Reflections after one year of med school in the books

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TexasTriathlete

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Okay, youngsters, listen up while I hit you with some knowledge.

I completed my first year of med school a couple weeks ago, and I've learned a thing or two. So here it goes. I don't know how long this is going to be, but read it anyway, because it will be useful to you:

ON ME:
I turned away from a chance at a potentially promising career in college athletics and Strength & Conditioning, in order to become a physician. I graduated with a kinesiology degree from one of the better programs in the country, and I completed one of the best S&C (not to be confused with S&M, but I did that too) internships in college athletics, if not the best. I was faced with a choice of applying for graduate assistant positions and doing a masters, or taking a different path. To be honest, I had made the decision before I started my last semester of college that I was going to go to med school.

My GPA was 2.2 when I graduated, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. I knew I had to go back to school and light it up, which I did, and that I had to get 30+ on the MCAT, which I did. But even then, I never really thought I'd leave TX. But they didn't really like me (zero interviews through two cycles, as I watched people who could not hang with me in any way get accepted to places like Baylor and UTSW).

But just to be on the safe side, I applied broadly. Twice. Didn't really know what DO was the first time around. Got a few MD interviews, a wait-list, and nothing else. The second time around, I applied broadly to everything. Got a few MD interviews late in the process that I did not choose to attend, and a **** ton of DO interviews, most of which I also did not attend.

So why was I sold on GA-PCOM?

1. Atlanta. I knew about Emory and Grady, the CDC, and so-on. I thought there would be a lot of opportunities here. I was right. More on that later.

2. PCOM. I knew the name. I assumed a quality product. I was happy with the school when I interviewed.

3. I was poor. After spending all my money on applications, I was perfectly content to not take any more interview trips, and I wanted to spend my money on other things in my last free summer.

ON GA-PCOM:
First year is the integrated basic sciences. Second year is systems. Overall, I have no problems with how they have things set up, and I think the profs are generally pretty good. Everyone has a different taste in this.

I was particularly partial to the physicians who lectured, as opposed to the PhD-types. Not everybody shared this view, and it is cathartic to bitch about your professors anyway. But those were my favorites.

If I could change one thing, it would be the OMM schedule. We had OMM on Tuesday afternoons, and it is pretty hard to switch gears from basic sciences to that. It would be nice to have it either Monday or Friday morning. Not really a big deal, but sometimes I would get in such a "sit down and study" mode, that I would just dread having to go to OMM lab in the middle of the day.

One thing I love about our school is how much imaging we get. Between the radiologist we have on full-time faculty, and OMM, we get a **** ton of CT/MRI/etc. instruction during first year, and probably even more next year. If I were to have made a list of specialties that I might want to go into before I started school, radiology would have been near the bottom. Now it is #2 to EM. A much closer #2 than most people who know me would suspect. And of the two research projects I am working on this summer, both of them have to do with imaging (ultrasound and imaging in the ED). These projects are not through GA-PCOM. More on this later.

ON OMM:
The lectures are great. Even though I rarely went (gotta pick your battles sometimes), I would almost always watch the DVD, and I got quite a bit out of most of them. It helps you keep up with your anatomy, we got a lot of musculoskeletal trauma stuff, which I like as a prospective EM doc, and it gives us a nice clinical look at a lot of what we're studying in our other courses. So far, OMM itself has actually been a small part of what I've learned in OMM.

As for the techniques, they piss me off. Not because I don't believe in OMM, or some idiotic **** like that, that you might read from idiot pre-meds on this board. But because I suck at them. I am the worst OMMer in the history of OMM. And given my background with kinesiology and S&C, this was one of the things that made me interested in DO schools. I knew I might not ever use it, but it was definitely something that interested me. But now its just demoralizing. I feel like a jackass at every practical, and I had the worst OMM partner ever. Not that he's a bad guy or anything, but he is so limber that he is very hard to palpate. And on top of that, none of us really have anything significant wrong with us anyway, so palpating dysfunction is pretty hard to learn in this setting. But hopefully, this will make us better in the long run.

