I failed my OPP course...now what

[MDFUTURE123]

To start, I am an OMS-II student and i have always had a certain dislike for OMM/OPP. I never found it particularly useful and some of the concepts seen a little out there, if you know what i mean. I have never failed any exams since the start of medical school and have been above average always. I am involved in student leadership, have published several research papers and I want to go into general surgery, at this time (that could change during rotations). I recently failed my OPP exam and now the school is making me take a cumulative OPP exam to make sure I can pass that, which I doubt I can do, and if I do not pass, then I will be forced to leave/ restart the entire year..which i think is ridiculous. If i can honors courses like Neuro and Renal, and i can pass my boards, which I am currently doing on my practice tests, why must I repeat the year for a course that is the epitome of pseudoscience? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

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[deleted1079620]

Why do you feel that you can't pass the cumulative exam? How long do you have to study? Is it just a written exam or is there a practical component also? Are you still currently in classes or do you have dedicated time to study for this exam? Are you also trying to study for Step & COMLEX during this remediation? Does your school offer any remediation resources, or do you just study on your own? Do you have OMM fellows or TAs who can help you narrow down what you need to study to be successful on the exam? Is it cumulative for the year or just the second semester? How did you do in OMM last year?

I know you don't like OMM or consider it useful, but don't throw away your future career over this hardline stance you seem to have taken towards OMM. If you passed it during 1st year and the fall semester of OMS-2, you can pass the remediation exam and move on with your plans. Most students do very little OMM in 3rd year and beyond, so you're almost past it now.

 

[chilly_md]

Thread moved to appropriate forum.

 

[MDFUTURE123]

Why do you feel that you can't pass the cumulative exam? How long do you have to study? Is it just a written exam or is there a practical component also? Are you still currently in classes or do you have dedicated time to study for this exam? Are you also trying to study for Step & COMLEX during this remediation? Does your school offer any remediation resources, or do you just study on your own? Do you have OMM fellows or TAs who can help you narrow down what you need to study to be successful on the exam? Is it cumulative for the year or just the second semester? How did you do in OMM last year?

I know you don't like OMM or consider it useful, but don't throw away your future career over this hardline stance you seem to have taken towards OMM. If you passed it during 1st year and the fall semester of OMS-2, you can pass the remediation exam and move on with your plans. Most students do very little OMM in 3rd year and beyond, so you're almost past it now.

Well, if I cannot pass these "smaller exams" that I failed, how would I pass an "all-encompassing" exam. I believe I have a few weeks to study and it is just a written portion. We have about 2 weeks left of school until dedicated and I will start studying actively for boards then. My school does not offer any remediation resources so i will have to study on my own but i think I can reach out to some fellows or tutors to help, which I will do. And apparently it is a full cumulative test for all of 2 years. Last year, OPP was my lowest grade, and it was my most difficult class. I never failed any exams, always did above average and aced classes like Cardio, Neuro and renal.

Its just frustrating that if i was at an MD school, I would not even be in this boat and now, I am possibly facing a repeat of my 2nd year if I do not pass this. I cant believe that our school would have this policy. I would understand if you cannot pass classes that are fundamental to step 1 medicine, like most of our systems courses, but this is just insane. Would they really prevent me from moving on because of OPP??

 

[FootballAndSkiing]

And apparently it is a full cumulative test for all of 2 years.

I think this might make it easier. There should be a lot of easy questions from first year, like tenets, SD definition, diagnosing the spine. Wont have to worry so much about fascial lines, cranial, visceral.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Well, if I cannot pass these "smaller exams" that I failed, how would I pass an "all-encompassing" exam. I believe I have a few weeks to study and it is just a written portion. We have about 2 weeks left of school until dedicated and I will start studying actively for boards then. My school does not offer any remediation resources so i will have to study on my own but i think I can reach out to some fellows or tutors to help, which I will do. And apparently it is a full cumulative test for all of 2 years. Last year, OPP was my lowest grade, and it was my most difficult class. I never failed any exams, always did above average and aced classes like Cardio, Neuro and renal.

Its just frustrating that if i was at an MD school, I would not even be in this boat and now, I am possibly facing a repeat of my 2nd year if I do not pass this. I cant believe that our school would have this policy. I would understand if you cannot pass classes that are fundamental to step 1 medicine, like most of our systems courses, but this is just insane. Would they really prevent me from moving on because of OPP??

OMM is about 1/3 of Level 1 and Level 2, and you will have an OMM shelf exam in 3rd year, so it does make sense that your school has a policy like this. You have to pass Level 1, Level 2, and your shelf exams to even graduate and be a physician. Now you can either spend all the time in the world thinking about "if you were at an MD school, you wouldn't have to deal with this" OR you can get to studying and pass the stupid test. OMM is the price we have to pay for not being good enough to get in an MD school, so take that as you will. The truth of the matter is DO school gave you a chance to still be a physician, and you took it. I hated OMM too, yet it was my highest scores all of medical school. I believe it does have a lot of pseudoscience, but I also believe it does have a lot of things that are actually useful to any physician even MDs. It's up to you to extrapolate the useful stuff for your future in medicine. If you can ace Neuro, nephro, GI, Cards, etc., I believe you can also ace OMM because it's not rocket science, it's all a matter of understanding the concepts and applying them. May I suggest onlinemeded.com OMM section for a quick review of most OMM concepts. Dr. Williams saved me many time the night before my OMM exams.

