A single family house For Sale $149,000 or BO

Address: 173 Allenhurst Road, Amherst, NY 14226

Features:

· Convenient University Park area and safe neighborhood (0.4 miles to UB South Campus, 1 min by car or 10 mins walking).

· Exceptional ALL BRICK 3 / 4 BDRM, 2.5 Bath Home features remodeled kitchen with ceramic tile floors, custom cabinets & breakfast bar, gleaming hardwood floors. 2 Updated Baths plus ½ bath in fin basement (Needs to have toilet & sink re-installed-but easy to do). Fireplace in both living room and basement Rec Room. Master suite with full bath & off/den or 4 bdrm/nursery. Some new windows, hi-efficiency furnace & hot water tank, concrete driveway. Florida Room.

· Bedrooms: 3 (MSTR STE)

· Bathrooms: 2 Full 1 Half

· Garage: 2/Detach

· Square Feet: 1914

· # Stories: 2

· Exterior: Brick

· Floor: Hardwood /CERAM

· Lot Size: 70X163

· School district: Amherst

Contact: Serene or Sean

Phone: 716-835-0174 (home)

Email: moc.liamg|bu9002eneres#moc.liamg|bu9002eneres, moc.liamtoh|oahzoatgnaix#moc.liamtoh|oahzoatgnaix

1. You look through the forum and find a category you would like to ask a question about, or provide some insights to.
2. To make a new post, open up that category and click "Create a New Thread", then make up a title and summary and write at will.
3. To respond to an existing post/thread, click on the thread and press "New Post" and then write your reply.

This is not intended to freak you out about matching, as the vast majority of you will get a
nice "You matched" email on 3/16. But a few of you have asked how it works if you don't. Here's the way it goes.

Noon on Monday: email notification that you didn't match. Or that you matched to a prelim year (if you listed some on your primary list but not to any of the advanced programs you applied to), or that you matched to an advanced program but not to a prelim program. In the latter two cases, I will be told where you matched for the one program, so you have some geographic guidance in scrambling for what you need (either the prelim or the advanced position you're lacking). Note that I will know that day how many openings there are in each field and the broad geographic location - no specifics till 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. For example, 3 openings in psych in the Northeast.

Monday afternoon: I meet with each unmatched student, separately. We go over the possible scenarios for the scramble, and the student then gathers any new documents needed. For example, suppose you didn't match in Surgery and you decide to scramble for a position in Family Med, you'll need to madly get someone in Fam Med to write you at least one LOR, right? You'll also need to write a personal statement directed toward a career in Fam Med rather than Surgery. So there's work you will need to do after we meet. And the preparation of the documents is critical.

Tuesday morning: you come with a team of people (two more is good, three is also OK, more than that is just confusing) to help you. EVERYONE should bring a cell phone! We go through the drill as a group (no shame, no worries about privacy, this is Team UB!), as there are very important directions and advice you will each need to negotiate this successfully. We will give you copies of your documents, as faxes will be at a premium and your "team" will be helping you on the phone.

Tuesday: 11:30 a.m. I find out the exact openings. We duplicate it and give the right section to each team (so if you're looking for a Fam Med position, I give your team that section of the openings, for example). Your team disperses to search FREIDA for the descriptions of the programs that have openings.

Tuesday: Noon: you begin calling programs and sending your documents electronically or by fax. Then we all help you make decisions as programs do phone interviews and hopefully) offer you a contract. We have a location chart in OME, so that when the offer comes in, we can find you! That includes bathroom breaks - you let us know. We will feed you lunch.

Wed: If everyone isn't matched Tuesday afternoon, the same thing goes on Wed. It will all work out.

Thurs: Noon: Match ceremony!

Important: If you find out that you matched on Monday, please be prepared to help out a classmate who didn't. That's what friends do. It really is important. You will be surprised at the comeraderie that develops.

NN

* One of the exam proctors will give you a brief orientation and provide you with a clipboard, scrap paper, and a pen.
* On each door, you will be provided with patient's name, age, gender, chief complaint, and vital signs.
* You will spend 15 minutes on History/Physical and then 15 minutes typing out your H&P, Differential Diagnosis (5), and Plan (5) on the computer outside of your room.
* The H&P is very focused and it is best if you just go through the motions for times sake. Remember to…
o Wash hands
o Do a problem focused-history i.e., OLD CARTS, HEEADSSS, SIGECAPS, etc.
o Auscultate under clothes
o Always drape
o Sum up impression/plan with patient (communcation/compassion points)
o Note: You will never have to do a rectal, breast, genital or corneal reflex exam. If appropriate, you can ask the patient if you may do this, and they may give you an index card with the "findings", or you can tell them that your plan is to do a pap smear or whatever.
* For the write-up, no "template" is provided other tan the aforementioned categories, so you'll have to remember & type out PMH, Surg, soc hx, etc. (see First Aid Bk for exact layout). DDx and Plan are simple lists (do not need to explain)

After each case and at the end of the test day, you will realize how many little things you may have forgotten. Be reassured that there is plenty of room for error and I think average/passing for the school was something in the 60s, and almost everybody passes. The "big" & "easy" points are in communication and compassion.

Regarding preparation: If you feel pretty comfortable in outpatient clinic, then you don't really need to prepare much. If you are feeling rusty, it is a good idea to review First Aid Step 2CS and practice with someone.

The book is Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry by Andreasen and Black. Thanks.

This is a useful updated report from residency program directors of all specialties detailing the importance (percentage-wise) of many aspects of your ERAS application. Helpful to look at, but don't put all your eggs on this survey as it's the average of all programs and I can already list some friends who "beat the odds" of the current results.

Hi everyone!

Any advice on what the "ideal" order for clerkships is? A lot of upperclassmen have advised to start with Medicine, if able, but I wanted to hear some other advice. Thanks!

Anon
-MSII

Read the recommended readings in Robbin's as you have your path lectures. Although its dense as hell you may be surprised how it can add to your understanding of pathology. At the very least you should at least skim thru the pertinent sections and make sure you spend time looking at the pics because this is where all the path pics you see on your tests will come from.

Buy Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously simple and read about the pertinent bugs as your classes go along (theres also some micro pharm in here which is good too). This is an extremely weak subject at UB and unfortunately for us its important!!

Thats all I can think of right now, but I'll update later probably

Pros:

• Lots of face-time with friendly and well-trained attendings: Drs. Pieroni, Roland, Orie, Gingell, Leonard, Menon. They are open to questions and understanding if you need to take a day off to take your boards. This is an attending-run elective (in contrast to many other electives where you don't really spend much time with attendings and report to your resident/fellow).
• Really friendly echo and EKG techs and staff in general.
• See a lot of healthy, adorable children with a variety of congenital heart diseases (very interesting echos and EKG findings!). Auscultate many types of murmurs. Lots of syncope and "chest pain" (reassurance that it's a musculoskeltal pain) cases too.
• If you are interested, Dr. Leonard does interventional caths on Wednesdays at Gates Hospital and on Thursdays at Strong Memorial in Rochester.
• Dr. Orie does fetal echos a couple days per week.
• Dr. Pieroni does stress tests a couple days per week.
• Clinic hours for students/residents are different than hours for the attendings. Students/residents typically report 9-3:30pm, with 1-2 hour lunch break, except Friday you are excused at noon.

Cons:

• The role of students and residents are to shadow the attendings, but I saw it as a plus because I learned different history-taking styles. Except on a few occasions, students usually are not the primary person to take the history and formulate a differential. (which could be a pro for some people, I suppose).

p.s. - Any residency program whose resident representative takes you aside to tell you "all of these programs are pretty much the same anyway" is NOT a good source of information in my opinion. At this residency fair I found DISTINCT differences between the residency programs I was interested in. One stressed complementary medicine and appeared more osteopathic, one stressed sports medicine and seemed like a "jock program", one had a great rural medicine program but with ties to urban clinics, one boasted a new model of physician training and seemed more academic and public health oriented, one seemed proud of its program but also seemed to have a subtle inferiority complex when it referenced other programs, one had residents who seemed like former gunners who were very capable but very stressed out and the nervous type. And one cheerfully gave out ice scrapers to promote their climate difference (Guess which program that was! HAha).

Here are some urls she found:
http://www.ebags.com/ricardo_beverly_hills/huntington_lite_21_expandable_carry_on_rolling_upright_suiter/product_detail/index.cfm?modelid=117434

http://www.shopwiki.com/search/Pathfinder+Avenger+Lite+22&quot%3B+Expandable+Trolley+with+Suiter

• Skirt: Below or at knee with skin-colored hoisery.
• Pants: Hem should fall above the ground level with your shoes on

Blouse: solid color, full length sleeves.

Shoes: Less than 2" heel. Navy, black, taupe. Leather upper is the best material.

Belts: Black or navy leather.

Purse: Black, taupe, grey leather business tote
(&/or portfolio).

Hair:

• Longer than shoulder length - wear a low ponytail/pulled back.
• At or shorter than shoulder - down or pulled back.

Nails - No nailpolish.

Jewelry: Engagement/wedding bands. Necklaces, watches, earrings (studs) are appropriate. Keep it simple (less than 3).

Make-up: Natural

Nametag: right shoulder b/c this is where the opposite person's gaze naturally falls when they shake your right hand.

Fundamentals II is SUPPOSE to be a primer class for all the modules. All modules will cover Histology/Structure, Physiology, Pathophysiology, Pathology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Clinical aspects of an entire organ. However, you can't start the module work until you've had an introduction to all these disciplines. Thus, Fundo II will attempt to cover the introductory concepts in all these disciplines.

-Most people in our class thought Fundo II was all memorization and didn't take much from it. Covering so many disciplines while simultaneously taking anatomy sorta burns you out.

ADVICE:
-Don't mess{edited} around with pathology and pharmacology. Path and Pharm are important topics for your boards. You need to know the concepts because you will see them every module you take. If you like textbooks, Robbin's Pathology is the undisputed king of pathology textbooks for most US medical students.

-Microbiology and Immunology are poorly taught here. Many different classes have felt this way. Consider outside texts to supplement/organize the bugs. Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple comes to mind. Levinson Micro/Immuno for Review and Board Examination has an excellent summary of Immuno.

-As for doing well in class just look at all the old exams and you'll know over half of the test before you even walk into the exam room

-Fill out the bloody review at the end of each course. If you've complained about a teacher/module to classmates then fill out the course evaluation and then maybe something will actually get done. Yes, unlike undergrad teachers will really read your comments and make improvements.

p.s. after the fact I read through Costanzo's Physiology textbook and Dr Hogan was spot-on withe everything. I assume (as I haven't yet taken Step 1) that we will be well-prepared for cardio questions on the boards.

AMA
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6701.html

UCLA
http://www.medstudent.ucla.edu/offices/sao/academic-career/interview_seminar.cfm

Rush
http://www.rushu.rush.edu/studentlife/career/medint.html

UCSF
http://medschool.ucsf.edu/professional_development/careers/loeser_interviewing.aspx

It's actually a Word document so if you want the neater, noncached version search for "University of Rochester + couples matching."

We were led into a room and given numbers 1-12. We had to sit at tables in our assigned number order. We watched an orientation video (the same one that you can also watch on their website. I had already watched this at home so it was more like a comforting measure for me. I recommend that you tell students to watch this ahead of time to get a better idea of how to prepare for CS.) After that we lined up again to enter the testing room site. The sessions were divided into three parts: 5 patients —> 30 minute break (with free provided lunch or dinner depending on if you were morning/afternoon session) —> 4 patients —> 15 minute break (with snack) —> 3 patients —> survey, go home! In total the exam was 7.5 hours and exhausting.

