Does it get better? Just finished week one of med school.

[sunshinefl]

The materials you learn don't get any better, but your time management skills ideally should. So in that sense it gets better.

There are physiological and mechanical limits to how fast I can learn and study. I don’t have superpowers.

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[shadowlightfox]

I don’t have superpowers.

Lol if/when you get out of med school and you look back and see what you went through, you'll like to think you did.

 

[sunshinefl]

Lol if/when you get out of med school and you look back and see what you went through, you'll like to think you did.

IF

 

[Chibucks15]

IF

If there's thousands of other people who made it through medical school at a 95%+ rate then you can do it too. Nobody said it would be easy but put your head down, wade through the nonsense, and get it done. It'll all work out in the end

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

There are physiological and mechanical limits to how fast I can learn and study. I don’t have superpowers.

When you have no choice but to climb, you climb. Anticipate bird poop at higher elevations.

 

[Ho0v-man]

There are physiological and mechanical limits to how fast I can learn and study. I don’t have superpowers.

Too bad you’re in med school. Having limits deserves shaming so git gud.

 

[Jinxapotato]

Can confirm.

From a life-tolerance level, residency is worse, especially PGY-1. I enjoy what I do, but basically having my life signed away for years sucks. I thought med school was rough on my home life... I was wrong.

Wellll crap....I better enjoy my 2 month between graduation and residency before waving life goodbye

 

[shadowlightfox]

At least med school is easier than Dark Souls. Just sayin'.

 

[hallowmann]

Wellll crap....I better enjoy my 2 month between graduation and residency before waving life goodbye

Yeah, enjoy all of 4th year actually.

 

[Ho0v-man]

At least med school is easier than Dark Souls. Just sayin'.

It’s kinda like xenosaga II or mother. Pretty friggin’ hard unless you love to grind.

 

[shadowlightfox]

It’s kinda like xenosaga II or mother. Pretty friggin’ hard unless you love to grind.

Add Monster Hunter Portable the 3rd to that list while you're at it!

 

[BorntobeDO?]

bahaha.

No it doesn't.

It's a bull**** lie that every school will tell you.

You think they want you to drop?

This isn't the caribbean.

That's a $300-$400,000 seat your ass is in.

Your school will tell you things do get better but they are just lying like they always do.

Let me put like it like this...

It's like a pimp and their working girls.

The girls do all the work, sleep with all the guys for money... and they pay the pimp... for what?

For protection, for access to clothes, security, food, shelter... etc.

Our schools are nothing but the pimps.

We are the ones getting hoe'd out.

We pay the schools for access to study spaces, STEP/ COMLEX permits and access to clinical rotation sites that are contracted from the school and eventually (and hopefully) a license to practice medicine.

But only until they have beaten every sense of compassion, sense of health and wellbeing you have left out of you.

Then it's the same in residency.

You just get used to it.

Ah the ambiance in this post! I found myself drawn in the mileau of pimps and hoes in which the DO school was the ham-fisted panderer, and I the student, nothing but a simple courtesan trying to turn tricks. Can't help but give a like for that experience.

 

[DrRedstone]

It doesn't really get better, but it does get more manageable as the year goes on. The LifeSize lectures are going to make it a bit painful for a while. Just keep chugging along, systems are more interesting than biochem. Less rote memorization and more functional pathways.

 

[QueenJames]

Ah the ambiance in this post! I found myself drawn in the mileau of pimps and hoes in which the DO school was the ham-fisted panderer, and I the student, nothing but a simple courtesan trying to turn tricks. Can't help but give a like for that experience.

LMAO

You are the man.

Was waiting for you to get back on here and reply to my posts.

 

[Eye-eye]

Hey guys.

So I just finished up my first week of medical school and the way our curriculum is set up, we are blowing through biochem in 3 weeks. We took our midterm this morning and I did decently well, but this last week has been relentless non-stop studying of a bunch of metabolic pathways which isn't particularly my favorite subject.

I just want it to get better. Right now, the days seem long and it's hard to study for significant periods of time. It doesn't help that the material isn't particularly interesting and the sheer volume was enough to make me lose several nights of sleep.

Does it get better? Does it become easier to study for days on end? Does the material become more interesting? Any advice or words of encouragement would be amazing.

Thanks all.

If you started with biochem, yes, it gets better. Biochem sucks. Well, at least if you are more clinically oriented and less research oriented, and assuming your primary clinical interest isn't rare genetic metabolic disorders. You'll find your groove for studying, but also know that in the subjects you love, studying even harder than you are now may feel like a lot less work. Good luck!

 

[Hippocrates II]

It doesn't really get better, but it does get more manageable as the year goes on. The LifeSize lectures are going to make it a bit painful for a while. Just keep chugging along, systems are more interesting than biochem. Less rote memorization and more functional pathways.

