DIP Episode 342 - Common ERAS Application Mistakes (for IMGs and US Medical Students)

Okay, welcome. My name is Divine. This is episode 342 of the Divine Intervention Podcasts. And in this podcast, I'm actually going to be talking about something that is extremely high yield. It's not something that will help you on a USML exam. It's something that will help you with your ERAS application. In fact, today's topic is Common Mistakes in ERAS Applications. Common Mistakes in ERAS Applications. And this is especially well suited for IM Gs, so International Medical Graduates, and also just US Medical Students. And again, before I go in, again, I do want to mention, I offer an MBA Me Testikin Strategy Scores. Again, tons of people are taking the scores by this point. More than 1,000 people are taking the scores. Again, they found it to be extremely helpful with regards to preparing for the USML exams. It's primarily for step 2, see again for step 3. And then, if you're taking step 2, see again step 3 anytime soon. I do have a course that's coming up. So the Testikin Strategy Scores is on the 4th of October, from 2 to 430 PM Pacific Standard Time. And then I have a review course from the Tuesday to Friday of that same week, from the 5th to the 8th of October. There will be a comprehensive course, I will be covering a lot of bio stats, ethics, internal medicine, psychiatry, neurology, peeds, surgery, OB-GYN, communications, professionalism, ethics, again, healthcare systems, multi-system processes and disorders. Again, we'll be dealing with those things.

Again, I've had many people attend these courses, and they've done really well. I've had people have 30 point improvements, 40 point improvements. I've had people just have really, really good score improvements, and overall, the overwhelming majority of people that have attended, have got a very good results from it. So, if you're interested in any of these courses, shoot me an email, and I'll give you some more details on how to register. So, let's go right into, again, the common mistakes made in ERA's applications. Again, I have worked through quite a number of cycles, with people applying for residency. I've worked with many people that have had red flags on the applications. I've worked with people that have graduated from medical school like 10 years ago. I've worked with people that have transferred schools, even in the Caribbean. Just think about that. Just literally think about that. Transferring schools in the Caribbean. Going to a medical school in the Caribbean is not ideal to start, but then transferring to another medical school is really not ideal at all. I've worked with these people. I've worked with people that have failed USML exams. And now, these people are also successful residents. And again, I also have experienced being on admissions committee. I was on the admissions committee for a whole year, actually, for one of the top medical schools in the country, in the US. So, I believe it's top two or top three days, one of those two.

So, I believe I do know what I'm talking about with this process. But again, at the end of the day, I think I should always throw in this disclaimer, you're my league me very. Again, you should trust but verify. Don't believe everything I say. But again, I'm just speaking to you based on my experiences. And based on experiences of principles that I've used that have really helped people. Again, there's tons of, I mean, I've probably lost count at this point of people I've worked with. There are now successful residents in many disciplines, dermatology, psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine, neurosurgery. Just I've worked with you from tons of disciplines, ortho. Like really, there are very few disciplines that I can't really think of as a discipline that I've not worked with people trying to go into that discipline. Even disciplines that people traditionally, like certain groups, don't traditionally match into, I've worked with people that have matched into those disciplines. So, I do have quite a bit of experience in this area. So now, what are some mistakes that people make on these applications? The very first one, just grammatical errors. Again, I understand that for some people, English may not be your first language. But the thing is, you literally have no excuse to have a personal statement that is written with grammatical errors.

There are so many tools these days that you can use to correct your English, to collect your grammar, to correct your sentence structure. So the thing is, when you present an error's application that is riddled with errors to a program director, you essentially showing them that you may have problems with appropriate documentation. Because the thing is, health care, especially in the US, is very litigious. You need to be careful with the words you use and how you use those words. So, if you're really poor with your English, really poor with your documentation, then you're showing them that this person could potentially become a liability. Because they could look at the notes and say, oh, a lawyer can pick apart the literal words that you wrote down that don't really reflect what was going on in that situation. And that can put your residency, that can put your own career in great jeopardy. So I will strongly encourage you again, find a service that would edit out grammatical errors from your era's application. It's almost always a worthwhile investment for people. I'm also just sentence structure. You see some people, they just really poor with sentence structure. Again, I'm not saying you would need an English PhD, but like you just need to be better with when you structure your sentences for your era's applications. Now, the second common mistake people make is when we have wall of text experience descriptions. This one is very common again.

