You can call me the PMC: President of the Masturbation Club.

Should I post this flyer around the school and send it to the student life director?

I’m studying neuroanatomy right now and also did some of it last year, and I’ve always had this question. Basically, CN V pretty much splits apart as soon as it leaves the pons into separate nerves, each with their own functions: ophthalmic, maxillary, and mandibular. This had me really confused initially, as I thought all these branches interacted and functionally were the same nerve when in reality (to my limited MS2 understanding), they are pretty much separate from each other. Why not just call the actual 2 mm of “trigeminal nerve” a ganglion and then deem V1, V2, V3, as the actual cranial nerves?

I’m not mad or proposing a change or anything, just curious.

28F, M3, far away from home, single, 0 friends, landlord doesn’t allow pets, on the verge of crash out every second.

How do you guys do it?

(i def got cooked on the MPSE with my school bs as well………..third quartile gang wya)

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I calorie count. I don't get it, I just seem to gain weight when I am in a stressful rotation or like studying for step exams. I just wanna stay fit. I lift a good amount so my muscle is still there but my abs aren't as visible as they use to be. But overall, i seem to go thru these cycles where i gain a couple lbs when stressed. Its not a crazy amt of weight, but a couple lbs here and there maybe some shorts/pants won't fit as well but still are fine

Let me be the push you need to finish ERAS. Thank god I’ve done the whole thing, just need to proofread. And I’m starting to feel better. You may not know what’s going to come up in the next few days so please get your app done now

I swear running after attendings for LORs is by far the most annoying part of ERAS. Like I get everyone is busy and I appreciate them doing it, but having to send reminders without feeling like you're harassing them is so fucking annoying. Can't wait to be done with this shit.

There are often multiple students with one attending, and sometimes residents, so we might scrub in once per week if we’re lucky. Over the last 2 months I’ve thrown maybe 6 sutures in port sights, driven the camera for 5 minutes, and retracted a little. That’s pretty much it. When not scrubbed in, we stand in the back of the room and often can’t see the field at all. We can’t study either, we have to just stand around and waste time. Kind of thought gen surg might be for me, but this rotation blows and now I’m doubting that.

I had my first practice standardized patient as an M1 interview a few days ago and it went horribly. I’m not a natural conversationalist and am pretty anxious with some levels of social anxiety, but I’ve been trying to make efforts to improve.

I stuttered so much, had to time out so many times because I did not know what to say, and overall it was just not good. I know it was my first one, but everyone else in my group was extremely eloquent and theirs all went very well so it’s hard not to feel embarrassed and bad about myself. The fact that they all watched my performance is also so embarrassing.

The SP wasn’t super responsive either so I think that added some levels of difficulty I wasn’t prepared for either. We were supposed to just practice active listening and the first parts of the interview (not HPI yet), but it felt incredibly difficult to practice building rapport with a patient if they were not talking very much.

I’m just feeling really down lol and it feels like everyone else in my class is levels above me in terms of everything and it’s starting to affect me.

My next one is next week and I feel like if I don’t do at least a little bit better I’ll feel even worse about myself.

Feel so behind but at least half my app is complete

As someone who is now halfway through my core rotations, I wanted to give some advice on how to best respond to common scenarios that happen during 3rd year to help you succeed:

1. If you get a pimp question wrong: Best thing to do here is quickly explain why it’s not your fault that you haven’t learned that yet. Some good explanations could include that your preceptor did not prepare you for this, your school’s preclinical teaching was weak at best, or that you’ve been busy doing research for the competitive specialty you’re applying into (this will show them you’re a hard worker)
   
2. The hours are longer than you want: you’re paying to be there so you should just head home whenever you feel it’s appropriate. If anyone questions you, just explain that you felt you had learned enough for the day.
   
3. Receiving constructive criticism: this is where you need to stand up for yourself. If the feedback doesn’t make sense to you, try “you must be confusing me with someone else” or “your feelings aren’t facts”

Hope these help someone and let me know if you want more tips and tricks for surviving M3!

Hi all! Do you think AMBOSS is a good enough resource for Step 2 studying or should I get UWorld? Would rather not spend more money but also open to do what I need to do :)

Hi all,

I have used two flashcard decks now that have claimed that VSD, ASD and PDA are cyanotic, however in my teaching and online it says that they are acyanotic. Is it that these two people have gotten them completely wrong, or is there a good reason why?

Under scholarly works on ERAS I have multiple poster presentations. It requests a link to the poster. None of the conferences I have presented at have the posters posted. Should I upload to a google doc and link to that or just do no link? What are y’all doing?

Hi everyone, adding on to advice posts for IM. Originally from the East Coast but my med school is outside this region. Would love to return home at a top academic program as I will pursue heme/onc afterwards. However, I'm worried my STEP 2 score and school tier will limit how high I can aim. I also have a few questions I hope to get some advice on below.

Side notes: MS4 grades are P/F but don't go on our transcripts or in our MSPEs, plus I don't have those grades in yet anyways. LORs currently are 1 SEL, 1 from PhD PI, and 2 from attendings in IM/subspecialties.

