Selecting a program to apply to PART 3

This is the method that I myself used in applying to programs. I am not saying that this is the best way to select programs to apply to, however I had certain restrictions; I'm not made of money, loool. My goal was to find programs whose criteria I met.  Below are the steps that I followed:

1) got a list on matcharesident that was based on my scores
2) I looked through all of these and picked only the programs that had about 50% imgs in their program
3) took a list of all the programs that are in my state and added it to the list from matcharesident
4) After that I went to the website of each of these programs and combed through the information there. Most programs list what they are looking for. I made sure I fit their criteria. I had a CS failure so all the programs that insisted on having a one time pass I took them off my list, unless I had a specific reason to still apply and try my luck.

At the end of these steps, while my goal was to apply to 200 programs, I found only 130 that passed my filters. I applied and the rest is history.

The end goal of applying is to match so use the best method that in your opinion will put your application in front of programs that will like you AND you will like. Plan out how you will apply, do not just pick randomly. Of the three methods -1) applying to every program in your specialty, 2) applying to programs that alumni from your school matched in, 3) using the filters I mentioned- none of them are right or wrong. Pick the one that suits you best.

Selecting the right programs to apply to PART 2

Are you ready for ways to select programs to apply to number 2. The first method is one that I mentioned in the prior post. The second method is one that another friend used. He was able to get a decent amount of interviews that way.

The method he applied to places that graduates from my school applied to. The wonderful thing about our school in particular is that they keep a record or list of places that the schools graduates matched into. He combed through those records and selected some to apply to.

The good things about this method is that he got a lot of interviews. Now, it could also be linked to not having a single failure on his step exams on his record so take it with a grain of salt. Secondly, he saved money since he did not apply to every program in his specialty. Applying to about 200 programs means you will spend about 5000$. Imagine family medicine has upwards of 400 programs and you want to apply to all of them. Lastly, if you know the person that matched into the program they could put in a good word for you.

The cons of this method is you are limited to places where your fellow graduates matched into. You might miss out on places where you might be a good fit. Also, its tedious going through program by program.

Which programs should one apply to: Method 1

Imagine you send out your application only to programs that don't like you as an applicant... Exactly, you will wasting your time.  Picking the right mix of programs to apply to is almost as important is it is to make sure you have a solid application. I will be sharing with you 3 ways you can select which programs you can apply to. Two of the ways were used by my friends and one was the way I used.

As a quick side note: none of these methods are fool proof. Also this is not a discussion on which specialties you should apply to. That is an entirely different topic.

The method I will be discussing today was used by a friend when he was applying. I've also heard of other people using this method. 

The good thing about this method is that it includes all of the programs that could possibly like you, every single one of them. It might be the safest bet when it comes to applying.

The bad thing about this method is that it includes all of the programs that do not  like you. It is also the most expensive way of applying so it is not a method that everyone can use. 

Whats the method? If you haven't figured it out as of now, it is applying to every single program in the specialty you want. If your specialty has 400 programs then you apply to 400 hundred programs. If it has 250 programs you apply to 250 programs. 

Whether you will use this method or not usually depends on the availability of money. If you have the money to cover the cost of applying to that many programs then you can try using this method. However, not many people have that kind of cash lying around, and I am certainly not one of these kinds of people. I personally had to find a way to filter my programs so that I could afford it. 

Next post: Which programs to apply to: method 2

The love of coffee is sooo right but soo wrong

Drinking coffee is unacceptable.... but necessary.

I have been adamantly against drinking coffee because I do not like the taste. At least this is how I felt until residency started. Since July started I have been drinking coffee everyday. About 2 weeks ago I started to feel hmmm... not so bad. Now i feel this is actually good.

I started drinking a type of coffee called Dunkichino and have actually been looking forward to it. It has a hint of coffee but then wait wait there's hot chocolate there too. As a lover of hot chocolate the hint of each was simply orgasmic.

Even after a day of drinking a cup of coffee i would come home exhausted - I know it is normal to be tired after a long days work but I don't like it. If I am not careful coffee will become my morning routine, something I depend on to give me an energy boost. Coffee is not something that I want to be addicted to, or to rely on, as such I have turned back to exercising.

After I injured my knees playing amateur league soccer I have abstained from any vigorous exercise of any kind especially soccer/kick boxing/running. Its been about 2 years since the pain in my knees was so much that walking was an effort. Now while I can walk without pain I will still not play soccer or do kick boxing. I found something else i can do.

Yesterday was the first day I did cardio shadowing boxing for 1 minute. Today I did that for 10 minutes in addition to my usual routine of push ups and sit ups and squats. This is the plan after each work day from now on. I am doing this so that I can build up my energy and stamina for the day. While I might not feel a change in energy in the first week or two, I'm sure by the 3rd week I should start increasing my stamina so that I do not get tired at the end of the day.

When I can stop get to the point where coffee is not only unacceptable but ALSO UNnecessary, at that point I will stop drinking coffee. Until then I will dabble in coffee like a pro...

2017 Family Medicine Conference in Kansas City, MO

The family medicine conference will be taking place in day or so. Go make connections. Heres the link to the website.

2 weeks into Residency

Well, its slightly more than 2 weeks into PGY-1. I have learned two things. One that the learning curve is ridiculously steep, and two that my focus should not be on instantly knowing everything but rather on making sure I grow day by day, by learning from my seniors, events, attendings etc.

Residency: the very beginning!!!

Its been two weeks now since I started my intern year, and I just keep thinking that today is Sunday, even though it is monday.

These two weeks have both been exciting and frustrating at the same time. More so on the frustrating side. Lets start with the bad.

My first day I was on Day call. It was quiet in the beginning and then after 12 pm the pager and the phone kept going of. It got to the point were I was internally imploring the pager to please chill. lol.

In seeing patients, drafting  and writing out my the management plan I could see the vast gap of experience that I had to learn. I felt like I knew nothing; like an empty vessel walking around the hospital wearing a white coat.

I have been paired with a senior for my day float-which is a month of day call on saturdays and sundays. He has been very helpful, guiding me through each encounter. On my very first day, he together with another senior that was present walked me through every thing. Through them I gradually picked up the ways of the hospital, the how to use the EMR system -which is completely different from the ones I used prior- and ways to polish up my notes.

While I have been fortunate to have this support, it is still frustrating knowing you do not know things. Initially, I felt overwhelmed, but with each passing day I'm feeling a bit more confident.

As Doctor, even as a fresh intern, we know a lot. Through out medical school we study a lot, learning a many different subjects. We go through clinical experiences through clinical rotations. We take numerous grueling tests that each last 6 hours and above. We are knowledgeable but there is still a wide gap in experience and minor how to's that we can only learn by doing. If it's not evident before, it becomes evident the moment you start.

