What do you wish you had known when starting med school?

[Zoom-Zoom]

I think I've seen this thread before but couldn't find much with a search.

I'm starting med school pretty soon and am curious if there's any advice you wish someone had given you before you started? Mostly, things that will pay off when applying to residency. I'm less interested in witty truisms than advice that will actually prove to be helpful

When I started college I had no idea I wanted to be a doctor, and I found it pretty tough to start building a solid app half way through. If I could start this one with my eyes on the prize, I think it'll be a lot less stressful in the long run.

Thanks!

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[Mr hawkings]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=621927

 

[kdburton]

I wish I would have known how many beers I should cut myself off at so that I can have a productive study day the next day (even though it would probably be impossible to follow through with)

 

[2008orbust]

I wish I knew gas prices would be going right back down again and so there was no need to sell my truck.

 

[AK_MD2BE]

I wish I had known that pre-clinical grades mean next to nothing when applying for residency. That's right. I heard it, but didn't believe it.
Save yourself a lot of stress my young friends...if you want to rock Step 1 you should read First Aid and RR Pathology along with your coursework and not stress about grades. Best of luck.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I wish I had known that pre-clinical grades mean next to nothing when applying for residency. That's right. I heard it, but didn't believe it.
Save yourself a lot of stress my young friends...if you want to rock Step 1 you should read First Aid and RR Pathology along with your coursework and not stress about grades. Best of luck.

Nice. My school has a tremendous gap between "pass" and "honors" for pre-clinical stuff. I'd think they'd encourage a lot more effort by dropping the honors from >95% to 90%....it's almost as if they don't want us to over-study.

Any more advice pertaining to residency would be much appreciated.

How does AOA work? When and how do they normally choose people, or do you apply?

 

[SB100]

How does AOA work? When and how do they normally choose people, or do you apply?

They choose before you even enter medical school, so if you haven't heard anything by now you're probably screwed.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

They choose before you even enter medical school, so if you haven't heard anything by now you're probably screwed.

It's odd how people give others a hard time about self-serving questions on sdn, when in reality, that's the purpose of these forums. Begs the question, what's more lame: Using an internet resource to find out helpful information, or trolling that resource to bother others who do?

 

[Tensyle]

How does AOA work? When and how do they normally choose people, or do you apply?

Each school should have a list of requirements. At my school, its something along the lines of: the top 4% of juniors are chosen (based on preclinical grades and step 1), and the top 16% (?) or so are chosen as seniors, based on rotation grades, step 1, and preclinical grades.

maybe you were just joking...lol

 

[SB100]

It's odd how people give others a hard time about self-serving questions on sdn, when in reality, that's the purpose of these forums. Begs the question, what's more lame: Using an internet resource to find out helpful information, or trolling that resource to bother others who do?

I couldn't resist

 

[BennieBlanco]

I couldn't resist

People assume that if you ask you must desperately want to hear from AOA.

What if it was 5th on your list. Screwed isn't appropriate language.

 

[45408]

That you're not going to reach a point where you feel smart or that you've really got a grasp on all of the material.

 

[DrJosephKim]

Looking back, I wish I knew more about what it really took to get into certain specialties. I really didn't know enough about various subspecialty fellowships, etc. I also wish I knew more about specialties that are not "main stream" such as preventive medicine, occupational health, aerospace medicine, etc.

 

[ZipsPwn]

I wish I had known to take the interviewing/history taking skills classes with a grain of salt.

As an M1/M2 the feedback from sim patients and the instructors was pretty harsh; in fact my instructors were both psychologists and told me I might need a "complete cognitive restructuring in order to portray the confidence necessary to have good patient interactions" and spent some portion of every session criticizing my voice for not "filling the room" to satisfaction. What can I say, I'm an INTJ.

But then toward the end of M2 when they started phasing in real patients with real problems and real histories, the real people consistently scored me the highest out of my group on the same criteria by a longshot.

So remember, sticks and stones...

 

[Trismegistus4]

What the winning numbers to the next big Powerball jackpot would be.

 

[smq123]

If I could do it, I would have kept a more open mind towards all specialties. A lot of the stereotypes that exist about specialties (i.e. that all surgeons are mean, that all pediatricians are nice, that liking anesthesiology means not liking patients, etc.) are not always true. I think I let myself get talked out of a lot of specialties during MS1 and MS2 by listening to people who badmouth those specialties...only to find that I LOVED those fields while rotating through them as an MS3.

