Will taking surgery first in 3rd year give you a better curve in grading?

[rmbd2b12]

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I think someone at my school said that if you take surgery first, the threshold grade for honors will be decreased. Is this true anywhere else?

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I think someone at my school said that if you take surgery first, the threshold grade for honors will be decreased. Is this true anywhere else?

In general, the thought process is that early in 3rd year people cut you more slack, since they realize that you are completely clueless. Whether that translates into a better grade is doubtful. At my school at least, the same % of students will be getting honors each block - so even if there is some theoretic easy grading going on, you still have to do better than the rest of your classmates to get the coveted honors.

 

[ZagDoc]

In general, the thought process is that early in 3rd year people cut you more slack, since they realize that you are completely clueless. Whether that translates into a better grade is doubtful. At my school at least, the same % of students will be getting honors each block - so even if there is some theoretic easy grading going on, you still have to do better than the rest of your classmates to get the coveted honors.

In my experience (did gen surg second), no. But my gen surg was a pretty demanding service. I got more "what do you mean you don't know that" comments than "its ok, I wouldnt expect you to know that early in your third year." Conversely during peds, which was my first rotation, there was a lot of sympathy and understanding. I think its the personality of the respective fields.

 

[sendwich]

if you're seriously considering surgery, i'd recommend doing it around this time of the year (dec-febish). doing it early has it disadvantages like the above postes: you won't know much. but if you get unlucky and get it late in the year, burnout might be an issue, but it might help you gauge whether it's the field for you, since you'll have to deal with it sometime during residency anyways. not sure what your goal is but no matter what, if you put in the time and work hard, you will do fine.

 

[Depakote]

I took surgery first and it was pretty rough. I definitely had no clue what was going on most of the time. My evals were a mix, but I'd say they've been a mix in every rotation I've had thus far... even the ones I've done well in. Honestly, I don't put much stake in the evals b/c they're completely subjective and it really has to be the extreme high or low to affect your grade (in which case someone either really likes or hates you).

What has determined every single one of my clinical grades thus far has been my shelf score.

Surgery was my first shelf. It was my lowest score for a number of reasons. (pacing, not having a feel for the shelf testing style, lack of exposure to other aspects of clinical medicine).

I wouldn't take Surg first if you are expecting them to go easy on you.

 

[Aphasic]

Like everyone else said, most schools tend to give the same %Honors in each block. Generally, you take the rotation you're interested in around Nov-Feb, so you have had some clinical exposure and get the basics of how the hospital works, and still have time to schedule 4th year and look into your future specialty.

I liked having Medicine and ObGyn before surgery (I plan on pursuing surg) b/c the surgery clerkship + shelf, are typically the surgical management of medicine issues, and Gyn-surg gave me basic OR skills, such as scrubbing, knot tying, and some subcuticulars.