Remediation and my residency future

[kdog024]

I am a current M2, and recently learned I’ll have to remediate my cardiovascular block.

I had dreams of being a psychiatrist but honestly, I now doubt my ability even to survive medical school. It feels like I’m constantly clawing my way to the bare minimum while my other classmates are just gliding along. I'm struggling to regain the confidence that I need to get through this.

I’d appreciate it if people could speak about their experiences regarding regaining their confidence, along with the impact that it had on their application if they have already gone through the match. For context, I am interested in psych, possibly academic IM, or family medicine. I am confident that I have no interest in surgery.

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[M&L]

i am so sorry you are having a hard time. To be honest, - majority of ppl do, they are just afraid to admit it.

How are your grades otherwise? (besides cardiovascular block)? Have you ever tried working with academic affairs? Tutor? Talking to someone? I am just trying to understand if this is isolated anxiety thing or problem with studying

 

[EthylMethylMan]

First of all, don't beat yourself up. Everyone has had difficulties in med school. I vividly remember borderline breaking down over how hard my school's neuro unit was. You're not alone in having a hard time.

Psych is getting more competitive nowadays, so this will probably be something working against you in your application. That said, if you do well on remediation, keep your grades up going forward, and do well on your clinical rotations, I don't think a single remediation will totally sink you. Your advisor will help you figure out an application strategy when the time comes. Right now, you need to identify why you didn't do well and correct it.

 

[Dr. Basketball]

Cardio is a tough block. I think about 30% of my class had to remediate that exam. I spoke to someone from the class before, he said close the 50% had to remediate(seems high I know, but that is just what I was told). He was one of those people that failed and went on to match at a good gen surg program. You're not the only one that has struggled with that unit, although it may seem like it.

I agree with the previous post, identify where you went wrong and fix it. Keep your head up, learn from this, and APPLY BROADLY. I think if you do well with clerkships and do good on step 2, you have a shot. Best of luck to you.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

I had a tough adjustment ist semester 1st yr. I got better as the basic science classes became more clinical Everyone is smart in med school and the elite students, the ones cruising, crush the curve. Run your own race. Ok, Integrative Plastics or ENT may be out of reach, but plenty of other areas of medicine exist with interesting aspects. During third year, see what areas interest you and what journal articles are appealing. Then, decide which area you want to pursue and apply to programs where your stats are competitive. If your stats arent competetive, do a gap year fir resume enhancenent. Whats one more year when an entire career is possible. Many uni affiliate programs are quite good. One near me is a busy level 1 trauma with all subspecialties, including transplants. 2nd yr was by far the roughest for me. I did better in class, but boards and just wanting to get out of the classrooms into clinical was quite stressful. You only have a few months to go.

 

[kdog024]

i am so sorry you are having a hard time. To be honest, - majority of ppl do, they are just afraid to admit it.

How are your grades otherwise? (besides cardiovascular block)? Have you ever tried working with academic affairs? Tutor? Talking to someone? I am just trying to understand if this is isolated anxiety thing or problem with studying

I have passed everything else on my first try. I think it took me too long to adjust to the new way that material was being presented but I’m currently working with a tutor.

 

[kdog024]

I had a tough adjustment ist semester 1st yr. I got better as the basic science classes became more clinical Everyone is smart in med school and the elite students, the ones cruising, crush the curve. Run your own race. Ok, Integrative Plastics or ENT may be out of reach, but plenty of other areas of medicine exist with interesting aspects. During third year, see what areas interest you and what journal articles are appealing. Then, decide which area you want to pursue and apply to programs where your stats are competitive. If your stats arent competetive, do a gap year fir resume enhancenent. Whats one more year when an entire career is possible. Many uni affiliate programs are quite good. One near me is a busy level 1 trauma with all subspecialties, including transplants. 2nd yr was by far the roughest for me. I did better in class, but boards and just wanting to get out of the classrooms into clinical was quite stressful. You only have a few months to go.

From your experience, would you say I need a backup field for psych? At the moment, I have passed all my other classes the first go, and don’t think I have any other red or orange flags.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

From your experience, would you say I need a backup field for psych? At the moment, I have passed all my other classes the first go, and don’t think I have any other red or orange flags.

It will depend on your board scores, stats, and recommendations. Psych, like everything is getting more competitive. Keep working hard, get some decent board scores and apply to programs where your stats are competitive. Some uni affiliates are quite good.. Best of luck!!

 

[Goro]

I am a current M2, and recently learned I’ll have to remediate my cardiovascular block.

I had dreams of being a psychiatrist but honestly, I now doubt my ability even to survive medical school. It feels like I’m constantly clawing my way to the bare minimum while my other classmates are just gliding along. I'm struggling to regain the confidence that I need to get through this.

I’d appreciate it if people could speak about their experiences regarding regaining their confidence, along with the impact that it had on their application if they have already gone through the match. For context, I am interested in psych, possibly academic IM, or family medicine. I am confident that I have no interest in surgery.

My all-time worst student ever who failed multiple courses and managed to successfully remediate, went into Gas.

He's now probably killing patients somewhere up in the Pacific northwest.

If he can match, you can too.

 

[MusicalMed]

I will admit that I had multiple remediations in my pre-clerkship years (if you look through my past posts you can see a thread on that topic as well). I ultimately ended up where I dreamed of being - ultimately I think it is a more powerful statement that even through failure you can keep getting back up. Of course, it was brought up in a few (minority) of my residency interviews, but if you do really well going forward you can just continue to build the case you can beat whatever obstacle gets in between you and your end goal.

 

[Styrene]

From your experience, would you say I need a backup field for psych? At the moment, I have passed all my other classes the first go, and don’t think I have any other red or orange flags.

This info is from my own experiences as a former psychiatry applicant, as a chief resident, conversations with faculty, etc.

As things stand now, possibly yes. My mid-tier, large university academic program receives over 1000 applications yearly for less than 10 residency positions. A few top psychiatry applicants from recent med school classes at my home institution have received less than five interviews, and I had two friends a couple years ago who each matched at #8 on their rank lists (one had 250s step 1/2 and the other the presumed highest step 1 score in the country, both normal people with good personalities). The number of unfilled spots nationally is also very low. And there is now a possible reflexive shift in program director/faculty selectivity due to the hype and increasing quality of applicants, meaning psych programs may pay more attention to grades than in the past and be more "picky" with the rank order. Still, test scores overall may mean less in psychiatry applications than in other fields. Some of this may be attenuated by the new region/program preference feature on the residency application.

The good news is that strong psychiatry clerkship scores and letters plus demonstration of a genuine and sophisticated (as appropriate for level of training) interest in psychiatry through the interviews goes a very long way in the process.

 

[collegestud2013]

I am a current M2, and recently learned I’ll have to remediate my cardiovascular block.

I had dreams of being a psychiatrist but honestly, I now doubt my ability even to survive medical school. It feels like I’m constantly clawing my way to the bare minimum while my other classmates are just gliding along. I'm struggling to regain the confidence that I need to get through this.

I’d appreciate it if people could speak about their experiences regarding regaining their confidence, along with the impact that it had on their application if they have already gone through the match. For context, I am interested in psych, possibly academic IM, or family medicine. I am confident that I have no interest in surgery.

Psych match may be a bit tougher nowadays, but IM still definitely a good choice, and at the end of the day probably much more flexible than Psych anyways. That's assuming you start doing well and this ends up being your only remediation.