During the exam I felt very calm (with the exception of the first patient but I think that was me just getting used to the idea that I was actually in Chicago doing the CS!) because everything was so similar to the UB CCC exams. There were the announcing voices of "standardized patients prepare." and then "students may begin." Even the font of the door charts, the layout of the information was exactly the same. The rooms were pretty much the same with the exception of the two-way window but that was pretty easy for me to ignore. The SPs were very direct with their answers and I felt like I was taking a CPM exam.

I chose to type all of my notes (you could switch back and forth but I am pretty fast at typing so I stuck with that). I never ran out of room, and the format of the screen is similar enough to Dr. Gallagher's 3rd year clinical competency test. Dr. Gallagher is correct in that she makes her exams a lot trickier (and with higher standards to pass) but this pushes us to work harder at flushing out the d/dx and in the end it really does pay off.

I left that exam exhausted but pretty sure that I had done a pretty good job of organizing my differentials and tests. All of the SP chief complaints and problems seemed to be common issues and very reasonable. I felt well prepared by UB and I'm not just saying this because I passed!

Overall having the 3rd year clinical skills exam, the clerkship practicals (medicine, surgery, family med)with the opportunities to stop in to the CCC and review the checklists and the SP's critiques was very useful. I appreciated all of it (including the harsher critiques) even if I didn't agree with every comment.

State Distribution 130 # of kids % of class
NY 72 55% PA 11 8% MA 7 5% CA 4 3% TX 4 3% OH 3 2% VA 3 2% CT 3 2% FL 2 2%
CO 2 2% MD 2 2% NC 2 2% KY 1 1% IL 1 1% NH 1 1% UT 1 1% OR 1
1% WA 1 1% KS 1 1% GA 1 1% AL 1 1% DC 1 1% HI 1 1% MT 1 1%
NJ 1 1% SC 1 1% RI 1 1%

Top 8 Schools 130 # of kids % of
class U at Buffalo 28 22% U of Rochester 9 7% Albert Einstein 8 6% U
Pittsburgh 8 6% Cornell 5 4% SUNY Stony Brook 4 3% Yale 3 2% Northshore-LIJ
3 2%

Also, here is some advice that I got from a previous 4th yr:

Surgery - Kaplan notes, Case Files is excellent and Surgical Recall isessential for OR pimping sessions, but don't study it for the shelf.

Medicine - you're assigned cases (like 1st and 2nd years!!) and theanswers, when they give them, are a good review of high yield stuff.Dr. Gallagher recommends Cecil's essentials of medicine, which is like amillion pages long - use it as a reference and to read about interesting
patients (copy in library, don't buy). No good concise review book,learn as much as you can, do lots of questions (more on that later), and you'll do fine.

Psych - I thought Andreasen & Black was good if you have it from 2nd year, I read some chapters from that and did questions, shelf isn't too hard.

FM - no concise text, study mostly medicine (I just did some questions). There is also OB and peds on the shelf, but if you take these before FM, don't do any additional studying.

OB - Blueprints is dry and boring but if you read the whole thing, the shelf is not bad.

Peds - I used First Aid because a friend lent it to me, I hear
blueprints is also good.

Also, for every clerkship, get pretest or some other question book (pretest Q's tend to be the hardest so best prepare you for the shelf), and do all the questions during the 2 weeks before the exam. There are lots of "review texts" for each clerkship (first aid, blueprints, kaplan notes) - a good idea is to try to get through one review text before the exam, and have another source to read about patients, look stuff up,etc. (I just used up to date most of the time). Just like everything else, you have to figure out how to study all over again, but try to
start studying early in the clerkship - otherwise you could go the whole time not having a clue what people are talking about.

Just keep your eyes and ears open and you'll figure out what works best for you. Third year is a lot of fun, so don't stress too much!

Best Cafeterias: BGH, Roswell, (Children's)

Most students also like Case Files and I used them for every clerkship.

And finally…the surgery shelf is pretty difficult — likely one of the hardest. Especially if it's your first shelf I'd recommend doing a lot of questions to get the feel of taking a shelf exam (they're only 100 questions each but the stems can be long and it feels pretty intense!) and re-reading the books that you choose.

Good luck!

I used the Kaplan Qbank, and there are MORE THAN ENOUGH questions there. It seemed like most of my classmates subscribed to Kaplan as well and I didn't hear any complaints about the program. The questions are good and have detailed and well-written answers with explanations of why the correct answer IS correct and why the others are not.

Toward the end of my studying I sampled a bunch of USMLEworld questions and found that their questions were also very good. Personally I feel that both question banks are about the same and will prepare you equally well for the Boards. The structure of the questions are slightly different (I think the Kaplan questions have slightly longer question stems and are more story-like but I can't really remember now) but overall content is the same. Another thing I liked about USMLEWorld is that in the explanations they go through the correct and incorrect answer choices, and then at the bottom they also include a summary of the take-home message so that if you're just skimming answers you can scroll down and just read that. The major plus of USMLEworld is that the actual format of the program is EXACTLY like that of the actual Step1. As in, the font, coloration, layout, etc of the USMLEworld looks exactly like what appears on the computer monitor in the Prometric test center on test day. So if you want to simulate an accurate testing environment, go for the U-World.

Robbins Pathology also has a question book that comes highly recommended by students if you're weak in pathology.

I have not heard anything about USMLE Rx, sorry!

And bottom line…DO AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE! It does not matter which QBank you choose, as long as you're doing questions!

I just wanted everyone to know that if you are planning on doing an away elective, please make sure our school has an affiliation agreement because apparently over the last few years our previously extensive list of cooperative schools and programs has diminished DRASTICALLY because there has not been changes in the paperwork incorporating HIPAA and other modifications that may have become necessary over time. So where as previously applying for an away rotation simply required some signatures and a school seal, our school and the host program needs to file a new agreement for affiliation and both sides need to finish all the required paperwork.

In some situations apparently this process can take up to months (which at this point would put some fall away rotations in jeapordy). Many away rotations have already starting accepting applications but we will each be delayed in even submitting applications if these affiliation agreements are not current. So while unfortunately it becomes the burden of our class (and the next few classes) to reestablish this list, if you are considering an away elective, think about at least getting this process started so that each person in our class or future classes can have the chance to pursue it because as of now the list is extremely limited.

I know that some people had become aware of this reality but others are only now beginning to find out and truthfully, this is unfair to our class as some of us may now may have to put off electives that we hoped to pursue early on. So please, even if you are simply considering a specific place for a rotation just fill in the form (takes 2 min, dunno where to get it online, but it is available at the OME).

Hope everyone's year is going well and good luck with the last quarter of 3rd year

• Mid-Feb through May - After psych (many people found psych a good time to ease in), I began to skim through most of the resources to get the "big picture" & familiarize myself with the books. Listened to Goljan (average 1 hr per day). Found that I prefer to study from review textbooks with more text rather than bullet points. (Figure out which style works for you!)
• Mid March - CBSE (“diagnostic test” in Butler)
• School gave us 9 weeks off. Wks 2 & 9 were vacation time. ~7 weeks of main study time during with I took 4 to 5 days off. Cooked dinner & worked out daily. (Very impt to give your brain a break & stay healthy!) Studied 4 to 10 hours per day. Did ~100 Robbins &/or Q-bank questions daily (very important to reinforce what you just read). Started to burn out at the end and was worried about forgetting things from the early study days.

• Week 1 - re-listened to Goljan; BRS Path & questions
• Week 2 - pre-boards vacation!
• Week 3 - Immuno & Micro. I thought it was helpful to start with immuno, since the concepts of immuno are revisited in micro & pathology.
• took NBME1
• Week 4 - biochem/cell bio/anatomy/embryo/general path
• Weeks 5,6 - organ systems in the same order learned at school. Re-listened to Goljan while running, grocery shopping, driving.
• Week 7 (Last week!)
o Reviewed FA once. Didn't think it was worth doing q-bank in the last few days. Some people delegated to two weeks to review FA but I was too burned out for that.
o 2 & 3 days before step 1: took NBME 2 and NBME 3
o Took Step 1!!!
• Week 8, 9 - enjoyed life!

About my Step 1
-Tons of biochem/molecular bio, biostats, ethical questions, neuroanatomy on my test. Mix of one-liner questions & long clinical vignettes with extraneous lab values. Finished each section 10 minutes early.
-I marked no more than a few questions per section to review at end of block. if you don't know it the first time around, you probably won't know it later.
-However, my bf had almost no biochem/cell bio, tons of pulm & tons of neuro & gross anatomy on his test. Bottom line - every test is very different!

The resources:
• Practice questions:
o Qbank – Similar computer format as actual exam. Very detail-oriented. Beyond the scope of Step 1 at times. Didn't want to spend more $ on UWorld, so I don't know what I'm missing out on, but I hear that it’s better. 51% completed
o Robbins Path questions - AMAZING. Challenging questions, highlights pathology buzzwords
o BRS path chapter questions & comprehensive exam – relatively easy, but helps to reinforce important pathology after reading a chapter
o some Kaplan Q-book & some BRS Physiology chapter questions as needed
• First Aid - the lack of organization & typos got on my nerves and I whited out ~20% of the book. Grr I seriously went through a bottle of white out each week. Don’t know of a better comprehensive review book however.
• Anatomy/Embryology
o Couldn’t tolerate more than a few hours of Kaplan videos or to finish HY. Didn’t think it was worth cramming generally low yield information, though I know one person who had an anatomy/neuroanatomy-based test.
o Just memorized FA & crossed my fingers & got lucky.
• Biostats/Behavior Science/Psychiatry:
o Kaplan Video —> helpful for biostats & the professor is funny. overkill at times
o HY Behavior Science - read only the psychiatry section.
• Biochemistry/Cell & Molecular Bio/Genetics
o Lippincott's - worth the time
o HY Cell Bio (old edition) - couldn't stay awake during this read. borrrinnggg.
• Micro
o Clinical Microbio Made Ridiculously Simple - funny pictures, easy read!!
o Qbank micro is waaaaay beyond the scope of Step 1 – don’t be discouraged if you get questions wrong.
• Immunology
o HY - skimmed through & thought it was horrible
o Lange Review of Medical Microbiology and Immunology by Levison- easy to read & understand conceptual
• Pathology
o Goljan audio - amazing. Listened to him 3-5 times. His jokes got annoying but he gets you thinking conceptually.
o BRS path - concise. Supplements Goljan audio
• Pharm
o FA - basically all you need to know for this topic!! know it well!
o Lange cards - helpful clinical vignettes. overkill at times. i may use it for step 2
o Qbank pharm is waaaaay beyond the scope of Step 1 – don’t be discouraged.
• HY Neuro - overkill at times, but tolerable. Know neuroanatomy well!
• BRS Physiology - great!

Summary:
• Goljan audio, Robbins path questions, Lange immuno, CMMRS, Lippincott's biochem, kaplan video for biostats only —> invaluable. I found that the audio and video lectures "spiced up" my studying - it was a nice change from those words that blur together at the end of the day.
• When other people are bragging or whining about how much or how little they are studying - IGNORE THEM! Everybody has their own studying style, and people need more or less time than others.
• I hate HY. The series should be renamed "low yield". However, many other people recommended it to me, so it depends on your learning style. If you to use it, stick with older editions, because the newer editions are waayy too long and overkill.
• Practice questions are crucial for solidifying concepts!!! Start your day with them, use them as a reading "break", do them before you go to bed.
• Didn't use a histo source. Can often figure out the answer based on question stem. Use google if you want to see what something looks like - saves some $$!
• Don’t stress about your CBSE “diagnostic score”. It is possible to go up >80 points! (I went from 179 to 241). Your NBME usually predicts your grade +/- 10 points (My best was 247 three days before the real thing).
• Studying for Step 1 sucks, especially when the weather is warm & sunny. But, remember that you survived the MCAT! In my opinion, MCAT was a much more horrendous because you are not guaranteed a life as a doctor, general chemistry equations have little to do w/your patients, and all of your non-pre-med friends are out partying. While studying for Step 1, remember that you WILL be a doctor, most of what you’re studying is clinically impt, & nobody is partying - your classmates are suffering & studying too!
• Personal health - again, I cannot stress the importance of taking care of yourself. Make sure you are sleeping and eating well. If you are feeling pathologically anxious, you should see someone. This is really serious and some people do need professional assistance during this tough time.

