Medical school exams - fail?? Stressed!

I had my first year medical school exam today and it counts for 100% of our grade this year. It’s a single best answer paper, 3 hours long and in person. There’s a standardised 50% pass mark and idk the raw mark I need since it varies. I found the exam quite hard but noted down what I was completely sure was correct so I have around 40% correct for sure ( I assume). The others I wasn’t so sure about I made intelligent guesses and rechecked them when I went back home. From that I estimate I got around 50% correct (raw mark).

I was worried because I found it quite harder, harder than the mocks. I did revision and worked hard, doing lots of practise questions and writing some SBAs as well.

I asked some people how it went and they said it was all right, easier than expected. I know i shoudln’t care but I was even more worried after speaking to them. I know I shouldn’t compare but I really hope I’ve done well.

I am quite a negative person, i underestimate myself and stress a lot. I really hope I did okay and got a decent mark or at least passed.

Do most people in med school feel this way? anxious about their performance but wanting to show other’s they’re okay?
Is it normal to doubt yourself a lot during first year and feel like you failed and to actually pass?

Our uni has no past papers, no previous pass mark etc. Apparently around 10% fail and resit the exam.

Reply 1

Kayley:)

4

My friend is a 2nd-year medical student and she experienced some hardships as well. She said that the 'know-it-alls' in her course made her stressful all the time. So, don't stress yourself too much. Her tip for exams is to do question banks and practical work. She bought a book that included the medical questions from a lot of medical schools in different Universities. Hope it helps :smile:

Reply 2

TolgaK

3

Okay, i am med school student as well. All of us experienced same feelings don’t worry. Just tried to do best and you’ll pass. I am also negative person as well and most of the med school students feel same as we feel.

Reply 3

Mesopotamian…

21

I’m a dental student, rather than medical but our grading system and exam format are very similar.

I’m a pessimistic person so I can 100% relate to believing that you’ve done badly enough to fail and festering on this until results day. I (and maybe you do too?) have a catastrophising trait which means I mentally make situations at least 10x worse than they actually were which makes the feeling of failure stronger. Usually though, the results come out better than expected - and believe me I’ve sat some very difficult exams in my time: so difficult that no two people had the same answer.

I’d also ignore what others say about exams - I know easier said than done, but how others think their exam went doesn’t really reflect on their or your marks at all.

Reply 4

lolololol69669

OP

7

Original post by Mesopotamian.

I’m a dental student, rather than medical but our grading system and exam format are very similar.

I’m a pessimistic person so I can 100% relate to believing that you’ve done badly enough to fail and festering on this until results day. I (and maybe you do too?) have a catastrophising trait which means I mentally make situations at least 10x worse than they actually were which makes the feeling of failure stronger. Usually though, the results come out better than expected - and believe me I’ve sat some very difficult exams in my time: so difficult that no two people had the same answer.

I’d also ignore what others say about exams - I know easier said than done, but how others think their exam went doesn’t really reflect on their or your marks at all.

Thank you, yes I’m definitely a pessimist 😌 I appreciate your words and feel better now.

Original post by TolgaK

Okay, i am med school student as well. All of us experienced same feelings don’t worry. Just tried to do best and you’ll pass. I am also negative person as well and most of the med school students feel same as we feel.

Thank you, yes I see that now. :smile:

Original post by Kayley:)

My friend is a 2nd-year medical student and she experienced some hardships as well. She said that the 'know-it-alls' in her course made her stressful all the time. So, don't stress yourself too much. Her tip for exams is to do question banks and practical work. She bought a book that included the medical questions from a lot of medical schools in different Universities. Hope it helps :smile:

That’s so helpful thanks, yeah question banks and practising answers have helped me so much. Yeah, some people do like showing off what they know :smile:

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Heya, I'm a first year med student too and in the same boat as you. I've completed my end of year exams and I'm stressed too- it doesn't help that people were discussing answers in our med group chat too and realising I made many stupid mistakes which has made me more anxious. :/ But I'm trying to be positive, we've worked hard, so we'll be okay :smile:

Reply 6

lolololol69669

OP

7

Original post by Anonymous

Heya, I'm a first year med student too and in the same boat as you. I've completed my end of year exams and I'm stressed too- it doesn't help that people were discussing answers in our med group chat too and realising I made many stupid mistakes which has made me more anxious. :/ But I'm trying to be positive, we've worked hard, so we'll be okay :smile:

Yeah I feel you, all we can do is be positive or just not think about it. We’ve done the work now its just waiting. good luck!!

Reply 7

lolololol69669

OP

7

Hi all, wanted to update you guys on my results. I passed with 65% after standardising!! I almost failed my mocks in January and now I’m quite happy with how I performed. :smile:

Thank you all for your kind replies when I was stressing out earlier

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 8

junior.doctor

18

Original post by lolololol69669

Hi all, wanted to update you guys on my results. I passed with 65% after standardising!! I was in the 4th decile for my mocks in January and now in the 2nd decile so I’m quite happy with how I performed. :smile:

Thank you all for your kind replies when I was stressing out earlier

Well done!

Reply 9

junior.doctor

18

Original post by Anonymous

Wow 65% is 2nd decile??

What med school is this lol at ours that’s a fail and prob 10th decile.

It’s crazy the difference from med school to med school and really unfair how we are then compared nationally with regards to EPM etc... they really gotta standardise the process like the US real soon 🙄

You can’t compare different medical schools in the way that you’re doing. The exams are different. Level of exam difficulty and style of question is likely different. Hence needing different marks to do well. 65 in one med school is not 65 in another. I’m interested - at what medical school would 65 be a fail? “Probably 10th decile” - so more than 10% of your cohort fail each year?

Reply 10

junior.doctor

18

Original post by Anonymous

Wow 65% is 2nd decile??

What med school is this lol at ours that’s a fail and prob 10th decile.

It’s crazy the difference from med school to med school and really unfair how we are then compared nationally with regards to EPM etc... they really gotta standardise the process like the US real soon 🙄

You can’t compare different medical schools in the way that you’re doing. The exams are different. Level of exam difficulty and style of question is likely different. Hence needing different marks to do well. 65 in one med school is not 65 in another. I’m interested - at what medical school would 65 be a fail? “Probably 10th decile” - so more than 10% of your cohort fail each year?

Reply 11

Anonymous #3

Hopefully you have passed and smashed it. But you've failed you have failed but that doesn’t mean it's over, you can still do other things. You shouldn't let it make you feel like this, it's just an exam and you have to move on.

Reply 12

Medwithhh

Original post by Kayley:)

My friend is a 2nd-year medical student and she experienced some hardships as well. She said that the 'know-it-alls' in her course made her stressful all the time. So, don't stress yourself too much. Her tip for exams is to do question banks and practical work. She bought a book that included the medical questions from a lot of medical schools in different Universities. Hope it helps :smile:

May I ask what is the name of the book?

Medical school exams - fail?? Stressed!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you