is repeating a year a bad thing in medicine?

Like nobody cares at the end of the day and who cares if they do know... if you use that extra year to your benefit won't you just become a better junior doctor..

Reply 1

Fermion.

20

Just do what you gotta do. Stop caring about what other people think.

Reply 2

BlueSpikes

16

It does not matter at all. As long as your happy and enjoying yourself and make it to eventually graduate all is cool.
That extra year may be what you needed as in a year thats chilled but to reflect.

Reply 3

ugliestboieva

OP

9

apart from the financial challenges, i see no harm lol

Reply 4

BlueSpikes

16

Original post by ugliestboieva

apart from the financial challenges, i see no harm lol

Indeed.

Reply 5

ugliestboieva

OP

9

asking for a friend >.>

they have important osces coming up and don't feel prepared AT ALL. they think repeating a year at med school is a good idea.

Reply 6

ugliestboieva

OP

9

so this friend has passed every single exam they've sat so far but they crammed revised and forgotten everything afterwards.. this year they attended only 10% of sessions so what should they do? they have exams next week.

Reply 7

ugliestboieva

OP

9

True but it's worked for them before (so fingers crossed they pass).. but at the same time they feel a bit bad about passing because they feel like they lack a LOT Of knowledge and repeating the year might help develop their communication skills.

Reply 8

ugliestboieva

OP

9

does attending placements and lectures make you a better med student or is revision the most important bit? You can learn A LOT of the stuff from reading books, watching videos and practising with family members?

Reply 9

asif007

19

Original post by ugliestboieva

Like nobody cares at the end of the day and who cares if they do know... if you use that extra year to your benefit won't you just become a better junior doctor..

You’ve answered your own question. Nobody cares how long it takes you to become a doctor, which route you took or how many setbacks you had to overcome along the way. Doesn’t matter if it takes you 5 years or 50 years, provided you pass all your exams, graduate and become a competent doctor.

Original post by ugliestboieva

so this friend has passed every single exam they've sat so far but they crammed revised and forgotten everything afterwards.. this year they attended only 10% of sessions so what should they do? they have exams next week.

I’m gonna be brutally honest with you here. 10% attendance in 3rd year of medical school WILL get you kicked out. You’ve missed too much, it’s that simple. Obviously there’s nothing you can do about that now, but if you can pull it together and pass your OSCE, I would strongly advise you to sort out your problems with attendance. You’re doing a professional course like Medicine, don’t treat it like a Mickey Mouse degree.

Original post by ugliestboieva

asking for a friend >.>

they have important osces coming up and don't feel prepared AT ALL. they think repeating a year at med school is a good idea.

Yes, repeating the year can be beneficial if you’re willing to rectify all the mistakes you’ve made so far. If you’re just gonna do the same thing again, you might as well give up now.

Original post by ugliestboieva

True but it's worked for them before (so fingers crossed they pass).. but at the same time they feel a bit bad about passing because they feel like they lack a LOT Of knowledge and repeating the year might help develop their communication skills.

Why would you want to repeat the year even if you pass your exam? Don’t bring ego into this. Do your OSCE to the best of your ability and if you pass, you pass. Take whatever grade you get and be happy with it. If unfortunately you don’t pass, then you need to clean up your act and do things differently next time around.

Original post by ugliestboieva

does attending placements and lectures make you a better med student or is revision the most important bit? You can learn A LOT of the stuff from reading books, watching videos and practising with family members?

I think you’ve found out the hard way that you can’t pass an OSCE from reading books and watching videos. This may have helped you so far for the pre-clinical exams, but you have to take a different approach for practical exams. Unless your family members are doctors/med students themselves, it’s not very productive to practise on people who a) don’t know what you’re doing and b) can’t give you input on where you’re going wrong. Find other medical students to practise with - I’m sure you’re not the only one doing the exam again.

Reply 10

ugliestboieva

OP

9

less than 3 days awesome!!!!!!! :frown:

There's going to be 4 communication/ethics/explaining/consent stations on each day and I am not sure how can I prepare for those, any tips? I say the most BS things sometimes like so cringy and off topic. Also if i don''t know something my mind just goes blank and i just sit there for 4 mins in silence...

Reply 11

tommyvercetti

6

Original post by ugliestboieva

less than 3 days awesome!!!!!!! :frown:

There's going to be 4 communication/ethics/explaining/consent stations on each day and I am not sure how can I prepare for those, any tips? I say the most BS things sometimes like so cringy and off topic. Also if i don''t know something my mind just goes blank and i just sit there for 4 mins in silence...

No one can give you any advice that you don't know already at this point. Just keep practising with friends and with people you don't know very well to simulate an OSCE scenario (you can get a bit too familiar with friends and not act how you would in exam conditions). If you know any upper years, find out what topics are common for your med school OSCEs. Comms stations tend to be more about your delivery than your content, but the content is still important so learn the common ethical scenarios that you would encounter like breaching confidentiality, the criteria for gaining informed consent, and breaking bad news and dealing with angry patients if you're an upper year, etc.
Organise a group (I usually go for 3 people so each has a role: one student, one actor, one examiner), find an OSCE scenarios book from the library, and grind out the stations they have in it until the day of the OSCE.
Resources like Geeky Medics, OSCE Stop, OSCE Pass, and OSCE-Aid are all decent.

Just keep practising, and good luck.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 12

ugliestboieva

OP

9

i have no friends so ive just been practising by myself but i left it too late as i just started 1 week ago today.