Ask an M1 anything!

[Mooglies]

Thanks to all you med students for posting the bits and pieces of your experiences so far. What's nice about that is the further you go into medical school you may forget about the little things that made up your time in your first and second year.

Speaking of forgetting I was curious about retention! I've heard several times how the volume of information is quite different from undergrad and was wondering how you've managed to deal with it?

I'm gearing up for my Bio exam and was surprised that I couldn't recall quite a bit of information from the study guide for the final!

(Not a crammer either, study a few hours thurs, sun mon.)
Thanks again!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[kpcrew]

Can it be?

nah that's the son

 

[iniquus]

Speaking of forgetting I was curious about retention! I've heard several times how the volume of information is quite different from undergrad and was wondering how you've managed to deal with it?

I'm gearing up for my Bio exam and was surprised that I couldn't recall quite a bit of information from the study guide for the final!

(Not a crammer either, study a few hours thurs, sun mon.)
Thanks again!

It depends. I think with the sheer volume of information, it is easy to forget details--but you retain a lot more than you did in undergrad. If that's a consequence of things being increasingly more relevant to your interests, improved study techniques, or just the fact that you will retain more when there's simply more information to learn, I can't really tell you.

Essentially, the study strategy that worked for you in undergrad should work for you in medical school. Just be prepared to ramp it up a notch or two. I'm a crammer, but instead of starting to cram 1-2 days before as I did in college--I start a day or 2 earlier than that. I cram for midterms the way I would cram for a final in undergrad. It's manageable this way, but it's almost always better to stay on top of the material.

You will also learn to prioritize in your studying techniques. You'll go for high-yield subjects more than the entirety of the material. It's just a better use of your time. Studying adequately will get you a good grade, but to surpass the herd--you'll have to put in a lot more effort for those last couple of points. Frankly, it's not worth it to study 20% harder for 5 points more on a test.

 

[Tien]

It depends. I think with the sheer volume of information, it is easy to forget details--but you retain a lot more than you did in undergrad. If that's a consequence of things being increasingly more relevant to your interests, improved study techniques, or just the fact that you will retain more when there's simply more information to learn, I can't really tell you.

Essentially, the study strategy that worked for you in undergrad should work for you in medical school. Just be prepared to ramp it up a notch or two. I'm a crammer, but instead of starting to cram 1-2 days before as I did in college--I start a day or 2 earlier than that. I cram for midterms the way I would cram for a final in undergrad. It's manageable this way, but it's almost always better to stay on top of the material.

You will also learn to prioritize in your studying techniques. You'll go for high-yield subjects more than the entirety of the material. It's just a better use of your time. Studying adequately will get you a good grade, but to surpass the herd--you'll have to put in a lot more effort for those last couple of points. Frankly, it's not worth it to study 20% harder for 5 points more on a test.

Can anyone explain the purpose of medical school ranking? Getting a competitive residency during Match Day seems to be the primary reason, but is there any other reasons?

 

[thesauce]

Can anyone explain the purpose of medical school ranking? Getting a competitive residency during Match Day seems to be the primary reason, but is there any other reasons?

That and bragging rights are the only two that come to mind

 

[NickNaylor]

Can anyone explain the purpose of medical school ranking? Getting a competitive residency during Match Day seems to be the primary reason, but is there any other reasons?

It's more important if you're interested in doing research, going into academics, or for a highly competitive residency (even then, the value is dubious). Beyond those things, though, it really doesn't matter much as far as your career goes.

 

[typicalindian]

For those of you who are at a p/f school, do you think that by making yourself study "just enough to pass" makes you less prepared for step 1 since you are not mastering the most material you can?

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

For those of you who are at a p/f school, do you think that by making yourself study "just enough to pass" makes you less prepared for step 1 since you are not mastering the most material you can?

Mastering lecture material doesn't necessarily translate over to being successful on Step 1. Our lecture notes go into much more detail than review books, etc, that people use for Step 1 preparation do. People who are interested in mastering content for Step 1 may not care if they don't honor a class by memorizing minutiae that a PhD or someone with no clinical experience wants you to know.

 

[typicalindian]

Ohhh I see ok that makes sense

 

[NickNaylor]

For those of you who are at a p/f school, do you think that by making yourself study "just enough to pass" makes you less prepared for step 1 since you are not mastering the most material you can?

God I hope not, because if it does I'm ****ed.

 

[jtdMU2010]

God I hope not, because if it does I'm ****ed.

Same here. I'm at a P/F PBL school and probably don't study enough of the material as I should. Step 1 prep will just require more time I suppose.

 

[flatearth22]

Same here. I'm at a P/F PBL school and probably don't study enough of the material as I should. Step 1 prep will just require more time I suppose.

Doesn't the LCME require all schools to have some sort of internal ranking for their classes regardless of if they're P/F? I know of P/F schools that include a student's quartile in their Dean's letter for residency application.

Part of the reason why I think P/F is overrated....there's no such thing as a "true" P/F and pretty much all 3rd year rotations have honors anyway, negating any advantage of the pre-clinical years being P/F because 3rd year is far more important.

 

[Slack3r]

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.

Kinda my thoughts exactly. There's that summary around here of PDs saying pre-clinical grades are pretty low in the pecking order of important things for residency placement.

 

[gravitywave]

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.

i... don't think you went to a P/F school, did you? sour grapes. the jackholes will be jackholes no matter what the curriculum is, P/F just keeps the malaise from spreading. We have studies now showing that P/F improves student well-being.

