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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PASS YOUR CS IN ONE ATTEMPT. I will tutor you and be your practice partner. You will gain confidence in handling the patient encounters as well as in writing your patient notes. Call 1-844-850-5248 
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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:

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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.