Category Archives: Medical School

Much Thanks This Year

2014 is not over, but I feel grateful for everything that has happened this year so far. There’s plenty to be thankful for – finishing (surviving at times) third year of medical school, completing another set of board exams, applying to residency, going on said interviews, making a couple short vacations out of them, and most of all having the support of friends and family along the way! By the end of the year, I anticipate that I will have flown about 20,000 miles and have driven another 2,000 miles, mostly for residency interviews. It’s all in good fun though. Who doesn’t like racking up airline miles? This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful to be able to take a break and catch my breath before hitting the interview trail again in December and January, one last push before rank order lists are due.

Thanksgiving dinner this year consisted of:

  • Roasted Turkey, 17 pounds (recipe – super easy!)
  • Szechuan green beans (recipe)
  • Brown rice (because no meal would be complete without rice)
  • Turkey Gravy (using the turkey drippings and some flour)
  • Chicken stuffing with added carrots, onion, celery from the turkey (boxed)
  • Sweet potato casserole (Eatzi’s)
  • Jalapeño Cornbread (Eatzi’s)
  • Cranberry Sauce (Eatzi’s)
  • Dessert: Apple pie (recipe)

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and filling as always! We were really pleased with how the turkey came out. It was incredibly easy to make. It was our second year in a row following this recipe and as simple as it is tastes incredible. The meat is extremely tender and moist. It takes very little prep time assuming your bird is fully defrosted. This is key. And at about 13-15 minutes per pound, it cooks pretty quickly. And the best part at the end of the day, leftovers for Black Friday and the weekend! 🙂

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Guest Post: Welcome to Third Year from a Fourth Year (Books and Advice)

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This post is a guest post from Daniel F. who as you know is his fourth year. Like my posts that I’ve done for previous years, outlining study materials, this is a broad overview of each rotation and his recommended books for each shelf exam.
I will be doing my own rotation-specific posts as the year goes on detailing what I used, but for now good luck and enjoy! – Ryan
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Welcome to third year. By now you’ve probably figured out how much better it is than first and second year. That’s good. Take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to you. Enjoy every patient (as much as possible). Every day should teach you something new. A few days aside, third year was a great experience. My single greatest regret is that I wish I had learned more each day so that I didn’t have to cram so much for Step 2. That brings me to the bulk of this post—what books to buy and how to study.

Continue reading Guest Post: Welcome to Third Year from a Fourth Year (Books and Advice)

Dropbox for Medical School

dropbox cloud

Starting my first year of medical school, I began using Dropbox to sync my files across my laptops, desktop, and smartphone. Previously, I had used Microsoft’s Mesh service which provided 5GB of synced storage, but it was only limited to Windows and OSX. At the time Dropbox was taking off and only gave (and still only gives) 2 GB of storage. Today it’s probably the most versatile solution for storing numerous files and having them seamlessly synced across many users and devices. Google Cloud is a top competitor but does not allow desktop syncing, only allowing individual files to be loaded on to the cloud for retrieval. Continue reading Dropbox for Medical School

Gunning Med School: Books for Second Year

Yes, most of these pictured at first year books.Ok gunner. so you’ve made to be an MS2, congrats! Now the real med school starts! Second year is far more interesting than the first year because it’s easier to comprehend and apply. BUT (you knew it was coming right?), it’s much harder than first year because the amount of information they want you to know can be overwhelming. Remember to cover the big picture first, and then fill in the details. Pace yourself throughout each course and don’t let other gunners get you down. Everyone learns differently.

This list is not as long as the books for first year simply because each class is laid out pretty similarly. Continue reading Gunning Med School: Books for Second Year