How does "that person" always get 100% on tests?

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CherryRedDracul said:
That sounds more reasonable, but ours was something like Outstanding, Excellent, Exceptional, Terrific, and Hip-Hip-Hooray! Meant even less when they gave us a rubric which detailed which code word corresponded with which quintile. Like just give me the damn quintile I'm in and I'll decide which superlative I want to use for myself lol.
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A friend showed me his Step 2 CK UW cumulative performance after he finished it for the first time. 93rd percentile. Jesus.
 
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I know you will probably laugh at this, but I looked at the symptoms of adult ADD on web MD and I had all of them.
 
What is the motive and reasoning behind this internal ranking stuff? I'm about to start at a school that has letter grade but apparently no rank.
 
wjs010 said:
What is the motive and reasoning behind this internal ranking stuff? I'm about to start at a school that has letter grade but apparently no rank.
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that sounds painful.
 
EMDO2018 said:
I know you will probably laugh at this, but I looked at the symptoms of adult ADD on web MD and I had all of them.
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:lol::lol::lol::lol:Yeah, uh that's definitely not a criteria for getting Adderall. Medicine is more than a list of symptoms you check off.
 
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EMDO2018 said:
I know you will probably laugh at this, but I looked at the symptoms of adult ADD on web MD and I had all of them.
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Did you see the article about the creator of ADHD? On his deathbed he admitted it's a BS disorder.
 
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I had a horrible go of it in first year and failed four courses despite working long hours studying. I looked around and was in disbelief that anyone was getting or could get 100% or near that on these tests.

When i was blessed with another chance at the year, i went to each member of the top 10% of my former class and took them to lunch to pick their brain.

They told me consistently the same thing...and it worked for me the next year to get near 100% all the time...you should plan to review the testable content a minimum of five times before the exam. This seems very daunting but each subsequent trip through is much faster because you have seen and understand the interrelationships of the content sections. I struggled to do this at first, and had to set a time limit per page and set a timer. When the timer went off, regardless of how far down the page I was, I turned and started on the next page. I also had to limit the number of sources I used to study from to a dictionary, anatomy atlas, and the recommended syllabus (it was a bound set of provided pages back then). At the top of each page I made a hash mark each time I had reviewed the page. By the fourth, fifth, and sixth time through, I could flip the page at about a ten second clip and recite the core material per page. As others have said on SDN before, its not hard to know how to achieve success in these classes, it is hard to do it though. In my experience repetition is key.

This was my experience…yours may be different:
Barely one time through the content = barely pass
two times through = pass to slightly above average
three times through = above average to high pass
four times through = high pass to honors
five times through = honors to top three scorers
six plus times through = top three scorer
 
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dyspareunia said:
Damnit.. I'm usually the one linking snopes.

cliffs?
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A software-based translation of that article from German to English does describe Dr. Eisenberg as the "father of ADHD" and report that during his "last interview" he said something similar to "ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease." However, allowing for the vagaries of translation and reading the statement in context, some native German speakers have reported that Dr. Eisenberg wasn't asserting that ADHD isn't a real disorder, but rather that it is overdiagnosed.

On a related note, an August 2012 Der Spiegel English-language interview with (now retired) Harvard psychologist Dr. Jerome Kagan quoted Dr. Kagan as being critical of "fuzzy diagnostic practices" and the over-prescription of drugs such as Ritalin for behavioral problems in children, and as referring to ADHD as "an invention":
SPIEGEL: In the 1960s, mental disorders were virtually unknown among children. Today, official sources claim that one child in eight in the United States is mentally ill.

Kagan: That's true, but it is primarily due to fuzzy diagnostic practices. Let's go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That's why the numbers have soared.
 
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DermViser said:
A software-based translation of that article from German to English does describe Dr. Eisenberg as the "father of ADHD" and report that during his "last interview" he said something similar to "ADHD is a prime example of a fictitious disease." However, allowing for the vagaries of translation and reading the statement in context, some native German speakers have reported that Dr. Eisenberg wasn't asserting that ADHD isn't a real disorder, but rather that it is overdiagnosed.

On a related note, an August 2012 Der Spiegel English-language interview with (now retired) Harvard psychologist Dr. Jerome Kagan quoted Dr. Kagan as being critical of "fuzzy diagnostic practices" and the over-prescription of drugs such as Ritalin for behavioral problems in children, and as referring to ADHD as "an invention":
SPIEGEL: In the 1960s, mental disorders were virtually unknown among children. Today, official sources claim that one child in eight in the United States is mentally ill.

