I attend a DO school (MSU, a very well established school) and we have a rank system 1-5, i am currently in the lowest rank. I was going through some rough waters during my first year and school was not the priority that it should have been. I am by no means incompetent or stupid, i just did not put in the work it deserved; you'd be shocked to hear I'm a medical student if i told you how incredibly little i studied, most of the times id cram an entire unit of 2 weeks in 3-4 days before the exam without doing a single lecture all of the two weeks before, complete irresponsibility and lack of discipline but i had my reasons and learned my lessons, so i know I am capable of improving if i work for it.
I don't know by how much i can raise my ranking with only 2 semesters left, may be to 2 or 3, but my question is would a good board exam compensate? i was told by faculty that our ranking system isn't really used heavily by PDs and does not have a significant weight.
my plan going forward is to give second year (i just started it) all i got and to put exceptional effort for boards, something i completely did not do for the mcat either. I am not very much involved in EC or research at the moment. so
how much can i accomplish in the next 3 years, what kind of things other than boards should be my focus? is it common for research to be done during clerkships? would a good STEP exam make up for low ranking? my residency goal is EM.
