Impression of medical school after two whole days...

[yanks26dmb]

So day 2 is done....and I had pretty rough expectations going in about the work load and difficulty....but I was way off.

I did not anticipate this much to be expected of us. It's at the point where I honestly don't know if I'll be able to hang.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

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[WaterIsGood]

Yeah man, join the club.

You'll be fine as long as you stay determined and focused.

 

[kenjixshadow]

I stopped going to lecture after day 1, gotta use time more efficiently.

 

[ortnakas]

I felt that way at the beginning of last year. I'm a second year now. So A) it's doable, and B) I promise you that you're not the only person feeling that way.

Talk to second years at your school to get advice on how to handle things! Advisors and faculty are great resources as well, obviously, but people who were in your position last year will know exactly what you're going through. You'll be amazed at how much you can get done once you figure out how.

 

[AlteredScale]

I understand the feels. It's just absolutely intense and it doesn't stop. I think for the first time, we are experiencing the feeling of not having complete control over the material and work load and the adjustment process is rough. Keep at it.

 

[el_duderino]

You can hang. You were selected from among thousands of applicants, and you deserve the spot. Don't sweat it.

Keep up as best you can and you will be fine.

 

[22031 Alum]

After my first day of classes I wrote in my journal that I already felt five days behind. You're not alone, and you'll be okay!!

 

[EmCEm]

I am a 2nd year now and I remember feeling exactly the same way. It will work out. Just know you are not alone in those feelings and that with time you will adapt

 

[el_duderino]

One more thing that I cannot possibly stress enough.

If you are actually having issues, or can't shake the feeling that something is wrong or you are overwhelmed.... USE THE RESOURCES YOUR SCHOOL HAS AVAILABLE.

I think half or more of my class has been to student services and seen counselors or specialists at least once. They know what they're doing and it's totally normal.

 

[IlDestriero]

The best advice I can give you is to not get behind. If you get behind in college courses, missing a few days of class, it's not a big deal to catch up.
You can have balance, date, work out, take a weekend off, etc. However if you go kite boarding in Fiji for a week instead of class, you're going to find yourself squarely behind the eight ball.

 

[Sed8&Intub8]

So day 2 is done....and I had pretty rough expectations going in about the work load and difficulty....but I was way off.

I did not anticipate this much to be expected of us. It's at the point where I honestly don't know if I'll be able to hang.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

You'll adjust. Don't doubt yourself and have confidence

 

[doapplicant2015]

I felt that way at the beginning of last year. I'm a second year now. So A) it's doable, and B) I promise you that you're not the only person feeling that way.

Talk to second years at your school to get advice on how to handle things! Advisors and faculty are great resources as well, obviously, but people who were in your position last year will know exactly what you're going through. You'll be amazed at how much you can get done once you figure out how.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

I think we are all feeling it over here too. Good luck yanks

 

[yanks26dmb]

Well glad to hear I'm not the only one.
...but 200 pgs reading and 350 slides in 1.5 days is just so far beyond my ability....hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the end.

 

[AlteredScale]

Well glad to hear I'm not the only one.
...but 200 pgs reading and 350 slides in 1.5 days is just so far beyond my ability....hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the end.

When is your first exam?

 

[el_duderino]

Well glad to hear I'm not the only one.
...but 200 pgs reading and 350 slides in 1.5 days is just so far beyond my ability....hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the end.

I read maybe 200 total pages of textbook during my entire first year, if that.

 

[chizledfrmstone]

This is why we tell you guys to enjoy your summer and not bother pre-reading.

The first 2 months are the roughest but you will make it through.

After a while you will get efficient enough to know what you have to read and what you can ignore.

The best advice I can give you right now is to 1.) Set up a pace you can follow. Don't try to cover 100% of the information perfectly. It isn't possible to know everything! 2.) Spend your free time wisely.

Try and enjoy first year.

