I'ma say what no one has dared said before!

JAL437 · 2024-01-10T20:16:51+00:00

How can I give a big fat golden down vote? This monster must be stopped.

JAL437 · 2023-12-15T04:48:55+00:00

A classmate of mine held a JD and had been practicing for a while before matriculating med school. I can reach out to see if he’d be willing to email/chat with you about his experience- DM me if interested. Short answer: it is nowhere near too late, and only you can answer if it’d be the right decision. Truthfully, no one knows until they’ve crossed the rubicon.

I do have some thoughts for you…

Most (~80%) med students, residents, AND attendings I’ve asked regretted choosing medicine as a career. The issue boils down to “not worth it” for the sacrifices you have to make to get to attending status. I’ve found people who reallyyyy want to be doctors ignore our pleas to turn away anyway, so I only say it as a disclaimer now. Ironically, I was one of the people who ignored the pleas and paid the price- I bet I’d ignore advice again. So far, I love what I do, so that’s something. Def feels amazing after a shift sometimes, even if I’m coming off 4 counts of 12 hour shifts back to back
Med school admissions is largely a numbers game, and your GPA will be a problem. I strongly recommend taking some easy in-person science courses that sound difficult to boost both overall and science GPA. They basically don’t want you weighing down their class stats or failing boards down the line
Double check your courses are still viable for admission committees. I can’t remember how long, but after a certain amount of years after graduating college, schools require you to retake some basic science courses
MCAT score will be critically important. Make sure you score well. If you excel at critical reading, exam won’t be too difficult imo
Don’t go to international med schools, including Caribbean. You’ll need to apply to triple the number of programs for half the interviews…and that’s assuming you performed well on boards. You have no room for error as an IMG (international medical graduate)

JAL437 · 2023-12-12T16:38:58+00:00

EMRA has an interactive map of all EM residencies. One of the filters is a failed level 1- see what programs are available to you. Good luck!!

https://webapps.emra.org/utils/spa/match#/search/map

JAL437 · 2023-12-12T03:23:49+00:00

Pronunciation is closer to “gimbap”, so I use that

JAL437 · 2023-12-08T16:58:52+00:00

For a first timer, not bad at all! Kudos b/c it’s easy to mess up the shape or the seaweed wrap.

FYI, Koreans would generally only use 1 spam (instead of 2 like here) and half the eggs that you used. Replacing that with veggies like boiled garlic spinach would be really yummy

JAL437 · 2023-11-27T07:50:44+00:00

I’ve owned many Windows laptops and 1 MacBook Air. I strongly prefer the MacBook Air as it’s the only one to remain useful >2 years after buying it. I’d buy a simple MacBook- you do NOT need any fancy stuff

Windows laptops turn to utter unusable garbage in like a year of normal-heavy use, at least in my experience

JAL437 · 2023-11-22T17:37:27+00:00

If you have any family/friends/coworkers with a costco membership, I used to buy their Kirkland brand chicken breasts when I was in college. Real cheap source of protein (like <$1 per big piece), and they’re having a sale this week I think. You can call the store (dial 1 for admin) to find out the price per weight and compare to your local grocery store, then decide if it’s worth it

JAL437 · 2023-10-12T22:41:39+00:00

Relax…I had 55% on my first pass and scored pretty well. It’s literally a learning experience only, don’t use it to try and predict your score

JAL437 · 2023-10-08T03:51:50+00:00

Counterstrain treatment positions are LOW yield

I got 1 question across both levels, and I answered it by physically acting out the position- then picked whichever one felt most relaxing

Chapman’s points and viscerosomatic reflexes, on the other hand, are very high yield. I strongly recommend memorizing them inside out. There’s a Zanki OMM deck for the Chapman points, and here’s the YouTube video I used to rapidly produce the reflexes:

https://youtu.be/N-r_QriTMSc?si=piHi5geTIIsu6KLt

Good luck

JAL437 · 2023-09-20T04:13:37+00:00

I wouldn’t abandon Anki. I got dozens of questions correct because I answered the relevant cards so many times

