 Hey guys, welcome to the channel here on the DocTalk series and the TMJ show where I talk to students just like you on their medical journey, help them along the way. Today we're going to talk about what to do when step one doesn't go your way and how to still set yourself up for a great residency. Let's get into it. Kevin, how are you doing, bud? Pretty good. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. So how can we help you? Yeah. So my question really is for somebody who is interested in going to maybe a more competitive specialty and didn't do so well on step one, what would your advice be in terms of making a good pivot or adjustment in terms of preparation for step two to get a more competitive score? Sure. So step one didn't go your way. What can you do the rest of the way to really just hit it home? What are you trying to go into? Thinking about either anesthesiology or emergency medicine. Okay. So from my reference, anesthesiology is usually like two thirties, high two forties on their step one and then emergency medicines give or take the same and the step two scores are a little bit higher. But thankfully there's a lot of spots and those are really high needed positions. So where are you right now on your medical journey? So right now I'm a third year, rounding out the end of the year. Got it. So you'll be applying relatively soon? Yep. Have you already taken step two or are you waiting? Not yet. But we actually have, I have a couple more, like a rotation and a half left to do and then I'll be taking it in the next couple of months or so. Sounds good. How did the rotations go so far? Yeah, they've been going well. I mean, I've really enjoyed it. They've been going really well. I learned a lot. You know, it's hard. Just deprived a lot of the time, but you know, it's good. Sounds good. And did the valuations and grades go your way for the most part? I mean, a lot of it's clinically, yes. I think shelf-wise sometimes that was sometimes like what would be like the one thing that maybe held me back a little bit. Sure. Like a high-passing in honors, but you know, I did my best. So, you know. Do you get the valuations that you hopefully you were looking for someone? Valuations-wise, yeah. I feel pretty comfortable with those things that I've got on the clinics. Yeah. Perfect. Those are, that's usually the two things that I'll look for is like how did the rotations go? Because you put an order. I mean, you'll be applying this year. So in the next two years, residency programs are going to start looking at step one less and less just because they have to start getting practice for like when they're not going to have that option anyways. So you're in a good spot where step two is going to start to be a little bit more emphasized. So the best and first advice will be to like start, you know, your step two studying a little bit now. So start reviewing essentially for the rotations you've done because you just want to hit that test out of the park. Because if you can do it, that's going to be the score that residency programs are going to start looking more and more into the next few years. And so if you already kind of give them a like, oh, you know, he passes our threshold for this test and then they can look at your evaluations and be like, okay, he also killed it on his evaluations with his attendings and cool. Step one didn't go his way, but there's going to be a thankfully a nice kind of threshold of people saying, I don't really care as much anymore because I have to not care. Does that make sense? Yeah. So what are you planning on doing or in terms of like one step two comes around any ideas? So right now, I mean, I've really enjoyed using online method like throughout the year. I mean, there were times where I did a little bit better on my shelf than, you know, than other, you know, rotations. And I found that if I'd gone through all the videos and gone through like the entire hockey deck for, you know, this hockey deck for the steps, I did better. But I think I just kind of, for me, it's almost like I want to like, you know, do extremely well and be like extremely above average on step two. So I guess I'm just kind of, I know typically people who do well on step two have done well on step one, but I know it's a different test. And so I guess just curious, like for any specific resources that you've either seen other students use or you've come across that have yielded like a huge bang for their buck when, you know, like hitting hard, except, you know, with the exception of like you world, obviously. Sure. No, I mean, so nice thing about step two is that it's, it's very repetitive. Very step one is like nitpicky little bits of details and like that's hard because you're taught that that's not going to be important later on. But here the nice part is that the stuff you learn for step two ideally will correlate with whatever specialty you'll go through. And so, you know, I personally use online meta to myself. That's when I was really kind of like coming into the environment of medical school. And if you really enjoy the videos, you know, then I wouldn't really go away from what's worked well for your shelf exam. There isn't that, you know, amazing resource that's going to like take you over the threshold of a great score. But personally, you know, like having nearly a 260 on my step two, like all I