Quoted: Health problems M1 and class remediation

[Doodledog]

Posted for responses

To start, it took me a while to get the hang of the med school course load. I wasn't at the top of my class, but I was managing.

About half way through M1, I got acutely ill and required surgery. While I did my best to still attend class, and keep up with the material, feeling that uncomfortable did not lend itself well to studying. The administration was supportive and as helpful as they could be but I still managed to fail that block.

The following block I had an intensive physical therapy schedule. This caused me to miss significant amounts of class. While I was feeling better, I did manage to keep up with this work until I needed a second procedure. This put me out of commission for a while and hurt my ability to study.

By the end of this block I was feeling much better than I had for months. I made a strong effort to master the material but failed that block by a percentage point.

I have yet to hear back from the Student Promotions Committee, but my understanding is that I will be given the opportunity to remediate both blocks over the summer with self-study and exams.

Questions:
How frequently does this occur? I know students fail courses and remediate, but two in one year?
How much of a black mark on my residency application will this be?
Other than study, is there anything else someone in this position should be doing?
Advice? Reassurance?

Thanks.

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[Doodledog]

My general thoughts are that the key issue for you is your current health and your ability to really work very hard over the summer. If you feel that you can do this, and do well over the summer in remediation, then you should go for that. Assuming you do reasonably well, the long-term effect on your career will be very minimal.

As far as how often this occurs, it is highly variable, but some retaking of classes for US allopathic med students probably occurs for about 5-10% of students with a wide range between schools. This includes summer remediation and repeating first year. I've not seen published data on this and I would be doubtful of any data as being reflective of the way in which different schools handle it.

In terms of long-term effect on your career, I'm sure that some would say that you'll never be an X, where X is one of the most competitive specialties. I'm doubtful that even that is true and fairly comfortable with saying that if you continue to do well including the Step exams, and clinical performance, you'll have little long term academic sequelae.

Again, my only real advice on action is to be certain you are ready to work hard over the summer and are in good enough health to do so. If not, then I'd redo the year. If so, go for it and good luck!