Medical

Learn about medicine and how to become a physician in our articles for pre-medical students (including the MCAT), medical students, resident physicians, and practicing physicians.

How to Skillfully—and Successfully—Revise Your AMCAS Personal Statement

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revising personal statement

Nowhere else on your medical school application will you have the chance to represent your personality and goals as strongly as you do in your AMCAS personal statement. Your personal statement is one place to which schools will turn to understand who you are separate from your MCAT score and GPA.
For those individuals aiming to submit their primary AMCAS applications in June or early July, revising your personal statement throughout May is essential to crafting an application that represents your unique attributes as a future physician, as well as what you will bring to your medical school class. Use this checklist as you revise to ensure that you are covering all that you must in order to submit a successful personal statement.

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Q&A with Physician-Author Dr. Matt McCarthy

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Matt McCarthy

Dr. Matt McCarthy is an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and an assistant attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and went on to complete his internal medicine residency at Columbia University Medical Center. Before that, Dr. McCarthy graduated from Yale University with a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and then spent a year in Minor League Baseball. He wrote about his stint in baseball in Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit. The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year is his most recent book, and details the trials and tribulations of internship year. Dr. McCarthy has published in USA Today, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, Slate, Reuters, Deadspin, and Stat. I sat down with Dr. McCarthy at an Upper East Side café to pick his brain. This interview has been edited and condensed:

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The Top 5 Ways to Improve Your CARS Score Today

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improve your CARS score

For most pre-meds taking the MCAT, the CARS section proves to be one of the biggest obstacles standing between them and admission to the medical school of their dreams. The CARS section is a highly artificial environment, unlike any test you’ve ever taken before. It can be difficult to know where to begin and what steps to take to improve your overall CARS approach. Everyone and their mother seem to have an opinion about how to do well on the CARS section, opinions that often contradict each other as often as they agree. To make matters worse, unlike the other sections of the MCAT which play to the inherent strengths of pre-meds, hardly anyone starts off with a CARS score in range of where they’d like to be on test day. Fear sets in, and the “you’re not going to get in” gremlins starting chanting their mean-spirited slogans; all because of one stinking section.

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What the Adcom Sees (and Thinks) About Your Multiple MCAT Scores

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multiple MCAT scores

MCAT History
Back in the olden days (like prior to 2007), the MCAT was only offered a few times a year, and test-takers took the paper exam with a No. 2 pencil. There was also a restriction placed on the number of times you could take the exam in a single year, as well as in your lifetime.
Today, the MCAT is offered 17 times a year with the following limitations on how often an applicant can take it:
– Three times  in one year
– Four times  in two years
– Seven times in a lifetime
It’s become increasingly common to take the exam, retake it, and then sometimes retake it again before  applying to medical school.

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5 Study Tips for the USMLE Step 1

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1. Set a goal
As the saying goes, “being begin with the end in mind.” Before you begin preparing for the USMLE Step 1, you should consider where you are with your knowledge base and your score, as well as what your goal target score is. To determine where you are starting from, you should take a practice test. Online prediction calculators use your scores on question banks and the USMLE practice test to estimate how you will do on the actual Step 1 exam.
When setting a goal, consider that 192 is currently the minimum passing score for USMLE Step 1, and 229 was the national average in 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available). However, depending on the specialty into which you desire to match, you may have to aim for a significantly higher score. If you’re not sure what specialty you want to pursue, you’ll want to score as high as possible, though you probably want to do that anyway. This is a table summarizing average USMLE Step 1 scores by specialty in the 2014 Match.

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How to Succeed in Physiology: The Course, Step 1, and Beyond

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how to succeed in physiology

Physiology is different! If you’re in the midst of learning physiology, either in a traditional or systems course, you’ve noticed that it feels different from biochemistry and anatomy. There are several reasons. First, the stakes are high, as physiology is inextricably the basis for medicine; learning physiology has long-lasting, downstream consequences for understanding pathophysiology and clinical medicine. And physiology is the underpinning for Step 1, so learning it well in your courses is essential. Second, physiology cannot be memorized (and you’re good memorizers!). Physiology must be understood, and understanding can’t be rushed. You’re learning concepts and principles, rather than isolated facts, and you’re challenged by the hierarchy of concepts, interconnections, and recurring themes. Last and oh so important, you must make peace with graphs, equations, and calculations, since they are the language of physiology. Rather than concede up front that “I don’t do graphs,” it’s best to find a system for translating the mathematical side of physiology into something intuitive that speaks to you!

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5 Steps to a Better CARS Score

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Better CARS score

The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) is one of the most well-known entrance exams in all of higher education. It is known for many things: difficulty, length, bizarre scoring systems, and the breadth of subjects covered – everything from basic human psychology to nucleophilic substitution reactions to electrical circuits to the life cycle of plants are fair game on this test. The test is designed to look for several basic abilities and aptitudes of medical school applicants; among these are problem-solving skills, basic grasp of scientific knowledge, and understanding of human relationships. One aptitude that the MCAT particularly focuses on is the ability to quickly synthesize large amounts of information and data and make decisions based on the conclusions; this skill is extremely valuable for physicians in medical practice, but also important for students to succeed in medical school. This skill is tested on each section of the MCAT, but is also almost the sole skill tested on one section in particular: Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS), formerly known as Verbal Reasoning.

