

I never go to lecture anymore. Ours are recorded. If you miss something or don't understand it in real time, sometimes you're done-for during that lecture and it's hard to pay attention or make sense of things. With recorded lectures, you can pause, rewind, etc, and watch at 1.6 speed, give or take. If the prof says something you don't get, you can stop, go look it up, hash it out, and then move on once you're on the same page.

As far as study techniques, I'm a tactile learner so I find myself rewriting the notes as well (but in a more concise manner). I remember something a lot more if I write it vs. just read it.

Understand the big picture, but get the stupid details down. That's what often separates the honors from even the high pass.

Our school has an online forum to discuss questions with each other and with the profs. IMHO that is an INVALUABLE resource, so if you have anything like that, use it to your full advantage. I can't overstate this enough.

It takes several passes through my notes to get it all. Above all, I keep up. I have lots of classmates who will slow down and try to make sure they have a lecture completely down/memorized/whatever before moving to the next one. Then they're scrambling to catch up by exam time.

I do the lectures from that day every day, and go through to the point where I take notes and can make sense of it all. By no means do I have everything (or sometimes even much of anything) memorized by this point, but on a few more passes through later I will.

 

[87138]

Oh, and I make flashcards from my notes. This started in biochem and worked wonders, so I've kept it up in physiology too. So far so good. I quickly scribble them down usually on my first review of notes I've already taken. These are great for when you want to switch up your studying style, or when you're on a bus somewhere or whatever, walking to class, doing whatever. Easy and portable and a quick way to review and solidify things in your mind. I try to review some before bed each night.

 

[bodonid]

I
-go to lecture
-don't get behind, like, evar
-reread the day of
-make questions for myself from the lectures (lots, hard ones)
-read outside sources if I have the time
-sum up with brs or first aid
-make an effort to teach someone or at least review verbally at some point (time permitting)
-bought brs anatomy because the cover looks cool
-seriously it looks awesome: red & black go dawgs
-am beginning to question my sanity at this point

the salient points are emboldened.

 

[Impromptu]

In med school the individual concepts aren't necessarily very difficult. The difficulty during pre-clinical courses comes from quantity. The difficulty in clinical courses comes from integrating that vast quantity of simple knowledge (assuming you still retain it), into complex associations and practical applications.

I did well in classes that I had extensive training in in undergrad (microbiology was a piece of cake).

I pre-read the notes to get the gist.
I went to lecture.
I took notes on my laptop.
I re-read and drew diagrams of difficult topics till I understood it.

 

[WellWornLad]

G = I ( μW )

where G = grade, I = intelligence, W = work, and μ is a coefficient of efficiency in studying.

You can improve μ. You can increase W to a point, although in practical application μ tends to decrease as W increases, and eventually you'll reach a point where μ is decreasing faster than W can increase and you're better off closing your book and relaxing. I is fixed.

The only thing you're going to get from SDN is a bunch of studying techniques with a certain efficiency coefficient μ. It's not necessarily a high μ, because some people have a higher tolerance for W, and some people have a higher I.

If you feel like you've already maxed out W, find someone who has the G you'd like, has the same or less W and I as you, and find out how they study. You can't just copy what an honors student does and expect honors. If you could, schools would be teaching it, everyone would be honoring, and schools would take the opportunity to pile on a ton of new curricula while everyone was doing so well. So it's a viscious cycle.

 

[brownshuga22]

to me one of two options is most likely the case:
option 1:
I concentrate really hard in the lecture.. take notes and then go over them as often as i can .. and try to get more info about the topic.

option 2:
when atteneding lectures and actually learning something from it is not an option i overveiw notes of somebudy who attended the lecture and then open up the text book and just dive there .. writing my own notes along the way,, and giving it a look first thing in the next day .. it makes me feel as if i attended the lecture
To me the ket to sucess is repetition of the study material.. and felling realxed about studying

 

[BrainBuff]

1.- Some people are just smarter than others.
2.- Some people just work much harder than others.
3.- Some people will get Honors and some will barely Pass

 

[Impromptu]

You see different strategies have paid great dividends for different people. There is no one best way. Find what works best for you and stick to it. I need to attend lectures to do well, others don't. That's okay with me.

