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I was reading this one day: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/732051?src=mp&spon=25&uac=153544ET
People have all kinds of definitions for gunners. I'm going to clarify some misinformation. First of all, not all gunners are bad people. There are "pseudo" gunners and then there are "true" gunners. Pseudo gunners are in fact just overachievers that work extremely hard and avoid social colloquialisms while True gunners are as House says, "Cut-throat beotch". If you don't know what the word "pseudo" means yet, then read this thread once you encounter it in med school because otherwise, it's too early.
A pseudo gunner will NEVER talk about grades. They might ask how did you "feel" about a test or something, but they will never ask for the letter grade or number nor will they tell you about their own grade. Pseudo gunners know that grades DIVIDE. They could care less if someone got higher than them because they know what they got and as long as there is room for improvement, gunners will not be satisfied with their own grade. Sure, pseudo gunners can be anal about grades, but their OWN grades. Pseudo gunners don't even like talking about grades before med school because they just don't care.
Second, pseudo gunners will NEVER interrupt a person giving a lecture and/or even ask a question during the lecture. Most of the questions pseudo gunners have require explanations, which would be a waste of the lecture time. Pseudo gunners never waste lecture time (the ones that go to class that is). Pseudo gunners will wait after class and ask the prof. personally the question, email the question, or go during office hours. Pseudo gunners, do, however dislike it when other people in the class ask a question, especially, if the question has the word "repeat" in it. What has been said has been said, if you missed it, then re-watch the lecture. This is how all gunners role.
Third, if a classmate asks a "pseudo" gunner a question, they will ALWAYS attempt to answer the question and will give the best answer from their knowledge. If they don't know the answer to the question, then they will look it up and find the answer and personally explain it to the person who asked. Beware, "True" gunners are the opposite and will actually give incorrect answers. Some do this as a joke, but the joke is just to hide the true intentions. While pseudo gunners offer help, they usually don't ask for it. This is not due to their arrogance or stubbornness, but because they want to find the answer themselves. They might ask you help in terms of information such as what lectures are being taught on a certain day or what's the name of that bald prof, etc.
Fourth, "Pseudo" gunners believe by teaching a concept, they are also proving to themselves that they know that concept. Therefore, pseudo gunners don't mind teaching, but they will almost NEVER study in groups. This is not because pseudo gunners are out to get other students or are extremely competitive, but they study individually much better and get distracted when studying with others. However, some "pseudo" gunners DO study with 1-2 people, but not more.
Fifth, "Pseudo" gunners will sacrifice almost all social and physical activities until after their exams are over. They might go to the gym 1-3 times per week, but that's it. Partying? Hell no. They might have just enough time to eat with some friends, but they will skip out on all parties EXCEPT the one huge party that is right after exams. These pseudo gunners are mistakenly perceived as "nerds" for these kinds of activities. However, this is an assumption since these gunners are only behaving this way b/c of the pressure of med school. Gunners though don't have the patience to prove that they are different to every person, so they get used to the many assumptions.
Sixth, gunners wake up very early in the morning, at around 8 am and keep studying until midnight. That is, if there are no lectures between these hours. They take breaks, but only to eat, piss, and shiit. Gunners don't sacrifice sleep to study more. They will have their 6-8 hours of sleep every day, so they can study more the next day. If a "pseudo" gunner is asked how much they studied today or what they studied, they WILL say the truth. However, "true" gunners, will say that they didn't study or they did not study for a long time.
Seventh, gunners "almost" NEVER complain. Time spent complaining=# of questions missed on exam. The one thing that pisses off gunners the most is when others complain, especially on facebook statuses. If this happens, gunners will usually ignore it or hide the comment. Gunners will not hate you if you complain, but they will hate the comment. Gunners will NEVER say "FML" in regards to something academic OUT LOUD. That is, if they were driving a car and got a flat tire, they will say "FML", but not related to courses or tests. Now to explain the "almost" part in the first sentence. In order for a gunner to have a normal conversation, sometimes, gunners HAVE to complain about something so they are perceived as normal. This is usually if the gunner is having a conversation with the opposite sex.
Eighth, gunners do have a sense of humor, but they will only display it in certain situations. They will not laugh at medical conditions including psychological disorders such as Borderline personality disorder. They will not make jokes about gender, physical appearance, race, or religion ("pseudo" gunners). This might eliminate 70% of the jokes that exist in the world, which is the reason why gunners are perceived to have no sense of humor. True gunners, on the other hand, will joke about anything the normal student will in order to "fit in".