As a person that I did tons of errors applications with every cycle. You see people, they are describing one experience and they have like 10 bullet points, 5 bullet points. That is just terrible. The thing is, it's a big no-no. Let me tell you this. When you are writing your experience descriptions for errors, you need to compress those things to 1 to 3 sentences. In fact, to be honest with you, I am very glad that internal medicine, surgery and dermatology with this cycle decided to have these supplemental applications. And they put very strong word limits, 300 words. The thing is, if people actually stop to those word limits in their era's applications, then they won't be putting all this fluff that is really not needed. You see some people are like, oh, the Bible, they must describe everything. No, you don't. The thing is, the people that are reviewing your application, they are probably going to be reviewing like 100 or so other applications. Think about it. If the first thing that grits then is a wall of text, wall of text, wall of text, wall of text, then they won't read your application as closely as they need to. So they won't be able to abstract the key pieces of information that you're trying to tell them. That's why you need to make your application high yield. Don't make a low yield application. Many people make low yield applications. So you experience descriptions, keep them to 3 sentences, maximum.

Again, it may seem uncomfortable, but it's the right thing to do because think about it. If your person reviewing a person's application and you're like, wow, this person put like 2 to 3 sentences, experience descriptors, right? Or I can get a very quick nice sense of who they are. Then you want to read the application closely and you'll make good high yield notes that you can present before residency selection committee. Now the third common mistake that people make again, these are all things that I've seen. I literally can give a plethora of examples of these kinds of things. The third thing, especially a Caribbean met students listing all their clinical rotations on the application. This is a huge mighty ginormous no no no. Let me tell you this. The only people that should list clinical rotations on their errors application are people that went to a non US or a non Caribbean met school. Basically, if you did not do the bulk of your rotations in the US, you did the bulk of your clinical rotations in your home country. Then if you have like some US clinical experience, let's say you did like an observe or you did like a clinical rotation, right? Let's say you did like 2 or 3 of them or whatever. Yes, absolutely. You can put those in your application. But if let's say you're a Caribbean medical student and you did all your, I mean this, this that I'm seeing sounds kind of obvious, but believe it or not, I've seen this play out.

So the thing is, say for example, you go to a med school in the Caribbean and then you do all your clinical rotations in the US and then you put all of them as work experiences in ira's family medicine rotation, internal medicine, psych, neuro, if you do those things, I'm telling you, I would not be surprised if I'm if a residency program director just promptly deletes your ira's application from their computers or tosses it in the trash, right? Please, please, please, please, if you're a Caribbean met student, do not list your clinic because all your clinical like program directors already understand that your clinical rotations were completed in the United States, right? You don't have to rehash your entire all your clinical rotations back to them. And then the forthcoming state people make with ira's applications is putting the applications with useless experiences, right? Right? Use less experiences. So the thing is, you see some people, they attended a health fair for like two hours and boom, they threw it in there, they attended this thing where they maybe spoke with like two or three people for like a few minutes, boom, they threw it in there. No, here's what you're doing by doing that. You're pretty much watering down your application, right? Like I've seen many people, especially people applying to these competitive specialties, they feel the need to have the longest ira's applications, right?

Like for example, for me, whenever I see an ira's application, I'm like, ooh, this is like going into the double digits, like when people send me the Appidios for edits. And I noticed that, ooh, this is going into the double digits. I just know like, okay, I'm going to see some bogus experiences here, right? I'm going to see a person that took all the experiences and then transformed them to like walls of text, right? Don't part your application or useless experiences. You're pretty much watering down your application. Again, you're making your application lower yield and then you wonder, I mean, like you see some people that that's why like when you read experiences or people on online forums, you need to take a lot of what they say with a grain of salt. You see people say, oh, I got in the 260s on step one and step two, see, but I noticed that it's really hard for me to get interviews or I didn't match in a program or whatever. Well, let me tell you, maybe one area you really screwed up was with your application. Again, I have interviewed people personally that have very high scores where your application left much to be desired, right? So don't part your application with useless experiences. Don't make your application lower yield. You can have an ira's application where they download the PDF. It's like six, seven pages, but it captures you as a very high powered, very respectable individual, right? So again, don't add useless experiences to your application.

