KCU Class of 2021

[68wdogdad]

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For MCM, Zaidi's slides are golden-- you don't need anything else, she puts in red basically everything you need to know, and tells you which clinical boxes to look at in your textbook.

For immuno, I did use Zanki alongside the slides, and that was more than enough.

OMS1 @ KC. Thank's for easing my anxiety!

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

I used COMQUEST throughout for shelf exams. They worked well because the shelfs are NBOME administered so similar styling. Pretty affordable and can split it with someone else b/c you can restet the shelf question bank once per subject. It was clutch having an OMM shelf question bank as well for the OMM shelf you have to take.

For boards, I did UW 1.5 times starting near the end of 3rd year, Savarese, and First aid Step 1 for review of bioethics and bio stats.

Amboss is fairly new on the market. Really cool interface with lots of great information. Better interface than UW and cheaper but I just didn't want to run to something new. The questions are meh the remind me of Kaplan questions either simple or absurdly difficult.

Never touched COMBANK as it was hella expensive.

When did you buy UWorld? I regretted buying Uworld for Step 1 so late (had 3 mo subscription and had 137 Q unused before Step) and I'm trying to figure out the best way to use Uworld during M3 year.

 

[scoopdaboop]

yo this dr sarsour guy, his lecture on cell cycle and death straight up terrible and wants us to know wayyyy too much. how do i know what he hits on the most. seems like he'll hit on CDK/Cyclin pathways a ton.

 

[Schwifty]

For MCM, Zaidi's slides are golden-- you don't need anything else, she puts in red basically everything you need to know, and tells you which clinical boxes to look at in your textbook.

For immuno, I did use Zanki alongside the slides, and that was more than enough.

This 100%, I wish Zaidi taught/made slides for all the lectures.

 

[Sephirakra]

yo this dr sarsour guy, his lecture on cell cycle and death straight up terrible and wants us to know wayyyy too much. how do i know what he hits on the most. seems like he'll hit on CDK/Cyclin pathways a ton.

He's new, so none of the second- or third-years here will be able to comment on it. Best to make a "KCU Class of 2023" thread to vent there.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

yo this dr sarsour guy, his lecture on cell cycle and death straight up terrible and wants us to know wayyyy too much. how do i know what he hits on the most. seems like he'll hit on CDK/Cyclin pathways a ton.

yeah can you guys keep this stuff to 2023 class thread and not 2021? I don't even know who dr dinosaur is

 

[scoopdaboop]

Question to third years. How did you guys go about board prep? Ik we do a 2 pass curriculum so idk how useful it is to do board prep now and learn all the clinical diseases or wait till second year to do the ufaps

 

[Hippocrates II]

Question to third years. How did you guys go about board prep? Ik we do a 2 pass curriculum so idk how useful it is to do board prep now and learn all the clinical diseases or wait till second year to do the ufaps

Not a 3rd year but I can tell you that I'm now regretting not keeping on top of the physiology as we went. We're barely touching it with a 200 foot pole now and I don't remember much of anything. I don't think it would be a good use of time to do the path anki decks before you learn it unless you enjoy having no shred of a life outside of school

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Maybe this has addressed before or during that 3rd year clerkship presentation, but does anyone know how KCU grades clinical rotations? Are the evals + COMAT scores factored into pass, high pass, honors(?) etc?

Or if you guys can link me or point me towards a link, pdf, or ppt that explains it, that would be helpful as well!

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Question to third years. How did you guys go about board prep? Ik we do a 2 pass curriculum so idk how useful it is to do board prep now and learn all the clinical diseases or wait till second year to do the ufaps

Don't touch path till next year. Do Zanki phys throughout the year and keep up with your reviews. Profit.

 

[NVO]

Maybe this has addressed before or during that 3rd year clerkship presentation, but does anyone know how KCU grades clinical rotations? Are the evals + COMAT scores factored into pass, high pass, honors(?) etc?

Or if you guys can link me or point me towards a link, pdf, or ppt that explains it, that would be helpful as well!

In regards to grading, evals dont mean anything as long as they pass you. Your grade is solely based on your COMAT score (Pass vs Honors). There is no high pass so scoring a 83 is the same as scoring a 111 on your COMAT. So lots of people half-ass rotations, and as long as you're not so horrible that you fail, youre good. I think that even if you get a "below expectations" on your eval it doesnt do anything. Lots of preceptors give everyone "exceeds expectations". Lots only give "meets expectations". It really doesnt mean anything

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Maybe this has addressed before or during that 3rd year clerkship presentation, but does anyone know how KCU grades clinical rotations? Are the evals + COMAT scores factored into pass, high pass, honors(?) etc?

