Is it normal to fail your first exams?

[Brickhouse]

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I have no idea why these first set of exams seemed so crazy hard to me, but they did, and I'm pretty convinced I failed my gross written exam if not my histo written too. I mean, what is it with these tests, I've been taking tests my whole life and doing just fine but I swear to god it's like I never opened a book before! Maybe I just have to get back into the school mode? I'm sure this topic has already been discussed and like eleventy billion people are gonna flame me and tell me to do a search but whatever.

I really just wanted to say "hi!"

otherwise I think med school is fun. 😍

 

[randomlogik]

Don't let it get you down too much. I failed my first exams too. I ended up having to reevaluate how I study. The methods I used in undergrad just didn't cut it in med school. In the end, I did fine and passed everything. Try experimenting with different techniques till you find the one that works best for you.

 

[Brickhouse]

Don't let it get you down too much. I failed my first exams too. I ended up having to reevaluate how I study. The methods I used in undergrad just didn't cut it in med school. In the end, I did fine and passed everything. Try experimenting with different techniques till you find the one that works best for you.

Thanks, that's very encouraging.

 

[Swiper]

...and like eleventy billion people...

Good to have you back...

 

[DrBuzzLightYear]

As for the original post... No. No, it isn't. But good luck.

 

[WatchingWaiting]

I have no idea why these first set of exams seemed so crazy hard to me, but they did, and I'm pretty convinced I failed my gross written exam if not my histo written too. I mean, what is it with these tests, I've been taking tests my whole life and doing just fine but I swear to god it's like I never opened a book before! Maybe I just have to get back into the school mode?

Feeling like you failed your first few exams in med school is very normal. Feeling like you failed Step I is actually pretty normal too. Actually failing these exams is not. People often come out of med school exams feeling pretty awful-- they tend to emphasize tons and tons of details, and there are usually at least a few well-constructed or just maliciously tricky or picky questions on these exams that if you focus on them can make you feel awful about your performance, even if for every one of those really hard questions there were a few other relatively easy ones you got.

Anyway, I'd wait until you actually have your scores. Feeling anal-ized (without lubrication) after these things is pretty standard.

 

[Brickhouse]

Thanks you guys! I got one set back of grades back today and I passed! Woo hoo.

Swiper I miss you!!! 😍

 

[automaton]

don't ever get the idea that failing is normal or common. that just opens the door for failure, believe me. at my school, there were always 5-10 people failing every 2-3 week sequence, so i began to think it was "ok" to fail since they "can't kick out everyone". that was really stupid and i realized that medical school isn't a joke. you have nothing to lose by trying your hardest... that you won't lose anyway along the way. hahaha. so just do your best from the get-go.

 

[randomlogik]

Just to clarify I never meant to say it was normal or common to fail exams. Just for me, failing the first exams became a wakeup call. After that I buckled down, changed my study habits, and did fine on the rest of the exams. It's no big deal to fail the first exams. But if you continue to fail exams after that, it could be a problem.

 

[Swiper]

Thanks you guys! I got one set back of grades back today and I passed! Woo hoo.

Swiper I miss you!!! 😍

You too, Brix... We'll come up for an Expos (Senators?) game sometime!