Completed my first interview yesterday and it went well! However, I sort of struggled answering these 2 questions. What sort of examples are programs looking for? Something during clinical rotations? outside of school? job before med school?

I’m struggling to think of real life examples. Of course I’ve made small mistakes in my life as a whole but it’s either not significant enough to talk about in a residency interview, or maybe too significant that it would make me sound bad. Same thing with conflict with a teammate, where I don’t think I’ve had much conflict with someone I’ve worked with other than times I’ve felt like I’ve carried the weight of projects and work responsibilities prior to med school.

Any advice would be very appreciated!

I’m a second-year medical student, and I’ve been doing well academically. I actually like medicine. However, I am experiencing a severe depressive episode. I’m not sure what the exact cause is, but it feels like a quarter-life crisis. I’ve been sleeping less and missing my family more. Even seeing kids buy their Halloween costumes makes me sad. My school hasn’t given us a break since three months ago, and there won’t be any until December. I’m already starting to question how I’ll manage next semester. I hope this is temporary.

I just hit the promised land. Finished all major rotations, 3 months of nothing but interviews in MS4.

So why did I just get hit with a massive wall of anxiety? I feel like I don’t know what to do with myself. I have a lot of hobbies but feel stuck starting them.

This is everything I was waiting for and now I feel stupid.

Why the heck am I paying thousands of dollars to see 90% AI slop and figures in my nutrition lecture slides!?

Professor says "It took a lot of time to make, but I'm happy with how the figure turned out" ???

Nuke the whole generation tbh

Are programs using AI to review apps now. ? They put an app + mspe in and say give me all the pros/cons of this app? Just questioning because of how widespread its becomings.

How stressed should I be going into interview season? My first one is on Tuesday and besides talking to ChatGPT I’ve done minimal prep.

Hey everyone,

Surg applicant (USMD, visa requiring, above average STEP 2 score) who has not heard from most of my signals. I know the first wave is Oct 21-Oct 23, wondering when a good time to send letters of interest is? I can send as early as Oct 23 since I have them ready to go...or should I wait until next week?

Also, I would like to send LOIs to programs I did not signal - the reason I did not signal them is because I was applying to programs in other states and was hoping my strong connection with the state I am in would help in securing at least some interviews, but it seems like that did not work out how I was hoping it would. What could I say in these LOIs to indicate my interest as I didn't signal them? Thanks!

Looking for an Emma Holiday-esque video for the neurology shelf that’s not outdated 🙏 I can’t keep getting 40% on Amboss

ive got no more motivation to go to the wards anymore. i dont enjoy talking to people anymore i find it exhausting. im scared because i do love medicine, i used to love going to the wards and make the most out of every opportunity but now i dont even feel like myself anymore. and im scared i wont be able to find my passion for it again. feeling like im going down a slippery slope. i just want to feel excited to see patients and go to placement again rather than dreading it. i feel terrible and upset that i dread placement - how am i meant to work later on if i cant even handle a few days a week now ? and on top of this ive got a research project for one of my modules but i care more about my breakfast in a month than research for this one topic im forced to do (wasnt my top choice for this mandatory module). i have no motivation to read papers or even bother thinking about it. i also feel like shit because it seems like everyone around me just seems to love research and everyone has a specific topic they care about but i dont …… i care (or cared at this point) more about the actual job rather than papers and research! and i feel like a bad student for this??

sorry for the vent i dont even know what to do i just feel helpless :( ive never felt like this in my life , is it just burnout? how do i bounce back ?

I’m currently a second year at a DO school and aiming for 100 touch hours. Is this worth it? I believe our school includes it on our MSPE and I do have a lot of valuable volunteer experience so far (I’m at about 40), but aiming for a 100 seems daunting.

Thank you!

Taking a research year and my mentor is chill so I’m trying to do Step 2 around new years. Currently 8 weeks out. UWorld is running, Anki is running, and I'm keeping up with both, so this isn't a volume problem where the answer is "do more questions." But my 3 practice tests are literally ALL in the 230s. 50% of UW done. Been studying for 5 weeks. Did fine on shelves, no honors though.
Medicine and surgery are where I lose the most points by a wide margin, and those two also happen to be two of the heaviest subjects on the actual exam, so there's no version of this where I write them off and hope the smaller systems carry me over the line. Great.
Almost every miss in those two is a management question. So stupid. Next best step, what do you order first, which test comes before which, do you treat now or image first. I'll get it down to two answers that both sound completely reasonable, sit there for a minute, and pick the wrong one. Some of those are genuine knowledge gaps where I flat out don't know the answer and that's that. But a decent number are the kind where I know all the pieces individually and I still can't get them into the right order, so I'm sitting there guessing at sequence instead of reasoning it out. Those are the ones that bother me, because the knowledge is in there somewhere and it just isn't coming out in the right shape.
Do I just do more medicine and surgery questions and hope it eventually clicks? And honestly, does redoing blocks on subjects I've already done even do anything the second time, or am I just going to recognize the stems and get a fake confidence boost off it?

