Recently accepted to med - but SHOCKED by reality on SDN...

[Ironheme]

Pre-med, but entering MS1 soon, here. What proportion of students regularly attend pre-clinical lectures? 9-5 classes, then studying from 6-10PM every weekdays seem to leave little room for anything else...

Depends on the school and classes. I've learned that:

1. If it's mandatory 90% of the time it's a waste of time. Otherwise they wouldn't have made it mandatory. Really good classes and lecturers draw higher attendance naturally.

2. People tend to overestimate how much they study, or like to tell others they study way more than they do. (Example: my study partner for lab was in the library regularly for 4-8 hours a day but was watching the Office while there).

Find what works for you. It'll take a couple months to figure it out. Try experimenting going to class, not going to class. I would say probably on average attendance is around 50%. Again, that's going to vary wildly by school, availability of webcast lectures, quality of syllabus & notes.

SDN scares me sometimes with how much people seem to study. I would say I typically average on good days about 2 hours, but then I'm one of those that studies maybe 6-12 hours per day a few days before the exam. As it gets closer to boards time though, my studying has increased.

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[fahimaz7]

I've been reading SDN since high school and I never realized how much it poisoned my outlook until recently. Hearing phrases such as "a semester of college every week," "14 hours of studying a day and not passing anatomy," etc., do make a strong impression over time. It's refreshing to hear that med school can be successfully balanced with other aspects of life instead of being an all-consuming vortex of time and suffering.

Don't think for a second though that medical school isn't going to be one of the most challenging/demanding academic endeavors that you have set out to accomplish. During the pre-clinical years I bet I averaged 60-70 hours/week of studying, all while feeling the pressure to do better than anyone else in the class. It's a tough, stressful, and arguably non-rewarding period of my life.

The balance that I speak of is getting out on your bike once every two weeks, cooking dinner with your significant other, etc... It's not anything like college from the social standpoint.

 

[KnuxNole]

I've been reading SDN since high school and I never realized how much it poisoned my outlook until recently. Hearing phrases such as "a semester of college every week," "14 hours of studying a day and not passing anatomy," etc., do make a strong impression over time. It's refreshing to hear that med school can be successfully balanced with other aspects of life instead of being an all-consuming vortex of time and suffering.

Balance is definitely the key. You don't need to spend every waking moment thinking about school. Usually the people self-select...they make the personal decision to choose to spend 14 hours studying, but that's not everyone in your class. It's really easy to find time to exercise 3x a week, have time for hobbies(I still found time to play videogames almost everyday and took Fridays off).

And yes, people will overestimate how much they study. LIke I said before, anyone who says you must be studying 12 or more hours a day needs to be slapped with a fish. Either they wanna be #1(let them take it then haha) or they just really like to study.

 

[Renaissance Man]

What percentage of US allopathtic graduates would you say gets terminated from residency?

Dude, relax. You don't even start medical school for another few months. You won't be in residency for more than 4 years. One step at a time. If you put in some effort, never stop learning, and take and respond to criticism, you aren't going to be randomly terminated. You're taking SDN to an even new level of neuroticism.

 

[JShephard]

Yeah, I don't know what to believe, really. I lurked here for a long time before deciding to post, and well, I see posts like:


"M1 and M2 are really boring and stupid, but don't worry M3 is a lot more fun."

"M3 is stupid, I'm sick and tired of abusive residents, endless scut work, insane gunners, and rotations I hate. I miss M2."


😕




And also, is termination from residency common? If so, that's disturbingly worrying. I don't know what I would do if I got kicked out of a residency and was 250K in debt with no career prospects.

Different people like different things.

 

[JShephard]

Don't think for a second though that medical school isn't going to be one of the most challenging/demanding academic endeavors that you have set out to accomplish. During the pre-clinical years I bet I averaged 60-70 hours/week of studying, all while feeling the pressure to do better than anyone else in the class. It's a tough, stressful, and arguably non-rewarding period of my life.

The balance that I speak of is getting out on your bike once every two weeks, cooking dinner with your significant other, etc... It's not anything like college from the social standpoint.

