How important is it to honor your courses?

[raptor7]

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My friend is going to be attending a relatively new medical school (so it hasn't established itself as a reputable institution nationally) in the fall. To honors a course at this school, a student must have greater than 70% attendance and score greater than 90% on the exams. Many of my peers, myself included, think it's more efficient to stream the material at twice the speed at your leisure. Assuming my friend still does well in his courses and does well on the STEP, does it really matter if he honors his courses? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

 

[raiderette]

How will the school award AOA? That can help with many competitive specialties. I say try going to class, see if there is value, then make the decision once there.

 

[Redpancreas]

My friend is going to be attending a relatively new medical school (so it hasn't established itself as a reputable institution nationally) in the fall. To honors a course at this school, a student must have greater than 70% attendance and score greater than 90% on the exams. Many of my peers, myself included, think it's more efficient to stream the material at twice the speed at your leisure. Assuming my friend still does well in his courses and does well on the STEP, does it really matter if he honors his courses? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

In addition to Raiderette, for anyone not gunning for an a specialty where AOA is as common, find out how your school reports class rank because that can be important across the board. Internal rankings are quite common.

 

[ButterButter]

There's an attendance grade? Isn't that kinda ridiculous?

 

[raiderette]

There's an attendance grade? Isn't that kinda ridiculous?

I think IU did that a couple of years ago, until the students rebelled.

 

[ButterButter]

We had mandatory attendance for a few courses (non-science/systems) and selected guest lectures, but systems lectures were optional. Seems ridiculous with the advent of streaming lectures. Admin must not understand the idea that learning styles vary by learner and punishing students for not coming to class is archaic.

 

[coldcase331]

My friend is going to be attending a relatively new medical school (so it hasn't established itself as a reputable institution nationally) in the fall. To honors a course at this school, a student must have greater than 70% attendance and score greater than 90% on the exams. Many of my peers, myself included, think it's more efficient to stream the material at twice the speed at your leisure. Assuming my friend still does well in his courses and does well on the STEP, does it really matter if he honors his courses? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

In terms of the meaning of the actual grade, not that important. But every year, the rising M3’s at my school fill out a big survey about step prep, including their score and their in-house grades during the 1st 2 years. In house grades actually showed a relatively high correlation with step score (probably due to having a higher baseline before dedicated)


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[atomheart]

In 2016, across all specialties, for program directors the mean importance of honors in years 1-2 for interviewing and ranking was 29% and 21% respectively. It's much more important that you don't fail a step or a course.

 

[jdh71]

very

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

If you don't wanna go to class, but want the grade, go to class, sit in back, stream previous lectures at 2x or do qbanks or whatever.

 

[operaman]

I think we overlook a key point when considering what is important or not: exactly WHEN it is important.

Yes, PD surveys suggest more weight is giving to other factors than pre-clinical grades, but this evaluation is made during the 4th year of school when the student has already been through classes and step 1 and rotations and whatnot. It's one thing to look at a finished application and see mediocre preclinical performance followed by solid step 1 and good clinical grades and say that the preclinical work isn't as important. It's another to suggest to a current preclinical student that doing well in coursework isn't as important because there's no guarantee those other things will pan out. If you have a mediocre step 1 but stellar preclinical and clinical grades and may land AOA, then that score is seen a very different light.

One could also argue that doing well in your classes is one of the only things an MS1 can do in the current moment to build a solid application down the road. You can't take step 1 yet, can't do rotations yet, so what else is there to do besides try and perform at your best in your coursework? It's a little early to do any meaningful step 1 study other than following along with your coursework and annotating some comprehensive review source or doing relevant anki cards. Why not make the effort to maximize the things you are currently able to maximize?

I would also point out the overwhelmingly common misinterpretation of those PD surveys. You need to check how the likert scale was labeled and consider what they are actually saying. Maybe they say Step 1 is "very important" while grades are simply "important" but when the numbers get tallied and ranked we see preclinical grades down near the bottom. Just because other things may be given more relative importance, it doesn't mean they aren't noticed and given weight in their own right. To my knowledge, there has not been a published study wherein most PDs say outright that they are not important. As always, we have to read the literature very carefully.

 

[Redpancreas]

My friend is going to be attending a relatively new medical school (so it hasn't established itself as a reputable institution nationally) in the fall. To honors a course at this school, a student must have greater than 70% attendance and score greater than 90% on the exams. Many of my peers, myself included, think it's more efficient to stream the material at twice the speed at your leisure. Assuming my friend still does well in his courses and does well on the STEP, does it really matter if he honors his courses? Any advice is appreciated! Thank you!

While you're correct that that school is relatively new, I wouldn't say it has an unknown reputation nationally. Its hospital has been a national powerhouse as one of the top medicare billers in the nation and is nationally ranked in the top 20 in a few specialties.

 

[sammiesings]

While you're correct that that school is relatively new, I wouldn't say it has an unknown reputation nationally. Its hospital has been a national powerhouse as one of the top medicare billers in the nation and is nationally ranked in the top 20 in a few specialties.

what'd i miss? what school is this?

 

[Redpancreas]

what'd i miss? what school is this?

Do you have a _________ doctor?

 

[MSTPlease]

Do you have a _________ doctor?

I don't recognize this but your other post makes me think we're talking about Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine | Pasadena CA

 

[Redpancreas]

I don't recognize this but your other post makes me think we're talking about Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine | Pasadena CA

No, that place is regionally ranked, not nationally ranked and I don't believe the school's even opened yet.

 

[MSTPlease]

No, that place is regionally ranked, not nationally ranked and I don't believe the school's even opened yet.

I'm either dense cuz I can't think of it or I'm not sure this hospital is the national powerhouse you think it is...

EDIT: just looked at the wikipedia page for US med schools and sorted by youngest to oldest - actually now I think I know who it is and you are right.

 

[Kgizzle]

You lost me at mandatory attendance

 

[curbsideconsult]

I still cannot get over the title of this thread. Every time it pops up and I see "honor your courses" I can't help but think, "as in thy mother and thy father? With bowing and incense?"