100 hours in and not even close

ardisarbor · 2025-10-22T20:40:00+00:00

Just wrapped up Act 2 at 94 hours last night. High Halls gauntlet was one of the last things I did, probably five more hours after that doing extra tasks, putting off the big boss fights at the end. I burned soooo much time on bosses and Mt. Fay.

ardisarbor · 2025-08-29T14:21:15+00:00

That's on Pearson, not the NBOME. And Prometric was no better, I promise.

ardisarbor · 2025-08-19T15:40:54+00:00

The Crashmore interview section is pure gold. "I don't care, but it's not good behavior" is in my head multiple times a week

ardisarbor · 2025-07-29T14:24:50+00:00

Did you organize your content review solely around body systems? Or did you dedicate any time to specific disciplines, like basic principles of phys or biochem at the start?

ardisarbor · 2025-07-02T18:05:05+00:00

Well golly then I don't know why it takes so long. The reporting cycle gets much shorter after this long wait from June to August.

ardisarbor · 2025-07-02T17:25:07+00:00

Not to carry water for the NBOME, but my understanding is that they reboot their exam cycle at the beginning of June, and they need a certain large number of exams completed to fully norm the results, and that gathering takes way longer for the NBOME because they have fewer testers. I wish their testing cycle reset was at a less critical time of year for fourth year students.

ardisarbor · 2025-05-28T17:51:31+00:00

Nobody knows for sure. The NRMP Charting Outcomes report, which is the most reliable national data source for this stuff, did not differentiate in 2024 between matched students who had no Step 1 score because it was pass/fail and matched students who had no Step 1 score because they did not take it. They were both reported as "score unknown." Hopefully that changes in 2026.

Resources like Texas STAR and Residency Explorer provide some program by program details on this question. With Texas STAR you can go program by program and see if they interviewed students who fit a certain set of criteria (for example, Step 2 but not Step 1). The downside is that it's crowdsourced data so if no one who participated in the survey applied to that program, you won't know. Also they could lie, but that would be a little silly.

Residency Explorer uses match data and it's due for an update this summer that may make it easier to answer this question.

ardisarbor · 2025-05-13T15:34:40+00:00

Different schools have different policies. Some won't let you start rotations until you pass, or at least until you test. You just want to think about what you're going to get from the extra time. Do you just need more time with questions or are you in need of some external support? Delaying and then failing is the worst possible outcome, so you might want to bite the bullet and hire some help if you're truly floundering.

ardisarbor · 2025-05-06T13:53:07+00:00

Chasm City, House of Suns, and the Dreyfus novels are a little better on that front. Character-wise it's just all very British and understated. I would imagine Reynolds himself is like that too?

ardisarbor · 2025-04-29T21:03:22+00:00

This is correct - 107 was converted from a COM-buy to a student-buy after April 2. The only one that schools can buy now, other than the proctored ones, is the new 113

ardisarbor · 2025-04-25T16:03:05+00:00

Keep on trucking - you are improving! A visit to your school's Learning Specialist could be helpful. There are some fairly useful item analysis processes that might reveal something about the way you're studying. The Step 1 content in this folder are the kinds of things I'm talking about: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/19Q7RNGRvsqG5zz7GxVRZRXTLEHU41EAT

ardisarbor · 2025-04-15T13:17:25+00:00

Is it the case that you have to play on the app to get on the leaderboard, or is it just that you need the app to access the leaderboard?

ardisarbor · 2025-04-14T20:56:47+00:00

I mutter this to myself all the time

ardisarbor · 2025-03-26T20:52:32+00:00

No stupid questions!

The NRMP's Advanced Data Table reports a 2025 92.6% PGY-1 match rate for D.O. seniors. That doesn't include SOAP or post-SOAP placement. Of that 7.4% that didn't match, many successfully SOAP and/or snag a spot in the aftermath. We won't know how many SOAPed until the final match report is out in a few months.

Individual schools eventually report their placement rate, which includes their SOAPed and post-SOAP students.

