I really have not learned anything first year

[palipad123]

Hey Guys. I am currently s first year student, at an US MD school, who is almost done with first year. I had many difficulties this year and I am worried about my future. I really feel like I learned nothing this year. In my school we have no lecutres what so ever, it is 100% TBL. we have to literally teach ourselves everything and they just assign random pages in random textbooks to read. Because of this by basics are very lacking. Our school is systems based and we might spend like 3 weeks on the physiology, pathology, phamacology, and anatomy.. of a certain system and then move on. I am looking at first aid and alot of the things, even for the systems that we did cover, seem foreign to me. Even though technically we "learnt" it becuase the way the school is not teaching us, I am still very confused on alot of the things. However we really only need like a 50%( because of easy team quiz grades that our team always gets 100s on) on our exams to pass classes, which I was able to do wihtout really understanding anything. I generally guess on a bunch of the questions and score in the low 50s and end up passing without really knowing anything. our anatomy exams are only practicals and do not have any questions regarding the knowledge behind the anatomy and the questions on pracicals are just identifying. So for my anatomy pracitcals, which I also only need a 50% to pass, I have been just studying the muscles,nerves, arteries and where I could find them but I have no idea what any of them do, or what the nerves arteries inervate/perfuse, becuase they do not test that. So my anatomy knowledge is practically non existant. So even though I have been passing, because of hte extremly low standards, I really do not that much and I am freaking out about how it will impact me for the step 1. what do you guys think I should do. I am really worried.

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[TaroBubbleTea]

Most of med school is self directed learning. The challenge is finding a way that works for you. Otherwise, just do FA, Pathoma, sketchy micro, rinse and repeat. Add UWorld into the mix during dedicated.

Edit: Forgot to mention Boards and Beyond.

 

[DrDarce]

So for one I would stop aiming to score in the low 50s just to pass. There must be other students who are making TBL work for them (I hope), so I would suggest asking them what they do to study. Besides that I don't have much advice besides what Taro already said.

 

[Goro]

Hey Guys. I am currently s first year student, at an US MD school, who is almost done with first year. I had many difficulties this year and I am worried about my future. I really feel like I learned nothing this year. In my school we have no lecutres what so ever, it is 100% TBL. we have to literally teach ourselves everything and they just assign random pages in random textbooks to read. Because of this by basics are very lacking. Our school is systems based and we might spend like 3 weeks on the physiology, pathology, phamacology, and anatomy.. of a certain system and then move on. I am looking at first aid and alot of the things, even for the systems that we did cover, seem foreign to me. Even though technically we "learnt" it becuase the way the school is not teaching us, I am still very confused on alot of the things. However we really only need like a 50%( because of easy team quiz grades that our team always gets 100s on) on our exams to pass classes, which I was able to do wihtout really understanding anything. I generally guess on a bunch of the questions and score in the low 50s and end up passing without really knowing anything. our anatomy exams are only practicals and do not have any questions regarding the knowledge behind the anatomy and the questions on pracicals are just identifying. So for my anatomy pracitcals, which I also only need a 50% to pass, I have been just studying the muscles,nerves, arteries and where I could find them but I have no idea what any of them do, or what the nerves arteries inervate/perfuse, becuase they do not test that. So my anatomy knowledge is practically non existant. So even though I have been passing, because of hte extremly low standards, I really do not that much and I am freaking out about how it will impact me for the step 1. what do you guys think I should do. I am really worried.

Don't your professors have PPT files to help guide your study? No study aids at all other than required reading?

When you learn about a structure, you sure should be learning about what it does, in addition to where it is.

 

[palipad123]

Don't your professors have PPT files to help guide your study? No study aids at all other than required reading?

When you learn about a structure, you sure should be learning about what it does, in addition to where it is.

