Downwards Spiral

[da3dl3us]

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I got my IM cleckship grade on Friday and it's out to be a meger pass. No High Pass or Honors, just pass, in spite of working hard. Of course, it was my first rotation, so I'm sure lack of experience has a factor.

What sucks is that I wanted this year to make up for my lower boards score (225). I'm sure I did about the same for Family medicine too.

At this rate, I'll never get into Rads. As hard as I try, it seems I can only get around to this level.

🙁

 

[lokobo]

The key to getting out of the downward spiral is staying positive and confident.

You still have a lot more rotations to go through, and a good chance to balance these out, but you have to stay positive.

You can also try and do some research... cause that never hurts

 

[Sean2tall]

I would not stress out in the least. 225 is nothing to scoff at. In fact, according to the Match outcome stats 94% of US seniors with scores of 221-230 matched. I think Radiology is one of the fields that is most hyped for competitiveness on forums. Regarding clerkship grades, it is tough since usually everything is weighted and only the top % of the class can get HP or Honors. As the year goes along, I bet you will be able to get some higher grades. My speculation is that programs would look highly on a good grade in surgery rotation, although this is just my feeling. That could be something to try for.

For myself, I am a little more concerned @ 200, but I am hoping that if I can show enough dedication, I will be able to land a spot somewhere.

 

[ScooterBanks]

The first clinical rotation of your third year is difficult, no matter what you start on. I think it would be even harder starting on medicine where the amount of stuff you need to know and do is really comprehensive. Even interns forget how little third year medical students know. I'd expect grades to be a little lower at the beginning of the year because frankly I'm sure all of you guys seem like ******s to the residents right now.

One thing you should be cautious against is brown-nosing too much. Fakeness is so obvious. It's pretty easy to tell when a medical student is "hard working" for the sake of trying to impress you for a grade. Work hard but learn to relax about it. There are two ways you can improve your grades: #1: On rounds, know your patients. Rounds is the time where you have attending contact. Make your patient presentations concise and pertinant. Know the active problems you are dealing with and the medical reasoning behind the treatment of them. This will impress your attendings. Don't waste time talking about stupid stuff that doesn't reallly matter but you are saying it because you want to show how hard you worked and looked up all of this random stuff. #2: Not on rounds (ie, the other 22 hours during the day). Your sole job is to make the residents lives easier without looking like a kiss-up. Also try to fit in with whatever the personality the team is you are working with. Don't always talk about medicine to the residents. I personally could care less about "medicine" discussions with my team this year during my intern year. I'd much rather the medical students talk about college football or the Borat movie. I think the ones that want to talk about the differential of hypercalcimia all the time are pathetic. They should look up the differential and know it for rounds, but I don't want to hear about it 24/7.

A 225 is not a bad score. It's probably somewhere just under the average applicant. The vocal people on these message boards tend to be the ones with the higher scores and grades, so it's easy to get sucked into thinking you are waaay below average. You are not, you are just slightly below average. As long as you are a normal person who is able to easily converse with people you've just met and don't come off as weird, you will match somewhere no problem. Stop stressing out, you'll be fine!!!

 

[da3dl3us]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the positives comments. I honestly feel the shelf exam is what brought me down. Yeah, first rotations are tough, but I'm just a little dissapointed with myself, and felt dumb. I just hope that I won't do the same for the remainder.

And I am currently doing research with a neuroradiologist. Hopefully, that'll help out the ol' app a bit.

ScooterBanks - Yeah man, I totally agree with what you said. I made sure I only said pertinents info and what not. And with the attendings, I really tried to just be cool with them, and talk about stuff outside of medicine. But all my med attendings had the personalities of a wall. I would literally walk by my attending in the hall when she was just checking things out on the internet and said what's up, and all I got was a curt "hi". And this was daily and had similar experience with the other attending.

It's like, what's wrong with these people?

 

[NeuroSync]

da3dl3us,

We are just about to put in our requests for clinical rotations and schedules. I thought that doing medicine first would be a good idea because it would give me a very solid foundation for the rest. But from what I'm hearing, that may not be the best idea.

Our required rotations for third year are as follows: Family Med; Medicine; Surgery; Psychiatry; Peds; Ob/Gyn. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which would be good to start with? Maybe family med?

Cheers,

NeuroSync

 

[hans19]

da3dl3us,

We are just about to put in our requests for clinical rotations and schedules. I thought that doing medicine first would be a good idea because it would
give me a very solid foundation for the rest. But from what I'm hearing, that may not be the best idea.

Our required rotations for third year are as follows: Family Med; Medicine; Surgery; Psychiatry; Peds; Ob/Gyn. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which would be good to start with? Maybe family med?

Cheers,

NeuroSync

FYI I had General surgery first and IM dead last, and somehow I managed to match in rads! How?!?



Do you remember agonizing over these things in undergrad? Which should I take first? Bio, then Chem? ...or Physics then Ochem? Should I take the morning lecture or the afternoon? Which professor?

Well just like in undergrad, it really doesn't matter which rotation you do first in the grand scheme of things. Just realize there are those future AOA kids you are competing with who will end up getting A's whether they do IM first or last or in the middle, and there's nothing you can do about it. Who knows, it might turn out that you are one of those AOA kids.

Just relax, it'll all work out in the end!
😀
-Hans

 

[NeuroSync]

...Just relax, it'll all work out in the end!
😀
-Hans

Relaxation is a relative term. 🙂

I am more concerned, believe it or not, about the best way to learn. The grades will be what they will be. I'll do my best of course, but beyond working hard, that part is out of my hands. I try not to get all wrapped around the axel about grades. I'll let you know how that approach works out in a couple of years. 🙄

 

[RadGirl]

I did IM first and I think it was the best possible thing I could have done. So much of the other clerkships (especially the shelf exams) draw from IM. I honored all of my third year clerkships and I don't think I would have been as successful if I didn't do medicine first.

 

[NeuroSync]

I did IM first and I think it was the best possible thing I could have done. So much of the other clerkships (especially the shelf exams) draw from IM. I honored all of my third year clerkships and I don't think I would have been as successful if I didn't do medicine first.

Thank you very much for the feedback. I appreciate it. I would really like to do IM first, but if I don't get it, maybe FP.