Hi everybody! I'm a med student from Italy currently in my fourth of six years of Medicine and Surgery. I am looking for some textbook recommendations for my own interest in Infectious Diseases, Psychiatry and Pharmacology/Toxicology. They don't have to be the most complete manuals available, as I'm not necessarily looking for something to study for my exams (I will mostly use the material and suggested books provided by the professors) but rather something to read/consult and expand my knowledge in the fields of infectious/tropical diseases, pharmacology and the neurological mechanisms behind psychiatric symptoms, pathologies and related pharmacological treatment. Someone has already suggested Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology and that is WONDERFUL, so I was wondering if anybody knows of similar texts. Also more succinct manuals are of interest to me, like handbooks and practical guides, but l'm not discarding historical essays about the evolution of modern pharmacological treatments, the history of infectious disease discovery/treatment and the study of neurology/psychiatry (textbooks in English are perfectly fine, as well as in Italian, should anybody know of any). Sadly, our teachers for both these classes leave much to be desired and I'm hoping not to let my motivation and interest in these fields die out completely :-/ Thank you so much to anybody who will answer and/or help <3

US MD student at a mid tier school who developed a late interest in ortho during my 3rd year. I previously was interested in craniofacial surgery and so much of my research was in that.

Stats: 3/6 Honors, 3/6 HP on rotations. Haven’t taken step 2 yet. 20 research items and 3 manuscripts submitted with 2 as first author (none are ortho). Wondering if I should be prepared to take a research year or not. Our school has a home program

So just had my first residency interview at one of my top choices where I did an away and I have mixed feelings about it. My interviewers were all super nice and but since this program is in a different city from my home institution, the APD, my first interviewer asked me why I wanted to come to that city, and I gave very in depth answers which they seemed pleased with. I thought I wouldn’t be asked the same question again, but my second interviewer was a faculty member who asked the same question of why I wanted to come to their city, and since I answered in depth on the same question in front of the APD already, I was like oh I have friends here and it’s cool, which the faculty member seemed a little dissatisfied after hearing.

I know interview scores are assigned differently at different programs, but for those involved in recruitment out there and in general, do interviewers come and discuss their impressions of an applicant together before assigning an interview score or do they assign scores independently? Thanks!

I'm 3 months into M1 and we are in our foundations blocks (anatomy/biochem/genetics those kinds of things). I go to a school with annoying in-house exams and H/P/F with internal ranking. I was therefore doing just in house material, using our lecture slides, using a mix of upperclassman anki decks and self made ones to get material down really well for our exams then just move on to the next block and abandon those decks.

I know it's later than ideal but I decided I want to commit to Anking. I'm not sure where to start though... should I just start fresh and unsuspend Anking cards that correspond to my current lectures moving forward and get back to the stuff I missed later? Should I try and go back and unsuspend cards little by little from the past 3 months of foundations stuff?

I am not new to anki and have dabbled in a couple topics in Anking before just to look at it but nothing sustained. I want to set myself up for success with boards but also wanna keep up with honoring my in house stuff. Any advice is much appreciated.

USDO here with a pretty low level 2 score (pass but lower than 450 which was devastating), no step 2, no board failures. Tons of research/publications and leadership. So far I got 9 interviews for IM (one of them is a home program which I don't really count and not a program I want to be in). I'm definitely grateful for the number of interviews given my very low board score, and I was surprised I would get that many, but I would honestly be happy with only 3-4 out of the 9 I got, and I'm wondering if anyone especially previous applicants think I have a chance at more interviews in November? Again, I'm happy that I even got any interviews tbh I wasn't even expecting more than 2 and I don't even know how that happened but I'm guessing it was the rest of my app that they liked. I haven't heard back from most of the ones I really like is the problem. They're all pretty much community or academic affiliated hospitals not full academic hospitals so I'm just trying to see if this is it for me or is there a chance I might hear back from others. Haven't sent any letters of interest yet but thinking about it. If anyone has any advice other than wait and see what happens, I'd appreciate it!

Hi everyone! I’m a medical graduate from Brazil considering revalidating my degree to practice medicine in Canada. I’m just starting the process and would love to hear from anyone who has gone through it. I have a few questions about the validation steps, exams, and how the residency application process went for you.

A few specific questions:

• How did you prepare for the MCCQE Part I and the NAC-OSCE? Any tips on study materials or preparatory courses that were helpful?

• Has anyone applied through CaRMS? Is it really as competitive as it seems?

• What was the adaptation process like for practicing medicine in Canada?

