rocking 3rd year

[dve]

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I sort of bumbled my way through the 1st 2 yrs of medical school and would like to start 3rd year on the right foot..

Any specific advice of ways to approach 3rd year? (can be general or rotation specific) I've got an idea of books that I will need for 3rd year & stuff that might want to carry around on the wards, I'm more looking for advice on how to prepare Ie. do you read anything before starting a clerkship? Things to practice or read on a daily/weekly/monthly etc? Things that you should/should not do?

 

[mTOR]

USMLEWorld and a bulk supply of chapstick for all the ass kissing you're gonna have to do. Everything else can be found in the respective thread for a given rotation

 

[Instatewaiter]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

 

[alphaholic06]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

100% percent with everything said above. Especially the the bolded.

 

[Jolie South]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

This is excellent advice. I agree 100%.

I'd also add to not throw your fellow students under the bus and consider the effects of your actions on them.

 

[C5toC9]

Is this the same UW as for Step 1?

 

[kemper6036]

Is this the same UW as for Step 1?

obviously, there is a usmle world for step 2 ck.....that is what the reference is to

 

[Depakote]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

👍

 

[PistolPete]

For the shelf exams, do most people buy a year-long subscription to UWorld? Since I'm starting with medicine, I thought I'd just get a 3 month subscription then re-new for Step 2. Since >90% of questions are IM, is it worth it for the other rotations?

 

[mTOR]

Yes.

 

[Depakote]

I bought a year long subscription to UWorld a month or two into third year and will reset and take CK just before it expires. It's already paid for itself several times over by helping me get some awesome shelf scores and I've got it waiting for Step 2.

 

[CptCrunch]

For the shelf exams, do most people buy a year-long subscription to UWorld? Since I'm starting with medicine, I thought I'd just get a 3 month subscription then re-new for Step 2. Since >90% of questions are IM, is it worth it for the other rotations?

I got the bootleg copy for 3rd year and will buy 1 month when I study for step 2.

 

[radiodoc99]

Pocket medicine, Maxwell, iphone apps, know ecgs, also just be punctual and read every night whatever you can

 

[IMGUSMLEStep1]

I sort of bumbled my way through the 1st 2 yrs of medical school and would like to start 3rd year on the right foot..

Any specific advice of ways to approach 3rd year? (can be general or rotation specific) I've got an idea of books that I will need for 3rd year & stuff that might want to carry around on the wards, I'm more looking for advice on how to prepare Ie. do you read anything before starting a clerkship? Things to practice or read on a daily/weekly/monthly etc? Things that you should/should not do?

You should read the book "250 Biggest Mistakes 3rd Year Medical Students Make." It has a lot of Do's and Dont's for 3rd year. I've had to put the book aside halfway through it because of step 1 preparation, but so far I've found a lot of good points in there. Some are just obvious things like "dressing appropriately on your first day", but most of the tips are useful.

Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/09...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0972556168

 

[Deferoxamine]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

This is good advice.

Getting USMLE World is a must. I'm not at all an AOA-type of student, but with USMLE World I've been able to put up some great Shelf scores, and when combined with great clinical evaluations, it's a lot harder for them to deny you Honors on the rotation... except of course for those little minor things that are worth 5-15% of the grade that you can flub up, which I did a few times earlier this year...

Your job in 3rd year is to be a subtle lawyer/businessman. Sell your management ideas on your patient to the team - some of mine were actually implemented. Sell your assets, your motivational skills, your work ethic, your knowledge, your bedside manner. Sell yourself.

I think Instatewaiter's comments about being friendly and a generally nice, pleasant person to be around are pretty accurate. Being clean shaven, smiling, attentive, polite, choosing the right words; making killer, crisp, professional-looking powerpoint presentations; being optimistic - yup it's all about appearances, and stuff like this REALLY does matter. It's a world based on appearances, how you act, how you present yourself, how you treat others - might as well get used to it.

 

[Ookluh]

So you guys think USMLEWorld is worth getting for the year-long subscription? I read one poster in a diff thread suggesting that by the time you do it a second time it may just be more about "visual recall" (aka remembering a specific question and the answer) than anything.. also, does getting World totally supplant the need for purchasing other question books/banks (MKSAP, Pre-Test, A&L, etc)? Or are those still needed, just in fewer supply?

 

[Depakote]

So you guys think USMLEWorld is worth getting for the year-long subscription? I read one poster in a diff thread suggesting that by the time you do it a second time it may just be more about "visual recall" (aka remembering a specific question and the answer) than anything.. also, does getting World totally supplant the need for purchasing other question books/banks (MKSAP, Pre-Test, A&L, etc)? Or are those still needed, just in fewer supply?

1.) If I manage to visually recall a question I did earlier this year out of 2000 that would be pretty impressive.

2.) Honoring clerkships > Acing Step 2 (although, if you're nailing the shelf exams, I suspect that might help you perform better on Step 2...)


edit: and no, getting UWorld doesn't mean you don't have to do other stuff to study. I probably averaged 3 sources per rotation.

 

[Instatewaiter]

Third year is about playing the game on the wards and rocking the shelf exams.

