I did a plan off of SDN (made by SN2ed) that lasted 120 days (can also do one that's only 90 days, but it is a lot more work each day). Most of the materials are from Berkley Review and some from examkrakers, although I thought most of the EK stuff was useless. Also the plan has you take all of the AAMC practice tests which are made by the same group that makes the actual MCAT and I thought they were pretty close to the real thing. Some people suggest a Kaplan course, but they cost about 3x as much as just buying the material for this plan and I have heard from multiple people that it doesn't really help. Don't take Kaplan practice tests because most people say that they aren't like the real MCAT and they inflate your score. The average I got on the 8 AAMC practice tests was the same score I got on the MCAT. I would set aside 3-5 months to study for it because it is quite a bit of information. There are a lot of people out there who just study for a month or less and most of the time they end up getting raped by the test. It really is all about the time/effort you put in. It may seem impossible at first, but it is very doable if you work hard at it.
The idea of my wife taking a residency in Oregon was a lot more fun in theory. Logistics of a move with a 45hr drive is no fun. Be good once we get there.
Awesome thanks! One other question I have is when to take it. I was thinking spring of Junior year, but if i want to do a plan like the one you described, I'd have to wait until the end of the summer. I read on SDN that you want to apply as early in the cycle as possible, any truth to that or is it typical SDN exaggeration/craziness?
It's hard to tell. I took mine in June and got the results back in July. I applied and got in the first time around but I don't know if it matters whether you do it in June or September really. I would say that if you have good scores and a good GPA you'll be just fine. All you need to do is apply as early as you can.
Some programs have early admissions and take based on first come first served for best candidates. Otherwise probably doesn't matter a ton as long as you are in before fall. And it's been forever since I took the MCAT so the only thing I'd say is the practice exams were gold, everything else was "meh" and in general Kaplan sucks at everything.
We debated going somewhere warm/fun for residency, but visiting family/holidays becomes expensive and impossible then. Plus we had a kid so that made that dream tougher.
Yeah we have no kid and our family is spread around the country. Neither of us have strong ties to any area so figured we'd move somewhere near where we probably want to be long term.
So I'm in the process of filling out my AMCAS application. I'm trying to figure out what to enter in my self-identification. My mother is Japanese (easy enough) and my dad is Egyptian. Physically, Egypt is in africa. Culturally, more middle eastern (which there isn't a category) I don't want to select african american and selection committees thinking I'm trying to mislead anyone. But, there is the "other" option here I can specify so do I do that?
Fuck. ERAS is open. Do I have to something with this now or something? RonBurgundy can I get a LOR? Keep draggin' my ass through med school, tmb. It's worked so far.
i need a place to live vicariously through my brother and brag about him being a brain surgeon. is this a good spot? in all seriousness i'm extremely proud of him and have to suppress the desire to just randomly tell people
Posting skills A+ would Husk with again. Honestly, at that point I knew exactly what I wanted to do and where so I filled that out and submitted it within a week of it opening because you can just relax the rest of 4th year then. Of course, this does not work if you are in a competitive specialty and have to externship and get LoR from those places, etc.
Yeah, not too worried. All in on famblee at this point, and mainly lookin' at regional/in state programs, a couple of which I've already sub-I'd at and got LORs. Big question is: how important are the step 2s for family? Not very hogmollie like of me, but I'm not doing those until Oct/Nov.
Not at all, just don't fail, and if you do, just make sure you pass it. I had all my interviews (4) done by November before CS was done (March). I think I had my CK in October iirc. Also I'm assumingDuluth, Mayo, Mankato, St. Cloud? don't sleep on Lutheran in Des Moines, Lacrosse or Sioux Falls FYI.
Im pretty happy. I hit my goal but fell slightly short of my stretch goal so i feel blueballed. But i should be competitive in the fields i want so thats nice
Enjoy your time off before you start rotations. But once you start, don't fuck around. It took me a little bit to learn how to rotate well.
Having 2 weeks to study for CK when you still haven't had OB, psych or neuro isn't exactly where you wanna be in life.
This seems like your school has failed you and your class by expanding enrollment to a level they cannot support. I would do my best to complain to the school and warn any applicants not to attend your institution. That's awful.
wait you guys haven't finished core classes by year 3? thought all schools had classroom stuff done by start of year 3 so 3 and 4 can be clinical rotations?
Lots of complaints have been lobbied already. They switched to a lottery system initially because it made it easier for folks going into non-core specialties to get all their sub-Is and stuff in. Gotta piss someone off, I guess. Made it tougher on myself because when setting up my rotations, I was torn b/w IM, Family, Peds and Med PEds, so I had to load up on quite a few sub-Is for each of those. Had to kick the OB, neuro and psych cans down the road a bit.
But your Sub-Is are meant to be auditions and you aren't going to be at your best in those auditions if you haven't had those core exposures - OB would be a big one to have had before a family or even peds sub-I.
Right, just didn't work out scheduling wise, so I've essentially had all of my OB through FM rotations. Trust me, I'm aware how much the system sucks. But it's great for folks who want to do middle ear reconstructive surgery, and I guess that's the direction the University decided to err. Motivations for that I don't wanna speculate on, but it is bizarre given I go to a public state University that puts a premium on primary care supposedly. It'll work out alright in the end. Just gotta bone up on my own for this test. Don't have to kill it.
You're getting fucked by not having cores done by summer of 3rd year. We can't even audition until we've knocked ours out
I think the most likely reasoning it was done is not at all for the benefit of the students. I'm all for schools examining their teaching methodologies to improve education, but there's a reason the core rotations are what they are.
My ob and peds rotations were a joke. I'm having to teach myself these for my level 2 on Thursday. I don't recommend it.
My medicine rotation hasnt been that great. It really sucks to learn on your own a lot of this stuff.
Today is exactly 1 year from my start date of first job out of residency. Fucking love my job, wouldn't change anything. Resident/students, it gets better.
Uptodate what you see on rounds is a good way to learn. Get step up to medicine. It wasn't a terrible book.
Just doing UWorld all the way through. Hoping that'll get me where I need to be. Thankfully looks like most of the OB stuff was covered in 2nd year
Well that's great. I had my first panic attack last night over the combined shitstorm of school admin bullshit, financial aid fuck ups (school again), boards, eras, rec letters, and my new insurance completely not covering a goddamn thing their website said they would. It's been a great month for me :)
Nice to hear that. Year four of residency is good/cush but its just getting old. Listening to a talk on bundled payments for total joints this morning didn't exactly put me in the most optimistic mood for the future of medicine.