Verge

I take the boards tomorrow. Step 1 of the USMLE will, to a great degree, determine my options for residency. It is doubtful that I will score well enough to do dermatology or plastics, which fortunately do not appeal anyway. It is also doubtful that my score will consign me to the least competitive specialties. I've worked my butt off for 2 years, and doubly so for the past 5 weeks. Like many hard workers, I think that medical students are prone to overestimate the time they actually spend working. However, for the last 5 weeks, I have spent between 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week reviewing and learning what I spent 2 years studying. That means conservatively, I spent 300 -360 hours studying for this exam. I'm not boasting or bragging, just recounting what I have done for the last 5 weeks. Board studying is an insatiable beast. I can never "be done". Everyone always says "oh, you'll be fine, just take a break, you know everything you need" etc... Nope, there's always some cytokine that I've forgotten, some immunodeficiency syndrome to review, some drug side effect (thank you very much, psycho-active drugs) to learn and re-learn, and re-re-learn. At some point, which happened at 9:30 this evening, I admit that the time for preparation is over.
-SS