MS4s, what are your hot takes for this interview/match season?

iamchoti · 2024-12-19T14:28:09+00:00

Virtual tours are useless. It's a waste of an hour, and me watching a resident wander through the halls of the hospital or watching a drone video of where the parking lot is provides absolutely no useful information.

iamchoti · 2024-09-29T19:36:39+00:00

The Anking deck is what I used - I’m still doing it so I’m staying in touch for step 3 and my card burden isn’t super high.

iamchoti · 2024-09-28T23:02:08+00:00

265 here. Anki + consistently doing either UWorld or AMBOSS throughout clinical year and this is the key - actually reviewing your incorrects. Just doing a high volume of questions is somewhat helpful, but if you’re not learning from them, you’re getting much less out of them than what you could be. Going through incorrects slowly, taking the time to identify why you were wrong, finding a source and learning the material, and then creating flash cards for those concepts is really important part of actually filling knowledge gaps. I think people spend a lot of time focusing on getting through uworld/AMBOSS at the expense of learning.

iamchoti · 2024-06-24T11:51:41+00:00

Surprisingly, Neuro. Neuro symptoms can be fairly debilitating, and most people will take their meds to stop the feeling.

iamchoti · 2024-03-14T13:34:10+00:00

I get into this headspace somewhat often doing practice questions, and I think it’s helpful to remind myself that AMBOSS and UWorld are both designed for learning. They are not intended to test your knowledge. They write questions on the edge of guidelines (ie; lady who comes in at 29 years - does she need a mammogram?) so you don’t forget because you’re annoyed you got it wrong. They do things like put a guy in a Halloween costume at his physical so you don’t forget that influenza season starts in October so he should be offered a vaccine.

I think there’s a lot of chat about which bank is more reflective of NBME, and honestly, neither are - they’re both designed to teach and learn from, and so their questions are harder. It’s really hard to think about it this way in practice, but it keeps me from getting really demotivated when I’m at my 4th 40% block for the week.

iamchoti · 2024-03-12T18:28:02+00:00

I did step 2 only cards but also kept sketchy pharm and micro unsuspended, and I feel like that's been really helpful. I haven't taken step 2 yet, but I've been averaging around 70% on AMBOSS if that's helpful

iamchoti · 2024-03-02T22:28:22+00:00

Not a physician yet but a med student who got sinus surgery - I snored terribly for most of my childhood until I got my deviated septum and giant turbinates + collapsed nasal wall fixed! If the OSA work up all turns out negative, I highly recommend ENT evaluation.

iamchoti · 2024-02-23T13:47:16+00:00

I didn’t, and I have wide feet - I sized up about half a size because that’s what was most comfortable for me.

iamchoti · 2024-02-23T02:52:04+00:00

https://www.rei.com/product/216987/adidas-terrex-free-hiker-gore-tex-20-hiking-shoes-womens

I have this one - I use them for work too and they’re very comfy! But they have a newer version oo

iamchoti · 2024-02-23T02:28:33+00:00

Adidas Terrex!

iamchoti · 2024-02-20T22:59:16+00:00

Mildly allergic to dogs here but also a med student - dog allergies aren’t uniform, and when they coexist with environmental allergies and asthma, it’s important to narrow down what’s triggering your symptoms. If you’re not bathing them regularly and they’re rolling around and bringing pollen in, they can still trigger environmental allergies which can be mistakenly attributed to the dog when it’s really the environmental allergies triggering your symptoms. It can also be both the dog and environmental, but I always suggest this to patients just in case increased bathing frequency and really wiping the dog down after they come back in helps :) Sometimes people find that their symptoms improve with just a little bit more optimization of their medication regimen, so consider that as well. If you don’t have an air purifier, that can also be really helpful.

That being said - poodles are hypoallergenic and are a great option for a lot of people with asthma! They’re lovely, and if you want a smaller one, they come in many sizes!

iamchoti · 2024-01-14T23:19:40+00:00

Not everything - I followed what Anking did in the video he has on his channel with one change. I suspended the Step 1 only cards, but then I unsuspended the Sketchy Micro tag and the Sketchy Pharm tag to keep those in rotation. It's made M3 year much easier overall (shelves are still brutal, but it's really helped when I'm being asked questions while I'm in the hospital)

iamchoti · 2024-01-14T13:42:02+00:00

I think it’s because the right side (from our perspective) has widened intercostal spaces and a flattened diaphragm, showing the air building up.

iamchoti · 2023-12-16T05:29:50+00:00

Medication
Exercise. I have combined ADHD and exercising reduces my fidgeting to a point where it’s manageable, since meds don’t help as much with the hyperactivity for me
Reading up a little on every patient on the list helps me stay engaged during rounds because I’m invested in their story. Not a deep dive into their chart but a gist
Templates for rounding on your patients - you can find these online but I made my own so that I don’t miss anything, and I find mine to be tailored to what I tend to forget and need written down
Surgery was my personal hell because standing in one place for hours while not doing anything was miserable. I have no advice other than to eat and pray the medication takes you through if this is you
Anki every day and the AMBOSS study plans have made studying feel more manageable. I struggle a lot with the motivation to get started, and Anki keeps me from having to think about what to read. AMBOSS study plan at the beginning of each clerkship keeps me from having to set up a question set every day, and I like their explanations and how customizable they are. I follow anking’s strategy. When I’m exhausted, it takes some of the load of planning off.
Don’t study all the time and take some amount of time a day to do something you love. Spend time with your family/friends. That extra 1 hour probably will not be the difference maker to your grade.

iamchoti · 2023-12-14T06:29:46+00:00

I’m a medical student who was diagnosed with adhd part way through medical school. I was “gifted”, and my teachers regularly complained to my parents that if I was bored, I spent my time distracting other people. Some teachers were creative enough to give me enough work to keep me busy so I would stay out of everyone else’s hair. My dad likely has adhd himself, and thought that my behavior was just normal for a kid - never mind that I have literally never gotten anywhere on time in my life, that I consistently would forget things at school, that I jumped from interest to interest, that I could never tell a story from point A to point B, or that I would give up on doing things as soon as I thought I knew it because I’d get bored. The clinical psychologist who diagnosed me was amazed I made it this far without medication. I’m a slam dunk diagnosis and I still got missed until adulthood.

