<p>It sounds like the doing of their job is effectively studying for the test, theoretically learning each day the info needed to pass the test?</p>
<p>One of my coworkers whose S is in a med school in the north west once told us that STEP-1 score almost decides what specialty (or more correctly speaking, a set of specialties) a student could choose. I am not sure if he exaggerated it when he said this. He also has a DIL who is a resident now.</p>
<p>DS once told us that the students who have achieved a very high score shares some personality, i.e., tend to want everything perfect and fully under his/her control. He cited some popular online test materials (I do not know what they are exactly.) If the average students order and work through one or two sets of these tests, the high achievers would pour in more time and money to work through, say, 4 sets of the online test materials in order to make sure they could get the very high score and get into a competitive specialty. He actually uses a not very nice term to describe this kind of personality: control freak (hopefully, it is not because he is jealous. His score is high enough for his targeted specialty but not very high as compared to them. I think.)</p>
<p>One example he referred to is that a person in a group project would very efficiently do and arrange everything without seeking any inputs from other members. Another member asked him/her why others are not consulted and get the reply: It is more efficient to do it in this way. Don’t you see everything has been taken care of?!</p>
<p>DS likely got through 1.5 sets only so you can tell what his personality is by this number. LOL. He said his score is likely good enough for him to get into the specialties he may want to get in (Hmm…maybe still some medicine related one as I heard last time? Not sure.) He recently said the life of a cardiology doctor he saw in a rotation seems to be quite tough – He needs to see a lot of patients every single day. He also said it is also a quite competitive specialty as he heard even though it is not one of ROAD.</p>
<p>He recently mentioned that some specialty related to auto-immune system malfunction seems interesting - and not too demanding. But the downside is that this kind of doctor can only work in some teaching hospital. I do not know what specialty this is and how long it would take for a residency program for this.</p>
<p>He seems to have funs in some recent rotations.</p>
<p>Autoimmune illness doctors are rheumatologists. Rheumatology requires a residency in internal medicine (3 years) plus a rheumatology fellowhip (2 years)</p>
<p>WUSTL has a pretty decent website devoted to explaining the various specialties, the relative competitiveness of each and the length of training required.</p>
<p>[Choosing</a> a Specialty](<a href=“http://residency.wustl.edu/Choosing/Pages/ChoosingASpecialty.aspx]Choosing”>http://residency.wustl.edu/Choosing/Pages/ChoosingASpecialty.aspx)</p>
<p>There’s a considerable number of studies that have been done that show a concordance between personality type and eventual specialty choice. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/570155[/url]”>Personality as a Prognostic Factor for Specialty Choice;
<p>[Ability</a> of prospective assessment of personality profiles to predict the practice specialty of medical students](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769529/]Ability”>Ability of prospective assessment of personality profiles to predict the practice specialty of medical students - PMC)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.macter.com/celp/careermed/pdf/PERSONALITY%20TYPE%20AND%20MEDICAL%20SPECIALTY.pdf[/url]”>http://www.macter.com/celp/careermed/pdf/PERSONALITY%20TYPE%20AND%20MEDICAL%20SPECIALTY.pdf</a></p>
<p>Somemom:</p>
<p>as to doing job is effectively studying for test?</p>
<p>S did acquire some extra materials (e.g. reading, questions, etc) to help him prep. </p>
<p>But we’re talking about standardized tests and each intern’s (whether categorical or preliminary) experiences/training are going to be a direct function of the patients they see at whichever clinic/hospital they are assigned to on a given day. As I understand it, most interns wait until end of intern year to take Step 3 so as to get the broadest experiences/training they can get.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For Steps 1 and 2, it is definitely accurate. (and for Step 2, two weeks is generous)</p>
<p>For Step 3, however, it depends on your specialty. A lot of the psych, rads, etc residents I know study quite a bit for it towards the end of their first year. On the other hand, the sentiment I’ve heard from the senior residents in my program (Emergency Medicine) is that “if you’ve studied at all, you’ve studied too much”. I’ll know how accurate this is sometime next year.</p>
<p>“Step 1 two months
Step 2 two weeks”</p>
<p>-2 months for Step 1 - D. spent about that much.