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Chronicles of a Med Student: Reaching Out

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Chronicles of a Med Student

I’m sorry, I can’t—I have to study. These are words that have become so routine to me that I barely have to think about them before they come out of my mouth. Ugh, how has it become so reflexive? I was worried that this would happen, at least in the first two years of medical school when I would spend more time with my computer and books than with actual people. The sad thing is that whenever I have a free second, it’s not really a free second because I just find myself wondering if I should be doing something at the moment instead of thinking about making plans with friends I never see anymore. And these are not only the friends I’ve made this year. Sadly those I neglect most are generally the friendships I’ve cultivated over many years.

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Tips to Get the Most from the Medical School Admissions Requirements® (MSAR®)

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Medical School Admissions Requirements

Chances are after deciding to become a doctor, you’ve likely heard a lot of opinions about where you should apply to medical school. There is a lot of information out there, which can create the perception that you should look for the “best” school only based on average GPAs and MCAT scores of its applicants. But we know that your success is not measured by scores and academic data alone.
Just as you want a medical school to evaluate you as a whole applicant—considering your experiences, attributes, and interests—you shouldn’t evaluate medical schools based just on the numbers and statistics that represent them. The most important thing to consider is whether the medical school is a good fit for you. But how do you figure that out with so many schools and programs?

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3 Tips for Interpreting Medical School Rankings

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medical school rankings

Whether you are just beginning your medical school application process by compiling a list of programs that interest you, or if you are choosing one program from multiple acceptance offers, chances are you have referred to a ranking of medical schools. There are a number of such lists, many available online, and each ranking relies on a unique methodology when judging programs. These lists can be very helpful when investigating the differences between medical schools, but they should not be the sole factor when making decisions about where to apply and where to attend. Consider these three guidelines, which can help you best use medical school rankings:

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Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, Author of Doctored

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sandeep jauhar

What made you decide to write your new book, Doctored? What were you hoping to accomplish?
When I was growing up, my mother wanted me to become a doctor. She told me, “I want people to stand when you walk into a room.” When I started my first job as a cardiologist, I realized I had been isolated from the changes occurring in medicine. I was a fellow in cardiology; I was learning about the human body, the heart, the physiology, and the therapeutics, but not about the culture of practice. I was shocked to see how unhappy many of my colleagues were. The unhappiness wasn’t just about paperwork, patients going on the Internet, malpractice, the usual things you hear about – it was a deeper, more existential problem. The problem was the systems of medicine didn’t allow them to be the kind of doctor they wanted to be – the same kind I wanted to be. When I entered medical school, I had this fantasy that I was going to reform the profession somehow. I didn’t know how, but I thought I would, somehow. When I got out, I started seeing physicians who were unhappy. I think their unhappiness was a response to this loss of ideals. I think a lot of physicians have had to compromise their ideals because of a diseased system. That’s why I wrote the book. I wanted to write about it and put it out there.

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A Guide to a Successful Gap Year

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gap year

It wasn’t so very long ago that the typical medical student went straight from high school to a premedical program and then onto medical schools itself. This traditional pathway, however, is not so traditional anymore. The question of a gap year is one which comes up more and more frequently nowadays–and it is also one which can cause aspiring medical students a lot of anxiety as they make the decision about whether to take time off from academia when the undergraduate work is finished.

This article covers different aspects of the gap year, including the reasons why students take it, the fact that is it actually becoming more popular among pre-med students and different opportunities that students can take advantage of during this year off.

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Why isn’t learning about public health a larger part of becoming a doctor?

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public health

Chronic conditions, such as Type II diabetes and hypertension, account for seven in 10 deaths in the United States each year. And by some estimates, public health factors, such as the physical environment we live in, socioeconomic status and ability to access health services, determine 90% of our health. Biomedical sciences and actual medical care – the stuff doctors do – determine the remaining 10%.
Clinical medicine can treat patients when they are sick, but public health provides an opportunity to prevent disease and poor health. But too often, medical students don’t get to learn about public health, or how to use it when they become doctors. That means many of today’s students aren’t learning about health care in a broader context.

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20 Questions: Laura C. Londra, MD, FACOG, Reproductive Endocrinology

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laura londra

Laura C. Londra, MD, FACOG, is a reproductive endocrinology and infertility physician at Ohio Reproductive Medicine in Columbus, as well as an adjunct instructor at Ohio State University in the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology. As a native of Argentina, Londra attended Universidad Nacional de La Plata (1988-1993), before receiving her MD from Universidad de Buenos Aires (1993-1995). She completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Hospital de Clinicas, University of Buenos Aires (1995-1999), followed by a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology at the Instituto de Ginecologia y Fertilidad de Buenos Aires (2000-2002). In the U.S., Dr. Londra completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Wayne State University, Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Detroit (2008-2012), and a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Johns Hopkins University, Dept. of Gynecology and Obstetrics in Baltimore (2012-2015).
Dr. Londra received the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society Scholarship Award (2013, 2015), Midwest Meeting Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Symposium Scholarship (2014), and Edward E. Wallach Fellowship Research Fund Award for fellows research initiatives in reproductive endocrinology and infertility (2014). She’s been published in numerous journals, including International Journal of Women’s Health, Fertility and Sterility, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Seminars of Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, and Case Reports in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is a member of the Howard Kelly Society, Johns Hopkins Alumni, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, as well as a junior fellow in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and fellow in Society of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Londra is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and prior to her current work, she was on staff at Instituto de Gynecología y Fertilidad (2002-2006).

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