If you're good at it, more power to you. I may be your patient one day. Actually, I'd say one of the best things about going to an Osteopathic school is that if I've got something wrong with me, I can get a classmate or a professor to pop my neck or whatever, and fix me right up. One time this year, actually just about a month or two ago, I could barely turn my neck. It was painful and sucked ass. I couldn't drive or anything. But the next time I had lab, I got one of our profs to pop me before we got started, and I was good as new.

And believe me. After sitting in the same position from studying or whatever all day long, you will get these little issues that we like to call "somatic dysfunction", and it can be helpful to have someone to fix you up.

ON ATLANTA:

My friends back home always ask me "how's Atlanta?"

The truth is that I have no idea. Our school is in the burbs, and I get to go out so rarely that I don't really know what there is to do here. Obviously, there's the Braves, Hawks, etc., but I never have had a chance to see any of that. Actually, I have a buddy from college who plays for the Hawks, and I swore I was going to go out and watch a game this year, but I never did. Just no time. And another friend of mine is in a band that played about two miles away from my house, at the Gwinnett Center, back in the fall, and I couldn't even find time to make it to that. We had two exams the next day, and they were on tour so I didn't even get to see him, since they had to move on to the next city the following day.

But the opportunities here in medicine are nice, and that is really what I have been counting on.

Our school has a relationship with a free clinic where we can go volunteer. We get to practice a lot of exam skills, as well as SOAP note writing, presenting, etc.. I went 5-6 times I think, and I think that this is a great opportunity that more people should have taken advantage of. It was usually the same people going, and a lot of people didn't even seem to know about it.

But one of the big reasons I wanted to come to this place was Grady. The Mecca of everything that is simultaneously both ****ty and awesome in medicine. I worked in the ER for a while back home, and wanted the full trauma center experience. Grady is one of the places that comes to mind when you think of that: Grady, Parkland, Cook County, LA County, Ben Taub, the one in NYC that I can't spell, are some of the ones that are kind of the "who's who" of inner-city gun & knife club trauma centers. I'm leaving some off, but you get the idea. Nothing against Kirksville or Des Moines, but there was no way I was going somewhere like that, with an opportunity to do stuff at Grady on the table.

But TexasTriathlete, Grady is only for Morehouse and Emory students, right?

But TexasTriathlete, Emory has an anti-DO bias. They NEVER take DO's, right?

For question 1, yeah, they are a core site for Emory and Morehouse students. That doesn't mean you can't volunteer, which I did, and this is how I infiltrated the system.

For question 2, horse ****. This is one of the most idiotic SDN-isms that there is. I have met quite a few DO's at Grady, and nobody gives a ****. Not that I've met, anyway. The EM people all seem to really like us, and I'm just trying to work hard to maintain their good impression of us. I've met DO's from other services too. But to be honest, I don't really even look for it.

So from my volunteering, I got to know a lot of the attendings and residents, and this actually landed me two research gigs. One of them is on EM ultrasound, and the other we still have not ironed out our hypothesis yet, but it will be on emergency imaging. I am likely to end up with my name on publications from both of these. The second one will be a first-author.

But these guys don't just show up at our school and beg us to come do research with them. You have to make your own luck, like the guy on Batman who burned his face off. But if you work hard, and show an interest, there are people out there who would love to have you do stuff with them.

ON MED SCHOOL:

Don't buy textbooks. Going to class is optional. Don't be a douchebag. Try to sit in the back row and play on facebook as much as possible, because this will be the majority of your social life. My facebook friends have increased by like 10x since last August. Make school friends too, and try to enjoy yourself a little bit. Don't get too stressed out. The more fun you have with learning, the better. And if you're going to dick around as much as I did, first year is probably the best time. Second year is going to be very board-heavy, and I've already made the decision to buckle down a little more next year.