 

[RainerMaria]

This wasn't a thread about finding the one best way to study, bc I understand everyone needs their own way. Instead, I want to get a sense of "what's out there" so I can at least try/choose from a variety of methods. I have a feeling what got me through pre-med won't work, simply because of the volume of info is so much more. For example, I am curious if people are using board books early on, and if so which ones are good; making flash cards vs. buying them; efficient methods of taking notes during class, etc. etc.

 

[AggieSean]

Don't go to class ever. It is a waste of time.

Memorize every word on the notes and know that you will be tested on minutae and insignificant crap you will never see in real life.

this

 

[Dirt]

Pass 1: Go to class.
Pass 2: Go through notes, make my own high yield outlines if the notes suck. (Usually within a week of the original lecture)
Pass 3: Go through notes once again before the test.

I also do as many practice Qs as possible but these are provided by most profs at my school. If I had to find them on my own I probably wouldn't do it.

 

[Noeljan]

I usually go to class.. I never preread or anything like that. I don't make any "high yield" study sheets or anything like that (waste of time for me personally). I relisten to the lectures at 2x speed and just try and know everything in every lecture. No sense in trying to figure out what will or will not be asked (they can talk about something for 40 minutes mention something for .5 secs and that be asked). Umm I don't read any text books for the class, but I do read the chapter in first aid that goes with the class and listen to goljan for that class. I get a week behind sometimes (esp after an exam) but never more than that. I think one thing is, when I am tired or cant sleep or having a bad day you have to be that person that pushes through that stuff and gets through th material regardless

 

[coffeebythelake]

Go to class, read the text, summarize each lecture onto a few pages with key points to spark your memory. Before the exam, do a summary of your summary. Test yourself. Honoring is not that hard.

 

[Igor4sugry]

Major advice -> put in the time early and it will pay-off at the end.

Here is what I do:
[1] Review lecture within 10 hours, preferably the same night.
[2] I take a blank sheet of paper and write out my notes.
[3] Read textbook before lecture -> this works very well, but if you are short for time just read the important stuff. For example I made sure to read Physiology b/c it has some difficult concepts.
[4] Be Organized
[5] On weekend review the material from that week.
[6] Make flashcards
[7] Make tables for diseases (listing clinical presentation; tests; enzymes affects...) This makes it very easy to review a lot of information without making a ton of flashcars.

*There is a steep learning curve in every class. Putting in the time at the beginning of the course makes your life a lot easier. Exam preparation is a time for review and reinforcement of difficult concepts & memorization of minute details that always get asked.

 

[45408]

Don't worry about what other people are doing. If it's working for you, keep doing it. There were a few times I got nervous about my study habits, because I wasn't going to class or re-writing my notes or preparing for Step 1 as an M1, etc. If it works for you, then DO IT. Once I realized that my study habits were great for me, I relaxed a lot. I got the grades I was comfortable with, and I didn't study more than I had to.

Basically, my technique was to read the notes, highlight only the information that was new to me, annotate the margins as little as possible but enough to reinforce critical learning points, read the textbook as needed to clarify a difficult point, and then re-read all my notes, repeatedly. (Endlessly) That was pretty much it. I would study in a place with minimal distractions (definitely not at home), no laptop to waste my time, listen to my iPod, and take breaks when I wasn't being productive. If you're zoning out, go surf the net, call a friend, read a magazine, play pool in the student lounge, etc. There's no point in staring at a book if you're not remembering a darn thing.

You'll have study days that are completely unproductive. That'll happen. I would just cut my losses and go home (this was not too common, mind you).