Doesn't the LCME require all schools to have some sort of internal ranking for their classes regardless of if they're P/F? I know of P/F schools that include a student's quartile in their Dean's letter for residency application.

Part of the reason why I think P/F is overrated....there's no such thing as a "true" P/F and pretty much all 3rd year rotations have honors anyway, negating any advantage of the pre-clinical years being P/F because 3rd year is far more important.

No, the LCME has no such requirement. There are schools that don't rank, period. So far as third year goes, if you have a chance to form bonds with people in a lower-stress non-competitive environment during the first two years, then you're less likely to turn psycho and gun them down third year. It just makes sense.

 

[MilkmanAl]

i... don't think you went to a P/F school, did you? sour grapes. the jackholes will be jackholes no matter what the curriculum is, P/F just keeps the malaise from spreading. We have studies now showing that P/F improves student well-being.

No, I didn't, but I acted like it was. No sour grapes by me. I cruised through with 80-82 in most classes and have the same ranking as people who just barely missed A's. That's just fine by me. I'd tend to agree that the people who suck are going to suck regardless of the curriculum, but in an unranked P/F system, they actually have significant incentive to suck during third year. I'm not sure that sounds so fun.

 

[gravitywave]

No, I didn't, but I acted like it was. No sour grapes by me. I cruised through with 80-82 in most classes and have the same ranking as people who just barely missed A's. That's just fine by me. I'd tend to agree that the people who suck are going to suck regardless of the curriculum, but in an unranked P/F system, they actually have significant incentive to suck during third year. I'm not sure that sounds so fun.

OK, that's fair (because it's been my strategy so far as well, at a place that isn't P/F but is just about the closest thing to it).... I guess my question then is whether you think a substantially greater number of people will start behaving badly in a system where the MS3 grades are more important to class rank, as opposed to one in which everything is ranked. Third year grades matter enormously regardless of where you go to school or what the ranking system was there, and the people who are going to throw their colleagues under a bus on wards are going to do that everywhere. I submit that the ones who aren't, by and large, aren't.

 

[Tien]

It's more important if you're interested in doing research, going into academics, or for a highly competitive residency (even then, the value is dubious). Beyond those things, though, it really doesn't matter much as far as your career goes.

Hmm, then how important is ranking for MD/PhD then? I would love to go into biomedical research while doing clinical work.

 

[thesauce]

It's more important if you're interested in doing research, going into academics.

And even then, it's probably more important where you do your residency.

 

[noobslacker]

Regarding P/F, I'm having a really hard time motivating myself to do better than just passing. Despite having true P/F for all of basic sciences, I know where I stand in the class on each assessment via histogram, and being consistently in the bottom 10 percent on everything (and dead last a few times for quizzes) is barely phasing me.

Has anyone dealt with this too? I know as long as I'm passing it's ok, but my currently study habits involve doing nothing while attempting pretending to study for a week or two and then cramming everything and taking the exam in one 24 hour straight shot while overloading on caffeine and sugar. It sucks a lot.

 

[typicalindian]

Regarding P/F, I'm having a really hard time motivating myself to do better than just passing. Despite having true P/F for all of basic sciences, I know where I stand in the class on each assessment via histogram, and being consistently in the bottom 10 percent on everything (and dead last a few times for quizzes) is barely phasing me.

Has anyone dealt with this too? I know as long as I'm passing it's ok, but my currently study habits involve doing nothing while attempting pretending to study for a week or two and then cramming everything and taking the exam in one 24 hour straight shot while overloading on caffeine and sugar. It sucks a lot.

Your probably just burned out from all the competing you did in undergrad. I guess if it's a true unranked p/f, you shouldn't sweat it until it really counts (3rd year from what I've seen in this thread)

 

[MilkmanAl]

I guess my question then is whether you think a substantially greater number of people will start behaving badly in a system where the MS3 grades are more important to class rank, as opposed to one in which everything is ranked. Third year grades matter enormously regardless of where you go to school or what the ranking system was there, and the people who are going to throw their colleagues under a bus on wards are going to do that everywhere.

I'm really not sure, but I'm willing to bet it'd convince a significant amount of students to not necessarily be gunners (i.e., undercut others) but to be exceptionally obnoxious in an attempt to be helpful. That is, it'd increase the amount of people who suck to work with a lot. I know quite a few people who are concerned enough with class rank that they'd go over the top grubbing grades if one year is all they had to work with. Granted, that'd realistically only happen with people who were either interested in a competitive specialty where ranking may make a difference, but I still imagine it'd make a difference. If nothing else, it'd ratchet up the stress of third year substantially for most people.

 

[theWUbear]

I still don't know where to eat when I go to Europe, M1's. Yes, I do like cheese.

 

[noobslacker]

Your probably just burned out from all the competing you did in undergrad. I guess if it's a true unranked p/f, you shouldn't sweat it until it really counts (3rd year from what I've seen in this thread)

Goodness, I wish. I was just as lazy in undergrad too. But at least I'd still get pissed at being below average.

 

[theWUbear]

I still don't know where to eat when I go to Europe, M1's. Yes, I do like cheese.

You're off the hook, Use Your Eyes.
http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/ultimate-food-lovers-bucket-list-154200960.html

Nevertheless, I am disappoint

 

[use your eyes]

Recently remembered making this thread and decided to look it up. I do sound quite wide-eyed and overly happy, but I do still have some of that optimism left as I enter second year.

WUbear, I hope you had some delicious cheese. I apologize about not getting back to you. You see, I had to study...