 

[Bobcat18]

Welp I see where you are making a mistake- you actually intend on reading the "required readings". At least for my school, the reading assignments are intended to supplement your courses if you don't understand the material. I can only recall a few instances where a test question was taken from a textbook and wasn't in our powerpoints. Talk with your 2nd years to see if this is the case for you too. If that's the case, you'll be pleasantly surprised that medical school is a lot more manageable than you are making it out to be. Good luck.

 

[DrEnderW]

You'll adjust mentally and emotionally to the pace. It's like an athlete training for a marathon. At first you're wiped after a few miles, but after 6 weeks of training you're able to run the full thing wondering how a couple miles was ever difficult.

 

[rzoo14]

First few weeks/months are rough but you'll find ways of studying that work best for you and you'll also figure out how professors format their questions on exams. I think that helped narrow down a lot of the high yield stuff. Once you know how to study and what to study for each professor, those 300 slides won't seem a lot.
You got this, don't stress out too much.

 

[NurWollen]

In my experience, most people ignore the "required reading." At least at my school, 99.999% (not exaggerating) of the test material came from the slides/study guides/lecture notes put out by the faculty. If you try reading the textbooks, you'll get bogged down with material you'll never need to know. So forget about the "required reading." It will make the load much more manageable. I think schools say textbooks are "required" because that way HPSP students can get the military to pay for all the books.

 

[Goro]

You can do it. You just need to realize that what worked in UG isn't going to work now, and find the optimal strategy.

Don't try to learn everything, because you won't. Start by focusing on the big picture.

Make use of school's learning resources

Be optimal at time mgt.

Good luck!

So day 2 is done....and I had pretty rough expectations going in about the work load and difficulty....but I was way off.

I did not anticipate this much to be expected of us. It's at the point where I honestly don't know if I'll be able to hang.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

You can do it. You just need to realize that what worked in UG isn't going to work now, and find the optimal strategy.

Don't try to learn everything, because you won't. Start by focusing on the big picture.

Make use of school's learning resources

Be optimal at time mgt.

Good luck!

Goro do you feel not doing the readings and focusing on slides / study guides/ notes is a good idea? How do your students study?

 

[NoTownPreMed]

I always wonder, how often do students not attend classes and self study at home or in the library?

 

[Elevencents]

I always wonder, how often do students not attend classes and self study at home or in the library?

100% after the first day of the semester.

 

[NoTownPreMed]

100% after the first day of the semester.

I figure so. Thanks.

 

[Goro]

Start with PPT files and make sure to home in one what's the most important. Hint: many clinicians will give of a list of important signs/symptoms of a particular disease. However, all it is, is a list. They don't tell you that perhaps the first four things are seen in > 75% of all patients, and so when you see, nausea, vomiting, dehydration + X, Y and Z in a 2 year, you automatically know the Dx is ___ and not ___. So pump your clinical faculty to get them to weed out the minutiae,

Required reading should only be done if
a) you have time
b) you're really interested in the subject
c) there's a conflict on the subject between two different lecturers, or the lecturer's presentation and the notes
d) the lecturer's notes are unclear

First Aid for USMLE should be the bare bone minimum of what you need to know. My worst students attempt to use only Board review material as their learned, and it simply blows up in their faces.

In OMSI most students show up for lecture. By spring of OMS II, about 20%. I don't have a problem with that because they're adults and they have to choose the learning style that's best for them. We, like many other schools, videotape our lectures, so the students can study at their own pace.

There are multiple ways to study, and no one right way. You have to find what works for you. I'm a fan of drawing pathways out on art paper over and over Worked for me when I took biochem. For Histology, I made drawing of my slides.

Goro do you feel not doing the readings and focusing on slides / study guides/ notes is a good idea? How do your students study?

I always wonder, how often do students not attend classes and self study at home or in the library?

