Official MCW Class of 2009 Thread

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number said:
How important is biochem for step 1?

I sometimes think that it would be better if biochem and devo were cumulative because I am forgetting things as we go along and rarely have the motivation to study when it is not required for passing the next test.
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I was kind of thinking that too. Seems like it would suck to have to study for it, but in the end it would make you stronger.
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number said:
How important is biochem for step 1?

I sometimes think that it would be better if biochem and devo were cumulative because I am forgetting things as we go along and rarely have the motivation to study when it is not required for passing the next test.
Click to expand...

I had a bunch of straight up biochem questions. Not nearly the majority, but there were at least 1-2 on every block.

I didn't really study for biochem. I kinda gave up and started watching the Simpson's, and I think Arrested Development (when it was regularly on TV), after reviewing block 1 really well. I just looked at all my notes for the other blocks.

That being said, I had to relearn all of biochem while studying for step 1. I put all the subjects I hated into the first week of studying, and I wanted to stab myself in the eyes with a titanium spork.

Anatomy I studied for, but I couldn't sleep the night before since the heating went out in my apartment, and I was so cold I hurt. I ended up just going to school at about 5:30 and studying more there because it was warmer. I made some dumb mistakes on that test from being tired.

I didn't fall asleep in an exam until the micro final.
 
number said:
How important is biochem for step 1?

I sometimes think that it would be better if biochem and devo were cumulative because I am forgetting things as we go along and rarely have the motivation to study when it is not required for passing the next test.
Click to expand...
I was surprised how much biochem was on step 1. It's definitely worthwhile. And yes, as much as it sucked horribly, the cumulative exam probably helped me learn it. The cumulative physiology final was pretty rough too - I was doing really well until that one. I did fairly well on it, but not good enough - the high score in our whole class was like a 94%.


And yeah, the cumulative micro final was a doozy as well.
 
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TheProwler said:
I was surprised how much biochem was on step 1. It's definitely worthwhile. And yes, as much as it sucked horribly, the cumulative exam probably helped me learn it.
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I tell myself right now that I will review biochem during winter break or the summer... but um.. Yeah right! :laugh:
 
anyone have medicine at St. Francis?
 
Yeah, that must be a new option. St. Francis is down in the south shore area. My attending was just telling me today about how she did her OB/Gyn rotation in the mid-1990s at St. Francis, and how she got to do TONS of stuff since there were no residents there (i.e., deliveries with her attending just watching from the corner, basically doing an entire c-section by herself except for oversewing the uterus, etc).
 
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akpete said:
never heard of that as an option and don't even know where it is.
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It's a mile east of St. Luke's. It's a smaller hospital - I've been through the ER plenty of times, but I don't know what medicine would be like there.

Anybody know what family med at the Saturday free clinic is like?
 
TheProwler said:
It's a mile east of St. Luke's. It's a smaller hospital - I've been through the ER plenty of times, but I don't know what medicine would be like there.

Anybody know what family med at the Saturday free clinic is like?
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You'll work with several different residents and attendings and only work with your preceptor 1-3 times. It's a good place, benign hours, and the nurses will be nice to you if and only if you are nice to them. Medium responsibility (at least in July. They may expect more of you at this time of year).
 
i did family med over at the st mary's clinic...it is pretty good stuff.
 
you can ask an infinite amount of history questions then suggest a diuretic dosage. You'll freeze warts and do pelvics 'n such. If you want procedures you'll love RPM.
 
Ashers said:
I had a bunch of straight up biochem questions. Not nearly the majority, but there were at least 1-2 on every block.
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Do the important biochem concepts show up again in other courses such as physiology, pathology, etc?
 
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number said:
Do the important biochem concepts show up again in other courses such as physiology, pathology, etc?
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No

I keep getting flashbacks to step 1 while talking about this in the 2009 thread.

So, 09ers, where is everyone? (I guess the 10ers can answer too, since you're all over the place as well).

I'm in Tucson heading back to Milwaukee shortly for more joy that is ambulatory medicine.
 
Outpatient peds, with some time spent in the Herma heart center for outpatient cardiology. I'm getting some great chances to hear a lot of murmurs. I've heard some pretty cool stuff.
 
