Repeating M1 year...advice appreciated

[futuredoctor923]

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So I'm a first time poster here, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I go to a U.S. medical school (not named for obvious reasons), and I am repeating my M1 year, solely due to the failure of my summer remediation of our combined gross anatomy/histology class. Last year (my first M1 year), I had trouble with this class (our first medical school class) for various reasons including inadequate study skills for the depth/breadth of a medical school exam, as well as some social issues with a study group I was in. I managed to improve my scores with each exam, but not enough to pass the semester.

The next semester, I managed to do well in all my courses, well above the average/pass-mark, and just shy of 'honoring'. I was looking forward to putting my shoddy first semester behind me with my remediation exam, and moving onto M2 year.

I spent the bulk of my summer studying for the remediation exam (taking place about 5-6 weeks after classes ended in June), but I ended up having a really bad test anxiety/a minor panic attack during the exam (possibly due to all the pressure I put on myself for this class..), which led me to doubt all my answers, and subsequently change 10-15 of them from correct to incorrect...and I ended up failing the exam by a few percentage points.

As a result, I am now repeating my M1 year. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about what I should be doing this year to help me further along in my studies?

Obviously, I need to do better/learn how to study for the class I failed, and I'm happy to say that I think that I've done that/am doing that, and have consistently been performing above the average this time around for that class (although still not quite at honors level..but getting there).

Is there anything else that I should be doing, especially when I have to repeat all of the classes that I've already passed? Should I start studying for boards (and if so, how would I begin to do this?). Should I do volunteering, or take on a research project? Or is it more important that I honor everything?

I was also wondering if anyone had any insight on how this will affect me in the match process (I know it's a long time away, but there's no way a repeat year is anything other than a red flag)....

Sorry for the wall of text---If anyone has any insight into the situation, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks 🙂

 

[Anastomoses]

Focus on the classes and learn the material 200X better than you ever needed.

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

So I'm a first time poster here, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.

I go to a U.S. medical school (not named for obvious reasons), and I am repeating my M1 year, solely due to the failure of my summer remediation of our combined gross anatomy/histology class. Last year (my first M1 year), I had trouble with this class (our first medical school class) for various reasons including inadequate study skills for the depth/breadth of a medical school exam, as well as some social issues with a study group I was in. I managed to improve my scores with each exam, but not enough to pass the semester.

The next semester, I managed to do well in all my courses, well above the average/pass-mark, and just shy of 'honoring'. I was looking forward to putting my shoddy first semester behind me with my remediation exam, and moving onto M2 year.

I spent the bulk of my summer studying for the remediation exam (taking place about 5-6 weeks after classes ended in June), but I ended up having a really bad test anxiety/a minor panic attack during the exam (possibly due to all the pressure I put on myself for this class..), which led me to doubt all my answers, and subsequently change 10-15 of them from correct to incorrect...and I ended up failing the exam by a few percentage points.

As a result, I am now repeating my M1 year. I was wondering if anyone had any advice about what I should be doing this year to help me further along in my studies?

Obviously, I need to do better/learn how to study for the class I failed, and I'm happy to say that I think that I've done that/am doing that, and have consistently been performing above the average this time around for that class (although still not quite at honors level..but getting there).

Is there anything else that I should be doing, especially when I have to repeat all of the classes that I've already passed? Should I start studying for boards (and if so, how would I begin to do this?). Should I do volunteering, or take on a research project? Or is it more important that I honor everything?

I was also wondering if anyone had any insight on how this will affect me in the match process (I know it's a long time away, but there's no way a repeat year is anything other than a red flag)....

Sorry for the wall of text---If anyone has any insight into the situation, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks 🙂

Hi there. It sounds like you are turning the corner. Do as well as you can from here on out. Aim for HP/Honors in all your courses especially third year. Right now your focus should not be studying for the boards, as first year material makes up a small percentage of the test. Continue to focus on your classes, and if you think you can handle it, get started in a research project.
There will be plenty of programs that will screen you out for repeating the year, but there will be plenty of other programs out there that are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you show continued improvement in grades / boards as you messed up on the first class of the year. It is understandable that the trasition from college to med school could be hard. Just don't give them another reason to doubt you. The more competitive specialities may be out, but who knows. Keep you chin up, and crush your second chance.

tldr: too early to start board studying. do well in classes, and if you can handle it, start research.

 

[futuredoctor923]

Focus on the classes and learn the material 200X better than you ever needed.