How did you balance core classes (like mcm) with all of the other **** going on simultaneously? I'm just barely surviving mcm while lectures from bioethocb, pcm, and os are piling up around me. I keep thinking about what is going to happen once we start getting tested on that stuff because I feel like I have no time for it.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

OP I'm one of your classmates and I think more people feel like this than you realize. For me personally, I haaaaate biochem so I'm just waiting for this week to be over; hopefully I'll have passed and I can move on. The adjustment has been rough, but like all those before us, I'm sure we'll figure it out.

Also, things have gotten better for me since I stopped going to class. I tried to push myself to go before the first exam since they kept giving us crap about "not wanting a doctor who doesn't go to class". I had a really rough time working through the material on top of going to lecture because I would sit in lecture and have no idea what was going on. I didn't do as well as I would have liked on the first exam so I decided to switch gears and focus on what I want to do rather than let them guilt trip me. Now, I watch them on 1.6-2x speed and have time leftover to process them and make sure I understand them. If you're having trouble making time, this could be something to consider.

 

[spancs]

It’ll get better tomorrow at around noon... I hope! You’re not the only one feeling this way OP, we’re all looking forward to having biochem over!

 

[DrRedstone]

It’ll get better tomorrow at around noon... I hope! You’re not the only one feeling this way OP, we’re all looking forward to having biochem over!

*Around that moment, they heard a faint whistle in the distance. At the time, they thought nothing of it. Looking back, however, the signs were obvious. They were about to be broadsided by the anatomy lab train.*

 

[rg2o3]

*Around that moment, they heard a faint whistle in the distance. At the time, they thought nothing of it. Looking back, however, the signs were obvious. They were about to be broadsided by the anatomy lab train.*

Haha. I’m over here in anatomy right now saying I can’t wait for biochem! Lol.

 

[shadowlightfox]

Don't know why you hatin on anatomy lab. That's prolly one of the best things about preclinical years.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

*Around that moment, they heard a faint whistle in the distance. At the time, they thought nothing of it. Looking back, however, the signs were obvious. They were about to be broadsided by the anatomy lab train.*

I hated anatomy lab, I will admit that I picked my school partially on them only having one semester of it. Cleaning fat so I can tested on some super cirrotic drug users invisible 'normal anatomy.' I can still remember cleaning the pudendal nerve. Just straight hazing, that's all anatomy lab is. Practical use =zero for anyone not interested in path. And even then, its probably a lot different when you don't have 9 months of formaldehyde first.

 

[jcve34]

No it doesn’t. That being said, don’t let them break you. Keep pushing.

 

[Stagg737]

Here's how it will go at KCU (from a KCU grad):

Biochem and Immuno will be a mad scramble where you're panicking to figure out if you can stay afloat. Then that will end and things will either get much better or much worse in MSK depending on whether you like anatomy lab or not. Then by the 4th block things will start getting much better for a while. By the end of M1 you'll feel pretty decent and be in your groove.

Then second year will hit you like a ton of bricks when lectures disappear and Big Robbins becomes your bible. A few people thrived with the change, most of us did not and second year was absolute death for me. You slowly start acclimating to the special hell that is M2, then spring hits and you have to start focusing on boards. Imo spring of 2nd year was the worst by far.

M3 will depend on whether you enjoy clinic or not. I found it to be infinitely better than first two years. Even the weeks where I was putting in 18 hour days didn't feel as hard as because I was actually doing something other than sitting on my butt reading Robbins and doing Anki for hours on end hoping it would be enough to not be screwed. Summer/fall of M4 will be stressful because of interviews and applications, but I really enjoyed the process. You get to travel and see what residency programs are like and see the differences in all the schools Pretty cool imo.

Spring of M4 is glorious. You will be confused and possibly lost with all the free time you will have. I realized that there was a whole world outside of hospitals and Netflix that existed and I actually got to do fun stuff every once in a while. Especially after you match as your attendings will know you're pretty much checked out.

Can confirm.

From a life-tolerance level, residency is worse, especially PGY-1. I enjoy what I do, but basically having my life signed away for years sucks. I thought med school was rough on my home life... I was wrong.

Yep, can concur. It's not even the difference in workload that makes it that way either, it's the fact that you're actually responsible for other people now. In med school if you screw up or feel like taking a day off you're just screwing yourself over. If you do that in residency or even just perform poorly, you're screwing your team over and potentially harming your patients. Plus you're actually working a job now and have responsibilities to your employers to maintain. Imo residency hasn't been that much more work timewise (although the amount of paper work is exponentially worse), it's the responsibility that weighs more heavily on you imo.

 

[pseud0]

The beginning of first year was brutal for me too.

We're doing cardio now in M2 and THIS is why I wanted to go to medical school.

 

[getfat]

We're doing cardio now in M2 and THIS is why I wanted to go to medical school.

Going through a cardio block right now.
I feel like most of my classmates feel like this too. Professor will go over cardiovascular physiology topics and I kid you not you see this "oh ****, thats how it works?" kind of moment of enlightenment happens.

 

[shadowlightfox]

Going through a cardio block right now.
I feel like most of my classmates feel like this too. Professor will go over cardiovascular physiology topics and I kid you not you see this "oh ****, thats how it works?" kind of moment of enlightenment happens.

