COLUMBUS, OH – Stephen Morrical, a second-year medical student at The Ohio State University, reported yesterday that the previous owner of his First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 book most likely failed Step 1.
“At first when I was reading it, the old owner seemed to be doing well. There were good solid notes in the margins, he was clearly putting stuff together and feeling good about himself. Look, there is a cute drawing in the epidemiology chapter explaining sensitivity versus specificity. Great!”
But Morrical reports the tone of the notes and drawings grew increasingly darker the further he read the review book.
“Yeah his notes become increasingly disorganized,” Morrical continued. “By chapter 4 they dissolve into barely-legible chicken scratch. The guy really starts to fall apart on the cardiology chapter, barely highlighting it. I think the dagger drawn into the heart illustration in the beginning of the chapter says a lot.”
Morrical further explained the book seemed to become a target for the previous owner’s pent-up anger and insecurity.
“Halfway through, there are more expletives and curse words written in the margin than notes. The guy was clearly losing it. Oh look at this, in the corners of the pages there is a little flip book of a stick figure hanging himself. Come on, that probably took an hour to do!”
Ironically for Morrical, the book became more useful the more he read it, as whole chapters of the book lay untouched.
“Its tough to figure out the exact moment the guy gave up. Two pages of the renal chapter are highlighted and then the rest are untouched. Clearly he skipped over that chapter. The rest he seemed to glance through. Oh look here in the infectious diseases chapter he drew a picture of a stick figure standing next to a cliff by the Rickettsial section. Dark.” He added: “I mean he must have survived right? He clearly sold this book on Amazon.com, but how could he have passed?”
At press time Morrical was deciding if the grim notes and drawings in the book meant he should sell it to a first-year med student or keep it for prosperity.
“I’ll probably just convince some Med 1 to give me $40 for it. They don’t know any better. I mean heck, I just sold a Med 1 my untouched Lachman’s Case Studies for like $30!”