A good son would drive home to spend Mother's Day with the woman who gave birth to him and raised him. A medical student would drive to Philadelphia to take the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills Exam on Monday. Guess which one I am.
For those of you that don't know, Step 2 CS is a test in which you perform 10-12 patient encounters with Standardized Patients. You are then graded on your ability to gather data, write a patient note, communicate with the patient, and speak English. I'm not kidding, one of the components is actually the Spoken English Proficiency score.
To prepare for the test, I flipped through the First Aid for USMLE Step 2 CS book this weekend. I'm glad I did, because I actually learned a few things. For example: did you know that the test is Pass/Fail? I had no idea! They actually refuse to release your results to you or any of the residency programs you apply to. So basically, I'm being forced to drive five hours each way to the closest testing center in Philadelphia in order to take an eight-hour test that costs $1000 only to never learn my score.
Can someone please remind me why I chose to go into medicine?
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