MS1 is MSover (almost). What will MS2 be?

Lemaitre1
Thu, 12 May 2011 23:16:52 +0000

MS1 was “soul crushing” for me at MCP Hahnemann, now Drexel, School of Medicine because there were so many times when I felt I would never be able to absorb all of the information that was being thrown at me. There were times when I had to read 50 to 100 pages from text books each night and had to be able to retain it for tests. Unlike my undergraduate major, Astrophysics, the material was not particularly difficult to understand but there was just so much of it you feel like you are drowning. I took USMLE step 1 in 1998 so I do not have a clear memory of it but I do remember week after week of studying all day long for the test. The test itself took an entire day and left me uttterly exhausted. I was so glad when I found out I passed it because I could just not imagine having to go through all that again. One of my classmates failed and I felt so bad for him. I took step 2 as an MS4 and passed it on my first attempt and took step 3 during my intern year of residency and also passed it in one attempt. They were also long grueling ordeals but it seems like it is step 1 of the USMLE that takes the most out of you.

Residents working 80 hours a week have it easy now. When I was an intern in Internal Medicine we were still doing 36 hour shifts Q3 which had to add up to close to 120 hours a week.