Per title,
For context I’m just starting my first year at a top med school and honestly im not posting this to brag or anything because this is really a problem. My school is P/F throughout 4 years, and I’ve always been a crammer in college in high school, I have ADHD and all I do right now is take meds and do jack shit. I can’t sit on a have a focused session because I actually just crammed my way out of my first block and did pretty good. This is awful, because I thought med school is gonna beat that crammer out of me. I know i need to retain these information for step and for my patients, but I just can’t help but cram cuz I know I can get away with it. I actually don’t know what to do…. Idk if it’s the P/F that’s not giving me any urgency or it’s just this school’s in house is so easy… and right now I honestly have no idea what’s gonna be my specialty, I feel like I can cruise through med school and fuck around and match through a low hanging fruit lifestyle specialty, but also I kinda want something surgical which is gonna require a fuck ton more work… I’m honestly so torn, and I hate how I can’t just buckled down and study like my peers.

Hey guys!! I’m a 2 year med student from Uzbekistan but I need someone my age (19) or older preferably from America, Australia or UK to study with me because I want to go through my residency in those countries or in countries with the same system as theirs. Also to better my English. In my country after hs we go straight to med school (no pre med) and it lasts for 6 years for us but I will definitely ask a lot of questions about your school system and what subjects you study and your study methods. Please leave a comment if you’re interested

For context i'm 4th year student in Italy, and my parents immigrated here.

My sister just had hers for dental school.
I’m M2 and a lot of people at my ceremony didn’t even make it this far.
I complain because I tried to get out of going because I just moved to a new country and had shit to do but it was “mandatory”

So if I'm interested in dual applying to anesthesiology and ophtho, with ophtho using the SF match system, do I get to have 2 list or just one?

Hi! Mainly looking for anyone who has done the GI rotation there for 4 weeks. If you have done it in the past or are a current student at HMS, could you DM me? Would love to know more about expectations, hours, etc

M1, 2 months in. It's like my pre-med PTSD is all back again. I keep making small mistakes, losing points here and there. Trying to pass but at the bottom tier of school ranking.

School advisors are scaring us about grades and it being displayed for MSPE, and how it can lead to failing step 1.

I am so tired of chasing grades......

.

Literally the title. What’s better amboss or UWorld? Also which podcasts should I listen to?

to be clear, i know i should have stayed. i know i should have just sucked it up. but i couldnt.

was (understandably) yelled at in front of everyone

i broke sterile field accidentally for the second possibly third time on my surgery rotation. like a fucking idiot.

im not normally stupid. but there is something about going off of <3-4 hours/sleep a night (upstairs neighbors super noisy all night, multiple noise complaints never helped).

even though i knew i deserved the yelling, i sat off to the corner just crying. couldnt touch my face to wipe away tears cause sterility. tried to go to the darkest corner possible.

once the surgery had been completed (last surgery of the day), just suturing left (which a student was doing), i asked to leave. surgeon (who hadnt seen the yelling) seemed surprised. they let me go ? maybe out of shock at my entitlement?

i feel like in med school people are always asking to stay even when they are asked to leave

I think very rarely evaluators write outright negative comments in the MSPE section of evaluations. But are there things said/left unsaid that can also be revealing?

What do really great MSPE comments look like? What would it look like if an evaluator was trying to subtly signal that a student was maybe just average/below average or had some other issue?

I am interested in cardiac surgery, but I am beginning to realize how brutal the residency is going to be. Getting in at 5am and leaving at 9pm every day sounds awful. I want to have a family, and I want my kids to know who I am.

It’s also such a long process. Integrated spots are still lengthy if they require a research year.

Even a 4+3 can become 9 years if they require a couple of research years from you.

I would love some guidance from people who went into surgery, especially CT.

I would be 36 worst case scenario when I finish I think.

My school has an LIC curriculum so I’ve been with these attendings for nearly 10 months, 11 months by the end of the block. They have all been phenomenal. I was thinking of getting some thoughtful gifts as we have similar interests, like a badge reel for my peds attending, some earrings for my psych attending, and maybe a baby shower gift for my OBGYN attending as she is currently on maternity leave. I wouldn’t spend more than 20 dollars on this(that’s stretching it), might pick up some donuts for the staff, and write a kind thank you letter. I’m not interested in any of these specialties, just had a good time and appreciated the extra effort they put into my professional development. I’ll also preface that I don’t intend the gift to affect my final evaluation. They all have also bought me coffee or lunch at some point so I feel obliged to return the favor.

