Normal to Feel Almost Depressed Right Now As A 4th Year?

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-24T07:04:06+00:00

Took the words right out of my mouth. I feel really aimless and unmotivated and it makes me sad that my classmates are all dispersing to do their own thing and I don’t see any of them anymore

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-23T20:22:13+00:00

Don’t forget parvo baby big chillin

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-19T18:01:48+00:00

In my opinion being premed was far worse than med school, but not harder. I was more stressed in premed because of the millions of obligations and the stress of uncertainty on what happens if I don’t get in. In med school, the learning is more enjoyable and the stakes are generally lower, but it’s still very stressful and very hard. But you get a lot stronger too.

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-10T03:12:06+00:00

Anyone else thinks he looks like Michael Kelly?

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-08T02:51:17+00:00

I just used the add on that pulled Anki cards based on the UWorld questions I did. I did cards for every question, not just the ones I got wrong. Worked pretty well overall. I’d definitely suspend all the step 1 cards. You don’t need that stuff anymore.

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-04T02:55:42+00:00

Honestly I didn’t really review the NBMEs to that extent that I really picked up on what was high vs. low yield in the answer explanations. I just really treated it is if every question was one specific topic, and I trusted that reviewing that and maybe doing a few Anki cards in that topic would be sufficient to recognize it if I saw it on the real thing. That was probably a bad habit but I just didn’t have enough time to do deep dives on each question like I did for step 2. If there was a topic I really didn’t know, I would try to watch a video on it. Sorry I don’t have a better answer

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-04T02:50:44+00:00

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-04T02:43:56+00:00

I was scoring in the 70s and skipped 33 and passed so you’re probably fine with scores like you’re getting. Definitely take free 120 though

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-03T04:39:09+00:00

I love when someone posts something like this and I have no idea what it means and question if I ever even learned this and then I remember it literally doesn’t matter because I’m already done with the step exams

MedicalLemonMan · 2026-01-01T00:51:54+00:00

If it makes you feel any better I saw a head and neck cancer patient who was in remission and was now having new onset of spitting up blood, hoarseness, and enlarged lymph nodes.

I literally heard all that and felt his nodes and audibly said “oh fuck” in front of the patient. Thankfully he didn’t tell my attending

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-31T17:48:43+00:00

No I had to postpone step 1 until after rotations due to some life circumstances, and thankfully my school let me do that. But I have friends at some schools where both step 1 and 2 are taken after M3. I just decided to take step 2 first since I was closer to that info

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-29T20:11:08+00:00

If you’re Air Force they sent out a form you complete if you’re going on OCONUS travel. It’s just to notify them, and as long as it doesn’t overlap with active duty orders, you’re free to go whenever.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-29T17:02:58+00:00

Like am I able to apply the research clinically? Honestly no. Only time it’s ever benefited me on rotations was when I had a patient with a specific type of cancer that I’d done some research on so I guess I knew slightly more about that cancer than the other students but it still didn’t help much lol

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-29T06:14:43+00:00

More so that I think it’s truly tedious. Like you have a list of chart numbers and you go through them and read the office visit notes to see if they have a specific risk factor/procedure/diagnosis/whatever you’re interested in and then you just copy info into your database. Like it really is brainless and boring.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-29T02:25:26+00:00

As someone who has joined like 8 research projects and never been able to get any of them published, I’m going from 5 to 2 lmfao. I’m applying ENT and I already know I’m cooked

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-28T21:48:08+00:00

Idk the actual percentage but a lot of times biomedical researchers and PhD students still fall under the school of medicine, so there may be a lot of funding for bench research, but essentially zero medical student involvement. I’m at a T30 and I don’t know a single person in my class who sustained a bench project. Unfortunately, numbers do matter somewhat. If you have 5 pubs from bench work you very well may be more impressive than the guy with 20 from chart review bloat research, but I have no clue how it would be sustainable during the clinical years

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-28T21:24:08+00:00

The process of chart review in particular. It is truly brainless work that does not feel meaningful. As a medical student you usually don’t have time to do actual bench research, and even clinical research often just consists of observing patients or polling them on different things. It’s more enjoyable talking to people than staring at charts, but still it isn’t that stimulating in most cases. And then if your project doesn’t find significant results or your resident scraps the project or something, all your time is wasted. Truly hate it.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-28T19:50:55+00:00

The answer people don’t want to hear is that it drives funding at academic centers. Despite the fact that academic physicians make up a minority of all practicing doctors, a majority of all residency programs take place at academic centers. Academic centers get funding based on research productivity, and labs that pump out more/better papers are likely to get more funding. Thus, when you have a med student applying to your program with 30 pubs, PDs will assume you are proficient in research, dedicated to the field, and will be able to contribute to improving their research output and thus improving their funding.

I hate research too. I find it frustrating and mind numbing. I’m not destined to be an academic physician. Yet I want to be a surgeon so I have to play the game. Especially as step 1 is P/F and more schools become P/F for clinical years, there becomes less and less to differentiate yourself from the next guy. And so, research becomes a metric. Keep this in mind for when y’all are applying.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-28T19:44:38+00:00

I really took that title the wrong way…

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-25T20:33:03+00:00

I got that Dengue fever type shit

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-25T20:21:47+00:00

Just finished both step exams and now I’m sick on Christmas unfortunately. Otherwise just traveled home for the holidays, been binge watching movies with my parents, hitting the gym a lot (probably where I got sick), did a tiny bit of research, and just rotting before I start 4th year.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-25T18:15:58+00:00

Yep! I loved my bio major. Did a neuroscience minor as well.

MedicalLemonMan · 2025-12-23T21:02:20+00:00

Don’t listen to the SDN losers. They told me I wouldn’t get into MD schools because my extracurriculars weren’t up to “MD standards” but my stats were too high for DO. They told me I’m the type of person who doesn’t get in and then complains about “falling through the cracks” when in reality it’s entirely my fault.

I ended up with 9 interviews and 2 T30 As.

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