Secrets of 3rd year success...

[DIVA01]

Since most of you are either on your way out of medical school or on your way to chillaxing during 4th year, what are your parting words of advice for 3rd year success for the incoming ones?

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[dfagod]

One of the most important things you can do is find out from the current 3rd years which attendings give out Honors grades, and try to request them. It's sad, but what attendings you have is a HUGE part of what grade you will get.

 

[wook]

Since most of you are either on your way out of medical school or on your way to chillaxing during 4th year, what are your parting words of advice for 3rd year success for the incoming ones?

Get to know your patients well and be able to speak about their ailment, pathophys, labs/imaging, and what labs/imaging to order as well as what labsimaging are pending. Read up about their ailments.

The usual arrive early and stay late are sometimes helpful.

Wook

 

[automaton]

kiss a lot of ass and study as hard for the shelf as possible. don't waste your time with work that never gets noticed. it's all a show. working in the background is ineffective. talking to patients is low yield, as no one will ever notice how good (or poor) your bedside manner is. speak with confidence even when you are unsure. the key to success in 3rd year is not working hard, it's working smart and efficiently. for example it is much better to impress an attending than an intern. don't do a bunch of random scut for the intern. instead use that time to talk to attendings, talk about random stuff, and kiss their ass.

 

[xaelia]

Study for the shelf. The return on investment is a lot more certain, considering what a crapshoot attendings are, and the lack of numerical correlation on evaluations to your actual or perceived clinical performance.

Obviously, study up on your patients and try to anticipate what questions might be asked about them. If you hate the other medical students you're working with, and don't care if they hate you, study up on their patients, too, so that you can jump in when they don't know the answer to one of the questions they've been asked.

 

[KidDr]

talking to patients is low yield, as no one will ever notice how good (or poor) your bedside manner is.

As a senior resident my evals often carry more weight than the attendings because I work much more closely with med students than the attendings do...and med students who have great communication skills--with patients, parents, nurses, attendings, other students, residents, etc, etc--definitely get better evaluations. I don't care how much random stuff you know if your interpersonal skills suck.

 

[Radiohead]

As a senior resident my evals often carry more weight than the attendings because I work much more closely with med students than the attendings do...and med students who have great communication skills--with patients, parents, nurses, attendings, other students, residents, etc, etc--definitely get better evaluations. I don't care how much random stuff you know if your interpersonal skills suck.

That is 100% correct. For the most part, attendings don't just throw at a dartboard and come up with your grade. They ask the team to give their input, and that goes a long way in coming up with your grade. Sure, the attending has his/her own opinions, but those are based on the 5 minutes that they interact with you each day. The rotations that I received the best grades were ones in which I really bonded with the residents on the team. I could basically do no wrong in their eyes. Even though, I missed random pimp questions on a daily basis, I got comments (on my Dean's letter) like "best third year I have ever worked with" and "I would like to take (insert name here) to all my rotations." I DID NOT bust my a## either. I came in as late as possible and left when told to. I was actually told to try to get to work a little earlier, by one of the interns, who I am still friends with today (almost 2 years later). Just be cool, and try to bond with the team (without overtly being a brown noser) even if you are a social *****.

 

[Wednesday]

You should try to do the best you can on every rotation and not worry too much about your ultimate grade because as you have probably gathered from this board, clinical grades are pretty random. You will likely be lucky on some rotations, and not as lucky on others. Be honest, ask questions, be interested, read and work hard and you should do fine. Spending some time with the chart on the day you are assigned the patient is usually a good use of your time, especially if the patient has been in the hospital a while. It gives you a little more background into the stay and you will probably not have time to do that the next morning when you're writing your first note.