did was online meta in your world and just went crazy on the repetition because I knew that that's where really those questions would hit home. Unlike step one, where you're like just hoping you can get as many resources to get that little little nitpicky, you know, detail. That's ideally not the case on step two. And so your idea should be be able to be a manage anything from OBGYN, pediatrics, anesthesia, internal medicine. And thankfully, those problems are repetitive. They don't make new problems. And so you just have to be able to recognize those patterns. And the way you can do it is find one, the resource you really enjoy to learn it and two, the resource you really enjoy to test yourself. Especially when you get busier with rotations and like for you, it's going to be getting busier with like applying and personal statements. You want to not stress yourself out because there's already going to be a stress that you're going to put yourself on. I already know this is I have to do well on this task, right? So that part's already there. So you don't need to go crazy by adding three resources of hoping that one of them and that combination is going to do the trick. So if online meta did the trick for you and I've used it, I recommend on the channel, obviously, find a schedule where the first part of your studying, and ideally, maybe before you really get into your dedicated is spent watching the videos in the order of your weakest topics. So pick the rotation that you struggle with the most, start with that, because that's when you build your confidence, right? And then start with your second weakest topic for me. It was probably pediatrics and OBGYN and then just go down the list, get those videos out of the way. Cause then when it's really time to, you know, get the nitty gritty and like start studying, that's when questions come for you. If you like the flashcards, you can use those like supplement it to make sure the whole day is not like just doing practice questions. And then, you know, this is what I suggest with people that I always ask me questions about step one. It's let's just say you're going to study for four or five weeks. I don't know. Do you get dedicated time off during your institution? Yeah. So, so right now I have, I have five weeks where I'm allotted to have dedicated, ideally because of the fact that, you know, step two, I mean, with step one, I, I, you know, I want to make sure that I'm kind of maximizing any extra time that I have, like we have like a week or two where, you know, there's like some requirements of things we have to do, but it's not as stressful. So I kind of want to incorporate as much time as possible, which is going to be my follow up question is like, was it ideal amount of time that you see people, you know, used to do well on this test? Yeah. I would say for dedicated, it's about like three to four weeks where you really get to get hone in on the questions and then anything up to six weeks where you're starting to like get the busy work out of the way. So the, the heavy video sessions, there's some people really like to read the text and it's like trying to get through that as quickly as possible. So I'll give you my example, but I think it's going to kind of run similar to your situation. I was finishing up my family medicine block, which was time intensive, and then I was going into a week of spring break and then four weeks to study for the exam. So roughly five weeks. But I use that latter part of my family medicine to essentially use you world and the resources from online meta to knock the family medicine section away. All right. And so I got those videos done. I use spring break to knock the rest of the videos that I needed to. And so like I made a schedule where, you know, by the time that I was really kind of getting into my dedicated, those videos are either almost done or, you know, close to being done. And I had, and mentally I had kind of a reference of what my best topics were, my weakest topics were. So now when I set up my like, let's create a study schedule, I started with the weakest one first and I sprinkled those more frequently than I did. You know, if I was great in cards, then I would do cards once a week, but if I sucked in neurology, I would do neurology either every day or every other day, you know, that kind of idea. Um, say it again, in terms of like the videos you were using, you mean? Yeah. So, I mean, initially when I was watching the videos, those would be number one. Um, but by, I mean, I'm really referring to when you start doing your practice questions. Okay. And ideally by the time you really kind of get into your practice questions, you have very few videos left, if any, um, and the way then you construct your, you can do a lot of practice questions or a few sets a day, you know, two to three, when you're first starting three to four, when you're really building on, because it is a longer test than step one. And then you kind of know, you know, after a week of doing is like, okay, I'm getting better at this. I'm still weak in these topics. Let me go watch those videos again in pediatrics, um, but I'm killing an internal medicine. I don't need to watch another talk on AKI. Like I'm getting those questions. Yeah. Right. So, um, and if you don't, you know, if like for me, after watching the video the first time, things started to make