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

Start with PPT files and make sure to home in one what's the most important. Hint: many clinicians will give of a list of important signs/symptoms of a particular disease. However, all it is, is a list. They don't tell you that perhaps the first four things are seen in > 75% of all patients, and so when you see, nausea, vomiting, dehydration + X, Y and Z in a 2 year, you automatically know the Dx is ___ and not ___. So pump your clinical faculty to get them to weed out the minutiae,

Required reading should only be done if
a) you have time
b) you're really interested in the subject
c) there's a conflict on the subject between two different lecturers, or the lecturer's presentation and the notes
d) the lecturer's notes are unclear

First Aid for USMLE should be the bare bone minimum of what you need to know. My worst students attempt to use only Board review material as their learned, and it simply blows up in their faces.

In OMSI most students show up for lecture. By spring of OMS II, about 20%. I don't have a problem with that because they're adults and they have to choose the learning style that's best for them. We, like many other schools, videotape our lectures, so the students can study at their own pace.

There are multiple ways to study, and no one right way. You have to find what works for you. I'm a fan of drawing pathways out on art paper over and over Worked for me when I took biochem. For Histology, I made drawing of my slides.

Thanks goro! I always have trouble in histo drawing accurately enough to see details.

 

[Goro]

It helped me that I minored in fine Arts.

Thanks goro! I always have trouble in histo drawing accurately enough to see details.

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

It helped me that I minored in fine Arts.

I couldn't be further from that. I'm envious of those with artistic talents

 

[JeBrAs]

It becomes better with every passing day. Just keep moving forward and keep up with the study material. You will be surprised how fast time flies when you study, its easy to put in the time.

 

[AlteredScale]

I think what's killing me here is that from the get go, we are being asked board questions. There's no movement from first to second to third order questions it's just BAM here's a full case going for you.

 

[ortnakas]

How to study is school-specific, class-specific and you-specific. Figure out what works for you! If what you're doing doesn't work, ask second years, faculty, and even your own classmates for tips. On the other hand, if you find something that does work, don't be tempted to change when you hear of others doing something different.

For histo and embryo at my school, the lecture notes were sufficient, except for images-- I made sure to look at figures in the book for both classes, and that worked pretty well.

I think what's killing me here is that from the get go, we are being asked board questions. There's no movement from first to second to third order questions it's just BAM here's a full case going for you.

Review books are your friend. BRS for histo, BRS then Green Gray's for anatomy, Lippincott for anatomy and embryo (I didn't find BRS helpful for embryo but that may have just been me). Gore's right that the board review books aren't enough, but they're golden for getting used to the crazy med school question style.

 

[D4C]

2nd and 3rd order questions don't exist in medical school. It's secretly 2 or 3 first order questions in the same stem. I didn't even feel them on boards. From day 1 it's do you know 'the list'. If you know 'the list' then you know everything they can ask and the thinking involved could be done by an ape. You want 3rd order questions? Hit up some advanced math and engineering courses. Night and day difference.

 

[AlteredScale]

How to study is school-specific, class-specific and you-specific. Figure out what works for you! If what you're doing doesn't work, ask second years, faculty, and even your own classmates for tips. On the other hand, if you find something that does work, don't be tempted to change when you hear of others doing something different.

For histo and embryo at my school, the lecture notes were sufficient, except for images-- I made sure to look at figures in the book for both classes, and that worked pretty well.



Review books are your friend. BRS for histo, BRS then Green Gray's for anatomy, Lippincott for anatomy and embryo (I didn't find BRS helpful for embryo but that may have just been me). Gore's right that the board review books aren't enough, but they're golden for getting used to the crazy med school question style.

Thanks!

I've essentially used the lecture slides as a first pass of the required material we need to know and stuck it up with BRS and Goljan. We are in biochem. I bought first aid for the mnemonics

 

[Goro]

As hard as the "sink or swim" approach is, it works, and it gets to used to Boards early on.

I do try to stay my subject exams off with 1st order and then crank up the heat by the 2nd and subsequent exams. The students do fine on my material, at least!

