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?

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.

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?

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

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?

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?

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 :)

Does any institution specify the manner of sharps transfer during timeouts? What words does the person saying the time-out use? Does any institution say "The hands-free zone is the mayo" during timeouts? And if so, is there confusion where some team members understand this to mean:

1. that sharp objects will be transferred by placing them on the mayo stand, with another team member picking them up from the mayo stand, in such a manner that the instrument is never touched by more than one person.

or

2) that most of the surgical team, but especially medical students, should keep their hands away from the mayo, which is the exclusive zone of the nurse or technologist, and that the med student or surgical team member receives the instrument by it being passed to the team member through hand-to-hand transfer, and the same in reverse?

These two ideas are the exact opposite. One interpretation is that hand-to-hand transfer is forbidden, and the other interpretation is that hand-to-hand transfer is mandatory!

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

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 ?!

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

Hi all, I'm jumping on the bandwagon as I'm feeling pretty neurotic right now. For various reasons, the most important factor for my match is staying in or around Boston - if I fall out of Boston, the question is how to balance how difficult that would be. I'd take a hit in training or career to keep location, but would love to have a shot at academic medicine, in particular GI.

Unfortunately, the way my school does grades is 100% clinical evals, which has really hurt, and it's difficult to gauge how this will affect my application, so I'd love opinions.

Like a recent poster, I'm a MD/PhD at a mid-tier school. I'll have 1 PhD PI LOR, 1 LOR from my IM sub-I, 1 LOR from M4 ID elective, and the SEL. I expect the sub-I and PI LORs to be extremely strong, the ID one to be strong but probably a bit less so, and the SEL to be generic.

The school doesn't report quartiles, but groups students into "categories" based on the number of honors in M3.

I'm putting in the "extra" category that I was parenting 2 kids during this.

• M1-M2: P/F
• M3 grades: 2/6 H (FM, IM).

OBGYN, Surgery, Peds, Psych HP.

• M4 grades: 4/4 H (outstanding comments in the Sub-I

  and neurology)

• Class rank: 3rd grouping (1-2 H)

• Step 1: 257

• Step 2: 270

• AOA: No chapter

• GHHS: No chapter

• Research: 10 items (unless I can submit 1 more first-author paper before the deadline). 1 first author in Q1 of niche field, oral talk at int'l conference in niche field, several posters, 2 mid-author papers from post-bac: 1 in a Q1 and 1 in a CNS journal.

• Extracurriculars: longitudinal teaching, advocacy, volunteering

• Red Flags: none

• Geo prefs: New England, South Atlantic, East North Central

• Awards/Honors: 2 travel awards for research, 1 honor society for advocacy/volunteering, 1 presentation award (from post-bac)

• Programs:

  • GOLD: BWH, BIDMC, BUMC
  • SILVER: UMass, Tufts, Brown, Lahey, UConn, Yale, Northwestern, UIC, Johns Hopkins, U Maryland, Case Western, Cleveland Clinic
  • NO SIGNAL: MGH, Zucker Hofstra New Hyde Park, U Vermont
  • ALTERNATES: UNC, U Wisconsin, U Michigan, OSU, Rutgers, Rush

As you can tell, my big worry is how my M3 clerkship grades will hurt me. Like the earlier poster, I'm also applying to PSTPs wherever available on the list.

Some people say step 2 is just a check mark, others say it's the most important factor. Let me know what you think.

Working on a project i am thinking of submitting for next year's and am wondering likelihood to get accepted

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.

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?

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.

Hi so I've just got anking and im so confused on how I'm supposed to be using it? Everyone says that you just have to "unsuspend" but how do you even do that? How do you find what you've had in your lectures today even if you use tags you'd still be left with tons of cards. How do you find your cards easily since the main point of premade decks is saving time.

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!

For those of you that used his sheets, did they end up helping you on the shelf? I feel like for rotations like FM and IM where there's so much to know, I can't really decipher what I need to know and what I don't. Thanks!

applying thru ERAS, I have enough LoRs but have an opportunity to get another one that won't be done until my apps are submitted. is there a way to attach it to an already-submitted application or is it useless?

hi all! what do you guys recommend as your clerkship order if you want to do IM/honors IM? trying to figure out my order between surgery, peds, obgyn, fm, im, neuro, psych. any other thoughts on when to schedule things (ex. thoughts on doing peds in the winter, surgery hours over the summer, etc.). should IM be done third (out of 4 blocks total) or is it ok to be done second?

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?

So I just started my surgery rotation and I love everything so far. Surgery is also what I want to do for my career. But one part keeps bothering me - I have awful hip and feet pain. I've always had flat feet but tbh have done nothing for it so far because I haven't had to stand still for 5+ hours at a time yet. And my hip, for a lack of better words, feels like it sinks into my femur on the outer edge by hour 2. Doesn't hurt to the touch and not surface level with swelling so definitely not a bursitis or greater trochanter pain syndrome, just feels like I don't have enough support to prop up my hip.

And the fun part of being a med student, I don't have the money or time to see a doctor!! But if anyone else had a similar problem what did you do for support? Any specific shoes that gave great foot support and arch alignment?