So, when they ask you how you deal with failure in a medical school interview, it's for good reason... it will happen!
They posted grades on blackboard this afternoon. They threw out 4 of the 90 questions (I guess those became extra credit) and I got 63 out of 86 right. That's a 73%. Eek.
Our fundamentals course is broken down into 4 sections: structure (S), mechanism (M), therapeutics (T), and clinical sciences (CS). To pass, you have to get a 70% overall AND in each of those areas. This test had S, M, and CS, and I did not pass the mechanism section (26/40), which I'm guessing that was thanks to those crazy biochem questions for which I had not studied the minor details. So yes, here is some motivation to kick myself back into gear. I remember talking to Laka about this so many times last year after not doing as well on tests as we wanted-- you can't let it get you down. Every time you fail is just a motivator to up your game. And Sheppard's blog provided another little pick-me-up... I may not have done so well, but I took this test with other minds in the top 1% of the country. This is not the end!
I actually skipped my first lecture today too... I was having trouble focusing in anatomy and decided it would be a more efficient use of time to rest my brain and take a nap. Charlie recommended I take a coffee-power nap, so I tried it as an experiment. After not sleeping enough every single night I've been here, my power nap became about 50 minutes instead of 15, but I feel pretty awake now.
Back to the books!
No worries, you will do better next time and grades in the first 2 years are not very important. For me it's not so much my score but seeing the stupid questions that I've missed and knowing that I could have done better, that was painful.
ReplyDeletePhilip
Okay, so remember the radiology prof told us they *did* look at grades and ranks? If that isn't true, I am kind of upset that they didn't focus on lecturing about what they actually wanted us to know, or that they tested us on things that weren't clinically significant. There were so many minute details that were tested that I could never imagine using in medical practice... and if they *were* significant, I feel like they should have emphasized that and explained why. :| In my opinion, it was not big picture as it was advertised to be.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry. It's all true. In our school they did the exact same thing--told us it was about knowing the "big picture" and understanding concepts, and then testing us on the stupidest most minute things. My key was this: memorize things as quickly as you possibly can, and then try to "understand" how everything fits together basically the week before the exam. I too was constant percenter in the 70's (we were technically graded pass/fail though, which was awesome, and I never did get *below* a 70 although I squeaked by with at least a couple of 71s/73s...) and it's very very stressful. I sort of hesitate to say this, because I don't want to sound all doom-n-gloom, but third year was FAR worse for me than even first and second year. Even good days during third year were kind of sucky. Medical school in general breaks you. It is amazing, but it also will try to kill you. Just keep paddling, and when you're feeling beaten, find the strength to paddle harder. Or the money to buy a motorboat :)
ReplyDeleteI think they do want us to know the big picture... but also some details, including details they never teach us. Haha. We don't need to know the mechanism of beta-oxidation but the DO I shadowed did test me on a lot of little details on other things so they are important. Then again she was from Touro.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure rotations will be way worse, but I am interested to see how med school will break us. I find it quite fun and relaxing thus far. It's not any more material than high school or college.
Philip