Dealing with a lot of anxiety about starting medical school...

[Shjanzey]

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I guess I will be the odd man in my class since I am not the most competitive individual. I just want
to be average or bit above average.

I just wanted to point out that your username is at odds with that statement...

 

[YoungestBrother]

I think that this picture and it's story sums up pretty much every aspect of medicine and why I wanted to be a doctor. Don't waste time worrying, use the time to make a plan.

What is the story of that picture?

 

[Priapism4tooLong]

What is the story of that picture?

It was a 23 hour long heart transplant surgery, the dr (dr.religa) was a pioneer in heart transplants. The other doctor is sleeping in the corner. Just shows how much dedication doctors have for their patients.

 

[DermViser]

Everyday, I look into the mirror and remind myself that I am a shining (and good looking) example of how being your non-AOA self can still get you what you want. And by, that I mean subspecialty surgery residency. And tons of pu.. uh nvm.

You may have been non-AOA, but you might have been pretty close, or did a year of research, etc.

 

[DermViser]

It was a 23 hour long heart transplant surgery, the dr (dr.religa) was a pioneer in heart transplants. The other doctor is sleeping in the corner. Just shows how much dedication doctors have for their patients.

I must admit, I have to greatly admire and respect that level of dedication and selflessness those 2 surgeons have. Sad that so-called "healthcare reform" wants to destroy, rather than reward that.

 

[caffeinemia]

You may have been non-AOA, but you might have been pretty close, or did a year of research, etc.

I was straight passes on the med school farce, but real-world baller with roughly 15 pubs. Do you think med students have skewed views of what's really important ?

 

[DermViser]

I was straight passes on the med school farce, but real-world baller with roughly 15 pubs. Do you think med students have skewed views of what's really important ?

Was your school "true" P/F in the first 2 years? (I'm assuming you were straight Passes in MS-3). 15 pubs is definitely out of the norm for most med students to complete within 4 years while also doing med school requirements (and not being MD/PhD). Did you end up matching at your home program?

 

[shibby1111]

I'll be starting MS-1 this July and I'm feeling very anxious. This may sound trivial to you guys, but it really is something that has caused me a lot of stress recently and I'd appreciate some serious feedback and discussion. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this either. I want to know whether you guys ever felt this way and how you dealt with it.

I went to a medium-sized state school where I was always at the top or near the top of my class at just about everything. I don't think this was good for my psyche, because I think 'being the smart guy' is part of my identity now. My intelligence is the one thing that's set me apart and one of the only things that I've been able to rely on. The thought that I will be surrounded by students who are just as smart or smarter than me scares the crap out of me. I'm not a particularly resilient or hardworking person (in comparison to some of my other friends who will be starting MS-1 with me in the fall) and I don't know where I will stand on the totem pole in med school.

I really want to do well in medical school. I want to work harder than I have ever worked before. But the thought of not being able to keep up or failing despite my best effort scares the **** out of me.

Ha! Until you 3 weeks into MS1: You don't know what stress is. You don't know what anxiety is. You will no longer be the smart guy or the intelligent guy...there is a 50% chance you will be among the dumb half of your class. You will be behind in your studies before you even go to sleep the first night of med school. It becomes the norm, but its a culture shock. Just know everyone experiences it. You'll be fine; just like 95% of your classmates.

 

[rodmichael82]

My intelligence is the one thing that's set me apart and one of the only things that I've been able to rely on. The thought that I will be surrounded by students who are just as smart or smarter than me scares the crap out of me. I'm not a particularly resilient or hardworking person (in comparison to some of my other friends who will be starting MS-1 with me in the fall) and I don't know where I will stand on the totem pole in med school.

I really want to do well in medical school. I want to work harder than I have ever worked before. But the thought of not being able to keep up or failing despite my best effort scares the **** out of me.

Welcome to medical school.
You will meet kids that are 10x smarter than you but WHO CARES? You need to get out of the premed mentality of feeling good just because you're smarter than other kids in undergrad lol? You're going to have a serious wake up call in med school.

In the beginning a lot of students struggle to accept that they are average and that really takes a toll on their well being. The quicker you accept that you could possibly be an average medical student and that doesn't bother you, the more you will enjoy medical school.
As long as you work hard and put in the effort you will do well without a doubt.

Go out and have fun, party, live life even during M1 year because M1 year is pretty straight forward and chill. You have no worries about boards or anything all you have to do is pass your class exams. Rewinding a little bit though, right now you should be living life to the fullest because after M1 year you're going to find yourself short of a lot of time.
Keeping it real with you, I'm by no means a smart guy and I was stressed about medical school but I made it through first year and it really wasn't that bad at all. Depending on your school > 95 % of the kids usually pass the exams so chill out.

There are no sleepless nights and stuff like that lol that's a total exaggeration from neurotic medical students trying to gun for AOA. If you just want to pass, M1 year can have the same lifestyle as undergrad matter of fact I partied more during M1 year than undergrad.

M2 year is a slightly different story but even then it's not too bad. M2 has a crap ton more material and you have boards hovering over your head that's when you realize medical school can be stressful but by then you've been through > 1 year of medical school and it's just another day in "paradise".

My main advice to you is that if you're the type of student that doesn't study throughout the week and crams last minute then listen up, DON'T CRAM, study a little bit every day. There's too much info to cram in med school even though it's possible and people do it, it's high risk behavior and poor study habits. As long as you study a little bit every day you'll do well.

