Lacking challenge, frustrated

[lord_jeebus]

im planning on reviewing M1 stuff for the step this summer. not doing solely that but i do plan on doing that. say it gave me 15 added pts on the step

That's quite an assumption.

I don't think review at that early stage has much of an impact at all.

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[Shredder]

k it was hypothetical so im unsure. 15 pts prolly too generous with only 1/2 of the material covered by that pt (speaking of which how close or far is it from half of the step material). but i figure itll help me consolidate and better than not reviewing at all. If I'm gonna be screwing around in classes I understand there's a chance I won't learn it very well in the first place. but i would prefer dedicated step1 studying as it seems higher yield

say--this is an aside but my First Aid is 2007 and will be highlighted a lot by the time 2008 comes out. should i keep studying 07 or upgrade to a newer but clean version? clean being a bad thing, that is.

 

[Yachtclub]

Every older doc I meet says summer after M1 doesn't matter at all and to do whatever one wants--

The older docs at my school say this too...I'm pretty skeptical of it though (and I doubt I'm the only one)

The thing is, the specialties that are competitive now (e.g. derm, optho) were not like that in the late 70's/80's. In the 80's, it was CT surgery, general surgery, and plastic surgery; being a surgeon was a one way ticket to a Ferrari, a mansion, a country club membership, and a wife 10 years younger than you.

Most of the current older dermatologists were the kind of guys that would rather listen to Buffet than read Robbins.

Most of the people that will be entering derm now are doing all that "prophylactic research" (an awesome phrase, btw)

Besides, the older docs (for the most part) don't want to crush the dreams of us lowly MS1's

 

[Yachtclub]

a caveat i forgot to add though....if you wanna do pathology, you'd probably be fine just having fun this summer

so live it up

 

[Critical Mass]

a caveat i forgot to add though....if you wanna do pathology, you'd probably be fine just having fun this summer

so live it up

Path is actually one field where there are great summer opportunities available over the summer over at my school.

Is there an active "What are you doing between M1 and M2?" thread around here someplace? It might be interesting to see what kind of things people are up to.

 

[Long Dong]

The problem with not shooting for a competitive specialty before you get your board scores is that you let others get a drop on you. By the time you get your boards scores back during MS3 and decide you want derm (for example), some gunner's got the same score, has 2 publications in the top derm journal, knows half the derm faculty by their first names and wants the same spot you do. This is why some people recommend conducting prophylactic research in one or the other of the competitive specialties during year 1 and or 2 even if you're not 100% committed so that if/when your scores come through you'll be sitting real pretty and if not, well research never hurts (cept the amount of time you have for video games and drinking I guess).

Great post, and yeah I love that term too.

 

[naegleria brain]

figure out what you want to do in life. shadow more. take call with a resident and see what it's like.

once u figure out what you wanna do, do...you guessed it...RESEARCH. u'll have a leg up on the *****s who waited saying "i'll figure out what i want to do third year after rotations". then they realized that ortho was their life's calling, but theyre competing with fifteen other kids in their school, twelve of which already go to the bars with the program director weekly, and 11 who have more than eight publications with him.

 

[postbacker]

The older docs at my school say this too...I'm pretty skeptical of it though (and I doubt I'm the only one)

The thing is, the specialties that are competitive now (e.g. derm, optho) were not like that in the late 70's/80's. In the 80's, it was CT surgery, general surgery, and plastic surgery; being a surgeon was a one way ticket to a Ferrari, a mansion, a country club membership, and a wife 10 years younger than you.

Most of the current older dermatologists were the kind of guys that would rather listen to Buffet than read Robbins.

Most of the people that will be entering derm now are doing all that "prophylactic research" (an awesome phrase, btw)

Besides, the older docs (for the most part) don't want to crush the dreams of us lowly MS1's

According to a buddy who has been a doc for 25 years, dermatology has been highly competitive at least since he was a med student...he said the very top student(s) at his school were given first shot at derm residencies...

 

[indo]

we need the most brilliant people working on acne, so that makes sense.

 

[Yachtclub]

According to a buddy who has been a doc for 25 years, dermatology has been highly competitive at least since he was a med student...he said the very top student(s) at his school were given first shot at derm residencies...