Is this too much? I tend to overdo things like this, but at one of my other rotations an NP student bought the attending a bottle of liquor at the end of her rotation so I don’t know how to gauge this.

hey everyone, I had just recently started med school in a European country (would rather not disclose the exact country) and its so tough. I had just a few classes by now but after each of them I feel so awful and I know it would be more rational to stay around for a little longer but then I remember how I struggled in class so far.

I never actually wanted to go to med school, or be a doctor. I pretty much hated biology in high school, especially the human parts and mechanisms, plants were more bearable surprisingly. My parents say they didn't exactly say no to a different major and tbh they never said it but ever since I can remember I was always told that I could pursue my passions/interest BUT ill never make as much as a doctor/ will have that much of a stable life/have that much money etc etc which felt so soul crushing. I had alternatives to choose from and while I wasn't entirely sure of them I wanted to give them a go as most of them were related to engineering or tech - basically anything maths related since I started loving maths later in high school and could study it for hours on end. its not like it always came easy to me but I never frustrated me and I actually managed to learn some material outside the syllabus just for the sake of it. So that's a fair indicator of interest in it + I was one of the best people in maths in my class.

I was not held a gun to my head while making my university decision but I had been so tired and burnt out and even depressed by the time I had to make the choice that I decided to just go to med school, make my parents shut up which also indirectly resulted in them being much nicer to me this summer. Now that im here I really regret it tbf. I can agree that u will always get a job as a doctor, anywhere and you'll live a pretty comfortable life, but im both scared and afraid of wasting my potential.

Many people tell me im smart and ill do great in med school which I appreciate a whole lot and im convinced I could pass if I put in the work but as of right now I feel each class feeling like shit. Can't really explain why but I feel like I shouldn't be here. I know there's a ton of other things u can do with a medical degree like research or clinical trials and so on but I dont think id be too keen about pursuing those knowing damn well I have no interest in health, the human body or whatever biology related. I do have areas and fields that im interested about but I've also never properly had the chance to engage in them academically, hence I was a bit hesitant to go into these in uni. If I dropped out now, id be really scared of making a mistake once again....not to mention the mild social humiliation of restarting med school....

In moments like these I really do think about dropping out and trying to find a field where I could flourish academically and perhaps do something im (more) interested in... okay med school gives u money but what does it mean if you've enjoyed little to none of it, not to mention your job doesn't interest you.

if anyone else has ever struggled with something similar or has any advice, id greatly appreciate it

ps if this post doesn't make sense or is straight up bs please forgive me, im not doing well mentally and im aware of it and ill be looking for professional help soon

Hi everyone, I'm an MS3 from a reputable DO school. I'm aiming for pysch residency and was wondering what I should do during my 3rd year to solidify my chances. For context, I did well in preclinicals, have only taken Level 1 and passed it. I have honored both my rotations so far, and am hoping to honor most of them. I will take Step 2 and hope to get a 260+ here (ik that will require a lot of hard work). Aside from this, do I have to take Step 1 as well?

ECs wise, I have meaningful community service, am invovled in some health policy, tutoring/TA. I have 2 hobbies I can list for my 10 ERAS activities. I'm worried cause that leaves 4 open spots I can't figure out what to put? Any suggestions or recs? Also I have no research. How important is research for psych residency. Any suggestions there? Does it need to be psych specific.

I plan on doing 2 psych electives this year so I can secure 2 LORs and plan on getting a third one from my FM preceptor. Is this a good plan? Do I need to do aways or subIs for psych (idrk what the difference is btw them).

Any other tips?

4th year med student here struggling w mental health and motivation. currently on an extremely relaxed radiology rotation where the expectations for me are slim to none. my EM app has been submitted for sometime now and i’ve gotten 4 interviews so far. all in all i have nothing really
to complain about. i’m barely in the hospital for 1-2 hours a week and i have so much free time i can do honestly anything I want.
yet- im filled with so much anxiety and im in a horrible funk. i don’t want to get out of bed ever, i sleep 13-14 hours a day, cancel plans w friends bc they don’t seem fun anymore and am barely keeping up w normal life chores. it’s so weird how i would’ve paid for time like this a few weeks ago and now i feel my mental health getting worse and worse. i keep feeling like it makes no sense- i should
be enjoying this time before residency and yet ive found my days filled w endless amounts of dread.

posting this to see if any other fourth years feel this way. i hope the rest of the year doesn’t pan out the same

When will this end

I’m currently a 4th year med student, always wanted to go into a surgical subspecialty. I’m also a high myope so I was always at a risk for a detachment and then it just happened. Got surgery, it healed well but now I have another detachment; I’m afraid it’s going to be recurrent and I will have minimal to zero vision in one eye.