I personally disagree with the poster who said that you shouldn't talk to your patients. If you're purely thinking about your grade, coming up with information that no one else has gathered about your patient when the team is talking about him or her (like if they have family in the area who should be contacted) can look very impressive and you get that info by spending a couple of minutes talking to them. Also, if you spend time with the patient, they will often say things to the team like "like I told the medical student this morning..." instead of holding things back until the team comes around and making you look like a jerk (although this will still happen occasionally). But even beyond the grade thing, spending time with your patients is really quailty time in most cases. These are experiences that will mold who you are as a clinician. I think that my time was often wasted holding retractors in the OR (and I'm going into a surgical field) but sitting down for 10 minutes with my dying patient is an experience that has already changed how I relate to my patients today.

I think the most important thing is to realize that 3rd year does have many painful parts, but this will likely be the only time you will be exposed to many of these fields. Thinking of it as an opportunity instead of a chore should improve your experience as well as your grade.

 

[ears]

Always be interested in what's going on. Failing that, try to appear interested in what's going on. If you have to, fake it. This isn't a grade thing, either; it's an educational thing. People teach you more if they think you're interested. This is definitely not the time to be all, "The world bores me", Joe Cool.

The advice about bonding with the team is money, too.

And be very nice and polite to the staff in the hospital---nurses, nutritionists, respiratory techs, scrub techs (especially folks in the OR). Some of them will be obnoxious to you. Your response should be to be even nicer to them.

Don't complain in the hospital. Believe me, you'll have legitimate reason to complain, sometimes (cf. "obnoxious staff", above). But take it home, and tell it to your friends when no one else is around.

And remember, you're not there to act like a med student. You're there to learn to act like a doctor.

Good luck; it's a great time.

 

[fang]

kiss a lot of ass and study as hard for the shelf as possible. don't waste your time with work that never gets noticed. it's all a show. working in the background is ineffective. talking to patients is low yield, as no one will ever notice how good (or poor) your bedside manner is. speak with confidence even when you are unsure. the key to success in 3rd year is not working hard, it's working smart and efficiently. for example it is much better to impress an attending than an intern. don't do a bunch of random scut for the intern. instead use that time to talk to attendings, talk about random stuff, and kiss their ass.

I totally disagree with this. If your shelf is worth 40% of your grade, yeah, focus on that. If not, focus on the clinical work; people *do* notice hard work "in the background" more than we give them credit for. Doing "scut" for your intern means that he/she can say to your attending "X student was really helpful and knows a lot about Y"-- that's 10x better than discussing skiing directly with your attending; they've usually been around long enough to know a brownoser when they smell one. Also, interns who like you can tell you key bits of info for rounds that 10 hours of reading up to date won't prepare you for-- I've benefited from this on multiple occasions.

Work hard, be part of the team, practice your presentations, and be interested in what you're learning!!

 

[Hurricane]

The main things are to be early and be perky. If you do those two things, the rest pretty much follows. And don't bomb the shelf.

 

[SleepIsGood]

The main things are to be early and be perky. If you do those two things, the rest pretty much follows. And don't bomb the shelf.

he's in the money

but also...stay current with research. talk about that new development over in France. Do a talk/ppt.

But what do I think is the best. Get to know your interns/residents on a personal basis. Do some 'scut'. believe me, once these guys are on your side, they'll put in good words for you guys.

 

[jojo14]

I would echo the not complaining. Ever. Have a smile on your face, be nice, and be on time. Also, don't talk badly about your fellow students, your residents, attendings, or patients. That's an easy way to lose points on teamwork and professionalism, etc. You never know who is listening.

I started getting better evals when I really took ownership of my patients and focused on the assessment and plan in addition to the H & P. Force yourself to make a decision about what you think is going on with your patient and present it to your resident or attending as such. Don't say, "Well, let's wait and see what the CT/US/X ray shows." Say something that shows you have put a lot of thought into this, like "I think patient has an exacerbation of X because of A,B,C. I also thought about Y and Z, but think these are less likely because of D,E. That's also a good time to throw in some kind of journal article you read or something without being annoying (Well, in JAMA, they said this exam finding proved to be 99% specific for X, so that would further lead us towards a diagnosis of X in this case.) Nobody expects you to be right about your decisions as a med student, but it is a great habit to start and you often end up being right more than you think!