About a month and a half prior to starting I felt a certain nervousness creeping up on me. Will I measure up, will I be able to close the gap. I spoke to numerous friends that said that it was normal and that they felt the exact same way on starting. They said if everyone gets through it so can I.

After my first few days, I was frustrating about the things i did not know, however I caught a glimpse of what i could become. I could see that it will be a journey of growth, almost like an adventure. This chance to make myself grow, using hard work to overcome the difficulties on my path is what makes me excited. i look forward to learning and learn, growing through experience, and finally molding myself into the physician I want to be.

For now I look forward to this journey. I look forward to learning from my experiences both mistakes and the right things.

To all those in intern year, good luck we can do it. To all those applying to residency I wish you the best of luck, and I hope your journey starts soon.

Intern year starts in 6 days

In anticipation of the start of family medicine internship, I have been thinking through what I can do to start on a good footing. I made a list of skills that I felt I needed to be proficient in and tried to read up my first rotation, Obstetrics, from books that i owned. I also searched online for tips from survivors of intern year, PGY-2's and 3's. Out of the articles that I have panned through I liked this one the best: "Ten tips for successfully completing your internship".

If things work out smoothly I will try to draft an intern survival guide of my own. However, for now I must go through it myself. 6 more days...

Three things that helped me match!

After going through the match 2 times I felt like I had a good handle on what to do for this match process. In addition to making sure that my application was worked on diligently I did a few things that I believe helped me fare better in this match compared to the other two times.

The first thing I focused on was to take the step 3. This was an important step to let the residency program know that, while I had failed the step 2 CS, I was fully capable of passing any other exam. I studied very hard for this exam and I am happy I did so. It was one of the hardest tests I’ve taken till now. I knew that failing that test would make it even harder for me to go on. If you are interested in how I studied it’s on here somewhere.

The second thing that I did was to go to a family medicine conference. Each specialty has a conference where you can rub elbows with residents, sometimes program coordinators and if you are lucky program directors. I visited numerous booths, and talked to as many residents/pc’s/pd’s as I could. I also met some good people that I kept in contact with afterward. These people from different schools became my study partners, my interview practice partners etc. Additionally, and more along the lines of what I’m sure you want to hear, I interviewed at 2 of the programs that I met at the conference.  

The third thing that I did was contact programs. My sole purpose here was to let them know of my interest in them.

Following these 3 steps I was able to get more interviews than I got last year, and as a result I was able to match. Of course, I want to remind you that these are just supplementary things. If your personal statement is crap, your LOR’s say nothing good about you, your application is fraught with grammatical errors these supplemental things will not help you.

Now, its time for bed so that I can wake up bright and early for the first day of orientation at my residency program. 

Tips for writing a captivating personal statement

Most people are looking for a silver bullet to get into residency. Some rely on scores or on contacts which can help but to me the most important thing is to present a solid application, in which you focus on doing the various aspects very well.  You need to make sure that your LORs are good, your personal statement is captivating and resume is strong. Today, I will share three tips that will hopefully help you write a captivating personal statement.

First, do not make it too long. Put yourself in the shoes of the admission committee. Would you like to read a 3 page personal statement after you have gone through 100 personal statements? I know I wouldn’t want that. Make sure your personal statement is about 1 page long, if theres more to write then about 1.5 pages should be fine as well.

Second, your content should give them an insight into who you are and it should grab them. You want them to read your statement and think “ooo I want him/her.” Your passion for the specialty should shine through. Use personal stories about growing up, or things you have done –NOT a recitation of your resume- to show your connection to the specialty you are applying to.

Third, the little details count. Make sure you spell check your work. Make sure your grammar is correct. Have someone that you know who is good with English/writing proof read your work.

You can find samples of personal statements online or in books. When I was applying I used First Aid for the Match mainly to have sample personal statements to review- I did not use it for anything else.  

Car Chronicles 2: send me the money

After my experience with the blue Acura, I had to start searching for cars all over again. I went back to my trusted website, craigslist, to find a car. 

As I browsed though Craigslist my friends voice rang in my head “I got duped on craigslist.” He paid 7000$ or so for a car that he saw on craigslist. To hear him tell the story the car looked really nice. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be one of those send me the money first and I’ll bring you the car kind of scams. He fell for it completely and sent the money. He waited and waited and received no car in return. He reported the guy to the FBI who told him after some digging that the guy lived in Canada, which was out of their jurisdiction. His 7000 $ was puff, completely gone.

I sent out numerous text messages to the numbers on the car ads I liked. A few people replied to my texts saying that I should email a certain email address. To me this was weird. Why would you want to use email when you can just text?? Anyways, I was not going to miss out on a good deal. I would still send out and see what happens. 

I started corresponding with them via email.  In response to my  first email I got “The car is in perfect working condition. The only reason we are selling it is because it gives us bad memories. It was for our daughter’s husband that died. We want to get rid of it because it reminds her of him and makes her sad. Now, the car is in North Dakota but if you send the money and we will send you the car.”

Does this sound familiar? Smh. I replied with something along the lines of “stop with this nonsense. I know this is a scam. Foolishness!”

I got about 5 of these kinds of correspondence from different numbers that I contacted from craigslist. That does not mean all of craigslist’s advertisements are fake. There are legitimate advertisements on there. You just have to keep looking and I did just that. 

My Journey to residency!

Attempting to get into residency has been a journey/hard work. 3 years long to be exact. It has been long through no one’s fault except for mine. By failing the Step 2 CS exam, I set myself up for an upward battle. Still with complete confidence and the right strategy I ended up getting a residency position in a hospital and area that I really like. This is my journey.

For my first year, I got no interview during the the regular match period because of something stupid. I sent in my application on february 1st and at that time most programs had finished their interview season. I remember calling my friend and telling him I applied. He only said really, bro!?!? Why did I apply so late? Well I was waiting on my step 2 cs result and I wanted to make sure I passed before spending money. Anyways, I ended up getting one interview during the soap. I messed up that interview by doing something silly, or by not doing something important. Meh. 

Things looked better for my second application season. I got interviews from 3 really good residency programs. Two were in New York and one was in North Carolina. After my interviews, I got favorable responses from two of the programs so I assumed that this was going to be the year for me. Opening up my email I was shocked to see “Sorry you did not match…” I then got 2 interviews in the SOAP, but that did not pan out either. Uggh! To say I was frustrated and saddened by this outcome would be an understatement.

What I saw when I opened up my email in 2016.

Finally for my last application season, I managed to get 5 interviews. I left nothing to chance. I planned out my year from the moment that I did not match. I practiced for my interviews intensely. The programs where I interviewed showed stronger interest than last year. Some programs flat out told me they would rank me during the interview... straight to my face, during the interview. The first time this happened I don’t remember what my response was, I only remember how shocked I was. I felt like I would match last season too but that didn’t happen so I wary of these overtures. It turns out I worried for nothing since I ended up MATCHING!!!! Yay!