 

[EMDO2018]

To the OP:

Most likely you will no longer be at the top of your class. While college was a melting pot of individuals with different goals, medical school is a homogeneous group of people with a single goal who endured the application process with at least the minimal level of neuroticism required to check off the boxes and get accepted. You are no longer competing against people whose goals are to work for the federal government, to major in forestry, to work in their dad's law firm, to do the minimal amount of work to get a finance job somewhere, or to be a dancer in a professional stage production. Every single one of your classmates from this point forward is trying to be a doctor, and nearly all of them have the capacity to be in top quarter of the class if they put the effort in.

I can break medical school students up into 5 groups. One majority and four minorities.
1. There are a handful of people in medical school who have no concept of balance and will study every waking moment, go to every class, read every non-mandatory reading and will score in the top 5% of every medical school exam and USMLE. These people aren't necessarily gunners, they may want to do something like pediatrics, but they are extremely focused, not because they are neurotic, but just because that's who they are -- they don't get stressed out by school, they don't worry about whether they will match, they don't compare themselves to their peers, they don't have many other interests in life -- they just calmly and cooly kill every single exam.
2. There are another handful of people who are naturally brilliant and could remember what they had for dinner every night for the past 10 years, approximate the square root of 700 in less than a second, and can skim through Robbins and retain most of it. Again, these people aren't necessarily gunners. They are just gifted.
3. The majority of the people are smart, hardworking, and will have the same exact fears as you. They will not be at the top of their class, but they won't be at the bottom either. They will study hard and score average on their exams. They will match in every type of specialty from pathology and psychiatry to dermatology and plastic surgery. They will attempt to lead balanced lives. These are probably ~80% of med students. Whether a student ends up in the 10th percentile or the 90th percentile will largely correlate with the amount of study time he puts in, but in the end it will make little difference in his career.
4. Then there is another small group of people who are gunners. Gunners are not naturally brilliant. They do not neurotically study every waking moment. They do not score at the top on every single test. Gunners are the unfortunate group of people who are focused on winning public praise and entering only highly competitive specialties to "beat" everyone else. They attempt to gain unfair advantages by cheating, using medications, sucking up to attendings/professors, publicly trying to put down other students/competition, and getting their name out there as much as possible. They may or may not be successful. They were unbearable as premeds. They are unbearable as med students, and they will be unbearable as residents and attendings.
5. The last minority are those truly deficient academically. They consistently fail exams either due to a lack of motivation or interest or due to simply a lower IQ or educational background. Somehow they got through the admissions process, and there will be a couple of these in every class. Your worry is that you are one of these people, and you almost certainly are not given your insight to at least have the worry in the first place.

The point to all this is that you will most likely fall in the 25-75% grade distribution in your class and have your pick of whatever specialty you want. The fact that you are even worried about this in the first place is evidence that you are most likely in the majority and not in one of these four minorities of student types. Work hard while maintaining balance and try to be pleasant and you will be ok.

Dude you should be a psychiatrist. That really put my mind at ease.

 

[EMDO2018]

What's funny is the biggest gunner I knew as a premed, telling everybody she was gonna be a neurosurgeon, - is a nurse now.

 

[caffeinemia]

Was your school "true" P/F in the first 2 years? (I'm assuming you were straight Passes in MS-3). 15 pubs is definitely out of the norm for most med students to complete within 4 years while also doing med school requirements (and not being MD/PhD). Did you end up matching at your home program?

Pass through EVERYTHING. And did not match at home. I did match my number 1 in the number 1 match though. LOL.

 

[dyspareunia]

Man I hope so.. We've had so many situations in our TBL days where an MD would say something and people in our class would literally argue like five year old little girls and resort to pulling out obscure journal articles on their phone… FOR ONE LITTLE MEASLY POINT.

Meanwhile I'm sitting with my head on the desk…. ashamed for my class. It's awful, I really wish those professors would have just went off. We're at a well known center for liver transplants and you're going to argue with a faculty hepatologist about basic liver physiology. C'MON MAN. It's pathetic.

There's a girl like this in my class. She's a pharmacist and always argues about pharm questions. She says FA is wrong because that's not what her pharmacy does.

 

[deleted564496]

What's funny is the biggest gunner I knew as a premed, telling everybody she was gonna be a neurosurgeon, - is a nurse now.

There's a guy in my class who talks about all of his honors…. I'm 99.9% sure

There's a girl like this in my class. She's a pharmacist and always argues about pharm questions. She says FA is wrong because that's not what her pharmacy does.

So has the error been corrected in first aid?

😉

 

[rodmichael82]

What's funny is the biggest gunner I knew as a premed, telling everybody she was gonna be a neurosurgeon, - is a nurse now.

Cool story bro. Get a life even if it's part time.

 

[Psai]

There's a girl like this in my class. She's a pharmacist and always argues about pharm questions. She says FA is wrong because that's not what her pharmacy does.

...

 

[touchpause13]

I can't be worried about that ****. Life goes on. Kind of curious how a laid back guy like myself is going to do in school. I mean, I work hard, but I just don't give a damn about competition with my classmates. It just feels as if people that don't have any real meaning or purpose in their lives aside from their place in medical school get lost in it, almost obsessed. It's sad to think about just what kind of existence it must be, when the entirety of your self worth is fluctuating from test to test.

Medicine isn't the most important thing in the world. Happiness is. Don't hinge the latter on successes in the former, or you'll just be setting yourself up for misery.

I feel the exact same way. Although i can be a hothead here, I'm a very calm person IRL and I've always had a lot of interests outside of school.

I think it will be fine for both of us, sometimes though I have the problem of getting caught up in other people's crazy. As long as I can avoid that I'm golden.