My 0.02 anyway...

 

[sophiejane]

kiss a lot of ass and study as hard for the shelf as possible. don't waste your time with work that never gets noticed. it's all a show. working in the background is ineffective. talking to patients is low yield, as no one will ever notice how good (or poor) your bedside manner is. speak with confidence even when you are unsure. the key to success in 3rd year is not working hard, it's working smart and efficiently. for example it is much better to impress an attending than an intern. don't do a bunch of random scut for the intern. instead use that time to talk to attendings, talk about random stuff, and kiss their ass.

Just thought I'd mention this person calls themselves "automaton" and describes his place as the "assembly line"...seems sort of fitting with the above approach.

If you let being "impressive" to attendings be your ultimate goal at the expense of all else, you will be miserable and people will see straight through you.

I've not yet met an attending who can't spot a brown-noser from a mile away. They don't appreciate them.

Learn all you can. Be good to your patients. Be nice. Be early. Be enthusiastic. Study and read something every day. Pass your shelf. Try to honor on the rotation that you want to do as a residency. Get as much sleep as you can--stockpile it for the future!

 

[sophiejane]

Get to know your interns/residents on a personal basis. Do some 'scut'. believe me, once these guys are on your side, they'll put in good words for you guys.

This is so true. I can't tell you how many glowing comments I've had on evals that have come straight from the residents and INTERNS--->attendings. Scut pays off, even for the lowly interns...

 

[oudoc08]

If you hate the other medical students you're working with, and don't care if they hate you, study up on their patients, too, so that you can jump in when they don't know the answer to one of the questions they've been asked.

Pow, pow, pow. You're dead.

Glad I'm not in your class, gunnerman.

 

[CallawayDoc]

The absolute #1 rule....never screw over a fellow medical student.

This can take on several forms. avoiding work, stealing patients from another student, answering questions clearly posed to another student, failing to give necessary information to the other students on your team, pointing out when other students are late, etc.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

 

[Samoa]

The absolute #1 rule....never screw over a fellow medical student.

This can take on several forms. avoiding work, stealing patients from another student, answering questions clearly posed to another student, failing to give necessary information to the other students on your team, pointing out when other students are late, etc.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Unfortunately this only pisses off your fellow students. Residents and attendings don't seem to notice this (well, they do at my school, but not some other places I've done rotations).

 

[RonaldColeman]

1. Most important: Plant your lips firmly on the attending's ass and don't let them leave until the rotation is over.
2. Study your ass off for the shelf exams--they are the only controllable thing 3rd year.
3. Be as lazy as possible on wards. As long as you are carrying a reasonable number of patients (3 was always a good number for me), don't volunteer to carry more. Spend your time studying for your shelf exam.
4. Prepare a good ppt presentation to be given at the end of the rotation.
5. Always sound like you know what you are talking about. Be confident during presentations. Most people know what is going on with their patients. Where they differ is in how effective they are in letting the attending know this.
6. Speak up--unless a question is specifically directed at someone else, never be afraid to answer first.

 

[SleepIsGood]

 

[medulla]

Enthusiasm enthusaism enthusiasm...and with that, I include good body language. Attendings and residents are judging you all of the time, which is not a lot of fun. If you are daydreaming and looking at your feet or a book or the wall while another student is presenting or the attending is talking or a patient is being interviewed, they are not going to believe you are genuinely interested in anything. I've been told by several attendings that they observe us when we least expect it, watch how we interact with other students, and get a general sense of who we are just by using their keen observational skills. Eye contact, facial reactions, focus, and genuine interest will help make it known that you are serious about clinical medicine, even if you are not the biggest extrovert. Do not ask the attending or senior resident rhetorical questions for the sake of stating that you know something or if you are just asking the meaning of an abbreviation. This never comes across as genuine and just gets a lot of internal groans from those around you.

