Repeat First Year- Advice?

[nygirl243]

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So I failed 1 course out of 9 (the last one) and passed the rest of my courses first year. However, in remediating it (it was self study) I had a million things going on because my wedding was actually the next week and my grandmother was ill etc. So I failed again which is horrible but I know I was super distracted.

They want me to repeat every course again but I feel really unmotivated now and I'm worried about getting a residency. I feel like I'm out of the ballgame for a lot of them anyway.

I find it really screwed up that they wouldn't give me the test one more time, but they said since I "just" passed the other courses that they wouldn't give me another shot. But it's almost like, I know within myself how bad it was for me that week and can't accept that I have to repeat the whole year because of that.

I thought of transferring but who the heck would take me, right? I don't know other schools' policies. (I'm in the NYC area)

Also, here's the thing. I feel like I'd have to high pass a lot in my repeat year but that's an 85 which is much higher than the pass grade (68). I literally don't know if I could achieve that so I feel like my record would be horrible since it wouldn't show the number grades just P or HP.

Advice?

 

[meister]

Step up, do better in all your classes, and learn some sort of lesson from it all.

Don't transfer, that would just be one more giant distraction.

Also maybe figure out a better way to study, for me I stopped going to class and instead headed to the library with review books and only the lecture notes. Worked out a lot better than going to class and trying to read giant textbooks.

 

[Jolie South]

I think you would have had more options if you had presented your circumstances (wedding, death) prior to the test.

I don't think you have much of a choice if you've presented your case and they are still proposing that you repeat first year. I'd just accept what they're offering and move on.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Yah i'd go ahead and do what the school told me to do before they kicked me out.

 

[nygirl243]

But won't my record be ruined? I'm worried about not getting a residency and spending all this money and ending up with nothing. It's just a financial thing I'm considering as well...

Also I'd just feel so annoyed the entire time. I just don't know if I could repeat the entire year mentally.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

But won't my record be ruined? I'm worried about not getting a residency and spending all this money and ending up with nothing. It's just a financial thing I'm considering as well...

Also I'd just feel so annoyed the entire time. I just don't know if I could repeat the entire year mentally.

your record was ruined when you failed that course twice. However because preclinical grades are rather low on the residency criteria and you have some extenuating circumstances, you can still make a nearly complete come back if you do well on the step 1 and third year clerkships. At this point i would do everything i could to make sure the school didn't give me the booot.

 

[VoiceofReason]

unless i misunderstand candidacy for transfer, thats not actually an option for you.

You really only have two options: repeat or quit. To be completely honest, I can see where the medical education establishment is coming from with these types of rules and punishments -- we don't want to easily forgive screwups because what we do in practice requires our best effort.

 

[meister]

You haven't ruined your residency hopes by any means. First of all, you'd be a USMD, which is by itself an advantage. Secondly, get a decent step 1 (210+) with decent M3 grades (Ps with some HPs) and you'd definitely get a FM, IM, path, peds, PM&R, or psych spot somewhere. That's a given.

Seriously just relax, do better and you'll have a shot at most specialties. Granted you may not get radonc at Cleveland Clinic but worse things have happened to people.

 

[njbmd]

So I failed 1 course out of 9 (the last one) and passed the rest of my courses first year. However, in remediating it (it was self study) I had a million things going on because my wedding was actually the next week and my grandmother was ill etc. So I failed again which is horrible but I know I was super distracted.

They want me to repeat every course again but I feel really unmotivated now and I'm worried about getting a residency. I feel like I'm out of the ballgame for a lot of them anyway.

I find it really screwed up that they wouldn't give me the test one more time, but they said since I "just" passed the other courses that they wouldn't give me another shot. But it's almost like, I know within myself how bad it was for me that week and can't accept that I have to repeat the whole year because of that.

I thought of transferring but who the heck would take me, right? I don't know other schools' policies. (I'm in the NYC area)

Also, here's the thing. I feel like I'd have to high pass a lot in my repeat year but that's an 85 which is much higher than the pass grade (68). I literally don't know if I could achieve that so I feel like my record would be horrible since it wouldn't show the number grades just P or HP.

Advice?

When you failed your first course, you put yourself out of the running for the more competitive specialties so get residency out of your head. At this point, your task is to get yourself back into good standing at your medical school period. After that, you can think about residency (primary care for the most part).

Your next task is to see where you stand in terms of your school. I can tell you that no medical school in this country is going to accept you as a transfer student if you are anything other than "good standing". Transfer slots are few and far in between with most successful transfers happening at the end of second year and after you have passed USMLE Step I. It doesn't sound like you are at that point.

