optimal 3rd year schedule for specific goals

[VoiceofReason]

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I'm interested in radiology and I need to schedule my third year pretty soon. I'm thinking that I want to maximize my performance in both medicine and surgery -- obviously doing well on all rotations would be ideal but i may not have the energy for that so my current plan is to attempt to perform best in those two rotations.

I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for this goal? I think it makes sense for me to do family med and peds first, then medicine and surgery, followed by all the rest. My reasoning is that I can learn an awful lot in family med and peds that translates well into med and surg, as well as work out the "new 3rd year" crap before hitting med and surg.

thoughts?

 

[Depakote]

I'm interested in radiology and I need to schedule my third year pretty soon. I'm thinking that I want to maximize my performance in both medicine and surgery -- obviously doing well on all rotations would be ideal but i may not have the energy for that so my current plan is to attempt to perform best in those two rotations.

I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for this goal? I think it makes sense for me to do family med and peds first, then medicine and surgery, followed by all the rest. My reasoning is that I can learn an awful lot in family med and peds that translates well into med and surg, as well as work out the "new 3rd year" crap before hitting med and surg.

thoughts?

You're going to need to do pretty well in all your 3rd year rotations if you want to match into Radiology. Family medicine is one of the hardest shelf exams. It might not be ideal to take that one first.

Taking peds early wouldn't be bad, you'll learn to do a H&P and get a feel for some inpatient medicine. If you want to look like you know what you're doing in surgery, getting OB/Gyn in before that would be smart. You'll learn how to scrub and handle yourself in the OR so you're not shellshocked the first couple of weeks on surgery.

You might do medicine and surgery back to back after that. It would be brutal, but you should have your bearnings by now and you could start making connections for people you'd need to talk to for LORs. Plus, if you did wind up liking something else, you would have time to adjust your 4th year schedule accordingly.

 

[VoiceofReason]

You're going to need to do pretty well in all your 3rd year rotations if you want to match into Radiology. Family medicine is one of the hardest shelf exams. It might not be ideal to take that one first.

Taking peds early wouldn't be bad, you'll learn to do a H&P and get a feel for some inpatient medicine. If you want to look like you know what you're doing in surgery, getting OB/Gyn in before that would be smart. You'll learn how to scrub and handle yourself in the OR so you're not shellshocked the first couple of weeks on surgery.

You might do medicine and surgery back to back after that. It would be brutal, but you should have your bearnings by now and you could start making connections for people you'd need to talk to for LORs. Plus, if you did wind up liking something else, you would have time to adjust your 4th year schedule accordingly.

yeah i misspoke, what i should have said was im planning to do well in all rotations but i want to do best in medicine and surgery.

basically im trying to decide how to structure my third year so that i have both knowledge and confidence before med and surg

 

[username456789]

I was thinking of something similar to what Depakote suggested. I'm interested in two or three competitive surgical subspecialties. My school links Peds and OB/Gyn as two continuous blocks (in either order). I was considering them first to A) get a little more comfortable in the OR (OB/Gyn) and B) polish my patient interviewing/PE skills before hitting medicine.

Anyone have any more input on that idea in general?

 

[Urticaria]

I was thinking of something similar to what Depakote suggested. I'm interested in two or three competitive surgical subspecialties. My school links Peds and OB/Gyn as two continuous blocks (in either order). I was considering them first to A) get a little more comfortable in the OR (OB/Gyn) and B) polish my patient interviewing/PE skills before hitting medicine.

Anyone have any more input on that idea in general?

I did Peds first, then obgyn. I think it was a really good idea. Peds got me ready for medicine-like parts of rotations (presenting, h&p, notes), and obgyn got me ready for the OR. I was able to do well in both, and thereafter felt more comfortable in surgery and medicine.

 

[Twitch]

In the end the order will matter little. If it helps you sleep better:
ob
peds
IM
(winter break)
Surgery
Psych
FM

For every argument you hear for, there are arguments against doing it one way or the other. I remember when I was starting off MS3 and wouldn't believe folks who'd say it doesn't really matter. It is mostly true. Probably the thing that stands out - don't take the field you're interested in as first - for you that will be either IM or surgery (since they look at these two esp).

 

[psammomabody]

I did IM first and am considering it as a specialty. I felt like my success on the shelf exam (96 raw) was attributed to taking it so soon after step 1. IM loves to pimp about all those basic science questions - pathology, pharmacology - and I knew a lot more then than I do now about IM, trust me. Your differentials and plans will be pretty much spot on with your knowledge from 2nd year and step 1. Yeah you still have a lot to learn but I felt like my "fund of knowledge" was the best on IM compared to any other rotations I have done.

Just another perspective. I definitely recommend trying to do IM first. I believe it is one of the rotations that you can shine on even if it's first. Plus, IM material is on basically every shelf exam.

 

[BrodieDurden]

I would do medicine first for the following (some already mentioned) reasons: they'll know its your first clerkship and may expect less of you, and if you've just come off of step I then you should rock it. This will also be a huge help when you take your surgery shelf as it has a lot more medicine than you can imagine. Also, taking medicine before the family med shelf is a lot more beneficial to your shelf score than family med before IM.

Ob/Gyn sucks everywhere and you'll be sick for most of the time you are on peds. The only argument for putting Ob/Gyn before surgery is you'll get some OR skills before you start your surgery rotation.

And remember, even with all this BS strategy, its all about how much effort you put into the rotation. Hide in plain site, don't be a tool (harder than you think for most med students), work hard and you'll do very well.

 

[ropeadope1983]

Do psych first. It is the lightest on hours, all you need to do is memorize first aid for psych to get into the high 90's on the shelf (which could be easily done in about a week with some dedication), and meanwhile you could chug through all 2330 USMLE World questions before you start your next rotation, which will give you a leg up on anyone else for ALL the shelf exams that follow (especially since most shelf exams mix content with other clerkships a little...I just took the peds shelf and I saw lots of peds surgery, a fair amount of Ob/Gyn, and a little psych mixed in with the bread and butter peds material).

Most will probably say this strategy is a little radical, but I know I'm right. I wish I would have done ALL the USMLE World questions a lot sooner.

 

[Boonu]

Im applying this year for rads and I if I could do 3rd year over again I would probably finish with IM and surg at the end of the year. The rotation before surg I would do OB/GYN so that way you can learn your knot tying and other surgical skills right before you really need them so you can show off. I had my IM rotation as my last one and I really liked it. I performed really well clinically since I already finished all those other rotations and I studied for my step 2 at the same time. By the time the rotation ended I killed the shelf, the clinical evals and then my board exam.

Also having these core rotations last is important for your LORs. You want to shine AND you want those attendings to remember you. They are much more likely to remember you 4 months out then 12 months out if you take these rotations early in the year. For rads, you want probably 1 LOR form surg, 1 LOR from medicine and 1 or 2 LORs from rads. I would get those rad LORs in the beginning of 4th year.

Go ahead and do a rads rotation in your 3rd year if you want to just confirm rads as your career choice but if you are 100% for rads then i would suggest doing something else and then stacking 3 rads rotations right in a row at the beginning of 4th year. Make sure the last rads rotation is at a place you know you want a LOR at so you have plenty of practice before that rotation.