No they do not provide us with powerpoints or any videos, just readings. I try to understand what is goign on but when they assign random paged n the middle of a book for which I might not even understand the first page of, it forces me to memorize more than actually understand. I want to understand, that is how I have been studying in college and so forth, but without a lecture where the proffessor starts from the basics and moves up I have a hard time trying to understand what is going on. For example we are learnign our pharmacology and microbiology while doing our systems but they do not assign proper readings to understand how actually a drug works so my fundamentals of pharmcology in general is just nonexistant and I end up just memeorizing random words that i forgot after taking the exam. I am planning on getting kaplan, that IMGS ususally use, and start learning from them throughout second year becuase I really have learned nothing from my school. Do you think this is a good plan. All I want to do at his point is pass step 1 becuase I am perfectly fine going into family medicine anywhere in the country. I am so afraid, at this rate, that I am going to fail step 1, becuase of my complete lack of understnading of fundamental, and not end up being a physican at all and have big loans and no job.

 

[neoevolution]

No they do not provide us with powerpoints or any videos, just readings. I try to understand what is goign on but when they assign random paged n the middle of a book for which I might not even understand the first page of, it forces me to memorize more than actually understand. I want to understand, that is how I have been studying in college and so forth, but without a lecture where the proffessor starts from the basics and moves up I have a hard time trying to understand what is going on. For example we are learnign our pharmacology and microbiology while doing our systems but they do not assign proper readings to understand how actually a drug works so my fundamentals of pharmcology in general is just nonexistant and I end up just memeorizing random words that i forgot after taking the exam. I am planning on getting kaplan, that IMGS ususally use, and start learning from them throughout second year becuase I really have learned nothing from my school. Do you think this is a good plan. All I want to do at his point is pass step 1 becuase I am perfectly fine going into family medicine anywhere in the country. I am so afraid, at this rate, that I am going to fail step 1, becuase of my complete lack of understnading of fundamental, and not end up being a physican at all and have big loans and no job.

Study along with supplemental Step 1 resources, as they'll give you the overview/background, and you can learn exam-specific material more easily that way + there will definitely be considerable overlap if you're at a US med school.

Use First Aid
Use BRS for physiology
Consider getting Anki/Firecracker to help you memorize high yield Step 1 facts.
Buy something like Boards and Beyond or the Kaplan video series, they're not too long if you space them out over the year.
Use Sketchy for memorization of pharm/micro
Use Pathoma for pathology in 2nd year
2nd year, add in qbanks (definitely UWorld, maybe Kaplan/Rx)and more flashcards

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[intubesteak]

We have usually 2-3 sessions like what your are describing in a given block, and the rest are regular lectures. I personally love the PBL approach, but most of my classmates hate it and say that they tank the associated exam questions. What has been working for me is to be super duper prepared for the tbl session, treating it like a test. I might spend 2-3 hours preparing for the session by doing the readings and doing the specific firecracker cards for the topic (just insert favorite study tool here). When I am well prepared I get a lot more out of the sessions, only have to take a few short notes, and sometimes actually enjoy them. If I'm not prepared, I find myself backtracking after the session, and having missed out on some of the pearls of what the professor taught.

TLDR: try to spend a lot more time preparing for the sessions and you should be able to engage more during them and get more out of it

 

[LyMed]

You can try disregarding the assigned page numbers, and start form the beginning of the book. Or you can find whatever topic you're assigned to that day and Youtube lectures.

 

[TexasPhysician]

While I had assigned readings in med school, I never even purchased the books to read the pages. I selected the books and review books that I found the most beneficial or recommended by upper year's. The first 2 years of med school are largely self directed.

 

[Goro]

No they do not provide us with powerpoints or any videos, just readings. I try to understand what is goign on but when they assign random paged n the middle of a book for which I might not even understand the first page of, it forces me to memorize more than actually understand. I want to understand, that is how I have been studying in college and so forth, but without a lecture where the proffessor starts from the basics and moves up I have a hard time trying to understand what is going on. For example we are learnign our pharmacology and microbiology while doing our systems but they do not assign proper readings to understand how actually a drug works so my fundamentals of pharmcology in general is just nonexistant and I end up just memeorizing random words that i forgot after taking the exam. I am planning on getting kaplan, that IMGS ususally use, and start learning from them throughout second year becuase I really have learned nothing from my school. Do you think this is a good plan. All I want to do at his point is pass step 1 becuase I am perfectly fine going into family medicine anywhere in the country. I am so afraid, at this rate, that I am going to fail step 1, becuase of my complete lack of understnading of fundamental, and not end up being a physican at all and have big loans and no job.

