Customer Reviews

101 Biggest Mistakes 3rd Year Medical Students Make, And How To Avoid Them

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As an attending physician who works with and advises a lot of third year medical students, I'd like to offer students my thoughts about this book and compare and contrast this book with other guides. Currently, there are really only three books that deal with the third year of medical school. In addition to this one, there's also "First Aid for the Wards" and "How to be a Truly Excellent Junior Medical Student". All three have their strengths and weaknesses. "101 Biggest Mistakes" is a book that I recommend all medical students read at the start of the third year. Not only is it a quick read, it is really the only one that focuses on mistakes that third years make. I agree with the author when he says that these mistakes often prevent students from earning the best possible evaluation.

I have a couple of copies of this book that I hand out to my students on the first day of the rotation. Since it is a quick read, it doesn't take them long to read it. When they are done reading it, they often say to me "this is common sense" and I agree that some of the mistakes are common sense. Despite reading it, most then go on to make some of the same mistakes that are in the book. At first, this surprised me. But then I figured out why. It's because these mistakes are so easy to make that you don't realize you're making them. Now, I encourage them to read it every week - since starting this policy, they are making less of these mistakes on their write-ups, oral case presentations, talks, and attending rounds. One student told me that he read the write-up chapter every single time he wrote a write-up to make sure he didn't make any of the mistakes.

Don't get me wrong - it's not a perfect book. For example, it doesn't offer rotation-specific advice like "First Aid" does nor does it show you how to write a progress note or admit note like "How to be a truly excellent junior medical student" does. But none of these three books are perfect and that's the big take home point, in my opinion. Until that perfect book comes along, I recommend using either "First Aid" or "How to be a truly excellent junior medical student" along with "101 biggest mistakes".

I bought this book new, and I have to say it really is overpriced for what you get. If you can get it used, or borrow it from your school library then I suppose it is a good read. You can read this book in a couple of hours. It has a lot of common sense things in it like don't show up late, be prepared for rounds, have a good attitude,don't make the nurses mad, read up on your patients, etc. If you feel you need something to help you function "out in the real world" then maybe this is the book for you. If you are the person that had a full time job before med school, you can probably pass on this book. First Aid for Wards does a much better job preparing you for 3rd year clerkships.

I'm a 3rd year medical student that bought this book online, not knowing the contents. Turns out the 101 mistakes 3rd year med students make can really be boiled down to maybe 5-6 mistakes (this book took me about 30 minutes to read). For instance don't forget to go over chest xrays with your intern and your resident and the radiologist and the attending before presenting your case (this counted for 4 different mistakes, one for each person you forgot to go over the xray with) and the same for EKGs (another 4 mistakes for everyone you forgot to go over it with). Asking to be evaluated by a variety of your superiors also counts for a handful of mistakes, and the rest is common sense eg don't eat or fall asleep or appear uninterested during rounds, don't walk around the hospital covered in blood etc. I am so mad at myself for buying this book--it really wasn't what I was expecting. If you really want to buy something pick up "surgical recall" instead, it has great tips for being a clerk in general not just for surgical rotations. I've also found "how to be a truly excellent junior medical student" really informative and it's miniaturized so you can carry it easily. good luck with clerkship!

As an attending physician who supervises 3rd year medical students during an inpatient clerkship, I repeatedly see common mistakes. I find myself offering the same repetitive feedback to help students transition from the Basic Sciences Coursework Mode to the vastly different Clerkship Mode. This same advice, and more, is cleverly organized in an easy-to-read format in this book - 250 Biggest Mistakes 3rd Year Medical Students Make And How To Avoid Them. From my vantage as an attending on a Pediatric Service, I see certain common themes play out.

1) Shy students can sometimes receive a less than deserving evaluation - are they shy because of personality, or do they lack interest or knowledge? This is definitely an issue early on in rotations, when many students are more tentative. I found the advice in the book useful to offset these kinds of misunderstandings.

