How Doing Well on Shelf Exams Will Improve Your Step 2 CK Score
At most medical schools, your grades during your first clinical year of training are primarily determined by evaluations from your preceptors, and your performance on a shelf examination (family medicine, internal medicine, surgery, neurology, pediatrics, OB/GYN, and psychiatry). These grades will be a significant component of your residency application, in...
Writing A Medical School Personal Statement
5300 characters. You have 5300 characters, including punctuation and white spaces, to show a medical school that you are more than the sum of your GPA and MCAT score in your personal statement. This means that your personal statement for Medical School word count will only be around 300-500...
Foreign Countries Where the USMLE is Accepted
Did you know that the USMLE is accepted as an equivalent to the national medical exam in a few other countries such as the UAE, Israel, Ireland, and more!
Writing Your Medical School Letter of Intent: a Guide
It’s Spring! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and you’re finishing up your medical school interviews. You’re in the home stretch! At the end lies your dream medical school. You (hopefully) have many schools to choose from. However, these schools have many applicants to choose from. How do...
Understanding the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP)
The Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, or SOAP, is the process by which unmatched or partially matched medical students can apply for residency matching spots left unfilled following the NRMP match. SOAPing is the dreaded outcome of the match. I will never forget the grief and anxiety I felt after...
USMLE Step 1 Pass/Fail: Impact on Students
2024 Update: This blog was originally posted on April 19, 2022. In 2024, an additional subheading was added to reevaluate the advice given within the context of the 2024 USMLE Step 1 landscape. One of the hottest topics among medical education learning specialists (MELS) is the behavior, motivation, and...
What Questions Do They Ask in a Residency Interview?
You hit submit on your ERAS application and realize you’re finally a post-ERAS M4 – nothing can hurt you now. That is, until the residency interview invitations start to roll in (sometimes just 24 hours later!). So, what questions do they ask in a residency interview anyway? And how can...
Applying to Medical School Timeline
Applying to medical school is a lengthy process. From the moment you get serious about applying in the current cycle to deciding which school to attend, you will spend more than a year writing, interviewing, and waiting. One of the most important steps you can take to ensure success in...
How to Get Into Medical School: What Do Medical Schools Want to See?
Knowing what is needed to present yourself as a successful applicant to medical school can be difficult. A lot of different sources and medical schools expect you to have certain achievements and to have participated in a variety of experiences.
The 8 Best MCAT Resources: How to Start Studying for the MCAT
There are a wide variety of resources available to help prepare when you are thinking about how to start studying for the MCAT, but it is difficult to know which have the best value and are right for you. Additionally, there are more excellent resources than any individual can possibly...