Do you not learn anything from your team?
How is the rest of your Class doing?
What are the median grades, and how far below median are you?
Have you visited your school's learning or education center for help?
Have you gone to see your Faculty for help?
Anything outside of school distracting you? Family OK? Health OK?

While many med students like being spoon fed, you don't have that luxury.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Do you not learn anything from your team?

I didn't. Preclinical years are an individual responsibility in my opinion.

 

[palipad123]

Do you not learn anything from your team?
How is the rest of your Class doing?
What are the median grades, and how far below median are you?
Have you visited your school's learning or education center for help?
Have you gone to see your Faculty for help?
Anything outside of school distracting you? Family OK? Health OK?

While many med students like being spoon fed, you don't have that luxury.

I learn nothing from my tbl sessions actually it makes me more confused because they just tell us why a certain answer is correct after we spent like 20 minutes talking about a question as a group. So the teachers really might only be talking fro 20 minutes of a 2 hour tbl session and even then it is just to tell us why a certain answer is correct. I am actually doing pretty bad relative to the class. The class averages are generally in the high 60s, I am always below average and might be one of the lowest scoring person. I really want to do better but I am having a hard time learning from random pages in textbooks. I really need a lecturer teaching me from scratch and building up. It is hard for me to do their assigned reading and then also watch outside resources bec I just don't have the time. So from next year on I am just going to use Kaplan lecture notes and watch their videos and pathoma. I am really worried about my future. I had a 4.0 in college and 35 on the mcat and have been able to study 12 hours straight in college but now with you lectures and without being able to understand fundamentals
I am really struggling to be motivated enough to study. Even though I am from a good MD school I feel like I will fail step 1 and even if I do end up passing after multiple tries I might only barely pass. As I said before I am fine doing family med anywhere in this country for residency I just don't know if that is even feasible for me. I don't know if I should take this risk with my student loans. Do you think I should quit and find another career. I like medicine but maybe I am not cut out for it. Sorry for the long response. I really need your guidance. Thank you so much

 

[palipad123]

By the way I forgot to mention while my school is old and well established md school this 100% tbl curriculum is new. We are the first class to do it. The upperclassmen had full lectures like a normal school should. So I have no support from upperclassmnen and even my so called teachers are having a hard time undistinguished to not lecturing so they really can't give us advice, sometimes for the readings they assign they do not read it complete themselves and jut assume that what we know is in there and end up writing quiz questions that are not even in the assigned readings. I tried talking to academic advisors but since this is new curriculums they could my help that much either. I just want someone to teach me is this too much to ask. I am self motivated but I need someone to teach me the basics first.

 

[Jabbed]

You chose the wrong medical school. Pure TBL is 100% sink or swim and it sounds like you're struggling to master the doggy paddle.

It's time to go off the reservation and make Najeeb, Costanzo, Pathoma, and Goljan RR your primary sources. Watch ALL of Najeeb pertaining to your subject-- he's a great lecturer. It'll be the best $100 you ever spend. Read Costanzo's physio textbook for physio material, Pathoma → RR for path. Get a USMLERx subscription and do practice questions every week.

Cram your assigned reading material only after you've completed all of the above. Don't mess up your M2 year as it will bite you in the butt forevermore.

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[palipad123]

Write a study guide.

Board and Beyonds (BB) + Costanzo BRS for physio
Then takes notes on one disease from pathoma, watch that disease on BB while adding in notes, then fill in the notes with interesting stuff from Goljan's.
Read review papers about things you find interesting
Qbanks.
Then Sketchy for micro and whatever pharm resource you like.