This.

It's super challenging.

Making the experience positive or negative is a choice.

 

[deuist]

What percentage of US allopathtic graduates would you say gets terminated from residency?

< 0.5%. Again, it's extremely rare and generally happens for good reason. Back when I was a surgical intern I heard of a resident who was fired the year before. She had stopped showing up for shifts and used multiple excuses as to why. After several months of other residents' covering her shifts, the program director fired her. She already wasn't coming to work; the hospital just stopped paying her for it.

At the same hospital, another resident was suspended for lying about board scores on his resume while a third was suspended for giving narcotic prescriptions to friends and family. Ask yourself, in any of the cases I've mentioned, do you think that the resident involved got canned "for no good reason?"

 

[deuist]

Pre-med, but entering MS1 soon, here. What proportion of students regularly attend pre-clinical lectures? 9-5 classes, then studying from 6-10PM every weekdays seem to leave little room for anything else...

Meh, you can do it. I took a few months to find my rhythm, but once I did I was on a competitive sports team that required daily practice. I studied about 2 hours a night on weeks with no exams, and bumped it up leading up to test time. Again, your mileage will vary based upon which medical school you go to. Mine had recorded lectures that were available online. Since I could watch everything at home at 2.5 speed, getting through the material was pretty simple.

 

[michaelrack]

No, its exceedingly uncommon.

To agree with someone's comment above, the posts from SDN residents who were terminated make it seem common. .

Agree. One of the reasons why it seems so common on SDN is that a few terminated residents (one in particular) have posted multiple threads hoping that one of these times someone will give them an answer that they like.

 

[RFox89]

< 0.5%. Again, it's extremely rare and generally happens for good reason. Back when I was a surgical intern I heard of a resident who was fired the year before. She had stopped showing up for shifts and used multiple excuses as to why. After several months of other residents' covering her shifts, the program director fired her. She already wasn't coming to work; the hospital just stopped paying her for it.

At the same hospital, another resident was suspended for lying about board scores on his resume while a third was suspended for giving narcotic prescriptions to friends and family. Ask yourself, in any of the cases I've mentioned, do you think that the resident involved got canned "for no good reason?"

How can you lie about your board scores? I thought it is uploaded onto your residency centralized application like MCAT?

 

[deuist]

How can you lie about your board scores? I thought it is uploaded onto your residency centralized application like MCAT?

He came in outside of the match as an advanced resident.

 

[NickNaylor]

Don't think for a second though that medical school isn't going to be one of the most challenging/demanding academic endeavors that you have set out to accomplish. During the pre-clinical years I bet I averaged 60-70 hours/week of studying, all while feeling the pressure to do better than anyone else in the class. It's a tough, stressful, and arguably non-rewarding period of my life.

The balance that I speak of is getting out on your bike once every two weeks, cooking dinner with your significant other, etc... It's not anything like college from the social standpoint.

Everyone is different, though - your experience is not even close to the norm for anyone in my class. Sure, it's difficult, but I have no idea how you could possibly study for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. I mean, what were you studying? Even if my goal was to ace every exam I don't know how I would fill up 10 hours every day, unless that includes class time or something.

 

[Law2Doc]

What percentage of US allopathtic graduates would you say gets terminated from residency?

It's gotta be single digits. Everybody knows one, directly or indirectly. But very few of us know more than one. Because such a small minority of residents post on SDN, one or two people on here posting about dismissal will make it seem like it's a much more common problem then it really is.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Plus, several of the posters on here who've been booted seemed to have managed to get booted from more than one place.

 

[RockinRoll]

It's gotta be single digits. Everybody knows one, directly or indirectly. But very few of us know more than one. Because such a small minority of residents post on SDN, one or two people on here posting about dismissal will make it seem like it's a much more common problem then it really is.

Are terminated residents usually able to find another program?
I understand that it's single digits and very uncommon but that's still a scary thought!
Going through all 4 years of medical school, taking 2 step exams and to be booted to the curb right when you see light in the end of the tunnel is the most devastating thing I can imagine.