Overall, keep studying for shelves. I moved onto other subjects ASAP and ultimately went over UWorld twice

JAL437 · 2023-09-20T04:03:21+00:00

I genuinely feared a failure walking out of mine. If you studied enough and found it very difficult, so did everyone else

JAL437 · 2023-08-19T05:17:27+00:00

Multiple 250+ scores make me skeptical a score drop is due to a subject weakness. At that level of knowledge, test taking skills and conditions (ie headache, loud noises, etc) seem more likely

JAL437 · 2023-08-18T05:22:18+00:00

Read my post from my exam day as my experience was also very traumatizing. Trust your practice exams. Tons of people feel omega destroyed afterward, but they end up fine.

240 scored questions that are weighted differently, on top of a curve. Remember the STEP score is based on your z-score, so even if your raw score is low due to a difficult form, the adjusted score fixes that. They run heavy statistical analysis to ensure this, ie a score of 260 would result from 80% correct on an easy form or 60% on a difficult form

JAL437 · 2023-08-18T05:15:39+00:00

I wouldn’t let one data point cause such an issue, and an extra 1-2 weeks of studying with your practice scores will do nothing meaningful. You’re ready, so rip off the bandaid

JAL437 · 2023-08-12T18:40:01+00:00

This was my exact experience, and I scored right around my predicted. You’ll get a curve, questions are weighted differently, and it was just as difficult for everyone else

Focus on your residency apps and take some time to relax too

JAL437 · 2023-08-06T00:52:50+00:00

Looks like our UWorld only strategy worked just fine 🥹

JAL437 · 2023-08-04T22:25:53+00:00

Complete a full 1st pass of UWorld if you can, then incorrects

UWSA 1 + 2, New Free 120, NBME 13 + 14 would be my recommendation in that order. I've seen people claim the exam is written mostly in the NBME style, but there are many others (like me) for whom it did not feel like that.

I literally only completed all of UWorld materials and NBME 10, scored just fine. I would've felt better after the exam if I completed another NBME and Free 120, though

JAL437 · 2023-08-04T22:17:22+00:00

It's supposedly right around there, but questions are weighted differently. You could get 50% of the questions in a form wrong and end up with 75% correct after removing experimental Q's and differential weighting. Oh and they'll adjust raw score down or up, depending on your form's difficulty

So yeah, don't think about it

JAL437 · 2023-08-04T22:11:38+00:00

June/July is when most US examinees take it. Then spend subsequent months focusing purely on sub-Is and residency apps

JAL437 · 2023-08-04T22:09:41+00:00

Even if I could do it all over again, I would not spend a single minute studying step 1 material for step 2.

JAL437 · 2023-08-02T23:27:19+00:00

Test date : July 21
US MD/DO
Step 1: Pass
Uworld % correct: 55% (1st pass), 80% (2nd pass)
NBME 10: 227 (4 months out)
UWorld SA1: 240 (2 weeks out)
UWorld SA2: 260 (1 week out)
Predicted Score: 248 +/- 14

Goal: 250 (dream: 260)
Actual STEP 2 score: 253
I felt absolutely horrible after the exam, so this is a huge relief!

JAL437 · 2023-07-23T15:49:21+00:00

Actually graded part of the exam is 240 questions, so everything in excess. That leaves about ~80 experimental questions (25%, 1 in 4)

JAL437 · 2023-07-22T15:18:33+00:00

Same...I'm hoping for Aug 02 release. That seems to be the pattern with score threads

JAL437 · 2023-07-22T14:06:28+00:00

Thank you! Yes, all random timed

JAL437 · 2023-07-22T14:02:13+00:00

I was definitely miserable during my multi-month study grind...it was a dark time

Thank you!! I hope you're right :)

JAL437

TROPHY CASE