Well it took much longer than anticipated but we finally received our grades today on both our standardized patient exams (OSCEs) and our MSIII final. I did ok on the final and am satisfied with the grade. Not a stellar accomplishment, but I easily passed.
I also passed the OCSEs as well, but it wasn't as pretty. I did fine on the history gathering portion of the test and middle of the class on the physical exam, but in the third on the plan portion. One consolation is the grades for the latter seem to be stacked together tightly. Forty spots in class rank on the plan grade were separated by only four percentage points.
Tomorrow morning at 8 am we have an hour review of the OSCEs and I'm sure this is going to be a very vocal, lively discussion of grading methodology. The biggest disappointment is that the feedback I received wasn't very helpful. I hoped to see copies of our SOAP notes with hand written notes including suggestions, corrections, etc. But this may be WAY too much to expect from our Clinical Education department.
As for everything else, I'm skipping a lot of class to study for Step 2 Boards. I feel pretty good about my study strategy: know Crush and Boards & Wards cover-to-cover, watch 120+ hours of Kaplan lectures and do at least the 2300 question bank I've purchased from USMLE World. I'm sure UpToDate, Wikipedia and other resources will help where explanations to questions I get wrong aren't detailed enough, but this feels like the right amount of study material.
As for the missed lectures, well I just hope that I can read the lecture notes next week before the final for a day or two and pass the stupid MSIV final. I also have to pass Wednesday's OMM practical, but the review made it seem like a pretty low key affair. Hopefully two hours of technique review tomorrow night will be enough.
At the same time I'm trying to nail down audition rotations. Arrowhead in CA looks locked in for August, after the Boards. Then it's a Peds ER rotation at MUSC (Med U. of SC) in September. October is still up in the air, but I hope to get either the Tufts or UMass EM programs. Both are in MA outside of Boston and could give me nice Letters of Recommendation (LORs) from a NE ER physician - very useful for any residency applications in that area. Finally, November looks like Carolinas, a NC EM program that has a great reputation. It's later than I would like, but the only slot I could get.
It's kind of nerve racking wondering how many programs to apply to, how many to audition at, what baggage the DO degree carries, and what randomness factor plays into all this. I sure wish there were more West Coast programs worth applying to. Of the 25 or so programs I have listed in my spreadsheet at the moment, only 3 or 4 are in the West, 1 is in the Midwest and the remainder are in the East.
It's also a pain to think about spending another three months away from the family entirely and an additional one only coming back for weekends. But with all of the aforementioned questions hanging over me, it seems like the best way to create a rank list for the Match that will get me into one of my top three choices.
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