What is Medical School actually like?

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bashwell said:
If med school is like high school, these are the medical specialties...

Jock - orthopedics
Cheerleader - dermatology
Geek - radiology
Nerd - internal medicine
Scene - pediatrics
Goth - pathology
Druggie - anesthesiology
Hipster - family medicine
Etc
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I don't feel like this is true. But it's fun to speculate.

Anyway, medical school isn't too hard. Just have to work at it and want to do well. Not everyone wants to be a orthopedic surgeon, so there's no need to break your back if you don't want to.
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vellez said:
I don't feel like this is true. But it's fun to speculate.
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Yeah, they're just stereotypes, but obviously not all stereotypes are true.
Anyway, medical school isn't too hard. Just have to work at it and want to do well. Not everyone wants to be a orthopedic surgeon, so there's no need to break your back if you don't want to.
Click to expand...
But who wouldn't want to be as strong as an ox and twice as smart? ;)
 
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bashwell said:
If med school is like high school, these are the medical specialties...

Jock - orthopedics
Cheerleader - dermatology
Geek - radiology
Nerd - internal medicine
Scene - pediatrics
Goth - pathology
Druggie - anesthesiology
Hipster - family medicine
Etc
Click to expand...
Not even in med school and this is so accurate. I want to study pathology and I'm kind of an introvert-behind-the-scene type of person.
 
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vellez said:
I don't feel like this is true. But it's fun to speculate.

Anyway, medical school isn't too hard. Just have to work at it and want to do well. Not everyone wants to be a orthopedic surgeon, so there's no need to break your back if you don't want to.
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How difficult is it to get orthopedic residency? What you need to do?
 
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Fuarky said:
How difficult is it to get orthopedic residency? What you need to do?
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You need to have strong clinical grades, a sky high step 1 score, good letters from people in the field, and preferably orthopedics research. About 80% of people who apply to orthopedics match, which makes it one of the most competitive residencies to obtain.
 
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WedgeDawg said:
You need to have strong clinical grades, a sky high step 1 score, good letters from people in the field, and preferably orthopedics research. About 80% of people who apply to orthopedics match, which makes it one of the most competitive residencies to obtain.
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this may be off topic but I was curious to know--if you have pbl/tbl in your curriculum, how do you feel about it?
 
Glazedonutlove said:
this may be off topic but I was curious to know--if you have pbl/tbl in your curriculum, how do you feel about it?
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We have tbl starting in January, but nothing yet (unless you count the fact that we take anatomy practicals with our lab group which is awesome).
 
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Goro said:
Take all of human knowledge.

Memorize it, and know how to apply it.

Be prepared to be tested on it on Monday (lab practical on Wed afternoon).
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More like be prepared to be tested on it Monday morning.... lab practical Monday afternoon.
 
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Glazedonutlove said:
this may be off topic but I was curious to know--if you have pbl/tbl in your curriculum, how do you feel about it?
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My school has TBL and PBL starting the first week for TBL and I think the second for PBL. PBL is interesting although very boring at times. TBL I am not into.
 
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Hospitalized said:
Any medical students care to share how the information they are required to learn is organized?

It seems like most undergraduate teachers I have really don't care much about being systematic and presenting the material in a learning-friendly manner.

Are medical schools concise with the material they expect you to learn? I'm fine with someone telling me I need to learn something and then going to do it on my own, just so long as they don't forget to tell me to learn an entire concept that shows up on a test.
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They will tell you to learn one thing and half the time will throw things at you where you are literally like "Where on earth did this come from?"

100 slides of a powerpoint for an hour is not unusual. Randomly weird details too.
 
I feel that TBL and PBL are fashionable things that savvy interviewers ask during their interviews. I personally would HATE it if my med school taught us in that manner. Just give me regular lecture for the basics.
 
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familyaerospace said:
They will tell you to learn one thing and half the time will throw things at you where you are literally like "Where on earth did this come from?"

100 slides of a powerpoint for an hour is not unusual. Randomly weird details too.
Click to expand...

It's funny how universal the experience is
 
vellez said:
I feel that TBL and PBL are fashionable things that savvy interviewers ask during their interviews. I personally would HATE it if my med school taught us in that manner. Just give me regular lecture for the basics.
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We've got a mixed curriculum and I really liked it. Traditional lectures with team-based exercises. Was a great way to learn in first year. Second year you get traditional lectures but are largely left to your own devices, aside tion two sort CBL cases a week that are way more fun than first year in content.
 
bashwell said:
If med school is like high school, these are the medical specialties...

Jock - orthopedics
Cheerleader - dermatology
Geek - radiology
Nerd - internal medicine
Scene - pediatrics
Goth - pathology
Druggie - anesthesiology
Hipster - family medicine
Etc
Click to expand...

Thinking about my MS4 classmates, I'm smiling about how accurate this is although the most scene-looking guy in our class is going into psych.
 
It is a hell-hole that will suck the life and the very marrow from your bones. It was fun sometimes too.

