Repeating medical student- failed another exam

Hi. I will start off by explaining my situation. I am a repeating medical student. I failed my second year exam by 2 marks. I accepted the oppurtunity to repeat the year. Took some tactics and tried to adjust. Things have been very strange with online learning. I have previously been to university before and achieved a good grade in my previous degree. I have never doubted my abilities before and I have never failed before.

This year we did an exam, a combined exam of 2 terms. I worked hard for my exam, I am not going to lie. However my focus was on 2nd year topics. I trusted my experience from my previous second year exams (last year) where the emphasis was on 2nd year topics. I briefly looked at the main concepts of 1st year. I think this is what I struggle the most with this course, anything can crop up. I know I am stupid for not taking as much heed to 1st year material, especially when I am repeating the year, but when the content is so huge.. i thought I should do this strategy.

I sat that exam. I didn't pass. I missed the pass mark by 1 mark. I now have to sit the resit paper which is deemed as risky. If i fail that, that is it. No more chances. I cannot fail... i know some people may say if you keep failing then you should question your abilities to complete the course. But my spirit to fight is still high. I want it so bad. I am not far off...i never have been. I am just scared. Naturally, this makes me doubt my abilities.

My mother has recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. I told her and she cried. She says she has suffered a lot and is distraught by my repeated failure. I do not intend to fail..i tried to do my best. It hurts me very much she feels that way and I feel disgusted with my self. I feel like I cannot see any light of the tunnel. I am dissapointed with myself ... my poor choices, my failure, my hurt to my mother. Im beginning to have very low self esteem and this does not help by the comments at home.

Strangely, prior to exam my university had specified the passmark for the exam. If they had stuck to that email I would have passed. After the exam, they decided to increase the boundary. I feel so unlucky. I will be bringing this up with my uni but I know they are very stubborn to show compassion and always deem themselves as right

Please someone offer me advice. I'd really appreciate some positivity right now. I'd appreciate it if people could refrain from saying 'medical school is clearly not for you' because I still am going to sit the resit paper and this is not something I want to hear right now.

Thanks

Hi. I will start off by explaining my situation. I am a repeating medical student. I failed my second year exam by 2 marks. I accepted the oppurtunity to repeat the year. Took some tactics and tried to adjust. Things have been very strange with online learning. I have previously been to university before and achieved a good grade in my previous degree. I have never doubted my abilities before and I have never failed before.

This year we did an exam, a combined exam of 2 terms. I worked hard for my exam, I am not going to lie. However my focus was on 2nd year topics. I trusted my experience from my previous second year exams (last year) where the emphasis was on 2nd year topics. I briefly looked at the main concepts of 1st year. I think this is what I struggle the most with this course, anything can crop up. I know I am stupid for not taking as much heed to 1st year material, especially when I am repeating the year, but when the content is so huge.. i thought I should do this strategy.

I sat that exam. I didn't pass. I missed the pass mark by 1 mark. I now have to sit the resit paper which is deemed as risky. If i fail that, that is it. No more chances. I cannot fail... i know some people may say if you keep failing then you should question your abilities to complete the course. But my spirit to fight is still high. I want it so bad. I am not far off...i never have been. I am just scared. Naturally, this makes me doubt my abilities.

My mother has recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. I told her and she cried. She says she has suffered a lot and is distraught by my repeated failure. I do not intend to fail..i tried to do my best. It hurts me very much she feels that way and I feel disgusted with my self. I feel like I cannot see any light of the tunnel. I am dissapointed with myself ... my poor choices, my failure, my hurt to my mother. Im beginning to have very low self esteem and this does not help by the comments at home.

Strangely, prior to exam my university had specified the passmark for the exam. If they had stuck to that email I would have passed. After the exam, they decided to increase the boundary. I feel so unlucky. I will be bringing this up with my uni but I know they are very stubborn to show compassion and always deem themselves as right

Please someone offer me advice. I'd really appreciate some positivity right now. I'd appreciate it if people could refrain from saying 'medical school is clearly not for you' because I still am going to sit the resit paper and this is not something I want to hear right now.

