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pookiebear92

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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

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Get a grip. This basically doesn't matter.


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Is this considered a remediation (and actually reflected on your transcript)? Or is it just a make-up exam?

If it's just buried in the language of the MSPE that you retook the exam I doubt anyone cares. If it's actually a remediation then it's a red flag, albeit a smaller one since it's a pre-clinical course (and a less significant one). So it probably wouldn't matter, but you'll still want to have an explanation ready when you interview.

I had a few of friends who failed a course and passed the re-take exam (avoiding official remediation) that did just fine in the match.
 
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I use 2 alarms for anything super important. My normal plugged-into-the-wall alarm, and then I'll also set an alarm on my phone because that will still work if the power goes out. If I'm traveling and don't have my normal alarm, I set one on my phone and watch so there is still redundancy.
 
I always sleep with 2 separate alarms. One on my cell phone, one electric plugged into the wall. I travel with both as well.

Would suggest you do the same!
 
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I appreciate the answers. Believe me, I will be using multiple alarm clocks from now on and I definitely hope that this doesn't matter as much. But I always come back to thinking that if I'm equal to another candidate, having a re-take examination is a red flag that will make me the less desirable candidate.

Is this considered a remediation (and actually reflected on your transcript)? Or is it just a make-up exam?

If it's just buried in the language of the MSPE that you retook the exam I doubt anyone cares. If it's actually a remediation then it's a red flag, albeit a smaller one since it's a pre-clinical course (and a less significant one). So it probably wouldn't matter, but you'll still want to have an explanation ready when you interview.

I had a few of friends who failed a course and passed the re-take exam (avoiding official remediation) that did just fine in the match.

^I'm not exactly sure on this because what the administration has told me is confusing. I believe that the only thing that will be noted on my MSPE is that I passed with "retake examination" and that I will not be undergoing actual remediation. However, they've also told me that "passed with retake examination" is the same thing that appears on the MSPE of someone who undergoes actual remediation.
 
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