Anyone worried about brain atrophy?

[NTF]

So I was at work a couple of weeks ago and saw an RN I've tutored in the past pouring over some chemistry notes for her final.

She asks me to help her with a chemistry problem and I stare at it. It's a simple problem that I know I would have been able to answer easily 8-9 months ago - (when I was studying for the MCAT). But for the life of me, I couldn't recall how to do the problem.

That's how much my science knowledge has atrophied already and I still have 8 months to go before med school starts.

I know most med school applicants will still be in school until may or june. I haven't been in school since December last year.

I wonder if I'll have any science knowledge left in my brain come orientation.

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[QofQuimica]

So I was at work a couple of weeks ago and saw an RN I've tutored in the past pouring over some chemistry notes for her final.

She asks me to help her with a chemistry problem and I stare at it. It's a simple problem that I know I would have been able to answer easily 8-9 months ago - (when I was studying for the MCAT). But for the life of me, I couldn't recall how to do the problem.

That's how much my science knowledge has atrophied already and I still have 8 months to go before med school starts.

I know most med school applicants will still be in school until may or june. I haven't been in school since December last year.

I wonder if I'll have any science knowledge left in my brain come orientation.

Fortunately, you won't need any science knowledge for orientation.

All kidding aside, this is the reason why textbooks and review books exist. I hadn't taken any bio in 10+ years when I started med school, and a lot of what I had learned in cell/molecular was totally out of date. But I got myself a book, read the pertinent chapters, and did just fine in my classes and on the cell/molecular bio questions on Step 1. You will, too.

 

[gman33]

You won't need to remember most of that stuff anyway.
What you need to know will come back to you once you start studying.

 

[fireflygirl]

So I was at work a couple of weeks ago and saw an RN I've tutored in the past pouring over some chemistry notes for her final.

She asks me to help her with a chemistry problem and I stare at it. It's a simple problem that I know I would have been able to answer easily 8-9 months ago - (when I was studying for the MCAT). But for the life of me, I couldn't recall how to do the problem.

That's how much my science knowledge has atrophied already and I still have 8 months to go before med school starts.

I know most med school applicants will still be in school until may or june. I haven't been in school since December last year.

I wonder if I'll have any science knowledge left in my brain come orientation.

Gman is totally right! It really does come back to you once you start doing it again. You don't realise how much you really have retained until your memory is jogged. Don't worry about it - relish these next 8 months because you are definately going to miss it!!!

 

[NTF]

Gman is totally right! It really does come back to you once you start doing it again. You don't realise how much you really have retained until your memory is jogged. Don't worry about it - relish these next 8 months because you are definately going to miss it!!!

That's exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for.

Thanks everyone for cheering me up! Guess I just wanted the ok to concentrate on my wife and the little one due in april.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

I also had an 8 month hiatus between my last class and medical school. It wasn't an issue. In fact, it was nice to have a break. My mind enjoyed the vacation. The stuff you need to know comes right back, anyway. So don't worry. Most of the stuff you learned in undergrad can be forgotten without consequence.

Get used to having information leak out of your brain, though. To steal from Dylan, by the time you finish medical school you'll have forgotten more that most people will ever know.

 

[Empi]

I'm taking Human Genetics in the spring and took the required Genetics two years ago and I'm afraid I have forgotten everything.

Hopefully it will come back quickly when I start relearning it. Sorry, but it helps to know I'm not the only one that has forgotten material that I once knew like the back of my hand.

 

[fireflygirl]

That's exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for.

Thanks everyone for cheering me up! Guess I just wanted the ok to concentrate on my wife and the little one due in april.

Congrats!!! That is so much more exciting than worrying about whether your brain is going to atrophy

On a side note, you may want to check out if your med school offers any kind of support system to your wife and family. I am sure she will be plenty busy on her own taking care of the new one but in case she needs or wants it, it might be something worth looking into because I'm sure you'll find plenty of classmates with similar situations.

 

[phospho]

So I was at work a couple of weeks ago and saw an RN I've tutored in the past pouring over some chemistry notes for her final.

She asks me to help her with a chemistry problem and I stare at it. It's a simple problem that I know I would have been able to answer easily 8-9 months ago - (when I was studying for the MCAT). But for the life of me, I couldn't recall how to do the problem.