Thanks

I'm sorry to hear this. I know how awful you must be feeling. I know what a horrible experience it is repeating a year and having to do an exam multiple times despite working so hard for it, while everybody else who appears to do half the amount of work you did passes and moves on without any problems. Having said that, I'm also sorry to see that you've only had one response before mine in nearly 2 weeks since you posted this, when all the usual suspects reply to most threads in this section within minutes and hours. Thank you to the person who posted above for all their encouraging words though - I know how much that means at a difficult time like this. However, the fact that nobody else has said a word just demonstrates to you how ignorant medical students are about failure. Medical students are by and large the worst people to talk to about failing exams because the majority of them have never experienced failure at anything in their lives like we have. They will give you hollow advice or worse, ignore you completely when you reach out for some support. I think it's ironic that some people can become doctors but stay silent on things that are difficult to talk about, especially mental health, family problems and failing exams. Clearly they can help patients with any other problem, but when a patient comes to them presenting with acute depressive state or anxiety due to failing exams, they will stay quiet. Anyway, I'm going off-topic.

I do agree with the person above that you should apply for mitigating circumstances about your mother's health ASAP before you do the exam. I don't know when your exam is, but putting this application in will save you later on if any more problems come up. Medical school in the UK can be a very deceptive experience for some of us, and it's not uncommon for them to play cruel tricks on you, throw things at you in the exam to catch you out etc. They tell you what you need to do to pass and then fail you anyway by making up extra rules that were never communicated to you or anyone else in advance. It's horrible and tbh quite frustrating when they constantly move the goalposts. Yet so many people don't have these awful experiences that we did, so they can't sympathise and they deny that things like this happen.

The first thing you should start by doing is keeping that email that they sent you specifying the pass mark they would be using. Print it, photocopy it, email it to yourself again, keep multiple copies everywhere. You have a good case for an appeal on the grounds of misconduct, i.e. they changed the pass mark behind closed doors, after the exam was already concluded and this was never communicated to you, nor did they make any provisions or apologise to all the students who achieved the pass mark that was written on the first email but failed after they changed the pass mark. This was clearly a ploy for them to cut the number of medical students down to meet the number of places they have available in an oversubscribed year group. Go to your student union, speak to an adviser, get them to represent you at any meetings you might have with your medical school over their deception. Get the BMA involved if you have to - I think they have a free hotline you can call Monday to Friday. Don't fall for your medical school's lies and lack of compassion: they are clearly in the wrong here so don't take it lying down. They want you to just accept failure without saying anything - don't give them what they want. Challenge them every step of the way, and gather all the supporting evidence you can starting from now. If you can prove that the rules were changed and no communication nor approval was sought from the students, you can catch them out and give them a taste of their own medicine. Bear in mind, if things get really bad, talk to the press with all your evidence. Sometimes unwanted media attention on a university can be enough to get them to back down from whatever they're cheating you into doing. The court of public opinion is a very valuable thing when it comes to issues like this.

Sorry I've had to mention all this but I know how debilitating it can be to give parents disappointing news about failing exams and seeing their reactions. They always have high expectations for us but they take failures much harder than we do. They worked hard to give us the best opportunities to study Medicine but we are the ones who studied hard for years to get into medical school and studied even harder just to pass exams to keep our places. Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I'm really sorry for everything you've had to go through with your mother's health and her reaction to your failures. All you can do at this point is be strong, have faith in yourself and your abilities, keep working hard and struggling on. Never be afraid to take the path less trodden. I did exactly this and I've come out stronger on the other side, I left behind a lot of deceptive and manipulative people and moved away from what I didn't realise at the time was a very poisonous environment for me. I know you will find the strength to do the same. Take care of your health, do things to unwind and improve your confidence and above all, keep working hard. Medical school is a marathon but it's also a hustle. Some of us have to work much harder and much longer than everyone else just to prove ourselves to all the haters and doubters - which includes all our colleagues and the people teaching us but who sometimes set us up to fail. I wish you all the best and I hope you will take some of my advice on board - I could really have used a response like this back when I was going through similar things. PM me if you want to discuss anything!

