Long story short, I started off on the wrong foot as an M1 and failed my first block. This means I have to pass a remediation exam, which will result in a F/P. Sadly, I also want to pursue a surgical speciality, but now I’m not sure if that’s out of the picture for me and if I should look at something else.

Be honest and tell me what you think.

Looking to buy a Patagonia for my boyfriend, a second year med student who is getting ready for rotations.

1. Are they worth the price/a good gift for a med student?

2. Would you want it embroidered (School logo, first/last name, etc.) or left plain?

I failed the first two exams in my second block. I have to pass the next two which are taken on the same day to progress. If I choose to leave now, I can potentially repeat the year without having the failures on my transcript and I can keep my scholarship for an extra semester.(both are maybe) regardless of whether I leave now or not I keep my scholarship but for only 7 more semesters. I leave now maybe this one will not count so it will be for 8. I think I can pass. But I’m worried about my mental health. I feel suicidal and depressed. I’m not even sure it will get better if I leave cuz then I will regret not pushing through. I’m stuck and I need help.

Im a first generation and an img who is totally new to the us health care system So this may sound like a very amateur question. I really can't figure out why pathology is not a competitive speciality ? dont they get financially compensateed as much? Is it the 0 patient contact ? Why do people on the internet give the impression that it is not a good speciality?

Never really got into Anki because I thought it was time consuming but liked it for tiny details I needed to get down for preclinical exams. Now I am worried that Anking was the best way to study for step 2 and it’s too late to do so, since so much of it is step 1 oriented material and time is of the essence. I took step 1 and felt fine with my study routine of doing my own thing without Anki but now I don’t know how to feel because step 2 is so important in terms of scores. Should I start Anki? Is it necessary to do well on step 2? Is there a way I can just do step 2 material and deselect cards that are more step 1 material?

Title, our school takes COMSAE late which only really gives us 2-3 weeks to take COMLEX after the last COMSAE. I know most do step first then comlex but in this case is comlex worth it first?

guys every time i try to watch a lecture (in 2x speed) i fall asleep. its like clockwork. what do i do to fix this? i still have 5 more months of preclinical classes

Given good EC’s and research?

Is someone with an above average Step 2 score in comparison to the average for their intended specialty but only HP’s generally preferred vs. all H’s and average to low Step 2 score?

Hi everyone. I wanted to ask for some advice. I'm a current 2nd year that has tried to find a way to study more efficiently but unfortunately haven't figure it out yet. So far I have been barely passing blocks except for the respiratory block which I had to remediate. I have taken this a wake up call and reality check to try something new (Specially since boards are around the corner). My go to study method is just do as many passes as I can (2.5-3 on average), memorize as I go, and then try some practice questions - strategy that allowed to make it this far but it has some disadvantages such us forgetting super-specific details, etc. My request is that I noticed that understanding and memorizing is not an issue but rather how to apply the knowledge in a more clinical scenario-problem, maybe I read question stem too fast and I feel I overthink a lot. Does anyone some advice on how to train that "gut feeling" and avoid second guessing, or any advice on how to approach questions? I would appreciate any input, thanks in advance 🙏

I’ve made a similar post before but I hadn’t completed interviews yet and now I’m in a position where I have more info. This might be long, so TLDR is that I want to get away from my family, but my fiance doesn’t want to go too far from his family, putting me in a position where I might end up ranking a residency ranked around spot 100 higher than top 20 programs. I just want opinions. Neuro, no desire for NIR or long term academic/research career.

My family is homophobic. When I came out to my mom she said she was going to kill herself if I told anyone else, and told me I was lower than dirt and she would rather I tell her I was an active pedophile than gay. Anyway, she never apologized but she did go back to treating me like normal, except she doesn’t let me talk about my fiancé or bring him around, and when my dad saw a photo of me with him on accident, she made me tell him that he saw wrong and it was a normal picture of me with a friend (it wasn’t sexual or anything, but clearly not just friends lol).