sense, but then I could just use those notes that online meta has, um, and be like, oh, let me just get a quick reference. If it still doesn't make sense, you know, go back to the video. But you start with that high bits of high yield information, get that retention in, test yourself and then reassess. But that's how I would do it. Start with your weakest points first. That way they don't cost you points on the real thing and, you know, have enough practice sessions when it's really kind of time for your, to your dedicated, um, and then readjust as needed. But keeping it simple and just keeping it in the form of I need to test myself because these are all, this is the whole test about pattern recognition. How can you walk into a fake patient's room, see the problem and know how to fix it? Right. Gotcha. Okay. That's really helpful. Thanks. And then just one last question, I guess in this specific, this specific topic, did you find, did you like to, uh, question you blocked twice or, um, Q bank twice or did you find that, you know, going through it one time and then wrongs or was it sufficient? No, that's perfect. Uh, so personally, because I had the five weeks and I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Um, what I ended up doing was I did the first block, I marked all the questions that either I for sure got wrong or something where I guessed on it and it was correct, but I really didn't understand the concept. And so I just marked those my first past of the world with no stress. Um, if I had time and there's like really something that I just didn't understand, I would make an Anki card for them because I usually would, if I didn't feel like in the mood to study, then I would spend 30 minutes reviewing all those missed questions I had. So I had a growing deck over time of all the missed questions I had. And then that last week of the prep, I was able to go through that Anki deck to really again knock out my weaknesses. Um, but by the time it came to a second repetition, I didn't have time to do the whole deck again. So I just did my miss ones. Um, and essentially every time I would get that question right, I would unmark it and then, you know, I think the last like three days, I had enough time to like do those extra like 200 questions that I had missed again. Um, because the whole point is to get as many points as possible. So to minimize your weakness as much as possible. And then you go into test day saying, I know a good portion of this and the things that I've missed, I've like, you know, somehow incorporated a system where I don't miss it again. Hmm. Yeah. Nice. So hopefully you guys are enjoying this conversation here at the doc talk series. If you are and you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and hit that like button down below and let's get back to the rest of the conversation. Yeah. Yeah. So I think kind of as a follow up, you know, with, you know, with a low step one score, trying to obviously do better on step two, but I guess how to craft the right narrative. Um, you know, because that'll be coming up later this calendar year, but I kind of want to get a head start and something like trying to make sure that I'm putting, you know, my best self across. Absolutely. And, you know, every, there's various versions of your question, which is like, I didn't do well, preclinical, step one didn't go my way. My GPA is not that great or step two didn't go my way. How do I like, you know, explain that I'm still a great candidate, right? So that's essentially the question of what I do in my applications. I usually have an approach that like, when you're going through medical school and you're about this time where you're about to start your applications, list out every freaking experience you've done, you know, pre-med, that's cool. And then it can be small experiences, it can be big experiences. It's not like, list out your clubs and stuff, list out the experiences. And that also means like great patient experiences, great experiences with attending experiences where you felt like a total failure, things didn't go your way. And the idea about it is like when you write your essays, you have like a list of these experiences and then you can look at which one best reflects, you know, answering this question. And, you know, you want to go into emergency medicine, you want to go to anesthesia. Obviously, that's going to be cleared up closer to the time that you're applying. And so then you're going to ask like, which of these experiences kind of all submit to the part of Kevin that wants to go into this field. Right. Like if you want to go into emergency medicine, because you like really enjoy fast acting decisions, you want to stabilize somebody fast and you just want to be that first diagnostic, you know, physician that's in the room. Then you can talk about all those different experiences that kind of highlight that and that would be your story. And the same thing, you know, when you're doing your, you ask parts of all of your organizations, you don't all the experiences. Make sure they highlight those, because ultimately the residency wants an emergency medicine physician or they want an anesthesiologist. So if you reflect, here are the X, Y and Z reasons I want to go into this field. Then and here are the experiences that prove that I also like this, you know, that experience or my, my