Ninth, in a group discussion or in a anatomy lab, gunners may dominate the discussion. This is not because they are preventing others from talking. If it's a group discussion, then don't think that the gunner needs to "wait". It's fair in love and war. If, however, a question was directed to a particular student, then the pseudo gunner will "wait" for confirmation from the questioner. Sometimes, this confirmation does not occur, so the minimum rule is 5 secs. If the student paused for more than 5 secs, then the pseudo gunner will intervene. If at all, a pseudo gunner involuntarily answered a question as a "reflex", they will "apologize" to the student that the question was directed to. When gunners DO answer questions, they will answer it in a way that they can understand it themselves. When "pseudo" gunners get questions wrong, they will accept it and move on. Pseudo gunners will try a maximum of 2 times to correct an incorrect answer from a student or teacher. After this, the pseudo gunner will shut-up and move on. True gunners will not stop until the correction is made clear and will either call a higher authority (professor of the course) or consult a medical journal and bring a print-out the next day.
Tenth, "pseudo" gunners will NEVER call themselves a gunner, not even to their best friends. They will refer to gunners in 3rd person. They don't care if someone else calls them a gunner, but they DO care about false assumptions or comments made about gunners. They hate to be labeled as a "true" gunner when they have not done so. Pseudo gunners actually believe that the "true" gunners are the ones who accuse others of being gunners as if it was the "Salem Witch trials" – "That guy is a gunner! Burn him!".
Eleventh, "pseudo" gunners believe in "every man/woman for himself/herself". They will not violate the 3rd and 4th rules above, but they also don't ask for other people's resources/notes. They believe that every person worked very hard to make those notes, then it is something that the person who made the notes should keep. "Pseudo" gunners do believe in competition and they do not want to be taken advantage of. They don't care about sharing resources like textbooks, websites, previous year material, etc. but not personal notes. They are not the "self-sacrificing" students who will spend their whole day teaching another student a concept while compromising their own time for studying. They expect the same treatment in return. They believe in a "survival of the fittest", but they will not "cut-down" the competition to get ahead. They, instead, will RISE above it.
Lastly, most pseudo gunners don't like small talk, not during exam time anyways. So if you meet a gunner one day, he/she may say hi to you and then bye. Don't think that the pseudo gunner is avoiding you, but he/she just doesn't have time to talk about how lovely your "shoes" are or how much "fun" you had at the party that the pseudo gunner didn't go to.
This maybe a long @ss list, but these little things do matter. They separate a hard-working student (pseudo gunner) from a cut-throat backstabbing beotch (true gunner). So next time, don't assume that a student is the latter without further observation because there's a HUGE difference. Lastly, why did I spent 20 mins ranting this? Just because I felt like it.
People have all kinds of definitions for gunners. I'm going to clarify some misinformation. First of all, not all gunners are bad people. There are "pseudo" gunners and then there are "true" gunners. Pseudo gunners are in fact just overachievers that work extremely hard and avoid social colloquialisms while True gunners are as House says, "Cut-throat beotch". If you don't know what the word "pseudo" means yet, then read this thread once you encounter it in med school because otherwise, it's too early.
A pseudo gunner will NEVER talk about grades. They might ask how did you "feel" about a test or something, but they will never ask for the letter grade or number nor will they tell you about their own grade. Pseudo gunners know that grades DIVIDE. They could care less if someone got higher than them because they know what they got and as long as there is room for improvement, gunners will not be satisfied with their own grade. Sure, pseudo gunners can be anal about grades, but their OWN grades. Pseudo gunners don't even like talking about grades before med school because they just don't care.
Second, pseudo gunners will NEVER interrupt a person giving a lecture and/or even ask a question during the lecture. Most of the questions pseudo gunners have require explanations, which would be a waste of the lecture time. Pseudo gunners never waste lecture time (the ones that go to class that is). Pseudo gunners will wait after class and ask the prof. personally the question, email the question, or go during office hours. Pseudo gunners, do, however dislike it when other people in the class ask a question, especially, if the question has the word "repeat" in it. What has been said has been said, if you missed it, then re-watch the lecture. This is how all gunners role.
Third, if a classmate asks a "pseudo" gunner a question, they will ALWAYS attempt to answer the question and will give the best answer from their knowledge. If they don't know the answer to the question, then they will look it up and find the answer and personally explain it to the person who asked. Beware, "True" gunners are the opposite and will actually give incorrect answers. Some do this as a joke, but the joke is just to hide the true intentions. While pseudo gunners offer help, they usually don't ask for it. This is not due to their arrogance or stubbornness, but because they want to find the answer themselves. They might ask you help in terms of information such as what lectures are being taught on a certain day or what's the name of that bald prof, etc.
Fourth, "Pseudo" gunners believe by teaching a concept, they are also proving to themselves that they know that concept. Therefore, pseudo gunners don't mind teaching, but they will almost NEVER study in groups. This is not because pseudo gunners are out to get other students or are extremely competitive, but they study individually much better and get distracted when studying with others. However, some "pseudo" gunners DO study with 1-2 people, but not more.
