Where I’ve Been and What I’ve Been Up To
You’d think that with classes now over and the next three months free, I would be blogging a lot more. That’s what I figured too, but unfortunately, I’ve been under the weather the past few days. Don’t know what it was, just felt very weak, but I’m feeling a lot better today and I am pretty sure whatever it was has passed.
This past week, final marks were slowly put up, and of course I was worried about Molecular Biology 2, which I’ve talked about several times here before. I ended up with a C+ in the course. I was happy that I passed the course (so that my medical school spot isn’t revoked), but I was a bit disappointed because that meant I didn’t do any better than 76 on the exam. I guess I was also a bit disappointed because this is the lowest course mark I think I’ve ever gotten in school. But that’s alright, there’s a first for everything.
The sick thing is how that mark would’ve affected me if I were applying to medical school again next year. That one mark would have brought my GPA for this past year to a 3.66, and would basically have made me ineligible to apply to Ottawa. It just goes to show you the importance of being consistent when it comes to grades in the medical school admissions process. It also makes me appreciative of the medical schools that take into account that sometimes you’re just going to have a few bad courses, and that one or a few bad courses should not destroy a person’s chance of becoming a physician.
Med School Prep
So once you get into medical school, you don’t just click accept and then wait until September for class to start. There is of course the acceptance form. You also have to submit a request to do a police check and take a CPR course.
You also need to get your immunization record checked by a physician to make sure you’re up to date with all of your immunizations, such as for Hepatitis B, because you will be working with many patients and staff at hospitals very soon. So I went to do that yesterday at my local clinic. My appointment was scheduled for 2:30pm, and I arrived there at ~2:15pm, maybe even a bit earlier. I finally saw my doctor at maybe 3:40pm. Needless to say I was a bit frustrated – then again, I can’t really say I’m surprised as I think waiting that long is quite common at a lot of busy practices.
One of the things I’ve always vowed to do if I became a physician was to make sure my patients were given their appointments at the times they were promised. I will be pretty disappointed if I end up making people wait a ridiculous amount of time and find no way around it. I know it’s going to happen sometimes, and it might be unavoidable, but it does seem a bit ridiculous at some clinics.
Related Posts:
- I Passed!
- Wow, has it really been a month…
- I will be getting my Bsc and graduating!
- What’s up with premed altruism and nobility?
- Less than 24 hours to go…
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Comments
Hey Joshua,
so now that you are already thinking about becoming a physician heres a question for you,
would you rather work in a hospital or in a clinic like a family doc?
personally, for me it would be the hospital because there are more people and more doctors, so you can actually learn more.
anyways Ive to take my first year courses now at york. what did you take during your first year and how was it?
by the way, Have fun in the CPR courses.. they are soo boring and they last soo long/\
Hey Josh! Just found out my first year gpa today 
Do you know how to convert york’s gpa to the usual gpa out of 4.0? I did see the omsas gpa conversion chart… but how did u know your gpa would be exactly 3.66?
Lol would someone wishing to go to med school be ever happy with their grades? but they werent bad
uhm im kind of confused with calculating a weighted average based on the value of the credits… how do i do that? this is tough math 
Hey Khalil,
While one B+ won’t destroy your chances, you should not let one grade affect your attitude. Easy to say, hard to do though, I know 
Also, in the example I gave you, I provided a weighted average with a numerical mark. Keep in mind that you would normally be doing a weighted average of a GPA, and not a numerical score.
E.g. when applying to medical school, you would be converting the 90 to a 4.0 and a 80 to a 3.80 before doing the weighted average.
Yeah i did exactly that and i just added the gpa twice for 6 credit courses. (So if i have a 80 in a 6 credit course, i added 3.8 twice and if i had a 80 in a 3 credit course, i added it once)
Do med schools care if a course is 9 credits or 4 credits or will they just treat it as a 6 credit and a 3 credit course?
Josh! What social science/humanities course did you take? Most of the social science courses are 9 credits… i think i’ll just have to call them and see how they treat 9 credit courses before enrolling into one.
oh i think i’ll have to take a 3 credit course too then. Would it be too much work to take it in the summer of the second year while giving the mcat as well? Or would you recommend it to take it in the third year? (but i think 33 credits in the third year and filling out the applications for med schools will be too much to handle).
And thanks so much… its nice that i know all this before going in my second year =]
I did call them and found out that 9 credit courses are a 3.0
But josh, don’t med schools require a social science/humanities course (as a prerequisite)?
Yea i think i’ll just take those 3 credits in the third year. I also considered this summer but the only course i can take is microeconomics which is being offered in august but then i took macro during the winter semester and had to study like crazy just to get an A. I decided that i am never going to take any economics course again during my undergrad years lol.
Once again, thanks for the advice!
Regarding wait time: Wait times are unavoidable, what you can do is to do everything that’s under your control to the best.
Show up on work on time (you won’t believe how many doctors come in late). See patients with a good attitude. Be thorough and meticulous in your work. Make sure your patients leave happy and with their questions answered.
And it can get ridiculous, I agree.