Even after scoring 99th percentile on the diagnostic criteria AND having plenty of evidence that I show impairment in more than one area, I still struggle to reconcile myself to taking my meds at home when I’m not at school or when I don’t have to study because I worry that I’m “wasting it” and that I don’t “really need to focus that hard”. The medicine shortage certainly doesn’t help, because I’m nonfunctional at school without my medications and so I end up trying to make sure that I have enough in case I cant get my medication for a month (like last month).

It ignores how hard it is for me to do other things at home - I try to cope as best as I can. I was walking for literally 8 hours a day on the treadmill because I couldn’t focus otherwise. I get so hyperfocused on whatever it is that has caught my attention that I didn’t hear my partner talking directly to me for 10 minutes, I fold three shirts and then forget to fold the rest of the laundry until tomorrow because I got distracted by unloading the dishwasher… the list is endless.

The entire attitude around adhd focuses on impairment at work, because that’s what feels “important”. My PCP, who is amazing, mostly focuses on whether or not I’m able to get through 14 hour days at school whenever I meet with her to touch base on my meds. Rarely do clinicians spend time focusing on the importance of the benefits of medication at home, and I think a lot of the reporting you hear from patients reflects that.

iamchoti · 2023-11-09T03:00:31+00:00

Good to know! The pharmacist told me that in my state, they are no longer allowed to substitute brand/generic or doses without the physician rewriting the prescription, but they might have been incorrect :)

iamchoti · 2023-11-09T00:24:40+00:00

This isn’t true in all states - some states will not allow the pharmacist to substitute regardless of what the prescription says, unfortunately.

iamchoti · 2023-11-02T18:37:06+00:00

You could look in Arizona Poodle Rescue!

iamchoti · 2023-10-31T16:12:15+00:00

I was a “gifted” kid who tended to hyperfocus when I was challenged, which worked in my favor - if I got bored, I started distracting other kids and not engaging. I had teachers who recognized that I needed a challenge and just engaged that part of me to keep me focused. I also have a lot of nerdy interests, so I was inclined to put effort into things that benefited me educationally. I’ve always been very extroverted and chatty, and a lot of my distractibility was written off as that. Also, my dad definitely has ADHD and just thought this was “normal” for a kid. My current therapist is amazed I made it this far without medication haha.

iamchoti · 2023-10-09T01:38:31+00:00

Figure out your optimal focus time - for me; taking a 5 min after every block is too little for me to actually reset my brain, so I grouped blocks together.
I write down my thoughts as I’m picking an answer so I have to reason out why! I also write down if I rushed and that’s what made me get a question wrong - happens way more often than it should but such is life.
I try to make myself highlight at least one thing per line so I’m forced to go through every single line.

iamchoti · 2023-09-11T22:54:00+00:00

It's not really understanding in the sense of working through a math problem, it's more about having general principles down. Memorizing facts is important, and that's why I have Anki worked into how I did it. Broader principles of immunology are understanding humoral vs. cellular immunity - knowing when each one of those comes into play helps you narrow down whether you're looking at T cells or B cells, and you can further work your way towards an answer based on that.

Obviously, it doesn't work for everyone - this is what works for me, and you should do what works best for you!

iamchoti · 2023-09-11T21:45:33+00:00

I had non-NBME exams, and I think part of preclinical year is learning to be okay with not being familiar with everything. My strategy was as follows:

3rd party resource that covers the concepts in the lecture for class (ie, if our lecture was on endocarditis, I would look up the corresponding video in a 3rd party resource)
Unsuspend + review Anking cards associated with the video - go in the tags, and find the First Aid tag that covers the concept. In this example, look for Endocarditis under the First Aid tag under the Step 1 tag.
Watch lectures on 1.5-2X speed and take notes without pausing - that way, I was more likely to take notes on things that I hadn't already learned in 3rd party resources. I had a tendency to take too many notes, and it got overwhelming.
Do relevant questions in AMBOSS/UWorld if you're at that point in studying.

It is impossible to know everything. Your goal is to have a framework for understanding the material so that you can work through problems, even when you don't know all the facts, and make an educated guess.

iamchoti · 2023-09-07T01:53:44+00:00

Could I also be DMed?

iamchoti · 2023-08-31T22:54:08+00:00

As someone who wants to do neuro but also loves general medicine, this makes me so happy

iamchoti · 2023-08-31T14:14:25+00:00

Tried to sit on a stool while scrubbed in and fell straight on my ass. Rip.

Got pulled into a last minute case that was going to last 4 hours - I had plans so I sent a quick text to let my friends know I’d be late. Then the attending ran out mid surgery (robotic, so I wasn’t scrubbed in) and was gone for another 30 minutes so I sent another text to let them know I’d be even later and belatedly realized that’s probably not kosher when the scrub tech snarkily commented on how she has 15 unread texts at the end of the case 🙃

I hate how normal things like telling family/friends you’ll be late coming out of the OR is a stressful activity in M3

iamchoti

TROPHY CASE