Am I in over my head already?

[redhead512]

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I am a junior in high school and I have always wanted to be a doctor. Always. And i love love loved biology.

..but this year is anatomy and chemistry..and well, i'm sinking fast.

chem is pretty easy (so far) but very boring to me.

and anatomy is so difficult. i get all the concepts, but i have to study for hours every night to keep up and i just dont have time for it every night. there are wayyy too many words to try to memorize.

anyways, i guess what i'm asking is: have any med school students (either near future/current/or past) ever had this problem. I just feel so inadequate and unable to overcome this challege without feeling totally stressed out.

Has anyone ever had this and conquered? Does anyone have any study tips for me so that i don't have to study for hours every night? Thank you so much!

 

[indya]

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[Tin Man]

chem is pretty easy (so far) but very boring to me.

At the high school level, chemistry is boring, mainly because some of the fundamental, interesting concepts are considered too complicated for regular school. Once you get into college, these concepts get explained to you, and if you enjoy chemistry enough to really learn what's going on, things that you just had to take on faith in high school are going to start clicking for you.

and anatomy is so difficult. i get all the concepts, but i have to study for hours every night to keep up and i just dont have time for it every night. there are wayyy too many words to try to memorize.

There are few students out there who don't have to spend hours studying in order to get anatomy down. I took it at the college level, and was expected to name not only every bone, but every mark on every bone, from memory, with no word bank. Apply that to the muscles, circulatory system, and every other part of the human anatomy and physiology, and... well, you can imagine I spent a great many hours in the lab going over models with my lab partner.

Anatomy consists pretty much entirely of memorization. Memorizing is going to be a skill you'll want to develop, as it will help you in physics with memorizing basic equations, organic chemistry in memorizing reaction mechanisms, and so forth. Hopefully, as time goes on, the more important stuff that you memorized will become ingrained, and you won't have to actively work so hard in order to remember things like, say, where your adrenal glands are.

anyways, i guess what i'm asking is: have any med school students (either near future/current/or past) ever had this problem. I just feel so inadequate and unable to overcome this challege without feeling totally stressed out.

Sounds like you're experiencing the kind of stress you will likely face in college, and definitely face in med school. If you aren't ready to study for hours (not necessarily every night, but at least a couple a week), then you may want to think about other career options. Doctors are first and foremost scientists, and scientists spend their entire careers studying and trying to learn new things.

Don't be discouraged, though. I'm guessing that you are somewhat like I was. I rarely had to study in school (up until about junior year, come to think of it), and was able to make good grades while still having hours after school to do whatever I wanted to do. When I hit college, it took a LONG time for me to get adjusted to spending hours at a time studying. I had never done it before, and it didn't feel "fair."

Now, it's not nearly as much of a problem. I was able to spend multiple hours a day for three months straight studying for the MCAT. It just takes some adjusting and acceptance that the path you're on is going to change your life and the way you operate. If you want to be a doctor bad enough, then push through. Figure out what study schedule works best for you, and find some hobbies that work around that study time. Eventually, you'll be able to adapt. Trust me. If you can get to that point before college, you'll have a much easier time with the transition than I did. 🙂

 

[luke587]

if you already hate chemistry and anatomy, then you better learn to like it quickly before college, because you will be taking alotttttttt of it.

Trust me though, college is way better when it comes to those courses, alot more challenging than highschool, but alot more interesting none the less.

Good luck study hard

Oh and by the way with anatomy, just make little songs to yourself itll help when your taking a test, yes it sounds stupid thats what i did with anatomy and physiology and it helped alot, especially because anatomy gets alot more in depth at the college level

 

[luke587]

oh and by the way, in college there are no "easy" ways to get out of studying, especially with those courses, you will be studying 4x's as much in college as you do in highschool, just work hard, be dedicated and it'll come eventually

 

[avatarftw]

Four times as much studying in college than HS? What?!!! Absolutely, not! For that to occur you must have had a really easy high school (No AP classes nor advanced courses) and then chosen a really hard double major like electrical engineering and biochemistry.

Even if you pick the "toughest" major, college shouldn't be too bad. Heck, first year of med school isn't as hard as some people make it out to be. ("I study 10 hours a day in addition to class, its so hard!")

Right now I'm putting in 50 hours a week (which includes class); not that bad if you think about it. That's 7 hours a day.

oh and by the way, in college there are no "easy" ways to get out of studying, especially with those courses, you will be studying 4x's as much in college as you do in highschool, just work hard, be dedicated and it'll come eventually

 

[redhead512]

At the high school level, chemistry is boring, mainly because some of the fundamental, interesting concepts are considered too complicated for regular school. Once you get into college, these concepts get explained to you, and if you enjoy chemistry enough to really learn what's going on, things that you just had to take on faith in high school are going to start clicking for you.

Thank God! I certainly hope you're right. I was like..oh man, if it's already boring? It makes sense though that the more interesting concepts are explained later.