 

[silas2642]

You just have to find your own way-- everyone has their own thing in med school that works for them. I never go to class, basically memorize the syllabus, highlighting and underlining everything in different colors and then if I have time, flip through Golgan and First Aid. Some classmates always go to class and then re-listen to the lectures. Personally, I find that if I go to lecture, I don't have the energy at the end of the day to do anything else and I don't learn anything from them anway, so I pretty much ditch class.

 

[Keg]

1. Attend every lecture. I had a tablet and had the powerpoints on there and wrote directly on the powerpoint (first year I just used a printout), emphasizing things the lecturer said would be on the test. I filed this in a binder (first year) or into a folder (second year) separated by class.

2. About a week before a test block, I'd start pulling up the powerpoints and transcribing them in note form to a blank piece of paper. I'd make cards for things like drugs or mechanisms. Once this was done for all lectures for all classes, I'd review after classes until right before the test and then take it.

Like someone else said, I work best under pressure... so this may not work for you. Just an option.

 

[RainerMaria]

MS OneNote a worthwhile investment for class?
Iphones helpful for mobile studying? The PDA I have (Blackjack) is worthless for anything besides e-mail.

 

[bcat85]

Honors and High Pass Students -- How Did/Do You Study?

Excessively. It's just a time thing really for me. If I bust it hard, I honor/near honor. If I don't I pass.

 

[Mortal_Lessons]

Never stop learning.

 

[ChichiMD]

What got you into medical school will get you through with some modifications for the volume. Trying to copy another learning style that you are not familiar with is a good way to crash and burn.

Wait until you get to medical school before trying out anything.

I like🙂

 

[WellWornLad]

MS OneNote a worthwhile investment for class?
Iphones helpful for mobile studying? The PDA I have (Blackjack) is worthless for anything besides e-mail.

Technology is a distraction. Seriously. Just spend time with the syllabus/text. Spend your travel time listening to music.

 

[coriander2]

Major advice -> put in the time early and it will pay-off at the end.

Here is what I do:
[1] Review lecture within 10 hours, preferably the same night.
[2] I take a blank sheet of paper and write out my notes.
[3] Read textbook before lecture -> this works very well, but if you are short for time just read the important stuff. For example I made sure to read Physiology b/c it has some difficult concepts.
[4] Be Organized
[5] On weekend review the material from that week.
[6] Make flashcards
[7] Make tables for diseases (listing clinical presentation; tests; enzymes affects...) This makes it very easy to review a lot of information without making a ton of flashcars.

*There is a steep learning curve in every class. Putting in the time at the beginning of the course makes your life a lot easier. Exam preparation is a time for review and reinforcement of difficult concepts & memorization of minute details that always get asked.

This was very helpful. Thank you.

 

[iluvpuppies]

to give you some honest advice: i dont know what the curve will be where u go, but in general: you can follow every tip on this page, be a very responsible student, and learn a great deal. u'll get some HP and some Honors, but ull also just Pass.

The next honest thing: no one will care. literally: no one will care at all. apart from failing something, your grades your first two yrs do not matter. at all. i had heard this b4, but what really made it sink home was when two of the dr's who rank the students for residency programs here (Essentially: 2 of the best residency programs you could get into) said that they honestly dont care at all.

What you really need to make sure you are doing is learning the material not in the way that will give you an HP or an H (which u may get in the process anyways) but in a way that you will be able to REMEMBER HOW THE DETAILS RELATE TO CLINICAL SITUATIONS YEARS FROM NOW so you can apply them in ur last two yrs of medical school (where ur grades do count bc they show how u can apply ur knowledge), to get good Step scores, and become a good doctor.

In undergrad, u had to study to make good grades to show you could do well if placed in medical school. In medical school, ur already in medical school. U need to study not to prove you can do well in your courses(everyone including residency directors already knows that and ur in a class of ppl who can do well also). U need to study to truly know the important aspects of the material.