 

[Laryngophed]

What percentage of US allopathtic graduates would you say gets terminated from residency?

I don't know an exact number (and I'm not sure if anyone does) but I would bet my mortgage on it being a very, very small number relative to the number of residents in training.

 

[Stellar Clouds]

Yeah, I don't know what to believe, really. I lurked here for a long time before deciding to post, and well, I see posts like:


"M1 and M2 are really boring and stupid, but don't worry M3 is a lot more fun."

"M3 is stupid, I'm sick and tired of abusive residents, endless scut work, insane gunners, and rotations I hate. I miss M2."


😕




And also, is termination from residency common? If so, that's disturbingly worrying. I don't know what I would do if I got kicked out of a residency and was 250K in debt with no career prospects.

And that's the problem with SDN. No one in their right mind would ever want to go back to preclinical years.

 

[rocketbooster]

And that's the problem with SDN. No one in their right mind would ever want to go back to preclinical years.

I wouldn't want to go back to 3rd year either. It's not that bad but I do feel I'm wasting my time half of the time. Just do your job and you won't have to do repeat any year over lol.

 

[bigkahunaburger]

Biggest myth of medical school: "I study more than 8 hours a day" lol. Come on now, that's such a bunch of bs. During years 1-2 I used a stopwatch to time myself, I never included time going to the bathroom, making coffee, surfing the net etc... For example, during a particularly hard week I would study no more than 6-7 hours a day (not even actually). I start my stopwatch, study for 50min, take a 10 min break, rinse -repeat 5-6 more times. I've found I'm basically useless after 7 hours of studying, maybe once or twice I studied 8 hours (actually; 8 x 50 =400/60 = 6.7 hours). You really need to manage your time, you'll find you don't need anywhere close to the amount of studying people on this forum claim. If you consistently study and don't get behind you'll have a lot of free time, and don't procrastinate, procrastination is probably your biggest enemy.

 

[docnotsopc]

I was recently accepted to medical school - I thank SDN for all its support and guidance.

As I was browsing the allopathic and resident's forums to gain a glimpse of my life as a future medical student and resident - I am shocked by the abuse and "malignancy" that goes on in the medical world - such as:

1) Dealing with abusive attendings and resident physicians during my rotations. I have read so many threads about 3rd and 4th year rotation students complaining about nothing to do, having to stand all day, and having interpersonal difficulties with nurses and other physicians. I read so many threads about being evaluated so subjectively, that if they don't like you for whatever reason - they will fail you and possibly get you kicked out of medical school.

2) "Malignant residency" - I read tons of threads on the resident forum about how common it is for residents to be terminated and having their contract not renewed for absolutely no reason - which effectively ends their career. They all complain this is attributed to bullying, harassment, racism, and retaliatory culture by attending physicians.



In one night - I went from being a super excited med student to be - to a - terrified insomniac who now feels like I am going into a concentration camp for my next 7-10 years.


Current med students: please shed light on what you observe and experienced - how often do you get abused or seen abuse in the medical world??

Heres what you are going to.....

You are going to go to medical school. You may or may not get "bullied" while on your rotations in 3rd/4th year/Intern year. You are going to take it.

And when you become an attending/ while you are a resident, you are going to treat those below you on the totem pole with respect. You are not going to make them feel like fools and embarrass them as little as possible. If enough people started doing this, and got the chip off their shoulders with the "well i had to deal with this so you are going to deal with it too" mentality , medicine would slowly change.

Thats what im going to do. I might be the only one but i dont really care

 

[docnotsopc]

Biggest myth of medical school: "I study more than 8 hours a day" lol. Come on now, that's such a bunch of bs. During years 1-2 I used a stopwatch to time myself, I never included time going to the bathroom, making coffee, surfing the net etc... For example, during a particularly hard week I would study no more than 6-7 hours a day (not even actually). I start my stopwatch, study for 50min, take a 10 min break, rinse -repeat 5-6 more times. I've found I'm basically useless after 7 hours of studying, maybe once or twice I studied 8 hours (actually; 8 x 50 =400/60 = 6.7 hours). You really need to manage your time, you'll find you don't need anywhere close to the amount of studying people on this forum claim. If you consistently study and don't get behind you'll have a lot of free time, and don't procrastinate, procrastination is probably your biggest enemy.