But she is planning to devote about 4 weeks to Step 2 (whenever it happens)</p>
<p>I mean DEDICATED time with nothing else is going on.</p>
<p>In addition, students are definitely NOT reguired to take Step 1 before their 3rd year (clinical rotations) at D’s school. Their 3rd year started in March of 2013. Yes, they started their clinicals in March of 2013. D. was one of the first to take the Step 1. She took it in May of 2013. There are still some students who have not taken Step 1 in her class. Everybody has been thru few rotations and are starting core in January of 2014 and electives in June of 2014 (I believe).</p>
<p>Trapezius–it actually happened to 2 friends who were testing at the same site. One opted to scrap the 5 sections he had completed when the power went out and retake the entire thing at the next available time, 3 weeks later. Said it was frustrating and he was really flustered and believes his score suffered as a result. The other spoke extensively with the NBME and was eventually able to finish the remaining sections, but had to wait another 8 weeks to complete it. Said she knew it had been going well and was willing to do whatever it takes to keep those first 5 sections, and I think she was right; ended up knocking the test outta the park.</p>
<p>We also have to pass step 1 before starting 3rd year, which starts mid-June. Second year ends mid-May, and we’re expected to study during the spring semester and schedule the test during our 4wk break between second and third years. Passing step 2 is a graduation requirement.</p>
<p>One reason that D. likes her program that has accelerated pre-clinicals is that they do not need to study for Step 1 while doing something else (like finishing pre-clinicals, or even during rotations). They can have a dedicated time. The same is for Step2.</p>
<p>My non condensed program also provides dedicate time for step 1. Duke if I recall is condensed and does not give dedicated time. It’s independent of the pre clinical curriculum style.</p>
<p>Unlike Step 1, S did not have dedicated time for step 2 which turned out to be no big deal. Big issues with Step 2 were total exam fees (CK and CS), and with Step 2CS. Since Step 2CS is only offered in 5 locations (LA, Atlanta, Philly, Chicago and Houston), unless med school is close by, it may mean an overnight stay, plane, etc.</p>
<p>^Yes, we know about 5 locations, oh, well, something to ponder about and plan NOT to drive in a winter (at least, not to Chicago, snowstorm was trailing D. literally by 1 hour after the Med. School interview in Chicago, all while we were on vacation in Mexico and had people on a beach from Chicago talking about major storm and their family members in Chicago…D. escaped, was accepted, turned down)</p>
<p>^Yes, we know about 5 locations, oh, well…</p>
<p>I apologize for not reading 71 pages above before posting</p>
<p>^ Well I am very new to this, so I didn’t know about the five locations.</p>
<p>Many FMGs come to Houston because it supposedly has a higher pass rate.</p>
<p>After preparing the dinner for more than an hour in the kitchen, my wife was thirsty and opened a can of 8 oz soda for us to share. DS noticed it and made the comment: I told my patients not to drink this.</p>
<p>He starts to disallow (at least discourage) us to do something we used to do all the time.</p>
<p>I hope he could not remember how much junk food we fed him when he was young (did not know how to protest yet.) His very first eat-out place in his life was to a McDonald’s. I still remember that he was very excited when he sat on a high chair there for the first time. I think he is now very much into eating healthy food (even cooking his own food occasionally) and working out in the gym is likely a reaction or total reversal to the “not so healthy” life style in his early years. (He actually worked out for more than an hour in the gym this afternoon. And he said he usually works out like 4 times a week while at school. We often argue with him that he should increase his weight. 160 pounds is really too thin for his height.)</p>
<p>Just tell him you already have a doctor. :D</p>
<p>Actually I do not. I could not remember the last time I had a physical exam (before I was sick this year.) He has been nagging me about this all the time. He even said this to me: If you do not trust doctors, why do you encourage me to pursue the medicine field?</p>
<p>The situation is: He has a hard time to get me to do what I should do in his opinion. The reverse is true as well, like I can not get him a backup battery for his phone.</p>
<p>“Just looking for the 'script pad, son.”</p>
<p>He carried his (bass?) amp home for this holiday. It is true it is not large. But together with books, etc., (including some dirty cloth), it added up and the baggage became very heavy. He said he worked out more frequently (due to dating? Lol.) so he could handle it.</p>
<p>One thing is for sure: I know less and less about him due to the long distance between us. More and more he wants us to leave him alone and let him handle everything by himself. At least this happens quite late in his life.</p>
<p>Oh, the reason we went to an Apple Store is that one button is not functional on his phone. They gave him a new phone and took away his one-year-old phone. Guess what, he’s not happy about it. He said he does not mind using a phone with a non-responsive on/off button. Switching to a new phone means a lot of work to set it up again. He took his iPad home as well.</p>
<p>mcat2,
Our experiences with our Med. Students are complete opposites.
D. never care to comment on our life style, food consumption, (but we never ever had pop at home).
Also, we talk on a phone more frequently than when she was in UG, usually very long conversations. She said that she likes talking to me. She is at home whenever she could, but she is only 2 hours away. She still has a lot friends in hometown.</p>