Rough start to med school

[Jnooget]

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Hello all,
I'm an M1 at a mid tier school and I've had a bit of trouble adjusting to the intensity of med school after coming from a relatively easy undergrad institution. I'm passing everything but only marginally, my class rank is likely in the lower 50%. After a bit of reflection I am beginning to organize my life more so that I can maximize study time and I'm also studying smarter in tough subjects like Biochem and anatomy. I feel as though I can pull up my grades to high passes (B's) by the end of the semester. Im very interested in pursuing a career in radiology but I feel as though I'm already lagging too far behind to compete with the competitive applicant pool. My question is this: would first year first semester grades be scrutinized by radiology programs if I didn't get honors in them? Especially with anatomy (I've heard if you don't get honors I'm Anatomy then you can kiss surgery and rads goodbye). If anything else can someone assure me that the world isn't over if I don't honor my first semester classes, I'm kind of freaking out right now.

 

[NickNaylor]

Hello all,
I'm an M1 at a mid tier school and I've had a bit of trouble adjusting to the intensity of med school after coming from a relatively easy undergrad institution. I'm passing everything but only marginally, my class rank is likely in the lower 50%. After a bit of reflection I am beginning to organize my life more so that I can maximize study time and I'm also studying smarter in tough subjects like Biochem and anatomy. I feel as though I can pull up my grades to high passes (B's) by the end of the semester. Im very interested in pursuing a career in radiology but I feel as though I'm already lagging too far behind to compete with the competitive applicant pool. My question is this: would first year first semester grades be scrutinized by radiology programs if I didn't get honors in them? Especially with anatomy (I've heard if you don't get honors I'm Anatomy then you can kiss surgery and rads goodbye). If anything else can someone assure me that the world isn't over if I don't honor my first semester classes, I'm kind of freaking out right now.

This has been discussed ad nauseum. The general consensus is that pre-clinical grades are much, much less important than things like M3 grades, step 1, and LORs. Not getting honors in anatomy and therefore being unable to pursue a surgical specialty is complete nonsense.

 

[evilbooyaa]

(I've heard if you don't get honors I'm Anatomy then you can kiss surgery and rads goodbye

False.

If you're really interested in rads (and not doing the best programs, just training to become a radiologist) it's one of the few specialties that had a bunch of unmatched spots at the end of last year's match.

Focus on doing as best as you can. Do a search on your question to see it discussed in greater detail. The short of it is that (almost) no program will reject you for not honoring MS1 anatomy.

 

[GangaMaster]

Biochem and Anatomy hard? Wait till you get to Neuroscience (where everything is an imaginary line that has its own blood supply) and Physiology.

 

[Apoplexy__]

pre-clinical grades are much, much less important than things like M3 grades, step 1, and LORs. Not getting honors in anatomy and therefore being unable to pursue a surgical specialty is complete nonsense.

This. That isn't to say that you can get away with being <50% of your class for all 2 years and expect to get a 95th percentile Step 1 score, BUT you absolutely have plenty of time to improve and adjust. Breathe, reflect, then come up with a game plan. Optimize your studying at every opportunity and don't get stuck into study habits because you're afraid something else won't work. You can always improve something (I'm MS2 and I'm still adjusting my studying every test).

 

[rodmichael82]

Biochem and Anatomy hard? Wait till you get to Neuroscience (where everything is an imaginary line that has its own blood supply) and Physiology.

That's very subjective. I thought Physiology was easy. Either way M1 can be tough for people you just have to adjust to it. Pass is all that matters and doing well on your step 1.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Biochem and Anatomy hard? Wait till you get to Neuroscience (where everything is an imaginary line that has its own blood supply) and Physiology.

They are different beasts. Physiology was a lot of thinking through processes as opposed to just memorizing stuff in Anatomy (and to a lesser extent, Biochem). Neuroscience could have theoretically been understood to make learning it easier, but I just hated the subject material so much I brute force memorized my way through it. Came back to bite me in the ass later.

 

[Akali]

Just a little spoiler here: It doesn't stop getting rough 🙂