 

[RainerMaria]

What you really need to make sure you are doing is learning the material not in the way that will give you an HP or an H (which u may get in the process anyways) but in a way that you will be able to REMEMBER HOW THE DETAILS RELATE TO CLINICAL SITUATIONS YEARS FROM NOW so you can apply them in ur last two yrs of medical school

Thanks. I think that's why I'm going to review with board books as I plow through the material. This is something I wish I had done with ExamKrackers during pre-med and it would have made things a lot easier to preview the material with.

 

[Sora]

Don't worry about what other people are doing. If it's working for you, keep doing it.

Hell yes.

 

[kdburton]

I was wondering if high pass / honors med students out there on SDN could advise an M0 on how to preview, study, and review for preclinical courses.

For example, do you:

-Rewrite your own notes? Read the scribe?
-Make outlines?
-Review with Board books? (eg, BRS or FirstAid)
-Exercise often?
-Go to lecture? Watch at home?
-Take notes on laptop? MS Word or Onenote?

The way I made it through pre med was to write a "cheat sheet" and cram as many notes in tiny writing on a landscape page as I could. This helped me to distill boatloads of information into a nice overview. Not sure if this will fly in med school, however...

Many thanks. 🙂

Assuming your school is the kind that tests you on what you hear in lecture (or in your required readings), then I think what has worked out for a lot of people I know is just simply repeating the stuff a few times. Heres what I do. I rarely ever read before a lecture (the only example I can think of is histology in which case i like to read the Wheaters chapter before just so i know the general idea). Once lecture is over I chill out for a bit but then i'll usually read over that day's lecture material for a thorough understanding of what was said (i.e. if there was a concept/diagram/etc that I didn't understand I'll look up extra material on the internet or in a text book and write in a few words to explain it to myself). At this point I'm not reading to memorize per se, I'm just making sure that I understand everything. Then I try to get through each lecture another two times before the exam. As you go through it those two times you're trying to memorize the stuff. On the 3rd time through (usually 2-3 days leading up to an exam) I make notes on stuff that I'm having a hard time remembering or stuff that is vitally important that I want to make sure I don't forget. Usually I end up condensing the stuff from, say, 500 pages of notes into 15 pages. I read that one 15 page set of notes the night before the exam and maybe the morning of the exam and I can usually pull 90+%.

The thing I did last year that didn't work was that I would get done with lecture and read over my lecture notes for that day (same as I said above), but then I was making handwritten notes right away and then trying to study from those. The problem with that for me was that I'd end up spending so much time making the notes that there was no way I was going to get through the material 3 times. And to make things worse, when I studied my own notes the material would be presented differently (just the visual presentation of it being handwritten and on loose leaf paper). You'd be surprised how helpful it can be to see the material in the same exact way multiple times (at this point i can tell you what page number of my syllabus and what part of the page a specific fact is). So if you're the kind of person who lieks to make your own "condensed" notes and it hasn't been working out as well as you'd like it to, then try waiting till the 2nd or 3rd thorough run through your lecture notes and you'll realize you don't need to write down as many "high yield" facts as you would if you made yuour notes right after lecture.

 

[chessknt]

Where is Ritalin???

 

[VoiceofReason]

What you really need to make sure you are doing is learning the material not in the way that will give you an HP or an H (which u may get in the process anyways) but in a way that you will be able to REMEMBER HOW THE DETAILS RELATE TO CLINICAL SITUATIONS YEARS FROM NOW so you can apply them in ur last two yrs of medical school (where ur grades do count bc they show how u can apply ur knowledge), to get good Step scores, and become a good doctor.

In undergrad, u had to study to make good grades to show you could do well if placed in medical school. In medical school, ur already in medical school. U need to study not to prove you can do well in your courses(everyone including residency directors already knows that and ur in a class of ppl who can do well also). U need to study to truly know the important aspects of the material.

