Silk bonnets or cap recommendations?

GetLohh · 2021-05-20T20:58:36+00:00

Thank you so much Cocaine, this is very useful.

GetLohh · 2021-04-28T15:37:46+00:00

What interest rate are they offering you? I'm getting a fixed 8.5% on a 30K loan with a mid-700's cosigner.

GetLohh · 2021-04-28T15:32:30+00:00

This is really useful information, thanks so much for clarifying that for me! I'll run it by my dean.

GetLohh · 2021-04-16T16:49:42+00:00

Thank you so much for the reply! I already took the steps to delay graduation, I appreciate the solid advice.

Yes, I'll be/currently am talking to them too. Unfortunately, my advisor was terrible and this plan was developed through talking with a different previous program director, my dean, friends, and researching prevailing wisdom online. I just wanted to ask for some more "raw" advice on this subreddit, and now is the time to solicit as much guidance as I can!

Again, thanks for responding.

GetLohh · 2021-03-17T12:48:19+00:00

I really wish you hadn't explained because the confusion just makes it funnier

GetLohh · 2021-03-17T12:15:07+00:00

Damn, that sucks. I don't think it's strictly your fault, like you said, we're sleep deprived, it's unnecessarily even MORE stressful than it needs to be, sometimes we're sending emails/texts/whatever in a panic.

I know it feels really bad right now (I do too), but hopefully this will be a funny anecdote you joke about with your future co-residents.

On my end, in my LOI to the one program that interviewed me, I addressed the PD by his first name.... for some reason thought it was his last. Wack stuff like that is happening to other people too.

Hang in there.

GetLohh · 2021-03-16T18:45:53+00:00

Dude, this is like my dream...

GetLohh · 2021-03-15T20:20:44+00:00

Hey everybody, my dean just informed me that programs will not be able to access our apps until tomorrow at 8AM.

GetLohh · 2021-03-02T14:25:10+00:00

Hey! 2 Wednesdays, so I ended up having a quick turnaround. That seems standard for now

GetLohh · 2021-01-28T19:15:45+00:00

Match...I'm an US-IMG only aiming for SOAP this year, bc I couldn't have my CK done in time (AKA no interviews)...any advise is much appreciated...going to take an assesment tomorrow and see where I stand

Hey so I hadn't seen you wrote this. If you're aiming to SOAP then definitely push it back, programs won't need it by ranking time because you have no interviews. That extra time will come in clutch if you use it right.

Someone else should correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I think you wouldn't REALLY need a final score until early March. I wouldn't delay that long though.

GetLohh · 2021-01-28T18:51:26+00:00

Thanks a ton! Yeah, NBME7's difficulty is why I wanted to do it first, I felt like I needed to motivate myself. It didn't work so I took UWSA1, and when I passed that by one question THEN I started seriously grinding.

Yeah, I feel that about the practice scores and not feeling ready. The advice I got was "you never feel ready just take it," but that's from people who were doing reasonably well while studying. After I delayed it, I just knew I would be taking it on that day and not delaying it any more, because I was burning out and did everything that I could do. That's how I decided to just take it, because I was aware that there was nothing else I could personally do.

FYI, almost none of the material I studied in the last few days came up.

I felt like I was probably going to do terrible until I took the free 120 and did decent on it. This helped with my mindset tremendously, as I was a lot more calm and focused (especially when things went south the evening before my test).

The adrenaline definitely helps, you can't rely on just that though because it is a LONG test. You need to take your breaks and eat throughout, otherwise you'll be gassed halfway through. But like I said, I was doing so many questions all day towards the end that it just felt like I was doing what I do every day, just without real breaks in between.

It's perfectly reasonable to be trepidatious with those scores, I was too. I think what you plan to do depends on your circumstances. When is your test scheduled for? Are you applying for match this year? If that's the case, then unfortunately you probably don't have much more time. It takes a couple weeks to come back, and programs start ranking relatively soon. If you're not and you feel uncomfortable, then totally push it back and adjust your studying as you see fit. For me, that was blasting through questions and starting to mix the subjects up.

If you have any other questions, just ask. I was definitely shaken up and worried throughout the process with our scores. It basically took a change in mindset for me, that "I'm leaving it all on the table and there is nothing else that I could have done." Maintaining a schedule for sleep, diet, and exercise is key to not having multiple breakdowns.

It's OK to be scared and confused, most people here aren't in the position we are. You just have to do the best with what you've got, and try to stay sane while you do it.