Very generally speaking, the students who do best on pimping rounds are the ones who did well during second year classes...they will of course ask you questions you could never have learned anywhere, but they often ask you to put a differential together on the spot or talk about med side effects or infectious disease etiologies. If you aced your second year classes, you will be in a great position to answer the reasonable questions and the ones that ask you to think!

Bring in interesting review articles, NEJM is my favorite source for those.

I would like to echo the #1 rule--never make another student look bad. It will NEVER get you anywhere, you will have plenty of opportunities to shine on your own, and your humility and self-control will be noticed by most attendings. However, if a question gets redirected to you, then you can mumble an answer with a hint of self-doubt (even if you are 100% sure of it). This way you don't come off looking like a tiger waiting to pounce and you also don't make your fellow student look like a numbnuts because you are "not quite sure" either. Do not go looking up their patients--you should have plenty of your own stuff to do. Even if the attendings are too dense to notice a rude student, the residents usually do and the other students always do and it is never a good thing to have bad karma like that!

Ask for feedback about halfway through--the least awkward time is right after a presentation of a patient or a topic. You can just nervously ask--"I was wondering how I am doing and if you have any suggestions of areas in which I can improve. " Doing this is very important for the attending/resident's opinion of your commitment and enthusiasm, and more importantly, gives you a better idea of what to work on before it's too late on your eval!

Good luck!

 

[sophiejane]

Apparently, as usual, there are as many approaches to success in 3rd year as their are personalities and situations. I guess it's what you define as success. I have managed to get grades >89 on all my rotations without being mean or being a brown noser.

I would say however, that screwing over a fellow student may one day come back to bite you in the a**. You just never know who your boss is going to be someday, or who might hold the key to you getting something you want or might be in a position to help you out or get you out of trouble one day. Best not to burn any bridges. Plus, it's better for your karma.

 

[chak_de_phatee]

1. Most important: Plant your lips firmly on the attending's ass and don't let them leave until the rotation is over.

2. Study your ass off for the shelf exams--they are the only controllable thing 3rd year.



Better words have not been said............and(Kiss ass but dont make it seem like you are doing it............its a rare skill only a select few chosen ones have..........if you seem fake the attending will know it. Its just like hitting on a supermodel...........they get hit on so much they know whats coming........but if you can do it without being a chump is what counts.......I have noticed that my friends who are very good at picking up chicks are good at it.)

P.S. I did not have that skill so I followed number 2.

 

[PickyBicky]

1. Most important: Plant your lips firmly on the attending's ass and don't let them leave until the rotation is over.
2. Study your ass off for the shelf exams--they are the only controllable thing 3rd year.
3. Be as lazy as possible on wards. As long as you are carrying a reasonable number of patients (3 was always a good number for me), don't volunteer to carry more. Spend your time studying for your shelf exam.
4. Prepare a good ppt presentation to be given at the end of the rotation.
5. Always sound like you know what you are talking about. Be confident during presentations. Most people know what is going on with their patients. Where they differ is in how effective they are in letting the attending know this.
6. Speak up--unless a question is specifically directed at someone else, never be afraid to answer first.

This is terrible advice.

-PB

 

[Dakotawolf]

TE=RonaldColeman]1. Most important: Plant your lips firmly on the attending's ass and don't let them leave until the rotation is over.
2. Study your ass off for the shelf exams--they are the only controllable thing 3rd year.
3. Be as lazy as possible on wards. As long as you are carrying a reasonable number of patients (3 was always a good number for me), don't volunteer to carry more. Spend your time studying for your shelf exam.
4. Prepare a good ppt presentation to be given at the end of the rotation.
5. Always sound like you know what you are talking about. Be confident during presentations. Most people know what is going on with their patients. Where they differ is in how effective they are in letting the attending know this.
6. Speak up--unless a question is specifically directed at someone else, never be afraid to answer first.[/QUOTE]

 

[tiredmom]

My 2 cents:
1. Consider it a job. Be prepared to work hard while you are there, be ready, organized and on time.
2. Try to learn something from each patient you see - I've found I learn so much better when I have a face and story to go with the disease.
3. Be nice to everybody.
4. Act interested, even if you are bored to tears. Don't be insincere, but it's rude to show you are bored when someone is talking.
5. Study hard for the shelf exam. Ours count at least 60% of total grade accross all rotations. Talk to students that have already done the rotation to find out what review books they felt prepared best for that shelf.
6. Don't screw over other med students. The most despised person in our rotation does this, everybody knows it, and nobody wants to work with her.
7. Dress appropriately - nobody wants to see your cleavage or stomach while your working. It just looks wrong with the white coat.
Good luck.

