Best single sentence difference...

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For anyone ready, willing, and able: paint a picture of the difference between the 1st and 2nd years of medical school.

In a sentence.

Or two.
 
less subjects to study but more details to know, organizational skills and studying methods should be honed by now, worry about step1 in late winter/early spring
 
For me, M2 was to M1 what M1 was to college regarding the difference in workload and how interesting the courses are.
 
Classmates pretending to still like you for one year, followed by a year of your classmates making it clear they don't like you.
 
Tic said:
You have Step I hanging over your head all year like a guillotine.
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And in the case of DO students electing to take both the USMLE and the COMLEX, it's having a guillotine over your head - while also voluntarily giving your executioner a second shot.
 
Second year is way, way better than first. It's more work, but it's also clear that you need to know most of what you're learning. That's in sharp contrast to the biochems and anatomies and cell bios of the world. It's a lot easier to work hard when what you're working for matters.
 
Deferoxamine said:
Classmates pretending to still like you for one year, followed by a year of your classmates making it clear they don't like you.
Click to expand...

Okay okay, I kid. Major exaggeration. But in all honesty, 2nd-year was a major truth serum in a lot of ways. Some people really exposed their ugly side.

I'll agree with the above comments that 2nd year coursework is waay better - much more fun to read about. In that regard, first-year seemed a lot less worthwhile. In addition, any mystery about medical school is not there in 2nd-year, which definitely takes some of the fear away.

To top it all off, I almost never went to class in 2nd year, which allowed me to return to some hobbies again.
 
Well, let's put it this way: Last year, our tests consisted of 4 questions per lecture and probably averaged around 100-ish questions per 2-3 weeks. This year, we had 3 questions per lecture and averaged around 130 per test. In other words, the volume increases by a good 50-60%, at least.
 
MilkmanAl said:
Well, let's put it this way: Last year, our tests consisted of 4 questions per lecture and probably averaged around 100-ish questions per 2-3 weeks. This year, we had 3 questions per lecture and averaged around 130 per test. In other words, the volume increases by a good 50-60%, at least.
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My school is telling us that it's highly recommended to "read" the first 10 chapters of robbin's path before we start m2... any thoughts on that?

yay, 2000 posts
 
phospho said:
My school is telling us that it's highly recommended to "read" the first 10 chapters of robbin's path before we start m2... any thoughts on that?
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Robbins can suck it. Read Goljan instead. Yeah, Goljan is fragmentary, but it also doesn't have the oodles of crap text and information that Robbins does. I don't really understand why people think it's difficult to read, either. It's just an outline. I don't think reading beforehand is necessary at all, however. Just enjoy your summer.
 
TexasPhysician said:
Oh please don't do that.
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:laugh: No worries. Just making sure.

TexasPhysician said:
I think the volume is similar but the information was more fun/easier to learn. MSI was easily my most difficult year.
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That definitely makes me feel a lot better. It's been hands down the most stressful year of my life. As of a month ago, my left eye (or maybe eyelid I think) taught itself how to twitch 😀

livin' the dream baby!
 
AlexMorph said:
Just finished M1 today.
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dude! that's awesome! congrats!

I'm so bummed out now though. We started very early august and we won't be done for another 5 weeks🙁

MilkmanAl said:
Robbins can suck it. Read Goljan instead. Yeah, Goljan is fragmentary, but it also doesn't have the oodles of crap text and information that Robbins does. I don't really understand why people think it's difficult to read, either. It's just an outline. I don't think reading beforehand is necessary at all, however. Just enjoy your summer.
Click to expand...

you're talking about this book, right?

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Review-Pathology-STUDENT-CONSULT/dp/0323068626/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
 
TexasPhysician said:
I think the volume is similar but the information was more fun/easier to learn. MSI was easily my most difficult year.
Click to expand...

I feel like this would be the case, as by year 2, everyone will be on the same page in terms of background knowledge (biochem, genetics, etc. etc.).

Whereas MSI (i.e. now), I really feel like some ppl have much greater background knowledge in particular subjects & it really does help them. Not necessarily even score-wise... but just "true" understanding of the material, as opposed to memorizing crap for tests. Sometimes I feel like I'm basically memorizing words, w/o much if any conceptual understanding of anything.

But by MSII, the playing field will be more level, and there will be a LOT more organization behind what we have to memorize. I mean, it's much easier to memorize some random, obscure detail if it's in the context of "disease XYZ", as opposed to the name of some random blood vessel. I am soooo dependent on having structure, so MSII should be a gold mine, in terms of being prepped w/ good background knowledge, being able to reason pathology out, etc.

Just my prediction... most of the time, I hear ppl saying yr 2 >> yr 1 in difficulty, so it's good to hear the opposite! Then again, ppl also said courses would get harder after anatomy, and that wasn't true at all. Anatomy still stands as THE worst course I've ever slugged through... things did get better as I thought they would.

So I'm hoping I'll continue to be right, re: next year! 😀
 
At the time, I wrote a haiku about it:

Second year is not
as easy as they promised.
Somebody kill me.
 
second year would be easier if you took it and compared it to first year in a vaccuum but the fact that it comes right after first year makes it seems like more of a drag.

would i suggest reading the 'general pathology' principles in robbins? absolutely, doesn't have to be in advance though..

robbins doesn't have to be a chore just learn to skip over the sections where they inundate you with genes and other **** like that.

edit: i think the robbins Review of Pathology question book is a good guide to which genes and proteins you should know like you know your own scrotum
 
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Second year was better than the first because I knew my own study style, had confidence in my ability to at least pass if I went all out and the material was more interesting. Second year was worse in that I was over being in the library constantly, I felt overwhelmingly lonely most of the time and still managed to be overwhelmed by the crazy increases in volume of information.