Or if you guys can link me or point me towards a link, pdf, or ppt that explains it, that would be helpful as well!

You need a 112 on the shelf to honors a rotation, evals don't mean anything grade wise.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

.

 

[NVO]

Mostly true, but your actual number does mean something in terms of clinical rank (if you’re worried about that). For example, someone who got 111 will be ranked higher than someone who got 88, even though they both got a P on the transcript.

Interesting. I didn't know people applied to residencies with 2 different ranks. Where can I find my clinical rank?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Interesting. I didn't know people applied to residencies with 2 different ranks. Where can I find my clinical rank?

I know our school has 2 rankings for us. 1 is what we see on kcu 360, which is calculated by just the gpa. Whereas the internal super duper secret rank has us ranked by the points we got. So if someone got a 96 in MCM, and someone got a 94, technically they both have a 4.0 but the school has an internal ranking where the person with a 96 is higher than the person with a 94.

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Can any third years comment on the rotation sites in Rolla or Poplar springs? considering moving out there for third year

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Can any third years comment on the rotation sites in Rolla or Poplar springs? considering moving out there for third year

There's like 4 people total between those sites, you're better off posting in the 2021 FB group or messaging them directly.

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Can any third years comment on the rotation sites in Rolla or Poplar springs? considering moving out there for third year

I have a friend who is in Poplar on surgery right now and she apparently does a lot compared to me (also on surgery). I think it depends though, my site has residents so they usually get to do a lot more and have first dibs than a lowly M3 like me, but I actually like working with residents

 

[ohmanwaddup]

I have a friend who is in Poplar on surgery right now and she apparently does a lot compared to me (also on surgery). I think it depends though, my site has residents so they usually get to do a lot more and have first dibs than a lowly M3 like me, but I actually like working with residents

Is there anyway I could get her contact info to reach out to her?

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Anyone have any thoughts on competitiveness of the KC site? We had our first presentation from clin ed yesterday, but it was pretty vague and mostly info that is available on the website. I heard that last year most people who wanted KC got it, but with only ~120 spots and honors track people having to stay in KC, I don't see how that's possible lol

 

[PorkChopsOG]

Anyone have any thoughts on competitiveness of the KC site? We had our first presentation from clin ed yesterday, but it was pretty vague and mostly info that is available on the website. I heard that last year most people who wanted KC got it, but with only ~120 spots and honors track people having to stay in KC, I don't see how that's possible lol

We had 165 spots I believe, and most people who wanted it got it. The problem was the people who didn't get KC were the ones who got stuck in the super small rural areas. You have better odds going for KC than other places unless you have a reason/letter to go to another site. Note: People usually flip flop in the straw poll. Places that were super overfilled in the straw poll were not overfilled/competitive in the real thing

 

[AlteredScale]

I have a friend who is in Poplar on surgery right now and she apparently does a lot compared to me (also on surgery). I think it depends though, my site has residents so they usually get to do a lot more and have first dibs than a lowly M3 like me, but I actually like working with residents

Def results vary here in KC.

My third year I was in KC. My surgery was 1:1 MD attending no resident at a community hospital so I was with him as first assist he entire time going to 3 different hospitals. It sucked especially as I wanted to do IM. But it was still a great experience.

Second surgery rotation was 3 students to 1 attending. No residents with attending for most cases except a few if there were only 1 student was second assist. (Surprise, I enjoyed this one a lot more).

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Def results vary here in KC.

My third year I was in KC. My surgery was 1:1 MD attending no resident at a community hospital so I was with him as first assist he entire time going to 3 different hospitals. It sucked especially as I wanted to do IM. But it was still a great experience.

Second surgery rotation was 3 students to 1 attending. No residents with attending for most cases except a few if there were only 1 student was second assist. (Surprise, I enjoyed this one a lot more).

Did you find that not working without residents was an issue education wise? I hear mixed things

 

[AlteredScale]

Did you find that not working without residents was an issue education wise? I hear mixed things

Not as much as I had thought it would have. My first attending pimped the hell out of me and required me to read the entire text book of Essentials of General Surgery through the month. I also had the opportunity to doe 2-3 central and femoral line placements. So in that case I learned a ton.

My second rotation my attending was just way too busy, he would do so many surgeries and was just always being paged.

When I was with residents on my IM clerkship at the VA (KC) I was also learning a ton because there was an expectation that KU residents wanted to teach. I learned nothing on my preceptor based IM rotation.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I learned nothing on my preceptor based IM rotation.