Now that this journey is behind me, I can look back and see what I did right and where I went wrong. I have learned that your application season starts from the end of the last match -ie, if you are a repeat applicant- at which time you start planning and working on making yourself the best candidate you can be. Do not leave anything to chance and work hard. Looking through the forums after matching I see people asking questions like “can I match if I do not get any US clinical experience?” This is foolish. Do not be that guy!!! Give it your best shot so you will not look back with regret!

Congratulations everyone that matched! Good luck to all that are applying next season! 

Car Chronicles part 1: The Blue Acura TL

I’ll be right down, I texted back.

The owner of the 2006 Acura TL that I saw online was here. I got dressed and went down. On first sight, that car looked nice. Inside it was even better. I fell in love intstantly. The lights on the dashboard, the woodgrain, the leather seats. Maan. I need an acura in my live.

Now, it was time for the test drive. I started driving the car. Instantly I lost some of my passion for the car. The car started veering to the right, the car was riding roughly over potholes. These are easy fixes when you are dealing with regular cars whose parts and the cost of repair cost just a little bit of monty. This is not the case with an acura. It is an expensive car to maintain. I was going to use my money to buy the car and did not want any exorbitant costs after purchasing it.

I told the owner lets call him James. “James I like your car but I want this is what I feel.” I listed all the things I felt driving the car. “I need to have it inspected but in the mean time let me check when my mechanic will be able to inspect it.”

The next day I called him and said we will be having the acura dealership inspect the car. If there is nothing wrong with the car I will buy it. Thirty minutes later he texts me back “listen I sold the car.” 

Isn’t that convenient. I most likely would have gotten a pleasant surprise –a huge repair bill- after purchasing the car.

Dodged bullet 1. Thank goodness

How to increase your chances of Matching into a Residency Program

I was asked via pm for advice on how to improve the chances of matching. The person is at the beginning of the whole process, which is the best time to actually start looking at how to start building a solid application for the Residency. 

For your viewing pleasure:

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i just completed my degree and came to USA, i have no USCE so far but trying to apply. and not yet done with steps. i know i'm asking that too early but what should i do to get match in peads.

Its good that you are thinking ahead. Its good to plan ahead. There are many things you have to do. 

1) finish your steps
2) get ecfmg certified
3) get US CE
4) get LORs
5) apply

My advice to you is to focus on the most important step, the first step! Focus entirely on your passing all your steps well. Put 100% of your effort into passing your step exams. Worry about everything else only in between or after you finish passing and doing well in your steps.

The first thing that the program's computer -yes, computer- looks at are your step scores. You will be filtered in or out based on your scores or failures. Therefore even if your scores are not the highest scores you want to make sure that you pass all your exams on the first go. 

Do not underestimate any of the exams. They are very hard so study very well for them. 

Good luck!

I came across this post on how to study for your step exams and your Boards to get really good scores. I thought it will be beneficial so I'm sharing it.

Here it is:

Kevinmd post

The power of momentum and how to maintain it

Momentum has been one of the things that has made life so much easier. Doing a little bit everyday is the way I undertook the gargantuan journey of studying for my Step 3 exam. By doing a little bit everyday you can stave off cramming, which will not help you with your Step exam.

Keeping the momentum through consistent action is very difficult. If there is any doubt about how difficult this is ask yourself, "have I ever said meh not today, i will do it tomorrow," and then proceeded to not do anything for the next few days losing track of time. Remember when you said you will work out weekly and then you took a day off and then boom you lost a few days, months or years. That happened to me.

I got sick 3 weeks ago so I stopped my morning exercise routine of push ups, sit ups, and squats. Then I got better and still did not work out. "I will start tomorrow." That tomorrow came and I still did not work out. This continued for 3 weeks. However, I am glad to say that I am back on track today.

I rolled out of bed and did my exercise routine. I started small, doing only about 1/3 of the number of reps I usually do. I have found starting small to be very beneficial in maintaining momentum.

By doing only a few reps to start out, I basically give myself no out to make excuses. I can't say I do not have time, because this will take me only about 5 minutes. I can't say it is too hard because it is 1/3 the normal amount of reps I do. Lastly, knowing that I can do it quickly and knowing that i have no excuse to bail I end up working out consistently gradually building momentum.

The ordeal of purchasing a used car!

How many of you have attempted to buy a used car? How many of you have being duped when you bought said used car? Ehem…

I had a car last year. I called her Akosua. I lost her a month later due to an accident. Insert sad face. Due to mourning – cough being broke cough cough – I decided I was not going to purchase another car till June, right before residency starts. Then I was convinced to get one now. I saw cars sold by private sellers, cars sold by dealers. I came within inches of being duped into making a big mistake. In my next few posts I’ll share my car chronicles, and if I feel like it maybe post some tips on what to do when you are searching for cars. 

Memories from 2017 interview season

After going on a few of my interviews I wrote down my thoughts on how things will go. In this post I will share with you what I wrote at that day, 1/24/2017; I will also share something that should give you a better chance of matching next season if you did not match this season, or even if you are applying for the first time. 

First, here is what I wrote on 1/24/17.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snap shot of my residency application till now:

“I like you and I will rank you.” I was shocked. I did not know how to respond. I’m sure I mumbled something after the program director said this. This application season I have 5 interviews. I have gone on 4 and have one more remaining, coming up this Thursday. Today, I want to have a quick snap shot of how things have been going so far.

Last season, I had 3 interviews during the regular match. I also had 3 soap interviews. Whoa, yes. The closest thing I got to an indication that one program was interested in me was “don’t forget to rank your programs” from one of the programs, and enthusiastic responses to my thank you notes from a program in the south.

This year has been different. I planned out my year to get more interviews and I did – 2 more. Of my 5 interviews I received clear indications of interest from 3 programs.

I still ask myself, do these mean anything since a program might like you and rank you but still not rank you in the safe zone. If this happens you will not match. Therefore, I am still hesitant to be elated by what they said. That said, it is a step in the right direction.

All that’s left is to wait and see. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we all know, I ended up matching so the "I'll rank you" refrain meant something. Out of my 5 programs I received clear signs of interest from 4 of them. 

I am sharing this with you so that you learn the value of interviewing and interviewing well. The number of times that I have heard "I have only one interview but I wasn't ready for that question" baffles me. I mean sure at times there are questions that are meant to stump you, but for the basic questions that they all ask there is no excuse to not know how to respond to them. 

If you have to get help practicing for an interview get it. If you have to pay for that help pay for it. Find someone knowledgeable. I was lucky to have some good friends that helped me understand what questions to expect and what type of answer each question expected from me. 

Interviewing is a skill. Do not neglect it and solely depend on your scores and your resume. Remember residency programs do not want a resume they want a person that will work well in their program. If you are that person make sure you let that shine through during your interview!