My family also relies on me way too much, and puts me in the middle of their arguments. For example, when my mom said she wouldn’t be attending a holiday dinner because she hates my dad’s family, my dad whispered to me that I should tell her she should be ashamed of herself to convince her to go, and then my mom told me I should tell my dad he needs to stand up for her against his family. I did neither, but when we got to the dinner his family started trash talking my mom and telling me I should go get her and guilt her into coming. I didn’t do that but it was just so much drama. In the past, my parents have pitted me against each other, my mom trying to convince me that my dad hates my half-siblings, and in turn my dad trying to convince me that my half-siblings are burdens and my mom shouldn’t defend them. I continue to help my parents, but I have to do everything, like getting them new phones and helping them recover passwords and figure out bills. They’re in their late 60s.

I want to leave.

On the other hand, my fiance wants to stay near family. He has expressed understanding that we may need to leave the area for residency depending on where I match, but strongly prefers staying near family. He is worried about being far and not being able to be there for big life events (aging grandparents, sisters might get married soon, etc). He is not in medicine, and while the old adage for us is “residency is short,” to him life is short and not worth spending 4-6 years unhappy and without his support network, especially as we enter a new chapter of our life where we will be married, and he will be left alone when I’m working 80+ weeks. He’d rather be near family than not. Which I completely understand and his happiness is just as important to me as mine.

I’m in a position where the residency in the same city as my family is a top 10, and the residency in his family’s city is ranked around 120 (I know not to put too much weight on these rankings, but top 10 v 100 is pretty big). I am privileged in that I could rank programs in the top 30 as well thankfully, but they are all 5+ hours away from his family and again he would prefer not to go that far. I know 5 hours doesn’t sound crazy, but we’re in the Midwest and he’s worried that if it’s too snowy or whatever he wouldn’t be able to visit as often as he’d like. Plus 5 hours is a long drive anyway and he wouldn’t really be able to visit as often as he does now (we currently live 2 hours away).

Ultimately I feel I am in the position where I should rank his home city’s program #1. I don’t intend on going into academic medicine or research, and I am going into Neuro so none of the fellowships are super competitive (except NIR but no interest in that at all). I would be happy at that program. It’s a stroke and epilepsy center and they have a huge catchment area and see weird things. But something in me still draws me toward prestige and having a “pedigree.” A part of me feels bad too because for the last 5 years students have matched into Neuro at generally top 30s, and I don’t want to feel embarrassed I guess.

If my family wasn’t homophobic at least, I would rank our program #1 without question.

I just opinions. Thanks!

I kind of hate it here. Med school is hard as they said it would be and I’m not really having a good time. Constant bombardment with volunteer signups, club activities, fundraisers, and more. Is it possible to match into a residency if I just… don’t? I just want to pass my classes (which I’m barely doing right now because I feel like I put so much pressure on myself my brain shut down) and start focusing more on my mental and physical health.

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring an idea to connect medical students with elderly individuals for weekly or biweekly remote health checkups. The aim is to help seniors stay on top of their health while offering students practical experience in communication and basic health monitoring.

I don’t have a medical background, so please forgive me if I’ve made any incorrect assumptions.

I have a few questions for you:

1. Does this idea resonate with you? Would you find it valuable for your medical education?

2. Do you think you’d have the time to commit to something like this alongside your studies?

3. What challenges do you see? Are there any legal or ethical restrictions for medical students participating in such activities?

I’d really appreciate your thoughts and feedback!

Taking the surgery shelf in about 3 weeks. Have been getting 60ish on my uworld 40 blocks this week - what resources should I use for the rest of my time? Are the NBME practices any good? If so, should I do all 4 forms?

I go to a DO school, and the rhetoric of "you're a DO, it's hard to specialize," is very much present.

Which I completely understand, I knew what I was signing up for. But I really really can't see myself doing ANY of the primary care fields, I actually think I would be extremely unhappy, probably regretting medicine all together.

Is there anything besides pathology that isn't Uber competitive and would allow me some sort of lifestyle without being grinded to the bone?

Hi everyone, I am an MS1 who recently returned back to school after working in corporate America for a while.

Orthopedic and Plastic Surgery are two of the fields I’m most interested in. I currently go to a low ranked MD school.