Feel free to send me a msg if you have any questions!!

I guess I can make a pros/cons list:

PROS:
NO residents
Get to do everything
You are really important and valuable to the team b/c there are few practioners.
You can leave buffalo for a while
You have excuses not to work on Weekends, b/c you have to be back for MOnday lecture
You dont have to do inpatient family medicine here in buffalo (which i heard can be hellish)
Most people have a good experience, I hear Olean is also a good site.
You get away from crazy classmates and are the only student there
see deliveries before OB rotation
see orthopedic surgeries before surgery rotation
experience working with infants/kids before peds

CONS:
too much driving
housing unreliabe, no internet (where I was in Westfield, i hear some locations have internet)
i had to share a room for 3 nights
No friends around
everything in westfield closed at 7, i had to study at the hospital
only chinese person in westfield, except on chinese family that owned restaurant
(if you do it in the winter, driving is worse)

sooo.. my compliants are really just superficial. overall excellent experience.

haha, anyways, down to business
- first day is first day - nothing special here, go in at 8am and dr. hassett
will meet w/ you and introduce you to your respective team leaders. the teams
are divided into white, blue and red teams. I was on the same team (white team)
as Dr. Dayton (he usually likes at least 2 medical students, and he is a
wonderful educator). The red team is the vascular team. Blue and White are
general surgery teams with their respective surgeons.

-KJ i know will not let you come in at 5:30am to take vitals for rounds at 6am so
we on the white team got that extra 30minutes to sleep in and came in at 6am.
the other teams did the same thing, so second day and the rest of the days you
can show up at 6am. double check w/ them if you feel the need to, otherwise, 6am
is safe to go.

-every thursday is Dayton rounds at 5pm on the 14th floor in the conference room
next to the vending machine right as you walk out the elevator. get the keys to
the storage room for the projector and laptop from briste (she's a blonde girl
who works for the department and will show you what to do, her office is in the
hallway on the 3rd floor on your way to the surgical resident room). DO NOT SHOW
UP LATE and make sure the projector and presentation is working. if you have a
OR case, make sure you speak to the attending of that case before hand about the
dayton rounds for permission to leave the OR. dayton rounds take all precedents.
Dr. Dayton likes everyone to change out of your scrubs and into formal attire
for this so make sure you do so (particularly the presentor). It's low key, and
Dr. dayton doesn't ask very difficult questions. It is nice to let the residents
know about the topic you are presenting because he pimps them as well and some of
them take time to read a little as well. format of the presentation doesn't have
to be long. present the CC, HPI, PMH, PSH, Meds/Allergies, FH/SH, he then likes
to ask the audience for the DD, he likes images, so go down to radiology on the
2nd floor to get the CD for the patient you are presenting. if you want you can
put down the hospital course and any procedural/complications of the procedure
but the latter is not so emphasized. Don't be nervous, these aren't too bad -
just don't be late and dress up.

-everyday sign up for gen surg cases first. if the day is slow and all the gen
surg cases are covered, feel free to go in an ENT or Ortho case if you want, but
cover the gen surg cases first. The attendings grade you ultimately, but the
chief residents have a say and so do the intern/residents if something is
particularly good/bad. most of the time it's pretty chill and laid back. take
time to read a little about the case if you have the time, if not, don't sweat
it. a lot of them don't even ask you questions anyways, but it's good for
learning purposes.

-dr. hassett operates every once in a blue moon, dr. dayton usually operates on
fridays (i was just in on a 13 hour case w/ him yesterday) - ALWAYS have one med
student cover dayton's cases. that's one of those rules you don't know until the
residents get yelled at and then they get pissed at us. so make sure someone
cover his cases when he operates on fridays.

-if you are on call thurs or friday and post call friday and sat, you do not have
to come in on the weekend. so thurs on callers get a 2.5day weekend and friday
on callers get sat post call and sunday off. decide amongst yourselves which
cases you want to cover and how you wanna work out the call schedule, but call
starts on the first day (monday for the new peeps going in this week). if it's
like it's supposed to be and q4 the way it is, everyone should have a golden
weekend; and likewise, everyone will do a saturday call, too.

-in the OR it's nice to help out the scrub techs and anesthesiologists/nurses w/
transport and moving the patients from bed to bed. you don't have to, but it
looks bad to just stand there while others are working.

-you can leave for the day when you are done with your last case and check to see
if your residents need help w/ anything else. checking lab values for them is
always helpful and shows you care (but normally we are in the OR and they already
checked it by the time we are out), but if you have the free time, it's nice to
do something that needs to be done. (the chief usually have a list of to do's
for the residents at morning rounds, so listen up and see if you can help when
you aren't in the OR)

-the earliest i left was around 3:30pm, that was only a one day thing - most of
the time i left around 5-6pm. so 6-6 isn't bad at all.

-just show up in scrubs - the only people who cares is dr. hassett and dr. dayton
and they are never there as early as you guys are and the residents don't care at
all. scrubs is fine. just make sure you always dress up for Dayton rounds and
M&M's, Grand rounds. M&M's at BGH is on Wed mornings from 7-8am. Grand rounds
at the south campus from 6:45-8 on Thursdays.

i think that's it - if you have specific questions, feel free to ask me. have a
good time guys. i definitely think i picked the right site. you guys will have
a great 4 weeks. i have no doubt. PS - i asked the residents to be nice to yall.
hopefully they will take that into consideration =)

1- Look through websites of places you would like to rotate and what they want you to do.Call their medical education people to clarify. Each place has a different protocol. Some places will charge you an application fee up front while other only when you show up. Some places have a formal application process while others its just a phone call.
2- Look through the book at the OME to see if they already have a contract with UB. Most large places will. If they dont and you still want to go there, you can jump through some hoops and make it happen. If it a good program/hospital Dr. Nielsen will help you out. You need this contract because it UB pays for your liability insurance while you are away.
3- Apply for the away programs as soon as you can and wait till you are accepted.
4- For registration, register at UB for regular classes until your away elective is confirmed.
5- When you are accepted, many away schools will require you to get a doctors clearance with your immunizations on it. They request titers of the MMR or that you were given the MMR. ( I had a problem with this b/c my titers were slightly low and had to get another MMR vaccine. My advice is to get the vaccine from the get go b/c its a lot cheaper and neither are covered by the school insurance. Titer -$190 whole vaccine is around $30)
6- To register you need to get the away elective form ( I forgot the official name) from the OME website and give it to the department head of the elective you will be doing. They will sign it and fax it to the OME.
7- Each department has a course listed as " course at other university" thats what you want to register for.

Again, only register for away elective once its confirmed and register for UB classes otherwise. You will be doing a lot of drop add/forms after registration is closed but at least that way you are taking something you like at Buffalo instead of having to find an elective last minute.

As far as scheduling, some places will be flexible and will just give you the dates you want. Ask about it, I had one place where the website seemed really strict about not changing dates but when I asked the specific department they were fine with it.

If they away school is not flexible than UB will be. The only two classes that I took on schedule my fourth year were Neuro and Advanced Med. Basically, once you have the dates for your away rotations start contacting individual department or attendings that you will be working with if you know and see if they are OK with your change of dates or splitting up a module.

Most departments have something called Preceptorship Course. Basically, you find an attending at UB you want to work with and just work with them for a month. These people will usually be very flexible b/c it doesnt really make a difference to them which four weeks you show up for. ( For example, I did 3 weeks with a Ambulatory Primary Care MD - he went on vacation for a week and I made up a week at another dept and then when he returned I finished my last week.) Another flexible option is research.

The main thing to remember is that many departments will be surprisingly accommodating if you give them enough warning and have a legitimate reason ( like the away school wont let you chance the date). But do not expect to show up at the last minute and for them to change your schedule around. Like I said, lots of drop/ add forms.

Also, you can plan your vacation month before or after an away elective. That way your vacation is split up.

I know this seems overwhelming but its really not that bad especially if you want to live somewhere else. I only have about 4 months in buffalo during my fourth year and subleased my apartment the rest of the time.

Good luck and 4th year is going to be great =)

If you can spare 10 minutes to type up a quick blurb about what life has been like for you…being a medical student and being married/raising kids it would be a great thing for others (who are considering starting families) to read. Is it difficult or better to have a spouse/family — less or more stressful? More motivating or more frustrating? Does it put life into better perspective?

2.) 2nd year class meeting with Dr. Nielsen - you'll receive a thick survey packet that collates all the student responses of the preceding class regarding Boards studying experience (eg. did you use a prep course? did you feel the student panel was helpful? did you study in a group or alone? did you move the date of your exam? etc) Most students found this survey extremely helpful.

3.) Evening reviews for 2nd years - runs 2 hours once a month to hit on organ systems as a big crash-review throughout second year. Nonmandatory and helpful to remind you that the liver, heart, collagen exists even if you may not remember it…

4.) End of year USMLE prep course - 2 weeks long but may change this year. Basically for 2 weeks straight profs come and lecture on a different subject each day…kind of a quick overall review of basic Step 1 topics. UB's still working on this as this course is nonmandatory and has low attendance. It perhaps needs more student input…(how about gleaning high yield material from First Aid?)

5.) UB Board Patrol - email hotline. (That would be us). email moc.liamg|lortaPdraoBBU#moc.liamg|lortaPdraoBBU and the five of us who run the hotline (students will rotate each year) will try to get back to you within a week with a collection of our perspectives. We'll also post the class-relevant answers on this forum.

i know a bunch of you have inquired about surfboards, ironing boards,
and cutting boards too, so i decided to send u all a mass email with my
awesome language skillz. if you've read this far, then (a) good job, and
(b) keep reading (it gets betteRrr). below is my "ThREe step guide to
Step ONe" i Hope this knowledge of the future will give the edge you
need to succeed in today's rapidly advancing society.

