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Not acceptable...sorry, i always end up where i want to be...
IMHO, people who say things like "Can't is not an option" probably have enough, if not too much, in the confidence department.Not in terms of competitiveness, but when you score high you just have all the more confidence.
So I started out the (MS1) semester scoring very high (i guess it was a review/easier) in the middle i started scoring towards the middle of the class (50 percentile)...i scored a 97% on 1 exam, after that, but I keep scoring smack dab in the middle.
I study a lot, after classes anywhere from 6-8hr/night. I read the text books, and i study during the weekends a good 10-12 hrs.
I am really frustrated...i am shooting for MGH in internal medicine or dermatology so i am need to do well in classes, so i do well on the boards. I understand that they are not correlated 100% but I would like to be towards the top of my class. I had gf issues after my second exam as well...but i always have been able to perform w/ gf issues (not a new thing).
What should I do? Next semester the honors come into play, and I would like to score in the top percentile of the class. Not in terms of competitiveness, but when you score high you just have all the more confidence. What should I do to start scoring higher? Change study habits? Class is not worth it to me, but i realize whether I go or not I still score in the same ranged.
Should I keep doing what i am doing and study for the boards at the same time?
Hey man. If you are studying 6-8 hours after class and scoring in the 50th percentile consistantly, then something if obviously falling through the cracks. Personally I hate studying with people because I feel like I go slower when I do, but I do have one classmate/friend that I hook up with because I know that he studies like me and is slightly smarter than me 🙂. Hooking up with a classmate who is smarter than you will allow you to see what they know that you don't know because that is what is keeping your percentile stagnant. So that would be one piece of advice I have for you.So I started out the (MS1) semester scoring very high (i guess it was a review/easier) in the middle i started scoring towards the middle of the class (50 percentile)...i scored a 97% on 1 exam, after that, but I keep scoring smack dab in the middle.
I study a lot, after classes anywhere from 6-8hr/night. I read the text books, and i study during the weekends a good 10-12 hrs.
I am really frustrated...i am shooting for MGH in internal medicine or dermatology so i am need to do well in classes, so i do well on the boards. I understand that they are not correlated 100% but I would like to be towards the top of my class. I had gf issues after my second exam as well...but i always have been able to perform w/ gf issues (not a new thing).
What should I do? Next semester the honors come into play, and I would like to score in the top percentile of the class. Not in terms of competitiveness, but when you score high you just have all the more confidence. What should I do to start scoring higher? Change study habits? Class is not worth it to me, but i realize whether I go or not I still score in the same ranged.
Should I keep doing what i am doing and study for the boards at the same time?
I am very sad to see people telling you to "settle"...Aim as high as you can and do the best that you can... thats all you can do in life right? Guess what, if you love derm and you don't match the first time, you'll do a research fellowship and then match.... there are plenty of examples like this... so if you want Harvard Derm or whatever, go for it.... play your cards and let the chips land where they may... but don't let these random people on SDN tell you "No you cant"... because as people on this site have said over and over "misery loves company"
I personally think you're over studying. So relax and stop worrying about how well you do compared to everyone else, and just focus on yourself and mastering the material you will need to be a great doc. Everything else will fall into line.So I started out the (MS1) semester scoring very high (i guess it was a review/easier) in the middle i started scoring towards the middle of the class (50 percentile)...i scored a 97% on 1 exam, after that, but I keep scoring smack dab in the middle.
I study a lot, after classes anywhere from 6-8hr/night. I read the text books, and i study during the weekends a good 10-12 hrs.
I am really frustrated...i am shooting for MGH in internal medicine or dermatology so i am need to do well in classes, so i do well on the boards. I understand that they are not correlated 100% but I would like to be towards the top of my class. I had gf issues after my second exam as well...but i always have been able to perform w/ gf issues (not a new thing).
What should I do? Next semester the honors come into play, and I would like to score in the top percentile of the class. Not in terms of competitiveness, but when you score high you just have all the more confidence. What should I do to start scoring higher? Change study habits? Class is not worth it to me, but i realize whether I go or not I still score in the same ranged.
Should I keep doing what i am doing and study for the boards at the same time?
My advice would be to go to the gym after class, unwind a bit, get some Outback take out or something and study a healthy 4 hours, get some sleep and study hard on the weekends.