I was very aware of how competitive residency would be, so I tried acquiring experiences ahead of time. What I currently have going for me:

• Three Nature/Cell/Science publications including one co-first authorship. This was the result of my work at one of the largest Biotechnology companies in the world.
• Another publication from my undergraduate research, as well as a poster presentation at the American College of Sports Medicine.
• A multimillion dollar grant that was awarded for my (PI’s) undergraduate research in another lab.
• Recently submitted a $250,000 grant with the Dean of the College of Medicine that I’m hoping will get approved.

Some more information:

• I was hoping to get more extracurriculars and experiences after my first semester or the summer between M1 and M2.
• I haven’t honored anything preclinical yet. I focused on simply just trying to pass this first semester and get acclimated again to school.
• Not that much of a fan of Wisconsin, so I would prefer to not attend my home institution for residency.

Just started an away rotation and I’m supposed to work with an intern. However, intern does not talk to me or even acknowledge my presence. The senior resident is busy doing his own tasks. I ask her question “Can I help you with this…?” She says, “Sure.” And that’s it. Doesn’t say anything more and doesn’t give any guidance. At the end of the day, she just goes home without dismissing me. How do I handle this? I don’t wanna complain to the clerkship director cause it’s an away.

FYI, I complete my tasks the best I can, pend my note. I don’t think she even sees my pended note. I don’t want any praise or compliment but I do want to get credit for my work because it’s an away. Help!

Hi so as the title says i recently discovered these degrees and my European mind can not comprehend this. As i am informed these professionals are Doctors of nursing practice but what confuses me is that they dont have PhDs and are equivalent to anesthesiologists in some cases. Im not tying to be rude just its the first time hearing about any other doctoral degree that is not PhD or physician degree (MD, DO, DMD). Thank you!

Edit: typos

I have been hearing that certain states allow students who have completed med school and have their MD to work as PAs. I’m not sure if this is true or which states allow this but i was interested since i will have time before starting residency and would love to work and put my skills to use. Does anyone have more insight they can share on this?

I often get confused by the lot who talk about being a resident or applying for residency. Is the the same as specialising or applying to be a consultant?

In our country we have 6 years of med school. Then 2 years of being a Junior doctor or JRMO. After that you are allowed to be a General Practitioner for 2 years or you can skip that and become an SHO which is basically a pre-specialist for 2 years. Then when you enter the specialising field you become a Junior registrar in that field, in your final 2 years, you become a Senior Registrar. When you're done/passed you become a Consultant/Specialist.

Where does being a resident fit in, in the above mentioned steps?

Hi -

I'm wondering if people have recommendations on some YT videos or other video resources for rapid reviews that i can watch at the end of each block I am done with in my first year?

So I am currently living in the 4th year promised land. Playing runescape, watching movies, being a couch potato, working out, whatever my heart desires really. But deep in the dark recesses of my brain I have a little voice telling me I should keep up with some content for step 3 and residency. I took Step 2 back in June and have not studied a single thing since, aside from some things here and there when I was still doing some specialty-related rotations. My question is, is it really truly okay to just not do anything study-wise until residency? It feels so wrong but also so great all at the same time and I feel like I'm slowly forgetting a bunch of things I've learned. I think I know the answer, I just want some reassurance/other opinions from other 4th years and/or residents?

Edit: Thank you everyone! I will continue as I've been. Just got my fletching to level 41 so now I can make those sweet sweet mithril arrows. I think it's time for a run and then maybe a movie, who knows, the night is young!

I'm writing this at 5 am sleepless. I took a look in the mirror. My dark circles are deep purple. I have breakouts all over my face because I eat like poop due to stress. Last week I was in the ER very sick. I've just managed to recover a bit and I'm studying for my exams that are next week. My bpm and blood pressure is off and I have to get that checked. I've been gaining a lot of weight due to not exercising and eating badly. My mental health is.... lets now even mention that haha.... im tired... dude... im so tired....

Yes, it's another this vs. that post (sorry). I guess it's worth mentioning up front that I'm a DO student so realistically this limits my options, at least in my mind. I totally get that DO students can and should apply to competitive things, but I just personally don't want to take the risk of not matching. If you asked me going into med school what my #1 priority would be as an attending, I probably would have said lifestyle. Now I'm not so sure.

