MD remediation and step 1

[taeyeonlover]

I am required to remediate a organ based module that I failed during MS2 year this summer. It will be 4 weeks long during this April. I had a meeting with the module director the other the day and it seems that it will be pretty intense with two two hour long quizzes that require short answers and a multiple choice final exam. I am pretty sure I can do well if I work hard enough but it will obviously require good amount of effort.

I am also scheduled to take step 1 at the end of June. I will have 6 weeks of full time dedicated studying for this exam.

I just have two questions.

1) If I do well during remediation and end up with A, will residency directors be a little bit more lenient about my failure? Of course it’s a red flag but will they ever think that I learned from my mistake and improved? Or will it not make any difference? The module director said both the failing grade and remediation grade will show up on my transcript.

2) although step is three months away, I’m still pretty nervous about it since I wasn’t the best student. I am wondering if it would be ok to do little studying here and there during remediation like maybe 20 uworld questions per day or watch several sketchy videos etc. Maybe I’m worrying too much and it shouldn’t be a big deal but it sometimes feels like remediation is eating up the time I could be using for step 1.

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[deleted1079620]

1) If you pass your remediation and pass all your boards on the first try, and have a good narrative for what you've learned and how you overcame, this will be a small blip on your app for residency, if it is even mentioned at all. I think most people would be really surprised at the current number of practicing doctors today who either took a LOA, repeated a year, or remediated a course. My school just celebrated a 100% placement rate for the class of 2022. There were several students in that class who repeated a year (all of whom matched in their preferred specialties), and who knows how many more than had to remediate at least one class along the way. Either way you can't change what your school reports on your transcript...all you can do is put your head down and work hard to move forward.

2) The #1 goal is to successfully remediate this course. If you don't do that you won't be able to sit for step anyway. Focus on the remediation in front of you, and if you don't find it too overwhelming after the first week or so, then you can always add in more board prep or questions. Look at remediating this course as intensive boards prep for whatever system this is...that's one less system you'll have to cover during your dedicated time. Once you've successfully finished your remediation, I would recommend you take an entire weekend off, regroup, and formulate a 6 week study plan for step.

Good luck, you've got this!

 

[taeyeonlover]

1) If you pass your remediation and pass all your boards on the first try, and have a good narrative for what you've learned and how you overcame, this will be a small blip on your app for residency, if it is even mentioned at all. I think most people would be really surprised at the current number of practicing doctors today who either took a LOA, repeated a year, or remediated a course. My school just celebrated a 100% placement rate for the class of 2022. There were several students in that class who repeated a year (all of whom matched in their preferred specialties), and who knows how many more than had to remediate at least one class along the way. Either way you can't change what your school reports on your transcript...all you can do is put your head down and work hard to move forward.

2) The #1 goal is to successfully remediate this course. If you don't do that you won't be able to sit for step anyway. Focus on the remediation in front of you, and if you don't find it too overwhelming after the first week or so, then you can always add in more board prep or questions. Look at remediating this course as intensive boards prep for whatever system this is...that's one less system you'll have to cover during your dedicated time. Once you've successfully finished your remediation, I would recommend you take an entire weekend off, regroup, and formulate a 6 week study plan for step.

Good luck, you've got this!

Thank you so much for your reply. Do you mind giving me advice again?

I heard from my module director that I am the only person who is doing the remediation in 4 weeks. There are several other people who also failed this module and they are all doing it in 6 weeks, which was the initial recommendation from the module director. These other people would have around 3-4 weeks for dedicated step 1 studying after completing the remediation so I’m assuming they are combining the remediation and step 1 studying.

Since the remediation is condensed for me, it turns out that Its kinda hellish schedule since there are so many lectures and the quizzes are all short answer quizzes. I’m concerned that I might end up with a mediocre grade again due to the hellish schedule.

Would I be better off just doing the intense shortened remediation and having full 6 weeks of step1 dedicated studying or do you think I should do what others are doing and take it easy by spreading things out?

Like you said I want to have a successful remediation and have an improved grade.

 

[Wolvvs]

IMO it's usually best to do what everyone else is doing in this sort of situation.