The whole first year is kind of a blur, but with all the volunteering and shadowing I did, it is a whole new world in a clinical setting, once you actually know a few things. The amount of knowledge I took in this year was pretty astounding. It all went by pretty fast, it had its ups and downs, but I don't regret it, and I am glad I made the decision to change careers. Anyway, now I am working my balls off this summer, and hopefully, it will pay off. I am working actually more at the ER now, than I did back home, and I am making less money than I have at any job since high school. But whatever. I can live with being poor for a few years. Hopefully, I can finish these projects up before school gets going again in the fall. And to be honest, I am learning a lot from this research, and all the crap I have to read for my literature reviews, and whatnot. Other than the transitional year guy who was pimping me on the freaking left gastroepiploic artery on a CT scan yesterday, and when I couldn't remember it, told me I needed to review my anatomy, I feel pretty good about what I learned this year.

This guy was transitioning to rad-onc, and is probably way smarter than me. I was later reassured by an ER doc that I really am not expected to remember that crap at this point, so that was nice.

So anyway, that's about it.

Be excellent to each other... and... party on, dudes!

That was from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, for those of you who lack culture.

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Interesting read. Thanks for posting, TT!
 
Enjoyable and informative post! Thanks for sharing. :)
 
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I feel that this write-up would be money if you told us that story about S&M...I mean come on...you don't just throw it in there and expect us to NOT WANT to hear about it...

And don't buy textbooks? Really? You didn't buy a single book...?
 
I feel that this write-up would be money if you told us that story about S&M...I mean come on...you don't just throw it in there and expect us to NOT WANT to hear about it...

And don't buy textbooks? Really? You didn't buy a single book...?
No. And I'm glad I didn't, because I wouldn't have used them. I looked stuff up every now and then in the library, but not once did it even occur to me to sit down and try to read a chapter.

I got stuff like BRS, rapid review, etc., but not textbooks.
 
A lot of current students are suggesting to buy board review materials in lieu of the textbooks in the syllabus (I assume because they cover the same material and the point of the first two years are essentially to prepare you for the boards).

I hear different people suggesting different board review books, though (which is expected, of course.) What is the best way to find out which particular books you should get and which you would benefit most from? Should you get them prior to the beginning of classes? What's the most efficient way to utilize them during the year? Any advice is appreciated. :D
 
This is great. Thanks TT. Informative and entertaining as always. :thumbup: Glad you're representing GA-PCOM at Grady! :D
 
We're sending them one EM resident from this year's graduating class. I think she is orienting next week. She will hate me before too long, because I have to bug the residents a lot, because of the study I am doing.

As for me, I knew what I'd be getting myself into with EM before I ever set foot in Grady. The ED I worked in back home is kind of a "mini-Grady". Lots of indigent patients, lots of frequent flyers, etc. Not quite the volume, but still a pretty busy trauma center.

The EM program that Emory has is actually pleasantly surprising me. I had heard that they were just kind of the bitches of the surgery department on any trauma stuff, but apparently, they are making a conscious effort to get away from that, and that the EM residents do plenty of trauma management, including all the airway stuff.

I also heard from one of the nurses that they are building new trauma bays, and getting all new equipment. This would be welcome, because the trauma bays are tiny, and almost inadequate, and a lot of the equipment looks like it is about 30 years old (and honestly, it probably is). But given the patient volume and acuity, and the kind of docs/teachers who work there, this is potentially one of the elite programs, so it is nice to see them make an effort to reach that level.
 
TT, glad to see your first year went well. Its fun to to kind of watch the progression of people around here. Was the S&C stuff helpful for you? Our anatomy guy is really big on function and my large repertoire of exercises makes it easy for me to visualize which muscles/nerves did what....for the extremities of course. Won't do much of anything for organs or head and neck.




