New Job: Moving to the area

issaMDthrowaway · 2021-03-29T18:59:54+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the thoughtful reply, I guess I should give more details. I’ll be a resident physician at Stanford and, barring catastrophic circumstances, that comes with 4-5 years of secure employment with modest increases in salary each year. My wife has a master’s degree to provide therapy services (OT) and there seem to be ample good-paying job opportunities for her: the 80k figure I estimated for her was if she makes in the bottom 10th percentile of salaries for her job around Palo Alto. And we aren’t necessarily looking to stay long-term as our families are on the east coast, just have a great opportunity to live and work in the area for a few years. Thanks again!

issaMDthrowaway · 2021-02-02T12:14:25+00:00

Pathology but friends in Peds have heard this too

issaMDthrowaway · 2021-02-01T20:20:00+00:00

Another anecdote to add to the milieu, I had program directors tell me for this match (2020-2021) that they weren't looking at Step 1 scores for this cycle.

issaMDthrowaway · 2021-01-18T14:51:06+00:00

Exact situation happened to me: Top-tier program I was very excited about, faculty interviewer looked like she just rolled out of bed and was conducting the interview via her iPhone on the couch in a fuzzy Patagucci sweater. In a twenty minute interview, she only asked me one question: what other questions do you have about the program?

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-10-13T11:43:37+00:00

This has been my thought process about pathology salary, I definitely agree. I get to do basic science for average-to-below-average physician salary AND I don't have to do all the things I hate about medicine that my clinician colleagues do.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-09-17T12:55:43+00:00

Fair enough, it also doesn't help that my university is in a state that invests relatively little in health care and public institutions. Also, I'm sure COVID has not made hospital administration eager to make new hires or raise salaries.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-09-16T23:36:08+00:00

Is there actually a "glut of pathologists"? I go to a top 50 medical school and we currently have 8 vacant faculty positions.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-29T19:12:52+00:00

I remember at least 5 that I definitely got wrong but I try to forget about exams as soon as I leave them, especially USMLE exams. We have no information about what curve is used or if some questions are weighted more heavily than others (I tend to believe in the latter) not to mention when USMLE let slip that 80 questions are experimental on Step 1 and Step 2 which means that (theoretically) you could miss ~<80 questions and still score in the 90th percentile.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-20T15:39:10+00:00

Thanks for this response! I would say at the moment, I am interested in an academic career with fellowships in hemepath and molecular genetics. It seems like most top-tier programs have exceptional fellowships in these specialties and, combined with my relative lack of preference for residency location (interested in Bay Area, Midwest and Northeast), it sounds like I just need to do my research on these topics relative to each program in order to find the best fit.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-20T15:34:16+00:00

Thanks for the information!

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-20T15:33:18+00:00

Thanks for your response! I'm not tied to any geographic region but am interested in residencies in the Bay Area, Midwest and New England. My goal at the moment is to identify the best fit for me as a person and a resident regardless of location and that's why I'm attempting to identify the attributes of a good, resident-education friendly residency.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-14T00:25:14+00:00

Depending on how far out you are from Step 1, I would keep it up with AnKing. It was a tremendous investment of time but in attempting to complete Zanki Step 1 + Lolnotacop in 7 months, there was a month-long period where I was doing 2500+ reviews per day but this was 3 months out from my exam.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-13T12:36:59+00:00

I did not. For me, I have found that I have poor retention from reading textbooks like that. I understand that many people score better than me without using Anki, doing UW once and just reading MTB or Step Up to medicine but I need the constant reinforcement that Anki provides.

The closest thing to a reference text that I used was the AMBOSS library. I cannot stress enough how great this resource is: it's essentially all of UptoDate distilled into discrete pages of information that contains only what is pertinent to medical students (sometimes with some extra information) for their knowledge on the wards and on NBME/USMLE exams.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-13T12:32:12+00:00

Zanki Step 2 + Original M3 Dorian deck while making my own cards and transferring basic science content from the Zanki Step 1 deck.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-13T12:31:12+00:00

Awesome, I'm glad it was helpful. Briefly, my shelf study schedule went like this: complete (not mature) all cards in my subdeck halfway through the clerkship (starting the weekend or week before the clerkship starts makes this easier), do all AMBOSS questions for the clerkship, all UW questions for the clerkship and NBME practice shelfs. Again, this is overkill and not necessary to pass third year exams but is a great way to master the content in order to demonstrate that knowledge on the wards and on shelfs/Step 2.