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Yayyyy

A friend just got a residency position yesterday!!!! I screamed when I read the text with the good news, and I almost run around the whole house.

She applied during ERAS and then during the SOAP as well to no avail. However, she kept pushing and finally she got an interview post-soap. 

I helped her prepare for her interview for 2 days, polishing up her answers etc. She then went on and killed her interview!!!

Congratulations!!! I'm proud of you! With all the hard work you put in, you are absolutely deserving of this! 

Trip to Virginia

I went to Virginia for the weekend, spending the time visiting a friend in Maryland and then purchasing a book.

Driving down to Virginia, I heard a book being discussed on the radio. It intrigued me enough to make a detour towards the nearest barnes and noble, when time permitted during my trip. I ended up finding and purchasing it.

The title of the book is "Hit Makers: the science of popularity in an Age of Distraction." It discusses reasons why some things/people become popular, or why certain videos go viral. I have my own thoughts on why this is the case so I wanted to see what other ideas were out there in the universe.

I also got the opportunity to properly catch up with a College friend and roommate, who was studying in Maryland. The plan was to stay for about an hour since he had work to do, however, timed morphed into about upwards of 4 hours. Good times.


 

Book #3 in the bag!!!!

Yaaay!

I just finished my third book for the year.

Books:

3) Ziglar on Selling: The ultimate handbook for the complete -sales- professional. - 3/23/2017

I read somewhere that we are all in sales. Consequently, I picked this book to educate myself on the process. It has a must have book if you are into selling of any kind. It breaks selling down into components, and shows you how to tackle each component. For most of my readers - in the medical field- this would not interest you, I know. lol. Still, if you want to read a book on selling, I would recommend this book. 

2) Stand Up Comedy The book, by Judy Carter:
I picked this book to help me with my speeches. It is a book highly recommended by Darren lacroix, a World Champion of Public speaking, which is the same competition I aim to win. My speeches till now have been more on a somber kind, more serious. I wanted to learn the art of creating jokes to insert in my speeches so that it fits right in. Overall, my impression of the book is that it is helpful. I'm going to put a lot of the things mentioned into action.

The book specifically deals with how to create a stand up comedy routine that you can use to become a professional comedian, if thats what you desire, or if you want to be an amateur. It has specific tips that you can follow to become better, and these are given in the Workshop sections.

If you want to improve your jokes, or your comedy routine check it out.

1) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, by Arnold Schwarzenegger
-- An autobiography detailing his life. "Unbelievably" is absolutely spot on. He has done so much, and on top of that has done it by design, most of the time coming from the position of the underdog, from the position of "hey you, you definitely wont succeed." I highly recommend this book, if you want to be inspired, or simply want to know more about arnold -there is a lot to know. Just one thing... Its long... Very long... about 700 pages or so. But if you are a man of vision, a man that likes to strike out a path on untrodden land do not hesitate to get this book.

Critical Advice for your Journey to Residency

The match is becoming exceedingly competitive. This is something that is common knowledge. In this post I will share some statistics from the match that I find interesting, as well as my thoughts on how to approach the match because of this.

A record number of people applied for the 2017 NRMP Match: 43, 157. Of this number 39, 969 candidates were considered to be active, i.e. after taking out those that withdrew or made no rank list. Of the active applicants 23% (8281 applicants) did not match. This comes up to almost a quarter of the number of active applicants.

IMG’s –US and Non US- made up the bulk of the 8000+ of active applicants that did not match, making up a whooping 72% of them.

When you look at only the IMG’s, 40-50% of the active applicants that applied did not match. 

What does all of this mean for you, who is considering to apply next time? What points am I trying to leave you with? 

I want you to keep two things in mind.

First, not all foreign Schools are equal. The top four Caribbean schools place upwards of 70% of their graduates into residency position – for the American University of the Caribbean I believe that is 80% or more of their students match, which is significantly higher than total IMG match percentage of 50+ percent. This makes sense since the IMG match percentage is just an average, and with averages some samples can be way larger. If you go to  one of those schools you have a leg up on your competition. If not there is still hope.

Secondly, my main purpose in writing this is not to discourage you from applying as an IMG –whether US IMG, non USIMG, from the Caribbean school or not from a Caribbean school. Instead, I want you take the application process serious so that you can increase your chances at matching. Throughout this year, I have interacted with other applicants at interviews and other places, many of whom I kept in contact with. Most of these people ended with matching. These people and I had one thing in common. Focus.

Focus on your Step exams. Do not take them lightly. Pass everything on first attempt and do as well as you can. If you feel like you will not do well, or that you are not ready for the exam, then you should take a class. Do not say you won’t just because it costs money. That money that you will spend to make sure you pass your exams in one shot will save you tens of thousands –yes, ten thousand or more- that you will spend applying again and again because you could not match.

Focus on your interviews. If there was one thing that annoys the living hell out of me, it was hearing that I wasn’t ready for the interview. Huh? You had only one interview and you did not prepare for it. Come on!!!

In short, while AMGs and some Caribbean schools might have a leg up on their competition, everyone can increase their chances at the match with the right focus. 

Good luck on your journey to a match!

P.S: For one of my next posts, I might share my journey of applying to the match 3 times so stay tuned. 

Reference:

2017 NRMP MATCH DATA

Where will i end up for residency?

I have no idea, but i will find out today, come 1 pm.

My day is packed. I will be attending my schools match day but before that I have to go tutor a young lady in CS for two hours.

Still trying to determine whether I'll actually share it on here... probably not. I had interviews in the East coast and in the South. I can share that much at least.

That said, I enjoyed visiting all the programs that called me in for an interview and I would be elated to become a resident in any one of the 5.

VERDICT:
I ended up in the EAST COAST. It was a program that liked the best. Yay!

Speech Contest Yesterday

And 2 nd place goes to ... ... Drum Roll... "kwasi".

That sounds great until you know I placed 2nd out of 2. loool. But at least I have a new trophy to grace some shelf.

I hate losing. I really do. I worked really hard on my speech. It had multiple stories interwoven meticulously to create an ultimate impact. But with loss comes an ability to learn.

Giving speeches is all about communicating, and communicating is all about getting your point across to your audience. If I wasn't able to get my point across, no matter how awesome I initially thought my speech was, it really wasn't.

Where did I go wrong? One of the Judges shared some feedback. She made three points:
1) she couldn't really hear me when I faced a different direction. Therefore, she missed a lot of words, possibly important words.
2) She felt like there where too many points being made in the speech
3) she felt I could work on the structure

I always try to be careful when taking feedback- whether it be in medicine, giving speeches, investing in stocks. First off, I always listen to critique, no matter who it is from. Secondly, I try to find its relevance. Was the evaluation on point or was it off the mark because they did not understand something.