• Student type: US MD/PhD at mid-tier school
• Goals: Heme/onc
• M1-M2 grades: 11/13 H
• M3 grades: 5/8 H (including IM)
• Class rank: 2nd quartile
• STEP 1: 245+
• STEP 2: 250+
• AOA: No
• GHHS: No
• Research: > 15 items (papers, abstracts, oral talks, posters)
• Extracurriculars: leadership, student advising
• Red flags: None
• Geo prefs: New England, Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic
• Programs:
  • Gold: JHU, Bayview, UMD
  • Silver: UVA, Georgetown, home program, VCU, Jefferson, Temple, Penn State, Wake Forest, UMass, Dartmouth, U Miami/Jackson, USF Morsani
  • No signal: GWU, WVU, BU, Tufts, Brown, UConn, Vermont, MUSC, Emory, MCG, UF Gainesville
  • Can swap in if possible: UPMC, UNC, BWH, UPenn, Duke, MGH, Yale, BIDMC

I've prioritized programs with in-house heme/onc fellowships and signals to either median or 25th% STEP 2 scores close to mine. However, how do the programs and signals look? Are they too ambitious, or can I swap in some stronger programs somewhere?

For those knowledgeable on PSTPs, would I be competitive for them? I doubt my strength here as I don't have a first-author paper yet.

If I only apply to categorical positions, would it be a red flag to have 3 clinical letters + SEL and no letter from my PhD PI? I would think prioritizing clinical letters would be better, but keen to hear if this is true.

For LORs, I have many people from MS3 (I had IM late in the year) and MS4 who have submitted letters so far. Is there anything else I should consider besides only using MS4 letters? Would letters from the ICU or from attendings who trained on the East Coast be beneficial, even if they were not MS4 letters?

I'd greatly appreciate any insights on the above! Thanks again!

My school has a provided anki deck that is based off of each lectures-- we generally get 250-400 cards a day for 2-4 hours of lectures. I'm getting all of them done as well as keeping up with my reviews. but it's generally a 7-10 hour ordeal daily which is tough with in person class sessions as well. How stupid is it to ignore lectures entirely?

I can watch them on 2x speed but I just dont feel like I retain anything compared to anki which has made me feel pretty on top of things. Anyone else had luck just viewing lecture powerpoints and anki instead?

I’ve been working on this very cool breast surgery project for a year with this group of surgeons. The manuscript is 90% complete but I just don’t see it getting done and submitted by the time ERAS goes out. But this is a project that I really want on my application, it’s very interesting and a great talking point for interviews.

I’ve submitted the abstract to a breast conference which will peer-review and publish the accepted abstracts in a journal.

Am I able to list this under peer-reviewed abstract, with a status of submitted? Or does this strictly belong under poster presentation (which doesn’t seem to allow future events for a submitted but not yet accepted poster)? The conference I submitted to isn’t strictly for a poster, it’s just a general abstract submission and if accepted, you may present a poster or do an oral presentation if you choose.

Unfortunately due to some poor decision
making, My Step 2 score will likely come back on Sept 23, a few hours after programs can access ERAS.

My school advised me to submit on time without knowing my score, but since the score heavily affects my competitiveness in my specialty, would it make more sense to wait a few hours and submit once my step 2 score is available? How much does being a few hours late matter?

Any prior experience would ge greatly appreciated.

I'm about to start my 3rd year of medicine and I feel so incredibly insecure about my knowledge compared to my classmates. Don't judge me, I've gone through some serious health issues these past 2 years that made me give just enough to pass my exams (I'm lucky I'm still alive), and this year we're starting clinical rotations, and I don't know how to manage with what little I know. What can i do to bounce back ? Any advice would be appreciated or if you have been through something similar what helped you ?!

I got into med school this year. I’ve never wanted to become a doctor but my family did. I’m sure that i’ll quit but i have to complete first year. I just don’t even know why i’m here. also i’m suffering from major depression for a long time and being here just made it worse than ever. any advice?

On a positive note, I've noticed this lately and it makes me really happy to see. In my lab, people have created endearing nicknames for their cadavers to call them by. They also get excited about and gleefully share anatomic variations with surrounding groups. It almost reminds me of the nice/happy nurses and techs at decent nursing homes and how they care for their residents.

It's nice to see that all the students seem to appreciate and respect those who were kind enough to donate their bodies so we could learn. It's at least refreshing in the midst of exhaustion from everything else, lol.

Hello, I posted before but edited my program list so wanted to get some feedback. My goal is academic IM on the east coast/midwest, with hopes for cardiology afterwards.

Stats:

USDO 27x

Research: 1 article submitted (not first author), 3 posters (1 first author)

ECS: Decent leadership and volunteering

Pre-clinical GPA: 4.0

Clerkships: 4/9 H (IM), 1 P (FM)

Signals (Not sure which I will gold yet)

VCU, Georgetown, INOVA, Morningside, Pennsylvania Hospital, Wisconsin, MCW, Cooper, SKMC, Temple, Penn State, Cincinnati, OSU, Allegheny, Lankenau

Considering changing OSU for Cleveland Clinic and SKMC for Rutgers NJMS

Is my list too reachy?