AjaY

_____________

step 1 4 step 1: "OMG he already started studying.. wat am i doing?!"

first of all, donT WoRRY about the boards until MARCH ['07], at the
EARLIEST (reallY). you can think about it, and talk to pple about it,
you can pray about it, you can polish your littlee good luck toothpick,
but don't freak out and don't start "studying," …and MoSt oF ALL don't
think that yo'ure already behind, regardless of what anyone says.. here
are some resaons:

reason #1: pple are crazy (and you might be one of them.. skitterz
;) jk) but really, don't think about what other pple are doing, and
don't compare what you're doing with what they're doing.. as illustrated
in the following example: after looking at intercalated disks in histo
lab with Dr. "C" you and some fellow classmates decide to LEAVE SCHOOL
and enjoy the weatheR. on your way out, you overhear soemone in room 343
discussing "STEP onE" and lo and behold, it's none other than, well,
we'll give him the generic name "Ajay Patel" the token indian guy (and
by token i mean one of twenty) in the class, who is discussing how he
wants to finish reading FIRST AID by JANUARY, so he can go over
everything an additional two times before he takes his exam on the LAST
DAY POSSIBLE, so he can have an additional 40 days to learn the stuff he
"missed" on his first four passes through everything.. what should you
do in this scenario?? LEAVEEE the dude is CrazY. do you really want to
do derm and look at skin all day? not me. not to detract from skin. it
is a great barrier to infection.

reason #2: ok, got a little off track there.. but reason #2 why you
shoudl not stress out about boards is that.. from seeing how everyone in
my class studied.. you will BURN OUT anywhere within 6-8 weeks of
intense studying (plesae see description of "intense studying" in
appendix A, section II). and if you start studying now, or in january,
or in march, you WILL forget 84% of what you learn. and the other 16%
you already knew before you started. even if you don't burn out.. you'll
just be so sick of studying and looking at the same things over and
over.. that you'll be wishing you took the exam a week earlier and just
took an extra wek of "summer" and as a "corollarY" 6-8 weeks is PLENTY
of time.. as long as you know what to do (and that's why talking to lots
of pple to see what they did is a good idea). i spent about 7 or 8 weeks
studying, but i'll talk more about that a little later. now's a good
time to take a break and get a cup of coffee.. cuz u might be here a while.

reason #3: paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria? rapidly progressive
glomerulonephritis? myelophthisis? exactly.

if you answered 'huh?' to any of the above.. welcome to the club..
thast' exactly wehre i stood when i started studying for boards.. but
don't worry, somehow it magically ALL COMES TOGETHER. and this happens
for 2 "subreasons" (a) you still hve a whole year's worth of learning..
and it happens to be the most important stuff.. until you finish
endocrine/repro (ie finish second year), things will always be choppy
and fragmented, and only once u've seen EVERYTHING, can you start
putting things together.. like, like.. hypotonic isovolemic
hyponatremia!?!? yeah you learned it in renal, but only once u do cardio
and endocrine will it all really make sense (maybe it does make sense,
in which case.. you're in great shape, but i nkwo for me i "learned it
well" in renal, but i never really understoood it, in terms of the
"bigger picture" until the end of second year) and so once u finish all
your other courses you can eventually put things together.

i coudl have summed up all of that by simply saying, everything is
easier when you see it the second time around. i guess i should keep
that in mind th e next time i write one of these novels. subreason (b)
is that while the organ system learning is great, it does unfortunately
leave out some things.. and certain things get overlooked.. so until you
sit down and start studying for teh boards, you won't make certain
connections that you should (and eventually will) make. you will just
see things differently when you're studying for boards.. b/c while there
is quite a bit of detail.. the emphasis is on the big picture, and
you'll learn things that way.. it's hard to explain.. so u'll have to
cut me some slack if that does'nt make sense.

and rememeber.. let pple do whatever they want.. don't let them get to
you. throughout the year you'll get constant reminders that you "should
have started studying already" which conveniently turns out to be true..
but if you're studying for baords, you're studying for the WRoNG thing.
study for yoru CLASSES.. and study that stuff WELL, b/c it will show up
again. and if you don't study it well the first time.. that's time
wasted during your 4-8 weeks of REAL board studying that you could be
using on seomthing else. a lot of pple (aka half the class) stopped
showing up during our endo/repro module, so they could study for boards,
but then a lot of them got burned b/c they never learned the stuff
well.. and before i forget.. during that 4-8 weeks it becoems ESPECIALLY
importnta not to be concerned with what other pple are doing.. stick to
your own schedule, your own pace, your own studying styles.. it's what
works for YOU, not them. pple freak out.. and try to freak yOU out. dont
do drugs. dont let it happen.

the way i see/saw/see-saw-ed it, you're really only competing with
yoruself. nobody else. there's no curve, there's no favorites, they are
no exam CHALLENGEs.. it's just you.. and the only thing that is holding
you back from that competitive residency is how well YOU do, and not how
well that other person did that took your residency spot. just my 2 cents.

speaking of $$ bling $$ i hope u got your checkbook out next to your
16oz juan valdez 100% columbian coffee. if u've read up to this point,
you can stop now and send me a check for $3. haha, im just kidding. keep
reading, and then send me the full payment of $4.50 when u finsih
reading the rest

okk so moving on! now that you hopefully realize that all the hype about
step 1 is just like all the hype behind the olson (spelliNG?) twins
turning 18.. you need not WORRy right now.. remember.. talk to pple, get
ideas, visit websites for medical students (student-doctor.net,
prep4usmle, etc.. do a google search u'll find a ton), read fee-based
review articles in online journals similar to this one. just THINK about
what POSSIBLE plans you might be considering as an approach to tackling
step 1. chances are.. once u start studying for a week you'll realize
that your plan isn't goign to wrok and it may need a little tweaking,
and that's OK.. you have the time. just do'nt wait until 4 weeks in, and
then realize you're doing things wrong. and again, that's why talking to
pple and hearing what did and didn't work for them is a good idea. but
remember.. everyone's differnet and you ahve to come up wit something
that wroks for you. but if you're worried just think.. you've been
studying like this for the last 10+ years.. you're an experT! or you've
just learned how to really beat the system.. either way.. GoOD jOB!

_____________

step 2 4 step 1: "dang.. how do i know waht to use!? hwo am i goign to
schedule my time?! what about TLC's what not to wear on friday night.. i
can't miss that!"

high yield basket-weaving? or BRS: welding? which one do you use??
chances are if you missed the last Future Farmer's of American
Milk-Defect Tasting competition, u may need to buy the Kaplan
Cow-Tipping Lecture series with 3 onion patch visits. it's kind of scary
how much stuff is out there.. but again, don't drop that valium on
yourself just yet.. talk to pple! find out what they used, and what they
did and didn't like about it.. most importantly here.. don't buy ONE of
the eVERYTHING. don't even buy TWO books for the same topic. ideally,
one would like to learn a subject, say anatomY! (my favorite! actually,
it is my favorite!) by learning it using one book, and then having time
to read over another book to "solidify" or even just to cross reference
the material. but.. this is where pple feel they dont have enough time..
there isn't enough time to do that. and if you do leave that much time,
you're probably learning way to much for the amt on the exam. (the exam
itself is 350 questions ONLY, divided up in 7 one-hour blocks of 50
questions, with break time) in other words.. that's less than ONe
question per page of First Aid (see below).. ie.. it's NOT muCH (for the
amt you have to learn)

basically, what you want to do, is figure out what the "classics" are..
for example, everyone seems to liek BRS Pathology, or Clinical Micro
Made Ridiculously Simple.. and you'll probably want to use those too.
then, you want to find out what books fit your style. the common ones
are BRS series, High Yield series, etc.. you can check them out at the
bookstore. but.. before you buy a complete set.. see if you can borrwo
them frm an upperclassman, or buy a few used when pple send out "books
for sale, furniture for sale, tattered clothes for sale" emails..
chances are you'll find a particular series that you like, and u will
probably like other subjects in the series as well. i'm from the east
side (of amherst) and i liked BRS for anatomy an d embryo, while a lot
of others (apparently from other sides of the compass) seemed to liek
the high yield series (but don't worry.. i schooled 'em HAHAH
JK!!!!!!!!) but see what you like.

bottom line tho: don't buy too m any books.. b/c you won't use them
all.. and will haev to sell them for $5 via lowly emails to the
listserv.. (ps look for a lowly email from me with a few books in the
near future!) save your money.. and go out for mexican (invite me!)
heHEhe.. i think im losing it.. you'll have to excuse me. i know this is
getting long.. it's too bad i was never this good at writing english
papers :-
ill talk about what i used and what i thought worked well.. but read on!

_____________

step 3 4 step 1: "phew last 'step'"

this one is easy. step 3 entails reading on about the following 4 steps
that will ensure you roster spot on the USMLE DREaM TEAM. haha jk (about
the 4 steps, not teh dream team) basically, im just goign to tell you
about what i did, and how it worked/didn't wokr for me.

it all began on a cold, lonely, rainy, ominous, lazy, mONdAy. which
monday it was, i do'nt rmemeber.. it was day 1 of 30 wihch i spent
thinking about what books i wanted to use, what schedule would work, how
much time i shoudl give myself, how well i wanted to do, what was for
dinner, what subjects i need to study, what to study first, what to
study last, what i wanted to drink with dinner, how could i relearn
everything from teh last 2 years in a month, what ill do with my
extended summer vacation.. all the important issues. so it was probably
march. every day that passed was just another where i said, "wooPs, i
was spposed to start studying for baords. i should at least review
something" ooH those long tortuous nights (on 10 hrs sleep) and long
grueling days (oh that bitter FOUR hours of lecture, taking up the
WHOLEE daY) hehe. ok. im done. basically i probaly went through the same
thing most of you are going through. even after reading all this, it's
inevitable not to think about the boards, or want to at lesat do some
studying to feel a little bit better, and that's NORMAL. it happens. so
no sweat! unless u don't have A/C. i don't know how many times i would
sit wiht my pile of books (i got a bunch from my sister who had already
finished step 1 etc) just thinking about what else i would need for a
particular subject.. which books might be useful, what other pple were
using. all the good stuff. i probaly used liek 10 lavender OMC computer
lab cover sheets with 'panchal2' written all over trying to figure out a
schedule. how many days for pathology? how many for physiologY? what
about embryO? HSITOLOGY!?!? i would use calendars to figure it out, to
"make the precise schedule" that i could stick to with a little
determination. advice!! it's not goign to happeN! at least not while
u're still in classes (unless you're really dedicated, in which case
you'll do great, but it does'nt mean the rest of you are behind).

so in essence, the skeleton of my studies was this:

1. i decided to study everything by subject (pathology, physio, cell
bio) etc, as an alternative to doing it organ-based as we learned in the
first two years of medical school. why? well i mentioned how certain
things would get left out doing it organ-based (the whole bit above..) i
felt that in learning it by subject, i wouldn't leave anything out, and
likewise i would fill in some holes. i just felt that for me it was the
best way to be comprehensive in my studying. nothing against organ-based
studying, b/c i know pple that did that and everything went well for
them - remember.. it's what YOU'Re most comfortable with

2. i used FIRST AID as THE MAN, i mean, the BOOK. basically everything i
did revolved around first aid. if u don't already know (and trust me, i
didnt!) first aid is a comprehensive review book that basically has ALL
the answers for step 1. the PROBLEM tho.. it's just INFORMATION, and the
book itself doesn't teach you anything. the easy way to think about it,
is taht in order to get the MOST out of first aid (and consequently get
teh answers right on the exam), you have to ALREADY KNOW stuff before
looking at first aid. ie.. you hve to study the material using other
sources that you can actaully learn better from, before looking through
first aid. ie. read BRS pathology and THEN look at the pathology is
first aid..

what's time consuming, but what i felt really worked, was to study from
other books/videos/bike rides through the mountains of Tibet and then
annotate/take notes (same thinG?) and write everything IN first aid, so
that if i ever needed to go back to something, it was there, in first
aid, and i didn't need anything else. some things required more note
taking than others, and often when i studied something and THEN looked
into first aid, i already knew what was there, and i was able to make
TEN TIMES the connections to things when i actually used first aid (as
opposed to just trying to study right out of first aid) so that's my
advice on first aid.

BUY IT. it's the best book out there, it has everything you need to
know, but extracting that knowledge from teh book requires a little
work. but if you can do it, you're all set.

3. so then it just came down to figuring out what to use to learn and
fill in wahtever i needed to in first aid (im running out of steam!).
basically if you're doing it by subject, this is what to consideR:

microbio/immunology
anatomy/embryology/histology
biochem/genetics/molecular and cell bio
biostats/behavioral science
physiology
pathology
pharmacology

am i leaving anything ouT? i think that's most of it. so i figured out
what takes the most tiem (physio, pathologY) and i tried to set up my
tiem accordingly, as best i could (although i always kept needing more
time.. go figure =P) but, knowing the subejcts, i had to find out what
to use for each. i bought a couple books here and there, but i also had
some kaplan books which i got from my sister (im not goign to say a ton
about books.. but ask around, pple will share a loT). i made the mistake
tho of getting a few too many books than i needed, and a bunch of them
just ended up sitting there.. wooPs! so eventually i figured out what to
do (see below) and i filled in first aid. it took a while, but it was
worthwhile (in my opinion).