Excellent point. Personally, I read gold standard primary sources and gold standard review books for my courses. Theres honestly no way to learn all the information, its too much, so I focus on whats really emphasized by our national accrediting bodies.

I seem to end up with high passes on everything this way, but I'm happy with that. If i can get through medical school with high passes while basically only studying standardized materials, then when step 1 comes all those topics they emphasize will be drilled into my head that much tighter.

In terms of specific studying strategies: I read through the primary once, then after that I read the review texts, only returning to the primary if i need a clarification. At each pass through the review material, I'll write down anything that I honestly couldnt remember or was weak on and look them up. Then I do it again, and the list of stuff i was weak on is hopefully shorter each time. And so on and so forth.

 

[MrBlonde]

Great advice guys 👍 but i was wondering you would impart that wisdom onto me.

During undergrad I think I was extremely inefficient learner, I would go to class sit in the first row, take lots of notes, then read the corresponding chapters once in passing to get the gist and then and second time trying to commit it to memory and taking vigorous notes along the way. Finally I would look over my notes (from class and books) and really hammer it home.

That preparation was good enough to get one of the top grades in my, not so voluminous, undergrad classes at a crappy state school. I don't have to say that it would take a great deal of time and I don't think it's maintainable in med school. To makes matters worse, I am conceptual learner and suck royally (like really bad) in any kind of rote memorization. Any advice (other than saying I should've gone to grad school)?

 

[saidel273]

Honoring is not that hard. There is no magic formula that will work for everyone, but you need to have the right attitude.

Think of medical school as a job and your boss (the instructor) gave you an assignment. It doesn't matter how much you despise your boss or hate your assignment, just do a thorough, excellent job that you will be proud of. In medical school, that translates into knowing every single page into your course pack and you will find yourself in the top of your class.

 

[Re3iRtH]

to give you some honest advice: i dont know what the curve will be where u go, but in general: you can follow every tip on this page, be a very responsible student, and learn a great deal. u'll get some HP and some Honors, but ull also just Pass.

The next honest thing: no one will care. literally: no one will care at all. apart from failing something, your grades your first two yrs do not matter. at all. i had heard this b4, but what really made it sink home was when two of the dr's who rank the students for residency programs here (Essentially: 2 of the best residency programs you could get into) said that they honestly dont care at all.

What you really need to make sure you are doing is learning the material not in the way that will give you an HP or an H (which u may get in the process anyways) but in a way that you will be able to REMEMBER HOW THE DETAILS RELATE TO CLINICAL SITUATIONS YEARS FROM NOW so you can apply them in ur last two yrs of medical school (where ur grades do count bc they show how u can apply ur knowledge), to get good Step scores, and become a good doctor.

In undergrad, u had to study to make good grades to show you could do well if placed in medical school. In medical school, ur already in medical school. U need to study not to prove you can do well in your courses(everyone including residency directors already knows that and ur in a class of ppl who can do well also). U need to study to truly know the important aspects of the material.

3rd year grades matter more than 1st/2nd year grades. But don't go
and start spreading wrong information to people who dont know better.
First and 2nd year grades DO matter, because the huge MAJORITY of schools rank
their students, the same way Step 1 scores are ranked, this includes
H/HP/P/F schools, AS WELL as strictly P/F schools. If 1st and 2nd year grades didn't matter,
then programs would not rank students, period.
Its a very easy concept to grasp.
If you can prove without a doubt that your P/F school absolutely doesn't
rank at all, then those grades won't matter. There is a mean and SD to
USMLE Step 1, just as there is to 1st/2nd year grades, its not there to
let people brush up on their statistics.