As far as the books thing. It depends on the class and the school. I don't think I could ever do anatomy without my Rohen's and BRS anatomy. A netter's might be nice for some illustrations but I'm surviving without it. I think my school relies on books a little more though.
 
I'd say the s&c stuff helped me more in omm than in anatomy. Our anatomy prof was an exercise phys guy himself too, and a serious athlete, but there just wasn't much use for it, because the muscles are such a small part of anatomy. Especially the ones we dealt most with in athletics.

I started out using Rohen's a lot, but then I went to the videos a lot more later on. Acland and the Michigan/Wisconsin videos are way better than any atlas.
 
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No. And I'm glad I didn't, because I wouldn't have used them. I looked stuff up every now and then in the library, but not once did it even occur to me to sit down and try to read a chapter.

I got stuff like BRS, rapid review, etc., but not textbooks.

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

I will be at PCOM main this August...and I highly doubt that the curriculum, and therefore the need to NOT buy any textbooks and ONLY board review books, is much different from PCOM-GA.

What books do you recommend for SPOM/OMM the first term? BRS Gross Anatomy?
 
Get a netter's or something, but other than that, I like BRS for most stuff. Then clinical micro made ridiculously simple (CMBM), RR path, maybe illustrated review of biochem and immuno.
 
I keep hearing "Don't go to class" and then remember that LECOM is mandatory attendance for lecture.


God damn its coming up so fast. This last semester of college seemed to drag on forever, and then all of a sudden I've been catapulted into hyperdrive. One more month and I'm off. Simultaneously excited/scared ****less, but a healthy balance of both is probably good.

Great to hear that your first year went well, and awesome that you're getting to do research in a field you're interested in and get published too.

Can't wait to start! :banana::scared:
 
I keep hearing "Don't go to class" and then remember that LECOM is mandatory attendance for lecture.


God damn its coming up so fast. This last semester of college seemed to drag on forever, and then all of a sudden I've been catapulted into hyperdrive. One more month and I'm off. Simultaneously excited/scared ****less, but a healthy balance of both is probably good.

Great to hear that your first year went well, and awesome that you're getting to do research in a field you're interested in and get published too.

Can't wait to start! :banana::scared:

When going to lectures at LECOM, since they are required, I feel it is in my best interest to pay attention and take good notes because when I review the material in the evening, it's already a second pass through it; thus making it that much easier.

As for TT, I completely agree with him on the no books idea. I'm in the LDP pathway at LECOM and I bought like 2-3 books in the beginning of the year because I was going to read...ya...that never happened.

Review books and the questions at the end of each chapter are your friend.
 
There are some profs where I pay better attention than others. I never missed a Dr. Penney lecture, because I thought they were super-interesting, and I have a man-crush on him.

I also went to a lot of Dr. Zaman's lectures. And there were some profs where I almost never went to their lectures. It was just personal preference.

If you're not going to my school, the names won't mean anything to you, but the point is that you'll figure out who you like best, or if you get much at all out of class.

And some of our classes were required attendance, so obviously I went to those. It is up to each professor whether to make it required.
 
TT - you like Marietta? I'm at Emory SPH getting my MPH and applying this cycle. I've never ventured through Marietta except in passing on 85. I google mapped the location and it looks pretty decent from 200 miles above the surface. I would seriously consider G-PCOM when (and if) I matriculate.

And for the record, Emory ED has at LEAST one DO who did an allopathic residency because we've been exchanging emails.

-J
 
I've seen signs for marietta, but I am not entirely sure where it is. I like alpharetta and roswell though.

There are a bunch of DO's in the EM residency here. At least 1-2 in each class.
 
Great read! I was a pro triathlete in my early years. Good fun.
 
As for TT, I completely agree with him on the no books idea. I'm in the LDP pathway at LECOM and I bought like 2-3 books in the beginning of the year because I was going to read...ya...that never happened.

Review books and the questions at the end of each chapter are your friend.

