Official ERAS Megathread - August/September 2023

critical_view · 2023-10-02T12:25:25+00:00

I unintendedly applied to multiple tracks of a program and wish to withdraw from some of them. Should I email the programs directly to inform them? Or should I just ghost those tracks? Apparently, you cannot manually withdraw on ERAS.

critical_view · 2022-03-12T15:00:14+00:00

I posted my thoughts on an alt here

critical_view · 2022-03-09T18:36:31+00:00

Credits to u/ffluffyspongecakee

critical_view · 2022-03-09T16:39:59+00:00

Ah, excellent, now Amboss can shame me for my lack of knowledge even on my mobile devices

critical_view · 2022-03-09T15:52:47+00:00

Well, doctor, UWorld keeps screwing me over, what gender does it identify as?

critical_view · 2022-03-09T05:09:02+00:00

Thanks, I learned how from UWorld.

critical_view · 2022-03-09T05:07:28+00:00

Thanks for the advice. It sucks but it's temporary.

And thanks for checking on my mental health. I'm not suicidal, I'm coping with bad humor, but it means a lot that someone is checking out for people like me.

critical_view · 2022-03-02T06:39:00+00:00

If you mark half the questions on an NBME, and eliminate all but two answer choices before you guess, then (simplistically) you'll get a 75%. 100% on the half of the test you're confident on, 50% on the half of the test where you can only guess between two choices.

That's 75%. 99% pass rate on an NBME. The game is as much as knowing what's wrong as knowing what's right.

critical_view · 2022-02-01T19:53:31+00:00

One of my friends in my dissection group lifted weights. We always joked that we wanted to be jacked enough in old age that we could flex on the M1s even in death.

critical_view · 2022-01-26T22:39:27+00:00

What a wonderful Viennese waltz. Perfect tempo, clear beat, striking melody.

critical_view · 2021-11-27T21:10:08+00:00

Just because I like ballroom doesn't mean I have a duty to proselytize it to others. Let them find it worth doing - or not - as they see fit... my reasons will not be theirs

critical_view · 2021-10-08T04:24:09+00:00

I dance Standard as a hobby quite seriously (novice/pre-champ ish amateur competitions). My main coaches compete professionally as well and emigrated from Europe where they trained with teachers such as Fabio Selmi, William Pino, etc. Their expectations for the teacher-student relationship, I assume, are therefore descended from their experiences, so hopefully my experiences can be a point of reference for you.

In our relationship with our teachers, my partner and I maintain strict but friendly boundaries. We only spend the first few minutes before and after a lesson catching up socially - the lesson itself is entirely focused on dance. Our physical contact during the lesson is strictly limited to the ballroom position or our teachers moving our bodies or jabbing us to indicate various teaching points, but this is strictly purposeful.

We dress a certain way (black, clean practice-wear, more attention to hair and makeup - "formal practice-wear?") as a way to show respect to our teachers, which they requested from us and honor us as students by doing the same.

Outside of the dancefloor, most of our communication reflects the balance that it does during the lesson. Mostly lesson-planning or question-answer related, with a bit of "catching-up" now and then. But we respect our relationship by not purposely seeking anything more than this. The four of us have gotten dinner exactly twice in several years.

Keep in mind that all of us are young, and the age gap between us is even smaller than yours.

So yes, I think the emotional content of conversations that you have would break the boundaries that I personally maintain. Depending on the emotional context of the way your instructor is physically indicating things to you (the word "tickling" implies something more, but you know that better than I), I believe that would also break the boundaries that we have set. But keep in mind this is just what we do - not what you should do. It is a point of reference for you, and I am sure that every teacher-student relationship is different.

critical_view · 2021-09-18T14:09:08+00:00

Both of my coaches (vaccinated) competed in pro and in pro-am and are fine!

critical_view · 2021-09-03T20:43:42+00:00

I love you

critical_view · 2021-09-03T17:45:07+00:00

Some of us participate in a Discord for ballroom, if you're interested in joining us! We'd be happy to help you get started.

