What is podiatry school like firsthand?

[sunyplatt]

I am looking into podiatry school and have been curious as to what it is like first hand. As far as the classes go is it primarily memorization or bio-chem. I'm great at anatomy and biology as well as other courses that rely on memorization and applying those concepts but the chemistry side of things gets very complicated for me. Can anyone give some firsthand information about what pod is like. I am estimating studying 5 hours a day plus classes... Is there anytime at all for a social life or are you pretty much giving up all that time to study.



Edit: Thanks for the insight

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[347932]

I am looking into podiatry school and have been curious as to what it is like first hand. As far as the classes go is it primarily memorization or bio-chem. I'm great at anatomy and biology as well as other courses that rely on memorization and applying those concepts but the chemistry side of things gets very complicated for me. Can anyone give some firsthand information about what pod is like. I am estimating studying 5 hours a day plus classes... Is there anytime at all for a social life or are you pretty much giving up all that time to study.

I certainly appreciate what you're asking, but it really is dependent on you more than anything. I had classmates that studied half as much as I did and performed better, and other classmates who studied a few hours more than I did, and did worse.

You have to find your groove. It's different for everyone.

There is time for a social life, but again, it really depends on you. The first two years, I didn't have much of a social life. I studied a lot and found what it took to perform to my own satisfaction. I did spend a little every day on something to free my mind (reading novels, video games and playing guitar), but used that more as a stress reliever than anything else. I wasn't much into partying so I watched TV in the evening when I could.After second year, the academics may slow down a bit, but you then get busy in clinic and studying for boards and to perform well clinically.

 

[dyk343]

I am looking into podiatry school and have been curious as to what it is like first hand. As far as the classes go is it primarily memorization or bio-chem. I'm great at anatomy and biology as well as other courses that rely on memorization and applying those concepts but the chemistry side of things gets very complicated for me. Can anyone give some firsthand information about what pod is like. I am estimating studying 5 hours a day plus classes... Is there anytime at all for a social life or are you pretty much giving up all that time to study.

It varies on person to person. Some people study very little, others are studying 24/7.

For me I never study a ton during the week. Maybe 2-3 hours/night. But I hit it really really hard sat/sun.

I personally do not feel any course I am taking is harder than courses in undergrad. what makes it more difficult is the amount of courses you are taking at one time. >20 semester hours of science courses in 1 semester isn't that bad... but by the time you get to the end of your second year, or 4th semester the burn out factor really starts to set in.

The key is to find a way to have the attitude that you "want" to learn the material instead of "I have" to learn the material. If you can find a way to remain positive the studying goes much much easier.

There is time for a little bit of living in podiatry school for most. But as I stated, others have to study 24/7 to stay afloat. I certainly do not go out every weekend, but I do from time to time to release a little stress.

edit: Kidsfeet beat me to it!

 

[347932]

The key is to find a way to have the attitude that you "want" to learn the material instead of "I have" to learn the material. If you can find a way to remain positive the studying goes much much easier.

This is very important. Well said!

edit: Kidsfeet beat me to it!

 

[Future DPM]

Very interested to hear about more students experiences.

 

[hematosis]

I am looking into podiatry school and have been curious as to what it is like first hand. As far as the classes go is it primarily memorization or bio-chem. I'm great at anatomy and biology as well as other courses that rely on memorization and applying those concepts but the chemistry side of things gets very complicated for me. Can anyone give some firsthand information about what pod is like. I am estimating studying 5 hours a day plus classes... Is there anytime at all for a social life or are you pretty much giving up all that time to study.



Edit: Thanks for the insight

Podiatry school is like a boner. it is long and it is hard.

 

[amaprez]

Podiatry school is like a boner. it is long and it is hard.

So much potential here, but I don't want to get banned

 

[flyhi]

Podiatry school is like a boner. it is long and it is hard.

So, in other words, podiatry school is not all that bad?

 

[347932]

Podiatry school is like a boner. it is long and it is hard.

Although I am LMFAO (the potential here is endless), this is slightly inappropriate. Please refrain. Thanks.

 

[hematosis]

Although I am LMFAO (the potential here is endless), this is slightly inappropriate. Please refrain. Thanks.

Your right, it is a little overboard. My apologies.

 

[347932]

You're right, it is a little overboard. My apologies.

Fixed

 

[Ferocity]

Podiatry school is like a boner. it is long and it is hard.

Yep, and for the unfortunate people that drop out early, podiatry is short.



....See what I did there?

 

[flyhi]

Yep, and for the unfortunate people that drop out early, podiatry is short.



....See what I did there?

In before the

 

[Madura]

You won't have to apply hard core chem logic on tests, but it's definitely not ALL memorization either. It is application in a different, more meaningful way. Will you go into a patient room and have to derive the Schrodinger equation from scratch? No, but you will go into a patient's room one day and be asked by an attending how you would dose a certain med? Yes, and you can't rely on a pneumonic you learned 2 years prior to figure it out either. It takes logic and deductive reasoning on top of what you memorized to succeed in any form of medicine.

Classes like anatomy are almost pure memorization. You will have a biochemistry course, and you will re-learn enzyme kinetics in like a day and it will bring you back to all those aweful memories we all have of chemistry, but there is an application for it now. You don't want to give a drug that interacts with the same receptors used by another drug the patient is already on. That will decrease the effect of both drugs due to competiitive/noncompetitive inhibition. You will apply physics in physiology to understand how the heart works, and then you will memorize drugs that alter physiological processes.

It's actually really cool because all the crap you learned for 4 years thinking you would never use actually comes back and finally applies to something you care about. Prepare yourself for mental boot camp and be ready to memorize more than you thought you could while learning to apply it in practice. It's rewarding, though, so try to enjoy it at least a little bit

 

[SuperFeisty]

Who DOESN'T love Michaelis Menten! Hip Hip Hooray!

 

[bobdolerson]

Nice thing about pod school is it's tendency to build on itself with each class. I'm finding pathology to be little more than a cell/tissue bio and biochem review with a bit of anatomy mixed in and some new information tying them all together.

It helps to see the body as one big, interconnected system from the get-go. As I continue my first year, second semester, I find more and more information correlates with something else I've learned and is a bit easier to understand.

Some classes (microbiology) are almost strictly rote memorization.
Others (biochem) can require more higher level thinking.

The difficulty comes from the quantity of information; if anything, the material seems a bit easier than I had in undergrad, there's just way, way more of it.

There isn't really a point at which you know 100% of the information for an exam, so most of the time you'll be making active choices regarding trading free time for study time, so you'll need to decide quickly which you'd prefer out of extended time for yourself and more competitive grades.

If there's some advice for what to do in the off-season before it starts, I would say to develop some efficient study habits. The faster you can learn info and apply it, the better off you'll be.