becoming dumber before matriculation?

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i've seen threads like this before but wouldn't know what they're called: i love that i am/have been taking a year off before starting med school, but now i'm afraid my brain won't be prepared to get back into studying mode in time for medical school this fall. is there anything i can do between now and the beginning of june? it's too late into the spring to start taking a class. i am just hoping there is muscle-memory in my fingers for taking lecture notes.

here are some of my symptoms:
-i think i have completely forgotten how to pay attention/study or anything academically related, especially for long hours.
-there is a powerful forcefield around any academic/collegiate library i try to enter, which prevents me from being able to set foot in one. i can only read leisure books, sort of.
-i procrastinated filling out the fafsa not because i found it difficult but because it was related to "school."
-i now almost feel like i've never even been to college before

*i know i'm lame for worrying but i can't help it...

 

[Messerschmitts]

I've been "taking a year off" (due to not getting in, not by choice), and I also fear my brain getting lazy.

 

[Dov]

I'm still in school but I hear you guys. My brain is off and I like it. I dont know if ill be able to turn it back on again.

 

[Gardenia]

i've seen threads like this before but wouldn't know what they're called: i love that i am/have been taking a year off before starting med school, but now i'm afraid my brain won't be prepared to get back into studying mode in time for medical school this fall. is there anything i can do between now and the beginning of june? it's too late into the spring to start taking a class. i am just hoping there is muscle-memory in my fingers for taking lecture notes.

Read, seriously.

 

[masterMood]

yo you guys gotta tell me if you think taking a year off was worth it. I need some big brother/big sisters be telllin' me how it is takin' a year off you know because i plan on graduating in 3 years.

Oh yeah, what have you done in your year off? Do you think that doing absolutely nothing for a year make you more motivated to work harder during med. school or do you think you got lazier?

 

[Compass]

Most people take a year off before they go to college, except for pre-med students who seem to always want to jump right into the race. I've heard from people who have taken a year off that they do stuff they wouldn't do if they had school. They travel, do things that they just want to try. For example, sky-dive. You could also work your life away or just have a normal relaxed studying cycle where you read and have fun and don't have to apply your knowledge anywhere except to your own enjoyment.

 

[top]

Most people take a year off before they go to college, except for pre-med students who seem to always want to jump right into the race. I've heard from people who have taken a year off that they do stuff they wouldn't do if they had school. They travel, do things that they just want to try. For example, sky-dive. You could also work your life away or just have a normal relaxed studying cycle where you read and have fun and don't have to apply your knowledge anywhere except to your own enjoyment.

I disagree. "Most" people do NOT take a year off before college. Most people probably take a year off before med school, but definitely not undergrad. It's not a bad idea to take a year off! That said, if you want to go into medical school right away (or undergrad, for that matter), more power to you. I studied abroad for a year in two continents, went skydiving, ran with the bulls in Pamplona, learned how to scuba dive, and will graduate in four years, so it's not like taking a year off is the only way to do those things. In fact, judging from how lazy my ass was last summer, when I didn't have anything to do and still didn't get my AMCAS in until October 1, I'd probably waste the entire year if I took one off.

 

[jmnykrkts]

I'm still in school but I hear you guys. My brain is off and I like it. I dont know if ill be able to turn it back on again.

Yeah me agree it feel good when brain off

 

[happydays]

I hear ya! I can't wait to get my brain working again.

 

[betty7]

I graduated this past December so I have taken a little less than a year off. I actually would not reccomend it for someone with the typical type A pre-med personality unless you have something awesome planned like traveling Europe etc. I am currently working a regular 9-5 full time job trying to save some money yet I feel like I have no outlet for my intellectual passionate side. I never realized how much I would miss the sensation of learning and stimulating my brain. Yet, I dont know how I would feel if I would still in school right now. I might be wishing I had graduated early. Its a lot easier to judge things in hindsight.

 

[medicomel]

during this lag year, i've been working 40+ hrs a week to pare down my credit/save $$$, and have pretty much restricted my time for only leisure activities. i haven't had to worry about grades, tests, reading textbooks, and i've found that the less stress i have the more depressed i have become. how weird is that?!? i'm seriously ready to get back into the swing of things.

 

[MarzMD]

I took a year off and think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Once you enter the working world, you realize just how much it sucks(when you are underpaid and not challenged mentally). Because of this, I am excited about going back to school. As far as getting dumber, I think if you take the time to read you will be able to get back in the swing of things in no time. I have been learning how to invest on my offtime.

 

[betty7]

That's not weird at all!! I have definitely noticed a correlation between my stress level and happiness/satisfaction level and it has swung in the opposite direction than expected- less stress/challenge= less "satisfaction" with life

 

[DarkWingDuck]

Yeah, I've "been taking a year off", for almost 2 years now. I'm ready to get goin'. I tried to change my screen name to broccoli a while back, but couldn't figure it out.

 

[NY Musicologist]

here are some of my symptoms:
-i think i have completely forgotten how to pay attention/study or anything academically related, especially for long hours.
-there is a powerful forcefield around any academic/collegiate library i try to enter, which prevents me from being able to set foot in one. i can only read leisure books, sort of.
-i procrastinated filling out the fafsa not because i found it difficult but because it was related to "school."
-i now almost feel like i've never even been to college before

I'm not in med school, nor have I ever taken a year off from school (HS-college-MA-PhD), so I really don't have any business addressing this issue, but my 9-to-5 job isn't offering anything more stimulating at the moment. I'd surmise that one of a couple of things will happen: either you'll take the advice of the previous poster to READ (starting off with the absolute basics, to save yourself from undue panic that you may possibly have forgotten everything from the ground up) and you'll slowly feel your interest in the subject matter returning, which will then feed on itself and help you remember why you wanted to go to med school in the first place (hopefully because the material interests you...?!!); OR you'll arrive at your new school still completely unmotivated, sit for your first exam, bomb it, and the fear of failing a second exam will jump-start your mental and competitive engines!

Seriously, go back to your high school or early college bio, chem, (whatever) textbooks and cruise through them, simultaneously taking pride in your mastery of the basics and giving yourself a non-strenuous mental warmup for more advanced work.

Good luck to you--wish I'd taken a year off at ANY point along the way--paradoxically, I'd probably be farther along if I had--burnout is a slow and painful death, especially to a fundamentally stubborn individual like myself who just can't ever quite get up the nerve to pack it in...

 

[Depakote]

Is it true, do all pre-matriculants undergo a process of dumbining?

wait, that's not how you spell dumbening...

Wait! Dumbening isn't even a word.

 

[OctoDoc]

Is it true, do all pre-matriculants undergo a process of dumbining?

wait, that's not how you spell dumbening...

Wait! Dumbening isn't even a word.

Unh. My hed herts.

 

[drmota]

i haven't had any thoughts other than "me gusta" and "no me gusta" since i graduated.
-mota