Fifth, "Pseudo" gunners will sacrifice almost all social and physical activities until after their exams are over. They might go to the gym 1-3 times per week, but that's it. Partying? Hell no. They might have just enough time to eat with some friends, but they will skip out on all parties EXCEPT the one huge party that is right after exams. These pseudo gunners are mistakenly perceived as "nerds" for these kinds of activities. However, this is an assumption since these gunners are only behaving this way b/c of the pressure of med school. Gunners though don't have the patience to prove that they are different to every person, so they get used to the many assumptions.
Sixth, gunners wake up very early in the morning, at around 8 am and keep studying until midnight. That is, if there are no lectures between these hours. They take breaks, but only to eat, piss, and shiit. Gunners don't sacrifice sleep to study more. They will have their 6-8 hours of sleep every day, so they can study more the next day. If a "pseudo" gunner is asked how much they studied today or what they studied, they WILL say the truth. However, "true" gunners, will say that they didn't study or they did not study for a long time.
Seventh, gunners "almost" NEVER complain. Time spent complaining=# of questions missed on exam. The one thing that pisses off gunners the most is when others complain, especially on facebook statuses. If this happens, gunners will usually ignore it or hide the comment. Gunners will not hate you if you complain, but they will hate the comment. Gunners will NEVER say "FML" in regards to something academic OUT LOUD. That is, if they were driving a car and got a flat tire, they will say "FML", but not related to courses or tests. Now to explain the "almost" part in the first sentence. In order for a gunner to have a normal conversation, sometimes, gunners HAVE to complain about something so they are perceived as normal. This is usually if the gunner is having a conversation with the opposite sex.
Eighth, gunners do have a sense of humor, but they will only display it in certain situations. They will not laugh at medical conditions including psychological disorders such as Borderline personality disorder. They will not make jokes about gender, physical appearance, race, or religion ("pseudo" gunners). This might eliminate 70% of the jokes that exist in the world, which is the reason why gunners are perceived to have no sense of humor. True gunners, on the other hand, will joke about anything the normal student will in order to "fit in".
Ninth, in a group discussion or in a anatomy lab, gunners may dominate the discussion. This is not because they are preventing others from talking. If it's a group discussion, then don't think that the gunner needs to "wait". It's fair in love and war. If, however, a question was directed to a particular student, then the pseudo gunner will "wait" for confirmation from the questioner. Sometimes, this confirmation does not occur, so the minimum rule is 5 secs. If the student paused for more than 5 secs, then the pseudo gunner will intervene. If at all, a pseudo gunner involuntarily answered a question as a "reflex", they will "apologize" to the student that the question was directed to. When gunners DO answer questions, they will answer it in a way that they can understand it themselves. When "pseudo" gunners get questions wrong, they will accept it and move on. Pseudo gunners will try a maximum of 2 times to correct an incorrect answer from a student or teacher. After this, the pseudo gunner will shut-up and move on. True gunners will not stop until the correction is made clear and will either call a higher authority (professor of the course) or consult a medical journal and bring a print-out the next day.
Tenth, "pseudo" gunners will NEVER call themselves a gunner, not even to their best friends. They will refer to gunners in 3rd person. They don't care if someone else calls them a gunner, but they DO care about false assumptions or comments made about gunners. They hate to be labeled as a "true" gunner when they have not done so. Pseudo gunners actually believe that the "true" gunners are the ones who accuse others of being gunners as if it was the "Salem Witch trials" – "That guy is a gunner! Burn him!".
Eleventh, "pseudo" gunners believe in "every man/woman for himself/herself". They will not violate the 3rd and 4th rules above, but they also don't ask for other people's resources/notes. They believe that every person worked very hard to make those notes, then it is something that the person who made the notes should keep. "Pseudo" gunners do believe in competition and they do not want to be taken advantage of. They don't care about sharing resources like textbooks, websites, previous year material, etc. but not personal notes. They are not the "self-sacrificing" students who will spend their whole day teaching another student a concept while compromising their own time for studying. They expect the same treatment in return. They believe in a "survival of the fittest", but they will not "cut-down" the competition to get ahead. They, instead, will RISE above it.
Lastly, most pseudo gunners don't like small talk, not during exam time anyways. So if you meet a gunner one day, he/she may say hi to you and then bye. Don't think that the pseudo gunner is avoiding you, but he/she just doesn't have time to talk about how lovely your "shoes" are or how much "fun" you had at the party that the pseudo gunner didn't go to.
This maybe a long @ss list, but these little things do matter. They separate a hard-working student (pseudo gunner) from a cut-throat backstabbing beotch (true gunner). So next time, don't assume that a student is the latter without further observation because there's a HUGE difference. Lastly, why did I spent 20 mins ranting this? Just because I felt like it.
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