I haven't finished all of my core rotations yet, but based on my experience so far I think it's very likely that I end up in path or IM. I really enjoyed learning about pathology in preclinical, much more than I enjoy learning about how to treat stuff. I also legitimately think histology is cool.

Path

Pros:

• seems to be a great combo of lifestyle and pretty good pay

• get to see rare and interesting pathologies

• able to give definitive diagnoses

• reading slides is like a goddamn superpower

• less BS when patients aren't involved

• the day to day seems relatively low stress

Cons:

• most people including some doctors have no idea wtf you do
• could become boring after a while
• very few if any opportunities for patient contact and/or doing procedures
• potentially not great job market?
• length of training (4 years residency if AP/CP + typically at least 1 year of fellowship)

I guess for path, I'm hung up on the idea of resigning myself to basically never see patients. If there was an avenue in path that was similar to something like IR for example, where the core specialty is applied to a more patient-facing role, I would be 100% all in. I also feel like going through all the years of medical school and residency + fellowship to sit in your office and look at slides is not what I personally picture when I think of myself being a physician. I mean absolutely no disrespect to pathologists by saying that, and I don't think that being one makes you a "lesser" physician, I'm just trying to say that I'm unsure if I would regret that choice down the road.

IM

Pros:

• I enjoy hospital medicine

• lots of options for fellowship

• flexibility as an attending (can do inpatient or outpatient)

• feels more like doctoring

• opportunity to do procedures (?)

• most likely would be pretty easy to find a job basically anywhere

Cons:

• more BS (fighting insurance companies, asshole patients, asshole family members, etc.)
• seems more stressful for potentially less pay
• worse lifestyle (?)
• rounding sucks
• scope creep

I like how IM is higher acuity than outpatient but typically not emergency level shit. I like the more limited relationship you get with patients in terms of being able to see them and help them out for a few days or so, but not following them for years like FM. I definitely worry about burnout down the road. I don't really want to be working my ass off when I'm 50 years old.

Well, here I am, staring down the barrel of yet another shelf exam tomorrow, and honestly, I’m one bad test away from turning my stethoscope into a necklace. My medical school career has been an unrelenting circus of failures and near-misses. I’ve failed two shelves, barely clawed my way to passing them on the second attempt, and my preclinical exam scores were so low I’m surprised they didn’t send me a “Thanks for Trying!” certificate instead of grades. Oh, and STEP 1? Delayed indefinitely—probably because the universe knew I’d set a record for the lowest score ever.

Meanwhile, my classmates are out here living their best lives, radiating sunshine and confidence as if they’ve unlocked the secret cheat codes to M3. They smile in rotations, crush didactics, and somehow still have the energy to turn the library into a social hub of optimism. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, “What’s it like to have faith in yourself?”

I’ve been grinding through UWorld questions like a desperate contestant on a game show, trying to memorize Anki cards like they’re my lifeline, and praying that osmosis (the science process, not the app) will save me overnight. Spoiler: it hasn’t.

To top it all off, the resources my school provides are straight out of a time capsule. Our "best" study material is a blurry, six-year-old YouTube video that looks like it was recorded on a flip phone by someone who was also holding their breath. I half expect to see hieroglyphics in the corner of the screen.

Now, I want to do neurology, but considering I already failed the neuro shelf, I might as well apply for a residency in interpretive dance at this point. I know tomorrow’s surgery shelf is important, but honestly, I feel like a gladiator being sent into the arena with a plastic fork and a roll of duct tape.

If anyone out there has advice—or even just a pep talk that doesn't involve telling me to "trust the process"—please, I’m all ears. Right now, I feel like the protagonist in a very bad medical school comedy, and I could really use a plot twist.

I am an Img I did pediatrics residency in India but I don’t want to pursue it in USA I want to switch specialties but I am applying for research in USA in urology If I did research in urology can I still apply to IM programs …. I am interested in urology but I know it is extremely hard to match in So will probably apply to IM programs mainly