Kagan: That's true, but it is primarily due to fuzzy diagnostic practices. Let's go back 50 years. We have a 7-year-old child who is bored in school and disrupts classes. Back then, he was called lazy. Today, he is said to suffer from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That's why the numbers have soared.
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Oh ok. So let's just stick to calling a duck a duck.
 
EMDO2018 said:
You know whats f'ed up, I really do need Adderall, but nobody will prescribe it for me.
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If you don't have ADHD, just drink coffee and you'll get around the same benefit.

If you do have ADHD, then getting a psych to prescribe it to you shouldn't be that hard.
 
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speeddemon said:
If you don't have ADHD, just drink coffee and you'll get around the same benefit.

If you do have ADHD, then getting a psych to prescribe it to you shouldn't be that hard.
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He said he self-diagnosed himself with WebMD.
 
speeddemon said:
If you don't have ADHD, just drink coffee and you'll get around the same benefit.

If you do have ADHD, then getting a psych to prescribe it to you shouldn't be that hard.
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If you suck on a blade of grass it substitutes for chemo
 
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Venko said:
I had a horrible go of it in first year and failed four courses despite working long hours studying. I looked around and was in disbelief that anyone was getting or could get 100% or near that on these tests.

When i was blessed with another chance at the year, i went to each member of the top 10% of my former class and took them to lunch to pick their brain.

They told me consistently the same thing...and it worked for me the next year to get near 100% all the time...you should plan to review the testable content a minimum of five times before the exam. This seems very daunting but each subsequent trip through is much faster because you have seen and understand the interrelationships of the content sections. I struggled to do this at first, and had to set a time limit per page and set a timer. When the timer went off, regardless of how far down the page I was, I turned and started on the next page. I also had to limit the number of sources I used to study from to a dictionary, anatomy atlas, and the recommended syllabus (it was a bound set of provided pages back then). At the top of each page I made a hash mark each time I had reviewed the page. By the fourth, fifth, and sixth time through, I could flip the page at about a ten second clip and recite the core material per page. As others have said on SDN before, its not hard to know how to achieve success in these classes, it is hard to do it though. In my experience repetition is key.

This was my experience…yours may be different:
Barely one time through the content = barely pass
two times through = pass to slightly above average
three times through = above average to high pass
four times through = high pass to honors
five times through = honors to top three scorers
six plus times through = top three scorer
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3 times. Top 6% after starting the year bottom 50%. Umad?
 
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Venko said:
I'm sorry, I'm not following what you're saying. Can you say it again in full sentences?
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tumblr_lk9k0qHDHY1qfn0yjo1_500.gif
 
They study somewhat and have nearly eidetic memories. Don't judge yourself against this small minority. They are far from your real competition for class standing. If you know them ask them for advice though, they may give you something that's breakthrough for you.
 
DermViser said:
LOL! Trust me PDs go the extra step and look at the rubric. Many of them when you interview and filling out their eval of you at the interview, they have your stats at the top already: School, Step scores, AOA status, and where you are in your class (based on the code word) on the sheet/index card. The actual words don't mean a hill of beans.
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So does every PD in every specialty have an index card with the code words for quintiles from every single med school? How do they even obtain them? Is it, like, just too gauche to just put an actual number in the letter, and so everyone bothers with this extra step?
 
bestcoast027 said:
So does every PD in every specialty have an index card with the code words for quintiles from every single med school? How do they even obtain them? Is it, like, just too gauche to just put an actual number in the letter, and so everyone bothers with this extra step?
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I can't speak for every specialty, but usually before hand the PD has the "code word" and what it means already written down from that person's Dean's letter for the person they're interviewing. I guess it's done bc these days medical students feel bad when their MSPE says person is ranked #45 out of 150 students. I agree, it's just an extra step to the same end.
 
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Venko said:
Okay. Eloquent. Your dedication to your craft knows no boundaries.
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It has nothing to do with dedication. There's something wrong if you make 3 passes and still have a significant amount of learning to do. These are individual exams we're talking about, not large scopes of medicine.
 
dyspareunia said:
It has nothing to do with dedication. There's something wrong if you make 3 passes and still have a significant amount of learning to do. These are individual exams we're talking about, not large scopes of medicine.
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People learn at different rates. They're not doing significant amounts of learning after the 3rd pass. It's more like nailing down the itty bitty details and minutiae. Also, with the 'forced to move on' mechanic, they aren't necessarily covering all the info on the page in the first 2 passes.
 
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DermViser said:
I can't speak for every specialty, but usually before hand the PD has the "code word" and what it means already written down from that person's Dean's letter for the person they're interviewing. I guess it's done bc these days medical students feel bad when their MSPE says person is ranked #45 out of 150 students. I agree, it's just an extra step to the same end.
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Just...wow.
 