I am very sad to see people telling you to "settle"...Aim as high as you can and do the best that you can... thats all you can do in life right? Guess what, if you love derm and you don't match the first time, you'll do a research fellowship and then match.... there are plenty of examples like this... so if you want Harvard Derm or whatever, go for it.... play your cards and let the chips land where they may... but don't let these random people on SDN tell you "No you cant"... because as people on this site have said over and over "misery loves company"
Not acceptable...sorry, i always end up where i want to be...just asking for some advice on how to get there. i have the capability and i have he motivation. i just need to focus on being more efficient at studying.
Cant is not acceptable. Already working on getting some research. any other useful advice would be greatly appreciated 😳}
I'd say cool down dude. 80% of the stuff you learned in your first semester will be rather irrelevant when you become an intern.
Well, he and most of us don't attend med school in Mexico. Our med schools are held to much high standard than that of Mexico. Everything becomes relevant at some point. Things that you learn the second year BUILDS upon what you learned the first year. If you forget or did not master the first years stuffs, save for anatomy, you will much tougher time doing well the second year.
Everything becomes relevant at some point. Things that you learn the second year BUILDS upon what you learned the first year. If you forget or did not master the first years stuffs, save for anatomy, you will much tougher time doing well the second year.
Agreed, a lot of people on SDN are too negative (they would say realistic). You can't achieve this, don't expect to be that. Well if you don't try you definitely wont get what you want.
I'd say cool down dude. 80% of the stuff you learned in your first semester will be rather irrelevant when you become an intern. The most useful subject in first semester for me was Anatomy and even there the memorizing every bloody muscle in the arm like a crack-head parrot becomes irrelevant in 98% of the courses you'll see later in medicine. I forgot (and keep on forgetting ^^') exactly the name of the bones in the wrist, I always confuse them, but I was only asked a question about it like.. once in a partial exam in my clinical years in my ortho course.
First semester is more of a slight wake-up call to tell you that this ain't HS anymore (in Mexico we start med school fresh out of HS) and you start to adjust to the new rhythm while learning very, very general things about medicine. The first year is more like a foundation to give you an idea of what is normal. If you ever forget the stage of how the embryo's kidney is formed, it's not going to make you a crappy doctor.
One hint: Every doctor forgets most of what they learned in med school. They remember vaguely general concepts, but they won't remember the rather useless minor concepts that USMLE Step 1 loves to ask. The longer someone is a specialist, the more about general medicine they forget.
The really useful subjects are what you'll be taking as an M-2. Pharmachology and Pathology are really, really important subjects. If you're going to go bonkers studying like crazy, use your energy on Pathology, not on which are the chemical steps to making a pathology slide. It's good to have a remote idea of the process, but it's not something as a general doctor you'll ever do.
While I believe it's good that you want to do very well to give you chances early on if you're into a competitive residency; please remember that it's a general rule of thumb that what specialty you were interested at first in med school isn't necesairly what you'll do at the end. I've never met anyone that did what they were thinking of doing when they got in. Keep an open mind in your 3rd year.
I'm pretty interested in IM but it's well-known that internship will truely define what you'll end up doing and I haven't started it yet. I may keep an open mind at least for Ob/Gyn where my hospital gets an insane amount of births per day and it's the interns that do most of the work.
Lastly, the most highly fought hospitals for internship in my case aren't necesairly the places you'll learn the most. People with the highest grades in my university grabbed the foreign slots and several of the really, really posh private hospitals so that they can party in Spain without ever doing night-call and drink coffee and eat cookies while watching soaps in the posh hospitals without ever doing any real procedure experience. The mexican posh hospitals compensate by having a lot of theory classes to fill out time and many of them have Ob/Gyn rotations in public hospitals, but the foreign hospitals have a bad name. While you are partying and touring, others that stayed in Mexico are working their arses off doing procedures.
When the Cenaval exams are done, the foreign slot students fare the worst. I even heard of someone who did the internship in Miami that flunked the practical exam when they told him he had to deliver a baby alone and he didn't know how. I had some interest in Miami myself because I'd have the chance to leave the country and see a different kind of medicine, but even if the slot had been available, I would have never been able to afford the trip living there on my own cash.
