free time

[jv1455]

I will be starting as a first year in a DO school and I was just wondering will I have time to do things I enjoy while studying hard (working out, etc.) in medical school? Please keep the sarcastic, ridiculous comments to yourselves I'm asking a serious question and would like to hear from some people who already made it through first year! Thanks!

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[Elevencents]

Yes. Treat it like a full time job. People with full time jobs still have plenty of time to do things.

 

[gobigorgohome22]

Me and my classmates went out once a month (barhopping, etc.), played golf once a month, had potluck once a month, and went out to dinner every week. This not including the random things like pool day or basketball/vollyball game. We also go out for each person's birthday.

You have plenty of time. You just have to be smart about how to manage it.

 

[235009]

Yes. Treat it like a full time job. People with full time jobs still have plenty of time to do things.

For the majority of students if you treat med school like a full time job you'll fail. It requires way more effort. When I worked a full time job I never had to do anything work related in the evening or on weekends. In fact I didn't have to even think about it when I wasn't on the clock. And it's not like I was doing something menial like flipping burgers it was a real job making real money.

 

[jw3600]

For the majority of students if you treat med school like a full time job you'll fail. It requires way more effort. When I worked a full time job I never had to do anything work related in the evening or on weekends. In fact I didn't have to even think about it when I wasn't on the clock. And it's not like I was doing something menial like flipping burgers it was a real job making real money.

If you only go to mandatory classes and make sure your total work time between classes and studying is around 45 hours you will be fine. If you go to every class, I say bump that to about 60. But I still think treating like medical school like a full time job (a career type job, not a 40 hour/week zombie job) is a fine approach to doing well, and certainly will get you at least average.

 

[YankeeCandle1141]

I had more free time in med school than I did in undergrad. A lot more free time actually.



SDN exaggerates the workload of preclinical years. Go to class, study after class. Done.

 

[235009]

If you only go to mandatory classes and make sure your total work time between classes and studying is around 45 hours you will be fine. If you go to every class, I say bump that to about 60. But I still think treating like medical school like a full time job (a career type job, not a 40 hour/week zombie job) is a fine approach to doing well, and certainly will get you at least average.

I had more free time in med school than I did in undergrad. A lot more free time actually.



SDN exaggerates the workload of preclinical years. Go to class, study after class. Done.

It's nice to hear you guys are adjusting well... I put in about 1.5 years of inefficient studying before finally "figuring it out" halfway through second year. It's not because I did an easy major in college either - I was an engineer. It took a lot of time/effort to adjust to the volume of material, being able to pick out high yield information and coming to terms with not "studying everything".

 

[YankeeCandle1141]

It's nice to hear you guys are adjusting well... I put in about 1.5 years of inefficient studying before finally "figuring it out" halfway through second year. It's not because I did an easy major in college either - I was an engineer. It took a lot of time/effort to adjust to the volume of material, being able to pick out high yield information and coming to terms with not "studying everything".

N=1 here, but I think "figuring it out" is a cop out. I had 2 jobs, played an NCAA sport, and did my fair share of partying in college. Im also probably in the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all medical students...but I still didnt think there was anything to "figure out"

This is the same predicament that everyone who works in [insert field] faces after college.
You cant sleep in til 9 every day. You cant go to happy hour at 5 on a Tuesday anymore. You cant just wake up and decide that you don't feel like work today anymore.

Again this is just one guy and one story

 

[235009]

N=1 here, but I think "figuring it out" is a cop out. I had 2 jobs, played an NCAA sport, and did my fair share of partying in college. Im also probably in the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all medical students...but I still didnt think there was anything to "figure out"

This is the same predicament that everyone who works in [insert field] faces after college.
You cant sleep in til 9 every day. You cant go to happy hour at 5 on a Tuesday anymore. You cant just wake up and decide that you don't feel like work today anymore.

Again this is just one guy and one story

I'm sorry you think my experience is wrong.