Just don't, right? That's not a smart thing to do. Now, the fifth common mistake that people make is that they make their ira's applications based on poor advice, right? Based on poor advice. Unfortunately, this is something that afflicts many international medical graduates. The thing is, you need to be careful with what you listen to. So that's why you won't say I put the disclaimer at the beginning of the spot cast like, hey, I'm going to be selling you snake oil right now. I mean, I'm not intending to sell you snake oil. I feel like I'm telling you the truth based on my experiences and based on experiences working with many people that have been successful, right? But again, you need to watch who you listen to, right? You see some people, they follow like some online guides, some online templates, in writing their personal statements. But then you look at these templates and you're like, wow, this thing is pure trash, right? So again, you really need to be careful, right? Or for example, you see some people, they left like this one person that has very limited knowledge, very limited experiences in a certain discipline, be the ones giving them advice that they then follow who client and sinker. No, you need to be careful, especially people that let's say, oh, wow, this person got into a residency in like 1991 or something like that, right? I'm not saying that those people don't have a wealth of experience to share. Well, you got to be careful.

Chances are the things that we're very amazing for them to match into residency in 1991. It may not be the exact same things that are very wonderful and awesome for you, matching into residency in 2021. So it's very important, watch who you listen to, watch who you listen to. And one thing that sometimes is really surprising is sometimes when you're trying to tell people that no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This thing you're doing is not helping you. They don't think that you know everything, right? Again, the thing is you need to be really careful. Like I've seen many people like have just some flat out wrong advice. Like I'll give you a classic example. There was this person I worked with during an admission cycle and the person sent me a personal statement. They were like, oh, this chairman, I think the chairman of like some department again, I'm going to try to be as big as possible. The chairman of some department in the hospital said, oh, this person's statement was killer. It was amazing. It was direct to the point. But then any rational person, I'm telling you this, any rational person that reads that personal statement to be like, what? Like the like literally as I was reading that personal statement, I have to control myself. I was like, whoa, like what is to have? Like how does this person think that they will match? Right? So there's this part of the Bible that says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end is destruction.

Like literally if that person had put that personal statement out in the wild to other residency programs like that, I can almost guarantee that that person would have gotten almost no interview, like, like no interview or very few interviews. Right? So again, you need to be careful with who you listen to for advice. The thing is some people have like some very strange, bizarre perspectives on life. Right? And then they transfer those perspectives to like the writing or to their thoughts on what an era's application should be. You got to be careful of those people. Again, I've seen many people I'm telling you, especially international medical graduates. Right? I've seen many people being led astray. So again, be careful of who you take your advice from. Be careful of who you take your advice from. Some people can lead you astray. You got to be careful there. And then the sixth common mistake I see people are make in their era's applications is going into the very fine details of their research. Basically, you see some people they look at their era's applications as extensions of the manuscript that they are trying to publish. And then they wonder again why people are really hurt as the read via era's applications. Again, you got to be the thing is when you're describing your research or you're describing is the topic of your research.

And then the skills that you got from that research experience like, oh, did you help you, did you help you build skills and like problem solving or critical thinking or whatever. That's what you should be focusing on. Right? But you see some people they're like, oh, my research did some experiments with the zinc finger protein in pseudomonas aerogenose models. And then they we knocked out the KX253997 ABCDEFGH gene and then we did PCR on it and then we took it through like 10 different steps. You see the wall of text they put no, you're literally destroyed your literally destroy your application by doing that. That is precisely the wrong thing to do in describing your research experiences. In fact, this kind of blends into my seventh point, the seventh mistake. This is something that many people make in again, the descriptions of the experiences and also in their personal statements. They're going to super fine details of the experience with a patient or a surgical procedure. So you see for example, I classically see this and like applicants are going for surgical specialties. So you see these people they write this they say that oh, wow, that they were enamored when they saw this procedure and then they start describing every single step of the procedure. The thing is in those circumstances, you think you're showing them your knowledge and your commitments to the discipline. Let me tell you what you're actually doing.

You're actually annoying the people that are reading your application. Think about it. If for example, you're applying into neurosurgery, right? Let me tell you this, the people that are reviewing your application chances are that procedure that also enamoring procedure for you is something they've done like a thousand times. The thing is your personal statement and your era's application is to help people get to know who you are and why you are committed to a specialty. Not oh, I know the technicalities of all the procedures in this specialty. No, it comes across as proud and it comes across as very immature. But that's a common mistake that many people made. Like literally, their applicants have spoken to where I'm like, no, this thing you're doing with your era's application. You're literally leading yourself in the wrong direction. But no, you know, you know, again, you see some people they think they know it all of that. So, you know what? No, I need to describe the fine details of a hate replacement. I need to describe the fine details of this abdominal surgery. Well, I wish you all the best. I literally wish you all the best. But again, your application is again to tell them, who are you? Why are you committed to this discipline? You see many people's personal statements, era's applications. They have lots of fluff. But you have no substance, no substance, right? Like literally, let me tell you this.

