do you get smarter in med school?...

[Tired]

My first two years, I skipped most my classes and spent my time reading the assigned material. Plenty of time for the beach and beer.

The two months before Step 1 were almost constant 10+ hour study days. No beach, beer was only at night.

Third year sucked, but all my reading was done in the hospital while I was on call. Way less beach, almost no beer.

Fourth year (halfway through) I worked hard during my away rotations, but way less than I did third year. Everything else I just kind of sleep through. Constant beach, constant beer.

It's really not nearly as bad as everyone thinks. We tend to remember the really busy times, and forget the down time.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[paean]

Few (if any) of us go to medical school for the thrill of trying to memorize all the tiny details that we are introduced to in the first 2 years of medical school. I thought MS1 and MS2 was like the worst part of undergrad, except that I was somewhat more interested in the material than I was in general chemistry. But even in a very clinically oriented, block system based pre-clinical curriculum, I hated the amount of small details I had to learn without understanding the big picture. For many blocks, I did *just* well enough to pass, not a lick more.

Let me just say that the clinical years are totally different. As a comparative slacker my first 2 years, I suddenly had the incentive to study all the details I thought might not be applicable during clinical practice (because an awful lot of them turned out to be more important that I had thought). But it doesn't feel like cramming, it feels like getting to read the solution to the problem that was plaguing you every day. And with the clinical context in mind, it often only takes reading or hear about something once for it to stick. While I certainly got a lot less sleep, and had less time for anything outside of medical school, I have loved third year more than any other year of school (maybe with the exception of pre-school) in my life. Going to medical school is a rude shock for almost all of us in one way or another, but keep in mind that the frustrating part is front loaded.

For anyone still in the first half of medical school, I hope that reading this lets you remember for a moment that better times are coming. For the OP, I doubt that I'm smarter, but I sure can tell you a lot more about medicine than before, and I doubt I'm any dumber that I was before.

And unlike some of the above other posters, I feel that my social skill have improved im medical school. I was somewhat of a know-it-all before, and having to work in teams 10-16 hours a day, 6 days a week (plus overnight call) has taught me a lot about better ways of interacting with other humans (or at least, residents and attendings)

 

[MystikBliss]

i don´t know what you guys are complaining about but MS0 is easy.

Okay...for all the NORMAL med students out there...I don't think med school and easy belong in the same sentence

 

[Ross434]

Yes, here, here! I was just thinking about the same thing...I did a year and a half of law school (intending to practice medical law; that was my pathetic attempt to avoid eight years of school and somehow get the same result...) and I thought, "I'm just trying to adjust not being allowed to explain why I picked an answer as the answer. Having to pick one, knowing it might be wrong, without the opportunity to justify my selection is driving me crazy." It initially drove my med school/first year's staff nearly crazy as well, because I would stay after class or take up their office hours trying to explain why my wrong answer would be the right answer if they only looked at it from the perspective I was when I chose said answer. I quickly learned the difference between intelligence and attempted manipulation and was taught(reminded) swiftly that I was in med school, not undergrad, not law school, and no one cared, nor even owed me someone caring, about why I thought what I thought. If I got it right, I got credit. Got it wrong, points deducted. I was not, still am not, important--no, educated and experienced--enough to be allowed the luxury of an opinion, especially one that might change a medical answer or fact--practiced doctors/surgeons/teachers were allowed that privilege, as I would/will be too years down the road after I have proven myself deserving of it. However, I sure tried!!

My question to who originally started this thread: have you been accepted to med school yet or are you still applying? If you are wrapping up your last semester of undergrad and are presently accepted for next year's incoming med school class, then I hesitate to remark on your study habits because your method--which initially makes me want to suggest an alternative to the: for the most part procrastinating, studying up to an exploding point, taking the exam, crashing, and burning only to work up to it again within a few months and/or weeks (whichever the case may be)--has gotten you this far and it takes someone very good, at whatever method they are using, to obtain the grades that got them into med school, and I would hesitate in recommending a change in that case. If you are already in, decide this question's solution for yourself based on what you experience upon actually entering med school. If, however, you have not yet been informed of an acceptance, and you're not sure yet whether your cram, cram, crash method has worked effectively enough to provide your furthering of your goals (in this case, obviously,med school), I would say to you that if this (method of studying/"learning") is causing you a struggle in undergrad, then it will most definitely inhibit your academics in med school.