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DermViser said:
I can't speak for every specialty, but usually before hand the PD has the "code word" and what it means already written down from that person's Dean's letter for the person they're interviewing. I guess it's done bc these days medical students feel bad when their MSPE says person is ranked #45 out of 150 students. I agree, it's just an extra step to the same end.
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How do they even get the codes in the first place?
 
evilbooyaa said:
People learn at different rates. They're not doing significant amounts of learning after the 3rd pass. It's more like nailing down the itty bitty details and minutiae. Also, with the 'forced to move on' mechanic, they aren't necessarily covering all the info on the page in the first 2 passes.
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I guess we just have different methods then. I don't know why someone would make a fourth pass through the material if they just need to nail down itty bitty details. If you need to go through all the material 4+ times to nail down itty bitty details your school must have tons of itty bitty details.
 
dyspareunia said:
That's the jealousy talking. Some people are legitimately way smarter than you, get over it. I've never gotten a 100%, but I routinely score 10%+ higher than my friends who study significantly more than I do. Likewise, there are people in my class who score 100% routinely (at least they tell people they do) that I know don't study as much as I do.




I agree. A lot of people I know say that using adderall is "cheating" (unless you're legitimately ADD or whatever) and is a PED. I don't think it's "cheating" since there is no evidence that it makes a non-ADD person a more efficient learner or better test taker. It's not like steroids and physical performance.
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You're pretty much guaranteed a douche. For quoting my post about people working hard for good grades
 
pathologyDO said:
You're pretty much guaranteed a douche. For quoting my post about people working hard for good grades
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Care to elaborate? There's always someone smarter than you and/or working harder than you. Hard work alone doesn't get you 100%s and having great grades doesn't mean you have no life. I don't get 100s, but I routinely score in the 90th+ percentile of my class, have a girlfriend, have 4 research projects going, volunteer at the free clinic, play(ed) on 7 intramural sports teams so far this year, and sleep for 7-8 hours everynight. Life is good, except for the not having a paying job.

Douche or not, I'm enjoying myself and doing just about everything I want. Time management and efficiency are the names of the game. Quality over quantity.
 
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dyspareunia said:
Care to elaborate? There's always someone smarter than you and/or working harder than you. Hard work alone doesn't get you 100%s and having great grades doesn't mean you have no life. I don't get 100s, but I routinely score in the 90th+ percentile of my class, have a girlfriend, have 4 research projects going, volunteer at the free clinic, play(ed) on 7 intramural sports teams so far this year, and sleep for 7-8 hours everynight. Life is good, except for the not having a paying job.

Douche or not, I'm enjoying myself and doing just about everything I want. Time management and efficiency are the names of the game. Quality over quantity.
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This does sound awesome!

Unfortunately, I have never been as talented a learner as you seem to be and so I needed to spend more time studying and restudying material.

It sounds like others also may have more difficulties than you have experienced in the act of learning.

Though I am very happy that you are doing well and I'm sure others wish for your success too, I think the negative comments come from the feeling of superiority some of your posts rain down upon the rest.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if you really want an explanation for the douche outburst it probably has something to do with this publicizing of your definite ease of learning with seemingly little consideration for those who may have more difficulty than you.

I wonder in your schedule if you can find time to work on empathy and humility as well? Maybe it's not needed and you have mastered those traits as we have not met and text can be easily misunderstood, but you be the judge.
 
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Venko said:
This does sound awesome!

Unfortunately, I have never been as talented a learner as you seem to be and so I needed to spend more time studying and restudying material.

It sounds like others also may have more difficulties than you have experienced in the act of learning.

Though I am very happy that you are doing well and I'm sure others wish for your success too, I think the negative comments come from the feeling of superiority some of your posts rain down upon the rest.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if you really want an explanation for the douche outburst it probably has something to do with this publicizing of your definite ease of learning.

I wonder in your schedule if you can find time to work on empathy and humility as well? Maybe it's not needed and you have mastered those traits as we have not met and text can be easily misunderstood, but you be the judge.
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No one in my class knows what my grades are like or about my pending publications because I keep it to myself. I'm simply trying to disprove the apparently common belief that you need to sacrifice everything just to do well in med school. I consider myself humble in real life, though the internet is another story. As far as empathy goes, I don't have any empathy (or sympathy) for people who try to put down others (by saying they have no life, etc) who are out performing them.
 
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dyspareunia said:
No one in my class knows what my grades are like or about my pending publications because I keep it to myself. I'm simply trying to disprove the apparently common belief that you need to sacrifice everything just to do well in med school. I consider myself humble in real life, though the internet is another story. As far as empathy goes, I don't have any empathy (or sympathy) for people who try to put down others (by saying they have no life, etc) who are out performing them.
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I'm not saying everyone who scores high grades study a lot, nor am I claiming to be the smartest person in my class. I'm saying that many, but not all, but many people who score very well also spend a lot their time studying ... A lot. Efficiency is great.. But if you are efficient AND put in the time you're going to really be kicking ass.