If you do all that, you will do well and you will have more than enough to talk about during TBL. You don't have to do their assigned reading. You only have to know the content for that tbl session.

Thank you so much for your advise. I have heard about boards and beyond and I like his teaching from the youtube videos that I watched of him. Do you think that he has all the information you need in order to pass step 1. I have been looking his site over and there does not seem to be that much anatomy, and if there is it is scattered around in his videos in not that much detail, and the drugs stuff seem to scattered around in his videos as well. So do you think if I mainly just focous on boards and beyond , sketchy micro, and pathoma and try to memorize and understnad those resources I should be able to pass step 1. I know people say that memorizing first aid is a guarenteed pass but that is basically impossible for someone like me so I might just use that as a resource to glance over and see what types of things I should be focousing on.

 

[Goro]

By the way I forgot to mention while my school is old and well established md school this 100% tbl curriculum is new. We are the first class to do it. The upperclassmen had full lectures like a normal school should. So I have no support from upperclassmnen and even my so called teachers are having a hard time undistinguished to not lecturing so they really can't give us advice, sometimes for the readings they assign they do not read it complete themselves and jut assume that what we know is in there and end up writing quiz questions that are not even in the assigned readings. I tried talking to academic advisors but since this is new curriculums they could my help that much either. I just want someone to teach me is this too much to ask. I am self motivated but I need someone to teach me the basics first.

This tends to be the case when school's switch to new curricula. My own school is switching over to TBL and we've somehow dodged the bullet; the last three classes handled the change quite well. I suspect that the kids to well in spite of what we do, not because of it.

I don't think that it's quitting time just yet. Are struggling across the board, our are doing well in certain subjects (say, Cardio but not Neuro)?

You've been given lots of excellent advice, and now it's time to learn how to learn in this particular format. Start by asking of your team mates how they handle it, and/or your firends, especially those you perceive as doing well.

And read this:
Goro’s guide to success in medical school-v.2016

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[Mr Roboto]

"I haven't learned anything from MS1"

"I aim for a 50% on each exam"

Think I figured out the problem here.

 

[palipad123]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I just found out today that I failed 3 classes first year and I have to remediate them over the summer. We have 12 weeks of summer and I was plaanning on remediation for these classes for 6 weeks and the remainder of the summer studying boards and beyond since I practically know none of the basics( we are system based so we covered a lot of pathology and pharm as well). I will implement your suggestions next year. If I can just pass step 1 can I still match family med in the us anywhere even with my failures. What if it takes me multiple times to pass step 1 could I still match into family med somewhere in the us

 

[HooliganSnail]

You chose the wrong medical school. Pure TBL is 100% sink or swim and it sounds like you're struggling to master the doggy paddle.

It's time to go off the reservation and make Najeeb, Costanzo, Pathoma, and Goljan RR your primary sources. Watch ALL of Najeeb pertaining to your subject-- he's a great lecturer. It'll be the best $100 you ever spend. Read Costanzo's physio textbook for physio material, Pathoma → RR for path. Get a USMLERx subscription and do practice questions every week.

Cram your assigned reading material only after you've completed all of the above. Don't mess up your M2 year as it will bite you in the butt forevermore.

I feel like OP is right at the time in medical school where everyone suddenly starts showing up with a First Aid book...because it dawns on them....O there is a big important test I have to take in a little while

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[sazerac]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I just found out today that I failed 3 classes first year and I have to remediate them over the summer. We have 12 weeks of summer and I was plaanning on remediation for these classes for 6 weeks and the remainder of the summer studying boards and beyond since I practically know none of the basics( we are system based so we covered a lot of pathology and pharm as well). I will implement your suggestions next year. If I can just pass step 1 can I still match family med in the us anywhere even with my failures. What if it takes me multiple times to pass step 1 could I still match into family med somewhere in the us

How did you fail a class if you keep passing the exams and TBL sessions like you said you did in the OP? Did you fail professionalism or something? There is something you haven't been telling us.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I just found out today that I failed 3 classes first year and I have to remediate them over the summer. We have 12 weeks of summer and I was plaanning on remediation for these classes for 6 weeks and the remainder of the summer studying boards and beyond since I practically know none of the basics( we are system based so we covered a lot of pathology and pharm as well). I will implement your suggestions next year. If I can just pass step 1 can I still match family med in the us anywhere even with my failures. What if it takes me multiple times to pass step 1 could I still match into family med somewhere in the us

Your story is getting quite weird. Just discovered 3 failures?