That's how much my science knowledge has atrophied already and I still have 8 months to go before med school starts.

I know most med school applicants will still be in school until may or june. I haven't been in school since December last year.

I wonder if I'll have any science knowledge left in my brain come orientation.

yes!!! i was going to open a similar thread in preallo with the title "brain drain"...lol

I totally know what you mean. In my case, I feel like I'm getting stupider as the days go by. Don't get me wrong, I am having a BLAST right now with my time off. I'm making a crap load of money, hanging out with friends/family, and I'm living life. However, the only problem is that none of this requires any critical/analytical thinking. I feel like I'm going to be stupid by the time school starts because I haven't really used my brains in 8 months. I wonder if it'll be difficult to get back in to the "zone" when med school starts...

 

[NTF]

I was recently cleaning out old mail from my email account and came across this exchange in Oct '06 between me and my replacement at my old lab job (I had just started my patient care gig).

Hey Nontradfogie,

This is XXXX. I had a question about your GENE X and GENE Y sequencing. I am trying to sequence GENE Z. It is supposed to be in the pAdori1-1 plasmid vector. Dr. XXXX said that GENE X and Y were in the same vector and you sequenced them using the CMV promoter. Is that true, and if so I found what seems to be CMV primers. In your note book you say that the primers are 187.5uM. Is that per/uL or molarity of the primers? Thanks for you help.

To XXXX:
It's molarity. Though I actually inserted GENE X and GENE Y into Bluescript and then sequenced them. The CMV primers are for Realtime Quantification for DRP titers, but I suppose they could be used for sequencing (just make sure you use the primer that is upstream from the gene). But to save time, I'd look up GENE Z on Genbank and just design sequencing primers using Primer3. That way you can just design 5 or 6 reactions across the entire gene so you could sequence the whole thing at once. Depending on reaction conditions you can get anywhere from 500-1500 bps of sequencing per reaction. Sequencing isn't that expensive so to save time I'd just do it all at once. If you have anymore questions, shoot me an email.

Take care,
Nontradfogie

It's hard to believe that the guy answering the questions was me cuz in two years I've completely forgotten any functional expertise in molecular biology. I only vaguely remember knowing how to do any of the stuff I did at that lab (and I basically ran every molecular biology aspect of the lab from plasmid design, microarray analysis, viral propagation & quality control, RT PCR, RNAi design, Fluoroscopy, etc.)

If you don't use it, you really do lose it.

 

[punkiedad]

I was recently cleaning out old mail from my email account and came across this exchange in Oct '06 between me and my replacement at my old lab job (I had just started my patient care gig).

Hey Nontradfogie,

This is XXXX. I had a question about your GENE X and GENE Y sequencing. I am trying to sequence GENE Z. It is supposed to be in the pAdori1-1 plasmid vector. Dr. XXXX said that GENE X and Y were in the same vector and you sequenced them using the CMV promoter. Is that true, and if so I found what seems to be CMV primers. In your note book you say that the primers are 187.5uM. Is that per/uL or molarity of the primers? Thanks for you help.

To XXXX:
It's molarity. Though I actually inserted GENE X and GENE Y into Bluescript and then sequenced them. The CMV primers are for Realtime Quantification for DRP titers, but I suppose they could be used for sequencing (just make sure you use the primer that is upstream from the gene). But to save time, I'd look up GENE Z on Genbank and just design sequencing primers using Primer3. That way you can just design 5 or 6 reactions across the entire gene so you could sequence the whole thing at once. Depending on reaction conditions you can get anywhere from 500-1500 bps of sequencing per reaction. Sequencing isn't that expensive so to save time I'd just do it all at once. If you have anymore questions, shoot me an email.

Take care,
Nontradfogie

It's hard to believe that the guy answering the questions was me cuz in two years I've completely forgotten any functional expertise in molecular biology. I only vaguely remember knowing how to do any of the stuff I did at that lab (and I basically ran every molecular biology aspect of the lab from plasmid design, microarray analysis, viral propagation & quality control, RT PCR, RNAi design, Fluoroscopy, etc.)

If you don't use it, you really do lose it.

OK.......I liked it better when everyone said the eight month hiatus was no problem.....I have been telling myelf I was going to brush up on biochem, but have not done so yet.