• Has anyone managed to enter practice assessment programs in more remote provinces?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I’d also be grateful for any resource or contact suggestions that could help increase my chances of success in this process. Thank you!

Most likely embarking on a research year after M2. I’m not as concerned about forgetting content, as others who’ve taken a year off during this time have guided me on how to not lose it. I decided to do it in a competitive surgical specialty after this year to minimize the risk of lack of productivity of doing it after m3 and for other personal reasons, but I also acknowledge that my mind may change during 3rd year when I go into rotations. I’m curious if my chances of applying to another specialty, especially another surgical sub, would be tanked if I were to switch specialties after taking this year. I will be continuing to do research in multiple areas of surgery on top of my chosen specialty, but I’m wondering how the year off will be approached by other specialties’ programs

Edit: why the downvotes lol

Aside from the 2025 ACP, are there any IM conferences that residents and hospitalists generally attend?

It’s a trap. Almost any given program has the same top priority: do NOT SOAP (except for the programs who match all of their residents this way.) Every year, people get crushed because they don’t match into a program that they were persuaded by faculty saying “we cannot wait to see you here next July :)” Or “dude/dudette, what can we say to you to come here?” I was one of those applicants last year.

It’s not because they’re all sociopaths. Hell, I’m sure 98% are saying it because they’d be happy for you to match there. You could have every conceivable reason to be at the program/in the city your number 1 program is (located.) But at the end of the day, just as you have to look out for yourself, programs are also doing that as well.

I’m hoping everyone matches where they should go. It can be an unfair system.

What entry level jobs can you do with an MD/MPH? Director of epidemiology, etc?

I’m interested in cardiology and working as an MA/scribe in a cardiology practice. I was wondering if there were any good/hopefully free or cheap resources for an introduction into cardiology and being able to understands the basics of conditions, tests, medications, etc.

I'm currently on my internal medicine rotation (2nd week out of 8 now), and I've been really struggling to come back home and study. I technically finish at 4, but by the time I get home and actually get started it's 6pm, and then I start absolutely crashing by like 7-8pm. I've tried pushing through but I can't focus, I've tried a power nap but then I end up just sleeping through the night, I've tried sleeping early and then waking up early (like 4-5am) but then it's not enough time to finish studying what I need to study. I have no idea what to do. Should I just be drinking coffee?

I often find that during small group discussion, students often manage to remember so much from the lectures even though we have so many we did like the day before, I often find myself barely remembering anything until I actually read through my notes and study which i end up doing towards the end of the week or weekend as I have other commitments like online lectures to get through, Anki card making and additional classes which i try to get done before the week ends so I’m set to just study and chill in the weekend. How do you guys manage to know so much, is it that I should go home and re study the lecture instead of doing other things? What can I do to improve my knowledge of topics so I am also knowledgable during discussions? Is there anything I´’m doing wrong?

Cuz like dam IM actually fucking awesome i didnt realize medicine was interesting. Like wtf actually cool bro

Obviously there are hella stroke codes and seizures in neuro but is there enough “other stuff” that is like wow oh shit that is so zebra and medically interesting wtf wowwww

Hi everyone! OMS-II here wondering the age old question of if I should take STEP 1 in addition to COMLEX or just COMLEX. I am looking to match into neurology (or IM) back into my home town of Chicago and am unsure what to do! Thank you!

These surgery residents are some of the most difficult people I’ve ever met. Please share some stories to help me laugh or feel less alone.

Title

As an OMS-3 with the following qualifications:

mid class rank

mid grades

no EC's

no research

no volunteering

Do I have even a remote chance of matching OBGYN next year? My impression is that it's getting very competitive especially for DO's. I am trying to excel on step 2 (obviously) and I can try to do OBGYN auditions early next year but i'm worried about performing well on them if I'm being honest. However it really is my passion. Alternatively I've been considering FM but not sure realistically how much gyn I can practice in FM. Should I even bother trying for obgyn? Is it too late for me to start doing things to pad my application? What COULD I do other than research, which I absolutely hate?

TIA for any advice

Just asking out of curiosity. I don't know if I've ever seen discussion on this. I know for a lot of programs ranking is a continuous process determined at various meetings throughout the cycle. But are folks pretty much ranked before the interview just solely based on first-pass review of applications? Does getting one of the very first invites from a program mean much?

I am all over the place and don’t have a strong interest in one particular specialty! I want to do something procedural with some clinic (not set on surgery but open to it), I like anatomy (especially MSK), and ideally would work with mostly female patients

Anesthesia isn’t stimulating enough (I have adhd) but i’m worried EM will burn me out

I’ve thought about Ob Gyn, PM&R, female urology, breast surgery but I really don’t want a horrible lifestyle in residency or be training for more than 5 years max (and all of the ones above involve lengthy training + awful hours except pm&r)

What other specialties could I look into? Are there factors I’m not considering?