FM is still within reach, but the best advice I can give is to start dedicating every waking hours to medicine.

Stop focusing on passing. You need to start MASTERING everything.

 

[TheFutureFatMan]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I just found out today that I failed 3 classes first year and I have to remediate them over the summer. We have 12 weeks of summer and I was plaanning on remediation for these classes for 6 weeks and the remainder of the summer studying boards and beyond since I practically know none of the basics( we are system based so we covered a lot of pathology and pharm as well). I will implement your suggestions next year. If I can just pass step 1 can I still match family med in the us anywhere even with my failures. What if it takes me multiple times to pass step 1 could I still match into family med somewhere in the us

WAT?

So I would strongly suggest you meet regularly with ed specialists to track your academic progress. I've never heard of a program that has a student fail three courses, and they find this out in May.

Pathoma is a good resource to use.
First Aid can function like a template.
Pay for Firecracker.
If you need a textbook to clean up on phys processes Guyton is gold. I'd also suggest finding micrographs for each subject. They're usually like 200 pages, and have the necessary info and all of the fluff cut out.

 

[Mr Roboto]

WAT?

So I would strongly suggest you meet regularly with ed specialists to track your academic progress. I've never heard of a program that has a student fail three courses, and they find this out in May.

Pathoma is a good resource to use.
First Aid can function like a template.
Pay for Firecracker.
If you need a textbook to clean up on phys processes Guyton is gold. I'd also suggest finding micrographs for each subject. They're usually like 200 pages, and have the necessary info and all of the fluff cut out.

Have you heard of a program letting students fail 3 courses without remediating the entire year?

 

[NotYou20]

By the way I forgot to mention while my school is old and well established md school this 100% tbl curriculum is new. We are the first class to do it. The upperclassmen had full lectures like a normal school should. So I have no support from upperclassmnen and even my so called teachers are having a hard time undistinguished to not lecturing so they really can't give us advice, sometimes for the readings they assign they do not read it complete themselves and jut assume that what we know is in there and end up writing quiz questions that are not even in the assigned readings. I tried talking to academic advisors but since this is new curriculums they could my help that much either. I just want someone to teach me is this too much to ask. I am self motivated but I need someone to teach me the basics first.

Can you get old PowerPoints or notes from the second years?

 

[dadaddadaBATMAN]

Have you heard of a program letting students fail 3 courses without remediating the entire year?

Even if it's possible to do it without the repeated year I wouldn't suggest trying it. trying to make up for that serious of a deficiency while also mastering 2nd year material would be close to impossible. It would also be overwhelming.

If I were in that position I would actually request to remediate the year. The opportunity cost is enormous, but receiving ****ty training is even more costly. Get as intensive of an intervention (tutors, feedback, study counseling) as your school is able to give you. Good luck

 

[Giovanotto]

No offense, but your school sounds like a farce.

 

[Redpancreas]