For me 1st year was a little more panicked but less depressing than 2nd year. 3rd year is filled with exhaustion but is by far so much much better, you're actually doctoring (albeit usually doing a poor job of it) which is what most of us came here to do. The hard part is staying awake to study when you get home.
 
Second year started out pretty overwhelming and I was pretty miserable for much of the beginning. I was getting the same grades as first year, but having to bust my ass harder.

I've looked back at my notes (handwritten) from M1 and they're all so neat and well written. Because I had time. This year, my notes look like Michael J. Fox wrote them in the backseat of a VW Rabbit while heading up and down Lombard St. in San Francisco . . . simply because there's more information coming at you and you need to work faster/more efficiently.

For us, there was definitely more extra crap in second year. In M1, there was plenty of small group stuff that was more of a "here, this might help you understand the lecture material better" format. It was rarely any new or "testable" material beyond what we already knew from lecture.

M2 we have the same amount of small group sessions, except most of them are "here's more information on that topic that we couldn't squeeze into lecture, and you can damn well bet you'll be tested on this . . . oh and here's an entirely new lecture on material you haven't seen, but we've not so cleverly disguised it as a small group session."
 
MilkmanAl said:
Robbins can suck it. Read Goljan instead. Yeah, Goljan is fragmentary, but it also doesn't have the oodles of crap text and information that Robbins does. I don't really understand why people think it's difficult to read, either. It's just an outline. I don't think reading beforehand is necessary at all, however. Just enjoy your summer.
Click to expand...

you leave my robbins alone! carrying it around has gotten me one big bicep.
 
More information but it is much more interesting. After first year you should be pretty calloused to the lifestyle of a medical student, so it shouldn't bother you too much.

If you want to get an idea of how much you will learn second year, do some USMLE World Q bank questions and see the gaps you will have to fill in 1 year's time.
 
You've all heard the expression that Medical School is like trying to drink from a fire hydrant.....

1st year of medical school is like drinking from a fire hydrant but you can spit it out. 2nd year of medical school is like drinking from 2 fire hydrants and you have to swallow it.
 
2nd was way better than 1st. Mostly because I stopped going to class, and because I had some clue about how to handle the volume because of M1.

Also, a lot of that volume builds on M1 year, or on other M2 blocks, and so it isn't so "new". But I didn't take any extra undergrad science, if you did, M1 was probably a cakewalk for you, so you're screwed next year. M2 is the great equalizer, because most of us didn't know any of it walking in the door.

Robbins is a REFERENCE book. You don't read it like a damn novel. You read it when you read Goljan's bullet points (or your syllabus/ppts) and said, "WTF?"
 
I am not excited to start medical school anymore... in fact, I am now quite scared. 🙁
 
Bluemooncarter said:
I am not excited to start medical school anymore... in fact, I am now quite scared. 🙁
Click to expand...
you should be! you should be scared! feel the wetness down the front of your pants! that's both your urethral sphincters giving way to the great flood, the great flood that will reveal your shame to the world!
 
lacrossestar86 said:
Bloodbath.

Nah not really, I liked it a lot more than M1. A prof told us at the end of M2 that we should be proud, we were at the world's highest level for assimilating volumes information, regurgitating it, and moving on, funny guy.
Click to expand...

The best way I heard 2nd year explained was this from a path proffessor:

"This year you will forget more than the average person learns in their lifetime"
 
Bluemooncarter said:
I am not excited to start medical school anymore... in fact, I am now quite scared. 🙁
Click to expand...

If you've been accepted you show all the qualities of a person who can do this. Countless people have faced the seemingly insurmountable volume before and won and the adcoms know the qualities that predict this. It will be hard, no doubt, but if you keep your head down and you keep climbing it is doable. The absolute worst thing is to dwell on it and panic, though of course we all do this at some point. After a few exams you will gain confidence that you are capable of doing this and the panic will fade. Definitely don't spend your summer thinking about this.
 
I am not sure if anyone can relate to this, but something that kept me from panicking/getting stressed out, was having faith in the process. By that I mean very soon after you start MS1 you find a way of studying that works for you (or it takes a lot of trial and error but at some point you find something). Instead of saying to yourself, "there is soooo much information there is no way I can memorize everything," you say "I have a way of studying that works and I have faith that it'll at least allow me to pass." Obviously many people have goals that would include excelling in Medical School, but I can ensure you I don't "just" pass, in fact I often don't even come close to failing, usually between 10-20 points higher in fact. Just keep that in mind and no amount of information will get the best of you. Also I find sticking to some kind of routine and schedule (for example, today I plan on getting 6 lectures done, tomorrow 4 and by the weekend I want to have time to just review), and reward yourself for doing more, like getting through 8 lectures when your plan was 6. All of these things keep the stress level down, the happiness level up and focus me enough to keep everything in perspective.
 
all i wanna know is how some of you have so much time to read and write on these forums!
 
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