How to best explain failures and low scores?

[deleted815127]

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In third year I was stuck with a rather malignant attending for IM, to the point that I ended up complaining about her.

Though she wanted to hold me back, she with hesitation passed me. Unfortunately, for me she was the site director and is or was an associate dean at my school.

When I moved onto my peds rotation (next) my Clerkship director called me around week 4 (6 week rotation total). She told me I was definitely failing my rotation, regardless of my performance in the last two weeks. She told me that this reflected my performance on all of my rotations so far not just peds rotation.

The last two weeks I spent there were pretty much horrible and when it came time to face the shelf I failed, as I had only freaked about what she said week4.

There was a 4 page document written about this issue, that rests in my school’s file.

Since then I remediate that rotation, I retook the shelf and passed in like top some percentile.

In my fourth year I have not failed a single rotation in fact passed a few honors and rest high pass grades. I have done a selective peds rotation and passed it with high pass.

The director of this rotation agreed to pen a LOR for me.

How do I explain all this in a residency interview?
I want to go into FM. I have not failed any other exam or rotation. I have taken only COMLEX and passed both levels 446 (L1) and 423(L2).

 

[Mass Effect]

You definitely don't explain it the way you did to us. PDs don't want excuses. When it comes up, you say you had difficulty juggling the rotation and study time, but that your failure gave you a chance for some critical introspection to really take a look at how you were getting through your clinicals and you're a better student for it. Tell them you revamped your priorities, busted your butt to review your medical knowledge, practice your clinical skills, learned to triage, came to work early, stayed late, asked for persistent feedback and applied corrections. Find out what's in the 4-page document and address any concerns.

PDs know that people occasionally screw up. The question is, what's different now. Why should they take a chance on you? You need to answer that question for them before they even ask it.

Oh and for goodness sake, don't fail the PE and/or CS.

 

[GoSpursGo]

There's really only one way to explain it. You say you struggled initially adjusting to clinical rotations, accepted feedback and used it as a learning opportunity, improved and on re-taking passed with flying colors.

All of this stuff about "my attending hated me," etc etc, even if you feel it's true, isn't going to come off well.

 

[CidHighwind]

OP what was the reason/concerns for why they failed you? I feel like most places wouldn’t want to fail someone (unless they just didn’t show up) because they wouldn’t want to have to deal with them again.

 

[neoexile]

In third year I was stuck with a rather malignant attending for IM, to the point that I ended up complaining about her.

Though she wanted to hold me back, she with hesitation passed me. Unfortunately, for me she was the site director and is or was an associate dean at my school.

When I moved onto my peds rotation (next) my Clerkship director called me around week 4 (6 week rotation total). She told me I was definitely failing my rotation, regardless of my performance in the last two weeks. She told me that this reflected my performance on all of my rotations so far not just peds rotation.

The last two weeks I spent there were pretty much horrible and when it came time to face the shelf I failed, as I had only freaked about what she said week4.

There was a 4 page document written about this issue, that rests in my school’s file.

Since then I remediate that rotation, I retook the shelf and passed in like top some percentile.

In my fourth year I have not failed a single rotation in fact passed a few honors and rest high pass grades. I have done a selective peds rotation and passed it with high pass.

The director of this rotation agreed to pen a LOR for me.

How do I explain all this in a residency interview?
I want to go into FM. I have not failed any other exam or rotation. I have taken only COMLEX and passed both levels 446 (L1) and 423(L2).

 

[Mass Effect]

OP what was the reason/concerns for why they failed you? I feel like most places wouldn’t want to fail someone (unless they just didn’t show up) because they wouldn’t want to have to deal with them again.

In my experience, most attendings/preceptors will not put their name on an evaluation that promotes or passes a student/resident who is unqualified.