This scares me as someone who is heavily considering IM...

 

[AlteredScale]

This scares me as someone who is heavily considering IM...

Try your very best to request a rotation at one of the VA's preferably the main one here in KC, the Leavenworth one is find it's just way smaller and yo you won't see as much pathology. Use ur electives to your advantage and go to st lukes on some sort of IM subspecialty. At the very least there, you'll have some sort of didactic experiences, work on your patient presentations, write notes, etc.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

This scares me as someone who is heavily considering IM...

You could consider going somewhere where you get guaranteed residents

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Honestly, surgery rotations w/ residents is hit or miss. In my case, I'm working with a 2nd year resident so he gets to do pretty much everything since he is still learning (surgery has a pretty big learning curve), so I'm not able to do much except retract, drive the lap scope, and place a couple of simple interrupted or subcuticular sutures. I usually pre-round, but they don't have me do wound care or other stuff I've heard other med students do at other surgery rotation sites. I also feel like I'm getting ignored a lot, and I feel they don't really have any expectations for me so I have no idea how to "impress" the attendings or residents. I don't really get pimped that often by the attendings, but the residents pimp me a lot. Kinda underwhelmed by my surgery rotation so far and I feel its causing me to lose interest in the field, which kinda sucks cause I came in with a genuine interest in pursuing surgery since it was it my top 3 specialties I was considering.

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Is there anyway I could get her contact info to reach out to her?

Sorry I personally don't want to give out contact info through SDN since everyone is relatively anonymous, but just post on the KCU 2021 page asking about experiences there and ask for one of them to reach out to you. I'm sure they will!

 

[NVO]

For someone with no interest in surgery, it was awesome being the only med student following a preceptor. If he had only 1 surgery scheduled on his surgery day, you were out at 9am. Some days he had no surgeries scheduled so you had the day off. M-F, no call or weekends. Clinic was always chill. No need to impress anyone or be extra. No lost opportunity for education (1st assist on everything, did fine on COMAT/Level 2).

 

[ohmanwaddup]

You could consider going somewhere where you get guaranteed residents

At least in Joplin we dont really have the option. Freeman has residents but Ive heard from a few second years that the ratio is overcrowded and almost not worth it. maybe I am being naive but I was impressed by some of the rural sites at the fair this weekend and might give them a go

 

[musicmed]

At least in Joplin we dont really have the option. Freeman has residents but Ive heard from a few second years that the ratio is overcrowded and almost not worth it. maybe I am being naive but I was impressed by some of the rural sites at the fair this weekend and might give them a go

My friend is in Sikeston and really enjoyed her OB and Surgery rotations. 1:1 with preceptor and got to do lots of stuff. Even had a GSW case where her general surgeon had to step in since there was no cardiothoracic surgeon on call.

 

[Coltuna]

So I'm a bit confused about how 4th year works... Do we have the option to do most rotations at sites other than our "home" rotation site? Like if I wanted to move closer to home (and closer to possible auditions in the area that I hope to do residency), would this be possible?

 

[fldoctorgirl]

So I'm a bit confused about how 4th year works... Do we have the option to do most rotations at sites other than our "home" rotation site? Like if I wanted to move closer to home (and closer to possible auditions in the area that I hope to do residency), would this be possible?

From what I've gathered, yes-- fourth year seems like mostly electives/sub-I's/etc, which you can schedule and do wherever you want. The only required rotation is EM, which has to be at a core site (but doesn't have to be the one you're at for third year, just has to be a core site).

 

[NVO]

The required EM doesnt even have to be your core site. Some people have scheduled an away rotation in EM and it counts. Apparently they approved of it even if it's not associated with a residency

 

[PorkChopsOG]

From what I've gathered, yes-- fourth year seems like mostly electives/sub-I's/etc, which you can schedule and do wherever you want. The only required rotation is EM, which has to be at a core site (but doesn't have to be the one you're at for third year, just has to be a core site).

Yeah it doesn't have to be at a core site, that'd just be weird. It can be at any hospital the school approves of.

 

[Coltuna]

So can anyone comment on the difficulty of setting up rotations outside of core sites?

 

[Dr.Bruh]

So say I’m in KC for 3rd year but wanted to do my EM rotation at the Fl palm beach site. I could do that? How difficult would it be?

 

[NVO]

So can anyone comment on the difficulty of setting up rotations outside of core sites?

Easy. What questions do you have?