No, in my opinion (and I emphasize it is only that), one does not get "smarter," per se, in med school, but you do learn (hopefully) a great deal more than in undergrad. That is, you are exposed to and given a great deal more information to process, and it is not possible to both receive (i.e., read, or be lectured on) that information and to then process and thoroughly understand it, by putting it off and then trying to get it all "just in time" for an exam. For example, you wouldn't want (and such would never be allowed) your surgeon approaching your table, all set to begin, after simply three or four all-nighters of studying the steps to your impending surgery.

Now, if you are able to receive and process any given amount of information the way you currently do, then this clearly works for you--but if it worked for you (without causing your stated worry about med school and your undergrad stress and exhaustion), you wouldn't have worried online to this forum about using said method in your upcoming med school career. If medical school/becoming a doctor is sincerely what you want, then you should prepare to, each day, thoroughly digest and learn the information you have been given to learn that day. If cramming at the last minute was even slightly difficult for you in undergrad, it will be impossible in med school. And even if you could accomplish the good grades by cramming and pulling up weeks/months of information all at one time in the exam time span of merely a few hours, you would need to ask yourself whether you actually learned the material or simply worked out a way to recite it once, on demand. If the way you prepared for given exam does not leave you capable of recovering the information mentally later, then you have lost information a future patient will have needed; you have also lost information you, as an aspiring doctor, will have needed to even pass the boards. This method, if it only works in the short term for you, is not the method for you. It will ultimately fail your patients; more despairingly, it will cause you to ultimately fail you. As I previously stated, unless you truly learn the material your described way and learn it in a way that doesn't exhaust, stress or overwhelm you, then: learn it the way most of us do and face that that will take hours a day of studying, and a true sacrifice, of many years, to your future trade. If it is truly what you want completely, then the sacrifice will ultimately be more than worth it. I'm not even a doctor yet and I can promise you that.

On a positive note, though, remember it is not, even nearly, an impossible feat to become a doctor. It is a feat not all human beings can accomplish, but graduating from college is also a feat not all human beings can accomplish. Graduating from high school is a feat not all human beings can accomplish. Yes, becoming a doctor is harder than several things all people face in life (as for obvious reasons it most certainly should be) but it is also something that the people who will make exceptional doctors will ultimately be able to do. Thousands of your peers are doing it every year. If you did not seriously believe you have the fortitude, intelligence, and general wherewithall to become a doctor, you would not (most likely--I say that only because occasionally, and probably is not your case, there is the deluded eagle trying to be a ballerina instead of an aviator ) be seriously considering--no, planning--on attempting to be one (applying to med school). So, a lot of your performance in med school is based on how well you determine to make the curriculum something you "conquer." You will determine, in time to do well, the best way for you to succeed in your classes. All successful med students (eventual doctors) do. Do you think, when you picture yourself 8-10 years down the road, of yourself as being a doctor? Yes? Good. Then somehow you, that doctor, overcame the challenges of med school. If you are picturing yourself as that doctor, then you know you will successfully adapt to and complete, and even one day look back on--all that is required at med school.

Don't let it (med school and that which it entails) build to something in your mind so great that it causes you fear. Concern, caution...those are positive...but there is no need to fear the very path that will take you to what you most earnestly desire to be. Embrace something that promises, without fail, to bring you what you most want your life to have. It embraces you back (eventually ).

Best wishes in the world.

E.A.

Great Post!!!

 

[mjl1717]

med school has undoubtly made me dumber at everything except med school.

There is a lot of truth to this.

 

[snz12x]

get "smarter"? well, you walk out with much more knowledge & annoyance at others when you see them doing things that would harm their bodies. but do we get smarter? I think I got dumber. I feel that my logical analysis abilities decreased; although my ability to study & to extract information for fast memorization is now enhanced. But all that memorization of dead facts only makes me dumber & think less. Less creative thought processes are required - your answer is always only right if THEY tell you it's right, otherwise it's wrong even if you had a good reason (even when based on the facts that they presented you with). For me, I feel like it's a very one-sided use of your brain & it makes you think less.