What’s it like? Many people wonder what it’s like to be an intern and how to succeed during your first year as a physician. Is it really as bad as everyone makes it out to be? Are you able to sleep without constantly thinking about your patients and the diagnoses that you may have missed? Were you compassionate and empathetic enough toward the family of the patient who was dying? …

The interval between fourth-year residency applications and the first day of orientation the following July is a well-documented nemesis for most medical students. The demands of preparing applications, the time investment in the interview process, and the typical period of decompression and leisure following Match Day result in an extended period of disuse of—and concomitant massive decline in—the medical knowledge and clinical reasoning skills they built up with so much …