Thanks for the advice! I think that I'm already definitely learning the material better than I ever have, since I'm not aiming to just pass, but to do better than the average, at least! It's amazing how much you forget, but I think that a lot of concepts are a lot more solid now. Thanks for your response!

 

[futuredoctor923]

Hi there. It sounds like you are turning the corner. Do as well as you can from here on out. Aim for HP/Honors in all your courses especially third year. Right now your focus should not be studying for the boards, as first year material makes up a small percentage of the test. Continue to focus on your classes, and if you think you can handle it, get started in a research project.
There will be plenty of programs that will screen you out for repeating the year, but there will be plenty of other programs out there that are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you show continued improvement in grades / boards as you messed up on the first class of the year. It is understandable that the trasition from college to med school could be hard. Just don't give them another reason to doubt you. The more competitive specialities may be out, but who knows. Keep you chin up, and crush your second chance.

tldr: too early to start board studying. do well in classes, and if you can handle it, start research.

Thank you for your response! I think that I'm on the upward swing (I hope), and I definitely plan to aim for Honors/HP-level in all my classes. I heard that first year material was a really small part of boards, so instead of studying for boards, I hope that if I at least solidify my study skills this year (since I hear it gets harder from here on out 😛) and get a couple honors, that next year should be better. I think that I might get started on a research project, if I have the time, next semester! I appreciate the advice, as well as the encouragement that even though I made mistakes, not all hope is lost of eventually succeeding and getting where I want to go. I think that's what I really wanted to hear from this thread, so thank you so much! 🙂

On a side note, what do you think is most important to residency directors? I've heard/read varying opinions...some say that preclinical grades don't matter, but I suppose a repeat year can only look bad...and others say that third year grades matter most, while others say Step 1 scores. What's your opinion?

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

Thank you for your response! I think that I'm on the upward swing (I hope), and I definitely plan to aim for Honors/HP-level in all my classes. I heard that first year material was a really small part of boards, so instead of studying for boards, I hope that if I at least solidify my study skills this year (since I hear it gets harder from here on out 😛) and get a couple honors, that next year should be better. I think that I might get started on a research project, if I have the time, next semester! I appreciate the advice, as well as the encouragement that even though I made mistakes, not all hope is lost of eventually succeeding and getting where I want to go. I think that's what I really wanted to hear from this thread, so thank you so much! 🙂

On a side note, what do you think is most important to residency directors? I've heard/read varying opinions...some say that preclinical grades don't matter, but I suppose a repeat year can only look bad...and others say that third year grades matter most, while others say Step 1 scores. What's your opinion?

I can only reply from the medicine perspective. Preclinical grades matter in the context of class rankings. If they play no role, then program directors do not care if you passed.

for medicine 1) class rank, 2) honors in medicine 3) Steps I + II in that order.

I personally thought year 1 was the hardest year. When the time comes, just apply to a lot of programs. The selection committees will have varying opinions of a repeat year. some will look past it some wont. you may get invited at a more reputatable program and get rejected by a community program. depends on if they look at the whole application or just take the easy way out and screen your app out before reading as many of these programs get a few thousand applications for 300 or so interview spots. gl continue fighting for what you want to do. this is a setback, but in the scheme of things it does not matter too much if you right the ship now

 

[futuredoctor923]

I can only reply from the medicine perspective. Preclinical grades matter in the context of class rankings. If they play no role, then program directors do not care if you passed.

for medicine 1) class rank, 2) honors in medicine 3) Steps I + II in that order.

I personally thought year 1 was the hardest year. When the time comes, just apply to a lot of programs. The selection committees will have varying opinions of a repeat year. some will look past it some wont. you may get invited at a more reputatable program and get rejected by a community program. depends on if they look at the whole application or just take the easy way out and screen your app out before reading as many of these programs get a few thousand applications for 300 or so interview spots. gl continue fighting for what you want to do. this is a setback, but in the scheme of things it does not matter too much if you right the ship now

Thanks again for your insight! I'm actually really glad to hear that year 1 was the hardest, because that means that it can only get better from here..I hope, haha. Thanks again for giving me the motivation to keep doing what I'm doing..I'll get where I want to go if hard work can do it! Thanks 🙂

 

[MD on replay]

Adding onto this old thread - I, too, am a medical student repeating the first year and am trying to start a blog about it. I would like to get insight from other student repeating and hopefully get some other experiences from students who have made it all the way through to residency and on. Please check it out and spread the word so I can get some good cotent added in:

mdonreplay.wordpress.com/