You also need a good reason for the transfer and you need the support and blessing from both your school and the school that you anticipate transferring into. The school also needs to have a slot available which you would have to qualify for which again, requires good standing which you do not seem to have at this point.

In terms of your remediation: You likely have more knowledge than you think you have unless you were completely "brain dead" in terms of any of your studies. Fortunately for you, going though coursework a second time around should give you more insight. Unfortunately, you don't have any room for error and thus, you need to decide that if you want to become a physician, you will do whatever it takes without questioning your ability to get the job done. If you can't do this, then cut your losses (before you owe too much money in tuition) and get into something that will pay well enough for you to pay off what you owe in loans right now.

Your school is offering you a rare "second chance" to get your studies done and mastered. You will also have an advantage going into boards which means that you have a good chance of achieving a strong score which would help with residency (but keep in mind that the competitive residencies are likely to be unreachable with your failure status) in terms of getting you competitive for a good program.

Right now: you only have the choice of continuing at your current school and playing by their rules and meeting their demands. If you can't do this, then look at overseas or another career besides medicine. Once your remediation/repeated year is done, you can work on finding a less competitive specialty that you can enjoy but everything now is dependent on you getting back into good academic standing and not having any more academic problems.

Residency right now is the least of your concerns as you have a busy year ahead of you. Even if you honored every course that you take from here on out, those failures were costly in terms of entering the more competitive specialties so get them out of your head and get to the task at hand. Take one thing at a time and do it well. You don't have the luxury of self-doubt at this point. Good luck!

 

[Mister J]

I had some medical issues first year and had to remediate 2 courses. This turned out to be a good opportunity to get a handle on my study strategy and when I got to second year, I was able to hit the ground running and HP all my coursework. By the time Step I came around, I'd nailed down my study habit well enough to get a 235+ on the test.

Of course it would have been better if I hadn't failed the classes to begin with, but that's not something I could fix after the fact. I could work to pull my later grades up and get a strong Step I score.

My advice to you is to take advantage of this opportunity to recognize where you were having trouble and fix it. It will take time and energy, but it is possible. Good luck.

 

[reedman]

There are lots of great specialties through internal medicine, and I'm thinking that repeating first year probably won't affect your shot at fellowships as long as you do well in residency. Forget about derm or whatever.

If you are really set on some crazy specialty like derm or optho, then use this extra time to get to know some influential people while you ace everything.

 

[146233]

I've got to echo njbmd and discourage you from wasting any time thinking toward the future, especially a specialty-specific future. You're in damage control now, and all you can focus on for the time being is doing well and making no further mistakes. There are plenty of perils ahead if you make more missteps. It's go time.

 

[meister]

Question: Suppose someone withdrew at the very beginning (first week) of first year because of an unexpected personal situation (non grade related). How negatively will that affect residency/career opportunities? Suppose the person returned the next year and finished all 4 years straight through with good performance and no failures. Would that initial withdraw be looked over or would it be as bad as failing first year (as in the example in this thread)?

As someone completely unqualified to answer that question I can't imagine it having much of an impact at all as long as you have a good explanation. It's not like you actively took a class and failed it.

 

[njbmd]

Question: Suppose someone withdrew at the very beginning (first week) of first year because of an unexpected personal situation (non grade related). How negatively will that affect residency/career opportunities? Suppose the person returned the next year and finished all 4 years straight through with good performance and no failures. Would that initial withdraw be looked over or would it be as bad as failing first year (as in the example in this thread)?

Taking a leave of absence (not the same as withdrawal) for personal reasons is not problematic. Withdrawing (dropping out) can cause some problems unless you are granted readmission on a non-probationary status. If you took an LOA for personal reasons, you made the best of your situation. What you don't want on your record is dropped out and then multple attempts to reapply. In that case, some schools won't let you back in while others will but will put you on probation which gets listed on your medical school transcript and will carry some negative consequences with very competitive residency programs.

 

[Seville]

Dear OP,

I have a friend who failed a class 1st year and had to remediate it. He went to 2nd year and failed several classes and had to repeat that year. He did well though in 2nd year when he remediate it. He studied like crazy though and did well on Step 1 and Step 2. He matched into one of his top 3 programs for Emergency medicine.

If you are determined, you can do it.

 

[Tired]

Presumably, at the time you planned your wedding, you knew that you would be in medical school. Why in the world would you do that?

I also haven't met too many medical students who consider an 85% to be an insurmountable goal in a course that they have already taken once before.

Sounds like you really aren't that into med school. If that's the case, I would consider dropping out, before you rack up huge amounts of loans and get stuck in a field you don't really want to be in.

