Tuesday, January 31, 2017

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. 

Monday, January 23, 2017

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. 

Monday, January 16, 2017

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. 

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

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. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

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.