I just found out that year 1/2 grades count for next to nothing and that the main helpers for residency of choice are clinical (3-4yr) evaluations and step 1. I already can predict having step 1 in the bag since Ive been scoring at least 95% on all yr1 tests. But how can I get honors in all my rotations? What are the residents looking for? (a-s kissing, hardwork,)
can you PLEASE tell me what med school your at, to make sure it's not my future school or one I plan on visiting any time soon.
Are there really people in medical school that have *just* found this out in May of their first year?
Got some bad news for you. If you want to do derm, ortho, or integrated plastics, then year 1/2 grades WILL matter. So you've gotten good grades on all your first year tests. Congratulations. However...80% of Step 1 actually comes from SECOND year. Very little stuff from first year (aside from physio...which you really study in 2nd year) is on Step 1. People who aren't annoying and that don't ask dumb questions. And ESPECIALLY people who aren't full of themselves, and don't brag on random internet forums about their first year grades.
LOL...I don't know if the OP was bragging..if you were..shame on you. I think he/she was trying to say that even though he/she has excellent grades from M1/2....they understand it doesn't count for much. But if you see an earlier thread I started, there is a discussion about how it can obviously influence AOA selection and also how the template of your MSPE will reflect your M1/M2 grades a bit. Also...it is true? 80% of material on USMLE Step 1 comes from 2nd year courses? What about biochem? I know there is some Anatomy and Embryo. But these only count for about 20%? If so, cool...I have another year to step it up and still be in fairly good shape for boards.
Not a lot of biochem. A lot of the stuff from biochem was not heavily represented on Step 1 - most of the stuff that you really need to know is "pathological" biochem (Lesch-Nyhan, Gaucher's, Tay-Sachs, etc. You'll review a fair amount of this stuff when you hit 2nd year.) Very, very little embryo, aside from, again, "pathological" embryo - annular pancreas, ToF, etc. I felt like SO MUCH of Step 1 is pharm, path, and physio...but more clinically related physio. Really learn as much as you can in 2nd year. It's good review for the boards and for rotations.
must feel good to have step 1 in the bag even before MS2. now you just have to relax until your moment of truth comes in a year or so. but in the meantime, don't expect any constructive advice from SDNers. That requires humility and modesty.
1) Year 1/2 grades do count because they contribute to your class rank. 2) Doing well in 3rd year is about reading, working hard, not being a douche, doing well on the shelf exam, and luck. 3) Some modesty goes a long way towards not being a douche.
Luck Getting rotations where I'm the only med student on the team, or rotate with students from schools that tend to have weaker students
Your first step should be to get your head out of the clouds. As other posters have mentioned, performance in your first year will only correlate with your step 1 score in that it demonstrates that you're a good test taker. Congrats. Now try to take your head out of your rear end as fast as possible before others do it for you (and they will do it less gently, I might add).
To answer the OP's original question, if you want to get honors in your 3rd year rotations, there's three ways you can do it: 1) Smoke the shelf exam and get great clinical evals 2) Smoke the shelf exam and get mediocre clinical evals 3) Smoke the shelf exam and occasionally show up to the hospital As long as you don't give people a reason to punish you (as juvenile as that sounds), you'll be fine clinically. Excellent clinical evals alone aren't worth sh#t, unless you're lucky enough to be at one of those schools where they advertise that 66%+ of your grade is clinical, and they actually enforce it. At my school, the shelf is only supposed to be worth 30%, but if you don't get a 90+ on the shelf you're not gonna get the "H" no matter how good your clinical evals are. But I wouldn't worry, as it sounds like you've already got the shelf exams in the bag. HamOn
The big ones for high-end clinical evals are good first impression, enthusiasm, motivation to help the team, good interpersonal skills (related to the team, not just patients), and not doing silly stuff to detract from urself, like showing up late. Being smart and knowing what you're talking about do help, but they alone won't get you high-end evals.
Second year is higher yield for Step 1 than first year. Your bag has a big hole in it. You are correct that the first two years' grades don't count for a heck of a lot, other than be good prep for the Step 1 exam, which does count a lot, and for your rotations, which do count a lot. As mentioned above, getting honors in the later years of med school depends a lot on getting the right attending, being paired up with weaker classmates, impressing folks with your unbridled enthusiasm (even when doing unsavory things like DREs), and scoring well on the shelf exam. Since luck is a not insignificant factor, I'd focus on the other things and cross your fingers (except while doing the DREs).
Actually your first year and second year grades aren't necessarily great predictors or guarantees for step 1 success. Usually your class exams will have shorter questions, give you more time, and tend to be detail oriented, whereas step exam tend to be somewhat less detailed but more thought process oriented, general knowledge oriented, and with time management during the test being much more important. So instead of worrying about clinical grades which as many have mentioned, are at least in part luck and in part figuring out whether the attending prefers someone who sucks up, someone who sounds well read, someone who show great empathy in patient relations, or someone who keeps quiet and nods their head a lot... you should still be thinking about step 1. Especially since I heard you failed a first year exam, which is hard to do.