Have you ever thought that maybe the pass mark is set because scoring below it would mean you might not have the necessary knowledge and skills to cope with the next stage, and that the energies you spend fighting the med school may be better spent improving your performance?

To the OP you have my sympathy with your plight and home and my admiration for your persistence. Given you haven't struggled in your previous degree and you don't appear to be lacking in motivation I might advise you speak to your tutor as it sounds like there may be something in your study skills that isn't working for you. I don't know what your undergrad degree was in, or what school you are at, but medicine in particular has its differences to many other university courses and might need a different approach. What might have worked well for you before might not be the pest strategy now.

If I was your examiner and I told you that you need (for example), 60% to pass your exam, you get 70%, then I change the pass mark to 80% after the exam was done (without telling you) and I fail you - would you be happy about that? Don't immediately assume that it's a problem with the student without looking at the bigger picture. Perfectly capable students do fail for no reason other than their medical school doesn't have enough places in the year above and so they pull tricks like this.

No, I wouldn't. The bigger picture I would want to look at is why a student was repeatedly failing exams and if they had actually taken any steps to identify why they have failed and change their behaviour.

Following my example above: you passed the exam but your med school says you fail because they changed the pass mark on the sly, so how is it a problem with the student? This is where you and I disagree. Exams are not exclusively failed because the student didn't work hard enough. Medical schools have agendas.

I'm sorry to hear this. I know how awful you must be feeling. I know what a horrible experience it is repeating a year and having to do an exam multiple times despite working so hard for it, while everybody else who appears to do half the amount of work you did passes and moves on without any problems. Having said that, I'm also sorry to see that you've only had one response before mine in nearly 2 weeks since you posted this, when all the usual suspects reply to most threads in this section within minutes and hours. Thank you to the person who posted above for all their encouraging words though - I know how much that means at a difficult time like this. However, the fact that nobody else has said a word just demonstrates to you how ignorant medical students are about failure. Medical students are by and large the worst people to talk to about failing exams because the majority of them have never experienced failure at anything in their lives like we have. They will give you hollow advice or worse, ignore you completely when you reach out for some support. I think it's ironic that some people can become doctors but stay silent on things that are difficult to talk about, especially mental health, family problems and failing exams. Clearly they can help patients with any other problem, but when a patient comes to them presenting with acute depressive state or anxiety due to failing exams, they will stay quiet. Anyway, I'm going off-topic.

I do agree with the person above that you should apply for mitigating circumstances about your mother's health ASAP before you do the exam. I don't know when your exam is, but putting this application in will save you later on if any more problems come up. Medical school in the UK can be a very deceptive experience for some of us, and it's not uncommon for them to play cruel tricks on you, throw things at you in the exam to catch you out etc. They tell you what you need to do to pass and then fail you anyway by making up extra rules that were never communicated to you or anyone else in advance. It's horrible and tbh quite frustrating when they constantly move the goalposts. Yet so many people don't have these awful experiences that we did, so they can't sympathise and they deny that things like this happen.

The first thing you should start by doing is keeping that email that they sent you specifying the pass mark they would be using. Print it, photocopy it, email it to yourself again, keep multiple copies everywhere. You have a good case for an appeal on the grounds of misconduct, i.e. they changed the pass mark behind closed doors, after the exam was already concluded and this was never communicated to you, nor did they make any provisions or apologise to all the students who achieved the pass mark that was written on the first email but failed after they changed the pass mark. This was clearly a ploy for them to cut the number of medical students down to meet the number of places they have available in an oversubscribed year group. Go to your student union, speak to an adviser, get them to represent you at any meetings you might have with your medical school over their deception. Get the BMA involved if you have to - I think they have a free hotline you can call Monday to Friday. Don't fall for your medical school's lies and lack of compassion: they are clearly in the wrong here so don't take it lying down. They want you to just accept failure without saying anything - don't give them what they want. Challenge them every step of the way, and gather all the supporting evidence you can starting from now. If you can prove that the rules were changed and no communication nor approval was sought from the students, you can catch them out and give them a taste of their own medicine. Bear in mind, if things get really bad, talk to the press with all your evidence. Sometimes unwanted media attention on a university can be enough to get them to back down from whatever they're cheating you into doing. The court of public opinion is a very valuable thing when it comes to issues like this.