There are few students out there who don't have to spend hours studying in order to get anatomy down. I took it at the college level, and was expected to name not only every bone, but every mark on every bone, from memory, with no word bank. Apply that to the muscles, circulatory system, and every other part of the human anatomy and physiology, and... well, you can imagine I spent a great many hours in the lab going over models with my lab partner.

Good to know. I guess i just had the feeling that i was the only one in the room that was feeling overwelmed. Maybe they spend more time than me? Who knows. But now i atleast feel like its still possible for me to accomplish my long term goals. I had a few moments of "what the hell am i thinking!?"

Sounds like you're experiencing the kind of stress you will likely face in college, and definitely face in med school. If you aren't ready to study for hours (not necessarily every night, but at least a couple a week), then you may want to think about other career options. Doctors are first and foremost scientists, and scientists spend their entire careers studying and trying to learn new things.

I am totally not against studying for hours every couple of days. Where it's totally wearing me down is that i get off of school at 3, then go to clubs/meetings/ect. until 3:30, don't get home until 4, other homework until about 6-7, and then by that time i'm so exausted that all i want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. So sometimes i do homework up until 9.
And if i don't have homework in other classes, i've spent up to three hours doing anatomy and still not fully memorizing the words. *sigh* Personally, i think it would be extremely boring NOT to learn new things everyday in a job.

Don't be discouraged, though. I'm guessing that you are somewhat like I was. I rarely had to study in school (up until about junior year, come to think of it), and was able to make good grades while still having hours after school to do whatever I wanted to do. When I hit college, it took a LONG time for me to get adjusted to spending hours at a time studying. I had never done it before, and it didn't feel "fair."

Ah yes, it seems we have some things in common. I barely ever have to really study, even for biology last year. (maybe thats why i loved it so much? It just clicked.) Hopefully this class will teach those dang study habits that others have learned long before.


And btw, i don't hate chem and anatomy. We aren't into anything exciting in chem, so it's boring, its not like i despise it.

and anatomy is just really difficult, but i enjoy the concepts and learning about the functions and such.
...and i'm really looking forward to disecting. 😉

 

[just one]

Four times as much studying in college than HS? What?!!! Absolutely, not! For that to occur you must have had a really easy high school (No AP classes nor advanced courses) and then chosen a really hard double major like electrical engineering and biochemistry.

Even if you pick the "toughest" major, college shouldn't be too bad. Heck, first year of med school isn't as hard as some people make it out to be. ("I study 10 hours a day in addition to class, its so hard!")

Right now I'm putting in 50 hours a week (which includes class); not that bad if you think about it. That's 7 hours a day.

While I am currently have a similar schedule to yours, it should be noted that it does not come as easy to everyone. Many people do in fact have to put in that many more hours as stated. Everyone is different. The key is to more efficient studying.

 

[just one]

Thank God! I certainly hope you're right. I was like..oh man, if it's already boring? It makes sense though that the more interesting concepts are explained later.





Good to know. I guess i just had the feeling that i was the only one in the room that was feeling overwelmed. Maybe they spend more time than me? Who knows. But now i atleast feel like its still possible for me to accomplish my long term goals. I had a few moments of "what the hell am i thinking!?"







I am totally not against studying for hours every couple of days. Where it's totally wearing me down is that i get off of school at 3, then go to clubs/meetings/ect. until 3:30, don't get home until 4, other homework until about 6-7, and then by that time i'm so exausted that all i want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. So sometimes i do homework up until 9.
And if i don't have homework in other classes, i've spent up to three hours doing anatomy and still not fully memorizing the words. *sigh* Personally, i think it would be extremely boring NOT to learn new things everyday in a job.



Ah yes, it seems we have some things in common. I barely ever have to really study, even for biology last year. (maybe thats why i loved it so much? It just clicked.) Hopefully this class will teach those dang study habits that others have learned long before.


And btw, i don't hate chem and anatomy. We aren't into anything exciting in chem, so it's boring, its not like i despise it.

and anatomy is just really difficult, but i enjoy the concepts and learning about the functions and such.
...and i'm really looking forward to disecting. 😉

Three whole hours! The key to anatomy is not long sessions occasionally. I have an ability to sit for six hours straight studying Biochemistry and it feels like an hour to me. I just don't get tired. But in undergrad anatomy, after three hours the words will just run together. You start confusing yourself. Spend less time in one sitting but increase the days spent. Like I stated earlier, the key is efficiency.

 

[ModernAlchemist]

I'm not going to say that 3 hours isn't a long time for high school because trust me that I didn't know how to study for very long in high school. Though, the second I got to college I was studying 6 hours a day most days because if you're going to a competitive college, there will be a curve in your classes. This means that you have to work harder than 85% of the people in your classes to get an A. I say that the easiest way to do well in this stuff is apply it to something you like. Like chemistry... I never liked general chemistry but loved organic chem. This is because I could visualize and apply it to for instance, biochemistry of nutrition, which really interests me. Now, I like both types of chemistry. Talk about the anatomy stuff in a study group. That's the best for memorizing. You could even pretend you're explaining it to a patient. If you're having fun with it, you'll remember it. Good luck!