Disclaimer: I'm just one of those "inferior intelligence" types who studies a lot and gets high B's.

I would also like to note that my claims are backed by a university study that our class was shown at the beginning of this year. It showed time spent studying per weekday and per weekend days, and contrasted students who averaged Cs and students who averaged As. Guess who spent literally double the amount of studying? The A students... Not surprising since students who score better, on average, spend more time studying. Again, there is the fact that there are gifted people out there who don't have to but that is likely not the norm but rather the exception.
 
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pathologyDO said:
I'm not saying everyone who scores high grades study a lot, nor am I claiming to be the smartest person in my class. I'm saying that many, but not all, but many people who score very well also spend a lot their time studying ... A lot. Efficiency is great.. But if you are efficient AND put in the time you're going to really be kicking ass.

Disclaimer: I'm just one of those "inferior intelligence" types who studies a lot and gets high B's.

I would also like to note that my claims are backed by a university study that our class was shown at the beginning of this year. It showed time spent studying per weekday and per weekend days, and contrasted students who averaged Cs and students who averaged As. Guess who spent literally double the amount of studying? The A students... Not surprising since students who score better, on average, spend more time studying. Again, there is the fact that there are gifted people out there who don't have to but that is likely not the norm but rather the exception.
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I'm sure the A students largely spend more time studying than the C students, but I didn't think we were comparing A students to C students. Someone getting 85-90% on exams, for example, likely isn't going to jump up to 97%+ just by studying for more hours. When you know enough material to get 90% on exams the most important thing to do to get high 90s is to figure out what details to actually study rather than putting in more time studying everything.

The higher your scores, the less important the number of hours you spend studying becomes. This is because all the high scorers have one thing in common... they know almost everything that's testable so making another pass through the material or studying the material for more hours is largely going to be wasted because they already know nearly 100% of the stuff they're reading over for the nth time. Past a certain point you need to learn how to pick out details that the professor is likely to test. Being able to develop that skill probably takes time, but studying the few details you don't already know does not take much time at all.

Perhaps that's not true for others, but I've found it to be true for me.
 
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dyspareunia said:
I'm sure the A students largely spend more time studying than the C students, but I didn't think we were comparing A students to C students. Someone getting 85-90% on exams, for example, likely isn't going to jump up to 97%+ just by studying for more hours. When you know enough material to get 90% on exams the most important thing to do to get high 90s is to figure out what details to actually study rather than putting in more time studying everything.

The higher your scores, the less important the number of hours you spend studying becomes. This is because all the high scorers have one thing in common... they know almost everything that's testable so making another pass through the material or studying the material for more hours is largely going to be wasted because they already know nearly 100% of the stuff they're reading over for the nth time. Past a certain point you need to learn how to pick out details that the professor is likely to test. Being able to develop that skill probably takes time, but studying the few details you don't already know does not take much time at all.

Perhaps that's not true for others, but I've found it to be true for me.
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Good point, the difference between a 90% and a 100% could likely be due to understanding what material the professor wants you to know.... And that is exactly why I do better on standardized exams vs regular coursework. I have more solid info regarding what USMLE wants vs what my professors want. Hell, most of our questions require an understanding of minutiae and, ultimately, the personality of each professor. It can be easy to miss a question just due to bad wording.

I know our first section of the year we had someone score 100%. This, without much understanding of the medical school professors question styles... He, i hear, spent all night all day studying to get that score.

So it seems as though there are two routes to the 100%: understand exactly what the professors want you to study, and thus study efficiently. Or, you can study a ****-ton of material all day all night until you cannot have missed any details that will be on the exam, regardless of understanding what the professors want

I will say you've inspired me to probe further on the more efficient route 8)
 
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To paraphrase Joe Flom

"The harder I worked, the luckier I got"
 
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dyspareunia said:
Care to elaborate? There's always someone smarter than you and/or working harder than you. Hard work alone doesn't get you 100%s and having great grades doesn't mean you have no life. I don't get 100s, but I routinely score in the 90th+ percentile of my class, have a girlfriend, have 4 research projects going, volunteer at the free clinic, play(ed) on 7 intramural sports teams so far this year, and sleep for 7-8 hours everynight. Life is good, except for the not having a paying job.

Douche or not, I'm enjoying myself and doing just about everything I want. Time management and efficiency are the names of the game. Quality over quantity.
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While I applaud you for your smarts and ability to juggle many things, you are in a small minority of med students.
 
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