Sorry I've had to mention all this but I know how debilitating it can be to give parents disappointing news about failing exams and seeing their reactions. They always have high expectations for us but they take failures much harder than we do. They worked hard to give us the best opportunities to study Medicine but we are the ones who studied hard for years to get into medical school and studied even harder just to pass exams to keep our places. Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, I'm really sorry for everything you've had to go through with your mother's health and her reaction to your failures. All you can do at this point is be strong, have faith in yourself and your abilities, keep working hard and struggling on. Never be afraid to take the path less trodden. I did exactly this and I've come out stronger on the other side, I left behind a lot of deceptive and manipulative people and moved away from what I didn't realise at the time was a very poisonous environment for me. I know you will find the strength to do the same. Take care of your health, do things to unwind and improve your confidence and above all, keep working hard. Medical school is a marathon but it's alsYouo a hustle. Some of us have to work much harder and much longer than everyone else just to prove ourselves to all the haters and doubters - which includes all our colleagues and the people teaching us but who sometimes set us up to fail. I wish you all the best and I hope you will take some of my advice on board - I could really have used a response like this back when I was going through similar things. PM me if you want to discuss anything!

Have you ever thought that maybe the pass mark is set because scoring below it would mean you might not have the necessary knowledge and skills to cope with the next stage, and that the energies you spend fighting the med school may be better spent improving your performance?

To the OP you have my sympathy with your plight and home and my admiration for your persistence. Given you haven't struggled in your previous degree and you don't appear to be lacking in motivation I might advise you speak to your tutor as it sounds like there may be something in your study skills that isn't working for you. I don't know what your undergrad degree was in, or what school you are at, but medicine in particular has its differences to many other university courses and might need a different approach. What might have worked well for you before might not be the pest strategy now.

You are incredibly kind. Thank you so much for your lovely words. Its always encouraging to see words like this. + I agree, its very unfortunate when the compassion in medical school is limited to an OSCE.

I cant tell you how much you have kept me going

Yes I agree. I never shy away from accountability or responsibility. I do ask for a structure though and I think that is fair. Truthfully, (this is not me trying to blame the uni but me being honestly very reflective), I have never been given feedback on the exams I have failed despite asking. With that, it is also possibility that I am failing due to poor exam technique or lack of insight at to where I am going wrong. Particularly when I have failing by one mark.

I have never heard , nor can I find any info on med schools changing the pass grade just to cut numbers for the following year, @ecolier , @Democracy have you ever heard of this , there not being enough places on a med course for the following year so they cut numbers by changing pass grades?

surely they only take on the right number of students from the beginning in year 1?

There are of course quotas on how many med students a uni can recruit. However to my knowledge that quota does not decrease as you go up years. There is always a little flexibility going up years too... I find it very unlikely there would be a need to cut student numbers specifically.

However I can't claim there aren't some horrid people out there nor that some of the admin horror stories you hear coming from places like King's couldn't result in some terrible **** ups. I'd be interested to hear we what evidence of this was presented.

This was clearly a ploy for them to cut the number of medical students down to meet the number of places they have available in an oversubscribed year group.

I have never heard , nor can I find any info on med schools changing the pass grade just to cut numbers for the following year, @ecolier , @Democracy have you ever heard of this , there not being enough places on a med course for the following year so they cut numbers by changing pass grades?

surely they only take on the right number of students from the beginning in year 1?

The head of our course used to say "...so in summary, everybody can pass and everybody can fail". We weren't scored against eachother - doesn't sound like a very UK thing to do in all honesty. I might be wrong though.

Hey, first I want to say don't worry, you're not alone. This was me. From failure to failure. Having repeated not one, but two years of medical school. In my final year of med school, I had a resit. I had failed the exam by two marks, and if I failed this exam that was it. I'd be kicked out. I was full of shame because the disappointment I made my family feel. Afraid of what will become of me, and what my future held. It was frustrating because I felt that despite working hard, there was always still a mistake on my part that kept holding me back. Now I've finally graduated and can finally call myself a doctor, and I'm glad I went through the failures that I did. It made me grow as a person.