I’m an MS3 on I’m currently going into my third week on IM. This is my third month of clinicals after completing a few other rotations. I’m having a really tough time because I feel so useless every day. I have a med student on my team that gets on my nerves and I’m not sure if that also plays a role. Every day I show up and see my patient and either it’s an attending who pimps about residency level things so it’s way over my head or it’s an attending who doesn’t let me finish my presentation because he has something else to say (and it’s not usually medical education, something random like the first man diagnosed with blank disease).

I also feel like some of the residents aren’t open to my asking questions or care about teaching. Maybe one or two senior residents and a chief resident. The rest don’t bother.

I just feel so lost like I hate medicine but I know that I don’t. I enjoyed all but one of the rotations I’ve been on so far and the one was because the attending only kept me two hours a day and I want to learn. I’ve wanted to cry almost everyday the last two weeks because of my frustration.

Every day I get there early and review my patient charts and see them. I give the resident updates on the patient if i see them before they are finished precharting and then I wait around until rounds. Then on rounds I get interrupted or talked over. Then I just sit and wait til we are dismissed. On admitting days if there is a patient then I see them in the ED but last time I saw a patient on my own instead of with the residents and ended up missing a learning opportunity I was dying for because I went to see a patient independently like they said to.

Any advice on how to get through this rotation? I have five more weeks on this type of inpatient team before I switch to a subspecialty I chose.

Word on the street is that CA lost some applicants data sometime after ERAs opened.

I think this had created an extremely unfair advantage to applicants who data were not lost. And I believe they are responsible for applicants potentially not matching and ultimately their career. Thoughts or any updates on this matter? Or any news on how programs are navigating this?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently facing a significant decision regarding my medical career. I hold a medical degree from Algeria, but I'm concerned about the recognition and authentication of my qualifications in the UK. Here are some key points about my situation:

1. Medical Degree: I graduated with a medical degree in Algeria, but my country has recently removed the authentication process for degrees, which complicates matters. And it s hard to get it now

2. Career Goals: I want to practice medicine in the UK. However, I am unsure if I should pursue my career using my existing degree or if it would be more beneficial to start over and redo medical school in the UK. Iam an ambitious person and i want a change in my life. To be a better doctor and specialize in uk.

3. Support for IMGs: I’m aware that there are universities and pathways for international medical graduates (IMGs), but I’m looking for insights from those who have been in similar situations.

Questions: Has anyone successfully navigated the process of practicing medicine in the UK with a non-UK degree? Would it be advisable to go through the PLAB exams, or is redoing medical school a better option. What are the experiences of others who faced degree recognition challenges? I appreciate any advice or personal experiences you can share. Thank you!

Unfortunately had a bunch of issues, which caused me to have to submit my level 2 late. Can anyone share their experience of how that worked/affected interviews? I know people said to update programs once your score is in, but wondering if people had some interviews trickle in after doing so or not? Just trying to be realistic.

(Have never failed, just had to take it later in the season)

Anyone with loved ones on the fence about voting in this cycle AND concerned about the burden of student loan debt moving forward, here are two articles that my school's financial counselor sent me. They discuss possible implications of each election outcome on student loan debt. Of course these articles will have major limitations, might be worth doing your own research, nonetheless something to consider this week.

https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/34788/What_a_Second_Trump_Term_Could_Mean_for_Student_Financial_Aid

https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/34753/What_a_Harris_Administration_Could_Mean_for_Student_Financial_Aid

M4 here, currently interviewing at FM programs. Just finished up my interview at my #1 program. I read somewhere that thank yous should be sent out within a 24 hour time window. Is it detrimental if I take longer than that (48-72 hours) because I want to send handwritten thank you cards to my #1 program and it might take me a day or two to get them mailed out since I'm traveling out of town for a different interview? Is it better to take less time and just send an email? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Applying DR. Was wondering if anyone knows how many TYs/prelims you have to rank to have a close to a 100% chance of matching. For TYs I have heard that most people match in their top 3 choices.

Long story short, finished my IV yesterday cried a bit lol

Interviewed with a few people including the PD. A tired-looking PD asked two generic questions, then stopped asking me anything else. Are interviews supposed to be me asking more questions than them asking me questions lol I ended up chatting him up about his life, but that was it. This is first of many and I'm scared for the rest of my interviews now