4. ok, so what about practice questions!? you pretty much want to get
kaplan Q bank, and you don't need much else. you can get it early
(probably even like now), but dont dooo it.. they'll offer you like a 5
month subscription at a discount (like $399 or smething), but you do'nt
need it. just wait, and buy it right before you start studying ($279 for
like 3 months) it's more than enough timee. in terms of qbank itself..
there's liek 2100 questions, which iss quite a LOT.. so about q bank

a. it takes a long time to do questions, and then look at answers..
so make sure u leave enough time. the answers in particular take a long
time to read through.. and you want to read them all (see item 'c'
below). planning out to do 50 or 100 questions a day is doable, but it
will take a good 2-3 hours to do it thoroughly so just keep that in
mind.. and if you miss a day… you can fall behind easily. (just as
advice). but don't worry, it's not a lost cause.. and while some pple
get through all of q bank, some pple only do 50-70% (which is still a
ton of questions, and they do well on the exam too). personally i
recommend doing it all (again see 'c' below)

b. wooT.

c. ok. so q bank is pretty cool, b/c you can create your own tests,
which can be broken up almost any way possible (except you can't make a
test with only 1 question.. what's that about.) but you can divide it up
by subject, by organ system, you can mix'n'match it however you like,
and you can set it up to be as long as you like. so that's nice. pple
often just take "random" tests using any of the 2179 questions, and test
themselves as they go along. generally pple's scores tend to improve as
they study more, and while they might have started off getting only
30-40% right, they're up to 60 or 70% by the end. which brings up a
point (which perhaps could have been written under 'b' above.. and that
is.. a score of 50-60% on qbank is GOOOD.. and if yo'ure consistenly
above 60% you are doing GREAT..not what you're used to.. and we weren't
used to it eitheR). it makes sense if you think about it.. b/c on the
actual exam, a score of 60-70% will be on the higher end of the spectrum
(not bad, huh!)

ok but back to qbank itself. personally.. i dont think you learn as much
by always taking random tests. some pple disagree with me (and again,
did well using their own method) but just regarding my own thoughts
about qbank.. i feel that while it can be useful as an assessment tool,
given the questions they ask and the answers provided, it's much better
as a LEARNING tool. so what does that mean? well, to me it meant that i
never used my scores to gauge my studying, and more importantly, i only
did qbank questions that were relevant to waht i was studying at the
particular time.. so if i was studying physiology, i would concentrate
all my qbank stuff on the physiology questions. i would study physio,
and then once finished studying, i would do all the relevant qbank
questions. that way, i was still able to assess myself.. but assess
myself in light of what i just studied. did i learn what i was suppsoed
to learn? did i rmemeber what i just learned? do i need to look at
anything else? in other words, it reinforced my studying. at the same
time, no doubt there was stuff in q bank that i didnt cover, and so i
could use the questions and answers as a SoURCE of information to learn
new things. and i think that's what becomes most difficult with taking
random tests with qbank.. you are always jumping all over the place..
and it's often difficult to figure out what you need to take away from
it. again.. that's just my two cents. i didn't really set aside a
certain # of questions i would do a day, but any time i finished a
subject i would do all the related quesitons before moving on.. and
eventually i was able to get through all of it. all 2000 =
d. random points about q bank. you're definitely not goign to have
time to go back through q bank (and if you do, you likely won't get much
out of it the 2nd time).. the point being.. (and u'll find this with a
lot of your studying).. if you're used to "leaving things" that you want
to "come bacK to" at the end of yur studying.. chances are yo'ull run
out of time and won't come back to a lot of them.. so instead of putting
things off.. do your best to try and learn whatever it is yo'ure trying
to learn .. and do it at that particular moment.. it's not life or death
here… but you dont want to cram stuff in at the end.. so if there are
some qbank questions you want to 'mark' (which you can dO!) it's not a
problem.. just dont leave yourself with a lot that you ahve to come back to

remember what i said before? well.. yeah i said a lot (my bad) but don't
compare your qbank scores with others!1 everyone does qbank
differnetly.. and so while your score might appear way lower (or way
higher.. yess!) it can be deceiving.. so just go by how you think you're
doing - and remember.. if you're consistently scoring 70% you should
stop stuyding, taek the day off, and go eat MEXICAN fooD

_____________

*OKK.. break timE phew! almost done (i hopE) the other thing to
REMEMMBER… this is a LOT OF STUFF TO DIGEST.. do'nt try and remember
it all.. .im just writing out EVERYTHING i can think of from my
experience… and trying to share it all.. so just keep this email and
you can refer back to it whenver.. or you can request an additional copy
for $7.40 + S&H (no CODs). im just trying to give it all to you know so
maybe you can calm your nerves a little if yo'ure worried or you can
just procrastinate instead of learning your interstitial lung diseases.*

_____________

5. ok.. so i do'nt know where i pulled #5 out.. but it works.. what
about SCHEDULE!?? and TIME?! very important! as i mentioned.. i spent a
total of about 8 weeks studying. once endo/repro ends.. you have the
"review" course for 2 1/2 weeks.. they'll say it's important (and it is)
but i think that is FINALLY the time when you should crack down adn
start studying for reallz, yO. it's nice, b/c it gives you a two week
period where you can actaully see how your schedule/plan/NO plan is
going to work. you may find that you can stick to it without a problem
and get through what you need to in teh following weeks, or.. you may
have to make soem adjustments (like mE). after the review course..
there's a period of about 7 weeks before third year starts.. so that
time is split between summER and BOARDS studying (whY?? whY!!) so most
pple use about 5-6 of it for studying, and 1-2 for vacation.. you decide
what works for u.. for some pple.. they are most than happy with
studying for 4 weeks, taking the exam.. passing it, and moving on to
more important things.. to most of us.. it IS like liFe or deatH and
some additional time is well worth it (in the end).

so for me.. i decided to just pick a subject and finish it in that 2 1/2
week review course. what did i pick? well i decided to go wtih something
that i didn't have a very firm grasp on given the way our courses were
split it in yeras 1 and 2.. so i wanted to learn all the microbio and
immunology in that time. i did it.. b/c (a) i knew the review course
included a bunch of micro/immuno and so it would be useful in that
regard, but more importantly, (b) it was one of the weaker subjects for
me (and a lot of pple !) and so i wanted to learn it really well, so
that once i started my 5-6 weeks of studying other stuff, i wouldnt have
to wrory about learning it all. i did manage to get trhough it (but in
the end found out that afer 6 weeks of studying you forget the stuff you
started out with =P), and so then it was out of the way, and i had more
time to concentrate of other things.

i didn't mention taht over spring break.. i had planned to study a LOT.
and you know waht that usually amounts too. sPLaT. i did manage to read
a short 100 pg review of neuroanatomy (made ridiculously simple). it was
good.. b/c we had just finished the neuro module, it was smething i
actually enjoyed at the time, and since it was relataively fresh, it was
a quick read, and consequently i also had to spend less tiem on neuro
later on.. it was good b/c i felt like i had done seomthing (which i
had).. and it took a litle stress off of studying..

speaking of which.. i think it is wayyyy important to include DOWN TIME
in your schedule to destress.. everyone will say it "find time to
exercise and eat right blah blah" but honestly.. it's TRUE.. do
soemthing.. go for a walk, ride a bike.. play nintendo. SLEEP! drink
orange mocha frapuccinos, clip your toenails.. do wahtever.. to just
relax.. you may freak out adn think in retrospect you should have been
using that time to study.. but whatever little info you could have
crammed into your head was probably better spent otherwise.. i pretty
much ended up taking one day out of the week to just relax and get some
exercise in. initially i thought i could exercise and waste half the
day, and study the other half.. but that invariably turned into doing
absoluetly nothing the WHOLE day. oh well! but you need that. you may
have to take an extra week to study to make up for that lost time.. and
it will cut your break before a third yera a little shorter.. but you
wont NEED as much of a break b/c you in my opinion, it was like taking
breaks all throughout your studying! wahoo!

and on a similar note (b flat).. make a daily schedule that you LIKE. i
like sleeping in. so i sLEpt IN. i dont think my day ever started until
10. appalling i know! but i could FunCtIOn and i studied better.. i
would be up late… but i culd sleep in!!!!! you never have to go
anywhere which is niCE.. so you can do waht you want.. don't get carried
away tho.. i can't say i always kept pace… and i would be up TOO late
some nights when i slacked off, and that's not so good either.. but the
point is.. dont be afraid to sometiems adapt a 'screw it" attitude for a
few hours or even a whole day.. as long as you get back on track when
you start studying again. and when y'ure taking a break.. DONT be
THInkING about STUDYiNG.. cuz then waht's the point?

so finally.. (that's like the 10th 'finally') in terms of my weekly
schedule.. once i finished micro/immuno.. i then started on
biochem/moleculr bio/genetics.. b/c those were (and still ARe!) pretty
weak for me.. so i wanted to learn those well, and i wanted to get them
out of the way so i wouldnt have to think about having to still study
them.. i probably spent 5-6 days on that stuff (which is more than i
wanted to and probaly more than i could have afforded at the time) but i
wanted to do it ThoRouGhLY so that i woudlnt have t ocome back to it
..im repeating myself (again what i mentioned before about not learning
things with the attitude that you'll come back to it lateR). so i
studied the stuff.. and i did qbank.. and then i moved on. all the time
tho.. i kept an eye on when my exam was.. and how much time i would be
leaving for other stuff… (Important! do that!)

so i kept studying like taht.. studying, doing questions, taking a day
off, falling behind (hehE) but slowly i got through the
biostats/behvaioral science, followed by physiology and pathology (those
2 took the longest, but were the most "high yield" b/c they show up a
lOT) and eventually my time slipped away. i still had pharmacology to
do, but at that point i would say a good 5 weeks had elapsed, i had 4-5
days before my exam.. and i COULD have finished, but i felt taht i
needed more time b/c i didnt want to cram in the pharmacology and finish
reviewing things.. so i MOVEd my exam back! GASP! they say that you
should never postpone your exam and that you should take it when you
scheduled it (which is good advice).. but i had been keepign an eye on
my timeline and i knew that this would probaly happen.. so i planned for
it. fortuantely i found an exam at a later date (you can switch w/o a
fee as long as it's early enough and **granted there's a spot open =
almost my undoing! ps they'll TELL YOU all this stuff so d'nt try and
memorize it.. it's not like chemotherapy agents). but basically i pushed
my exam back, so that i could finish pharmacology, and then have time to
READ THROUGH FIRST AID cover to cover one last timE. YIkES, but nOT
yikES! b/c i had been annotating it all along, everything i had studied
and "knew" was in first aid, so it wa sjust a matter of going through
all of it again.. it was painful let me tell u! but in the end.. i had
like 4-5 days to read through it all again before my exam.. and it was
all IN first aid now.. and i understood how to LOOK at it (which is
keY!). so in total i spent a good 6-7 weeks studying.. but it wasn't too
stressful.. since i took a lot of breaks and a few days off in between..
taht was my schedule tho! i woudl give you a copy.. but i guess it
wasn't really a schedule seeing how it changed every other day.

_____________

wahoo! that's it. so to tie it all together..

1. remember… this is just a bunch of BS (board studyingN) advice..
that i wanted to share with you all before you all board the ship.. im
sure this email probably sTREsseD you ouT mORE than it did to calm you
down (WOOPS) but just relax.. and save it.. so you have soemthing to
refer to when you start thinking about boards stuff (not 'til february
tho.. remembeR?!?!)

