I'm in medical school and just started my 3rd year. What does that mean exactly? In the US, the first two years are mostly basic science, i.e. sitting through lectures and taking written exams. I would say most students in most schools learn around 60-70% of an entire undergraduate major's equivalent in the following topics: biochemistry, molecular biology, gross anatomy, neuroscience, physiology, histology, microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology. We then get tested in all those areas in the first of three phases of what is commonly referred to as "the Boards." The first part (Step 1) is taken after the first 2 years of medical school. Step 2 is taken sometime during your 4th year. And Step 3 is during your residency.
So I just took Step 1. I studied for 6.5 weeks for usually around 10 hrs/day. I dunno if that's a lot compared to some of you out there, but it's pretty much the most I've ever studied. At some point in during that period, you just have to have faith that it doesn't turn out like it did for another physician:
Anyways, the 3rd and 4th year of medical school are when you actually play doctor. You perform H&P's (history + physical) on patients, follow residents around, and learn about clinical decision-making in a variety of fields. The required clerkships are internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, OB/GYN, family medicine, neurology, and psychiatry. Those might vary slightly amongst schools but for the most part they are accurate. It's also the time that you decide on a specialty (or reaffirm a decision you've already made). At some point in time during your 4th year, you will have to apply to residencies in your specialty of choice. Applying involves your test scores, your grades, letters of recommendation, and a personal statement.
Note: I don't know why I switched to the 2nd person all of a sudden. There's a possibility that I am unconsciously trying to sneak out of all of those responsibilities.
"Why write a journal?" 1. I think it might help me to document some of the experiences I have when they're still relatively fresh in my mind. I'm hoping it will help me to eventually craft a personal statement and help me articulate my experiences during interviews.
2. It might be of interest to a select group of people here on TL. I will accept no responsibility (heh, see?) if I happen to dash your grandiose illusions of medical education. I hope that doesn't happen of course. Hopefully there will be more happy stories.
3. I kinda like writing even though my deficiencies as a writer are too numerous to count.
"This is going to last a few weeks before you get lazy."
Possibly.
So this will be the cover page. I'll try to answer questions if there are any. Edit: I'll title the journal entries with "MSJ" until that starts sounding lame.
Wow im really interested. I'm looking forward to attending medical school someday and it would be awesome to read about someone else's experience. I will definitely be keeping up with this.
Hm.... interesting, a self made journal of adventure and experience of one's life in med school, I'll be looking forward to hear and read what you write! So good luck and keep them writing!!!
Speaking of which, I keep thinking in my mind to create a daily/weekly blog/journal about me too but... I get too lazy... perhaps I won't soon after seeing how successful you can be at this! :D
I'm thinking about staying in college for a bit longer to take classes to be eligible to apply. Was the application process difficult? How were the mcats and all that shit?
On July 23 2009 05:25 kidd wrote: I would definately be interested in this as well.. Which speciality are you going to go in to?
Will hopefully decide this year. Leaning towards internal medicine or anesthesiology.
On July 23 2009 06:05 PH wrote: As will I.
I'm thinking about staying in college for a bit longer to take classes to be eligible to apply. Was the application process difficult? How were the mcats and all that shit?
Applying is pretty draining. You have to stay organized and treat it like a job. Hopefully you are from a state where you have a high chance of getting into at least the state school so you don't have to apply to 30+ programs like I had to. MCAT was not bad for me. The science they test is really pretty basic. Being good with reading comprehension is key. I thought it was easier than most undergrad courses in terms of material. It just takes time to review it all.
5/5 please continue this blog, I'm a biology major and I'm thinking of going to Med School too so this blog would be a great reference.
Some questions:
1. Have you dissected a human body yet? If so, what was it like?
2. How did you do in your undergrad years? What was your GPA? I am finding the chemistry classes a lot harder than the biology classes. Any advice here?
HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
uh "I'm in medical school and just started my 3rd year."
or did he actually mention somewhere that he had taken that test? unless that's part of the boards or something but him being a year behind you that would still be confusing
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
uh "I'm in medical school and just started my 3rd year."
or did he actually mention somewhere that he had taken that test? unless that's part of the boards or something but him being a year behind you that would still be confusing
it looks like he's in mexico so it might have something to do with that. not sure though.
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
uh "I'm in medical school and just started my 3rd year."
or did he actually mention somewhere that he had taken that test? unless that's part of the boards or something but him being a year behind you that would still be confusing
it looks like he's in mexico so it might have something to do with that. not sure though.
Yeah, in here we take the USMLE right before the internship, thats of course if we want to study out residency in the States like me.
On July 23 2009 09:04 StormSnarlX wrote: 5/5 please continue this blog, I'm a biology major and I'm thinking of going to Med School too so this blog would be a great reference.
Some questions:
1. Have you dissected a human body yet? If so, what was it like?
2. How did you do in your undergrad years? What was your GPA? I am finding the chemistry classes a lot harder than the biology classes. Any advice here?
Thats about all for now. =p
1. Yes, most schools have it during first year. I was a bit ambivalent about it. The first few days were exciting of course, but dissecting is very tedious work. I think most people can tell whether surgery is for them or not during anatomy. My cadaver had bladder cancer (the tumor looked like pork btw!) and had a gastric bypass. Most bodies have some sort of abnormality because everyone has to die of something. I think most people tend to enjoy anatomy a lot because it's quite social and a bit like studying a picture book.