This is a very good litmus test for if your personal statement or your era's application is a good one. Ask yourself, if a person who reads your personal statement can be right down like four bullet points. A single sentence is as to why you want to go into a certain discipline. You see some people, they are literally their personal statements, their era's applications. They are going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about all these wonderful stories. But again, those wonderful stories have like no substance. Again, I'm literally begging you, like you may notice that I'm speaking quite passionately this morning. I'm speaking passionately because many people get themselves in trouble. They may have like great starts and everything. But then the era's application ends up being their own on doing. Again, you've got to be careful with those things, right? You've got to be careful with those things. And then the eighth mistake that people make is separating similar experiences. Again, the thing is many times people that are reading your application, they read so many applications. So they are able to sniff out when you are trying to pad your application, right? So you see some people, let's say they did some, they did like devolunteered for a health fair. So they did a health fair in 2012 at, okay, let me, again, I don't want to call out things specific organizations.

So let's say they did a health fair in 2012 at the Divine Intervention Hospital, right? And then in 2013, they participated in the same health fair or something, even if it may not be like identical, but it may be like very, very related at Divine Intervention Hospital, right? And then they put the one in 2012 as one experience, they describe it, they put the one in 2013 as one experience and they describe it. No, you should not do that. Again, that's the thing. I feel like sometimes the people that fill out these era's applications, they think that the people that are reading and reviewing the applications are dumb. Let me tell you this, these people are not dumb. They knew exactly what they were doing, right? Again, they were selected as era's application reviewers because they have some kind of pedigree in reviewing applications. Again, you need to be careful, they can see right through the fluff, the snake oil you're trying to sell to them. Again, you got to be careful with those things. Now, the ninth common mistake, although I won't call this a mistake, but it's just something to watch out for, is having like large timeline gaps in your application. The thing is, you want people to be able to almost build like a history of who you are based on your era's application, right? So let's say for example, you have like a volunteer experience from 2012, right?

And then literally there's like a 2013, you know, 2013, 2018 gap in your era's application that leaves much to be desired, right? So again, you want people to have a sense of what you've been doing from at least your next few years to the present time, right? Especially, this is especially important for people that have graduated from med school a while back. You want to show them what you have been doing, right? You don't want them thinking that, huh, was this person sitting at home and playing video games? Was this person not really using their lives productivity? No, that is not the impression that you're trying to give, right? And then the tenth mistake that people make is, if for example you fail the USMLA exam, like if you fail the AUSMLA exam, or you have a super low score, you need to explain to your personal statement. You see some people, they almost think that they can just not like, oh, gee, you failed step one or gee, you failed step two CK once. And then they just think that they can just not talk about it in their era's application. No, you cannot do that. You literally have to talk about that in your personal statement. You need to have a paragraph that is devoted to explaining what happened, why you think it happened, you're taking responsibility, how you remedied the situation, and then how you've moved forward from it, and what you learned from that experience, right?

You need to explain if you have like a fail on the USMLA, or let's say you have a really low score, let's say you have like a 199 on any of the USMLA exams, right? Like step one for example, I mean if you get a 199 on step two, that's a fail, right? But let's say on step one you get like a 199, you absolutely need to explain that in your era's application. And then as we draw to a close, the eleventh mistake is not applying on the date to you, right? I say this question many times online on Reddit, on SDN or whatever, you see people they're like, oh, and people have asked me this one on one, like divine, like my scores are coming out in October. Should I wait till then before I apply, or oh divine, should I wait until all my recommendation letters have been uploaded before I apply? No, you should not wait. You absolutely should not wait. Like I'm telling you this, if you don't submit your era's application, on the first day that residency programs are able to download applications, you are placing yourself at a significant disadvantage with regards to getting interviews or getting matched. Again, when people start adding programs later, right? You need to like, like, let me tell you this, if a program sees you adding them later, right? Adding them later, then the thought is, huh, this person did not really want us from the beginning. Did he really want us from the beginning? Well, they're adding us now because they're beginning to run out of options.