This is really encouraging to hear. I perused the book list for LECOM-E and I just couldn't help thinking back to undergrad when I never used a book unless I had assigned readings or problems from it. I just don't learn anything from reading a textbook. Then again the Army is paying for my school and expenses so I should just get the books regardless. I was planning on getting review books but I'm not sure which ones to get. Any suggestions?
 
Great post, thanks for writing TT! Please keep the keyboard clicking.
 
Best source of info on what to do to do well in med school is your upperclassmen. They can let you know what books you really need and what classes go well with just notes or BRS books. For OMM I just use class power point presentations. For Anat I found my grades went up when I dropped reading Moore's clinical anat and went to a combo of BRS anat, Acland's DVD (for putting the big picture together), an atlas for lab and U Mich questions! Most med books are real good but you get lost in the minutia and miss the big points or board type stuff (the forest) while looking at the tree.

Good Luck guys, if you get in, you can survive, so don’t sweat it yet!
 
For Anatomy, I started reading "Big Moore's" Anatomy, but got completely lost. I would take me forever just to get through a chapter; a complete waste of my time. So I just used the BRS Anatomy book, Netter's, class notes/scribe notes and did just fine. Our Cell and Molecular Basis of Medicine (CMBM) class was very well organized. They gave out packets for each test which included class notes in a book type fashion. It was great b/c that was all you needed to study. We just finished Cardio/Renal/Pulm and for this class I would suggest purchasing the baby blue Physiology BRS book. For pathology, I liked Goljan's board review, but felt it did not cover everything we reviewed in class. Hopefully it covers all the "important" material needed for boards.

I would highly suggest this for every 1st year, and I have heard this over and over again from multiple upperclassmen so listen carefully:

BUY THE FIRST AID FOR THE USMLE STEP 1. Start using it from day one, and start taking notes in it immediately. It will be helpful for your first two years of studying, but more importantly at the end of 2nd year when you are studying for boards. I wish I would have been more consistent with doing this. Best of luck to the incoming class. Although your time will be tight be sure to keep coming back to SDN and offer your advice and experience. It is truly helpful to those who will be going through the process.
 
I agree with buying first aid. You won't use it a whole lot early on, but there are some very helpful mnemonics and stuff in it.
 
I'd say the s&c stuff helped me more in omm than in anatomy. Our anatomy prof was an exercise phys guy himself too, and a serious athlete, but there just wasn't much use for it, because the muscles are such a small part of anatomy. Especially the ones we dealt most with in athletics.

I started out using Rohen's a lot, but then I went to the videos a lot more later on. Acland and the Michigan/Wisconsin videos are way better than any atlas.

Yea. I'm using a bit of a combo now. I try to avoid being tethered to my laptop. I end up on here and it is downhill. Like right now.

I'm only finishing up the first third of anatomy, so I feel my training knowledge isn't going to help me much now but it was great for early on. Also, my laundry list of injuries started to make sense.
 
This is really encouraging to hear. I perused the book list for LECOM-E and I just couldn't help thinking back to undergrad when I never used a book unless I had assigned readings or problems from it. I just don't learn anything from reading a textbook. Then again the Army is paying for my school and expenses so I should just get the books regardless. I was planning on getting review books but I'm not sure which ones to get. Any suggestions?

Bleeker---We need to be lab partners cause you will get all your stuff paid for......everyone says to be a sponge right?? Oh mqybe that was for information, not books and anatomy kits. :D Anyway, I am Army ASR so I don't get the books covered. I know a guy just starting his 4th year that is Army HPSP and he got EVERYTHING even though he doesn't read it.
 
MossPoh- since OMM has a lot of elements of athetic training, and is applicable to a lot of sports-like injuries, I have found a good bit of the OMM lecture material to be pretty intuitive. Our last OMM exam, the class average was like a 70 I think, and I pulled an 80 without studying until that morning. It didn't necessarily help me in every unit, but working with basketball, we concerned ourselves a lot with things like gait and hip biomechanics, and a lot of that was what we had in that last block (or related topics, where I could reason things out).

