Advice for new med students

[PltEnthusiast]

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Hello all,
I am just starting medical school and wondering what are the resources or strategies I should use to make sure I am learning effectively and on a good track for preparing for Steps. I don't want to repeat the mistake I had made with MCAT which was waiting until the exam to start preparing. I am starting with Biochem classes. So far, I have Lippincott's illustrated review of biochem and Pretest for Biochem/Genetics.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated!

 

[Doctor D]

Uworld subscription and first aid throughout year. Do the sections that your school is covering.

 

[Doctor D]

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[evilbooyaa]

Hello all,
I am just starting medical school and wondering what are the resources or strategies I should use to make sure I am learning effectively and on a good track for preparing for Steps. I don't want to repeat the mistake I had made with MCAT which was waiting until the exam to start preparing. I am starting with Biochem classes. So far, I have Lippincott's illustrated review of biochem and Pretest for Biochem/Genetics.

Any comments or advice would be appreciated!

Depends on your school's curriculum. Focus on the notes from your school. Most likely they'll be way more in-depth than USMLE Step 1. The little things you remember that aren't in FA will help you remember.

CONSIDER (not necessarily) getting a copy of first aid and annotating it. Don't worry about incredibly detailed annotations, maybe just a mnemonic that isn't mentioned or some sort of association. If you write very detailed annotations, skip this step entirely b/c full detail annotations won't help you. Also, if your first year is how mine was, where we learn how 'everything is supposed to be', the amount of annotating you'll be doing is very minimal. You will learn a lot of embryo, and you will realize most of it is NOT required for Step 1.

Honestly in the 1st year, figure out how you study well. Step 1 is (almost) always at end of 2nd year, so figure out how you study, whether that be reading lots of books way in advance, keeping a book for reference, going by class notes/lectures only, etc. etc. In second year you'll likely be doing significantly more things relevant to Step 1, for which brief annotations might not be a bad idea.

At the same time, don't ignore the outside world and spend every weekend studying. Find some time to do whatever makes you happy, be that hanging out with friends, drinking, sports, working out, video games, etc. etc. You'll have a lot more time for that in 1st year than 2nd year than 3rd year.

 

[Phur]

If you find you are struggling, (wo)man up early. There are resources available to help you succeed. In classes I tutored, without fail a couple people would come up to me right before the final and say they haven't passed an exam all semester and need a 98 on the final to pass, and to please help. On the other hand, the ones who came after the first or even the second exam, there was time to correct deficiencies and they were able to do well.

Don't take shortcuts. The best prep for step 1 is learning everything right the 1st time, so when that time comes you are refreshing, NOT re-learning.

(If your curriculum is systems based, ignore this one) It won't seem like it initially, but later classes do build on ones before it. If you don't know physio or biochem, pharm is going to suck. If you don't know histo or physio, path/pathophys is gonna be rough.

Don't compare yourself to the rest of your class. You can only control yourself, so why bother worrying about what you can't control?

Find out how you study best. Textbook, groups, repetition by yourself, flashcards, class, office-hours, etc etc. Do this as early as possible.

A select few can cram the weekend before and be fine. Statistically, you most likely are not one of them. Study daily and stay reasonably caught up. If you are learning new concepts the day before an exam, you're doing something wrong. You should be picking up the last little bit of detail.

In general, the material is not difficult. There's just a lot of it.

DON"T COMPLAIN. 1) It's annoying and 2) all your classmates are in the same boat as you. Same time commitments, same tests, same notes. I had classmates running around pre-block complaining about this and that. I'm convinced if they took all that time and energy and put it into studying, they would have done much better. And just to reiterate because I think it's important... It's annoying and makes no one want to be around you!

Find something you enjoy and make time for it.

Make friends. Classmates. Undergrads. Craigslist. whatever. Just search for some of the whining, lonely posts that show up here every couple months or so. You don't want to be that person. "I'm shy/Introverted" is not an excuse. Medicine is a social profession. Get used to it earlier rather than later.

Everyone says it gets better. I'm a resident now and still waiting for that piece of advice to be true. The only guaranteed good part is 4th year after interview season. The rest is variable from person to person.

Good luck