 

[RonaldColeman]

This is terrible advice.

-PB

Well, the OP asked for advice, and this is what got me honors in all 3rd year rotations but one and 99th percentile on all shelf exams. As someone said, every school is different. Do what you have to do at your school to get honors. If your school weighs the shelf exams and OSCEs heavily like my school does, why the hell would you spend all of your time scutting on wards? 3rd year is a game. Sure, you can carry 5 patients, scut your ass off for your residents, talk to your patients, etc. In the end, chances are you're gonna get the same eval as the student who didn't give a ****. Why? Because most attendings don't take the time to really evaluate you, and it is very difficult to set yourself apart on the wards anyway. 3rd year evals are a crapshoot; it's best to maximize your scores on the things that are controllable. Of course, if your school bases your 3rd year grades mostly on ward performance, it's a different story. In this instance, you should dedicate more time to ward activities. I think, however, that many schools have moved away from this and are largely considering shelf exams and OSCE performance.

 

[sophiejane]

That would be an interesting poll...

At our school:
25% shelf
50-75% evals
0-25% departmental exam

No OSCEs in 3rd year--we did them in 2nd year with trained patients.

So, most people study for the shelf but it's not as important grade-wise it appears to be at some schools.

 

[RonaldColeman]

That would be an interesting poll...

At our school:
25% shelf
50-75% evals
0-25% departmental exam

No OSCEs in 3rd year--we did them in 2nd year with trained patients.

So, most people study for the shelf but it's not as important grade-wise it appears to be at some schools.

I should modify my recs. I would only recommend what I did for schools that have a grading system like my school. If evals make up the bulk of your grade, don't follow my advice!!! Also, perhaps I shouldn't have said that schools have largely switched to OSCEs and shelf exams. It might be more appropriate to say that more schools are switching to this grading system.

 

[Hurricane]

That would be an interesting poll...

At our school:
25% shelf
50-75% evals
0-25% departmental exam

No OSCEs in 3rd year--we did them in 2nd year with trained patients.

So, most people study for the shelf but it's not as important grade-wise it appears to be at some schools.

It varies widely at our school. The dean's office mandated that all of the core rotations have to administer the shelf, but it's up to the clerkship director how they use it in the grading. So it varies from 30% for surgery to 0% for family. The ones that don't count it for much have their own departmental exam. But often they'll have a condition that says you can get honors or pass if you fail the shelf. So even if it doesn't count for much, you still have to show up and put forth some effort to study for it.

 

[sophiejane]

I should modify my recs. I would only recommend what I did for schools that have a grading system like my school. If evals make up the bulk of your grade, don't follow my advice!!! Also, perhaps I shouldn't have said that schools have largely switched to OSCEs and shelf exams. It might be more appropriate to say that more schools are switching to this grading system.

This is just another example of how nothing applies to everyone all the time. As much as we'd like to think our situation is universal, it's far from it.

Us medical students (myself included) LOVE to dispense knowledge and advice and look like authorities. We do it on the wards ("oh, yeah, I've done lots of paracentesises, I'd be happy to do it!") and we do it to incoming 3rd years ("you HAVE to get book X, it's an absolute guaranteed way to get >90% on the shelf!").

We just need to be more careful, or hope that most people use this site primarily for amusement and don't actually take any piece of advice to heart 100%.

 

[fomites]

Since most of you are either on your way out of medical school or on your way to chillaxing during 4th year, what are your parting words of advice for 3rd year success for the incoming ones?