Are you worried you won't be able to pass Step 1? From what I've read, 6 weeks of dedicated was a relatively standard amount of time pre-pass/fail, and most people used that time to get their score as high as possible. If you just need to pass, you shouldn't need the full 6 weeks. To me it seems much more important to prioritize doing well in this module. Also if you have 4 weeks of a hellish schedule, it's going to be that much harder to commit to studying hard for an additional 6 weeks.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Thank you so much for your reply. Do you mind giving me advice again?

I heard from my module director that I am the only person who is doing the remediation in 4 weeks. There are several other people who also failed this module and they are all doing it in 6 weeks, which was the initial recommendation from the module director. These other people would have around 3-4 weeks for dedicated step 1 studying after completing the remediation so I’m assuming they are combining the remediation and step 1 studying.

Since the remediation is condensed for me, it turns out that Its kinda hellish schedule since there are so many lectures and the quizzes are all short answer quizzes. I’m concerned that I might end up with a mediocre grade again due to the hellish schedule.

Would I be better off just doing the intense shortened remediation and having full 6 weeks of step1 dedicated studying or do you think I should do what others are doing and take it easy by spreading things out?

Like you said I want to have a successful remediation and have an improved grade.

The thing you need to ask yourself is why you failed it the first time. If you failed because you genuinely didn't understand the material then why do you think you can do it in a condensed version and grasp it this time? If you failed because you were depressed and didn't want to go to class or do anything then I might be more persuaded to tell you to just do the 4 week version.

 

[deleted1079620]

Thank you so much for your reply. Do you mind giving me advice again?

I heard from my module director that I am the only person who is doing the remediation in 4 weeks. There are several other people who also failed this module and they are all doing it in 6 weeks, which was the initial recommendation from the module director. These other people would have around 3-4 weeks for dedicated step 1 studying after completing the remediation so I’m assuming they are combining the remediation and step 1 studying.

Since the remediation is condensed for me, it turns out that Its kinda hellish schedule since there are so many lectures and the quizzes are all short answer quizzes. I’m concerned that I might end up with a mediocre grade again due to the hellish schedule.

Would I be better off just doing the intense shortened remediation and having full 6 weeks of step1 dedicated studying or do you think I should do what others are doing and take it easy by spreading things out?

Like you said I want to have a successful remediation and have an improved grade.

I agree with the poster above that said to identify why you failed. You've passed other blocks so was there something particularly difficult about this system, or was there a personal issue that is now resolved?

I would probably do what the module director advises and take the full 6 weeks to remediate, and hopefully that allows for some boards prep time as well. To be honest your school's remediation system sounds awful. At my school they give you 2 weeks to prep for the remediation exam and it's 120 questions of multiple choice and then you're done and you move on.

Since you're remediating a system, and you're going to use that as board prep for that system, I would probably do uworld for that system during my remediation if it didn't cause too much extra stress, thereby killing two bird with one stone. Since a system will most like cover, physiology, anatomy, pathology, histology, micro & pharm make sure that you're covering the basic concepts too, and not just memorizing facts. That way you're building a solid foundation for your step prep.

 

[Redpancreas]

From your frequent posts, it sounds like you’re having a rough go with MS2.

I’m sorry that’s happening. I would really recommend you seek intensive, in-person support for these issues. I know the concern is that you have to dedicate as much time as possible to Step 1, but you truly have more time than you think and unless you address the underlying anxiety, things will get worse. It doesn’t have to be a pharmacological fix either but I really think you’d benefit from regularly talking with someone and an effort to make daily exercise a part of your routine during this time if that’s not already a part of your routine.

To answer your questions:

During remediation you should focus on the remediation aspect alone. Don’t underestimate the prospect of failing again. It’s not like they’re giving you the same test.

The failed courses will be a red flag for competitive specialties. For other fields, it’s hard to say how much of an obstacle it will be. It’s important you accept it as an obstacle but work towards making sure it doesn’t happen again. If you’re not addressing the root cause of all this though, things are going to continue to worsen and more red flags will develop.