My first piece of advice is keep going. Keep pushing. It is so easy to give up right now. What I've learnt is that in med school one of the things they try to weed out is those who lack the determination to keep going. The fact that you still want to fight for it so hard is the best thing ever. Sometimes we work hard, and it is just not good enough. And that is just alright. In those situations you just need to learn from your mistakes and keep pushing. Push your own boundaries, try to be better than you were before and never stop.

One of my biggest mistakes was not trying to seek help when I needed it because I thought it wasn't a big deal and I should just be able to suck it up and study. That is the worst thing you could do. Contact the medical school. Let them know about your circumstances. Your mother is ill, and that is the sort of burden that can affect your mental health and performance. We are currently living in a plague, seek online therapy, talk about your frustrations. We underestimate how much our mental health can effect our performance. If you aren't in the best place mentally, you will not be able to perform your best no matter how hard you try.

That brings me to another point, which is stop beating yourself up. Give yourself a break. Everyone goes through life at their own pace. Try to give yourself a little breather, even if its just a few days, to relax and clear your mind. Try to self reflect. Try to meditate. Exercise. Enjoy your day. You just finished that exam, you're about to start studying for another one, take a few days vacation to relax. And the most important part, is that while you take your little vacation, remember that you deserve it. Regardless of your failure, you deserve the time off. Cut off the negative people from your life.

As one of the people above mentioned, fight your uni over this grade change. It really doesn't sound fair what so ever.

Finally, to learn from your mistakes you need to work smarter not harder. I know its something everyone says but its true. Contact an academic tutor, contact a professor, or even a fellow student. See where you're going wrong. Regardless of how hard you try, if you aren't going over what they want and expect from you in the exam, you're just wasting your time. You could memorize every book from cover to cover, and you could still fail the exam. Do past papers, see what the professors actually expect from you, and learn how they want you to answer the questions.

Hi. I will start off by explaining my situation. I am a repeating medical student. I failed my second year exam by 2 marks. I accepted the oppurtunity to repeat the year. Took some tactics and tried to adjust. Things have been very strange with online learning. I have previously been to university before and achieved a good grade in my previous degree. I have never doubted my abilities before and I have never failed before.

This year we did an exam, a combined exam of 2 terms. I worked hard for my exam, I am not going to lie. However my focus was on 2nd year topics. I trusted my experience from my previous second year exams (last year) where the emphasis was on 2nd year topics. I briefly looked at the main concepts of 1st year. I think this is what I struggle the most with this course, anything can crop up. I know I am stupid for not taking as much heed to 1st year material, especially when I am repeating the year, but when the content is so huge.. i thought I should do this strategy.

I sat that exam. I didn't pass. I missed the pass mark by 1 mark. I now have to sit the resit paper which is deemed as risky. If i fail that, that is it. No more chances. I cannot fail... i know some people may say if you keep failing then you should question your abilities to complete the course. But my spirit to fight is still high. I want it so bad. I am not far off...i never have been. I am just scared. Naturally, this makes me doubt my abilities.

My mother has recently been diagnosed with advanced cancer. I told her and she cried. She says she has suffered a lot and is distraught by my repeated failure. I do not intend to fail..i tried to do my best. It hurts me very much she feels that way and I feel disgusted with my self. I feel like I cannot see any light of the tunnel. I am dissapointed with myself ... my poor choices, my failure, my hurt to my mother. Im beginning to have very low self esteem and this does not help by the comments at home.

Strangely, prior to exam my university had specified the passmark for the exam. If they had stuck to that email I would have passed. After the exam, they decided to increase the boundary. I feel so unlucky. I will be bringing this up with my uni but I know they are very stubborn to show compassion and always deem themselves as right

Please someone offer me advice. I'd really appreciate some positivity right now. I'd appreciate it if people could refrain from saying 'medical school is clearly not for you' because I still am going to sit the resit paper and this is not something I want to hear right now.

Thanks