CaRMS AMA

[goingplaid]

Currently a resident at a competitive program (#1 discipline in my year based off 1st choice ranks/# of spots; I say this not to brag but to demonstrate that I know what you’re going through). CaRMS is anything but fun, but maybe I can help dial down your anxiety. 

-GP

 

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Edited December 24, 2019 by goingplaid

[Labqiwi]

Thanks for helping us out!

do you have a round of questions that are commonly asked during interviews across most programs?

[bearded frog]

The CaRMS experience is wildly different depending on what you're applying to, so it might be helpful for people if you narrow it down, or at least what you mean by 1# discipline. Are you at a competitive family medicine program (the #1 discipline by applicants every year) or either plastic surgery or dermatology (the most competitive specialties by ratio of first choice applicants to spots for the last 5 years)? Because the the experience will be wildly different for most people if its the second category.

[goingplaid]

13 hours ago, Labqiwi said:

Thanks for helping us out!

do you have a round of questions that are commonly asked during interviews across most programs?

No problem 

Dependent on the competitiveness. My experience was that many “classic questions” were not ask at competitive specialties, but were common for family med (etc.)

For all locations I knew 

1. why that location 

2. how I liked it form a personal and professional standpoint 

3. who I wanted to work with at that location 

In general I had stories (2) that could be related to each of the CanMED criteria. 
 

Some other classic questions were strengths/weaknesses, ethical dilemmas, what kind of animal would you be, what would you ask a CaRMS applicatant, etc 

I Googled a lot and just combined all of the interview questions I could. I was surprised that I had thought about a lot of my questions, or similar, before being asked them on the interview. 
 

Does that answer your question?

-GP

[goingplaid]

1 hour ago, bearded frog said:

The CaRMS experience is wildly different depending on what you're applying to, so it might be helpful for people if you narrow it down, or at least what you mean by 1# discipline. Are you at a competitive family medicine program (the #1 discipline by applicants every year) or either plastic surgery or dermatology (the most competitive specialties by ratio of first choice applicants to spots for the last 5 years)? Because the the experience will be wildly different for most people if its the second category.

I’m referring to competitiveness by first choice applicants. 
 

I understand that there are competitive locations for family medicine, but the interviews are quite different. Having said that, from what I’ve heard, if you’re prepared for a plastics/derm/etc interview, you’re prepared for a family interview. 
 

-GP

[pyridoxal-phosphate]

x

[goingplaid]

On 12/24/2019 at 4:13 PM, pyridoxal-phosphate said:

1) How important are your resume and extracurriculars for CaRMS? I understand that this might vary from city to city and specialty to specialty though. 

Yea. Varies for sure. I know there are some programs that are more "research heavy" than others, so your resume will be looked at with that bias. Your CV should be a representation of your life's accomplishment, so I would say it is the core of your application to CaRMS, especially for locations you didn't attend during your elective tour.

2) This isn't really specific to CaRMS so I totally understand if you'd rather not answer it, but more broadly speaking I was wondering if you had any general advice when it comes to handling the medical school workload. I finished my first semester and had a great time, passed my exams etc but I wasn't doing any extracurricular activities and I'm a bit worried i'm not being efficient with my  studying. 

I did things that made me happy and then tried to be as consistent as possible with my studying. It's not about doing it all on one day, but rather, being in the habit of doing a little bit regularly to overcome the volume of material.... and then I also crammed for exams. hahaha

 

Quote

Looking back, do you have any advice on studying efficiently during the pre clerkship years to give you more time for personal and professional growth in other areas?

I knew only what I considered to be high yield. If I was above class average, I was happy. I didn't feel like the investment to try and get a medal during medical school was worth it. I took that time to work on other things (extracurriculars I was passionate about, or research). I also didn't go on huge trips during medical school. I understand why people do it, but for me, a 4 week (or more) trip to Europe wasn't going to help me find myself, it was going to stress me out because it would make me fall behind in my work. At the end of the day, I'll have the chance to do some great travelling as a staff. Will it cost more? If we're speaking money, yes, but if we're speaking desired specialty, then possibly no. 

Thank you so much! 

Please see above for my responses. Hope they help. 

-GP

[shikimate]

On 12/24/2019 at 6:13 PM, pyridoxal-phosphate said:

Looking back, do you have any advice on studying efficiently during the pre clerkship years to give you more time for personal and professional growth in other areas?

Thank you so much! 

Efficiency is underrated in Canada because almost everyone passes and matches, but if you want the most high yield stuff read First Aid series for USMLE, Step 2 CK if you want more clinical, Step 1 if you care about some basic science stuff. Supplement it with YT videos for audio-visual. In hindsight many lecturers are so ineffective, dwelling on minutia, or their topic is so isolated from the big picture it's mostly a waste of time attending class in person; I hope your experience is better.

Also take the psycho-social stuff they teach in small groups easy, don't get too entrenched in their grandiose propositions. Your time is better spent doing shadowing, get to know people at your university's hospital, get to know how the hospital functions, even where the supply cart is! CaRMS, and by extension, finding a job (assuming you aren't in FM or psych or derm or something that has innumerable job openings) it's ALL ABOUT PEOPLE CONNECTION. 

Meet people from the specialty at conferences, it's the best venue. Shake as many hands and hand out as many business cards as you can. Every med student (and resident doing fellowship/job searching) should have an ample supply of business cards and CV on hand. Try to remember names, people really like it when they meet you at a later time you remember their first name and something about them. Have the answers to some common questions ready BEFORE you introduce yourself, such as what made you interested in this specialty etc. 

[shikimate]

When you go on elective, you'll find some attendings don't care too much about med students. That's normal. It's important to identify people who can bat for you, push the right buttons for you. That is really hard, because sometimes the heavyweights are the least readable, and departmental politics takes a long time, or insider knowledge, to decipher. Residents are a good source, usually by PGY3 they would know pretty well the personalities of PD and prominent staff in their department. Ask them how they feel about working with so and so, often you get a good hint as to whether it's easy or hard to deal with that person. Take note of secretaries and admin people, what's their attitude and reaction when they talk about that person? 

Lastly, note any potential personnel changes. PD usually change every 5 years or so. If some prominent person left the department suddenly, there's usually some story behind it, and departmental power balance will shift. For example, a "puppet" PD might get put in, who's completely unwilling to do the job of PD, but have to do it because the Chair or some senior person in the department said so. These situations usually the senior person will sit on the selection committee, but won't necessarily poke their heads out. They'll act as the "invisible hand" behind the  choices PD make, so one wouldn't be surprised if their choice/ranking is very different from the reaction students get from the PD.