I think what's killing me here is that from the get go, we are being asked board questions. There's no movement from first to second to third order questions it's just BAM here's a full case going for you.

They sure exist at my school. We have no problem in teaching to COMLEX. I and others among my colleagues write for COMLEX, and some of the DOs are reviewers for NBOME.

2nd and 3rd order questions don't exist in medical school. It's secretly 2 or 3 first order questions in the same stem. I didn't even feel them on boards. From day 1 it's do you know 'the list'. If you know 'the list' then you know everything they can ask and the thinking involved could be done by an ape. You want 3rd order questions? Hit up some advanced math and engineering courses. Night and day difference.

 

[OneTripAcross]

So day 2 is done....and I had pretty rough expectations going in about the work load and difficulty....but I was way off.

I did not anticipate this much to be expected of us. It's at the point where I honestly don't know if I'll be able to hang.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

I was right where you are now 4 years ago. I never really had good or any real study habits in undergrad and I was floored the first week. I was, at least in my head, the dumbest student in my class. I just put my head down and the next two weeks went nuts with studying, which I decided at that time was to just go over everything over and over. I'm talking 6am to 10pm studying (which I would soon find out was overkill). Smoked the first test and throttled waaay back.

I tell people who are first starting that for that first test block just go nuts. Be ridiculous with how much you study. After that first test adjust accordingly. Also, my studying evolved ALOT throughout those first two years. Don't be afraid to change it up. They way I studied first year just wasn't feasible with the amount of material we had stuffed down our throats in 2nd year.

It goes quick. Study hard, but for the love of god enjoy yourself as much as you can.

 

[D4C]

As hard as the "sink or swim" approach is, it works, and it gets to used to Boards early on.

I do try to stay my subject exams off with 1st order and then crank up the heat by the 2nd and subsequent exams. The students do fine on my material, at least!





They sure exist at my school. We have no problem in teaching to COMLEX. I and others among my colleagues write for COMLEX, and some of the DOs are reviewers for NBOME.

Sounds like we have separate ideas. Let me split some hairs with you on this. Imagine you learn mandarin in a class, but the test is cantonese. That's the higher order questions I'm talking about. It's deriving new information off preexisting material. Med school / boards at best is just an integration of so many little factoids - the success of the whole step 1 prep industry should make that clear. There's only so many ways to ask the same damned material.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Thanks!

I've essentially used the lecture slides as a first pass of the required material we need to know and stuck it up with BRS and Goljan. We are in biochem. I bought first aid for the mnemonics

.... Jesus man...

Has anything we've learn so far actually required a mnemonic?

 

[AlteredScale]

.... Jesus man...

Has anything we've learn so far actually required a mnemonic?

I Love Vermont Maple Syrup: MSUD, isoleucine, valine, lysine.

Maple Syrup comes from trees which have branches --> ILV are unpolar unbranched AA's.

IDK those things really help me hah.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I Love Vermont Maple Syrup: MSUD, isoleucine, valine, lysine.

Maple Syrup comes from trees which have branches --> ILV are unpolar unbranched AA's.

IDK those things really help me hah.

.....

Last I checked we don't even need to know about the whole issue of how the failure to metabolize branching amino acids leads to maple syrup urine disease ( Though thank you for the reminder to re-learn the protein involved in breaking down chains though, since that I think is actually testable)..

And hell if I actually remember any of the specific primary sequence of anything beyond the serine protease lol.

Idk, I'm not sure whether you're going overboard or I'm going underboard atm.

 

[AlteredScale]

.....

Last I checked we don't even need to know about the whole issue of how the failure to metabolize branching amino acids leads to maple syrup urine disease ( Though thank you for the reminder to re-learn the protein involved in breaking down chains though, since that I think is actually testable)..

And hell if I actually remember any of the specific primary sequence of anything beyond the serine protease lol.