I just had a nice little talk with the EM residency director up at Emory. First time I had met him. He is a pretty nice guy, and seems to have a good opinion of our school, and the girl who just graduated from our school, and will be training with them.
 
I just had a nice little talk with the EM residency director up at Emory. First time I had met him. He is a pretty nice guy, and seems to have a good opinion of our school, and the girl who just graduated from our school, and will be training with them.

Great news for GA-PCOM'ers!!
 
So TT, any recs on how to get in good with doctors/networking at hospitals? Signing up for regular volunteering sounds like premed stuff, and I'd like to avoid being lumped into that again.

Where I volunteered you'd see like five premed volunteers walking around together like a gang. It looked incredibly stupid. I really wished that I didn't have to wear the tan jacket so I could avoid being associated with them. Complete and utter awkwardness.
 
So TT, any recs on how to get in good with doctors/networking at hospitals? Signing up for regular volunteering sounds like premed stuff, and I'd like to avoid being lumped into that again.

Where I volunteered you'd see like five premed volunteers walking around together like a gang. It looked incredibly stupid. I really wished that I didn't have to wear the tan jacket so I could avoid being associated with them. Complete and utter awkwardness.

There was a cyan-colored jacket I was supposed to wear as a volunteer in an ER. I decided to be ignorant of this "rule" and opted out of wearing it for much the same reason as you.

Instead, I had to explain to random patients I'm not a doctor everyday (despite the fact I had an ID tag with "VOLUNTEER" written in bright red letters).

Sorry, off-topic. :D
 
I really don't know exactly how I do it. I worked in a busy trauma ER for a long time, so I am pretty comfortable in that environment. I don't have a problem going up to docs and nurses and BSing with them.

I think it is mostly a matter of being comfortable, and not being afraid to work hard. When I was a volunteer, they offered me a job after about six months because I worked hard, got along with the staff, and was not timid when dealing with the patients.
 
Basically, grow a set, be confident, and ask.

That is what worked for me. Being timid never seemed to help with it. Having an agreeable personality helps too. That one I might not have.
 
But don't cross the douchebag line. Some people can be confident without being douchey, and others can't.

There are probably some people who think I'm a douche, but I get along well with most people in medicine, which is what matters for this.
 
Basically, grow a set, be confident, and ask.

Doctors are scary :scared:

3453381645_a89a91c4b1.jpg



Nah but seriously, what do you even ask? Is it "Hey can I shadow you" type stuff?
 
I just start talking to them. It helps if you actually have something to say.
 
Pretty much. Try to not come off as a complete tool and show interest in the field. The worst thing that happens is that they say no, which hasn't happened to me yet.
 
There was a cyan-colored jacket I was supposed to wear as a volunteer in an ER. I decided to be ignorant of this "rule" and opted out of wearing it for much the same reason as you.

Instead, I had to explain to random patients I'm not a doctor everyday (despite the fact I had an ID tag with "VOLUNTEER" written in bright red letters).

Sorry, off-topic. :D
At Grady, I have to wear a bright red shirt as a volunteer, and it looks flat out ridiculous. I still made my presence known. I told everyone I could that I was a med student, and some of the people there were actually pretty receptive to me, and they'd show me stuff. Others just kept ignoring me.

As a researcher now, I wear usually khakis and a polo, and the LONG WHITE COAT. As much as I hate the short coat, I am pretty superstitious about the long coat being worn before its time. But to be perfectly honest, I look the part, and in some ways, it is cool, and in other ways, it sucks.

After switching from the red shirt to the long coat, I gained almost immediate acceptance from everyone there. But patients think I'm a doctor, and start asking me questions, and then when I tell them that I'm not a doctor, I think some of them don't believe me, and think I just told them that so I wouldn't have to talk to them about their problems.

