do you have to write alot of papers in med school?

[super302]

just like title says

thanks

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[RxnMan]

just like title says

thanks

Eh. Kinda. We have an ethics class where you have to write responses, but those are 1-2 paragraphs generally. Some get longer to a page. Some of our evidence-based-medicine classwork requires a quick digest of a pertinent article. If you want to do research, then you can do research papers, but that's voluntary.

 

[8744]

just like title says

thanks

Not one.

 

[Hurricane95]

As part of regular coursework, no.

If you do independent research, possibly. But that one is your choice.

 

[FenderHM]

not really unless u do a MPH too or something

 

[NonTradMed]

I had to write papers everyweek for one of those nonscience timewaster classes that all med schools have for their students. But this is unique to my school only. The papers we had to turn in is usually a page and takes me about half an hour to an hour (if I am procrastinating with other stuff) to write. It's a pain in the butt but not a huge consumer of time.

 

[deleted109597]

I love how little people know about medical school while actually thinking they know a lot.
You know, things like "you have to get straight A's in grade school";"all medical students are rich";"you have to write a thesis to graduate".

Seriously, all it takes is doing a google search. Or asking Panda.

 

[bigdan]

At Stony Brook you write a buttload of papers. Three in Biochem, three in Neuro, MANY MANY MANY in the "touchy-feely, say-the-right-thing-not-what-you-think-class".

dc

 

[super302]

thanks for the responses

 

[Tired]

just like title says

thanks

Only H&Ps on patients. Otherwise, not one.

I did have a lot of "short answer" (1-3 paragraphs) exams in my first two years.

 

[Bitsy3221]

I envy those of you who had none.

We had to write a fair amount. Far too many ~1 page reaction papers, but we also had some clinical papers that took a ton of time. The other thing we had to do a lot of was presentations. We were all very, very well versed in Powerpoint and public speaking by the end of third year.

Honestly, I was surprised how many papers/presentations/general busy work we had to do.

 

[Tired]

The other thing we had to do a lot of was presentations. We were all very, very well versed in Powerpoint and public speaking by the end of third year.

I would imagine this was probably a very useful skill to learn, and after giving about 6 such presentation at prospective programs during my 4th year, I wish we had more of this earlier in med school.

I don't know about you, but I watched students both make and break their chances at getting a Residency based on the quality of their presentations on away rotations.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

If you're lucky and work hard you may get to write some research papers.

 

[Bitsy3221]

I would imagine this was probably a very useful skill to learn, and after giving about 6 such presentation at prospective programs during my 4th year, I wish we had more of this earlier in med school.

I don't know about you, but I watched students both make and break their chances at getting a Residency based on the quality of their presentations on away rotations.

I do think this was a good skill to learn. It is amazing how much better our presentations got over the four years--much more concise and visually much better (I can now import an angio into a PPT!) Plus I have a whole file of presentations I can pull out at a moments' notice if I ever get caught having to give a med student lecture (or anything) When I started the clinical years I did not think twice when someone suggested I present at a resident conference, and like you said it only helps make you look good. I also think it will be super beneficial the first time I have to give M&M. I would encourage anyone to give as many presentations as possible while they are still a junior medical student and it is OK (almost expected) to look stupid

To be honest, I think writing (some of) the papers served a role too, although I HATED them at the time.

 

[Law2Doc]

I would imagine this was probably a very useful skill to learn, and after giving about 6 such presentation at prospective programs during my 4th year, I wish we had more of this earlier in med school.

I don't know about you, but I watched students both make and break their chances at getting a Residency based on the quality of their presentations on away rotations.

Agree. While med schools have fairly negligible numbers of papers compared to, say, law, this is a career that for many will involve papers, presentations, publications, lectures, speeches and the like. Having to get your feet wet on this kind of stuff in med school is not such a bad thing.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

Agree. While med schools have fairly negligible numbers of papers compared to, say, law, this is a career that for many will involve papers, presentations, publications, lectures, speeches and the like. Having to get your feet wet on this kind of stuff in med school is not such a bad thing.

Maybe my law school was weird, but I wrote I think maybe 6 papers (3 in an internship that wasn't required) for the whole duration of law school. Admittedly, one was huge, but the others were really short and graded on a pass/fail basis. I wrote a ton more papers in ugrad. In something like 98% of my classes, 100% of your grade was determined by that one final exam (okay, yeah, it was an essay exam).

So far, I've written one paper in med school and have to write two more for my clinical medicine class. These papers are history writeups and are really straightforward and easy to write.

 

[stoic]

at my school we end up writing a couple semester. nothing long or too in-depth... just another hoop.

 

[Law2Doc]

Maybe my law school was weird, but I wrote I think maybe 6 papers (3 in an internship that wasn't required) for the whole duration of law school. Admittedly, one was huge, but the others were really short and graded on a pass/fail basis. I wrote a ton more papers in ugrad. In something like 98% of my classes, 100% of your grade was determined by that one final exam (okay, yeah, it was an essay exam).

So far, I've written one paper in med school and have to write two more for my clinical medicine class. These papers are history writeups and are really straightforward and easy to write.

I wrote a ton of things in law school, research papers, model briefs/pleadings -- even got a few of the more substantive papers published (didn't like the idea of wasting the effort on just a grade). And all the tests were essay tests anyhow, so the number of blue-books I filled alone would far eclipse anything I foresee writing in med school. But yeah, I did the whole college term paper course thing too. Sure beat studying for tests.