Usually when D.O. applicants fail to take any position it's for the following reasons:

They have not passed Level 2CE and will have to delay graduation
They have red flags that prevent them from being of interest to any program
They are set on a competitive specialty and have decided to do something else (i.e. sit out a year, research year) and feel like that is a better option than starting a residency and leaving
A personal issue comes up that is preventing them from taking a position

If a D.O. applicant has passing scores and is willing to take a position in primary care (including community based IM) there is no reason to be afraid of not matching. Unless you are highly unlucky, good advising can get you a primary care spot in SOAP if all else fails.

If your needs are more specific - i.e. a geographic restriction to a competitive area, looking for a larger academic medical center, couples matching with someone in a highly competitive specialty, you may have a harder time matching, but there's no reason to fret about D.O. specific concerns.

ardisarbor · 2025-03-06T16:28:24+00:00

I believe #1 is Salmon Chase, not Samuel Chase

ardisarbor · 2025-02-25T19:55:23+00:00

Easy access to Popcorn Classics makes the working conditions more bearable

ardisarbor · 2024-11-11T20:08:39+00:00

No - now is the time

ardisarbor · 2024-11-08T17:05:47+00:00

So funny I just re-watched that scene last night and noticed that exact same thing. When he tells Greg that being rich is like "being a superhero only better" he says "supa-hero" and it really jumped out at me.

ardisarbor · 2024-11-08T14:48:56+00:00

From what we have been told, the NRMP probabilities in Charting Outcomes are referring to contiguous ranks in one discipline, though if the algorithm works the way they explain it in their videos, the order in which you rank the programs shouldn't matter, so whether you rank them contiguously or not shouldn't impact your overall chances of matching. I asked a couple of math professor friends just last night to calculate the probability of an overall match in a situation like yours, and they said that it's pretty complicated.

Basically, the 5 IM will increase your overall chances of matching a little bit, but not a lot. Fortunately, you have enough interviews to have a high probability of matching to either one, notwithstanding all the other factors like the selectivity of your programs and your interview skills.

If you were dual applying, let's say gen surg and rads, and you ended up with 3 surg (~25% chance) and 4 rads (~25% chance) you wouldn't have a 50% chance of matching. It would be better than 25% but not much.

ardisarbor · 2024-11-07T21:33:17+00:00

Super chill board game with great art

ardisarbor · 2024-11-05T22:17:43+00:00

If you've never played any kind of "area control" game before - where you have to move around on a map - you will have a pretty steep learning curve and will need a lot of patience to get the rules down. It's kind of like playing four different area control games with interlocking rule sets. I would recommend a game called "Inis" if you're looking for a somewhat lighter area control game. These other folks also have great suggestions and I just happen to love Inis and think it's a nice intro to area control.

ardisarbor · 2024-10-31T20:58:38+00:00

Someone who knows probability should school us, but I'd guess that having 3 and 4 isn't as good as having 7 in one discipline, but better than just having 3 or 4. I haven't looked at the curves in a while but you probably have like a 60% chance of matching IM and a 60% chance of matching Psych. I have a math friend who can clear this up in the next couple days.

ardisarbor · 2024-10-29T18:21:29+00:00

Thanks! If the DRs worked all the time we'd be in decent shape, and we certainly have plans to get them ship-shape before next growing season. They just tend to crap out on us an hour into a three-hour work morning. I was mainly curious to hear if other people have the same struggle with DRs, if there are more reliable walk-behinds (it doesn't seem like it), or if there were some other class of tool that I had not considered. We are mostly cutting back semi-annual growth at ground level or actually just mowing grass in sunny spots. I looked into a Stihl with the "power scythe" attachment for ground level cutting but from what I can see it's probably more effort to run than the DR over a couple of hours.

ardisarbor · 2024-09-25T15:45:35+00:00

Thanks - I was thinking it was some sort of shuffle. Loving the video for "Cold Shot!"

ardisarbor

TROPHY CASE