So say I’m in KC for 3rd year but wanted to do my EM rotation at the Fl palm beach site. I could do that? How difficult would it be?

Also easy. I think they operate via Clinician Nexus which is like the janky DO version of VSAS so you can just apply through there, and maybe email the coordinator there too.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Also easy. I think they operate via Clinician Nexus which is like the janky DO version of VSAS so you can just apply through there, and maybe email the coordinator there too.

I didn't realize we still had to apply for rotations that were through the school's sites. So basically all of 4th year is set up through VSAS or whatever?

 

[Dr.Bruh]

Easy. What questions do you have?



Also easy. I think they operate via Clinician Nexus which is like the janky DO version of VSAS so you can just apply through there, and maybe email the coordinator there too.

How early should one contact them about that? Is now too early if it’s basically a year out? Lol

 

[PorkChopsOG]

I didn't realize we still had to apply for rotations that were through the school's sites. So basically all of 4th year is set up through VSAS or whatever?

Kinda. I don't know too much since I haven't set up my 4th year yet, but to give you an example: my rotation site limits us on the # of rotations we do there 4th year. We are allowed an audition rotation, our EM rotation, and 4 other rotations of our choosing. TBH that's not a bad deal, seeing how that's 6 months of rotations we can complete there, but that still leaves a gap you'll have to fill with audition rotations/online rotations. One of the thing that the current 4th years were complaining about, is that in the kansas city area there is very little support for 4th year rotations. Someone was complaining they were struggling to get a psych rotation since 3rd years are prioritized. Luckily at my site that isn't a problem, and I could be wrong, but that's just what I've heard.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

audition rotations/online rotations

There are online rotations??

Sorry for all the questions lol, I just feel like there is no information provided to us about any of this.

 

[PorkChopsOG]

There are online rotations??

Sorry for all the questions lol, I just feel like there is no information provided to us about any of this.

Just a heads up, our school basically cuts all contact with you after May of 2nd year. I'd recommend joining '20's student group on FB to just see what they discuss, it helps a lot.
As to the online rotations, apparently they have to be approved by KCU and we are limited to 2 weeks at a time.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Just a heads up, our school basically cuts all contact with you after May of 2nd year. I'd recommend joining '20's student group on FB to just see what they discuss, it helps a lot.
As to the online rotations, apparently they have to be approved by KCU and we are limited to 2 weeks at a time.

Thanks for your help, I'll definitely do that 🙂

 

[NVO]

I didn't realize we still had to apply for rotations that were through the school's sites. So basically all of 4th year is set up through VSAS or whatever?

Yes all of 4th year is scheduled by YOU. VSAS, Clinician Nexus, random physicians you find that are willing to take you on, etc.
Even the 4th years that have the Florida site as their core site have to apply through clinician nexus for their 4th year rotations. You get no help from the school at all. Just a big Guidelines packet they will refer you to anytime you have a question. (i.e the last time I asked a question, the response was something like "you can find your answer in the Guidelines, page xx" with no additional input)

How early should one contact them about that? Is now too early if it’s basically a year out? Lol

You can probably start planning it around the time people plan 4th year rotations in general. January is a good starting point (on the early side). Some places dont really start until March or even later

 

[ohmanwaddup]

Yes all of 4th year is scheduled by YOU. VSAS, Clinician Nexus, random physicians you find that are willing to take you on, etc.
Even the 4th years that have the Florida site as their core site have to apply through clinician nexus for their 4th year rotations. You get no help from the school at all. Just a big Guidelines packet they will refer you to anytime you have a question. (i.e the last time I asked a question, the response was something like "you can find your answer in the Guidelines, page xx" with no additional input)


You can probably start planning it around the time people plan 4th year rotations in general. January is a good starting point (on the early side). Some places dont really start until March or even later

Oof sounds stressful. Is it difficult to get things all hashed out? In theory it sounds nice to maybe have the opportunity to spend 4th year at least partially back home but at this point I'm wary of everything that sounds like it'll be good on paper.

 

[NVO]

Oof sounds stressful. Is it difficult to get things all hashed out? In theory it sounds nice to maybe have the opportunity to spend 4th year at least partially back home but at this point I'm wary of everything that sounds like it'll be good on paper.

Its not that hard once you have an actual preceptor that will take you on. The school is pretty laid back as long as you provide them the contact information of the doctor and/or office manager.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Its not that hard once you have an actual preceptor that will take you on. The school is pretty laid back as long as you provide them the contact information of the doctor and/or office manager.

So you can literally have any doctor who's willing to be a "preceptor" for a month?