In this case, did she feel there was no structure, or that there where too many points being made because she did not hear some vital words in the speech that tied everything together. Or did the structure really need work, and the points really need some sharpening.

If the problem stems from her inability to hear me, then the solution is quite clear, I need to really work on my delivery of my material, in this case my voice in particular.

If the problem is the actual material i need to work it over some more.

To find out which is which, I'll give the speech again and find out what other advanced people think.

All this said, I am taking nothing away from the winner. He did great! While losing is annoying and sucks, it is also the place where one finds growth. This applies to everything, even to the residency match. Do not the pain of loss go to waste.

Why is today awesome?

There are two reasons why today is awesome, for me at least. There are two things going on.

Today, I compete in the next level in Toastmasters Public Speaking contest. I won the contest in my club, so now I move up to the Area level, where I will be competing against winners from other clubs in my Area. If I win the Area level then I will move up to the Division level to face other Area winners.

However, I will not get ahead  of myself. For now, I will just enjoy the competition and try to be at my best.

Today is also the day before people that applied to residency will find out where they will be spending their years as a resident. Yay! I'm looking forward to it.

:)

Tips for the SOAP!!

I have been through 2 SOAPs and got interviews both times. Unfortunately, I did not match, as I had to apply again this year - which ended in me finally snagging a position, yay!!  I did some things wrong - lol, of course since I didn't get an offer- but I also did some things right. I will share with you some tips that will hopefully help you if you are applying for the SOAP.

Honestly, this post is a bit late since the SOAP started on Monday. People have already put in some of their applications. Also, the first round is probably over by now. However, there should still be round 2 and round 3.

The most important thing that you can do for the SOAP is to be prepared. You need to know everything about the Soap, how many programs you will be applying to, and in how many programs you will be applying to in each round, how many rounds there are, how long they last... blah blah blah. :)

The next thing that you need to keep in mind is that you can be called at any time. Therefore, you must be by your phone at all times. If you list your house phone -which is what I chose to do- you have to make sure you are home during the SOAP period. If you are not home make sure there is someone at home to relay your calls. For one of my interviews, I was tutoring 2 hours from home when I got a call from my house. "XYZ program called, I gave them your phone number. This is their number call them back." If you can stay at home.

This next point ties in with the second point above: be interview ready. I do not care if you are in the grocery store picking out some cabbages for some delicious stew at home, you are at work -if you are you have to let them know you might be picking up an important phone call ahead of time. You must be ready to pick up your phone - if they call your mobile phone- and get right into interview mode.

I was driving when I got one of my calls for SOAP last year. I picked up started going on. I could not pull over because I was on a High way. However, when I got off I pulled off to the side of the road and kept going. Unfortunately, I did not get the spot but hopefully you get my drift - hopefully.

Good luck everyone!!

Hope some of you get some good news!

Feelings post Match

After opening my email and seeing Congratulations -i did not read further- I was happy but yet blah. I was elated but still blah. Why?

I knew that I had given the application session my all. I knew that I had followed my plan to the T, and done everything that I believed will help me earn a spot. I knew I presented myself in a manner in which my interviewers got a good look into who I really was as a person. But I still felt blah.

Even though I did everything on my end, I the final decision was not up to me. I was in competition with thousands of applicants.

"We get 3000 - 4000 applications. Out of those we select about 80 people to interview. We only have 8 spots. Why should we choose you." This is the question one of my interviewers asked me.

Talk about competitive!

However, I made it now, so why did i feel blah? I was tired from thinking about it 24/7 and on top of that I was already thinking of the next step. So many times in life we do not sit down to appreciate what is going on around us in the moment. Our minds are always on the go. I was already thinking about preparing myself for residency so that I can hit the ground running.

I felt the same way when I passed my step 3.Right after getting my results and seeing that I passed I instantly started thinking of the next step, interviews. I was pissed that after such an accomplishment it seemed like I wasn't elated. I said this had to stop. I decided to slow down and appreciate the moment. I went out and bought myself a nice watch and went out to dinner to celebrate and boy did I feel great afterwards.

But one does not have to purchase something or reward oneself to become appreciative.  One can just sit with friends and family and take in the accomplishment. At the end of the night, as I sat with my folks talking and drinking champagne -i dont really drink so i had about 3 gulps- it finally hit me. Whoa. I did it. Whoa! I am going to get the opportunity to help patients be able to enjoy their lives by treating their ailments.

We talked about the ups and downs of the journey. We talked about the interview trail and my feedback. They were certain I would match this time, they said. Yayyyy! and it panned out.

But but but... ... ... I'm still buying myself a gift to mark the hard work and the result. Lol. Don't blame me i love watches. :) :)


Congrats to all that matched as well! Enjoy it you deserve it.

I MATCHED!!!! WOOOOOOOO!

1 day left 🙏🙏🙏

👀

Historic comeback by the best team in the world!

Barcelona went into this game down 0-4. In this game they had to score 5 goals or more in order to win if PSG scores no goal. If psg scored a goal then they have to score 6 goals in order to win. After scoring 3 unanswered goals, guess what happened, PSG, of course, scored 1 goal. This meant Barcelona had to score not 2 more but 3 more goals in order to win 6-5 (in aggregate; after adding the score line of the two games played). There were about 10 minutes left, and 3 goals were needed. With every second the light of hope grew dimmer. Then boom... boom... boom... 3 goals and Barcelona has made history. They are the only team to have made it after being down by that many goals from a prior game.

Barca! Barca! Barca!

2nd Book of the year in the bag!

Boyaka!!

I just completed my perusal of the 2nd book on my list. Pure awesomeness. Now I'm almost back on track with my reading goal for the year, reading 12 books.

Books:

2) Stand Up Comedy The book, by Judy Carter:
I picked this book to help me with my speeches. It is a book highly recommended by Darren lacroix, a World Champion of Public speaking, which is the same competition I aim to win. My speeches till now have been more on a somber kind, more serious. I wanted to learn the art of creating jokes to insert in my speeches so that it fits right in. Overall, my impression of the book is that it is helpful. I'm going to put a lot of the things mentioned into action.

The book specifically deals with how to create a stand up comedy routine that you can use to become a professional comedian, if thats what you desire, or if you want to be an amateur. It has specific tips that you can follow to become better, and these are given in the Workshop sections.

If you want to improve your jokes, or your comedy routine check it out.

1) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, by Arnold Schwarzenegger
-- An autobiography detailing his life. "Unbelievably" is absolutely spot on. He has done so much, and on top of that has done it by design, most of the time coming from the position of the underdog, from the position of "hey you, you definitely wont succeed." I highly recommend this book, if you want to be inspired, or simply want to know more about arnold -there is a lot to know. Just one thing... Its long... Very long... about 700 pages or so. But if you are a man of vision, a man that likes to strike out a path on untrodden land do not hesitate to get this book.


