is "very good" bad?

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GladifImakeit

GladifImakeit

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Some of my evals say "excellent," but my peds eval says "very good." Is "very good" code for bad? Does anyone ever get an eval that says they were average or sub par?

Thanks!
 
From what I've gathered, the ranking is:
1. Outstanding
2. Excellent
3. Very good

It seems like people at my schoool honor if their evals are mostly "outstanding". While very good isn't BAD, it's not as good as it sounds since there are two higher tiers.
 
If your peds eval is from a woman, 'very good' could most certainly mean 'not very good' 😉
 
You guys are out of your minds. Everyone has a different way of expressing how good a student is, some people say "excellent" and others say "very good". That's just how it is.
 
Yeah "very good" is definitely bad. In fact, I say you just quit medicine altogether because you're gonna get scrutinized left and right by residency programs by just this one eval and just these two words. I doubt you will match anywhere. 🙁
 
ArcGurren said:
You guys are out of your minds. Everyone has a different way of expressing how good a student is, some people say "excellent" and others say "very good". That's just how it is.
Click to expand...

yes this is correct, OP. Evals are subjective and what you get on an eval will depend on your attending and his/her standards. They will vary from rotation to rotation.

"very good" could be awesome if that attending only gives out "average" or it could be bad if that attending only every gives out "excellent". Your clerkship director should know the tendencies of each evaluater and take it into account.
 
and this is exactly why many med students border on intolerable
 
GladifImakeit said:
Some of my evals say "excellent," but my peds eval says "very good." Is "very good" code for bad? Does anyone ever get an eval that says they were average or sub par?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
yes
 
hahaha, sometimes I just gotta laugh...not criticizing you personally OP, its just the situation that's funny...where else other than med school can one find oneself in the situation where they are told they are "very good" and there still exists the possibility that such an evaluation could be damaging? :laugh:

What a crazy profession we've chosen for ourselves
 
Rollo said:
Are you seriously asking which question that person said yes to??

Seriously?!
Click to expand...

Yes I am. I think I've heard that there is an unofficial hierarchy of adjectives, as another poster suggested. The hierarchy is something like

outstanding
excellent
very good
good
average (meaning they think you are absolutely horrible)
 
Maybe I am neurotic, but all I want out of life is to be a physician. I can't help but worry that I won't match!
 
But it completely and utterly depends on the evaluator. If the evaluator that wrote that for you has written "good student" on the evaluations of every student except two in the last 10 years than "very good" would mean that you are one of the three best students in the last ten years.

On the other hand if an evaluator wrote "Perfect in every way" on the evaluation of every student in the last 10 years except yours and writes outstanding on yours than outstanding would mean that you are the worst student to come through in 10 years.

We can't tell you what very good means to the person that wrote it without being psychic. So chill out - to any evaluator it means you pass.
 
GladifImakeit said:
Yes I am. I think I've heard that there is an unofficial hierarchy of adjectives, as another poster suggested. The hierarchy is something like

outstanding
excellent
very good
good
average (meaning they think you are absolutely horrible)
Click to expand...

Do you really think you aren't going to match because somebody will look at those two words and judge you as a candidate based entirely on those two words?

This isn't even neuroticism anymore, this is just plain lacking common sense. Why does it seem that intelligence level is inversely correlated with common sense, especially among medical students?
 
In case anyone's wondering, here's the actual hierarchy list that graders have to select from (best to worst):

divine
orgasmic
transcendent
peerless
inspiring
magnificent
outstanding
great
very good <---
good
adequate
not good
intolerable
putrid
contemptible

As you can see, a score of "very good" is in the bottom half, which is obviously not good (not to be confused with the grade "not good", which is even worse).
 
pkwraith said:
In case anyone's wondering, here's the actual hierarchy list that graders have to select from (best to worst):

divine
orgasmic
transcendent
peerless
inspiring
magnificent
outstanding
great
very good <---
good
adequate
not good
intolerable
putrid
contemptible

As you can see, a score of "very good" is in the bottom half, which is obviously not good (not to be confused with the grade "not good", which is even worse).
Click to expand...

👍 :laugh:

OP, I can totally sympathize with you, it's a crazy profession we chose.
 
pkwraith said:
In case anyone's wondering, here's the actual hierarchy list that graders have to select from (best to worst):

divine
orgasmic
transcendent
peerless
inspiring
magnificent
outstanding
great
very good <---
good
adequate
not good
intolerable
putrid
contemptible

As you can see, a score of "very good" is in the bottom half, which is obviously not good (not to be confused with the grade "not good", which is even worse).
Click to expand...


FML bottom half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I'M SCREWED
 
I honestly think it depends on your school. For example, at my school, they break us into quartiles for our MSPE letters. Those are
Outstanding
Excellent
Very Good
Good

For our clinical rotations, we are graded honors (approx 25% of class), high pass (approx 25% of class), pass (50%). They seem to pull the same words though. For clerkships, I got high pass on, the descriptor was usually excellent. For honors, it was outstanding. I think they basically dont want to hurt anyone's feelings. It's weird but for us, very good implies below the average for the class.
 
Picchu127 said:
I honestly think it depends on your school. For example, at my school, they break us into quartiles for our MSPE letters. Those are
Outstanding
Excellent
Very Good
Good

For our clinical rotations, we are graded honors (approx 25% of class), high pass (approx 25% of class), pass (50%). They seem to pull the same words though. For clerkships, I got high pass on, the descriptor was usually excellent. For honors, it was outstanding. I think they basically dont want to hurt anyone's feelings. It's weird but for us, very good implies below the average for the class.
Click to expand...


Well I hate the rotation that I got very good on. Ugh. Yuck. Never going into that field.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that "very good" means "very good."

Granted, outstanding is still better, and so is excellent, but I'm pretty sure that "poor" would mean "poor."

I'm just imagining you in a clerkship,

"This patient is doing very well."
"Is that bad?"
 
GladifImakeit said:
yes to which part?
Click to expand...
all of the above....

Jesus OP, 🙄, relax

neurotic pre-meds-> neurotic med students -> neurotic physicians = lifelong misery. At some point you gotta learn to let go and move on.
 
pkwraith said:
In case anyone's wondering, here's the actual hierarchy list that graders have to select from (best to worst):

divine
orgasmic
transcendent
peerless
inspiring
magnificent
outstanding
great
very good <---
good
adequate
not good
intolerable
putrid
contemptible

As you can see, a score of "very good" is in the bottom half, which is obviously not good (not to be confused with the grade "not good", which is even worse).
Click to expand...
👍
 
pkwraith said:
In case anyone's wondering, here's the actual hierarchy list that graders have to select from (best to worst):

divine
orgasmic
transcendent
peerless
inspiring
magnificent
outstanding
great
very good <---
good
adequate
not good
intolerable
putrid
contemptible

As you can see, a score of "very good" is in the bottom half, which is obviously not good (not to be confused with the grade "not good", which is even worse).
Click to expand...
This is so full of win! 🤣
 
I think it is very important to go through each evaluation you receive in medical school with a fine tooth comb. What that one attending who heard you fart has to say about you could determine your entire future.
 
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