Just read the hSDN thread you just started to get some perspective on your experience. The fact that you got a 32 on the MCAT 4 years ago puts you around the 80th percentile of test takers so right off the bat saying you're the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all med students is wrong. I got a similar MCAT score (albeit in 2006) and considered myself right around average or slightly above average in "mental ability" compared to my classmates at an MD school so I'm guessing you were at least above average if not significantly above average when it comes to "mental ability" at a DO school. I know it's "cool" to view yourself as an underdog but the evidence makes it seem otherwise.

To clarify my earlier point: learning material during the preclinical years of med school is VERY different from many majors, especially engineering. It consists of complete rote memorization with zero context or conceptual understanding: think anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, etc. That doesn't come easily for some people like myself where we've been taught to understand and apply concepts. So yes I had to "figure out" how to just memorize. One may argue that I never actually figured it out and there came a point where we had learned enough and the material was more about understanding the concepts that things started clicking more and I could rely on learning he way I was used to.

Anyway if you're going to continue with that attitude of discounting others' experiences and downplaying struggles you should think twice about giving advice and starting AMA threads like the one you started on hSDN.

Also, what does "going into critical care" even mean? That's not a residency. Are you trying to sound cool for the high school kids or are you doing a combined residency?

 

[jw3600]

I'm sorry you think my experience is wrong.

Just read the hSDN thread you just started to get some perspective on your experience. The fact that you got a 32 on the MCAT 4 years ago puts you around the 80th percentile of test takers so right off the bat saying you're the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all med students is wrong. I got a similar MCAT score (albeit in 2006) and considered myself right around average or slightly above average in "mental ability" compared to my classmates at an MD school so I'm guessing you were at least above average if not significantly above average when it comes to "mental ability" at a DO school. I know it's "cool" to view yourself as an underdog but the evidence makes it seem otherwise.

To clarify my earlier point: learning material during the preclinical years of med school is VERY different from many majors, especially engineering. It consists of complete rote memorization with zero context or conceptual understanding: think anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, etc. That doesn't come easily for some people like myself where we've been taught to understand and apply concepts. So yes I had to "figure out" how to just memorize. One may argue that I never actually figured it out and there came a point where we had learned enough and the material was more about understanding the concepts that things started clicking more and I could rely on learning he way I was used to.

Anyway if you're going to continue with that attitude of discounting others' experiences and downplaying struggles you should think twice about giving advice and starting AMA threads like the one you started on hSDN.

Also, what does "going into critical care" even mean? That's not a residency. Are you trying to sound cool for the high school kids or are you doing a combined residency?

32 MCAT is closer to 90th percentile (around 88th percentile in 2011) but I agree with your point. Nowhere near bottom quarter of medical students in mental capacity. And probably top 10% if at a DO school.

 

[YankeeCandle1141]

I'm sorry you think my experience is wrong.

Just read the hSDN thread you just started to get some perspective on your experience. The fact that you got a 32 on the MCAT 4 years ago puts you around the 80th percentile of test takers so right off the bat saying you're the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all med students is wrong. I got a similar MCAT score (albeit in 2006) and considered myself right around average or slightly above average in "mental ability" compared to my classmates at an MD school so I'm guessing you were at least above average if not significantly above average when it comes to "mental ability" at a DO school. I know it's "cool" to view yourself as an underdog but the evidence makes it seem otherwise.

To clarify my earlier point: learning material during the preclinical years of med school is VERY different from many majors, especially engineering. It consists of complete rote memorization with zero context or conceptual understanding: think anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology, etc. That doesn't come easily for some people like myself where we've been taught to understand and apply concepts. So yes I had to "figure out" how to just memorize. One may argue that I never actually figured it out and there came a point where we had learned enough and the material was more about understanding the concepts that things started clicking more and I could rely on learning he way I was used to.

Anyway if you're going to continue with that attitude of discounting others' experiences and downplaying struggles you should think twice about giving advice and starting AMA threads like the one you started on hSDN.

