I see there's a graduating EM resident with a similar thread. Figured I'd give another perspective to you guys. SDN helped me a lot with my application process and with getting to where I am right now, so I want to give back. Hope everything's going well for all of you, and I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you have about the application process, medical school, and this fleeting burst of color we call life.
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Ask an M1 anything!
Started by use your eyes
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Good questions, and a good place to start. I came into my first year expecting to have my mind blown. I approached it with the idea that the human body would start to become demystified. I wanted to go to medical school, of course, to eventually "help people". But to do that, you first have to learn, to soak in knowledge, to put down any barriers you have and march into the unknown.
Every day, I learn so many new things. Every day, I sit in the lecture hall or at my books and am completely amazed by not only what I am learning, but by the fact that I have the opportunity to learn it. I volunteer in a clinic with M1/M2/M3/M4s, and it boggles my mind to see how much the fourth years know. And how much the third years know. And how much the second years know. And then it boggles my mind even more to think that I will be in their position very soon.
The amount of information you learn really cannot be understated. You've all heard the "like water from a hose" analogy. I'll give you another one. The four months that I've been in medical school feel like YEARS. We've been learning so much about so many parts of the body, from anatomy to physiology to biochemistry. We've learned history taking and some of the physical exam. Every week, I don't just learn new things about the human body -- I completely redefine the way I see the world. I feel myself making that transition to seeing the world from a doctor's eyes. It's one hell of a process, and it starts again every day.
So to actually answer your first question, I didn't know what to expect from med school in terms of the day-to-day (I can get into more specifics about that if you'd like); I had more of a big picture expectation in mind. And it's been met a thousand times over.
And to answer your second question, literally every day is a pleasant surprise. Cheesy, but it's absolutely true.
Stress is a byproduct of how you handle things. In undergrad, there was the stress of having a good GPA and getting into medical school and balancing your courses. In medical school, it's about staying on top of all the work and not getting overwhelmed by it. I could be stressed, but I am 1) too on top of things, and 2) too interested in what I'm learning to be stressed.
Actually, I'd say it's less stressful than undergrad right now. This is only first year though.
Do the grades from senior year or the year before matriculation matter?
I ask because I'd rather spend my time working and earning $$$ if gunning for straight As is no longer necessary.
I ask because I'd rather spend my time working and earning $$$ if gunning for straight As is no longer necessary.
Save this quote for good laugh once you get to residency
Agreed. Knowledge increases almost exponentially as you work your way through the years of med school and training and the people ahead of you are going to seem like geniuses while the ones behind you will seem like dullards for several more years to come. You may be impressed by how much the fourth years seem to know while you are a med student, but once you hit residency, you'll be less impressed and wonder if you too were that clueless back when.
4
45408
I remember when I thought the 7th graders were cool, smart, and mature.
Def not...I got my first two C's of college senior year bc I was slacking too much.
Earn that green while you have time.
you wanna do somethin sometime?
First year was WAY worse than 2nd year has been for me. Of course it varies by curriculum but we got all the basic basic stuff out of the way immediately and started systems 3rd trimester.
Happy turkey day sdn =0]
Were the undergrad sci classes useful or useless?
Were the undergrad sci classes useful or useless?
Thread hijacking.....they were useful. And you need them for the proper background...but you wont ever be required to know anything in that detail again. You just need to be familiar with all the basic concepts taught in undergrad...especially chemistry, biochemistry, intro bio,cell,etc. Not much physics and really zero organic chem aside from the very basics.
Oh man, thanks for that. I feel you, though. Biochemistry revolutionized my life, too.Good thread, though. It's nice to hear what to expect from a newly-minted medical student
Last edited:
I think you're an exception. I would say most people feel overwhelmed at some point. Maybe my perspective is different because we had finals last week.
First year is ok, but I'm already greatly looking forward to second year. I think I'll be much more interested in the material once we start to learn pathology. Now I feel like I'm being bombarded with facts that may or may not have any relevance.
Case in point. I think the fourth years know so much, but I can't even comprehend what I'll know as a resident. I'm all for wondering if I had been so clueless.
Touche. I know I sound naive and wide-eyed, but that's what I'm here for: honest opinions from a fourth-month medical student. I sincerely hope I'm pissing on SDN with my cynicism some day too, but until then, I'm going to milk this optimism for everything it's worth.
Also, don't mess with seventh graders these days...
let's blaze
I'm sure you'll get differing opinions on this, but I think they've been coming in handy. Like someone else said, you don't need to know the minute details that cost you 5 points on that physics exam, but the general concepts are definitely helpful. With a lot of the stuff I've learned in medical school, it's been a convergence of concepts from different pre-med classes, which is really cool.
Haha, again I suppose my perspective doesn't fit in here on SDN. Can't do anything about that though. And for what it's worth, it was anatomy that blew my mind over and over again.
I mean, there are times it's overwhelming, but I feel if you: 1) manage your time right, and 2) realize that it's going to take some time to master everything, you'll be better-equipped to handle it.
3rd year undergrad? really dude?
OP, can you find your way around yet in the medical complex
got too drunk at one of the orientation week events, followed probably by other mistakes that I don't know of
nope, and pretty hilarious avi
me neither
hahaha
I'm on the last level of Super Mario 3 and I can't beat Bowser. I'd like to rescue the princess in time to take her home to Thanksgiving dinner. Please help!