Match countdown: as of writing this there 5 day and 53 min left before finding out if we matched or not.

7 days left!!!

OOO MMM GGGG. There are 7 days left. Needless to say my nails are short. lol. Just kidding... No I'm kidding that I'm kidding. lol.

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First book of the year in the bag!!!

Whew, I'm off to a rough start in my goal to reading a book a week but I am excited to say I HAVE COMPLETED MY FIRST BOOK OF THE YEAR!!!

First book of the Year:
1) Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story by Arnold Schwarzenegger
-- An autobiography detailing his life. "Unbelievably" is absolutely spot on. He has done so much, and on top of that has done it by design, most of the time coming from the position of the underdog, from the position of "hey you, you definitely wont succeed." I highly recommend this book, if you want to be inspired, or simply want to know more about arnold -there is a lot to know. Just one thing... Its long... Very long... about 700 pages or so. But if you are a man of vision, a man that likes to strike out a path on untrodden land do not hesitate to get this book.

Yay I won!

YAY!!! I won my toastmasters club speech contest.

Last April I joined Toastmasters because I wanted to improve my communications skills. Toastmasters is an international organization that helps its members improve their communication and leadership skills. Once a year, it holds a series of contests that start from the club level and ends in the international level with the finals of the World Championship of public speaking. Competition gets steeper as you advance further. I'm looking forward to the next level of the competition.

I am nowhere near the kind of speaker I would like to be. If you would like to listen to some of my speeches below is my youtube page:

Kwasi's youtube page

The uncertainty of the Match Process

After you have done everything in your power to match, the final decision is completely out of your hands. Did the programs which interviewed you rank you; did they rank you high enough; will you match? Also, if you do match will you match at your first choice, second, or third etc. The uncertainty of the match is driving me crazy.

To deal with this same uncertainty, people look at the probability of matching based on the number of interviews they had. I’m not sure how true this is but I saw somewhere that if you get 12 interviews you will have a 90% chance of matching. Consequently, if they received that number of interviews they feel safe. Whereas those that got fewer interviews feel like they have less of a chance. I do not ascribe to this method.

These are just numbers. Yes it might be true that a certain number of interviews means you have a higher likelihood of matching merely because out of those 12 there is surely one person that will like you. But at the same time if you do not interview well all the programs could rank you very low or not a all. I personally know people that matched with just 1-2 interviews. I have also heard people that got greater than 10 interviews not matching. Consequently, the safe zone is not in the number of interviews.

I feel like the best thing that I did for myself is to prepare well for each interview. Do my very best at each interview to show them who I really am as a person- my strengths and my flaws with how I am working on them. Knowing that I did my best I can simply sit back and watch the chips fall where they will.

If you did your best, presenting yourself very well to residency programs then whether you have a lot of interviews or only a few interviews I want you to know that you have done your part. What’s left is the unveiling that will take place on Match Day, March 13^th 2017.

I will be keeping busy tutoring for CS, going to clinic and binge watching different tv series. Medici Masters of Florence is awesome. Thank me later. But, but, but, but… even with all of this I know that uncertainty will still occasionally creep through occasionally, and that is fine too.

12 days left till March 13^th, 2017.

Good luck with the Match everyone!!!

Latest post: 7 days left!!

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Mindset when applying for a residency/corporate position

Whoa, This week I'm posting three times. It's Christmas on this blog!!!

I came across this video while web surfing and thought I learned something that would help people applying for job positions anywhere- residency, corporate jobs etc. I am sharing this with you hoping that you will get something out of it.

Good luck with the match Guys!!!

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Other two posts if you are interested:

1) Having A Hard Time Matching. Who Do You Blame?
2) Progress on My New Years Resolutions

Having a hard time matching. Who do you blame?

Who is to blame for people not matching?

There's no need to look far. The culprit is right around the corner. Turn right and walk down the hallway until you come across the large mirror on the wall. Yes. Its you. Its me. We are to blame for having a difficult time matching.

You can only blame yourself for the blemishes on your record; you can only blame yourself for not buffing up your resume; you can only blame yourself for not putting in the kind of effort that others have put in; you can only blame yourself for going to school out of the US. 

This is my second time applying for the match. I did not match the first time around because I know my application had holes. If I had been more cautious and cognizant of what I needed to do I would not be in this situation. It is where I am so I worked hard to build up my resume. 

That said, there is another even bigger culprit and that is the system itself. Think about it, if we have shortage of doctors and we have a plethora of medical school graduates, why should there any problems filling the spots? Exactly, there shouldn’t be a problem. However, there is. Change is necessary, both long lasting change dealing with how residents are hired and trained, and short term solutions dealing with ways graduates can utilize their degrees to do something patient related.

There are glimpses of short term solutions.Some states are tackling this problem by providing other avenues where MD’s can utilize their degrees. These attempts are still in their infancy. Hopefully, soon there will be more pervasive changes to the residency system to give more competent physicians the ability to serve patients.

Until things change to accommodate more applicants, we need to accept part of the blame for having a difficult time matching. We need to take an honest look at the short comings of our applications and then aggressively work on buffing up our resumes.

There are 20 days to the Match now. Good luck everyone.


Posts you might find interesting:
The Uncertainty of the Match Process

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Progress On My New Years Resolutions 2/20/17

I wrote about some of my resolutions for 2017 here. In order to make sure I follow through on them I occasionally check on my progress in fulfilling my resolutions.  Below is my first progress check. 

Resolutions:

-        

1.       Reading 1 book a month: complete fail. I started reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography but the book kept going and going. I lost track. I thought I would be done earlier because I assumed it would be a short book, because its on Arnold - he did bodybuilding and movies and thats it right!!! There's a saying about making assumptions... It makes an ___ out of you and I.  Boy was I wrong. He has done so many things in his life that the book is expansive. As a result of that I got bugged down in the middle of the book. Then there are the residency interviews. But that’s ok. I am getting back to reading.
2.       Giving a speech to high school kids to motivate them: I’m still working on building up material.
3.       Competing in the international speech contest: I competed in my two public speaking clubs. I won in one club and placed second in the other. The people I competed against were stellar.
4.       Youtube videos: I have been making videos on my public speaking journey. 
5.        Matching: I will find out March 13th. Lets all pray for me. :D

The Financial drag of Matching

The whole application process is interesting. We shoot out our applications and hope for numerous interviews. Some get many, some get a few, some get zero interviews. It’s all different. The question is what happens when you actually have the interview. Sure, you prepare for it but that’s not all. You have to spend money. A lot of money.

First, applying to programs is expensive. Depending on whether you graduated Stateside (AMG) or went to school outside of the US, you will apply to as few as 5-15 or 100 and up respectively.