Even your 6-7 hours per day is insane.

I study 1-2 hr per day unless its the weekend before an exam than I study all weekend for 6-7 hours per day. This gets me above class average and im no genius

 

[CDI]

Heres what you are going to.....

You are going to go to medical school. You may or may not get "bullied" while on your rotations in 3rd/4th year/Intern year. You are going to take it.

And when you become an attending/ while you are a resident, you are going to treat those below you on the totem pole with respect. You are not going to make them feel like fools and embarrass them as little as possible. If enough people started doing this, and got the chip off their shoulders with the "well i had to deal with this so you are going to deal with it too" mentality , medicine would slowly change.

Thats what im going to do. I might be the only one but i dont really care

How else are those malignant residents and attendings going to compensate for their small ***** though?

 

[KnuxNole]

Heres what you are going to.....

You are going to go to medical school. You may or may not get "bullied" while on your rotations in 3rd/4th year/Intern year. You are going to take it.

And when you become an attending/ while you are a resident, you are going to treat those below you on the totem pole with respect. You are not going to make them feel like fools and embarrass them as little as possible. If enough people started doing this, and got the chip off their shoulders with the "well i had to deal with this so you are going to deal with it too" mentality , medicine would slowly change.

Thats what im going to do. I might be the only one but i dont really care

You aren't the only one, I plan on doing the same 🙂

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Seriously people need to stop getting freaked out about these residency terminations. Wow you argued with the nurses and residents every day, stopped showing up to work or sold drugs and you got fired? Kind of like a real job? That's crazy man.

I also know stories of residents that did really stupid stuff and the program wouldn't let them get terminated. Like severe HIPAA violations.

Also keep in mind (as others have said) that when people post their problems on here of course they'll make it seems as if nothing's happened because they're looking for sympathy.

 

[Medstart108]

I was recently accepted to medical school - I thank SDN for all its support and guidance.

As I was browsing the allopathic and resident's forums to gain a glimpse of my life as a future medical student and resident - I am shocked by the abuse and "malignancy" that goes on in the medical world - such as:

1) Dealing with abusive attendings and resident physicians during my rotations. I have read so many threads about 3rd and 4th year rotation students complaining about nothing to do, having to stand all day, and having interpersonal difficulties with nurses and other physicians. I read so many threads about being evaluated so subjectively, that if they don't like you for whatever reason - they will fail you and possibly get you kicked out of medical school.

2) "Malignant residency" - I read tons of threads on the resident forum about how common it is for residents to be terminated and having their contract not renewed for absolutely no reason - which effectively ends their career. They all complain this is attributed to bullying, harassment, racism, and retaliatory culture by attending physicians.



In one night - I went from being a super excited med student to be - to a - terrified insomniac who now feels like I am going into a concentration camp for my next 7-10 years.


Current med students: please shed light on what you observe and experienced - how often do you get abused or seen abuse in the medical world??

Whenever you read the news, remember that its the NEWS for a reason. The only people who complain are people who have problems to complain about. You don't see anyone who's having a great residency posting that on SDN.

 

[Laryngophed]

Whenever you read the news, remember that its the NEWS for a reason. The only people who complain are people who have problems to complain about. You don't see anyone who's having a great residency posting that on SDN.

That's not true at all. Maybe you don't find the threads, but there are plenty where residents and fellows talk about the places that train them and how good it is to be there.

 

[bigkahunaburger]

docnotsopc, yeah I agree. I only studied that much before an exam, otherwise I was drinking a 40oz of Mad Dog figuring out how I could become more like Bruce Willis in Die Hard.

 

[Trogghunter]

Pre-med, but entering MS1 soon, here. What proportion of students regularly attend pre-clinical lectures? 9-5 classes, then studying from 6-10PM every weekdays seem to leave little room for anything else...