Hey Guys. I am currently s first year student, at an US MD school, who is almost done with first year. I had many difficulties this year and I am worried about my future. I really feel like I learned nothing this year. In my school we have no lecutres what so ever, it is 100% TBL. we have to literally teach ourselves everything and they just assign random pages in random textbooks to read. Because of this by basics are very lacking. Our school is systems based and we might spend like 3 weeks on the physiology, pathology, phamacology, and anatomy.. of a certain system and then move on. I am looking at first aid and alot of the things, even for the systems that we did cover, seem foreign to me. Even though technically we "learnt" it becuase the way the school is not teaching us, I am still very confused on alot of the things. However we really only need like a 50%( because of easy team quiz grades that our team always gets 100s on) on our exams to pass classes, which I was able to do wihtout really understanding anything. I generally guess on a bunch of the questions and score in the low 50s and end up passing without really knowing anything. our anatomy exams are only practicals and do not have any questions regarding the knowledge behind the anatomy and the questions on pracicals are just identifying. So for my anatomy pracitcals, which I also only need a 50% to pass, I have been just studying the muscles,nerves, arteries and where I could find them but I have no idea what any of them do, or what the nerves arteries inervate/perfuse, becuase they do not test that. So my anatomy knowledge is practically non existant. So even though I have been passing, because of hte extremly low standards, I really do not that much and I am freaking out about how it will impact me for the step 1. what do you guys think I should do. I am really worried.

You've learnt everything you need to know, you just haven't retained it but it's somewhere buried deep in your cerebrum and reptition in second year, Step study, and rotations will bring the cream to the top and you will retain what's important. For what it's worth I felt the same way.

 

[Redpancreas]

Thanks everyone for their advice. I just found out today that I failed 3 classes first year and I have to remediate them over the summer. We have 12 weeks of summer and I was plaanning on remediation for these classes for 6 weeks and the remainder of the summer studying boards and beyond since I practically know none of the basics( we are system based so we covered a lot of pathology and pharm as well). I will implement your suggestions next year. If I can just pass step 1 can I still match family med in the us anywhere even with my failures. What if it takes me multiple times to pass step 1 could I still match into family med somewhere in the us

Didn't see this and after reading all post, here's my advice:

Find ONE SOURCE that's a comprehensive medical school lecture series. Unfortunately, the only ones I can think of off the top of my head is Kaplan and DIT. Kaplan is probably slightly better given that they're not simply following First Aid. In second year you need to buy Sketchy and Pathoma and add those on. Sorry to hear about your failures. Use those. TBL sounds horrible!

 

[Goro]

Have you heard of a program letting students fail 3 courses without remediating the entire year?

I know of, and have taught at, med schools that would dismiss someone who failed three classes (including where I am at now.) Unfortunately, what I fear happening is that OP will likely pass remediation, fail the 2nd year, remediate again, and then fail Boards.

OP,. you still didn't answer my question as to whether life or health was interfering with your studies. Also, do you really want to be in med school? Did you choose this path due to family pressure????

 

[sazerac]

Have you heard of a program letting students fail 3 courses without remediating the entire year?

While uncommon at the graduate level, given that his TBL team was consistently getting 100s in group work, it is possible that the class bully was flashing D card.

It makes about as much sense as anything else in this thread.

 

[TheFutureFatMan]

Have you heard of a program letting students fail 3 courses without remediating the entire year?

News to me, news to me.

 

[palipad123]

Hey guys thanks for the responses. My school has 4 classes in each block and there are 3 blocks for first year. So on transcript there will be 12 classes and each one is graded on pass or fail. I passed, but barrely by getting in the 50s, the first 8 classes of the two blocks. I recently took the block exam for the last block and found out that I failed 3 of the 4 course this block. We are allowed to remidate them this summer. The courses are all system based and one course in one block might cover like 4 systems and bits of their pathology,pharm, anatomy... regarding your question goro I wanted to do medicine and I still do. I love the patient interactions I get at my primary care clinic site I go to once a week for my class. I would love to be a family doc or internal med doc one day, however the process is really burning me out and especially without lectures I a really losing motivation to study. I hav even been looking at masters in engineering, even though I have a bio degree, bec I am afraid I am not going to match. I realized that from second year I am going to ignore their readings and instead use boards and beyond and throughout the year do the videos that were covered in during first year to learn that material since I really don't know it. I have not heard of boards and beyond but people here are suggesting it and Kaplan is not feasible bec of its length during the year. Do you, and any one else reading this, think that if I barely pass step 1, and also barrels pass step 2, and with my course failures could I as a us md graduate match into family med or internal med anywhere in this country( I really don't care where). What if I fail step 1 and have to retake it and then barey pass on second attempt. I want to do more than pass but I just want to see what my chances of matching would be if things become as worst as they could be. This is also considering no ecs.