why is also echoed. And I know what I'm talking about. I want this. Then they again can say, okay, low step one score, good step to score ideally, because you're going to kill it, you know, killed it on his rotations. And then his application speaks to somebody who knows why they want to go into this field and can also reflect on their experiences to tell them why this is true. Does that make sense? It makes perfect sense. Yeah, I think a lot of times medical students have the issue is that they feel like they have to be that cookie cutter applicant, right? You want that good step one score, those research experiences step two. But if you think of it from the residency applicants or the residency programs perspective, that cookie cutter applicant like sucks, right? Because there's no way for me to tell from that, besides that you're a smart student, if you're a good friggin doctor and you're going to get spot like a good fit for them. So you know, you want to go to a community program for an emergency medicine experience, or if you, you know, want to do anesthesiology because you enjoy like that surgical like, you know, sort of, you know, OR room environment, speak to that in your application, speak to that in every single experience you did, like personally, for me going into internal medicine, I just wanted to know a little bit about everything so I can walk into a room. And this is my why I'm like telling you my application, I can walk into a room, help that one patient, make them feel better so then they can be, you know, that good mom, the good wife, good employee, good community service, whatever role they had, me knowing a little bit about everything could help them to go back and do whatever role they wanted. So every single experience that I like put on my application, I kind of always a little bit referred to my why. So ideally the person that's reading your your personal statement can see that people reading your application can see that and the person that's interviewing you really sees that this person, everything just ties together. So that's like my answer by how do you stand out? You just make your story, you you make it, Kevin, you kill it to whatever all the extra opportunities you have. And then it's very easy for somebody to say this didn't go their way and you're still going to have institutions. This is maybe complete, completely honest. That's going to say the step score is not in our avenue and we have to interview a lot of people. But your goal is to get into a residency that's perfect for you. So if a residency says no to you based on the score, it maybe wasn't the spot for you in the first place, right? You want to be in a place where there's going to be other people just like you or step one didn't go their way, but they're going to get a freaking amazing training to be a great whatever position you want to be. So you just set yourself up with all the opportunities that go well and you make sure that you create that list of experiences of all of the things that went right and wrong. Nice thing about it is then you can use on your personal statements. You can make sure everything kind of ties together because you want that nice personalized application, not just an application. And then when you show up to interviews, any questions they ask, you can mentally just reflect on that list. And if they ask you, tell me about experience and they didn't go well. I got it. Tell me about an experience where you worked as a team. I got it. Tell me about an experience that like really made you want to do this field. I have several. And things just become less and less stressful because you're telling your story. That's a whole idea. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you. So but yeah, man, you're going to do great, you know, asking these questions like now is a recipe for success. And now it's all about just taking those small steps forward. But not worrying about those little mishaps that went in the past. Yeah, no, I appreciate that a lot. Thanks for taking us. Absolutely. But Kevin, wish you the best of luck. Definitely reach out. Let me know how things are going and we'll talk to you soon. All right, guys, hope you guys enjoyed this episode on how to do well, even when step one doesn't go your way and still get into an amazing residency. Comment down below your thoughts. If you watched this point on the episode on YouTube, go ahead that like button. It definitely helps. The channel helps the video. Most importantly, if you gotten some golden nuggets to this point in this video, there may be somebody in your similar choose that may also benefit. So if you hit that like button, it may increase the chances that YouTube may show to that one special person who may need to watch this. And if you're listening to this on a podcast, then go ahead and either subscribe or follow based on the platform that you're listening on and also consider going ahead and leaving an honest review on iTunes to really help again to get the show in front of more people. But with that being said, guys, thanks so much for being a part of my journey. Hopefully it has a little help to you on yours. And if you enjoy this episode and also check out this episode on a full walkthrough of Anki as well as all of our playlist for the DocTalk series here, but I will see you guys next one. Take care, my friends. Peace.