Idk, I'm not sure whether you're going overboard or I'm going underboard atm.

The mech of MSUD was in Seidler's lecture notes. So going to make sure I take note in that.

I forget the enzyme name, ketoacid reductase? Was I close?

Idk...my brain is in a different mindset now haha.

 

[AlteredScale]

Yeah to add to this thread: One week of medical school can really do things to your brain hahah.

I would say the biggest thing is that the most successful students so far have a set system for reviewing and learning the material in a BALANCED form. That means being on top of lecture material as best as possible.

 

[Goro]

At the end of two years, my students have learned Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese and some Laotian as well.

Sounds like we have separate ideas. Let me split some hairs with you on this. Imagine you learn mandarin in a class, but the test is cantonese. That's the higher order questions I'm talking about. It's deriving new information off preexisting material. Med school / boards at best is just an integration of so many little factoids - the success of the whole step 1 prep industry should make that clear. There's only so many ways to ask the same damned material.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

The mech of MSUD was in Seidler's lecture notes. So going to make sure I take note in that.

I forget the enzyme name, ketoacid reductase? Was I close?

Idk...my brain is in a different mindset now haha.

I genuinely don't remember if at most because I didn't think it would be high yield and because from multiple sources that Seidler is big on correlation boxes or if outside, then just related information to them.

Yeah to add to this thread: One week of medical school can really do things to your brain hahah.

I would say the biggest thing is that the most successful students so far have a set system for reviewing and learning the material in a BALANCED form. That means being on top of lecture material as best as possible.

Pretty much. Be on top of and read the book and then come test time review the LO's in the form of flashcards.

Most of the seconds I know really don't go overboard with trying to insert every single detail in their head. If at the very least on the basis that they'll only remember the big picture by the end of the year anyway.


But going off the point of how medical school changes your brain. You're right. There's no way I would have ever believed I'd have memorize essentially half a course's material in a week. Though that being said I'm thinking so far we're going at like 2-3x the speed of a summer class. So not too impossible of a hop.

 

[costales]

You just entered a foreign land. Aim to pass, not to impress. But be sure to understand the basic science.

 

[skeletor06]

I hear about all these people studying from home, and I'm super jealous. We're required to be in lecture every day from 8-12 or so. Wednesday last week, I was required to be on campus from 8 am - 6 pm due to starting our clinical course, etc. If you're not a lecture learner, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get caught up. Anyone have any ideas how to be time-efficient if you're required to go to lectures and you don't learn well there?

 

[67552931811]

I hear about all these people studying from home, and I'm super jealous. We're required to be in lecture every day from 8-12 or so. Wednesday last week, I was required to be on campus from 8 am - 6 pm due to starting our clinical course, etc. If you're not a lecture learner, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get caught up. Anyone have any ideas how to be time-efficient if you're required to go to lectures and you don't learn well there?

Sit in the back. Throw in earbuds. Do your thing.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I hear about all these people studying from home, and I'm super jealous. We're required to be in lecture every day from 8-12 or so. Wednesday last week, I was required to be on campus from 8 am - 6 pm due to starting our clinical course, etc. If you're not a lecture learner, it doesn't leave a lot of time to get caught up. Anyone have any ideas how to be time-efficient if you're required to go to lectures and you don't learn well there?

I hear people in those circumstances learn how to covertly study while their professors do their thing.

 

[----------12c]

So day 2 is done....and I had pretty rough expectations going in about the work load and difficulty....but I was way off.

I did not anticipate this much to be expected of us. It's at the point where I honestly don't know if I'll be able to hang.

Has anyone else felt this way early on in their med school career or am I just f'd.

The fire hose has not even been turned on yet OP. I suggest you tie yourself to a chair and hold on for dear life.

 

[el_duderino]

The fire hose has not even been turned on yet OP. I suggest you tie yourself to a chair and hold on for dear life.

Aren't you a first year?