 

[Gorne]

That medical school sounds horrible, if any of this is even true.
1. The chance of someone with a 35 MCAT and 4.0 getting destroyed by 1st year and being so clueless as what to do about it is very very small.
2. You got a 35 MCAT but you're an M1? You just happen to convert the score or take an off year?
3. I know it's an Internet forum and people get lazy, unless English is OP's second language, your sentence structure and grammar don't scream 35 MCAT 4.0 to me.

 

[TheFutureFatMan]

So to summarize everyone's impressions:

1. your school sounds...interesting
2. it feels like there's additional information
3. you need to prioritize and decide if you really want to be a doctor, and if so, put in the work.
4. focus on one to two of the aforementioned resources to prepare for your blocks
5. recognize that the majority of people here are looking to provide you with insight, the thing you asked for. If there IS additional information, it doesn't do you any good not to put that forward, unless it would identify you.

I think point 3 is the most important. You need to take some agency in your education. Some medical schools are great at supporting the students, some aren't. If yours isn't, you will need to step up and take more responsibility than you have to-date.

Best of luck with this situation, study hard this summer!

 

[libertyyne]

While uncommon at the graduate level, given that his TBL team was consistently getting 100s in group work, it is possible that the class bully was flashing D card.

It makes about as much sense as anything else in this thread.

That is the funniest thing I have read today. Thank you.

 

[palipad123]

Sorry for any grammer mistakes I have made. I am typing these responses really fast on my phone. However I did really get a 4.0 and a 35 on mcat ( but a 9 on verbal so maybe my english is not as strong), and I came to medical school right after undergrad( so no gap year). I am a good student, or at least I was, but I feel like maybe a bit of burnout might be the cause of my unsucess. I try to study but it is hard to study what they want when there are no lectures, becuase that is how I have been learning for a long time now. I have visited the school psychiatrist to get help beucase I have faced a period of hoplessness during first year but I was not diagnosed with depression but I do have a small amount of anxiety ( nothing serious). Other than that I am really not witholding any info. I really love SDN and I am reaching out for help to a community that I know has many variety of experiences. As I said from my previous posts, second year on, I will start using lecture resources mainly boards and beyond but I still feel like, becuase of my poor fundamental in all the subjects( path, pharm..), step 1 will be a big hurdle for me. I am willing to try and at this point will be happy to pass. However, what I really wanted to know, is that based on your experiences do you think that as a US MD graduate who has failed several classes first year, and has barely passed step 1 ( or even failed it in first round an deventually passed it ) with not really that much ECS, and normal passes in clinical years and step 2 exam, will have a chance of matching in family med if location is not an issue. I ask this to see if situations as wors as they could be could a US md gradaute still match somewhere in family med if locaiton is not an issue. Every year US MD students are not matching and I really do not want to graduate with alot of debt and have no job since US MD is practically useless without residency.

 

[Mr Roboto]

You've failed a class in 3/4 blocks so far but aren't even going before a promotion board? This is borderline insane. My school would force you to retake the entire year if you failed even 2 classes.

Sorry for any grammer mistakes I have made. I am typing these responses really fast on my phone. However I did really get a 4.0 and a 35 on mcat ( but a 9 on verbal so maybe my english is not as strong), and I came to medical school right after undergrad( so no gap year). I am a good student, or at least I was, but I feel like maybe a bit of burnout might be the cause of my unsucess. I try to study but it is hard to study what they want when there are no lectures, becuase that is how I have been learning for a long time now. I have visited the school psychiatrist to get help beucase I have faced a period of hoplessness during first year but I was not diagnosed with depression but I do have a small amount of anxiety ( nothing serious). Other than that I am really not witholding any info. I really love SDN and I am reaching out for help to a community that I know has many variety of experiences. As I said from my previous posts, second year on, I will start using lecture resources mainly boards and beyond but I still feel like, becuase of my poor fundamental in all the subjects( path, pharm..), step 1 will be a big hurdle for me. I am willing to try and at this point will be happy to pass. However, what I really wanted to know, is that based on your experiences do you think that as a US MD graduate who has failed several classes first year, and has barely passed step 1 ( or even failed it in first round an deventually passed it ) with not really that much ECS, and normal passes in clinical years and step 2 exam, will have a chance of matching in family med if location is not an issue. I ask this to see if situations as wors as they could be could a US md gradaute still match somewhere in family med if locaiton is not an issue. Every year US MD students are not matching and I really do not want to graduate with alot of debt and have no job since US MD is practically useless without residency.

