Mar

22

The Residency Match Part 4

March 22, 2006 | 1 Comment

Doing it the Hard Way
So I didn’t match last year and scrambled into a categorical position in Family Medicine. A categorical position as opposed to a preliminary position guarantees you a position for the total duration of the training for your specialty. It should be obvious that it is much more difficult to switch specialties [...]

Mar

22

The Residency Match Part 3

March 22, 2006 | 4 Comments

How Not To Match
Let me state the obvious. There are many kinds of doctors and depending on your specialty you will have vastly different experiences in your medical career. Ideally you want to select a specialty in which you are interested. It doesn’t need to be a passion or even a calling but you have [...]

Mar

18

The Residency Match Part 2

March 18, 2006 | Leave a Comment

The Nuts and Bolts
While nothing needs to be carved in stone, by the end of third year you should have a pretty good idea of what kind of residency you want to do. This is because matching is a long process that will occupy you in one way or another for most of fourth year. [...]

Mar

17

The Residency Match Part 1

March 17, 2006 | Leave a Comment

The Match Described Conceptually
By now you have probably heard the ancient medical school adage that “P=MD” meaning that grades are not important and everyone who passes will be a doctor. I want to refute this and caution you to never adopt this philosophy. Grades do matter as you will see later in this series of [...]

Mar

11

USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills

March 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment

Highway Robbery
Might as well come out and say it. The Step 2 Clinical Skills test is a swindle foisted on medical students by bureaucrats with too much time on their hands and not enough to keep them occupied. It had its origin in the the clinical skills test administered to foreign medical graduates to ascertain [...]

Mar

8

USMLE

March 8, 2006 | 3 Comments

Your First Big Hurdle in Medical School
I got a fairly decent but not spectacular score on both Step 1 and Step 2 of the USMLE (United State Medical Licensing Exam) so I am not claiming any revealed wisdom or special insight into the tests. You must take what follows as my opinion alone and I [...]