Ashers said:
Nice. I suck at murmurs, but I think that goes along with having bad hearing.
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The trick is listening to as many as possible, with as much focus as possible. I'm a nerd, so I've listened to my wife's heart a great many times, and it wasn't until after I'd been in the cards clinic for two weeks that I could finally hear physiologic splitting in her. Once I was able to pick up physiologic splitting, it made it a lot easier to realize that I was listening to an ASD in a little girl.

I'm just very careful not to say that I can hear a murmur when I don't, because I'm convinced that if I said "Oh, yeah, I hear it!" it will be the time when the cardiologist says that it's a normal heart.
 
Ashers said:
No

I keep getting flashbacks to step 1 while talking about this in the 2009 thread.

So, 09ers, where is everyone? (I guess the 10ers can answer too, since you're all over the place as well).

I'm in Tucson heading back to Milwaukee shortly for more joy that is ambulatory medicine.
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sports and joints... woo.

Dude, ashers, have you checked the weather forecast for milwaukee? 40 now single digits tonight. haha.
 
class of 2009 - how did you set up your vacation months (and ambulatory medicine) so as to be most convenient for interviewing?
 
TheProwler said:
class of 2009 - how did you set up your vacation months (and ambulatory medicine) so as to be most convenient for interviewing?
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I have vacation November, December, and January. Doesn't get better than that for interviewing freedom.

I would consider what specialty you're applying for and what months most programs interview for that specialty because there is some variety. Often you can find the dates programs interview either on SDN or on the program's websites - they don't vary much from year to year.
 
TheProwler said:
class of 2009 - how did you set up your vacation months (and ambulatory medicine) so as to be most convenient for interviewing?
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I'm doing vacation in November, January, and April. Ambulatory Medicine in December. I think it worked out pretty well, but that's because I only had one interview to go on this month (scheduled most of my interviews that I wound up cancelling during December). December is kind of a light interviewing month anyway, because most programs don't schedule interviews between Christmas and New Year's, so you're losing a week right there.

Ambulatory only gives you up to 3 days off for interviewing, and is pretty strict about it, so you might be better off trying to schedule a research elective with a cool attending who will give you more days off to travel.

I picked April as a vacation month since I figured I'd be so checked out after Match Day that I'd be better off just taking vacation.
 
indo said:
sports and joints... woo.

Dude, ashers, have you checked the weather forecast for milwaukee? 40 now single digits tonight. haha.
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I saw that... "Welcome back, Ashers, go warm for residency."

Yay, sports joints! Is Kraus one of your residents, if so, he's awesome, and it's probably also JC. He's cool too. I was on call with him one night.

Oh, how's the list? I spent a lot of time revamping it to make it more functional.

TheProwler said:
class of 2009 - how did you set up your vacation months (and ambulatory medicine) so as to be most convenient for interviewing?
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Vacation Nov, Jan, Apr. Amb in Dec. It worked out fine. I got a total of 4.5 days off for interviewing or something (+travel time).

I wish I hadn't taken Nov off because there are only a few ortho programs that interview in Nov, so I had 1 interview, took CS, and wasted a lot of time sitting online in WI watching myERAS to set up interviews. If I had done vacation in Dec, sure I would've wasted the last week because of Christmas, but maybe I could've gone somewhere for Christmas instead of sitting in my apartment eating cereal, studying for CK like I'll be doing this year.

I switched my March vacation to April based on my friend telling me that it's better to have a rotation in March because you'll get time off for the match (I think he took more time off than allowed), and April, you know where you'll be going, so then you can start looking for a place to live.
 
Gimlet said:
I'm doing vacation in November, January, and April. Ambulatory Medicine in December. I think it worked out pretty well, but that's because I only had one interview to go on this month

I picked April as a vacation month since I figured I'd be so checked out after Match Day that I'd be better off just taking vacation.
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Ashers said:
Vacation Nov, Jan, Apr. Amb in Dec. It worked out fine. I got a total of 4.5 days off for interviewing or something (+travel time).
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That's what I was thinking of doing. Glad it seems like it worked out well for you guys. I was thinking of doing some serious skiing in January or February, so I'm not sure which month to take off, but are any programs interviewing in January still?

Any other laid back rotations (like ambulatory)? The forensics one? My brother's getting married in October (in Chicago, I think), and one or two Fridays and weekends off might be pretty important. I'm probably going to try to do my most intense rotations in July, August and September.
 
TheProwler said:
That's what I was thinking of doing. Glad it seems like it worked out well for you guys. I was thinking of doing some serious skiing in January or February, so I'm not sure which month to take off, but are any programs interviewing in January still?