1. DO NOT carry a clipboard. That is a license for an automatic beating with a chest tube or such. Clipboard Dorks look like people who don't do any work and just sit around pontificating.

2. Put down the 10 highlighters you've compulsively used in 1st and 2nd yr. you don't need them anymore, unkay? Leave them at home. Do NOT stuff your white coat with a dozen highlighters and various multicolored pens. This is not about studying books so much anymore as it is about seeing patients and doctoring. get it? Don't be a tool.

3. LOOSEN UP. for god's sake, crack a smile, get some sleep, be social, and quit being so goddamn intense.

4. shut yo mouth. This is not the time to show off your awesome basic science nerdiness and all the minutia you remember. You are there to watch and learn. PLEASE do not ask gratuitous questions. that is another license for a lashing --with your own stethescope.

um, that's pretty much it. If you can interact normally with people and can shed the non-human qualitites that lurk within you, you'll be fine.

 

[njbmd]

Since most of you are either on your way out of medical school or on your way to chillaxing during 4th year, what are your parting words of advice for 3rd year success for the incoming ones?

Hi there,
Pick up a very small pocket book called "How to Be a Truly Excellent Junior Medical Student" by Masterson. This very cheap book has everything that you need to ace third year.

Also, make copies of chapters from your review books or better year, tear out pages at a time, keep them in your pocket and study while you are waiting around, standing around etc. In other words, review when you have the time.

Read about your patients and always know more about your patients than anyone else. Check their labwork, make sure orders are carried out and help the intern. Help your fellow students and keep the teamwork approach. If things go smoothly on your rotation, everyone is likely to get a good clinical grade. The shelf is up to you so keep reviewing and reading.

Do NOT suck up to the attendings, they know very quickly that you are an A--kisser and will grade you as such. Keep up with your duties, help out, treat everyone with respect and life will be much easier. Get a label as a jerk and you have to expend extra energy to get your work done. I honored all of my clinical rotations without being a jerk.

njbmd

 

[Caffeinated]

I recommend you pick up a copy of this book. Once you master it, you will be ready to impress your residents and attendings.

 

[chak_de_phatee]

This is just another example of how nothing applies to everyone all the time. As much as we'd like to think our situation is universal, it's far from it.

Us medical students (myself included) LOVE to dispense knowledge and advice and look like authorities. We do it on the wards ("oh, yeah, I've done lots of paracentesises, I'd be happy to do it!") and we do it to incoming 3rd years ("you HAVE to get book X, it's an absolute guaranteed way to get >90% on the shelf!").

We just need to be more careful, or hope that most people use this site primarily for amusement and don't actually take any piece of advice to heart 100%.

Get advice from people who actually rocked the clinicals...........MOST IMPORTANTLY ASK THE PERSON GIVING ADVICE HOW WERE YOUR GRADES????????.....................its just like SDN a million people giving Step1 advice but only a few who rocked it(idiopathic, jalby, bigfrank,saco, LD etc).............if a person aced all their rotations then they are doing something right............and YES THERE IS A FORMULA

Most of the time.
A=Know your **** COLD(patient+shelf info)+be likable+be a team player+volunteer to do stuff but dont EVER make others look bad



P.S. I have aced all the rotations I have grades for so far(about 5)

 

[Pox in a box]

P.S. I have aced all the rotations I have grades for so far(about 5)

Awesome.

 

[p53]

I have aced all the rotations I have grades for so far(about 5)

Your definition of "ace" might not be the same as others. Perhaps you might not have much ability thus "ace" is scoring above average in your own eyes.

My definition of "ace" is to honor the rotation. All med students know what honoring means. If you used the word "honors" there is no room for interpretation. However, you used the word "aced" rather than "honored" thus you purposely or subconsciously omitted the term "honoring" the courses because you DID NOT HONOR your classes. Anyone that has honored their rotations would automatically use the term "honored". You didn't. That is the bottomline.