4
45408
We've all been there. It's not an insult; it's just funny to realize how much time has already gone by for me. I'm almost halfway through my second year of residency, and I started posting here right after sophomore year of college.
Why do you (the class as a whole) wear scrubs outside the anatomy lab? You make the cafeteria stink.
damn you caught me, guess I'll be having roast guyton for thanksgiving dinner
What's it like to reflect on where you are right now? (You know, in all that free time you have.)
I wish I could knock some sense into the offenders. Why would you want to sit through hours of lecture in anatomy scrubs? And the cafeteria... that's terrible.
Do you have any recommendations for good restaurants in major European cities (Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, etc.)?
You into cheese?
4
45408
About how tired I am right now, and how lucky the med students are to have all of Thanksgiving off, lol.
love cheese
this guy
I can tell
For most people in 3rd year it's going to be to not use the rest room when you had the chance. You will inevitably scrub in to a " quick " procedure that ends up taking an absurd number of hours.
Is... is this a thing? Do people really wear their anatomy scrubs outside the lab? I'll leave mine on if I have to run downstairs to my locker or desk or whatever, but I wouldn't ever leave the building. That's just icky.
ms1 here.
biochemistry sucked.
i try not to wear scrubs outside of lab.
stress depends on the individual i think - but i feel like i have am lowly stressed all the time but i think this is okay. i expected it.
i agree with whoever said it up there its nice to have thanksgiving off and im sure ill miss it soon enough.
hours studying per day? its like crossfit - do it until you can't. coffee helps.
biochemistry sucked.
i try not to wear scrubs outside of lab.
stress depends on the individual i think - but i feel like i have am lowly stressed all the time but i think this is okay. i expected it.
i agree with whoever said it up there its nice to have thanksgiving off and im sure ill miss it soon enough.
hours studying per day? its like crossfit - do it until you can't. coffee helps.
I would say that, if I averaged my study time over the course of a week, I probably average anywhere from 1-3 hours a day. That obviously ramps up when test time comes; the few days before a test I'm usually studying all evening from after dinner until I go to bed.
However, I'll also say that I don't study a lot of days. I tend to cram a lot of studying in the course of a day or two followed by 2-3 days of not studying. My goal is also to simply pass since we're neither ranked nor have grades beyond P/F.
I study clinically relevant things more since I find them interesting, but I really don't give a damn about the particulars of these various enzymes and all that other minutia.
Is medical student syndrome common? If so, how many diseases have you diagnosed yourself with thus far? How's the social aspect of med school? Do the students form little groups or are all of you pretty friendly with each other for the most part? Is your school p/f? And if so, does this foster a more friendly environment between students (since I think it would be less competitive)?
LOL at the big bunny eyes of an M1. I wonder if I too sounded like this 2 years ago. Definitely a good place to start but you get kinda jaded as you progress so keep this quote and look at it in several years and see how you feel about it.
How d you keep on top of so much material (basically, how do you study)? And how much free time do you have?
As a first year you have little to no diagnostic capability unless you're at a school that teaches pathology in the first year. In general, first year is designed to teach normal structure and function while second year is designed to teach pathology. Obviously you might be able to guess what's going on if something's wrong with you, and hopefully your professor(s) teach you some clinical corollaries to the stuff you're learning, but you're not suddenly a House that knows everything.
More than likely cliques will form in your class, but how open they are outside of your cliques depends on the individual people rather than a school. Medical school attracts some pretty interesting types - in some ways good, in others bad. I wouldn't say that there's anyone in my class that I blatantly dislike, but there are certainly some people that I would rather avoid.
If there's one piece of advice I could give to current applicants, it's to go to a P/F school if at all possible. IMO there are only benefits, and it really does take the stress off of you personally while reducing some of the competition that might crop up.
I have mixed feelings about P/F curricula. If it's ranked, you have people scrapping for every point since fractions of a percent can make a difference. If it's unranked, you're good for the first two years but are setting yourself up for a seriously cutthroat third year as people jockey for class ranking. Overall, I'd say P/F is not all it's cracked up to be, but to each his own.
edit: Also, nothing's stopping you from treating a non-P/F curriculum as though it is P/F. That's actually lower stress than a ranked P/F school, in my opinion, since your 80% is the same as an 89%, etc.
Last edited:
I agree with a lot of what Nick said. We don't have much diagnosing power, and most of the diseases we do learn about are quite rare, so it hasn't really come up.
And school is cliquey but not in a terrible way. You won't be friends with everyone, but who really cares when you have anywhere between 100 and 200 people. There should be some people you like to hang with and/or study with and you can just be friendly with everyone else when you see them (because you will see them a lot if you go to class or post-exam parties). Groups have definitely formed but that doesn't mean people aren't friendly to each other.
My school is not P/F, it is H/HP/P/LP/F (so basically like letter grades). We're about 7 tests in, and I still have yet to feel like this creates a competitive environment at all. Yes, some people are very intense, and you can tell they are going for Honors. I don't have a huge problem with that as long as you aren't a jerk about it, and I have yet to see that behavior. Most people are fine just passing, since most just pass. Yes, our grades are on a curve, but you have to do really poorly compared to everyone else to fail (which never happens). I'm not saying P/F wouldn't be nice. Definitely consider it a factor, but I have had no problems with it so far. People still are nice, people study together, people make review sheets and share them and all that jazz.