When I described it to someone, they were like, "oh, so it's like finals week, but every other week?" Yep.

That's the first two years, which is better than and worse than the clinical years in a lot of ways.

What it is really like is one of the most amazing and difficult experience you can ever have. And the most expensive, and potentially one of the most destructive.

Don't go. Unless you really enjoy your own pain, because there will be a lot of it.
 
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One more thing is the grade requirements are not as high as compared to undergrads where people who want to go to med school are trying to keep 3.9's in undergrad by mainly getting A's on everything. I believe for med school you guys have different grading system as well.
 
Fuarky said:
One more thing is the grade requirements are not as high as compared to undergrads where people who want to go to med school are trying to keep 3.9's in undergrad by mainly getting A's on everything. I believe for med school you guys have different grading system as well.
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Depends on the school but many schools have a pass/fail grading system. My school is graded pass/fail and the passing thresholds vary by course. The most common threshold I've seen is 70% or higher on the final exam & 70% in the class overall.

There's also class rank to consider. A school might be pass/fail but if you are assigned a rank in your class based on your test scores, there's added pressure to study more competitively than you would at a pass/fail school with no class ranking.
 
mrpeduncle said:
Depends on the school but many schools have a pass/fail grading system. My school is graded pass/fail and the passing thresholds vary by course. The most common threshold I've seen is 70% or higher on the final exam & 70% in the class overall.

There's also class rank to consider. A school might be pass/fail but if you are assigned a rank in your class based on your test scores, there's added pressure to study more competitively than you would at a pass/fail school with no class ranking.
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What happens if someone get below 70% or gets fail rather than pass status for say a class?
 
Fuarky said:
What happens if someone get below 70% or gets fail rather than pass status for say a class?
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You either repeat the course over the summer, or, if you fail multiple classes, you repeat the year.


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so it is possible to take longer than 4 years to finish med school? How many classes one take a semester plus respective labs? From what I understood you guys take like 25-33 credits a semester. But you guys only take classes first two years of med school and thereafter no more courses
 
Fuarky said:
so it is possible to take longer than 4 years to finish med school? How many classes one take a semester plus respective labs? From what I understood you guys take like 25-33 credits a semester. But you guys only take classes first two years of med school and thereafter no more courses
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You can take longer than 4 years to finish med school for a variety of reasons:

1. You had to repeat a year. This isn't very common.
2. You decided to take a year for research. This is very common. About 25% of my class will take a year for research. At some schools, it's as high as 50%
3. You decide to do a dual degree (MBA, MPH, MS, etc). This can add 1-2 years depending on the degree.
4. You decide to do MD/PhD (obviously it's own thing, but this will take you 7-9 years total)
5. You decide to do an internship or something for a year (work at a non-profit, do consulting, etc). Not very common, but I know people who have done it
6. You take a year off for something else (compete in the Olympics, etc). Also not very common.

We don't have a credit system, at least at my school. We have blocks that are done sequentially with an exam at the end of each block. If you pass the exam, you pass the block (we are unranked p/f). We only had a real lab for anatomy, but we had "lab" for each of our systems + our intro histology/pathology block where we looked at gross organs, slides, etc. Only lab for anatomy was required to attend.

After your first 1-2 years (depending on the school), you move from the classroom to the hospital where you are on your core rotations for one year. Then you have 1-2 years after that to do research, do elective rotations, away rotations, apply to residency, etc.
 
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So basically you guys have one exam per class and need to pass that exam with 70% or higher to pass that class. Or you guys have like 6 tests/quizes or so and your final grade in class needs to be 70 or higher?
 
Fuarky said:
So basically you guys have one exam per class and need to pass that exam with 70% or higher to pass that class. Or you guys have like 6 tests/quizes or so and your final grade in class needs to be 70 or higher?
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My school structures it so that we have a weekly quiz (essentially an exam), and the average of those is 40-60% of the block grade. Then, the midterm and final make up the rest. All points are from assessments. Magic number is 75% or higher.
 
Fuarky said:
How many classes would one have to fail to repeat the year?
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At my school, two. I've heard stories from other schools where someone failed one course that was longer than summer break and had to repeat the year.
 
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Fuarky said:
So basically you guys have one exam per class and need to pass that exam with 70% or higher to pass that class. Or you guys have like 6 tests/quizes or so and your final grade in class needs to be 70 or higher?
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We will have a few TBL quizzes that will make up a small percentage of our grade and then we'll have a final exam for the block that is the majority of our block grade. Other schools do it differently.
 
Do all schools have P/F system or there many schools out there with different system of grading?
 
Lannister said:
At my school, two. I've heard stories from other schools where someone failed one course that was longer than summer break and had to repeat the year.
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when you say repeat the year do you mean if one failed say two or more courses they would have to take every class again even ones they passed? What you mean by ''repeat the year''
 
Fuarky said:
when you say repeat the year do you mean if one failed say two or more courses they would have to take every class again even ones they passed? What you mean by ''repeat the year''
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I give up. I'm not answering any more of your questions. This should be self-explanatory.
 