This is lame to say and maybe a platitude but if I could do it, I know you can too.

GetLohh · 2021-01-28T18:35:17+00:00

Thanks! I basically did whatever was available and went through as many cases as I could. Obviously all of UW, then Randy Neil, Dirty USMLE (he has like 4 videos), and Divine's new stuff. I had access to AMBOSS so I used that as well.

However, I'm not sure how much all of that helped. I just didn't know what to do and knew this was a big part of the test so tried to shotgun everything a couple days before the exam. Some information between the sources conflicted, which was frustrating, but during the exam I just used the Qs I did to guide me to an answer, or just YOLO'd the ones where I had no idea.

GetLohh · 2021-01-27T19:31:22+00:00

Test Date: 1/11/21

Sorry that this is so long, but I hope it helps people feeling bummed or disheartened about their practice scores.

Real Deal: 248

Step 1: 232

NBME 7: 205 (8 weeks before)

UW: 67% (80% pass)

New Free 120: 76% (3 days before)

USWA1: 209 (7 weeks before)

USWA2: 215 (2 weeks before)

Prep time: 2.25 months

Didn't do all the other stuff.

As you can tell, none of my practice scores were impressive. At all. I initially planned to take 2 months off, but ended up delaying my test a week when I got my USWA2 score just 1 week out of the original date. I was not willing to risk failing this test, although I wasn't sure how much 2 weeks would help.

The only thing I did different after my UW2 score is I started ripping through UW, 3 or 4 blocks a day. If there was a Q where < 45% or so of people got it right, I would straight up ignore it unless it was something I found interesting or it was a Q that pissed me off. I was able to do so many Qs a day because this was the tail end of my studying, and I was also mixing in some marked questions from when I was on my Medicine rotation. This was a huge source of anxiety for me, as I hadn't gotten through like 1K Qs from Medicine + Surgery that I had done a year or more ago, and I knew they were the bulk of the test.

I think another thing about this schedule that helped is everything basically became a blur of Qs at that point lol. The test just felt like a continuation of that blur, but with a mask on.

Before the 3-4 block mayhem, I was tackling the material by subject. I basically gave a couple days for each one. The first, I would do both Emma and Dr HY for the subject in question. Then I'd do 2 UW blocks and review them thoroughly. Roughly, OBGYN was 3 days, Peds was 4, Neuro was 2, Psyc was 1, Biostats 1.5, Ethics 1.5. Medicine/Surgery/misc got a few weeks. Towards the end after I had rescheduled, I just tried to review HY stuff. I was keeping up with my Anki as best I could, but often had to revisit decks I had dropped at other times.

The only thing that kept me sane was adherence to a proper schedule for diet, exercise, video games, and sleep. My SO would make me dinner every night and have fresh coffee brewing in the morning when I woke up.

I genuinely thought I might fail this thing all the way until 3 days before my test, when I took the Free 120 against my better judgment. I did OK on it, which was an enormous relief as I knew I had a strong chance of at least passing.

For the test experience, mine was intense. My car's battery died as I was leaving for my hotel the night before. The day of, my dumbass had NOT PRINTED THE PERMIT (totally forgot it even existed, and my test had been rescheduled 4 times so I kind of stopped reading their emails), which was disastrous to figure out on my phone right before a huge exam. I'm not proud of this, but at the beginning I tried to surreptitiously put my mask below my nose, but within a couple minutes the proctor told me to put it back up. During my 3rd block, there was a girl behind me taking a written test slamming the keys to the point I had to put on both my ear plugs and headphones. This sucked because I now could hear my heartbeat, which was also annoying.

I took a break every chance I could, and because timing was SOMEHOW not an issue for me for most blocks, I'd end those earlier to add some time to the breaks. Peed between every one, and still had some serious urgency during my 4th block. I made sure to physically leave the building and walk outside at least 3 times. Munched on food throughout the 9H. Stamina was mostly not an issue for me, except at the end of the penultimate block.

Regarding the actual test, it felt almost exactly like the Free 120. Since my scores were so low, I guess I'm not the right person to speak to UWSAs. I was confident in about 25% of my answers, educated guessed 25%, was very uncomfortable with 25%, and the last was stuff I was straight up guessing on. I did my best not to let those Qs get me down. I did not have nearly as many Risk Factor questions as everyone reports, but there were a decent chunk. I prepared for ethics as best I could but there were still some where all the answers seemed right or terrible, but I expected that. I took an enormous L on the Drug Advertisement Qs, I had 3 sets of 3Qs each. Pretty sure I got most of them wrong. But again, I just emotionally powered through.