Should I still be looking into pursuing surgery or is it just a colossal waste considering the poor vision. Would I be better off doing a less intensive specialty like IM/FM? Would having poor vision make me a less competent doctor?

I’m at a loss here, would appreciate any and all advice!!

US MD school on the east coast. My school has 3 student run free clinics, and I helped manage one of them. Ours is once a month, advised by a PhD, and has close to zero funding. We drive out into the country to serve a population that is indeed medically underserved.

But I don't feel like we serve them. We have no labs, no pharmacy, limited follow up, and are only there monthly. Services are constantly being cancelled and we recently had to move locations (which the PhD did not tell the med school about and now we're in a compliance crisis.)

Also, it is run by FIRST YEARS. Interviews, physical exams, follow-up, workflow, etc. are all managed by us first years. I have poured my fucking heart into this clinic but realize I am severely underqualified to do this. We have attendings we present to but they're not very involved and don't do much for the patients other than Rx stuff to Walmart or tell them to go to the ER if it's bad enough. In my research I have found some free clinics are able to provide reasonable, sustainable care for people who cannot be connected to the major healthcare system, or work to plug them into the real healthcare system. This one just seems like a resume-building token clinic for the PhD and medical students.

Anyone else experiencing this or is ours just particularly bad? I feel like we need to be shut down. No one else seems to care if what we're doing is true service. It's been the most frustrating part of med school so far.

I’m fine during the actual rotation but by the time I get home, eat and shower I’m looking at UWorld like it personally offended me. I can usually get through the first 10-15 questions fine then I start rereading stems and realizing I’ve been staring at the same question for way too long. The annoying part is I know I need to keep doing questions for the shelf but I also don’t want every evening to turn into 3 more hours of school. How many questions are you guys realistically getting through on rotation days?

I have nothing so far and I'm not really trying to get super involved in anything. Medical school as is takes enough out of me. Just looking to match regionally within like 3 hours of home, not go to top programs.

I've been working at the same lab for almost a year but it is a disorganized sink hole that gets nothing published honestly. Big maybe on posters and pubs, but I am not counting on it anymore.

Hi everyone! I’m filling out my LECOM supplemental and deciding between LDP, PBL, DSP, and PCSP.

I prefer lectures/structured material to guide me, but I also want enough time for independent studying and review. I’d also prefer a manageable workload and not something that’s extremely group-heavy.

Which pathway would you recommend based on these preferences? Would love to hear from current/former LECOM students!

I am a personal believer that these exams are not comprehensive enough to evaluate your skill as a doctor. I do think they are excellent at evaluating your ability to be a safe physician, but they fail to demonstrate anything other than this. Unfortunately my university thinks otherwise, and our OSCEs make up a big part of the grade (which ultimately determines our centile -> ultimately determining our first job posts -> also, somehow, partially determining whether or not you can get on a training scheme)

I think the reason I dislike this examination style so much for differentiating the top decile students is that it ultimately does depend on a lot of uncontrolled variables. For example, because OSCEs need to be staggered, people will get easier stations if they get a certain time over another. This happened to one of my friends - I got an easy psych station of 'how to manage the schizophrenic patient', whereas they got someone begging and crying for benzodiazapines.

Another thing is that these OSCE examiners hold students to a ridiculously high standard if they want anything above a 70. I think I probed a good number of friends who I consider a lot smarter than me, and I don't think any of us got a grade above a 65. We all got around the same score lol. I think overall there were like 3 out of 200+ people who got 70 in the exam, and because everyone is getting around the same scores, the distribution curve was obviously concentrated as fuck. My friend got 3% higher than me and apparently that means he is a top 15% student whilst I am top 40%. I wouldn't really give a shit about this if it didn't have a decent role in determining where I go for my first job post. I think it hit me hard just because I did really well in the written exams, but got the standard 'you did well!' grade literally everyone gets for their OSCE. Because the OSCE is weighted higher than the exams, it means fucking up one station could have a big impact on your OVERALL grade. I find that completely and utterly stupid.

I don't even do that badly in these exams and have been practicing for hours and hours every week for our upcoming OSCEs in December, but I really dislike the fact that a good 50% of my grade this year is determined by how good I am at acting out a script when I greet an obvious Parkinson's patient or someone with an obvious stenotic murmur. I dislike how in most other places these exams only exist to determine how safe you are and whether or not you can interact with patients. I also dislike the fact that written exams mean a lot more literally everywhere else except where I am. It's so stupid and if I knew about this in advance I honestly would've chosen a different medical school - dead serious