Now that you are called out on this, you will predictably come back with the reply that you indeed "honored" all 5 rotations to save face.

Whatever you say brother. Nice job, "acing" your classes. You deserve patting yourself on the back. Too bad, the word "Acing" will not appear on your transcript.

 

[sophiejane]

Oh for the love of god can we please grow up and cut out the $%*^-measuring contests?

This forum grows more sophomoric every day.

 

[mysophobe]

Your definition of "ace" might not be the same as others. Perhaps you might not have much ability thus "ace" is scoring above average in your own eyes.

My definition of "ace" is to honor the rotation. All med students know what honoring means. If you used the word "honors" there is no room for interpretation. However, you used the word "aced" rather than "honored" thus you purposely or subconsciously omitted the term "honoring" the courses because you DID NOT HONOR your classes. Anyone that has honored their rotations would automatically use the term "honored". You didn't. That is the bottomline.

Now that you are called out on this, you will predictably come back with the reply that you indeed "honored" all 5 rotations to save face.

Whatever you say brother. Nice job, "acing" your classes. You deserve patting yourself on the back. Too bad, the word "Acing" will not appear on your transcript.

Are you serious with this s hit?

 

[chak_de_phatee]

Are you serious with this s hit?

TOOLS thrive on negative attention and peoples reactions to their absurd comments........its like trying to win an argument with a schizophreniac even if you win you lost........................Your intentions are good but please do not feed the tool............

 

[ninnevah]

Always be interested in what's going on. Failing that, try to appear interested in what's going on. If you have to, fake it. This isn't a grade thing, either; it's an educational thing. People teach you more if they think you're interested. This is definitely not the time to be all, "The world bores me", Joe Cool.

i agree, act interested...and about the kissing ass...there's an art to that that i havent perfected yet so i havent attempted to indulge into that....but ive seen it backfire heaps of times on other students...

and yeah never put down or hide info from other students, they will make it an aim to get back at you and you dont need that.

 

[ninnevah]

oh and dont try to get drs to feel sorry for you, about your study load, that you are also a parent, about how long transportation takes to get there every morning...theyre really not interested

 

[pillowhead]

Your definition of "ace" might not be the same as others. Perhaps you might not have much ability thus "ace" is scoring above average in your own eyes.

My definition of "ace" is to honor the rotation. All med students know what honoring means. If you used the word "honors" there is no room for interpretation. However, you used the word "aced" rather than "honored" thus you purposely or subconsciously omitted the term "honoring" the courses because you DID NOT HONOR your classes. Anyone that has honored their rotations would automatically use the term "honored". You didn't. That is the bottomline.

Now that you are called out on this, you will predictably come back with the reply that you indeed "honored" all 5 rotations to save face.

Whatever you say brother. Nice job, "acing" your classes. You deserve patting yourself on the back. Too bad, the word "Acing" will not appear on your transcript.

Actually, all med students do NOT know what qualifies for honors because some of us attend schools that use A/B/C/D/F systems rather than honors/pass/fail systems.

You sound ridiculous.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Your definition of "ace" might not be the same as others. Perhaps you might not have much ability thus "ace" is scoring above average in your own eyes.

My definition of "ace" is to honor the rotation. All med students know what honoring means. If you used the word "honors" there is no room for interpretation. However, you used the word "aced" rather than "honored" thus you purposely or subconsciously omitted the term "honoring" the courses because you DID NOT HONOR your classes. Anyone that has honored their rotations would automatically use the term "honored". You didn't. That is the bottomline.

Now that you are called out on this, you will predictably come back with the reply that you indeed "honored" all 5 rotations to save face.

Whatever you say brother. Nice job, "acing" your classes. You deserve patting yourself on the back. Too bad, the word "Acing" will not appear on your transcript.

I don't think he's being serious. That one was too over the top, even for p53. It sounds more like a deliberately overblown caricature of an "internet forum mindreader" than an actual jab. In which case, I'm on board.

HamOn

 

[bigfrank]

Oh for the love of god can we please grow up and cut out the $%*^-measuring contests?