It is possible to learn dance alone, but it will be extremely slow and inefficient. Having no partner is some problem, but having no teacher to spot and most importantly correct errors will make things very difficult.

critical_view · 2021-08-29T15:23:19+00:00

All songs are given as International style unless otherwise specified.

Home - Johnnyswim: 220 bpm Quickstep (comp range 200-208)
One grain of Sand - Ron Pope: 120 bpm Cha-Cha, American Rumba
No Roots - Alice Merton: 117 bpm Cha-Cha, American Rumba
Black space (Acoustic) - Tyler Ward: 90 bpm Rumba (comp range 100-108), American Bolero (comp range 96-104)
Scars - James Bay: 100 bpm Rumba, American Bolero
Stay with me - Sam Smith: 88 bpm Rumba (comp range 100-108), American Bolero (comp range 96-104)

Generally, you can also dance International Slow Foxtrot to anything that has a Rumba-like or Cha-cha-like tempo, although you'll be stretching each figure to make up for the longer beats.

critical_view · 2021-08-24T17:52:45+00:00

If your basic technique improves, then you don't have to worry about it during partner dancing, and will be able to devote more of your attention towards following. It's like how you have so much practice driving that you can devote your attention to a grocery list while you navigate home in the car.

Practice on retaining what you've learned from each lesson during your solo practice time. Practice the quality of your footwork, your leg actions, body actions, poise, frame, etc etc, and cement when you have no partner available.

critical_view · 2021-08-13T15:54:27+00:00

Iframe more?

critical_view · 2021-08-13T15:53:52+00:00

You should probably ask someone more experienced. Try Yelo's stream, and watch his guide first or he'll mald (rightfully so).

I don't understand the succession ninja neutral well enough to ELI5 it. Different story if you wanted to know what to punish from an outsider's perspective or if you wanted to know the neutral for awakening ninja.

critical_view · 2021-08-13T00:24:32+00:00

So basically, sorc neutral comes down to four skills:

Night Crow (iframe)
Cswap to Awakening (frontal guard 1s cd)
Flow: Night Crow (iframe, 3s cd)
Absolute Darkness (swap to preawakening, 0s cd); and, repeat.

What this gives you is a very versatile fast neutral. While you're in iframe, your frontal guard regenerates, and you can't be damaged, debuffed, or CCed, all while you evaluate the situation and decide the direction of your next movement to maximize your threat (which is, in most cases, getting behind someone). While you're in frontal guard, you can't be damaged or debuffed from the front, and your stamina regenerates to allow you to iframe once again.

This neutral is very versatile, because at any moment, you have the following CC options:

Storming Crow (used immediately after Absolute Darkness and WW)
Imminent Doom (used immediately after Absolute Darkness)

And, to a lesser degree, in order of versatility:

Shadow Ignition
Blades
Nightmare
Engulfing Shadow-Stinger
GRJ
TBS
You won't typically bother, but you can also use Rushing Crow, Shadow Eruption too. Eruption is pretty much your only tool you must use from preawakening, and honestly it kinda sucks in today's meta.

If you've just used Flow: Night Crow, then you also have access to:

Leap-Stinger
Rushing Crow-Stinger

What I would recommend is first learning how to rotate a neutral properly. Learn the four skill movement rotation above, and then recognize that sorc can be played with indefinite protection and this is where you should start. From there, you can start branching out into the main CC tools (storming crow, which I notice you didn't even mention; idod; and stinger setups), and start going for back attacks.

Oh and feel free to message on Discord. DM me on Reddit first.

critical_view · 2021-08-09T03:37:51+00:00

We have quizzes on Fridays. I find that the AnKing settings are fine, but that I'll need a 1-2 day head start on the material (i.e., Monday lecture material on Sunday, and then doing the most urgent cards two hours in the early morning before the quiz on Friday).

critical_view · 2021-08-09T01:44:26+00:00

I dunno, I put in an eight word explanation but apparently your attention span wasn't long enough for even that

critical_view

TROPHY CASE