So I'm telling you this, if you have a score that has not come in, or you have a recommendation letter that has not come in, that does not mean you should not submit your application. On September 29th, you should submit your application. In fact, I tell people this, many of the students I work with, I tell them that you should try your goal, should be to submit your application, at least one day before the deadline, because sometimes, era has like technical glitches and stuff, that then makes submitting your application a challenge in endeavor. So again, submit your application by the due date. That's very, very important. Now, the 12 mistake that people make is not being realistic. So the thing is, you see some people, they have like a two ten on step one and a two seventeen on step two. And then they are going all in on applying into like orthopedic surgery. Let me tell you this, you're setting yourself up for failure. Now, let me say this, do I mean that by having a two ten on step one and a two seventeen on step two, you can not match into orthopedic surgery? You absolutely can't. In fact, I'm telling you this, I've worked with people again for privacy reasons, because again, I always maintain privacy with people I work with. But I have worked with people that have had low scores that have matched into good programs, that have matched into competitive disciplines. So it is absolutely possible. But you need to be realistic. You need to be realistic.

If you have low scores, if you know your scores are like not competitive at all, for the specialty you're trying to apply into, I would encourage you to have some kind of backup. Have some kind of backup. Again, the thing is, the more cycles you go through, the smaller your chances of matching. It's better for you to have a job that you can tolerate and use to provide for your family than no job whatsoever. Again, don't get me wrong. I know some people listen to this maybe like, wow. So is medicine all about the money? No, no, no, no, no, medicine is not all about the money. It is not medicine is absolutely not all about the money. We love taking care of patients. We're going to medicine because we want to help people. But again, I feel like many times people have that mindset that, oh, I should never consider the financial aspects of medicine or I should not consider things like my pay, like my salary, or I should don't think of things like that. Let me tell you this, that mindset is what has brainwashed many people into degrading medicine as a profession. In fact, let me tell you this, that mindset literally degrades medicine as a profession in this country. Degrades medicine as a profession in this country. And the thing is people in charge of residency programs and stuff or administrators in charge of hospitals. They recognize that people have this mindset. So they use it to create certain excesses that they end up putting people in trouble, right?

Or end up like, I don't know, like, I'm trying to be careful with my words here because again, you don't know who's listening to this. But since people know that everyone, people going into medicine are all altruistic. They didn't start feeding like stupid things down their throat and these people just accept it like, oh, let me be subjected to this punishment. Let me be subjected to these tough situations. I'm trying to prove my altruism. No, you got to be smart, right? At the end of the day, yes, don't get me wrong. You're posse medicine because it's your passion. But don't forget, you also have your family to provide for, right? Even the Bible says that a man that does not provide for his own household is worse than an infidel. Infidel comes from the word infidelity. It's almost like you're cheating on your wife if you don't provide for your family, right? So the thing is, if you know your scores, I'm not very competitive. And you're like, oh, okay, I'm trying to get into orthopedic surgery. Well, tell yourself, okay, let me apply to like a sister specialty that may give me, it may, that, you know, has more relaxed requirements that may give me some of those things I love, right? The beginning is some of those things I love. The thing is, many times in life, it's perspective that controls what matters, right? Perspective is what matters. It's not the situation that you're thrusting to that matters because again, situations change all the time.

That thing that you really love about a specialty may disappear in like two or three years. And then you have to seek out new things again. Perspective contentment is what really matters with many of these things, right? So again, you need to be realistic. See, for example, if you're trying to go into a big guy and you notice that your scores are really low, it makes perfect sense for you to apply to family medicine as a backup. Family medicine will give you quite a number of things you see no be done, especially depending on the setting you're practicing, right? So again, you need to be realistic. You need to be realistic. And then, mistake number 13 is not applying to a nose program at the outset. And then adding others later. Again, I've talked about this already. But programs may think that you're adding them late because you're, you're starting running out of options and you're not getting interviews, right? So again, go all in from the beginning. Go all in from the beginning, right? Again, I know the process is expensive, but again, not matching and having to do the process all over again is very expensive. And think about it. Every cycle you spend not matching, you're literally letting yourself out of a couple hundred thousand dollars in terms of a physician salary that you literally miss out on. So again, it just makes sense. Go all in so that you can almost guarantee yourself that you'll match.