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Fuarky said:
Do all schools have P/F system or there many schools out there with different system of grading?
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These are questions you shouldn't really worry about until you have applied, were accepted, and are trying to figure out which school to go to.
 
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Fuarky said:
What is it like??? I always hear people say that is extremely difficult? Grades? Tests? # Subjects a semester?
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So as you can see so far everyone has their own opinion. now for mine...
I was terrified for medical school, people made it seem like hell. For some people it is. But my medical school experience has been great so far, honestly. People will say things like "Omggzzz it's like learning all of biochem in one week!!" That's mostly an exaggeration lol. It is fast paced but manageable. I will say I've learned more this semester than I think I ever had in all of biochemistry, bio1/2, anatomy&physio combined literally.

What I've realized is medical school is directly correlated to how hard you work. There have been times I've slacked off for about a week. Going to sleep early and spending my days watching TV just cuz I wanted to. And my grade showed it - but I didn't fail any exam or get the sense I wasn't going to pass the class. Before I came to med school, everyone made it seem you will study your behind off and barely pass. That has not been the case for me and I had a 3.5 GPA in undergrad. If I study my butt off, I'm making an A.

One thing I'm thrilled about is my comprehension has gone way up. The professor will say one line in class and it will stick in my head. I just understand things quicker.
 
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WedgeDawg said:
You need to have strong clinical grades, a sky high step 1 score, good letters from people in the field, and preferably orthopedics research. About 80% of people who apply to orthopedics match, which makes it one of the most competitive residencies to obtain.
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Clinical grades are y3+4 right?

Also what is considered a good med school GPA (for non P/F schools) and how many people usually get that (ie what's a good undergrad comparison)
 
Danny L said:
Clinical grades are y3+4 right?
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depends on how long your preclinical curriculum is and what the school's post-clinical year curriculum is

Also what is considered a good med school GPA (for non P/F schools) and how many people usually get that (ie what's a good undergrad comparison)
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No idea; probably depends on the school
 
Medical school, for me, is like a non-stop study marathon. All I think about is studying. I usually get about 4-5hrs of sleep per night, 0-3 hrs of sleep during exams.

It's manageable if you're single and very independent.
 
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oOKawaiiOo said:
Medical school, for me, is like a non-stop study marathon. All I think about is studying. I usually get about 4-5hrs of sleep per night, 0-3 hrs of sleep during exams.

It's manageable if you're single and very independent.
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For your own sake, I hope you are joking. You must find outlets.

I volunteer about 6-8 hours a week in the community, I have two officer positions, play a round of golf every Tuesday (9 holes), and work on a research project. I still find time for friends, time to try new and interesting things, and 7-8 hours of sleep per night (most nights). All this and I can manage to stay at a solid level of success in class. By no means close to being the best, but I do more than get by.

I'm not saying this for self-promotion, but I really think it's imperative that you kiddos coming in over the next few years have a sense that this is very do-able without completely throwing your personal life away. Now, this may not be completely the case for me third year, but the model works for me now.
 
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Asides from p/f what are other grading systems exactly? Pros and cons of each? Also with other grading system is it still possible to fail a class? Just a question out of curiosity and give people better idea of med schools.
 
It's interesting to see all the different responses! When I was interviewing at different schools there were def. some medical schools where the majority of the students seemed overwhelmed and then some schools where students felt they had plenty of extra time to get involved in other activities.

Would anyone be brave enough to share what school they attend / attended where they felt they have a good school/life balance? a PM maybe?
 
A very small minority of schools have no formal grades at all. You're promoted each year based on whether you demonstrate you've met specific competencies. Pros: not as stressful, cons: many residencies will place much greater weight on your board scores since they have no grades to assess your academic success. This might be less of an issue if you get ranked in your class, but I think the schools that grade like this are typically unranked.

More commonly, other schools have what's basically a ABF or ABCF grading system. Something like...Honors, pass, fail or high pass, pass, fail, etc.
I'm not really familiar with this grading scheme, but my guess is that there's more stress since you know you're being graded almost like undergrad.
 
IsleyOfTheNorth said:
ProTip: You shouldn't sleep during exams. I'd recommend sleeping before or after instead. ;)
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If you're only getting 0-3 hours during exam period, you probably will be falling asleep during the exam. I honestly can't imagine having any level of functionality in an academic setting with that little amount of sleep.
 
oOKawaiiOo said:
Medical school, for me, is like a non-stop study marathon. All I think about is studying. I usually get about 4-5hrs of sleep per night, 0-3 hrs of sleep during exams.

It's manageable if you're single and very independent.
Click to expand...

You're doing it wrong.
 
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WedgeDawg said:
You need to have strong clinical grades, a sky high step 1 score, good letters from people in the field, and preferably orthopedics research. About 80% of people who apply to orthopedics match, which makes it one of the most competitive residencies to obtain.
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Even harder than Neurosurgery?
 
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