 

[Noeljan]

3rd year grades matter more than 1st/2nd year grades. But don't go
and start spreading wrong information to people who dont know better.
First and 2nd year grades DO matter, because the huge MAJORITY of schools rank
their students, the same way Step 1 scores are ranked, this includes
H/HP/P/F schools, AS WELL as strictly P/F schools. If 1st and 2nd year grades didn't matter,
then programs would not rank students, period.
Its a very easy concept to grasp.
If you can prove without a doubt that your P/F school absolutely doesn't
rank at all, then those grades won't matter. There is a mean and SD to
USMLE Step 1, just as there is to 1st/2nd year grades, its not there to
let people brush up on their statistics.

I totally agree with you. Recently we talked to a surgeon who is a department chair. He was basically like I hate to break the bad news for some students, but for some reason (he doesn't know how) a lot of people get it into their heads that grades mean nothing the 1st two years and find theselves very shocked when it comes time to apply to competitive fields. Sure, grades are not everything (heck I wish they meant nothing) but the sad truth is they do count. Even when schools say they dont (I think they do this to calm people down and not get them too worried), I also think it is a defense mechanism used by those who came before you. I think it is kind of bad to say just pass all the time (unless the student is really having trouble and passing would be a blessing) but I mean even from the get go, because it may make students who could have achieved a lot more get a little too lax in the grade they need (because people told them it doesnt matter at all whatsoever). I am just thankful the neurosurgeon I met with right before 1st year started looked me dead in the eye and said "make sure you are top 10 in your class if you want to go into neurosurgery" He scared me into needing good grades. If I had never met with him, who knows how important or unimportant I would have thought it was.

 

[iluvpuppies]

3rd year grades matter more than 1st/2nd year grades. But don't go
and start spreading wrong information to people who dont know better.
First and 2nd year grades DO matter, because the huge MAJORITY of schools rank
their students, the same way Step 1 scores are ranked, this includes
H/HP/P/F schools, AS WELL as strictly P/F schools. If 1st and 2nd year grades didn't matter,
then programs would not rank students, period.
Its a very easy concept to grasp.
If you can prove without a doubt that your P/F school absolutely doesn't
rank at all, then those grades won't matter. There is a mean and SD to
USMLE Step 1, just as there is to 1st/2nd year grades, its not there to
let people brush up on their statistics.

i understand what u r saying and am not intending to be misleading. i have honestly been told by directors that they "do not care about grades from the first two yrs of med school." 2 different doctors who direct 2 very competitive residency programs were giving us advice at school and said that apart from failing grades, the first 2 yrs are not used when choosing residents bc these grades just are not very telling. they said step scores r very important and ur grades on the wards r very important and ur rec letters are very important. in terms of class rank: they said that this is very important as well. they said that they determine it by looking at ur grades on rotations and looking at the distribution of these grades in your class. they do care about class rank as u said that they do, but they apparently do not really weigh the first yrs in their estimation of "class rank."

obviously, u have heard advice that the first 2 yrs come to matter when used to determine a class rank. that makes sense to me that some programs do it that way. its just not the way that it is done by the people i have happened to speak to.

i still feel that its good advice to focus more on learning things in a manner that will help u remember important details for wards and boards than to set goals of Honors in each class. Ur going to earn Hs and HPs in the process of studying this way, and hopefully ull also do better on the stuff that matters more.

 

[FutureDoc4]

I go to one of those schools that has P/F only the first two years but there is an internal ranking system. (we are not told our rank or how we really stand relative to one another). So, no matter if I got a 98 or a 80 on my exam it stands that I get a P on my transcript. Of course, when I apply for residency each of us get a MSPE (or whatever the letter is called that the school sends out to residency program). Of course, they do NOT list your rank in the class... they use a "buzzword" to describe you to the residency program ... good, great.. whatever...but, by the time that comes around you will have gone through 3rd year as well... I am pretty sure they are going to comment much more on your clinical years, Step I, research years whatever then your preclinical grades... so I think getting all flustered about it is ridiculous. Just do the best you can in your preclinical years (if your lucky enough to go to a pass/fail school you don't have to stress if you got an 88 vs a 90! so count yourself lucky). Because at the end of the day, you still want to Rock Step I, to do that you had to learn the material well the first time.