You still have the option to do internship anywhere in Mexico, work hard getting a good image to your superiors, request an American hospital to let you do a 2 month rotation and then go there. You still get the chance to gain experience and meet people without having an insane grade average. My internship coordinator at my university even told everyone that doing so is far smarter than doing a 12 month foreign internship gradeswise.
I admit, my class rank isn't that good (but I have personal reasons for a lot of it), but I still had several hospital options when it came for me to choose. I still chose a public hospital and in fact it's quite a nice place and it's so close to home, I can virtually walk there. Had I known how nice the place really was, I would have left it as one of my top 3 choices instead of my 4th. It seems like the kind of place I enjoy with lots of action instead of the ad nauseum boring-ness of some of the private hospitals I've been to. I feel like I lack in practical experience because the theory is quite there (people state I have a very good memory for stuff they parrot memorized and threw away from their memory the next day), it will be an interesting year. It also has great taco street stands, indeed, that's my kind of medicine. Tasty tacos in stingy street stands = WIN. 👍
I'll be frank, I'd like to do my residency in my native USA because I miss my native country. Haven't done the Steps yet, partially because I really want to do very well in them. Don't want to get a 190 on the Step 1.
Like I said before, I'm into IM, but I'm still open for some specialties. However, I wouldn't do a residency in a Mayo clinic type of place. I'm not for the big name, I'm for the real work. I'm a bit of a workaholic and have little patience to be standing around doing nothing. In fact, if I'm not doing something nonstop I get a bit looney. And sadly, because a place like the Mayo is so exclusive, they won't be letting their residents to be doing all of the stuff, that's what the attendings do.
It's the same reason where when I become an M-6, I deny to do my social service in Mexico City. I want to be where the action with no name glory is and work with the real people. My internship hospital wasn't the place I was expected to be in, but I'm starting to love the place now that I've actually been there. If being pompous and you like a big-name place to be your only option, go for it; but be it because that's genuinely you. You can become a great doctor no matter where you do your preparation.
I'd also lower the batteries in your first year, student burnout is horrible. I know by experience. Save your energy for 2nd and 3rd year where the courses will really decide if you stay to become a doctor or not.
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As for me, I hate Dermatology, most confusing specialty ever. I'd never want to become one.![]()
gunner...too many in med school...just calm down. who cares about MGH. you'll learn more medicine at most other hospitals anyway. Patients go to MGH to get care from famous doctors, not the residents. Do you care more about your reputation or your skill?
I think both JeffLebowski and daman has got to get off their high horses. This attitude about being "to cool" to worry about the future.... and anyone else that does makes you a gunner is ridiculous .....there was recently a thread that discussed ad nauseum what being a gunner truly is... you both should go take a look at it.... the OP is NOT a gunner... I mean, this person is trying to adjust to med school, and is obviously worried because they have big aspirations (G-d forbid they come to med school with aspirations and hopes, rather than just cruising through, barely passing)... geeezz, I am so sick of the negativity from people... if you don't have any encouraging words or helpful tips, why post?
I think the OP as a first year needed to vent more than anything else, and maybe hear some supportive words from colleagues for encouragement, rather than BS about "coming back to reality" or being called a gunner.
And some of us think that these supportive words can be HARMFUL if you're blowing sunshine at this guy, when it's an obvious fact that half of all med students are BELOW AVERAGE. 90% of med students will not be able to crack the top 10% of their class. We're not saying that the OP can't apply for competitive specialties or have high hopes; we're just saying that if you're already doing all you can, don't beat up on yourself or have unrealistic expectations that you can improve by leaps and bounds.I can be mature enough to say that the OP saying "Hey, this is what I want and that's what I'll get it" is a little ridiculous, but I took the OPs response not at face value (hope that is what they meant), .... I really just took it as "I won't give up" type of attitude.. which the OP shouldn't! But, yes, things happen in life, and that's life, but it's good to have goals. I think the OP as a first year needed to vent more than anything else, and maybe hear some supportive words from colleagues for encouragement, rather than BS about "coming back to reality" or being called a gunner.
And I will agree, yes to the OP, be more careful how you phrase your questions/responses.
Great advice, but I am curious why Outback?