 

[Orthodoc40]

If I could do it, I would have kept a more open mind towards all specialties. A lot of the stereotypes that exist about specialties (i.e. that all surgeons are mean, that all pediatricians are nice, that liking anesthesiology means not liking patients, etc.) are not always true. I think I let myself get talked out of a lot of specialties during MS1 and MS2 by listening to people who badmouth those specialties...only to find that I LOVED those fields while rotating through them as an MS3.

So now you're a resident in pediatric surgical anesthesia?

I'm agreeing with the 2 themes that close no doors on specialties til you've experienced them some. There are a lot of sterotypes that make no sense. Pathology makes people think of histology slides and dead bodies "no way, not me!" - my friend is a pathologist that works in a blood bank at a major hospital and sees patients all the time.

Try to find the unknown areas, too. A friend of mine went into her med school's career center looking for some little, unknown (at THAT time) specialties that she might like, without having any competition to match into it, since she's not into the competitive thing. Well, that was in the mid 1980's and she matched into a very little known area of medicine at the time - and today she is a radiation oncologist with students and residents falling all over her to find a way to get into their program.

And, yes - your Dean's letter will be around 7 pages long. Approximately 1 paragraph will be written summarizing your first 2 years of medical school, basically saying you passed everything. So don't even bother freaking about that.

 

[novastorm]

the impending destruction of our healthcare system and the short end of the stick that we will likely be offered.

 

[sprinkibrio]

First year I felt I had given up every ounce of my personality and all hobbies for medicine. I didn't feel like my well-rounded self and it freaked me out. I'd like to tell you all that it's part of the process and important to put some of your life on hold the first two years. Second year especially, you don't miss your free time since what you are studying is so interesting. Right now I'm a week into third year and I feel like I've gained ALL of my personality back and more. Third year is all about the personality and expressing yourself, so just take heart that although you put your expression on hold for a while, eventually you will have the outlet for it.

 

[sprinkibrio]

It's odd how people give others a hard time about self-serving questions on sdn, when in reality, that's the purpose of these forums. Begs the question, what's more lame: Using an internet resource to find out helpful information, or trolling that resource to bother others who do?

It's just that questions about residency don't matter for you much right now. There is so much in the way of doing well that you'll need to figure out before you even think of getting honors in classes... the adjustment period for example.

 

[andie gustafson]

that's you are actually going to stop sleeping at all and that it defenitely affects all youself

 

[endofevangelion]

First year I felt I had given up every ounce of my personality and all hobbies for medicine. I didn't feel like my well-rounded self and it freaked me out. I'd like to tell you all that it's part of the process and important to put some of your life on hold the first two years. Second year especially, you don't miss your free time since what you are studying is so interesting. Right now I'm a week into third year and I feel like I've gained ALL of my personality back and more. Third year is all about the personality and expressing yourself, so just take heart that although you put your expression on hold for a while, eventually you will have the outlet for it.

**** that. id rather get a low pass and become a family doctor than give up who i am

 

[mkerr]

i wish i'd read medschoolhell and panda bear's blogs.

then again, i'd have been a premed nublet and wouldn't have really gotten what they were talking about anyway.

 

[gman33]

I wish I knew that class notes and recommended texts are not always the best source for a given person.

We started with anatomy and the course materials just did not cut it for me. I tried to use them anyway and the class was a real struggle. Later on I realized that it works much better for me to have a more condensed format that just presents the stuff you need to memorize (ie board review book).

Also, realize that anything is fair game for a test. Depends on the teacher, but a lot will ask questions based on minor details that aren't really that important. It's almost like they just assume you know the main points, so they don't ask you about that. That was a bit of a shock to me, coming from a non-science background.

 

[NYyanx28]

Not to buy Grey's Anatomy as a study tool for anatomy.

 

[synapse lapse]

**** that. id rather get a low pass and become a family doctor than give up who i am

Yep, me too. You don't have to give up yourself to be a doctor, and you're a fool if you do. Don't let them take what you are, the system damn sure won't give anything equally valuable back in return.

 

[Blesbok]

What the winning numbers to the next big Powerball jackpot would be.

I was going to say "the answers to all the tests and step 1" but that would be even better.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I wish I hadn't embraced the "P=MD" mentality quite so much.

