What anticipatory advice would you offer to an incoming dance major who has only taken the basic prerequisites? Would she be at a disadvantage and have to be playing catch up the whole time? Should she take a course in or read up on biochem, anatomy or cell bio the summer before starting med school?
Advice for incoming MS1 dance major
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[scoffs]
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There's nothing you can study that will significantly help you. Everyone will tell you to enjoy your time while you can, and they are correct.
I would buy a teach yourself medical terminology book, its a different language and you will find yourself at an advantage if you can reason out the meaning of words from knowing the parts. Its easy and will be helpful for any clinical correlations etc on tests.
How is it that studying biochemistry prior to taking it in medical school won't help you later on?
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Of course it will help, but not significantly. You'd be better off investing in a metronome.
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For one, she should stop talking in the 3rd person...
I was a non-science major and felt like I was playing catch up with the biochemistry and cell-biology majors but after 1st year everyone was essentially at the same level.
People say don't pre-study. I say... why not? Repetition is the only way you learn in medical school unless you have an eidetic memory or are a genius. If you read BRS Physiology once, none of it will stick... but it will stick better the second time through during first year. It might be seen as a waste of time, but at the end of the day you're the arbiter of how you waste your time.
I'm in my 4th year and should be relaxing and vacationing. Instead, I waste my time by reading The ICU Book and Mastery of Surgery (should probably buy Sabiston), because I like to read about this stuff.
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What do you look like?
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Watch out guys, OP wants us to know she's a girl. And you don't need to do any pre-studying, that is just a waste of time.
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Thank you for your advice. What particular books or topics do you suggest I study to avoid having to play catch up with the biology majors?
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Most only recommend it. From my own experience, I'd suspect that if you were smart enough to manage to score well (32+) on the MCAT without a science major and can generally match most of the bio and chem majors in understanding of their majors, you probably won't actually need those advanced courses or to have pre-studied. I was music and psych and honestly found biochem to be a relatively pointless class -- fun but really nothing more than a review/application of gen chem, bio, and a little ochem with a few additional things to memorize. At the UG-level, I think an intelligent person who is a good synthesizer could pick things up very quickly without needing the background....
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I would just like to clarify why people commonly recommend NOT prestudying. It's one thing to hear everyone say "don't do it" and another to hear the reasoning behind it, then decide for yourself.
1. You don't really know what will be emphasized/disregarded in your curriculum until you get there.
2. The rate at which you study on your own in your free time is much lower than the rate you will study when in school. in other words, you spend more time learning less because you don't have a real schedule/syllabus/pressure of an upcoming test.
3. The benefit of having a background in the certain material (dance major vs molecular bio major) is pretty short-lived. The prereqs get you through it at the level you need to know the material. Yeah the mol-bio guy has an easier time with some of the basic science stuff, but you don't have fours years of basic science coursework, so you are on equal footing for most of your med school career.
4. Is there really nothing else you'd rather do during the summer with family, friends, or out in the world on your own? The majority of the rest of your life will be medicine-related...it's not the end of your freedom, but this is a good opportunity to do do some things that might be pretty difficult to do in the near future.
I'm sure other people can come up with more, but those are the basics. Still up to you to decide.
1. You don't really know what will be emphasized/disregarded in your curriculum until you get there.
2. The rate at which you study on your own in your free time is much lower than the rate you will study when in school. in other words, you spend more time learning less because you don't have a real schedule/syllabus/pressure of an upcoming test.
3. The benefit of having a background in the certain material (dance major vs molecular bio major) is pretty short-lived. The prereqs get you through it at the level you need to know the material. Yeah the mol-bio guy has an easier time with some of the basic science stuff, but you don't have fours years of basic science coursework, so you are on equal footing for most of your med school career.
4. Is there really nothing else you'd rather do during the summer with family, friends, or out in the world on your own? The majority of the rest of your life will be medicine-related...it's not the end of your freedom, but this is a good opportunity to do do some things that might be pretty difficult to do in the near future.
I'm sure other people can come up with more, but those are the basics. Still up to you to decide.
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Lmao.