2. THEY WILL TELL YOU ALL THIS AGAIN. dont worry about remembering all
of this.. and if you have questions.. it will likely be ANSWERED at some
point.. you will be well informed in due time.. so have a popsicle and
enjoy the ridE

3. im sure there's a bunch of stuff i left out.. not to mention other
advice or comments that may contradict with what i said. but that's
cool.. feel free to email me if you have any other quesitons or if i
didn't mention something.. i'd be more than happy to help (i have a lot
of tim eon my hands right now as you can probably tell)

4. don't forget to send me your check now that you're almost done
reading.. if youre still awake and/or haven't deleted this email yet

5. you guys are at the top of the class.. so unless you go to the
caribbean 2 weeks before your exam.. yo'ure going to do well.. and
rmemeber.. this test isn't eVeryTHING.. even tho it does and will feel
like it is.. but dont worry.. we all go through it =P

6. ill stop rambling.. also feel free to send this to anyone else that
would like.. i'd send it to the listserv but i think i might get hate
mail from pple that do'nt know mE. ajay patel wouldn't like taht.

7. also.. remember.. you'Re not me (pheW! haahh JK).. so like all things
you will hear about boards.. take it with the grain of salt.. i just
wanted to give u a brief (yet terribly long) heads up so that it may
help you out when your time comes mwhhwhaahah! i did my best, but of
course i have my biases.. so keep that in mind with whatever you hear..
from me, from classmates, from professors, from librarians, from
busdrivers, or the guy in the barrel at teh falls.

oK.. for now, good luck with pulmonary guys. don't worry about boards..
you'll all do well.. it's too bad i can't use this as m y thesis.

-third year AjAY

_____________

Appendix A
Section II

"intense studying" defined as the smashing together of one, intense
and one study, to yield a higher power

in·tense Audio pronunciation of "intense" ( P ) Pronunciation Key
(n-tns)
adj. in·tens·er, in·tens·est

1. Possessing or displaying a distinctive feature to an extreme
degree: the intense sun of the tropics.
2. Extreme in degree, strength, or size: intense heat.
3. Involving or showing strain or extreme effort: intense concentration.
4.
1. Deeply felt; profound: intense emotion.
2. Tending to feel deeply: an intense writer.

stud·y Audio pronunciation of "study" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (std)
n. pl. stud·ies

v. stud·ied, stud·y·ing, stud·ies
v. tr.

1. To apply one's mind purposefully to the acquisition of knowledge
or understanding of (a subject).
2. To read carefully.
3. To memorize.
4. To take (a course) at a school.
5. To inquire into; investigate.
6. To examine closely; scrutinize.
7. To give careful thought to; contemplate: study the next move.
"intense studying" defined as the smashing together of one, intense
and one study, to yield a higher power

In this clinic you can tell right away that the med staff enjoy working with each other. On my first day I was so confused because all the nurses would use nicknames for each other instead of what their name tags would say. There's "Cookie" and "Speedy" to name a few. This clinic is all female power and consequently is pretty well organized and relatively efficient. The attendings are Dr. Kaufman, Dr. Perez-Senn, and Dr. Link. Each of them enjoy precepting students and residents alike and you'll soon discover that pediatricians can be very different from each other but still do enormously well with their patients. Kaufman is the one you'd go to for solid, honest criticism when you need it. She is also the most senior of the attendings and has the most experience. She's not afraid to do procedures herself if the clinic is short on staff (blood draws, gyn exams, etc) which is impressive. Perez-Senn is the story-teller and enjoys sharing experiences about life and medicine. Link is the hyperactively enthusiastic attending who practically bounces in and out of patient rooms with energy that will leave you amazed. If you can take away some of each of these attendings you'll have a pretty wide approach to pediatrics. And because this clinic is on the West side, if you know Spanish and are willing to practice it here you will be an extreme help to the attendings because pretty much 75% of the parents who bring in their newborns will only be able to speak Spanish. There are translator phones but being able to speak the Spanish yourself will definitely make the interview go more smoothly and comfortably. Plus, 4-year-olds love it when they can speak better than you can….

I know the time is quickly approaching and the school puts a lot of
pressure on you guys which turns into hysteria amongst the secondsh year
class. So hopefully this will help settle your nerves and come up with a
good plan.

First off if you are a textbook reader/studier this is not for you. The
only text I read during 1st and 2nd year with any consistency was Lilly
during cardiology. I like and look for lists, outlines and pictures.

So my approach was I bought First Aid and during the spring semester read
about 10-15 pages per week. That will take you maybe 45 minutes - at most!
The only reason I did this was for word recognition (oh the kidney I
remember what that is!) and to settle my nerves and feel like I was doing
something. I did not memorize anything and I did not write anything down at
that time. By doing this it also tells you what is in first aid. When you
begin reading it you will quickly realize that there is not a lot in first
aid - it's bare bones. So that is all I did during the year. Study for your
courses it will help you with the boards.

Once school ended I decided that for 6 weeks I would put life on hold and
studying for the boards. I'm generally a busy person so I had to limit
myself to one non-studying activity per day. To give you an idea of how
strict I was with my self Wegmans, getting gas or the gym all counted as an
activity. So if I did any one of those things I did nothing else that day
besides study. However, I planned one day off per week (Sunday for me) and
every weds night off (to go to LH) so I had breaks (or time to catch up). I
also put 2 flex days in my study plan. Flex days are work days with no
assigned reading so that if I'm behind I can catch up. I did 1 day at the
end of 2 and 4 weeks. This helped me catch up without freaking out because
I did end up getting about 1 day behind at the end of 2 and 4 weeks. So
like in medicine those are your lifestyle modifications for board study.

As for what and how long to study daily this is what I did:

I picked one book for every subject - that is all you will have time for.
Don't think that you will read one book and then maybe use another for
referencing things you don't understand - YOU DON"T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!
This is how people in my class got into trouble. The list of books I used
for each subject and comments on them are listed below at the end of this
email.

Once I had gathered all my books. I took out a calender and I took each
book, looked at it and made a decision on how much I could REASONABLY read
in one day plus do UCV's and QBank questions and wrote it on the calender.
The UCV's (underground clinical vignettes) are very short and easy - a good
evening activity. So I would pair them with the book of that subject and
assign a certain number to be completed per day. Examble of schedule is at
the end of this paragraph. The other task everyday is to do Q Bank. Q bank
is key to your success. You should always, always, always do them mixed up.
It just makes sense. The real test is mixed and if you are reading
pathology that day of course you are going to get more questions right if
you do just pathology questions in Q bank because its fresh in your head.
Now this means that in the beginning of your studying you will be doing
VERY poorly on Q Bank. Don't be surprised if you get a 35%! You haven't
studied most of the material yet it's OK! So you need to do at least one
section (50 ?'s) everyday (because that's the format of the real test). I
tried to alternate on weekdays and do 2 sections every other day. On
Saturdays I would schedule in the whole morning (4 sections) to help build
up test stamina. Its a long test! But your study schedule will help you
prepare also.

So this what I would write on my calender:
Day 1 BRS Path pgs 1-88, Pathophysiology UCV book 1 #1-45, 50 Q bank
Questions.
Day 2 BRS Path pgs 89-160, UCV book 1 #46-90, 100 Q bank questions
Day 3 BRS Path pgs 161-240, Pathophysiology UCV book 2 #1-30, 50 Q bank
questions

And on an on…. for each book until you get to the week before the exam.
Plan out everyday this carefully and you will not get behind.

It is an 8am starting exam so that is when I started my day. I was in my
study spot seated and ready to read at 8am on the dot. Not leaving the
house, not parking the car etc. I would read and take notes (see next
paragraph on how to take notes) until noon with a 10 minute bathroom/snack
break. Then I would eat lunch for 1/2-1 hour. Then read again from 1pm to
3:30. I found that was sufficient to accomplish my assigned reading daily.
I would then do 1 or 2 (depending on the day) 1 hour 50 question q bank
blocks. Then I would check them. After that I went home ate dinner and did
my one activity for the day. After dinner I would do only light studying
the UCV's or Flashcards (see next paragraph for thoughts on flashcards). So
that was the schedule 5 days a week. Then Sat I would do 4 blocks of
questions and then read a half day with no evening studying.

As for the actual studying. You will have every intention of making
charts, study sheets & flash cards. YOU DON'T HAVE TIME! if you are
stopping that much through your daily reading you will never get through
it. However, I also understand that if I just sit and read I don't really
pay attention. So the solution to this is First Aid. Use it like a work
book. As you're reading flip to the relevant section (ex. the cardiology
part of the physiology section while you are reading the BRS Cardio
Chapter) and anything you deem important that is not in first aid (which
will be a lot) WRITE IT IN. So at the end of your reading period (1 week
before the real exam) you will have a complete Step 1 study manual which is
a compilation of all your review books, first aid, Q bank answers and
UCV's.

What I did over that last week was I took one section of first aid (ex:
biochemistry) and read it straight through all in one day no matter how
long it took. The purpose of this was so I saw everything in that subject
together (for comparison/reference) all in one day again right before the
exam. Then the last day before the exam I went over a list of things I know
that I always forget and just need to see one last time AGAIN (like I will
ever remember it after the exam!?!?) as well as did my flashcards again.
Try to have a low key day and get a good nights sleep before the test. The
worst thing you could do to yourself is be tired for this exam. On the
subject of flash cards as mentioned above you do not have time to make them
yourself. The only two subjects they are useful for is micro and pharm. So
I bought the BRS Microbiology and BRS Pharmacology Flashcard sets. They
were worth every penny. DO NOT buy the BRS Pathology flashcards they are
too easy and do not have enough info.

Now for Q bank. Do the questions as described above. Treat it like the real
exam EVERY TIME. Q bank has two parts: regular and IV q bank. IV is more
clinical (translate to MUCH EASIER) so it is in your best interested to do
every single (4,000) regular q bank questions first and do IV when you need
a little pick me up/ego boost. Another place where friends of mine got
bogged down is in the answers. The Q bank explanations are generally good -
but long. So if you got a question right assume that you either knew it or
could figure it out again. Read only the ones you got wrong or totally
guessed on and got right, taking note of what you learned from them your
first aid "work book" for future review in your last week. I also when
starting q bank always selected the question option "all unused and all
previously wrong" That way you get new questions you have never seen and
they mix in the ones you have previously gotten wrong until you get it
right. Its good re-enforcement - if you can't learn it hammer it in!

Full length practice test. This is very important. You need to know how
long that day really is before you actually do it. Kaplan offers a test.
You can either do it online or you can go to their center. Either way is
fine as long as you treat it like the real test. However, a mistake made in
my class was to do it the week before your real exam. BAD IDEA. People who
did poorly freaked out a week before their exam. So do it 2 weeks before
your test so if you freak out you have time to recover and change your
study strategy. You can also take a test in the real Sylvan Learning
Center. I did not do this it might be something to consider. I think its
like $40 but you definitely have to plan in advance and schedule it with
them.

Changing your test date. DON'T DO IT. People who did didn't do any better.
Unless you have a major crisis that derails studying so badly you can't get
back on track. Llike you miss 3+ days or more remember you should have a
day off per week and 2 flex days built in. On that note, life goes on
during this time. People get married, families have reunions etc. Plan in
these things in your schedule above and beyond your study days and don't be
overly optimistic about getting studying done during these things. Stick to
your plan and don't get behind and you will do alright.

So those are my wise (and long because I'm on a very easy rotation right
now and have ample time to type) words of wisdom. The books I used are
listed below. Remember, pick ONE and stick with it. Also remember which
subjects you were good and more importantly not so good at. The light at
the end of the tunnel is this will eventually end and you will be so smart
and ready to start third year you will hardly be able to believe it!

Good Luck
Supercool MedStud

Disclaimer: This is how I studied and it worked for me but it may not work
for you. Make changes based on your own style. With that feel free to pass
this on to anyone who wants it.

Resources:

1. QBank- It should be required!! Buy it!

2. Kaplan Books- Too wordy, not compatible with my style of learning I did
not use any of them. Too textbook-like.

3. Underground Clinical Vignettes (UCV's)- 9 book series you can usually
buy used or new all together. Good big picture on diseases and good clincal
review.