2. GPA was >3.6, probably on the lower end of accepted applicants. You have to do solidly on all your courses the first 2 years because they make up the bulk of your science GPA. Get tutoring if you are having problems. Always try to do questions if possible. Those are the quickest way to learn.
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
You definitely have to have a solid knowledge base to take the test. I'm sure you know the logistics of the test...7 sections of 48 questions each, many in the style of a clinical vignette. I am a firm believer in First Aid. If you use that, Rapid Review Path (new edition in August I think), and USMLE World for your Q bank, you should be in a good shape to at least pass (although if you want to apply to US residencies as an FMG you should try to do as well as possible...I'm sure you know). However, the key is that you must supplement anything that you don't understand in First Aid with other sources. I read through both FA and RR Path 3-4 times before the boards.
Sounds like good stuff. I'll live med school through your journals hopefully. :p
Initially, I wanted to get into med (went through a year of apps, MCATs, etc.), but have recently decided I want to work more with neuromuscular function/dysfunction as opposed to ortho which is more bones/ligaments/etc. so am probably going to go the PT/PT route instead (physical therapy/personal training).
I am still curious about med though so hopefully you can shed light on some good stuff.
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
You definitely have to have a solid knowledge base to take the test. I'm sure you know the logistics of the test...7 sections of 48 questions each, many in the style of a clinical vignette. I am a firm believer in First Aid. If you use that, Rapid Review Path (new edition in August I think), and USMLE World for your Q bank, you should be in a good shape to at least pass (although if you want to apply to US residencies as an FMG you should try to do as well as possible...I'm sure you know). However, the key is that you must supplement anything that you don't understand in First Aid with other sources. I read through both FA and RR Path 3-4 times before the boards.
Hi again, thanks for the Info, yeah I already knew about that, already have all those books you said and I also bought the Kaplan Videos from all the subjects, In my school there are many people from the US and Puerto Rico and they also were kind enought to lend me the "Pass Course" which is an alternative, I study roughly 8 hours a day on weekends and 4 hours a day in the week because I already started classes again so I also have to study for my clinical subjects and all that .
Thanks for the info!! and when you get your grade back please tell us how you did! hopefully good!
1) I hear they have problems where one question is related to the next where they kinda reveal the answer in the subsequent question and you can't go back to answer the prev question. Where there many of these? 2) Could you actually tell whether or not a question was "experimental" or not? 3) How did you allocate/spend your break time? Was going to the bathroom a problem at all? 4) %-wise how many questions had some sort of picture/histo/gross/chart/graph on it? 5) Did you find it difficult to use the reference values?
On July 23 2009 09:53 PaeZ wrote: HI radar! im starting my 4th year of Med school and I plan to take the USMLE step 1 in a couple of months, how did you do btw? is the exam really that hard? Because well i have read that for foreigners, 50% of them fail at the first attempt
You definitely have to have a solid knowledge base to take the test. I'm sure you know the logistics of the test...7 sections of 48 questions each, many in the style of a clinical vignette. I am a firm believer in First Aid. If you use that, Rapid Review Path (new edition in August I think), and USMLE World for your Q bank, you should be in a good shape to at least pass (although if you want to apply to US residencies as an FMG you should try to do as well as possible...I'm sure you know). However, the key is that you must supplement anything that you don't understand in First Aid with other sources. I read through both FA and RR Path 3-4 times before the boards.
Hi again, thanks for the Info, yeah I already knew about that, already have all those books you said and I also bought the Kaplan Videos from all the subjects, In my school there are many people from the US and Puerto Rico and they also were kind enought to lend me the "Pass Course" which is an alternative, I study roughly 8 hours a day on weekends and 4 hours a day in the week because I already started classes again so I also have to study for my clinical subjects and all that .
Thanks for the info!! and when you get your grade back please tell us how you did! hopefully good!
that's pretty rough to have class and boards studying. Good luck. I'm happy with my score...not super high but shouldn't hold me back from too many specialties.
On July 25 2009 07:51 lac29 wrote: I had some questions about Step 1:
1) I hear they have problems where one question is related to the next where they kinda reveal the answer in the subsequent question and you can't go back to answer the prev question. Where there many of these? 2) Could you actually tell whether or not a question was "experimental" or not? 3) How did you allocate/spend your break time? Was going to the bathroom a problem at all? 4) %-wise how many questions had some sort of picture/histo/gross/chart/graph on it? 5) Did you find it difficult to use the reference values?
1. Like 2 sets of 2 q's each on my test. 2. No way jose. Although everyone assumes the crazy ones that they have no idea on are experimental, who really knows. 3. Nope, if you skip the tutorial you get an extra 15 mins, giving you 1 hr total. I took a 5-10 min break after almost every block, which I would definitely do again. You don't need 40 mins for lunch. 4. Would have been hard to say even right after the test. It's a distant memory now. I only remember a few q's where you literally had to diagnose from a picture, mostly gross from what i remember. In most of them you don't need the picture. A few charts for physio also. 5. It's pretty intuitive. There's even a search function under each tab which is pretty cool. You should kind of know what the common normal lab values are by test time anyways.
On July 25 2009 08:45 ItsYoungLee wrote: Good luck Brah! You involved in any research?
I did some clinical data collecting for a project in cardiology during the summer after 1st year. It's tough to find time during the school year for a real project. Some people manage, but it's not my cup of tea.
Thanks radar for all the info you have given , when I do my test ill make a blog as well and tell everyone how I did, hopefully I can get a good score because when someone is foreigner we need to get even better scores to be able to compete.
BTW my specialties options are: Neurosurgery (just like my dad), Urology or Cardiology.
EPT
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