And on a daily basis, nurses come up to me and try to give me report on their patients.
 
For Anatomy, I started reading "Big Moore's" Anatomy, but got completely lost. I would take me forever just to get through a chapter; a complete waste of my time. So I just used the BRS Anatomy book, Netter's, class notes/scribe notes and did just fine. Our Cell and Molecular Basis of Medicine (CMBM) class was very well organized. They gave out packets for each test which included class notes in a book type fashion. It was great b/c that was all you needed to study. We just finished Cardio/Renal/Pulm and for this class I would suggest purchasing the baby blue Physiology BRS book. For pathology, I liked Goljan's board review, but felt it did not cover everything we reviewed in class. Hopefully it covers all the "important" material needed for boards.

I would highly suggest this for every 1st year, and I have heard this over and over again from multiple upperclassmen so listen carefully:

BUY THE FIRST AID FOR THE USMLE STEP 1. Start using it from day one, and start taking notes in it immediately. It will be helpful for your first two years of studying, but more importantly at the end of 2nd year when you are studying for boards. I wish I would have been more consistent with doing this. Best of luck to the incoming class. Although your time will be tight be sure to keep coming back to SDN and offer your advice and experience. It is truly helpful to those who will be going through the process.


THANKS!:thumbup:
 
Best source of info on what to do to do well in med school is your upperclassmen. They can let you know what books you really need and what classes go well with just notes or BRS books. For OMM I just use class power point presentations. For Anat I found my grades went up when I dropped reading Moore's clinical anat and went to a combo of BRS anat, Acland's DVD (for putting the big picture together), an atlas for lab and U Mich questions! Most med books are real good but you get lost in the minutia and miss the big points or board type stuff (the forest) while looking at the tree.

Good Luck guys, if you get in, you can survive, so don’t sweat it yet!

Did you drop $200 bones for the Acland's set? Is it worth it?
 
They have it online at PCOM. Check your library before you start shelling out big bucks for **** like that. As great as Acland is, you'll never use it again after anatomy.
 
They have it online at PCOM. Check your library before you start shelling out big bucks for **** like that. As great as Acland is, you'll never use it again after anatomy.

oooh, thanks for the info. Trying to get the most bang for my buck. Did you purchase the BRS for most of your classes? They seem like a good way to study for the class while reviewing for the boards..do you see yourself going back to them later, like next year when you are studying for step 1? will you use a board review service like kaplan as well? so many questions :D
 
I bought a lot of BRS stuff. They can be pretty helpful, and they're cheap.
 
And yes I plan to get a qbank. Definitely UW, maybe kaplan too if I need more, and I can afford it. We shall see here shortly.
 
Don't buy textbooks. Going to class is optional. Don't be a douchebag. Try to sit in the back row and play on facebook as much as possible, because this will be the majority of your social life. My facebook friends have increased by like 10x since last August. Make school friends too, and try to enjoy yourself a little bit. Don't get too stressed out. The more fun you have with learning, the better. And if you're going to dick around as much as I did, first year is probably the best time. Second year is going to be very board-heavy, and I've already made the decision to buckle down a little more next year.

Did you really mess around and managed to get passed the 1st year? I find that a little hard to believe.

Also a side question, what is the traditional thing to do during the time between school such as the summer between m1 and m2 years? Continue to do hospital volunteering? Find a regular paid job? Research?
 
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A huge chunk of people I talk to recommend not stressing too much first year. Work hard but have fun. Getting a B or even a C isn't the end of your medical career. I'm trying hard to get that ingrained right now when I'm taking anatomy. We have an exam tomorrow and I am certainty studying hard, but I'm not freaking out about it. 4 years is a long time to stress over every detail and it does nothing but hurt you. Just try to have fun, joke around with people and crank away consistently with studying. If you keep up with everything and treat it like a job then there is no reason you can't have some fun.
 
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