Depends on if your school has recorded/media site lectures. We can stream them live or watch them later at 2x speed. However we also have a service that transcribes the lectures within 48 hours. Despite all of this, people would still show up for some reason. My friends and I stopped going after a month or so. My roommate went to 0 non-mandatory lectures. Never even went to any labs-ever. It depends on how you learn most effectively.

 

[fahimaz7]

Everyone is different, though - your experience is not even close to the norm for anyone in my class. Sure, it's difficult, but I have no idea how you could possibly study for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. I mean, what were you studying? Even if my goal was to ace every exam I don't know how I would fill up 10 hours every day, unless that includes class time or something.

Lots of stuff man. If you average out the weeks that you spent studying from the day that you were admitted to the day that you took step 1, I bet that you have a lot of time invested in learning the material (whether this includes sitting in lecture or not is up to you). At my particular program, we are expected to be in lecture/small group at least 4 hours/day. Add on 6 hours of studying (which is what I averaged through that time period) and you get 10 hours/day on average dedicated to medical school. Some weeks were much worse and some weeks I didn't even crack open my laptop for a solid 6 days. But, I did spend a lot of time studying any my grades, rank, and board scores were well worth it.

Biggest myth of medical school: "I study more than 8 hours a day" lol. Come on now, that's such a bunch of bs. During years 1-2 I used a stopwatch to time myself, I never included time going to the bathroom, making coffee, surfing the net etc... For example, during a particularly hard week I would study no more than 6-7 hours a day (not even actually). I start my stopwatch, study for 50min, take a 10 min break, rinse -repeat 5-6 more times. I've found I'm basically useless after 7 hours of studying, maybe once or twice I studied 8 hours (actually; 8 x 50 =400/60 = 6.7 hours). You really need to manage your time, you'll find you don't need anywhere close to the amount of studying people on this forum claim. If you consistently study and don't get behind you'll have a lot of free time, and don't procrastinate, procrastination is probably your biggest enemy.

Each study will spend a different amount of time to cover the same material. Goals are also vastly different. The people who were nominated and elected to AOA at my program all worked their tail off during the pre-clinical years. If all I wanted to do is pass medical school, I bet I could spend <25 hours/week doing anything medical school related and I could prob. come out with a nice 80 average at the end.

Making all A's through the pre-clinical years though requires a lot more effort than that, as well as some good testing skills and luck, but that is my story so that is what I report.

People in my class studied a lot more than I did.

 

[Law2Doc]

Are terminated residents usually able to find another program?
I understand that it's single digits and very uncommon but that's still a scary thought!
Going through all 4 years of medical school, taking 2 step exams and to be booted to the curb right when you see light in the end of the tunnel is the most devastating thing I can imagine.

That all depends on the reason for termination. There is no one size fits all. Some of us have known people who did very stupid things that endangered patients, were given multiple second chances and were ultimately let go, and there is no way the PD is ever going to give them a positive recommendation. Others simply never figure out how to perform at the expected resident level, and after a remediation year their contract isn't renewed, but they never really generated the same kind of ire from the administration. How they spin this kind of stuff when applying for future positions, and the extent to which they can manage at least a luke warm endorsement from their prior PD will determine where they can end up. This doesn't happen to most people so I really wouldn't sweat it.

 

[BabyDoc86]

Read this:

http://llusm.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/choosing-to-be-optimistic/

 

[JShephard]

Lots of stuff man. If you average out the weeks that you spent studying from the day that you were admitted to the day that you took step 1, I bet that you have a lot of time invested in learning the material (whether this includes sitting in lecture or not is up to you). At my particular program, we are expected to be in lecture/small group at least 4 hours/day. Add on 6 hours of studying (which is what I averaged through that time period) and you get 10 hours/day on average dedicated to medical school. Some weeks were much worse and some weeks I didn't even crack open my laptop for a solid 6 days. But, I did spend a lot of time studying any my grades, rank, and board scores were well worth it.