A very good friend who graduated from an American medical school applied to only 4 schools and had interviews at all four, ending up matching in his preferred spot. I also know friends that applied 200 plus programs and matched. I personally applied to about 150 programs. This disparity is just accepted as part of the application process.

As an IMG you will be spending about 2500$ - 5000$ on just shooting out applications. We have not even talked about other costs that come into play.

After submitting your applications, you have to wait for interviews. When the interviews come, you need to rent a place to live, you need to fly over there, you need to eat, you need to drive around. All of that costs money.

You have to spend approximately 600$-1000$ etc dollars per interview. I’m assuming that you are flying to your destination and staying in a hotel close the area. This racks up the more interviews you have. Imagine if you have 5- 20 interviews. Whew.

Not everyone is made of money. For most people, me included, they had to take out huge loans for medical school. This means there isn’t that much free money floating around to be invested in this process.

One of my friends dropped 10,000$ for the match. Not everyone I’m sure spends that much but the range can be from 5000 to 10,000 and that is no laughing matter for recent graduates, past graduates of medical school, and if you have your own family its even rougher.

Now, getting many interviews can be financially disrupting. However, interviews are a necessity to matching. You can’t match without an interview. Also, the more interviews the higher the probability of you matching is. Therefore we have no Choice of but to apply and shell out the money.

If you are reading this and you and you are not in the place where you are applying for the match YET then do everything that you can to make sure you match in one shot. How do you do that? Do well in your classes, rotations, and avoid failure in your USMLE Step exams. 

If you are applying for the match now, like I am, I want you to think about the interviews you get in this manner: 1)Think of all the money that you are spending as an investment in your future because you job if you get it will pay you back dividends, 2) remind yourself that the more interviews you greater your chances at matching. 

Good luck to all that applied this year.

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Next article: Having a Hard Time Matching. Who is to blame?

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Next post: coming up next week tuesday.

What is this ICE that people keep failing?

If you peruse the CS forums, you will run across people that have failed the CS. The heading will read along these lines: “help, Failed the ICE part of my CS.” Posters will then try to give advice and explain what ICE is. What I have found is that most people do not understand what ICE is. Their explanations are only partially correct. I will share with you my journey with the CS and what ICE is.  

If you are just getting ready to take the CS, you are probably reading through CS overviews. On reading CS overviews you will come across what I like to call the different grading sections. If you are like me you were probably thinking what are these things? What is CIS? What is ICE? What is SEP? Trust me you are not alone in that regard. In this post I will only focus on what ICE. Why?  Because I said so. Lol.

Talking about failing the CS is a matter that hits very close to home because I myself failed the CS on my first attempt. After failing, I decided that I would not let anyone else I know fail this exam. I started to help others pass the exam. Fortunately for me, everyone I have tutored has passed the exam.

Now you are probably asking yourself, how could this fine, awesome gentleman fail the CS? Oo, the “fine, gentleman” part is just in my head. Toche!! Lol.

Why did I fail the exam? Basically, I didn’t study for it the right way. I assumed I barely needed to study for this exam because it is what we do in clinic all the time. Its not an easy exam. If you go into it not preparing for it in the right way you will find it to be a very hard exam.

After I failed, I had to refocus my energies. I researched the whole exam. I came across a way to study for the exam so that I would pass anywhere - doesn’t matter what state- I go. I prepared for it a second time and then I took the exam and passed it. After passing it, I have used this method to help others pass the exam. Everyone I have tutored till now has passed the exam.

In my research about the exam, to make sure I was adequately prepared to pass the next time, I made sure I completely understood what ICE and the other sections are.

If you ask most people what they think ICE is they will shrug their shoulders. If you ask people that have taken certain review courses they will tell you it is the Physical exam. These are both wrong. First of how dare you shrug your shoulders. Lol. Jk. But seriously, ICE is not the simply the physical exam.

What is ICE then? ICE is, simply put, DATA Gathering and Data interpretation. It is the part of the exam where you gather information and document it. What does this entail? Data gathering is both getting the information from 1) your history taking and 2) your physical exam. Data interpretations is basically noting your information on your patient note. Therefore, if you only focus on one aspect of ICE data from physical exam you can fail the exam.

Be careful. You do not want to fail an exam because things are very competitive now. A failure can be the difference between getting an interview or not. Without an interview you CAN’T match.

I want you all to pass the exam. 

If you have any questions ask me. If you live in NYC and you want me to work with you live send me an email (step2csbuddy@gmail.com) or call the number in my bio. The company I work for Step 2 CS Buddy, LLC (step2csbuddy.com) is offering a 50% discount for the next two weeks so call now.

Lastly, if you find this helpful and you want to share my article do not forget to add a reference link so people can get more good information.  

Like, subscribe and share for more posts.

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Next article: Having a Hard Time Matching. Who is to blame?
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One of the biggest mistakes people make that leads to failure in the CS. 

What to do if you have a hard time studying over a long period of time:

What to do if you have a hard time studying over a long period of time:

Have you ever said to yourself that you work well under pressure. Have you ever told yourself you can only work hard when the exam- whatever it is you have to achieve- is close. I used to be like that too. If you have felt the above then you know that thinking like this can make you not perform as well as you should, and sometimes result in failure. After we mess up what do we say to ourselves? I will not wait till last minute next time. Then what happens? You just do the same thing and put off your studying till the last minute. Why? Because you work better under pressure.

Medical school is a time where you have to assimilate lots of material over a short time. You do this for your biochemistry, physiology, anatomy etc classes. You do this for your standardized exams. I studied hard for my step  exams. For my step 3 exam I studied for 1 whole year.

The longer the period of time that you have to focus on studying, say 3 months and up, the more difficult it is to maintain the intensity and focus needed to study. There are so many distractions we have to overcome to be able to focus for that long. You start studying and then you take a long break and start again. This happens over and over. You can't build any momentum. Then you blink and the exam you wanted to take next year is right around the corner. You know you are not ready so you postphone your exam for a few months. How can you stop doing this? How can you stop being your own worst enemy? How can you study over a long period of time with consistency and focus?

Throughout my high school and undergraduate years, I used to wait till the last minute to study. In medical school this was not enough. I had to revamp my studying to keep up with the material. I started studying consistently and daily. The thing that worked helped me was motivation. 

Whenever we say we learn better when we are under pressure we are not seeing the big picture! What we mean to say is we work better when we are motivated. When we push our studying off to the last day, we are well aware of the fact that if we do not work hard we will fail. This motivates us to study. This motivation is what we assume to be working well under pressure.

Knowing this minute distinction makes it easier to start studying in way in advance. If you want to start studying early all you need to do is to find the motivation to study everyday.

How do you get yourself motivated? There are numerous resources like youtube, and  books that give you an idea of how to become motivated and to maintain motivation. Sometimes it can be as simply as "if I do not do this I will fail." Sometimes you need to actively motivate yourself. I have occasionally listened some of these videos.