Haha, well it was my dermatologist who told me the only reason he went derm is because he slacked off so hard in med school.

Maybe he was lying too! See, this is why I'm skeptical of listening to docs that tell you to "just chill"

 

[dbhvt]

Shred-

Spend a little of your extra time looking at films and slides. You'll be more familiar with it when it comes time to learn it in depth, it will make it easier, and make you a better radiologist/pathologist. Better=fewer mistakes=fewer lost lawsuits.

 

[45408]

once u figure out what you wanna do, do...you guessed it...RESEARCH. u'll have a leg up on the *****s who waited saying "i'll figure out what i want to do third year after rotations". then they realized that ortho was their life's calling, but theyre competing with fifteen other kids in their school, twelve of which already go to the bars with the program director weekly, and 11 who have more than eight publications with him.

 

[Long Dong]

we need the most brilliant people working on acne, so that makes sense.

 

[dbhvt]

who cares about yr 1+2 grades anyway

path programs care about ms1 and ms2 grades

 

[lundysd]

Shredder,

Take call once a week in trauma at the hospital. That is all.

 

[getunconcsious]

Shredder--I could relate somewhat last year (i'm now an MS2), and I agree that no one cares about MS1 grades, but MS2 grades are a bit more important, especially in your case. According to our PD for the Path residency here, they will pretty much expect you to AT LEAST high pass your MS2 Pathology course, if not Honor it (as most path applicants will have). Pathology may seem non-competetive but given that their average is 225 vs. nat'l average 215, they're no dumbies. Those of us that pick Path tend to be good-at-science nerds with better than average numbers, there just aren't very MANY of us.

All that said, another reason to try hard(er) in MS2 is that the classes are much more enjoyable/relevant. No one goes to medical school to learn about flexor pollicis brevis or the globus pallidus, but presumably you think that the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of disease is interesting or you wouldn't be here. In addition, if you don't care enough about or enjoy your Pathology course to try hard in it, I think it's safe to say that you wouldn't like Path at all. So while I don't disagree with your current strategy, I think it would be flawed to embrace it for another year with NO critical re-evaluation of the ROI.

 

[latinfridley]

As for doing really well in classes, I think the ROI isn't very high. Better to ace step 1 and do well on wards. Nearly universal opinion is that yr 1+2 grades are of little importance unless you're very high in the class or very low. So the middle 80 or more percentiles don't matter much. As for residency I only wanna do path or rads, nothing else. And what's the sense in picking up ECs, again it's a ROI question. I might as well take up jumping jacks as a hobby, no? Research--questionable worth unless one is MD/PhD or going into academic medicine. I do enjoy gaming/anime/etc when I am in the moment, but sometimes I reflect on it and wonder how much unproductive time is going down the drain.

As for 2nd year being harder, I guess I'll see. Ppl have always been telling me for all my yrs that things will get harder, you just wait. Hasn't ever really come to fruition though. High school was hardest for me bc my I went to an affluence public school in the burbs with lots of brilliant azn kids who went off to great colleges. In college I had similar frustrations if my courseload was light, but there was the option of loading up on hours and taking summer classes to go faster. Those options aren't present anymore, the courseload is predetermined. Of course it will also be tailored to the mean. The prob with getting stellar grades is that I think grades vs studying time follows a logarithmic curve. It would take me like twice as much studying to get 90s and I'm unwilling, as it doesn't seem to have practical value with payoff. In fact I've been progressively scaling back my studying to see how little I can get away with just to scrape by. It's no lack of ambition and I don't intend to scrape by in life, this is just different. gtg can elaborate if needed

I'm not saying all med schools should be 3 yr but there should be some that are. Online med school is a viable idea I think. At some pt I will look into this but I feel too young and lacking connections to make anything happen.

I'll suggest to you that the best way to study for step 1 is to know all year 1 and 2 material very well. And you are right about the difference between 90's and 80's in terms of studying. It does take quite a bit of effort. Its not too difficult to pass med school. But doing well is another ball game all together.
As for path and rads, you should know your robbins or your anatomy cold, get an honors in those courses. Rads is competitive these days, path not so much, so do well if you want to go into rads.