 

[Noeljan]

i understand what u r saying and am not intending to be misleading. i have honestly been told by directors that they "do not care about grades from the first two yrs of med school." 2 different doctors who direct 2 very competitive residency programs were giving us advice at school and said that apart from failing grades, the first 2 yrs are not used when choosing residents bc these grades just are not very telling. they said step scores r very important and ur grades on the wards r very important and ur rec letters are very important. in terms of class rank: they said that this is very important as well. they said that they determine it by looking at ur grades on rotations and looking at the distribution of these grades in your class. they do care about class rank as u said that they do, but they apparently do not really weigh the first yrs in their estimation of "class rank."

obviously, u have heard advice that the first 2 yrs come to matter when used to determine a class rank. that makes sense to me that some programs do it that way. its just not the way that it is done by the people i have happened to speak to.

i still feel that its good advice to focus more on learning things in a manner that will help u remember important details for wards and boards than to set goals of Honors in each class. Ur going to earn Hs and HPs in the process of studying this way, and hopefully ull also do better on the stuff that matters more.

your individual school determines how you are ranked (in terms of a class rank) not residency programs, they get a deans letter with your rank somehow in there. For example, it could be on honors points (which at my school can be earned all 4 years, but residency apps will see the first three). Also, it seems like a lot of the "pimp" questions I have gotten thus far are straight up stuff you learned the first two years. So it helps if you learn/remeber the material from year 1 and 2 when you start year three and so on

 

[Noeljan]

I go to one of those schools that has P/F only the first two years but there is an internal ranking system. (we are not told our rank or how we really stand relative to one another). So, no matter if I got a 98 or a 80 on my exam it stands that I get a P on my transcript. Of course, when I apply for residency each of us get a MSPE (or whatever the letter is called that the school sends out to residency program). Of course, they do NOT list your rank in the class... they use a "buzzword" to describe you to the residency program ... good, great.. whatever...but, by the time that comes around you will have gone through 3rd year as well... I am pretty sure they are going to comment much more on your clinical years, Step I, research years whatever then your preclinical grades... so I think getting all flustered about it is ridiculous. Just do the best you can in your preclinical years (if your lucky enough to go to a pass/fail school you don't have to stress if you got an 88 vs a 90! so count yourself lucky). Because at the end of the day, you still want to Rock Step I, to do that you had to learn the material well the first time.

very well said. Grades are obviously only a small component but it is irresponsible and misleading when people tell underclassmen they mean zero. I have friends at P/F schools are well and they found out they were ranked too.

 

[zephyrhills123]

MS OneNote a worthwhile investment for class?
Iphones helpful for mobile studying? The PDA I have (Blackjack) is worthless for anything besides e-mail.

I like the program called iflipr for the iPhone. It costs five dollars but allows you to make flashcards with images or sounds. You also don't have to have Internet access to use them so if you are on a bus or something without wireless (or just don't have it in your plan) you can still use them. You can make everything on your computer (do need Internet for that). It is just nice to have it all on your phone so you're not carrying around a hundred cards.

 

[iluvpuppies]

your individual school determines how you are ranked (in terms of a class rank) not residency programs, they get a deans letter with your rank somehow in there. For example, it could be on honors points (which at my school can be earned all 4 years, but residency apps will see the first three). Also, it seems like a lot of the "pimp" questions I have gotten thus far are straight up stuff you learned the first two years. So it helps if you learn/remeber the material from year 1 and 2 when you start year three and so on

yep ur school computes ur ranking if u attend a school that does. the residency directors who spoke to us said they dont care about first 2 yrs grades though cuz they dont think it really says much. they said that they look at ur ward grades and the grade distribution of ur class in those areas and to try to figure out where u rank based on them. they use that, ur step scores, and ur letters and other stuff. i can imagine other schools would look at the whole thing though