Each study will spend a different amount of time to cover the same material. Goals are also vastly different. The people who were nominated and elected to AOA at my program all worked their tail off during the pre-clinical years. If all I wanted to do is pass medical school, I bet I could spend <25 hours/week doing anything medical school related and I could prob. come out with a nice 80 average at the end.

Making all A's through the pre-clinical years though requires a lot more effort than that, as well as some good testing skills and luck, but that is my story so that is what I report.

People in my class studied a lot more than I did.

Yeah, everyone is different.

They have different talents, skills, goals, ambitions, passions, personalities, likes, dislikes. Not to mention curriculums can be vastly different.

All the comparisons about how many hours this guy studies or grades, etc. It doesn't matter because everyone has their own unique qualities and strengths.

Even identical twins with the same generic code would have vastly different experiences in med school.

Moral of the story: just do your best.

 

[survivordo]

Honestly, unless you lied, cheated, or used "special connections" to get into medical school you will be fine. It takes some adjusting, but everyone gets over the hump. Were there crappy days during medical school and internship so far? Sure, but far and away I have enjoyed it and can't imagine doing anything else with my life.

Survivor DO

 

[PrideNeverDie]

Lots of stuff man. If you average out the weeks that you spent studying from the day that you were admitted to the day that you took step 1, I bet that you have a lot of time invested in learning the material (whether this includes sitting in lecture or not is up to you). At my particular program, we are expected to be in lecture/small group at least 4 hours/day. Add on 6 hours of studying (which is what I averaged through that time period) and you get 10 hours/day on average dedicated to medical school. Some weeks were much worse and some weeks I didn't even crack open my laptop for a solid 6 days. But, I did spend a lot of time studying any my grades, rank, and board scores were well worth it.



Each study will spend a different amount of time to cover the same material. Goals are also vastly different. The people who were nominated and elected to AOA at my program all worked their tail off during the pre-clinical years. If all I wanted to do is pass medical school, I bet I could spend <25 hours/week doing anything medical school related and I could prob. come out with a nice 80 average at the end.

Making all A's through the pre-clinical years though requires a lot more effort than that, as well as some good testing skills and luck, but that is my story so that is what I report.

People in my class studied a lot more than I did.

this

counting the lectures i go to + studying, i only do about 25 hours/week. i honor'd 2 classes first year and while i'm not honoring any classes in 2nd year i'm averaging 80.

my friends average about 45-50 hours/week. they honor'd almost all the first year classes and are averaging around 85-90.

 

[NickNaylor]

Lots of stuff man. If you average out the weeks that you spent studying from the day that you were admitted to the day that you took step 1, I bet that you have a lot of time invested in learning the material (whether this includes sitting in lecture or not is up to you). At my particular program, we are expected to be in lecture/small group at least 4 hours/day. Add on 6 hours of studying (which is what I averaged through that time period) and you get 10 hours/day on average dedicated to medical school. Some weeks were much worse and some weeks I didn't even crack open my laptop for a solid 6 days. But, I did spend a lot of time studying any my grades, rank, and board scores were well worth it.

That makes sense - 6 hours/day is definitely reasonable.

 

[NickNaylor]

this

counting the lectures i go to + studying, i only do about 25 hours/week. i honor'd 2 classes first year and while i'm not honoring any classes in 2nd year i'm averaging 80.

my friends average about 45-50 hours/week. they honor'd almost all the first year classes and are averaging around 85-90.

Absolute grades are kind of a useless metric when comparing between schools though. The averages on our pathophys exams have been above 85.

 

[TOcho118]

Am I misreading this thread or is a pre-MS1 seriously worrying about being kicked out of residency?? lolz

 

[Perrotfish]

Am I misreading this thread or is a pre-MS1 seriously worrying about being kicked out of residency?? lolz

When you think about it, this question ONLY makes sense to ask if you're a premed. Once you're status post 4 years of medical school and 300K in debt its kind of too late to worry about residency dismissal rates, you're just causing yourself stress over something you can't help. On the other hand the premed can still choose a different career.

Its not like there aren't a lot of scams out there in higher education. Would anyone choose to go to a social sciences doctoral program, or a second tier law school, if they took the time to ask about their long term prospects before they took out the loans?