Also, what does "going into critical care" even mean? That's not a residency. Are you trying to sound cool for the high school kids or are you doing a combined residency?

...........i am pretty sure that I made it very clear that I was giving my own opinion and not at all discounting your story.

You are such a tool though, that you jedi mind tricked this into spending paragraphs and paragraphs to discount my experience, then accused me of discounting others experiences.



And also, using an MCAT percentile to gauge someone against other medical students? 90 thousand people take the MCAT every year. Less than half ever apply to medical school. Less than half of those who do apply to medical school will get accepted anywhere.

Good talk though.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

N=1 here, but I think "figuring it out" is a cop out. I had 2 jobs, played an NCAA sport, and did my fair share of partying in college. Im also probably in the bottom 25% of mental ability compared to all medical students...but I still didnt think there was anything to "figure out"

This is the same predicament that everyone who works in [insert field] faces after college.
You cant sleep in til 9 every day. You cant go to happy hour at 5 on a Tuesday anymore. You cant just wake up and decide that you don't feel like work today anymore.

Again this is just one guy and one story

Maybe it sounds like a cop-out to you, but it isn't for most people in medical school. I certainly had to study all day every day around the clock my first semester to barely stay afloat getting scores in the low 70s. By the time I figured it out how to study efficiently about a month into second semester I was scoring mid or high 80s in what are considered the toughest courses (i.e. neuroscience) and honored easy courses while studying about 1/2 the time I did previously.

...........i am pretty sure that I made it very clear that I was giving my own opinion and not at all discounting your story.

You are such a tool though, that you jedi mind tricked this into spending paragraphs and paragraphs to discount my experience, then accused me of discounting others experiences.

Ironically, you're the tool here. You called someone's experience a "cop out" which means you discount their story. With the post history in place, I suggest you don't try to twist things to appear like a victim when it's easy to see you were the aggressor.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I will be starting as a first year in a DO school and I was just wondering will I have time to do things I enjoy while studying hard (working out, etc.) in medical school? Please keep the sarcastic, ridiculous comments to yourselves I'm asking a serious question and would like to hear from some people who already made it through first year! Thanks!

Like said, different people have different experiences. For me, my first semester was definitely a no, you don't have time for anything other than studying.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Maybe it sounds like a cop-out to you, but it isn't for most people in medical school. I certainly had to study all day every day around the clock my first semester to barely stay afloat getting scores in the low 70s. By the time I figured it out how to study efficiently about a month into second semester I was scoring mid or high 80s in what are considered the toughest courses (i.e. neuroscience) and honored easy courses while studying about 1/2 the time I did previously.


Ironically, you're the tool here. You called someone's experience a "cop out" which means you discount their story. With the post history in place, I suggest you don't try to twist things to appear like a victim when it's easy to see you were the aggressor.

Can you shed some light on what finally clicked for you? Or rather, what did you start doing to cut your time in half + boost your grades?

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Can you shed some light on what finally clicked for you? Or rather, what did you start doing to cut your time in half + boost your grades?

It's a bit hard to explain, but the thing is in med school they oversaturate you with information. You have to be able to pick out what is important and testable and throw away the rest. This is pretty scary because you realize there's a good portion of the class you haven't studied. So first you need to ignore anyone that says "study everything." Second you need to get over the fear that you haven't studied everything. Third you need to be able to pick out what things seem most high yield from each lecture (also scary because you think "what if what I thought was high yield was only 40% of what's on the test?"), and finally you need a study method that makes you learn as much as possible in the least amount of time possible. Remember, if you only go with your high yield stuff chances are you have put down 85%+ of what will be on the test. What is better, know 100% of 85% of the test or be shaky on 100% of the class in hopes of getting above 85%? I've detailed in other threads how I study, and I never deviate from that formula. At the beginning of the year I was waking up at 4am to keep cramming for my 8am test. By the end of the year I didn't study the entire weekend before the test and scored +15% than at the beginning.