4. Board Review Series (BRS) Microbiology Flash Cards- Awesome for quick
review, or to take with you places where you might have to wait. ( A
doctors appointment? Wegmans checkout line? treadmill? etc..)

5. BRS Pharmacology Flash Cards- Same as the micro ones - Awesome.

So those are the accessories so to speak, now for the books…

1. First Aid for USMLE Step 1- This is your work book and new best friend -
never go anywhere without it!

2. Medical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple- perfect level for the
boards, excellent pictures and mnemonics.

3. Lippincott's Biochemistry- I am terrible at biochem so I read the whole
book and it paid off for me. However, if you are a little more adept at
biochem classmates of my used and were happy with High Yield Biochemistry.

4. BRS Pathology- excellent. Take lots of notes in your first aid workbook.

5. BRS Physiology-excellent. Take lots of notes in your first aid workbook.

6. BRS Pharmacology- perfect level of depth. Lippincott's (red book) is too
much info. You do not need to know dosing, brand names, clearance etc. BRS
provides you with the generic name, mechanism of action, indication and
side effects which is all you need to know. Also a brief summary of
pharmaco kinetic/dynamics at the beginning.

7. BRS Psych/Epidimiology- perfect level of depth and two subjects in one
book! What more could you ask for?

8. High Yield Anatomy- Any more info than this book is too much But
re-learning the brachial and sacral plexuses is a must!

9. High Yield Neuroanatomy- Dr. Cohan is such a good teacher that you will
learn your neuro so well you will hardly need to review it. So this short
book is more than enough.

10. High Yield Embryology- A must read since we don't have a formal course.
Its short though! But a word of caution there are two editions of this book
you want the longer one that is approximately 130 pages. The other (~ 70pg)
book is TOO bare bones.

11. High Yield Histology- Thank goodness for flex days because I forgot
about this subject. So plan it in. Its a short book.

Happy Reading and Good Luck!

The only women whom I know who have kids
are going into family med, pediatrics or psych.

I would say that without a doubt it is great to have a baby in fourth
year, preferably towards the end.

There are electives in fourth year that have minimal time
committments, thereby allowing you to take some extra time and advance
the months you could have with your child before having to start real
work. I would not recommend doing Advanced Medicine or Neurology
(required fourth year electives) during that time. But things like
Sports Medicine (one day a week) at South campus, Gross TA, Advanced
Dissection, or even a "research month" through whatever department you
want are all super easy.

When I was doing a Pathology elective, I met an
intern who was already a board certified OB/GYN with her husband, but
she said that with both of their schedules they couldn't have a family, so she
went back into a Pathology residency which itself allows more personal
time, and the career itself isn't as demanding time-wise.

Residency and family are not easy for any field. Peds, Medicine
(especially), Surgery, OB/GYN require crazy time schedules that aren't
really conducive to having the perfect family life. But while in
residency most programs will allow you to take time off, if you really
need it, beyond the general maternity leave. That would mean, though,
graduating from your residency late. But when you start going on
interviews it is a good question to ask the residents that are at the
programs you visit.

And about being a woman… I can't talk about that, but
when it comes to having a baby it really shouldn't matter past the
pregnancy period. I wake up just as much as my wife to take care of
the baby. And when she is taking care of him I'm picking up, doing
the laundry, washing dishes, etc. It's a partnership that we both
talked about before we thought of having a baby. That's VERY important
to make sure you are on the same page with your significant other. B/c
I know some guys in our class who say "that baby is not mine until
he/she is 5 years old". You can pretty much surmise how involved they
were in the early years of their children's life.

FYI, surg subs is one week of uro and anesthesia.. which were cake for me… anesth i was at ECMC done by 7-2P every day, learned to put in peripheral IV lines, bored myself to death

uro. well i loved it, cool residents, good teaching nice blend of medicine/surg. I was at VA where we started at 7A til 5P except friday (clinic day) when you are done at noon.

I chose ortho which I loved, it is a little more intense, but probably the best program we have at UB, and its nice to see how a good program is run from a teaching perspective/didactics. Clinic is very well run and the PAs are great teachers. The surgeries, are intense and it really depends how dirty you want to get your hands… i stayed late got in on cases and got to amputate pts, sew 'em back up… it was fun. I know I couldnt be ortho, but I could see my self in sports med.

-Neurosurg is long hours, i didnt do it but people who did seemed to like it. Maybe relevant if you have an interest in neurology/peds, but again i imagine the cases are long.

-Vascular, kind of repetitive since you do it again in surgery, long cases. If you dont like surgery you prolly wont like.

-optho. Is a popular choice for folks that dont want to do surgery and have an easy 2 weeks. Again I didnt do it. Easy hours

-ENT. People loved ENT. I didnt do it. Hours variable, but interesting blend of medicine and surgery.

My advice is take Optho/ENT if you def. dont wanna be a surgeon. IF you think you can go both ways (i mean med vs surgery, keep it clean) you may wanna try ortho/ENT. I would advise against Neurosurg unless you are thinking about neurology then there may be some advantage, but I am not sure what. Regardless of your interest I would avoid vascular which will be repeated in gen. surg.

Hope that helps. You have effectively procrastinated me in my personal statement writing.. i hold you accountable. I would ask peeps in your class since they seem to have stayed later for both URO/anesthesia… i guess it may be site/personnel dependent.

Dr. Krasney is pretty good at explaining the physiology portion. It’s wise to go to his lectures and write lots of notes because
his notes are fairly scant. I thought BRS physiology was a good source. Other students found Constanzo physiology helpful, too.
Dr. Krasney gives out many practice exams so go through them early on.

Dr. Lohr teaches the clinical aspect of renal diseases. He’s not a very good lecturer and you might get frustrated when you hear
him lecture for the first time. After you get used to him and realize that his notes are well written, you’ll start to like
him.

Downsides…… sometimes the class was very very long and you felt
like you wasting time. Many students there have failed a few times
and arent the sharpest tools in the shed. Dr. Francis, tho funny,
wastes time on jokes and stories (good and bad). Also, many times Dr.
Francis is just flat out wrong. NO other way to put it. I dont know
where he gets some of his facts or reasoning, but it is borderline
comical, and thats how i took it so it didnt bother me. It really
bothered other people who were less flexible. They would get angry.
I just figured there was alot he was teaching me alot otherwise, and
if i thought he were wrong i would just look it up in 2 other sources
or something like that. (1st aid is wrong too sometimes). He also
tells you not to look at first aid, but i find that a mistake. After
i was done i went through 1st aid in like 2 days and there are some
pts he leaves out, and little pointers that are helpful in addition to
his course. It really is tough to find time to do both during the
program though, so i guess that is another minus. Finally, the
business side is run HORRIBLY. His brother does the business, and he
is a money grabbing ass. They gave us the wrong address and never told
us they moved when we got there. And i had to call 3 times, and then
beg in an email for my security deposit back on the housing. Took 4
months to finally get it. I think some people never got it back.

Recap…for me the progrm was helpful. Im not sure if i could have
gotten the same score studying on my own, but either way, my score was
as high as my highest targets. Dr. Francis is funny, and the course
is entertaining. I had fun there. His test taking skills were amazing
and helped me the most. It also was a good schedule for me and kept
me focused and motivaated. HOwever, some would say hes wrong alot,
wastes alot of time, and they didnt have time for anything else. SOme
people think they did worse than if they just studied on their own. I
know that doesnt sound like much help but i tried to give both the
good and bad.

The recommended textbook (aka Lilly) is small, to the point and tells you everything you need to know. It is awesome for the cases, and awesome for learning cardio. You cant go wrong if you just go to class to listen to Dr Hogan /Ellis and read Lilly.

If you're one to prefer a more in-depth explanation of
neuro-mechanisms, try the Concise Text of Neuroscience. It's a great
book of detailed descriptions, and time consuming but not excessive.
If you're interested in neuro, this is a good investment. And there is
always Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. (Speaking of
Harrison's, if you like the detail and fact that this text is THE gold
standard of internal med and great for 3rd year, I recommend saving
money by buying the single, complete textbook instead of the
subject-based individual Harrison textbooks. The subject-book text is
exactly the same (I've compared), but collectively more expensive.)

If you're not looking to be a neuroscience supernova-star, go for High
Yield Neuroanatomy and BRS, check out the neuroscience section of
First Aid, and the Kaplan Medical Essentials neuro. Those are pretty
good and I thought the FA and ME supplemented each other nicely. FA
has good coverage of the important points, and Med Essentials had
better drawings of the pathways. But as with all studying, it's all
pick and choose according to your taste. Invest in some good
books/players for Opening Day (3/30/08) in the spring…and players
who are not shamelessly overpriced…

For Neuro lab, again Dr. Cohan has already enlarged and photocopied
his neuro slides for you in the course lecture notes. These are the
same slides he tests with on his exams, and these are the only things
you will need to identify. Close to exam time he'll come up with a
list of "must learn" structures he wants you to focus on so don't
sweat it. Any extra cross sectional neuroanatomy books to purchase are
(in my opinion) excessive. But again, if neuro is your thing…by all
means go ahead and get that cross sectional neuroanatomy book.

Make sure you use your neuroscience TAs. They are 4th year medical
students, and hand-picked and groomed by Dr. Cohan (no, I am kidding).
They are always walking around lab, hungry to answer questions…even
questions about 3rd and 4th year. And hey, they are ALMOST DOCTORS and
getting ready to interview at residency programs, so they are the best
source of fresh perspective you will meet these days!

Good Luck 2nd Years!

1.) BGH primary care outpatient clinic - starts at 9am. Arrive 10 minutes early and park on side streets to avoid paying for parking. Warm hat, gloves, jacket, and practical walking shoes should do the trick; don't whine because walking will help you work off whatever fast food you're buying in the cafeteria for lunch today. In the clinic (Building D1), you'll be working with the Urgent Care patients. Attendings will change every day, morning and afternoon so it's your luck to be paired up with an attending that fits your personality and presentation style. Again, another challenge to be able to adapt to the whims and preferences of your attendings. (For example, never fail to check the BP yourself on the patient when presenting to Dr. Gallagher.) Many patients are looking for medication refills, but some may surprise you with some interesting findings. Before seeing a patient, make sure that the clinic room has sufficient supplies (BP cuff, disposable otoscope earpieces, etc) Other attendings you may see: Drs. Frieary, Ceylony, Machineni, Sundquist, O'Neill.

-an overall good experience for me although I wish there were more patients for me to see. When there are 2 medical students in the clinic, I usually only see one patient in the morning and one in the afternoon. Sometimes Dr. Gallagher will choose to send the students to GI or Coumadin clinic if there are no patients, and this is usually better than sitting downstairs doing nothing, so that is appreciated. Preceptors were attentive to the students and asked good questions.

2.) MFG - starts around 8:30am. Arrive 10 minutes early and park on Linwood to avoid paying for parking. Warm hat, gloves, jacket, and practical walking shoes. Head to the 1st floor outpatient clinic just past the gift shop on the right. This clinic has a better color scheme than BGH (no neon wall paint) but runs pretty much the same way as BGH. Some days of the week there will be OB/GYN and other specialty clinics, but you will stick to Medicine visits. You may have Dr. Kolade as your preceptor, and he will give you the freedom to write directly in the official patient record (wow what trust!) and will cosign your note. He will also try to convince you that "paperwork is fun" and it is up to you to decide the truth. (But honestly, get used to paperwork and lots of writing in medicine in general.) Lots of independence in this clinic.

-overall good experience as I was ALWAYS busy (nonstop!) at this clinic. Dr. Kolade is very patient and obviously enjoys teaching medical students. He works through the cases slowly (to the disgruntlement of more than a few patients, unfortunately) which is ideal for the learning medical student. He encourages diagnoses and questions and will go great lengths to answer them, even assigning articles to read.