 

[evilbooyaa]

#1 thing to consider - SDN is not reality. It is the most extreme situations posted on the internet.

Best of luck.

 

[blizzah]

Pre-med, but entering MS1 soon, here. What proportion of students regularly attend pre-clinical lectures? 9-5 classes, then studying from 6-10PM every weekdays seem to leave little room for anything else...

Very few schools would have 9-5 classes. That would be ridiculous. If you are at school being productive from 9-5 including class, eating and studying you will do more than fine and wouldn't even need to touch a book on a weekend.

Maybe 60% of the students here even go to class (max 4-5 hours a day, usually 2-3).

 

[NickNaylor]

Very few schools would have 9-5 classes. That would be ridiculous. If you are at school being productive from 9-5 including class, eating and studying you will do more than fine and wouldn't even need to touch a book on a weekend.

Maybe 60% of the students here even go to class (max 4-5 hours a day, usually 2-3).

I think that's pretty accurate for our class too. I get the sense that attendance has fallen off quite a bit in MS2 specifically - probably because of the wide variety of excellent review sources for pathophys.

 

[Daodejing]

What's the best way to approach test questions in med school (Steps, shelfs, or otherwise)? I've noticed many questions are condensed into a block of text, not to mention super long in length. Other than getting better at them by mere practice, are there any other methods advisable to wade through question stems and identify "buzz"words?

 

[cancel123]

What's the best way to approach test questions in med school (Steps, shelfs, or otherwise)? I've noticed many questions are condensed into a block of text, not to mention super long in length. Other than getting better at them by mere practice, are there any other methods advisable to wade through question stems and identify "buzz"words?

 

[NickNaylor]

What's the best way to approach test questions in med school (Steps, shelfs, or otherwise)? I've noticed many questions are condensed into a block of text, not to mention super long in length. Other than getting better at them by mere practice, are there any other methods advisable to wade through question stems and identify "buzz"words?

I'm not sure what tests you're talking about. If they're for your school exams then you have nothing to worry about. I'm not familiar with the shelfs so I don't know how to study for those. For step 1, you eventually start recognizing patterns in presentation. You also get good at throwing out the irrelevant information and using only what's relevant. For me at least that's something that has only come with time.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717

 

[Daodejing]

I'm not sure what tests you're talking about. If they're for your school exams then you have nothing to worry about. I'm not familiar with the shelfs so I don't know how to study for those. For step 1, you eventually start recognizing patterns in presentation. You also get good at throwing out the irrelevant information and using only what's relevant. For me at least that's something that has only come with time.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717

Perfect, thanks 👍

 

[applemac123]

Shocked by "reality on sdn...."


Oxymoron?

 

[UrbanRiver]

Medical school can be an amazing experience. The first 2 years may suck until you realize that a group of people that never knew you that well decided that you could handle the incredible load of classes that they gave you the chance to challenge yourself in. You've got to study A LOT, but it helps you understand many things that you were curious enough about to pursue medicine in the first place; pretty cool if you ask me.

Your last 2 years will see you applying that knowledge that you just learned and adding the clinical skills on top of it. If you can relate to people on a humble and intelligent basis every day, you'll do well. You'll want to continue studying up on your cases every day and continue to make a good impression so that your clerkship comments make you stand apart from other residency candidates vying for the same program. Once all of the basic ERAS cutoffs are passed, they are the main thing that PDs want to look at.

You will always have supervisors challenging you along the way, sometimes in a less than polite manner, but you must separate the demeanor from the lessons they are trying to teach you to really do well in your last two years of medical school and definitely when you start residency.

Stay off SDN if you're getting too freaked out by what is posted on it. People that can be in any stage of training giving advice or tales to other people of unknown origin is an often seen byproduct of anonymous internet forums; once you see that and let it be less a determinant of your success, your career will truly take off.

Medicine rocks! Good luck!

👍

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile

 

[Rothbard]

why was OP banned?

 

[Frazier]

why was OP banned?

Implying that there is "reality on SDN" is against T.O.S.