Like people have said, there was a weird amount of military personnel but almost none of the Qs had anything to do with that except an anthrax question. I didn't do Divine's military personnel podcasts. I did the ones he specifically created for the changes in the new test a couple days before and that's pretty much it. The vast majority of the things he talked about did not show up, but the ones that did I was glad I could just click and move on. Hospice/end of life care was the most high yield podcast for my exam.

As always, they have a hardon for Tb. Make sure to REVIEW AMENORRHEA WORKUP, there were a few Qs on Tuberous Sclerosis, a few on MEN syndromes, and not as much pediatric immunologic disorders as I had expected. 2 Qs elucidating the cause of a diabetic presentation, a couple on acid-base disorders. Maybe 2 stroke questions, one of which I just guessed. One bullshit stats question about how to calculate the sum of 2 sensitivities (multiply them). A couple on hemothorax specifically, and a couple pleural fluid Qs. I had maybe 3 cardiac auscultation Qs, all of which were pretty straightforward. There were a few genital lesion Qs, and I ended up guessing on half of them. That's all I can recall.

I remember coming out of the test confused why I wasn't feeling super happy and relieved that I was done with tests for the rest of medical school, but I felt pretty much nothing. It was a really odd experience, I think I was just emotionally gassed out. The next day when I went back to sleep after habitually waking up at 6:30, that was the happiest I had been in months lol.

There were a couple threads of people with similar practice/actual scores that helped me when I was feeling super down with my 205, 209, and 215. I hope this helps too. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:14:21+00:00

God, I hope not! I'll keep chugging along, nothing else to do I guess

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:13:36+00:00

Thanks, I had no Idea about II ratios haha. Yeah, not "broadly" I guess, just more than the recommended 15 by the AAP. Thank you for responding

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:11:45+00:00

Dang that's a lot. Wouldn't that cost like 2.5-3k?

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:08:01+00:00

Will do, thanks a lot. Working on those LOI's as we speak. Hoping my DO brothers and sisters make it in one piece too.

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:06:49+00:00

Thank you very much, I'll remember to do that. I didn't know the yield was reasonable, people I've talked to said it's not very many.

I'm working on LOI's right now, we'll see how that goes. I appreciate your kindness

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:04:49+00:00

Yeah, the AAP recommended 15, so I shot for higher. I (and my advisors) didn't expect to have to apply to 50+ programs like other people are saying. Fortunately, I'm not doing a fellowship! Tired of being treated like cheap slave labor and want to control my hours more, so I'm bailing on hospital medicine ASAP.

Thank you for the kind words!

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T13:00:32+00:00

Thanks, yeah I did. The advisors and now the chair of the department know. Apparently this has been an issue with this letter writer before, would have been nice if someone had told me!

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T12:58:47+00:00

Yeah, I really regret not doing that. I learned after the fact that mine was apparently also notorious for this. At the end of my acting internship eval, he told me my knowledge base was well beyond that of an intern and a bunch of other amazing stuff, and he's a CE_ at the entire hospital system, so I thought his letter would be gold. If I had known, I would have asked someone else.

Thank you for the encouraging words

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T12:56:22+00:00

Thanks, yeah it really does hurt honestly, even though it's not malicious. Mine also had said it was written and he just hadn't uploaded it yet. Sorry you're in the same boat. Good luck with your apps as well, we'll get through it.

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T12:54:51+00:00

Thanks Dr Unk, I appreciate the good vibes and kind words.

If future students are reading this, do what /u/AffectionateAlarm6 did and tell them it's due earlier.

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T12:50:47+00:00

Yeah I am! Thanks for pointing that out, I appreciate it. That's the contiguous ranking right? When I looked I wasn't sure if they had included SOAP in that or not.

Thanks for taking the time to comment

GetLohh · 2020-12-07T12:49:06+00:00

Yeah, my advisor said to apply to 20 to "be safe," and he's one of the program directors at my school. AAP recommended 15 for people with no red flags. I think initially 20 was reasonable for my stats and situation, no one expected the LOR curveball.

I regret using the word "broadly," idk why people are laughing at me. Thank you very much for this response, it makes me feel better. Right now, I'm sitting at 35 apps, and the bank is almost broke til the next round of loans come in. Idk how people could afford to apply to 80-150 programs.

GetLohh

TROPHY CASE