2) I find that students exhibit some behaviors that they think are appropriate (or neutral) from the student's vantage point, but are potentially negative from an evaluator's stance. The classic example for me is the student who participates infrequently during rounds. The authors quote a study which showed that medical students are often passive - in teaching rounds, they only spoke 4% of the time. In my experience, students tend to talk about their own patients but keep quiet otherwise. The book shows students ways to increase their participation in the right way.

This book is a useful resource to avoid both common and not-so-obvious pitfalls, and serves as an excellent introduction to performing well on the wards. I would highly recommend this book for a beginning 3rd year student.

J. Reddy, MD
Physician preceptor for University of Illinois pediatric rotation

I am a med student who just started third year four months ago. My first rotation was Internal Medicine. During our clerkship orientation, the clerkship director recommended that we read this book. I had never heard of the book before then. He told us that if you follow the recs and tips, it will put you in line for great evals on all rotations. I can't speak for all rotations but it did the job for me during the Internal Med rotation. What was really helpful was the chapter on presenting newly admitted patients. I was really worried about presenting patients to my attending physician and resident but this book was a good guide, showing me where students have gotten into trouble before. It really helped me give good presentations from the get go. My attending physician even said that my presentation skills were better than most new students. I also liked the information on feedback (how to request it), how to set up meetings with the attending, tips to impress attendings, and suggestions for giving talks.

I really wish I had read this book before I started third year. The
first chapter on evaluations is reason enough to buy the book-it gives
you an idea of how residents and attendings evaluate and why you may
receive an evaluation less than you deserve. I also have a new
appreciation for how important write-ups and oral case presentations
are. The authors presented data showing that many attendings never see
a student actually perform a history and physical, and that's why much
of your grade is based on the write-up and how you present the case.
They also have a chapter on giving talks, which I haven't seen
anywhere else, but six months into my third year, I realize how often
this comes up. I'd also recommend the chapter on questions to ask your
attending, resident, and intern during the first few days of a new
rotation. If I had had this book earlier, I would have done things
differently. Overall, this is a great book, and I recommend it to all
third year students.

Arul Thirumoorthi
3rd Year Medical Student, University of Toledo College of Medicine

I read this when I was a 3rd year medical student. It's truly terrible. I don't have the book any longer to quote some of its drivel, but imagine a book that provides the great advice of "Not writing SOAP notes on time" and "Not being prepared for wards."

As another reviewer notes, this is all common sense. Spend your money on a stiff glass of whiskey. That will do you more good on your third year than this book.

Heard the author speak about clerkships and the match at a residency symposium. New edition of this book was passed around, and is titled Success on the Wards: 250 Rules for Clerkship Success. I couldn't buy it at the time because it had just come out, and the author didn't have copies for sale. When I looked for it on Amazon, I had a hard time finding it. You would think it would be easy to link the two.

As someone who just matched into dermatology, I can tell you that residency
program directors look closely at clerkship grades, especially for the more
competitive residencies. '101 Biggest Mistakes 3rd Year Medical Students Make
And How To Avoid Them' is a book that will help you get great clerkship grades.
When you first start rotations, it's tough. You're not always sure where you
fit in, what you should do, and how to handle yourself. That's where this book
comes in - it gives you great advice on what attendings and residents are
looking for in their students. It's done in the form of mistakes students make
year after year. The idea is if you know these mistakes beforehand, you won't
make them and you will come across as a better student. What many students
don't realize, however, is that a lot of the mistakes this book talks about are
REALLY easy to make. That's why I recommend referring to the book regularly
throughout the rotation (like on write-up or when giving talks) to train your
mind against making them. Otherwise, you'll find yourself unknowingly making
them and probably finding out you made them when your resident or attending
tells you so. By then, it may already hurt your evaluation. If you follow this
advice, work hard, and read, you will be in good shape for better evaluations.

I found this book helpful to go over at the beginning of 3rd year to get an idea of things and sort of orient myself a bit, but not much beyond that. 3rd year clerkship evaluations are so totally subjective that if you try to set a list of things to do or not to and think it'll make a universal difference, then you'll be sorely disappointed and unsuccessful. Some things that some attendings/residents/teams really liked others really hated. Basically, you just have to figure out how to fit in with the group you're working with, and you can't learn that from a book.