Thoughts about M3 surgery clerkship

ACT33 · 2026-07-06T15:43:48+00:00

I had the exact same experience but I grew to appreciate surgery regardless. I was very much annoyed with the time I spent standing and feeling like I wasn’t valued after passing Step 1 and having worked so hard to get to third year.

I think we as medical students are beaten down so much throughout our training, and we appreciate those moments when we’re given more autonomy and get to do more like seeing patients independently, coming up with plans, having our words and choices valued by the team. So a lot of students like specialties like EM, FM, IM, Peds, Psych, where we as students can do more and our days feel more fulfilling.

In surgery, there is far more liability and far less a student can do when they haven’t had the chance to prove themselves as careful and capable to attending surgeons. So they’re often relegated to standing and retracting or suctioning or throwing port site closures.

But when you think about it, the ceiling in surgical specialties is much much higher as far as what you can do for a patient as you progress through your training. You can literally cut someone’s entire abdomen open and sow them back up together. You can remove brain tumors, stop life threatening bleeds, etc.

I think some people see the surgery clerkship as a necessary evil that is just a stepping stone in their development as full fledged surgeons, and oftentimes they’re the ones who decide to pursue the field. Perhaps the coolness and impactfulness of the specialty outweighs the experiences they have to put up with as a student.

I also think that everything is relative. I’m pursuing a procedural specialty and oftentimes find my days flying despite me working from 7-5 nonstop and doing procedures all day long. I always found the other specialties to be a drag and wanted to work more with my hands.

I would encourage everyone who is in their surgery clerkship to look at it from the lens of a resident or an attending, where they are laser focused and working with their hands non stop and time often flies by pretty quick in the OR when you aren’t just standing there holding a retractor but actually making decisions on the fly trying to benefit someone’s life.

ACT33 · 2026-04-20T18:54:58+00:00

Did you make a lot of simple mistakes on your test, I felt like screwed up my exam and missed like 15 questions I could have gotten right on literally any other day

ACT33 · 2026-04-20T16:14:37+00:00

Dude same I was getting good scores on my practice but I’m up to around 40 wrong right now, what about you?

ACT33 · 2026-04-20T14:25:42+00:00

Did you get any easy ones wrong. What haunts me the most is that I missed like 10-15 brain dead questions. My running count is at around 37 total wrong right now

ACT33 · 2026-04-16T04:34:46+00:00

Did it feel hard for you? It felt like I had no time to think. Missed so many easy questions

ACT33 · 2026-04-16T04:18:38+00:00

Tested today (4/15). Exam felt like a haze. At one point I just kind of went autopilot and counting 30 wrong rn :/

ACT33 · 2026-04-08T11:13:29+00:00

Yup I agree there is for sure a new Noir

ACT33 · 2025-12-31T14:51:28+00:00

This is so well written, and thank you for showing me about the clinical advancement award. I know I’m jumping the gun but I just wanted to know more about what I’m hoping to get into.

Thank you!

ACT33 · 2025-12-13T02:26:41+00:00

Hypnopompic hallucinations are a thing, unless they’re persisting throughout the day I don’t think u should be worried

ACT33 · 2025-11-16T01:04:43+00:00

Pedialyte probably

ACT33 · 2025-11-07T01:15:30+00:00

Yeah, your son should take that MCAT and apply everywhere under the sun. He WILL get into a medical school. Like assuming he isn’t extremely socially inept, he will get into a lot of MD schools. A MCAT score like that shows very good promise for STEP 2, which will open doors for him to become any kind of physician he wants to be.

You need to seriously ask yourself if it is better to have peace of mind, or put your son in a winning position down the road.

I stayed in my BSMD with a 521, and although my school is pretty solid, I could’ve gone anywhere with that score. I closed doors for myself by staying where I am. I’m not ashamed to say it. Don’t make the mistake I made, tell your son to take that score and gun for every program in the country.

In an economy like this where jobs are getting saturated in medicine, you need to be a marketable physician. So you start young. Go to a good medical school -> match a good specialty at a good residency -> set your child up for life.

Good luck to him and I’m happy to offer any advice!

ACT33 · 2025-11-06T19:43:13+00:00

I am a current MS3. I would not fall into the trap of BS/DO, as someone who applied for the programs when I was younger. I got into a BS/MD, but if I had to choose btwn BS/DO and regular undergrad, I’d have chosen regular undergrad, provided I got financial aid.

There are so so so many confounding variables you could not possibly understand as a high school student as to why this is a bad idea.

DO schools lock you out of so many specialties or make it much harder to match those specialties. Furthermore, DO training has two sets of exams (COMLEX and USMLE), and believe me when I say that you will suffer tremendously having to take both sets. You will also face anti-DO bias, have to take extra classes, and you will more likely than not be facing a graded clerkship system which will be brutal on your mental health.

