May have to repeat M1. I am terrified and don't know what to do

[bernice_anders]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice and a reality check here.

I am a first year DO student at a relatively large program. My program's policy states that it allows up to 2 course failures (with remediation) and a 3rd course failure can result in repeating the year or dismissal (not sure if this is a flexible policy).

I had a pretty rough semester. I started my year off pretty strong and passed the first course without any issues. Once the second course came around, I bombed the first exam pretty badly. I had lost my momentum and didn't know how to study for it efficiently. Soon after, I met with the school's student academic committee to assess my performance, spoke to an academic counselor, and ended up passing the final for that course (let's call it course A) - however it wasn't enough to help me pass the course A altogether. So - that was my first class failure. Soon after began anatomy which I struggled a lot with. I had the same trend: didn't do well on the first exam, but did very well on the final, which actually bumped me up to a course pass until I bombed the practical which brought me back down. This resulted in my second course failure. After this point, I busted my butt off: I sought extra help and advice from my academic counselor and put in a lot of work and passed the remainder of my first semester courses. The school allowed me to remediate course A over Christmas break and am scheduled to remediate anatomy this summer. Thankfully, I successfully remediated course A and went onto starting this semester with a bang by doing really well in my first block of 2022. Now I just finished my second block and realized that I fell short of passing by 1 single question point.

I felt so angry at myself after this result. I was so close to passing this block (less than 1%!) Since then I reached out to my course director for some guidance and she offered to go over some concepts with me next week, so I will be doing that. I am expecting to be scheduled with a meeting with the academic committee to discuss my performance, after which they will determine my fate. I am terrified. I have worked so hard to improve and have seen a solid upward trend in my grades since that anatomy course failure. I was just beginning to find my groove and I don't want my improvement to end here because of an extremely borderline grade impeding my progress thus far. How do I approach this situation? I am willing to remediate this exam even if I didn't pass it by 1 point. I just don't want to repeat the year and have my potential go to waste. Do I have a strong case for receiving another chance? Any help is appreciated.

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[djiboutiman]

The first thing I’d try to do is sit down with the course director and see if you can argue for a point back on any of your test questions throughout the block. Some questions can have multiple right answers or maybe the question was worded in a way that didn’t make sense. You only need one point back though, so give this a shot.

When going in front of the committee, I’d mention what your barriers were that contributed to your poor performance. Also mention what you learned from it and how you are going to do better going forward. It seems like you have been improving so far, so good job there. I wouldn’t argue too much with them since it seems like they could dismiss you entirely.

I think you also have to figure out why you aren’t passing. It seems like you have what it takes to pass your classes, evidenced by your successful remediation and doing well on the first block of 2022.

Repeating a year isn't ideal and probably means you are limited in your residency options, but at the end of the day, you’ll still be a doctor, you’ll just have to sacrifice a year.

 

[Ho0v-man]

If this were my school, you would not have a strong case for remediation. Students are very quick to emphasize that they “only” need one more point/question/whatever else. But the picture you paint makes me think you’re barely keeping your head above water in everything. Reading this, it sounds like you’ll really struggle with second year/boards.

So some things to consider:

Let’s say you do get to slide through. Are these remediations going to show up on your transcript? They did at my school, but don’t at others. Something you’ll need to check. If it does, it’s a pink flag at least. Nbd if your interest is in non-competitive fields.

If you have to repeat the year, that’s a red flag. As a DO, all but the least competitive fields (and programs) are more or less off the table in that situation. This is a really important consideration. There’s too many people who just can’t fathom that they won’t match whatever competitive specialty despite multiple red flags. You won’t. Are you okay with that?

Finally, I’ll mention the option people don’t bring up frequently enough: do you want to keep doing this? While some schools are “front-loaded”, most programs double in intensity in second year. You constantly hear that “it gets easier” or “it gets better”. That’s only half-true. The reality is that it gets much worse, but you get better to compensate. Are you committed enough to handle this? Do you think your school letting you skate by like this helps you get to that point? Only you can answer this.

 

[Osminog]

I wouldn’t dwell on the “one point” situation. I get why you’d be frustrated, but keep in mind that the bar for passing a class is set quite low. No successful student should be performing anywhere near that bar, and the fact that you were indicates that you’re not currently well-equipped to handle medical school coursework or board preparation.

Meet with an academic advisor and try to figure out where you’re going wrong, so you don’t spend the rest of medical school as an “extremely borderline” student and risk failing boards.

 

[Goro]

OP, what exactly has been hindering you? Do you have test taking anxiety? Mental or physical health issues? Something going on with family or living situation?

How are you studying? Do you seek out help from the Faculty or your classmates? Study alone or with classmates?

Whether you failed by one point for 40, you still have yet to show minimal competence in the material, much less any mastery, as Ominog has alluded to. So drop that mindset. Focus on your knowledge deficits and fill in those holes.

You're going to need to come up with a remediation plan to show your committee that this isn't going to happen again. You're in a hole and your pre-clinical GPA is a strong predictor for your performance on Boards.

For starters, read this, and good luck!

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2019 edition)

Will all this be a red flag? Most likely, yes. But there are still more residency slots than there are grads to fill them and you eventually be a doctor. AND, your salary will still be the same as someone in your specialty who graduated from Yale. We are all rooting for you!

 

[bernice_anders]

Thanks for the input y'all. I appreciate it.

@Goro Ever since my first course failure last semester I think I developed test anxiety which I think affected my performance although I feel that there were also knowledge gaps so I think there is a mental health aspect that I will get addressed. Sometimes I get too fixated on an academic setback that it has hindered my productivity. No family/personal issues hindering my performance. This fear of failure has been a constant nagging feeling throughout my first year. However, I found motivation in failure and somewhat overcame this evidenced by an upward trend in my grades toward the end of my first semester and my first block this semester. I think the reason why I failed this recent block had more to do with an exam-specific issue: There was an unusual amount of math/calculations involved which threw my timing off so I couldn't recheck my answers. Not an excuse, but if I had extra time to double-check, I know I could've saved myself a few points. I have been more proactive in my education, contacting faculty if I have questions, consulting an academic counselor, learning new study techniques which have helped a lot. I haven't found a solid study group of classmates just yet. In my experience, it has been more of a distraction.

You are right - minimum competency is not a great place to be nor is it a good look for me. I am working on fixing that. I believe I do have what it takes to build the trajectory of my improvement and move from competency to mastery and I do have a plan to present to the committee and a request for another chance: We already started our next block and I want them to monitor my performance in this block. For the first time, I requested a tutor to support me during this block. By seeking extra help from tutoring, academic counseling, and everything else I have learned from so far, I am using all the resources available to me to succeed and preventing myself from another borderline outcome. Contingent on my success in this block and beyond, I want to remediate my failed block in the summer. However, if another course failure occurs regardless of how close I am to passing, I will agree to repeat the year. I hope they can give me this opportunity and see how I do on this block before pulling the brakes on me. Is this a reasonable request?