Sure, but those people have major red flags, over reached, or sabotaged their rank lists. If you graduate in good standing without legal problems you can get a residency somewhere.

 

[Med student 18]

Hello


So I'm not in medical school in the USA, but in South America and I have had a very similar experience to yours especially with anatomy (not so much with the other subjects). Once you are done with first year you won't really feel the lack of anatomy until you start your surgery and traumatology rotations. Once you start those, man hold on because it is getting difficult. I have had to literally restudy most of anatomy for those rotations and only after felt that I had a decent grip on anatomy.


So what to do about it? Supplement and or replace. If your teachers and or curriculum suck, find another way to get a good grip on the situation. What I discovered (late in the game) that there are some apps and websites that basically replace the lacking lecturer. Before this I would go to the books and just read and try desperately to understand, it worked but I could have done it in half the time if I just had an initial explanation. People say time is money, I personally disagree, and for me time is health. If you have an extra few hours you can spend them doing productive things like going to the gym and relaxing. Remember that a lot of the time the sleep and rest component is just as important as the studying component, over studying does nothing more than stress you out (prolonged cortisol exposure due to high levels of stress produces brain atrophy and less information retention)


My recommendation, do your research about which app/website/ Youtube channel or whatever other method you like (also which one you can afford) and use those as a foundation. If you got anything out of the class add it to that and once you have a basic understanding only then go to the book. Remember that a lot of the time the books assigned are massive and contain a lot of fluff, thus going to them to review after you have a foundation makes a lot more sense not only to understand but also to see what is important and what isn't. Be picky, ask what was asked in previous years and ask your professors what they deem most important. Nobody is going to judge you for not knowing a rare disease or some crazy specific detail, but they will definitely judge you for not knowing something big like pneumonia.


I hope I was able to help. Sorry if I ended up writing a sermon or sounding like a preacher, but I would love for people not to repeat the mistakes I made.


You will do well; it's all about effort (smart effort that is).


Cheers

Future colleague from Argentina.

 

[njtrimed]

That medical school sounds horrible, if any of this is even true.
1. The chance of someone with a 35 MCAT and 4.0 getting destroyed by 1st year and being so clueless as what to do about it is very very small.
2. You got a 35 MCAT but you're an M1? You just happen to convert the score or take an off year?
3. I know it's an Internet forum and people get lazy, unless English is OP's second language, your sentence structure and grammar don't scream 35 MCAT 4.0 to me.

I'm an M1 and it seems like most of my classmates took the MCAT before it changed. In fact, only the people who took the new MCAT on the first possible test date in April even had scores and percentiles before applying in early June. I took it the second date in May, and felt like I was rolling the dice applying without my official score, or even percentiles to go by.

 

[xoggyux]

Frankly, after high school, I feel 80-90% of learning should be self-taught. Even during undergrad, most of what a professor would do is to repeat what the power-point says or what the book says. From time to time you get the chance to expand on an explanation but for the most part the professor ends up being a text-to-speech machine. Med school is not dramatically different. Especially during the first 2 years where you are dumped a lot of information.
If your teachers are mediocre and the tests are not challenging. Grab a handful of the most popular study material (a few have already been mentioned) and start studying on your own.
I made the same mistake you are doing it, so believe me when I tell you that if you don't do this now you might regret it later.
Start doing uworld ASAP.