This forum grows more sophomoric every day.

Speaking of sophomoric (and ironic), nice post yourself!!!

$#%&*& is a really mature way to converse as well!!!

 

[mysophobe]

TOOLS thrive on negative attention and peoples reactions to their absurd comments........its like trying to win an argument with a schizophreniac even if you win you lost........................Your intentions are good but please do not feed the tool............

I have much to learn, jedi master.

 

[chak_de_phatee]

I have much to learn, jedi master.

May the force be with you..............

 

[p53]

Actually, all med students do NOT know what qualifies for honors because some of us attend schools that use A/B/C/D/F systems rather than honors/pass/fail systems.

You sound ridiculous.

Let me get this straight. You are in medical school in an A/B/C/D/E systems and don't know what the term 'honoring" means? How about YOU being a member of SDN since Oct 2002 and having 100+ posts and still NOT know what "honoring" means? You are ridiculous.

You can't be that dumb. I'll give you a pass, and say that you have very poor reading comprehension since I discussed the fact that medical students would know what "honors" means rather than what qualifies for "honors".

Regardless, be very grateful that you are in medical school because I have a feeling many people with much stronger verbal reasoining skills did not get into medical school and you miraculously made it.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Your definition of "ace" might not be the same as others.

Let me get this straight. You are in medical school in an A/B/C/D/E systems and don't know what the term 'honoring" means?

So "Ace" doesn't necessarily mean "Honor", but "A" does? Or is it "A-", or "B+". I think I'm as confused as P53 now.

I hereby retract my previous , and give a hearty .

 

[usmaple]

Probably nothing that hasn't already been said, but here are a few things I've learned so far:

1. EVERY service and every attending has a different expectation of what a good progress note is and of what a good patient presentation during rounds is. You need to be able to figure out what they want (pay close attention in rounds and look at, and what you can't figure out ASK) and adapt to their style within the first day or two.

2. Know your patients better than anyone else. Once you've been assigned a patient, be sure to have every medication and lab value on hand (even at our run-down public hospitals you can check lab values online and print out a basic flowsheet for each patient), and make a note of any changes. Stay on top of notes and plans from other teams that are watching your patients. Learn a little bit about the pathophysiology, treatment, prognosis, etc. of their disease. Keep your team apprised of any important developments, but realize that one of your main jobs is to sift through the mounds of data that are coming in and decide what's important and relevant and what isn't. It sounds like a lot of work, but after the first day or two of seeing a patient it really only takes a few minutes per patient per day to really keep on top of things.

3. Begging for scut won't get you any respect, but it will get you a lot more scut. Don't be the student on your team (there always seems to be at least one) who's constantly begging the residents for more busy work in an attempt to look hard-working.

3a. On a related note, if your resident or attending tells you to go home, GO HOME. If you've finished all of your work and you're sitting around doing nothing, ASK TO GO HOME. Really, it's OK! Don't fall into the med student trap of thinking that staying in the hospital unnecessarily is somehow impressing the people who are evaluating you. You're better off doing what needs to be done and then giving yourself time to rest, be with your family and friends, and study for the shelf.

4. As others have said, rock the exam! Even if it only counts for 20-30%, the shelf (or departmental) exams are the only thing that you have full control over. There's just too much variability, randomness, and dumb luck (good or bad) involved in the evaluation process to bank your whole rotation grade on it. Figure out which review books are good for which rotation, get a good book of questions, and set a schedule for yourself. Give yourself enough time, both in the long term (i.e. don't hold off studying until the week before the exam) and the short term (i.e. don't waste time in the hospital if you're not needed - go home and study).

5. Finally, BE COOL! Try to be pleasant, enthusiastic, competent, efficient, and hard-working. Be assertive but not aggressive. Don't be overbearing, don't whine or complain too much, don't talk about people behind their back, and don't overstep your role. Basically, be someone that your attendings, residents, and fellow students enjoy being around and could envision working with as a colleague in the future.