For now I will leave you with the names of a few motivational speakers I listen to, good people that have achieved much through concerted effort and not through luck. I will give you 4 motivators that I love.

Names:

Jim rohn

Zig Ziglar

Les Brown.  

ET the hip hop preacher. 

The best way to rank your residency programs

Raise your hands –mentally of course- if you think you should rank programs based on where you think you are likely to get a position. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten about the rest of you. Raise your hands if you think you need to rank them according to your own preference. Finally, raise your hands if you have no clue what to do. We all fall into one of these three groups. Hopefully, at the end of this blog post you will understand how the match process works, and also understand how you should rank your programs.

Here is a nice short video I found on YouTube that explains how the match works.

There are two takeaway points from this video. The first is to rank all your programs. The second is to rank programs in order of preference -from where you would love to go to where you wouldn’t. Lets go into detail.

Rank all the programs that interviewed you, from the places you liked to places you didn’t. People that don’t match either did not rank enough programs or did not have an offer from any of the places that interviewed them. It would suck to not match just because you chose to rank only the places that you loved. Right?

Ok, now you know you need to rank all of your programs. What is next? Rank your programs in terms of preference. Based on the video, you can see that so long as there is an offer from any one of the programs that you have on your rank order list you will match. By ranking your programs in terms of preference you give yourself the opportunity to match at your dream program in the best case scenario and in another program if things do not work as you planned.

The match is an expensive, unnerving experience that for many ends in the culmination of their hard work, residency. Place yourself in a position where you will become one of the many. Do not shoot yourself in the foot by not ranking all your programs. Give yourself the opportunity to match at your dream hospital by ranking in order of preference. Once you have done this, you have done all you can, and your part is done. All that’s left is the programs rank list, and that is out of your hands.

Good luck everyone!!! We are almost there. 49 days left. 

The Step 2 CS examination

Ask yourself this question. Do you want to match into a good residency program. If you are one of the many that say yes, then you need to pass this exam. I’m not saying that this exam is a definite way to match, however, failing this exam, or any of the other usmle exams makes matching become a bit tedious. 

The CS is one of the three standardized exams we have to pass in order to get a residency position. For some schools it is necessary to pass them to graduate- schools like my carribbean school- for other schools it is not necessary. I will talk about what the CS is in general, its components and its importance. It is the only one that is pass or fail.

The CS exam basically tests you on whether you can conduct a clinical encounter from the start to the diagnostic stage. It tests your professionalism, your compassion and your communication ability. In this encounter you need to be able to perform a focused history and physical arrive at your dx, while also performing preventative care if necessary, and finally leaving the patient feeling like he or she has a say in their care.

The CS is divided into 3 components for grading. There is the Standardized English Proficiency, the Communication and interpersonal skills, and finally integrated clinical encounter. I will go into more detail about what Ice is in a different post because many people have a hard time with it. In short, SEP tests whether you can you speak in a way pt understands, CIS is are you professional, and ICE is are you able to collect the necessary information.

This exam is a pass/fail exam. You have to pass all three of these sections to pass the exam. Failing any of these sections will make you fail the exam as a whole.

I tutor CS over skype and live if you live in NYC. I work for Step 2 CS Buddy where we pride ourselves in making sure our students are adequately prepared and confident in passing the exam. Give us a call if you are interested. If you would like me to give your school or group an educational talk about the CS also give me a call. 

Residency Interviews: The three most important questions to know how to answer

As interview season for residency winds down, the kinds of questions that I got on the interview trail varied. However, there are a few questions that kept surfacing irregardless of who was interviewing me. These are questions that you must know the answer for.

First, let me say that these are not guaranteed to be asked. However, I found them to be the most common question asked among all the interviews I had. That said, which questions are the most common?

      1)      Tell me about yourself?

      2)      What are your strengths?

      3)      Why are you interested in this specialty?

With these questions the programs can get an insight into who you are. Every program wants someone that is competent and fits into their team well. When you talk about yourself, they get a little glimpse into who you are.

Your strengths are something that even if you are not asked you want them to know. You want them to remember you. You want them to see that they are getting the best possible candidate. You want to sell them on the fact that there will be no regret when they choose you.

As for your interest in this specialty, it lets them know if you will be a happy worker. A happy worker gets along with his fellow colleagues, does his/her work well, makes things pleasant for people around them.

Know the answer to these questions and even if they are not asked, weave them into the conversation. Because, remember, you are not there to answer questions, you are there to sell yourself as the best possible candidate for that position. 

The year 2016 in review

written 12/29/2016

The year 2016 in review:

2016 has been a year of ups and downs. The main down happened on March 2016. Also, there were other things I choose to partake in and do because I enjoyed doing them. I have listed the main things that I was involved in. I will talk about how these things had an impact on me and my choices.

The match:

The most significant thing to happen is the residency match of 2016. Unfortunately, for me it was not good news. I did not match, which means I did not get a hospital to continue my training in. Becoming a doctor is my dream so I cast my lot in this up coming match and I applied. I got a few interviews to some very good programs. I will keep my fingers crossed and pray that the next match has better fortune for me.

The clinic:

I started working in a clinic in November of 2015. I have enjoyed volunteering there weekly. I have been exposed to a variety of conditions, from mild to severe. To me, maintaining patient contact is important because 1) I enjoy working with patients and 2) exposure to medicine after graduating from medical school is important in keeping ones medical knowledge sharp.

The books:

To be honest I tried to take on the new challenge of reading one book a week. I failed miserably! However, I am still satisfied with what I went through. I completed about 12 books- counting of the top of my head. There could be one or two more that I am forgetting at the moment.

12 books comes to about 1 book a month which is decent. However, if you take into account that I started doing so after april -when i first formed this resolution- it is even more impressive.

The goal for next year is to see if I can beat that.

Public Speaking.

In april I signed up for toastmasters, an international public speaking club where you get the opportunity improve on our communication skills as well as your leadership skills. I have completed the first manual, the competent communicator, 2 times. Once for each of the clubs that I am a part of.

The competent communicator is the first manual that you have to complete. Completion depends of giving 10 speeches. As such, I have given more than 20 speeches this year since April. I gave my speeches at the club level, so in front of a small group.

In 2017, I am hoping to start giving speeches to larger crowds, and possibly out of the toastmasters environment as a professional public speaker. I am thinking of speaking in High Schools. For now its just a thought. We will see how it goes.

Overall, 2016 has been a good year. My family and friends are in good health. I got into a car accident and did not get hurt. My cars is messed up but that meh. Being a pedestrian isn’t so bad.

In 2017, my goal is to match into a good residency program, to give a speech in front of a high school students, make more youtube videos, compete in the World championship of public speaking, and give you readers more value by blogging about the standardized exams that Medical students and Residents face.

Here's to a wonderful 2017.