 

[Richardh]

anatomy is difficult right now but later on you will not regret the amount of time you spent studying 🙂 once you get into college and later on in med school you would have anatomy under your belt 😀 like everyone says it's memorization, and it's great that you're learning the terminologies and identifying them 👍 good luck!!

 

[BenFelson]

We didn't have Anatomy in HS.
Anatomy offered in college was so boring, and I hated it.
But it gets better in medical school when you are dissecting a cadaver. The clinical correlation helped. Especially when we had surgeons making the rounds and explaining why/how they operate.
The formaldehyde does get to you. Your head gets woozy after a few hours; and the smell stays with you all day.

 

[avatarftw]

I'm not saying its easy since the hours I spend studying are high-intensity. That is, it is 50 hours of actual work each week. I'm not counting time spent at the library but actual studying time. It seems that many students will say that they studied 5 hours because they were at the library from 12PM-5PM. However, they were checking facebook and talking to friends for 2 of those hours. I.E, they only really studied 3 hours. Also, the distractions and music possibly made their study time less efficient.

I don't know about you, but I would rather spend 3 hours studying intensely than 5 inefficient ones, for example. Also, taking breaks is a good idea.

While I am currently have a similar schedule to yours, it should be noted that it does not come as easy to everyone. Many people do in fact have to put in that many more hours as stated. Everyone is different. The key is to more efficient studying.

 

[Thales]

I don't know about you, but I would rather spend 3 hours studying intensely than 5 inefficient ones, for example. Also, taking breaks is a good idea.

Thing that works best for me with A&P is to get the information in as many different ways as possible, spread out with breaks. I've got lectures recorded in class, lectures that my instructor has recorded with slide-shows, A&P book, A&P handouts my instructor has. I'll listen to the audio recordings and lectures when I'm driving, or at the gym. When I was cramming for my first test I started early as soon as I had my review, couple hours a day, then on the last day I crammed all night. Study for 30 minutes, sleep for an hour.

-fin
Thales

 

[45408]

Four times as much studying in college than HS? What?!!! Absolutely, not! For that to occur you must have had a really easy high school (No AP classes nor advanced courses) and then chosen a really hard double major like electrical engineering and biochemistry.

I had plenty of busy work in high school with assignments and papers, but sitting down and actually studying for exams? Didn't do very much of that. In addition to doing all of my homework (which I always did), I maybe studied a few hours for a test. For college, I was often studying a week in advance. For med school, it was always weeks in advance.

High school was time-consuming, but there was not that much actual studying for me.

Three whole hours! The key to anatomy is not long sessions occasionally. I have an ability to sit for six hours straight studying Biochemistry and it feels like an hour to me. I just don't get tired. But in undergrad anatomy, after three hours the words will just run together. You start confusing yourself. Spend less time in one sitting but increase the days spent. Like I stated earlier, the key is efficiency.

Three hours of studying in high school is plenty. Go easy on the little ones. 😉

 

[avatarftw]

I guess it depends on the HS program in addition to the person. High School was actually pretty difficult for me with all the AP's; college wasn't that bad. Definitely not 4 times as difficult!

I had plenty of busy work in high school with assignments and papers, but sitting down and actually studying for exams? Didn't do very much of that. In addition to doing all of my homework (which I always did), I maybe studied a few hours for a test. For college, I was often studying a week in advance. For med school, it was always weeks in advance.

High school was time-consuming, but there was not that much actual studying for me.


Three hours of studying in high school is plenty. Go easy on the little ones. 😉

 

[Radon XP]

I think you can do fine. I'm taking Standard Level (IB) Biology & Chemistry at the same time, and I intend to do the Higher Level (IB) for both subjects next year, at the same time. I may also do Anatomy and Standard Level (IB) Physics next year too, which would put me at four sciences at once.

So far in Chem I have a B, because of the stupid summer assignment, but I have a 98 in Bio SL

 

[Ragman]

You're not in over your head. Yet. I did so badly in high school that I was eventually sent to finish my graduation requirements in alternative school due to bad grades (almost straight F's by end of senior year) and bad behavior.

I never paid attention in biology and my teacher frequently got upset with me. One day I drew a picture of my teacher riding a giant penis like a horse and left it on their desk while I ran away laughing. I thought I was a genius. The partying and getting drunk every weekend didn't help me much, either.

As a high school student, you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss your potential. There is a good chance that you're going to have some sort of minor epiphany while first in college, and you'll start doing better, learning how to study in a more tactful manner, etc.

I'm making A's in college right now. If I can turn myself around and do it, anyone can.