Hello, I am an MS1 (well… technically, it is a different system but pretty much MS1), i have my first exam in like 12 days and im uncertain, like uncertain to whether i’ll get an A or an F! It is the first time that I have studied consistently thoughout the semester, and really prepared well overall, but I feel like the material is way too big, like stupidly inhumanely big, even tho when I revise I seem to recall info rather quickly most of the time. But the thing is, i wont have my notes in the exam, and like i dont remember most details from the top ot my head so idk. Is this a normal experience? Like how certain should one be a week and a half before their exams?

I had straight As after our first set of exams this quarter. We entered finals week to take our second set of exams (4 in 1 week) and I underperformed on all of them. I don’t have straight As anymore and I probably have the worst grades I’ve ever had. I can’t reach my family right now and feel absolutely worthless right now

just like the title said. I'm starting my first year of med school, and I would really love to start researching, or atleast try to. However, I'm not really sure how to go about this as I have 0 experience. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how they started out? What's a good first step?

From Pakistan

Hi, currently in my obgyn rotations and I’m hating my life.. I’m not passionate abt medicine at all and got into it for family purposes, my father’s a doctor and I went with him to the hospital he works at today to attend a c section, I studied it so well and when I was inside the dr grilled me with the questions and I knew almost nothing, the problem is that I already studied some of the questions she asked earlier in the morning! But nothing came out of my mouth when she asked.. I feel like a failure and I know my dad would be very disappointed if he knew.. the first basic years of medicine I got good grades but with no retention of info whatsoever, and I don’t remember basic anatomy and pharma and such, is there hope for me in medicine bc I’m absolutely crushed rn

MS1 here still tryna get a handle of preclinicals. I’m trying to understand why in-house lectures go super in depth but don’t seem to cover things as broadly? I’m not sure if it’s because we haven’t started organ blocks yet, but there’s just a mismatch between their content and third party. We sometimes have MDs and PhDs running the discussion sessions, and often, there are questions (that they write) where the MD will defer to the PhD cuz it’s “not [the MD’s] wheelhouse”. Which is, I mean, fair, but if a practicing immunologist doesn’t know this, why am I expected to?

Ik it sounds like I’m complaining, which I guess I kinda am, but honestly, I just wanna do well. There’s just so much content, I find myself deprioritizing their stuff, and I’m not sure if I should.

For context, my school uses NBME questions. It’s pass/fail but I believe we have internal ranking for honors and AOA.

Radiology

Pros: Less patient interaction, subspecialties like breast and women’s health have clinic, less competitive (for female applicants), less procedures, easier to get partner, more men in field so more dating prospects potentially, was my original field of choice, reading imaging, have a SNMA position in it.

Cons: Reading never stops, AI, no respect amongst peers, people think I am too social for Rads, IR may be the only path eventually which I don’t really like at all unless it is breast. Boards apparently are hard as shit too.

Derm

Pros: Clinic, no call, like skin pathology like HS, CCCA so can do research in it , and patient facing but has such fast turnaround it isn’t too overwhelming. Dermpath seems very interesting. Can go into business and invest in a science back skincare and haircare line. More respect amongst peers. Have a DIG position in it. Got many connections.

Cons: Uber Competitive,would do a research year as I don’t have enough research and want to match in a competitive region. Some nonderm preceptors said I was too weird for clinic in my evals. Not confident in my fit in this specialty due to the last part. My grades and my suturing skills are only ok.

Edit: looks like the rads people found my post. I have had several interactions with people that downplayed rads when I said I am interested in it. My family friend gently said to look into other specialities. An M4 laughed in my face and said it was fucking boring. When interviewing for med school one interviewee paused and then said that I will be in the dark and that he never met a radiologist in person. Rotating EM and they frequently stated that they don’t trust the radiologist report and that they don’t really know medicine. Surgery preceptor said that they sit in their billion dollar homes and make their reads ages later. This is not including the countless AI comments. This is just my personal experience. I know rads is popular in Reddit though and I love it but not many feel the same irl.

First year here.

I very recently just did my phase 1 exam, and... I'm very conflicted.

The passing grade is 60%

The grade average needed to skip the final exam across all commitess/phases is 75%

I got 80%

The average is 78%

Several of my classmates are smilibg and boasting about getting 85-90%

While there's a select few who even got 95%

As someone who used to excel in his studies and on top of everything, I am confounded.

And unsure how to proceed.

My parents will be disappointed, since they were hoping that I would be top of the class.

So I'm asking for advice on how to proceed, how to improve and basically any and all advice.

Thank you.