And then the final mistake I'll talk about today, pride people that have prideful descriptions of themselves in personal statements and experience descriptions. Let me tell you this. People do not love arrogant personalities. I have seen this play out time and time and time again, right? You literally read the personal statement of some people or you read the era's applications of some people. And it's almost like you're reading the statement of some influencer on social media that is trying to show you their prowess. Like, let me use an analogy. You don't want your up to be reduced to people thinking, wow, this person is just trying to show me how glorious they are, how amazing they are, how they are the best thing after sliced bread. How they are, these people that, wow, it will be a privilege and an honor for them to be in our program. But when they come into our program, we need to worship them every day. Let me tell you this. When you write an arrogant personal statement or you describe yourself in your era's experiences in an arrogant fashion, let me tell you what you are presenting to residency programs. You are telling them that you are proud person. You are telling them that you are a person that is not teachable. You are telling them that you are a person that is not humble. You are telling them that you are a person that is not going to be a good team player. You need to tone down.

I'm not saying you should not sell yourself, but you can sell yourself with humility. You can sell yourself with humility. When you come across as a humble person, then you get, again, the thing is, a person that is humble is laying themselves low so that they can be lifted up. A person that is proud is setting themselves very high on a pedestal. When you are on a high pedestal, let me ask you this. What is the natural direction for you to go down? You need to be careful. You need to be careful. Do not be prideful in your era's application or in the way you describe yourself in your personal statement. I think I'm going to go ahead and stop here. I draw the end of every podcast. I draw for one or one tutoring for all the USML exams. Step one, step two, step three, pre-clinical medical exams, 30-year-care chip shop exams, my tutor people for the complex exams, although I don't do OMM. But I tutor people pretty much for the complex exams, not complex, complex exams. Then I have a You Tube channel, the Vine Intervention, USMLP podcasts and videos. That's why I post all the videos that I make. Then my website, obviously, the Vine Intervention Podcast.com, if you subscribe, then you get an email notification whenever I make a new podcast. Then I do also have another website, actually, because many of you have seen that I put some of these life lessons at the end of each podcast. I've got in tons of emails from people that are divine. I really love your life lessons.

Many of you listening to this podcast, you know I'm a Christian. The thing is, I actually studied a new website recently a few months ago, actually. It's called, divineinterventionlifelessens.com. In fact, I have about 23 episodes on it right now. They are all right around 10 minutes. If you go there and subscribe again, you'll get an email notification whenever I make a new podcast. But also, I even have the podcast on Apple Podcasts. It's called the Divine Intervention Life Lessens Podcast. Again, if you listen to them again, they are like Bible-based teaching that should, you know. Just addresses like a common problem that people face, along with practical tips and strategies for dealing with those things. And then just the podcast for the website. I do have them on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts and on Spotify. So again, if you've gone those podcast apps, you'll see the most recent 150 episodes. And I also help with Eras applications and personal statements and stuff. I know it's kind of leading the process, but I do help people with that. So if you interested in any of that, again, just shoot me an email through the website. And I'll give you some more information. So thank you for listening to me today. I'll see you next time. God bless you. Thank you.

To help programs get to know who you are and why you are committed to a specialty, not just listing technical skills.

"Wall of text" descriptions; avoid getting into super fine details of procedures or experiments.

Compress them to 1–3 sentences maximum.

They must explain what productive activities they were engaged in during those years to show continuous engagement.

Never wait for all scores or recommendation letters; submit the application as early as possible (ideally before the deadline) and go "all-in" by adding programs from the start.

Humility. Avoid arrogance or sounding like you are on a pedestal, as this suggests you are not teachable.

It suggests poor documentation skills and could raise concerns about liability in a litigious healthcare setting.

They must address it directly in the personal statement, taking responsibility and detailing how they remedied the situation.

Focus on skills gained (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving) rather than listing every specific experiment or procedure step.

Combine them into a single entry to prevent the application from looking padded or artificial.

Be realistic; if your scores are not competitive for a specialty, apply to a "sister specialty" that may have more relaxed requirements as a backup.

It suggests poor documentation skills and could raise concerns about liability in a litigious healthcare setting.

They must address it directly in the personal statement, taking responsibility and detailing how they remedied the situation.

Focus on skills gained (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving) rather than listing every specific experiment or procedure step.

Combine them into a single entry to prevent the application from looking padded or artificial.

Be realistic; if your scores are not competitive for a specialty, apply to a "sister specialty" that may have more relaxed requirements as a backup.