To play the game on the wards:
- Attitude is probably the most important part of your clinical grade.
- Always, always, be on time and prepared for rounds.
- You don't actually need to kiss ass. All you have to do is be friendly and get along with people.
- go out of your way to be helpful (but don't kiss ass)
- learn from your patients and read around the issues your patients have

For shelf exams:
Talk to upper classmen and get the right books and get USMLE world
The shelf exam is usually what determines your grade because most people don't differ that much on the wards.

To add to my post:
You may think you dont stick out as an individual to your resident and may want to try to one-up you fellow students. It is a bad idea. More often than not, you just look like an idiot. That is not to say that you shouldn't try and nail the questions you get asked and present well. Just don't try and show up your classmates to get noticed. Do your job and you will get your grade. It is generally not dependent on how the guy next to you does.

Don't round on your fellow classmates' patients. That is incredibly douchy. If you happen to have some lab data/radiographs on your classmates patient and they are asked about it, you shouldn't answer. If they don't know it, hand them the piece of paper inconspicuously and let them read it out. Believe it or not, you look much better by being a team player than by knowing everything about every patient.

Shelf exams is generally a stricter cutoff for the grades. Let's say to get an honors you need an 85 raw score on the shelf and an 85 score for your clinical grade. Most clerkship directors (in my experience) are more likely to give you leeway on your clinical grade. So if you rock the shelf and just miss the clinical grade, you often get that honors. However, if you do well on the clinical section but miss the shelf score you are SOL on getting that honors.

1.) If I manage to visually recall a question I did earlier this year out of 2000 that would be pretty impressive.

2.) Honoring clerkships > Acing Step 2 (although, if you're nailing the shelf exams, I suspect that might help you perform better on Step 2...)


edit: and no, getting UWorld doesn't mean you don't have to do other stuff to study. I probably averaged 3 sources per rotation.

If you honor your clerkships (especially medicine) you should be in very good shape for step 2. The shelf exams are much harder than step 2. I though step 2 was a complete joke in comparison. I barely studied and went up significantly from step 1.

I think a good rule of thumb for sources is at minimum 1 text (blueprints, casefiles, step up) and one question source (pretest, appleton and lange, USMLE world)

What I'd recommend:
OB-GYN- text: blueprints, questions: UWISE
Peds- i used NMS but didn;t really like it in the end. Questions: pretest was ok
Medicine: Text:step up to medicine (best book of the year) Questions: USMLE world+ MKSAP 3 (MKSAP 4 was so-so)
Psych- First aid for psych (good and short) and appleton and lange questions
Surgery- get pestana review. Outside of that I didn't like what I used (first aid for surgery). I heard NMS casebook is good.

Neuro- Blueprints for neuro (excellent book) and pretest for questions

 

[Instatewaiter]

Also, watch out about using too many sources. I did that for my first rotation. I shot myself in the foot. All the books offer very similar info. Using too many sources means you won't have time to learn it.

So whether you like clinical vignettes (case files or NMS casebooks) or just reading text (first aid, NMS, step up, blueprints) they are going to offer similar info. Blueprints is generally the least info but they include almost all the important stuff (esp for Neuro and OB which are the ones I would strongly recommend)

Make sure to do questions. This is really the best way to test your knowledge after you have read a bit. Doing a 2nd set of questions is generally better than reading a 2nd book. Try to get through 1 text and 1 bank of questions for each though.

 

[nlax30]

The last 2 posts by instatewaiter are gold.

Study-wise.... some sort of question bank subscription, and then pick out a series of books that you like.

I used Step up to medicine and liked it. For most other fields I used blueprints and liked the style. I tried a couple in the Case Files series but just didn't prefer the case file style....

Beyond that, be on time, be eager to learn, don't complain. Especially on IM... know EVERYTHING about your patient, check on labs and the patient throughout the day and not just in the morning when you first round. Don't try to kiss ass but genuinely try and help by asking your resident/intern if there's anything you can do if you are currently free. Don't try to show up fellow students, it can be pretty obvious.

This is more for inpatient rotations, but something else that may vary depending on your hospital/clinical setting is to take an initiative and be proactive. Ex: When you round, talk to the nurses about your patient, if a lab isn't back yet ask about if it got sent, call the lab to see if there was a problem.

I quickly noticed how little things that even a student can do can be very much appreciated by a busy intern/resident. If I was doing an admission and we didn't have any previous medical records on the patient then it was pretty easy for me to find out who their personal physician was, and call the office to get their records faxed over, instead of just presenting the patient, and then waiting for the resident to wait orders for records to be obtained, and THEN waiting for a nurse or someone else to put out a call for copies of records. I mean stupid, little things... if your patient is visiting from out of town and you know that your attending/resident is going to want to call up their personal physician, just hop on google and find that doc's phone number.

Try to think ahead and do the extra legwork to find out that piece of information that you know the team is going to need, but is going to take some extra work to find.

 

[Instatewaiter]

For those who want it, you can currently find the pestana review here:
http://medinfo.ufl.edu:8050/~med2010/3rdYear/Surgery/Updated PESTANA-Review.doc

This is a good review for surgery but the trauma/acute stuff is also pertinent to medicine and peds.