Tips for success: Don't fall behind. Don't underestimate any class. Don't underestimate any quiz or exam. Don't compare yourself to your classmates. Don't compare yourself to bobtheweazel. Most importantly, try to enjoy yourself. Statistically, we'll virtually all make it through school and get a residency and be doctors. Don't drive yourself mental by trying to study for 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Get out every once in a while, see the sights, make friends, et cetera.
Undergrad performance: For probably the last two years of my undergrad I got As in every single class. I took it very seriously. Before that my grades were maybe about average or slightly above average. From the point that I decided I wanted to be a doctor, I started taking things seriously and somehow pulled off a pretty crazy A streak. Temple specifically mentioned at my interview that it was impressive. One of my good friends here did even better though, he had like above a 3.9 GPA throughout undergrad, so in comparison what I did is really only like one of those "most improved" kind of achievements, lol.
Temple Winter break: Our Winter break is only two weeks. We'll also get Spring break off and our 1st Summer off. I think the Summer thing is a big deal because as far as I'm aware most of the schools do not get any Summer off.
Temple class rank: I believe ranking will be done at the end of the year. At this point we've only finished three courses and we've started a fourth that won't end until next semester. We'll also have like another five courses next semester. Also, I think one of the real reasons they rank us is not so much for us as it is for them to determine scholarship amounts for next year, so it will likely be at the end of the year as it would be no benefit to the school to spend time on that in the middle of the year AND at the end of the year.
Regrets: No regrets yet. I like that Temple is willing to hear us out and make changes. They listen to the students and tweak the curriculum each year. They're also working on trying to get our 1st time board pass rates higher. Also, I made a big stink about our board pass rates at the beginning of the year and while the upperclassmen didn't appreciate it for whatever reason, the administration seems like it is listening to our concerns and taking it seriously.
Anatomy lab: I'll tell you man, we were all excited about going into cadaver lab for probably weeks beforehand. But when the day came, I saw that "I hope I can handle this" look on a lot of faces, and I'm sure it showed on mine as well, lol. You kinda just walk in, unzip your bag, and the reality of it hits you so fast that you couldn't react if you wanted to. From then on it's just routine. Although there was once or twice throughout the semester that something would slide a bit or look weird in my periphery and I kinda got the heebie-jeebies, lol. But no, nobody fainted or vomited. Though a couple of people looked like they came close to vomiting near the end of the semester when we had to hemisect the cadavers, basically hacksawing vertically up through the pelvis (rectum, genitals, everything, yummm) and then horizontally at about L4 to cut above the ilium—we needed to remove the lower extremities for our lower extremity course this coming semester.
Research/writing assignments: None yet, so happy. From what I can tell research here is pretty much all voluntary. Our gait lab always has active research going on but it seems like you would mostly be assisting with taking measurements or something along those lines rather than writing up the research paper. Not sure if or when we will have a proper writing assignment.
Recall of 1st semester information: For the most part, if you didn't need it they wouldn't teach it to you. Altogether, the classes that we've completely finished so far (biochemistry, general anatomy, histology, embryology) will account for a little under 20% of the part 1 board exam. So for that, we will need it. Furthermore, the breakdown of the board exam is based on practice surveys of podiatrists. So for instance 7% of the exam is biochemistry and 25% of the board exam is lower extremity anatomy. So in practice lower extremity anatomy info has over three times the weight of biochemistry info, but biochemistry info will still need to be recalled a fair amount. Will we need ALL of the information being taught to us? Absolutely not, some of it is scientifically relevant but not medically relevant. But for example biochemistry includes the actions of glucagon and insulin and cortisol on metabolism—all important. In biochemistry you learn that cortisol increases blood sugar. Similarly, if you give someone a cortisone (very similar to cortisol) shot for pain, it will raise their blood sugar. That's important to know and is a basic biochemistry concept. In residency you'll do plenty of off service rotations so you've gotta know your general anatomy or you'll look like a fool. Et cetera.
Temple white coat ceremony: Temple podiatry is kind of an outlier in that we don't do the white coat ceremony until end of second year, before clinicals begin. I'm not sure why this is the case since I believe even the Temple MDs do their white coat ceremonies at the beginning of their first year. I'll justify it by saying that we'll feel like we've really earned it at that point. We've already lost a few students within the first semester. By the usual tradition they would all have gotten their white coats, but would they have earned them? Obviously not. I think it actually makes more sense this way, but who am I to say. On the other hand my good pal CardsFan92 has their white coat on in their FB profile pic and I'm always a bit peanut butter and jealous when I see it.
Advantages from undergrad: I had a job where I used a lot of musculoskeletal stuff on a daily basis and that has helped me to some extent in general anatomy. The people who exercise a lot and therefore know a decent deal about musculoskeletal anatomy and function have also had that slight headstart. But overall, I would say that no undergrad course or program could really prepare you for anything you'll get here. For instance, we have some biochem majors in our class and the biochemistry class here was over their heads. So did they have an advantage on some of the basic concepts? Sure. Same for my advantage on basic musculoskeletal concepts in general anatomy. But overall, we're all on a pretty level playing field and the largest factor beyond past experience or innate ability is simply how much work you put in.