 

[Perrotfish]

Presumably, at the time you planned your wedding, you knew that you would be in medical school. Why in the world would you do that?

I also haven't met too many medical students who consider an 85% to be an insurmountable goal in a course that they have already taken once before.

Sounds like you really aren't that into med school. If that's the case, I would consider dropping out, before you rack up huge amounts of loans and get stuck in a field you don't really want to be in.

Are you back? I thought you were in Iraq.

 

[Tired]

Are you back? I thought you were in Iraq.

Yeah, I'm back. We got sent home a few weeks early. Nice thing about the Marine Corps is that, at the battalion level, they only deploy for 7mo at a time.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

Presumably, at the time you planned your wedding, you knew that you would be in medical school. Why in the world would you do that?

Why would you presume that? Her wedding (probably planned months in advance) interfered with her remediation of the last course. She had to remediate the last course because she failed it (probably not planned months in advance).

 

[njbmd]

It was not an LOA or deferment because classes had already started. It was a withdraw, so I assume the transcript shows Ws for all classes. From what I understand, to take an LOA, you have to request that before classes start. I do not know if the school will just make that year disappear on the record or show it as a W (drop-out). Anyway, you do not have to reapply through admissions in this kind of situation (i.e., I fully matricualted). They never told me anything about coming back on probationary status (I don't even know if they have that designation), so I assume that didn't apply to me. But suppose there are Ws for my first year and my transcript shows it as a drop-out. How bad is this? Will I get a chance to explain the reasons behind it and show that it was not grade-related? The reason I ask is that you made it seem like an F and a repeat on a med school transcript was a kiss of death with no chance for explanation. I am wondering if a voluntary withdrawl is nearly as bad or if programs will be more understanding. I know there's nothing I can do about it now, and I'm going to work my tail off to create an impressive record, but I just want to know if this is something I need to worry about addressing or just forget it ever happened. I withdrew to prevent myself from getting Fs because there were a lot of personal issues I was trying to deal with that were preventing me from giving 100% to school, and I knew I shouldn't be there if I couldn't give it 100%.

You need to speak with your Dean of Students to find out exactly what your status is and the implications of your status. Not knowing the full implication of your academic status after what you describe above is problematic. Students do not have to request an LOA before classes start. LOAs can be granted for any number of reasons such as personal/family illness or emergency and anything else that will take your attention away from your studies. If a student became ill the third week of classes, they would be placed on LOA and would not have been able to request an LOA before classes started.In that case, they would be eligible to return and would have no penalties for having extended their medical school years.

Most schools do not allow withdrawals to prevent failure (do overs). It's LOA or dropout. You need to know your status and know what's going to be on your transcripts. Residency applications will ask about anything that is irregular on your transcripts and you need to be ready to explain what happened to you. You are going to be listed as taking longer than expected to complete medical school and many residency programs will have a problem with your withdrawal. Yes, you are going to have to do some explaining and it may have consequences for you.

A repeat (even a repeated year) in any professional school is not the "kiss of death." In terms of medical school, it does knock you out of the running for the most competitive specialties but you can still graduate and have a great career (but not likely in derm, ortho, opthalmo etc.) Dropping out is quite problematic unless you were granted an LOA (which carries no penalties) granted for personal reasons as explained above. Withdrawing to prevent failing may not be as easily explained.

 

[Tired]

Why would you presume that? Her wedding (probably planned months in advance) interfered with her remediation of the last course. She had to remediate the last course because she failed it (probably not planned months in advance).

I see what you're saying; I missed that part first time around. She just chose to prioritize the wedding plans over remediating the course she already failed once, rather than delaying the wedding or asking her fiance/family to deal with the ceremony while she studied.

I still think she's just not that interested in med school.

 

[Perrotfish]

I see what you're saying; I missed that part first time around. She just chose to prioritize the wedding plans over remediating the course she already failed once, rather than delaying the wedding or asking her fiance/family to deal with the ceremony while she studied.

I still think she's just not that interested in med school.

Often, people who aren't accustomed to failure (read: any medical student) have a really hard time adjusting to it, let alone compensating for it. I saw this a lot with freshmen in my college. People would fail a course for the first time in their life and they wouldn' adjust, if anything they'd try LESS hard, out of some combinaion of shock and an absolute certainty they they couldn't fail a course twice. And they didn't have anything nearly as serious as a wedding for an excuse.

This is also why many medical schools (mine) pairs failing students with tutors, check on their progress, etc. In college my fraternity would do the same thing. OP's medical school should have done it for her too. In any event one screwup doesn't mean she's not cut out for/not interested in medical school. **** happens. You move on and try harder.