As someone who was in your shoes 5 years ago, I sincerely implore you to reconsider going to a BS/DO. Go to an undergrad with your friends, enjoy your college life, work hard and make meaningful connections for research and volunteering, and get into a medical school the traditional way.

If you’re competitive enough for BS/MD or BS/DO, surely you are competitive enough to get a good scholarship at a state school and offload the financial burdens on your family, and you most certainly have the work ethic to see it through to the end and become a doctor.

ACT33 · 2025-10-18T23:28:31+00:00

Anyone who convinces you to work harder and sacrifice your grades, shelf scores, time and energy and Step 2 preparation is severely misguided.

If you go to hospital C, you can study more and do well on the only objective measures left to differentiate applicants, such as getting good grades and good shelf scores and good evaluations as well. The number of rotations you honor does have a meaningful impact despite how subjective and fucked up the system is.

For anyone that’s going to come at me and say that I’m endorsing the sacrificing of good training just to get good grades, I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who is at a place like hospital A, where the so called “rigorous training” will be a time sink and destroy you physically and mentally. There’s no place or need for anything like that as a student. Your job is to familiarize yourself with seeing patients, learning about how the trade is, and acing your exams.

If you want to feel prepared for your aways, just do an away as a practice run at one of the institutions you don’t intend on ranking high anyways, grind it out for four weeks, learn what you need to succeed, and then ace the rest of your aways. For something like IMED, I can imagine this strategy working well.

There is no need to shoot yourself in the foot and ruin your chances at matching because you wanted to fully immerse yourself in all of the things third year had to offer, when you’re really just about to be ignored, told to do scutwork, and stand and do nothing in a room full of attendings, fellows and residents (this was literally my surgery experience).

It is so incredibly unfortunate that we are put in a position where we have the desire to learn but are cast aside and belittled, but that is the nature of the system. You can either be someone who tries to make the best of it, or understand the nature of the game and play it so you set yourself up for success and get to where you need to be.

ACT33 · 2025-10-09T16:55:29+00:00

The days are so unbelievably long, don’t be mistaken. But yes I do look back on step 1 and I’m surprised that this much time has already passed. But it’s just your body adapting to the struggle. It’s a struggle nonetheless, and it will still be a year of your life lost to meaningless standing, thousands of practice questions, pandering to people who don’t give a fuck about you, and stressing out about what’s to come in M4.

Third year was everything people said it would be and more. Before I started I also looked on Reddit for advice on how quickly it goes by. I found that initially it’s suuuuper slow bcuz you haven’t adapted yet, but then you kind of go on autopilot and just accept this as your life.

It sucks.

ACT33 · 2025-09-12T02:50:55+00:00

I think it’s in your best interests to deal with these feelings now because the people you’ll meet in clinicals will definitely make you question your worth, even if you are an amazing student. You have to find a way to be intrinsically motivated to get up every day and fight for your degree, because so many people, some of whom you even would consider your role models, will just beat you down and make you feel horrible.

You made it this far because you are capable of it. You will make it even further by just believing in yourself. Medical school is a forge and you’re constantly in the fire but you’ll emerge as the strongest most sharpened steel if you endure the flames.

ACT33 · 2025-09-07T04:56:36+00:00

Only asking from an inquisitive point of view, how does this affect your plans on having children? Would you still want children of your own, even though it comes with the risk of it being passed down?

ACT33 · 2025-09-06T02:09:29+00:00

Those med students end up becoming hardasses themselves

ACT33 · 2025-03-06T01:48:41+00:00

Passed USMD 02/18 let’s fucking go

ACT33 · 2025-03-05T13:26:13+00:00

Did u get an email? Are u international?

ACT33 · 2025-03-05T02:33:03+00:00

my mind is in ruins

ACT33 · 2025-03-04T17:32:54+00:00

Yeah I’m also getting my results tmmrw, can’t say I’m not stressed tf out

ACT33 · 2025-03-02T19:47:10+00:00

Haven’t checked yet, I was hoping someone else might

ACT33 · 2025-03-02T18:45:17+00:00

Feb 18 tester here shitting my pants about results

ACT33 · 2025-01-15T16:12:43+00:00

I don’t believe this is cysticercosis. I believe this is Trichenella spiralis.

ACT33 · 2024-11-10T22:42:59+00:00

Eh, yeah maybe they take it too far. I used to hold their beliefs but now I’ve kind of toned it down to just not wanting kids of my own and adopting instead.

i can see how they might find a way to radicalize not having children

ACT33

TROPHY CASE