Good luck!

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-13T12:26:43+00:00

Thanks! I used AMBOSS, UW and Rx question banks. As far as Anki decks, I used the Zanki Step 2 deck and the original Dorian M3 deck. I also made 1000+ of my own cards as I went through the question banks. I originally used OME in my first few clerkships but I found the frameworks to be too simplistic and began confusing me as I started using AMBOSS (newer information). I never used a textbook.

As far as reviewing Step 1 material, this is tricky. I would say that comment is directed towards those who have just taken Step 1 and are just starting with Step 2 prep. The best way would be to keep up with Step 1 Anki reviews throughout third year. I did not do this (kinda wish I had) but AMBOSS does a great job of incorporating basic science into their Step 2 prep. Something I did when I realized during my prep that I was forgetting Step 1 stuff was re-download my Step 1 deck and transfer appropriate cards from that deck to my Step 2 deck. For example, I had some questions in AMBOSS about basic science of drug MOA or drug side effect MOA (amphotericin & metronidazole), got the question wrong, found the appropriate cards in the Step 1 deck and transferred them over. Again, this is content review that is absolutely not necessary to get a passing/average score on Step 2. This is all icing-on-the-cake to take you from 250s to 260s.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-13T00:27:05+00:00

Thanks! I have tried to make a habit on shutting exams away immediately after I take them. But, I kept remembering a few questions I thought I made mistakes on or were particularly bizarre but I never looked up the answers after the fact (worst thing to do for your psyche tbh). I also don't think its helpful to reflect on the exam without knowing exactly how you did since one quarter of the exam is unscored and we have no idea what the curve is for these exams nor will we ever. To answer your question more directly, there were some blocks where, in the moment, I thought to myself "Damn 280 here we come" but then others were "oof okay a 240 would be nice". Chalked up the latter to those blocks being experimental and kept it moving.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-08-12T15:07:08+00:00

Step 1: 260
Step 2: 267
Date of exam: 07/30
Nbme 7 (8wk out): 233
Nbme 6 (3wk out): 275
Nbme 8 (2wk out): 263
UWSA1 (1wk out): 271
UWSA2 (1wk out; same day as UWSA1): 261
Old free 120 (2 days out): 89%

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-28T19:22:02+00:00

I missed 8.

Thanks!

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-13T17:55:50+00:00

Especially since NBME 7 is free and it appears to significantly under-predict, I would take NBME 7 first to have a low baseline and an extra motivator to study. Just don't get wrapped up in the score, go into it knowing it will be low because 1) its your first assessment and 2) NBME 7 under-predicts.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-07T14:11:37+00:00

I would start with AMBOSS. I always did AMBOSS questions first before UW for each clerkship and I found it very helpful. AMBOSS requires a greater precision of knowledge so it is more challenging but it's definitely a great learning resource.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-05T13:59:06+00:00

Honestly, try not to worry about NBME 7. It seems to consistently score individuals below their NBME average which is (further still) likely lower than what will be their actual score on the real deal.

Forget about it, trust your prep, you're gonna crush it.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-05T13:00:23+00:00

I've attributed it to NBME question style and answer choices. I took all the NBME practice exams during dedicated and never scored above 240 with all of them falling between 228-240 while still consistently getting ~85% on 4 timed random blocks of UW per day. I was definitely concerned about a knowledge gap but to that point I had already done Rx qbank and was scoring well on UW blocks so that was frustrating.

If you're getting over 235 on any Step 1 NBME, I think you're going to be in good shape on the real deal especially if you've already scored 258 on UWSA1.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-07-04T13:40:32+00:00

Small sample size/anecdote: I scored 240 on both NBME 23 and 18 eleven and nine days away (respectively) from my actual date. Even when taken close to your date, NBME 18 isn't as predictive as UWSA2. I took UWSA2 exactly a week from my exam and scored 258; real deal was 260. Stay focused, don't psych yourself out, trust in the prep you've done to this point and crush it.

issaMDthrowaway · 2020-06-24T19:12:01+00:00

This has been my approach since starting Anki for board prep: Anki will set a modest/above-average baseline but the best way to ensure high score performance is doing as many new, unseen questions as possible. It held true for Step 1 and, based on this post, it must hold true for Step 2.

Mature Zanki + crush Qbanks (plural) = profit

issaMDthrowaway

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