After 4 years of college I was tired. And they keep telling you "everyone who gets in finishes if they want to." And if you're at a true P/F or H/P/F school where basic sci grades mean very little then its easy to sort of get lazy.

I am a very good test taker and had no problem passing everything with VERY little studying and didn't retain as much as I should have.

I wish I had focused on Step 1 from the get go. Studied from review books instead of core notes and annotated everything as I went along. Annotated Goljan as I went through 2nd year. This would have made my 10 wk Step 1 study schedule about 6 weeks and I probably would have gotten a better score.

 

[Blesbok]

I wish I hadn't embraced the "P=MD" mentality quite so much.

After 4 years of college I was tired. And they keep telling you "everyone who gets in finishes if they want to." And if you're at a true P/F or H/P/F school where basic sci grades mean very little then its easy to sort of get lazy.

I am a very good test taker and had no problem passing everything with VERY little studying and didn't retain as much as I should have.

I wish I had focused on Step 1 from the get go. Studied from review books instead of core notes and annotated everything as I went along. Annotated Goljan as I went through 2nd year. This would have made my 10 wk Step 1 study schedule about 6 weeks and I probably would have gotten a better score.

I agree that too many people are told this and although it is true, what they don't say is that P can equal orthopaedics/plastics/derm at a top program in a great location with great opportunities for the future or P can equal psychiatry in bum****, alaska and it all depends on how hard you are willing to work.

 

[Trismegistus4]

I wish I hadn't embraced the "P=MD" mentality quite so much.

After 4 years of college I was tired. And they keep telling you "everyone who gets in finishes if they want to." And if you're at a true P/F or H/P/F school where basic sci grades mean very little then its easy to sort of get lazy.

I am a very good test taker and had no problem passing everything with VERY little studying and didn't retain as much as I should have.

I second this. Very important to know, for those about to start med school. I just kind of coasted through the first two years without retaining much, and it didn't matter since I'm at a true P/F school. What's more, I then foolishly elected to do some of my clerkships before Step I (we have that option at my school) so I hadn't even started studying for Step I when I started 3rd year. The result was that I got a very negative eval from an attending on neurology, because I didn't know anything, and now I have a ton of catching up to do if I want to do reasonably well on the rest of my clerkships.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I second this. Very important to know, for those about to start med school. I just kind of coasted through the first two years without retaining much, and it didn't matter since I'm at a true P/F school. What's more, I then foolishly elected to do some of my clerkships before Step I (we have that option at my school) so I hadn't even started studying for Step I when I started 3rd year. The result was that I got a very negative eval from an attending on neurology, because I didn't know anything, and now I have a ton of catching up to do if I want to do reasonably well on the rest of my clerkships.

Ouch.

Yeah. Everyone always says that you have to keep up or you'll regret it...blah blah blah. But the fact of the matter is you can slack off a TON and still pass, even do well sometimes.

But if you're not retaining it and you're not preparing for boards you'll regret it.

Its still biting me in the butt, I'm very happy with my board score considering how I coasted through 2 years of medical school but I STILL find myself forgetting stuff A LOT in front of attendings during rotation so its still affecting me.

 

[TopSecret]

I think I've seen this thread before but couldn't find much with a search.

I'm starting med school pretty soon and am curious if there's any advice you wish someone had given you before you started? Mostly, things that will pay off when applying to residency. I'm less interested in witty truisms than advice that will actually prove to be helpful

When I started college I had no idea I wanted to be a doctor, and I found it pretty tough to start building a solid app half way through. If I could start this one with my eyes on the prize, I think it'll be a lot less stressful in the long run.

Thanks!

Download and install a good flash card program, such as jMemorize, on your computer.

It helps. If you have a lightweight netbook, you wouldn't need to carry hundreds of flash cards for when you study and you would save some trees in the process.

 

[Magic Hateball]

I wish I had known the following:

1) Fit med school into your life, not your life into med school - Yes it is possible to have a good time. In fact my best friends came from med school.

2) Yes, 4th year really is that good.

3) Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't do something, especially the people on here. I know a guy that made a 216 on Step 1 and matched in Neurosurg at Miami. Find what you like to do and stick to it. After all, if you love what you do, you'll never work another day in your life.

 

[CBG23]

Not to buy Grey's Anatomy as a study tool for anatomy.

I second that - this was the recommended book for our school and I struggled greatly with it. I wish I had known that it is "OK" to look for other sources of learning the material instead of stubbornly sticking with this book and trying to make it work.