3.) DENT - starts around 8:30am. Arrive 5 minutes early and park directly in the parking lot — for free. This clinic is on the 6th floor and you should brush up on your endocrine skills beforehand (HPA axis, diabetes, etc) because this is an endocrine clinic. The clinic runs on EMR so hopefully you are computer savvy enough to figure out how to make the quick switch from papers to clicking away at electronic tabs on the screen. Don't worry — you won't be expected to be entering any information into these laptops. You see the patient, present, and watch your preceptor work the magic. Remember to take the blood pressure, get a thorough list of medications, and don't forget the neurologic tests too.

-overall good experience. This is the one clinic that has EMR, an excellent way for students to get an introductory grasp of higher end technology and medicine. Dr. Ryan explains his patients medical conditions very well and knows his patients as well as he does his endocrine. Because he is a specialist I learned how to better tailor my medical interview and physical to suit the visit.

4.) 85 High - is the renal clinic. This clinic is on the 2nd floor, and is directly across the street from BGH when you walk out of the main entrance. Be amazed at the small size of the clinic and the impressive efficiency of how it runs. Dr. Sridhar is the master of time management and is as meticulous and precise as you could ask for. Don't expect to be interviewing any patients on your own; this is more of a shadowing experience with plenty of time to ask questions in between patients (before/after he does his dictations). If you've a tendency to be disorganized in your medical ways, take notes on how this clinic is run. Look forward to Dr. Sridhar's lecture on RTA — it is fabulous.

-While I did not get to see any patients on my own, shadowing Dr. Sridhar allowed me to see many unusual renal cases I would have not seen in D1. In between patients he welcomes questions (and expects you to have many) as an opportunity to help students be wary of subtle renal complications.

5.) GI clinic - Drs. Corasanti and Miqdadi are the endoscopy kings and you are to watch and gawk only. Great experiences and it will make you want to go and practice Halo or any other 3-D video game. Eye-hand dexterity in a 3-dimensional space. Awesome.

-An excellent opportunity to see endoscopy although attending this clinic more than once a week is probably excessive for the student not considering GI for a career. I shadowed Dr. Miqdadi and he was very amiable and willing to briefly explain his procedures in between patients although usually he was too busy to spare more than a few minutes. One of my classmates expresses frustration in having to attend the GI clinic more than once per week and I would probably echo his frustration that seeing 7-8 endoscopies per week may not be as linearly educational as the scheduling may suggest.

6.) Allergy & Immunology clinic - Dr. Ambrus will answer all your questions and more. Great explanations. He knows more about autoimmune diseases than anyone you will meet…probably because he's seen just about everything. Expect to see many cases of SLE and scleroderma and you will learn to recognize the clinical symptoms of these diseases. Sure, they look like the pictures you've seen in lecture, but to see them in person is awesome.

-Again with the specialty clinics I saw cases that I would never see in D1. Every student should attend these clinics (or as many as possible) because I really believe that the best way to learn medicine is to see it all in the clinic. Dr. Ambrus, like Dr. Ryan, knows his patients well and remembers their PMH usually without consulting his notes. He is a great teacher and mentor.

7.) Coumadin clinic - One time at this clinic is sufficient. It is a good way to see outpatient care for coumadin treatment and followup but gets repetitive after a few hours.

The great thing about all these specialty clinics is that you can separate your experiences into chapters by subject. All different ailments in each clinic. Guaranteed variety in outpatient rotation. It's like how Dr. Hard talked about "packing suitcases" of organ systems in gross anatomy. You go to endo clinic and "fill" your endo suitcase, then pack it away. Go to GI and pack up your GI suitcase and pack it away. Etcetera. The transport back and forth can be a pain, but take these pitches and at least one will put you on base to lead off a great inning of outpatient medicine.

1. If you haven't already done so, start making lots of friends at other
tables. There is a great degree of variation in internal structures,
for example, the mesenteric arteries branching in each person is
slightly different. Not only will looking at other bodies help you for
the test, but it allows you to teach your peers and visa versa.

2. Start looking at the cross sections early. There are a lot more
during block 2 than there were in block 1. Visualize what level of the
body you are at to distinguish which lumens belong to which organ.

3. Embryology is extremely important in block 2. You must know what
organs came from what part of the primitive gut. They love to test you
on these.

4. Dr. Dlugos and Dr. Severin are amazing instructors, but they are even
better in the lab. Don't be shy about making appointments with them via
email requesting they go over certain parts of the anatomy with you in
lab. Their time is busy, so be mindful and respectful when asking, but
even when you may know everything, when they explain it on a cadaver,
you really retain it and appreciate the human anatomy.

5. Always volunteer to teach your friends what you've dissected. There
is no better learning tool than by teaching. In return, they will
reciprocate the gesture and it is a win-win for all involved.

Good luck on Block 2!!!

1) This is what worked for me. Everybody has different studying styles. So you found a successful style in your first two years by all means stick with it. If for the first two years you payed someone to yodel your notes to you while you slept the whole time on your textbooks and absorbed everything thru osmosis… uhhh… sure.. you get what I mean. Personally in my first two years, I wasn't a textbook studier. I liked notes, outlines, and review books and I think that kind of preparation worked out for me.

2) Step 1 is not nearly as bad as you think.

I really started "prepping" exactly one year ago. I bought a copy of First Aid and made a concerted effort to finish going through first aid once before the school year ended. What that meant was simply glancing (but not memorizing) about 10-15 pages a week making sure things sounded familiar and also I felt like I was doing something for the boards. Something I'm glad I did was that for the classes I was still going through I made a point of killing two birds with one stone and memorizing the relevant subject in first aid.

Along with first aid, I "bought" a copy of the Golijan Kaplan Lecture Recordings (if you don't have it, they're available "for sale"… just ask around). Golijan is awesome. Helped me out tons. His lectures and lecture notes were great for condensing, clarifying and correlation. (It also helps that he's a funny guy) I converted all the recordings into mp3, put them on my ipod and made sure I listened to every lecture at least once (while driving, while working out, while burning my endocrine notes in a bonfire) before the semester was over.

Step 1 was all about the "two-step" questions. For example, instead of asking for the disease after giving symptoms (one-step) they would ask the treatment (or even the side effects of the commonly-used treatment) after giving the patient's symptoms. Golijan and qbank were great in preparing for those types of questions.

I ramped up my studying after endocrine ended. The "boards review class" Brownie puts together is a joke. The only useful lectures were Hefner's path lectures, Lesse's microbiology, and the overdose lecture. I used the Essentials time instead to focus on areas I thought I was particularly weak on so I could go over those subjects twice before the test. For me, that meant going though "Microbiology made ridiculously simple" and BRS pathology in those 3 weeks.

Once the semester was officially over, I made my schedule to study. Time management is key. Everybody manages their time differently but one thing you don't have time for is to use multiple sources for references. Just pick one review book and go. Don't re-read Robbins. The only time I used more than one review book for a subject was path which I'll explain later. I devoted the next 5.5 weeks for studying. (I attached the schedule I made up). Everyday I planned out reading that I could reasonably do in one day and did a set number of Qbank questions (more and more questions as time went on in sets of 50). It's important to give yourself "free days" (about one every two weeks) to catch up and get ahead of your studying. Things happen (family functions, Mets games, movie premieres, getting dysentery etc) during your studying. It's inevitable. Plan for what you can and give yourself some leeway so you don't freak out.

Speaking of Qbank, it was pretty useful more so for getting into the groove of test-taking than the information I thought. A lot of the questions are centered on minutiae; don't be surprised to do really poorly when you start out (like in the 30's) and don't be afraid if you can barely break the 70% mark even when test time is looming. It's more important to get into the daily habit of answering questions and build testing endurance. Also, it's tempting to go over each answer explanation even if you got it right but the explanations, even though they are good, can get really long. For time's sake, unless you totally pulled something out of your ass and guessed, assume that what you got right you normally would've gotten right on the real test and just look up what you got wrong. Take mental or actual notes (in your First Aid) of what your get wrong so it doesn't happen again. And I also liked using the option of using "unused and previously wrong" test questions continually to sort of beat into my head what I got wrong. Plus from choosing that particular bank of questions, hopefully you'll inflate your score and ego abit. As a side note, don't do the IV qbank; not helpful unless you need a moral boost.

As far as practice tests goes, they are expensive and time-consuming but I thought they were useful. I took one at the prometric practice center you have to sign up for a few weeks in advance so I got the feel for the exam location (like how the test-taking stations were, where the bathrooms were, how ungodly the temperatures were, etc.). Plus I didn't believe it until it happened but the practice tests that the NBME releases online were great indicator of what your score will be. The anecdotal idea is that a NBME test taken within 10 days of your test day is going to be within 5 points of your actual score. Try not to take one of those suckers within a week of your test.

I tried to be very diligent in my studying, creating strict schedules and limited the procrastination. Everyday I sat down on my seat ready to study by 8:30, not getting out of bed, not getting into the parking lot, etc. I allowed myself up to an hour for meals and one non-studying activity a day (i.e. working out, groceries, raising the undead…). Usually in the evenings I would do my allotted set of qbank questions. Then at night, I did studying that needed limited brain power, usually either reading the relevant UCV or re-listening to Goljan.

I studied with a small group of friends. I like to equate it to a small group of islands. We were each doing our own thing but we were there for each other if we needed help. Freaking out was toned down because we all were going through the same thing. Plus, it makes it a lot easier to get up in the morning to study when someone is expecting you to be there.

First Aid really becomes your best friend and life line. As you study, take (high-yield) notes in your FA. This not only helps in solidifying information but giving you something to review in the last week before your test. Your first aid will be a compilation of all your review books, Goljan, qbank answers, and hard work.

Here's a list of what I used:

1) Qbank – Try not to use it until you do your actual hardcore boards studying

2) First Aid for Step 1 – say hello to my little friend…

3) Golijan – I am his proverbial bitch…

4) Underground Clinical Vignettes Series (UCV) – Handy series of nine books that went through patient case scenarios and highlight high-yield pathology and symptoms. Great for low-energy studying.

5) Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple – great for my weakest subjects. It had some funny descriptions and pictures that helped in remembering.

6) BRS Pathology – I actually went through this once before realizing I didn't really like it. It was abit skimpy in the details and I realized very early on that pathology was probably THE most important subject of the boards which is why I also used…

7) Golijan Pathology Lecture notes – like his recordings… again I'm Goljan's bitch

8) BRS Physiology – good outline of the sweet spots of physiology but again sometimes short on explanations…

9) Rapid Review Biochemistry – I liked this book more than Lippincott's which I thought was almost too much. This book did a good job in integrating information with other subjects. (again written by Golijan)

10) High Yield Immunology – short and sweet

11) High Yield Anatomy – ditto. A friend actually used online Kaplan video lectures which he said were great but were really long. Qbank likes to think that the only anatomy you need to know is the arms and legs sometimes…

12) High Yield Neuroanatomy – short sweetness. But Cohen teaches so well I barely needed to study too much about this.

13) High Yield Embryology – Buffalo really doesn't teach this very well and this is a good short book on it. Note: there are two versions of this book. The shorter one (<100 pages) is too bare-bones.

14) Pharmacology – this is going to be surprising but the only pharm you need to know is in First Aid and Golijan. Know it cold and you should be fine. You don't need to know dosing, brand names, and all that crap. First Aid is the perfect amount.

15) Biostats/Psych/Ethics – These subjects are commonly ignored/forgotten but they are pretty important. I "bought" Kaplan lecture recordings for these subjects. They're all given by one awesome lecturer (with wickedly dry humor) and I thought he covered all of it really well in the span of a day in a half. Take good notes in FA…

Anyways, that should be about it. (I need a drink…)

I hope this helps and good luck!