 

[Goro]

To start, I am an OMS-II student and i have always had a certain dislike for OMM/OPP. I never found it particularly useful and some of the concepts seen a little out there, if you know what i mean. I have never failed any exams since the start of medical school and have been above average always. I am involved in student leadership, have published several research papers and I want to go into general surgery, at this time (that could change during rotations). I recently failed my OPP exam and now the school is making me take a cumulative OPP exam to make sure I can pass that, which I doubt I can do, and if I do not pass, then I will be forced to leave/ restart the entire year..which i think is ridiculous. If i can honors courses like Neuro and Renal, and i can pass my boards, which I am currently doing on my practice tests, why must I repeat the year for a course that is the epitome of pseudoscience? Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!

This is the tax you pay for whatever the reasons were that you couldn't get into an MD School.

EDIT: You're in the same position as an atheist attending BYU, Notre Dame, or Loma Linda. You don't have to convert, but you still have to pass the religious studies classes, like it or not. Don't cut your nose off to spite your face, because at my school it actually takes work to fail OMM/OPP.

If you want to be a doctor, suspend your disbelief and try to learn something useful, especially your palpation skills and your surface anatomy.

 

[deleted1079620]

I highly recommend the Dirty Medicine OMM videos on YouTube. Concise summaries of all the relevant topics on COMLEX and also good for in house exams. Add a good OMM anki deck (Demeter OMM is excellent) and you should be able to easily get through your exam in a few weeks.

There are also two very good YouTube videos on drawing visceromatics and Chapman’s points that are super HY for exams.

 

[deleted1079620]

I think this might make it easier. There should be a lot of easy questions from first year, like tenets, SD definition, diagnosing the spine. Wont have to worry so much about fascial lines, cranial, visceral.

I agree with this. Our recent OMM final was a mini COMLEX which covered everything from the first 2 years, and it was good to see questions that brought everything together. It was also more “big picture’ than nitpicky like midterm exams.

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

OnlineMedEd has some really good opp videos

 

[Osminog]

Passing OMM is all about memorizing tables and algorithms. You don’t need to have an in-depth conceptual understanding of anything.

Save the bitterness, as justified as it may be, for when you’re an attending—when you’ll be in a position to challenge the status quo on behalf of future med students. Until then, you just gotta do what’s required and make it to the finish line.

 

[ortnakas]

I passed OMM by the slimmest of margins as a first year, and now I’m an attending. This too shall pass.

But- you have to figure out how to channel energy away from your obvious disdain for the topic because, for better or for worse, you have to pass this retake or how great you are at everything else will all be for naught. Not to mention that while you (and residency directors) may care more about USMLE, you still must pass COMLEX to graduate.

Good news is, like others said, comprehensive is ironically going to be easier. Figure out how the questions are likely to be distributed and what your strengths and weaknesses are and plan accordingly.

 

[wook]

Good news is, like others said, comprehensive is ironically going to be easier. Figure out how the questions are likely to be distributed and what your strengths and weaknesses are and plan accordingly.

I concur. Try to embrace the topic to get through it, study. Once done, you will likely need to repeat as you take the COMLEX exam. Once done with STEP 3 of COMLEX, you can let it go.

 

[FistLength]

Username checks out, closet MD for sure.

OMM is trash, but as others mentioned, its the price you pay for going to a DO school. You can absolutely pass this test

 

[deleted1100659]

At my school it was so heavily taught that it was basically harder than some of our core classes because the questions would be so obscure...

On top of that, there were 3 semesters each year, and you had to pass each OMM semester individually. Problem was the written and practical were different portions that had to be passed seperately and you only had two written exams each semester. So if you got a 70% on the first exam, had to get a 90% the second one. About 50% of my class had failed OMM at least once during those two years, of course the policy finally changed but it was pretty ridiculous. I had even failed OMM one semester. Now im an attending and have blocked that out of my head, lol.

 

[deleted1100659]

Is failing OMM as much of a red flag as failing a regular pre-clinical course when applying for residency?

I went on 11 interviews during my residency days and no one asked me about it, lol. Most of them probably had no idea what it was.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Is failing OMM as much of a red flag as failing a regular pre-clinical course when applying for residency?

I have failed and remediated one regular pre-clinical course, went on 13 interviews this cycle and matched. No one asked about it either. The thing is if it's just one failed class, chances are no one will care. It becomes a problem when you have multiple failed classes because then it becomes a habit. Failing any board exams is worse than failing pre-clinical courses.