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- Oct 21, 2015
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A few weeks ago, I had the misfortune of missing an examination in my first year of Medical School. My alarm malfunctioned that night and somehow reset itself in the middle of the night. I could not prove to the school's administration that I had a malfunction with my alarm, but regardless I accept that it's on me to do whatever I can to make sure I make it to examinations. As a result of this, I'm going to have to retake the exam during the summer and upon passing, my MSPE will read that I passed the course after "retake examination".
Before this, I had aspirations of matching into competitive residency programs (although, I admittedly do not know what specialty I am interested in yet). I would like to know if matching into competitive residency programs is something that is now off the table. It seems frustrating that one misfortune during my M1 year might take me out of contention for competitive residencies almost 3 years from now, but if that's the case, it's best for me to know now so I can do whatever I can to salvage my chances.
I'm hoping someone out there has some insight into my situation. Any advice on what I should focus on from this point on to give myself the best chance I can would also be appreciated (i.e. doing my best to crush STEP 1, doing a lot of research and getting publications, doing really well in my clinical clerkships, doing my best to become AOA, etc...). Hoping the outlook isn't as bleak as I'm potentially imagining, but I have heard of more unfortunate situations than mine...
A few other notes:
- The class this happened in was a Childhood Psychology/Development class (probably not one of the most important basic science classes)
- The class happened to have one exam that was worth over 80% of the grade, so it was not possible to recover by doing well enough in the rest of the class
- The school's curriculum is Pass/Fail
- I am otherwise a good student, at least in the top half of my medical school class, and have never come close to failing anything
- I am involved on the executive boards of several student groups
- I have research experience and a couple of publications
Before this, I had aspirations of matching into competitive residency programs (although, I admittedly do not know what specialty I am interested in yet). I would like to know if matching into competitive residency programs is something that is now off the table. It seems frustrating that one misfortune during my M1 year might take me out of contention for competitive residencies almost 3 years from now, but if that's the case, it's best for me to know now so I can do whatever I can to salvage my chances.
I'm hoping someone out there has some insight into my situation. Any advice on what I should focus on from this point on to give myself the best chance I can would also be appreciated (i.e. doing my best to crush STEP 1, doing a lot of research and getting publications, doing really well in my clinical clerkships, doing my best to become AOA, etc...). Hoping the outlook isn't as bleak as I'm potentially imagining, but I have heard of more unfortunate situations than mine...
A few other notes:
- The class this happened in was a Childhood Psychology/Development class (probably not one of the most important basic science classes)
- The class happened to have one exam that was worth over 80% of the grade, so it was not possible to recover by doing well enough in the rest of the class
- The school's curriculum is Pass/Fail
- I am otherwise a good student, at least in the top half of my medical school class, and have never come close to failing anything
- I am involved on the executive boards of several student groups
- I have research experience and a couple of publications