Any other laid back rotations (like ambulatory)? The forensics one? My brother's getting married in October (in Chicago, I think), and one or two Fridays and weekends off might be pretty important. I'm probably going to try to do my most intense rotations in July, August and September.
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I have 8 interviews in January, so yes, definitely still interviewing. Maybe you could work some skiing into your interview trips. I have a buddy who is spending his whole month of December interviewing at FP programs around Colorado and snowboarding in-between.

Forensics was very laid back, but I was still there every day (albeit usually only until 1 or 2:00). I'm sure you could arrange time off, but probably not more than a day or two. You should try to do your integrated selective in October (Master Clinician FTW!), since most of those don't require weekends and generally would be flexible enough to give you a Friday or two off.

Good idea to get your intense rotations out of the way early...it would feel great to have my medicine sub-I done right now.
 
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BTW, I have to give credit to Xandie for the inspiration to take vacation in Nov, Jan, and Apr. ;) I think it was a good idea.
 
Gimlet said:
BTW, I have to give credit to Xandie for the inspiration to take vacation in Nov, Jan, and Apr. ;) I think it was a good idea.
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Agreed. April will be an amazing month. I should try to find some EMT refresher courses in there to get me through residency.
 
I've got 8 interviews scheduled in Jan. My last is on 31 Jan.

I wanted to get all my hard classes out of the way, but my schedule didn't work like that. I've also wanted to go snowboarding, but the weather wasn't favorable when I was west.
 
Agent Splat said:
awww....you think I'm overqualified!!!!! :love:
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if you do your residency here, I'm sure my old employer is hiring. That'd be hilarious if you neglected to mention that you were an MD and just casually told them after a few weeks on the job.
 
TheProwler said:
if you do your residency here, I'm sure my old employer is hiring. That'd be hilarious if you neglected to mention that you were an MD and just casually told them after a few weeks on the job.
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When would it be safe to mention that I know you?
 
I have the best schedule ever. Vacation Nov, Dec, Jan, and for April I have an international elective in Belize. i.e. 4 months of vacation with some patients thrown in. My Belize rotation is Mon-Fri of seeing patients.

The only other things I have left are Women's Health (integrated selective) and dermatology.
 
Occasionally I have good ideas. :)
 
Ashers said:
Btw... Do you want to get me in to see Dr. Vetter? I need my left shoulder injected for rotator cuff tendonitis. NSAIDs haven't worked. ;)
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sure. She probably knows you by name so you can get in on her VIP appointment slots. Did you apply to McW?
 
sure...$8!
 
My early Christmas present to you guys:
(unfortunately I can only take my fiancee to the actual performance when they come to Milwaukee in February)

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfO6JpR5Ip8&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]
 
Right now, I am exceptionally glad that I am on vacation and not a 1st or 2nd year with finals, or a 3rd year with clinical obligations.

Whew!
 
and I'm hoping I don't have to drive out there today just for an OSCE. they're gonna let us know by 8 if it's rescheduled or not.
 
Snow day for me! (Didn't find out until 9:00, but I hadn't left anyway yet so I guess I can't complain.)
 
Actually, a snow day is harder for me cause now I can't concentrate on my studying with a cleaning maniac bored teacher in the house.
 
Agent Splat said:
Actually, a snow day is harder for me cause now I can't concentrate on my studying with a cleaning maniac bored teacher in the house.
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Snowing in Syracuse, apparently 2 "students from Milwaukee" are stuck in Milwaukee and trying to get an Amtrak to Syracuse now d/t the General Mitchell closure.

That's what the residency coordinator said when I told her I actually made it here last night.

The cleaning maniac bored teacher could go clean at my apartment. Hurricane Ashers went through, and it's gotten worse with traveling every weekend.
 
Ashers said:
Snowing in Syracuse, apparently 2 "students from Milwaukee" are stuck in Milwaukee and trying to get an Amtrak to Syracuse now d/t the General Mitchell closure.

That's what the residency coordinator said when I told her I actually made it here last night.

The cleaning maniac bored teacher could go clean at my apartment. Hurricane Ashers went through, and it's gotten worse with traveling every weekend.
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It's worse than on Guitar Hero night????? Are the cats lurking below a layer of stuff?
 
that chic is a violent violin player. I think I saw them on Oprah or something once.
 
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