Might be just me, but you're not gonna have much of those moments from 3rd year onwards, since 3rd year is not about learning physio and path anymore. It's just learning "what's the best next step?" or what's the likely diagnosis.

 

[Hippocrates II]

I truly hope it gets better, but after looking at our upcoming schedule I can't really see the light. They pile too much **** onto our schedules. There is literally one day where one lab group has stuff going on until 7 pm. That is just not sustainable. And then they wonder why people become depressed and suicidal in medical school... Perhaps the first step is looking at fixing a schedule that has people on campus for 12 hours in a day, only to go home and study until 11 catching up on review.

 

[Chibucks15]

I truly hope it gets better, but after looking at our upcoming schedule I can't really see the light. They pile too much **** onto our schedules. There is literally one day where one lab group has stuff going on until 7 pm. That is just not sustainable. And then they wonder why people become depressed and suicidal in medical school... Perhaps the first step is looking at fixing a schedule that has people on campus for 12 hours in a day, only to go home and study until 11 catching up on review.

Nobody said it'd be easy, or even comfortable. The rate of medical knowledge is doubling at some absurd rate now and only speeding up. There's a lot to know and only a finite time to stick it in, unless you want to have med school last even longer. The only thing I can see is maybe revamping the teaching style since we will have every reference number in our phones but thats a long long way off. For now, people get through it and you can too. Stay positive and keep pushing

 

[Hippocrates II]

Nobody said it'd be easy, or even comfortable. The rate of medical knowledge is doubling at some absurd rate now and only speeding up. There's a lot to know and only a finite time to stick it in, unless you want to have med school last even longer. The only thing I can see is maybe revamping the teaching style since we will have every reference number in our phones but thats a long long way off. For now, people get through it and you can too. Stay positive and keep pushing

I agree that there is an ever-growing amount of information to absorb, but that only makes me more angry that our time is carelessly wasted. I don't understand where 8 am mandatory lectures on utilizing the library, tests regarding the birthday of ATS, or mandatory group discussions where the morality of physician income is called into question fit into the necessary education of a physician.

I digress because I realize this is all bull**** others have had to put up before me, but it doesn't mean we should ignore the frivolousness of it all. I'm paying 50k a year to learn medicine, not have some psychologist lecture me on the competing theories of morality.

 

[Chibucks15]

I agree that there is an ever-growing amount of information to absorb, but that only makes me more angry that our time is carelessly wasted. I don't understand where 8 am mandatory lectures on utilizing the library, tests regarding the birthday of ATS, or mandatory group discussions where the morality of physician income is called into question fit into the necessary education of a physician.

I digress because I realize this is all bull**** others have had to put up before me, but it doesn't mean we should ignore the frivolousness of it all. I'm paying 50k a year to learn medicine, not have some psychologist lecture me on the competing theories of morality.

oh I completely agree it needs to be revamped. When we have all of the worlds knowledge at our fingertips, there should be more of a focus of learning how to contextualize it, not memorize reference values of the components of a CBC

 

[rg2o3]

I agree that there is an ever-growing amount of information to absorb, but that only makes me more angry that our time is carelessly wasted. I don't understand where 8 am mandatory lectures on utilizing the library, tests regarding the birthday of ATS, or mandatory group discussions where the morality of physician income is called into question fit into the necessary education of a physician.

I digress because I realize this is all bull**** others have had to put up before me, but it doesn't mean we should ignore the frivolousness of it all. I'm paying 50k a year to learn medicine, not have some psychologist lecture me on the competing theories of morality.

Just had one of these while drowning in relevant classes. We’re all right there with you, haha. But I agree with you.

 

[holdthemayo]

The first few weeks were the worst. It does get better.

I was seriously considering dropping out about a month into first year. Then I made some friends and realised they were all feeling the same way. Your experiences are normal! I really wish I knew that first year.

It gets better. Stick with it. Make some friends. I can't promise that you will study any less, but I can promise that it gets easier.

 

[Yhorm the Giant]

At least med school is easier than Dark Souls. Just sayin'.

Fact

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

agree that there is an ever-growing amount of information to absorb, but that only makes me more angry that our time is carelessly wasted. I don't understand where 8 am mandatory lectures on utilizing the library, tests regarding the birthday of ATS, or mandatory group discussions where the morality of physician income is called into question fit into the necessary education of a physician.

We had a two hour lecture the other day on “alternative medicine” and how we need to hold these treatments for consideration when we make treatment plans..... It was absolutely insane. I wanted a refund of whatever chunk of my tuition dollars paid for it lol

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Biochem and Immuno will be a mad scramble where you're panicking to figure out if you can stay afloat. Then that will end and things will either get much better or much worse in MSK depending on whether you like anatomy lab or not

They actually changed things so now it's Biochem --> MSK --> Immuno. Not sure if this is better because it breaks things up lol

We did get an email from the immuno professor 6 weeks in advance to class starting that we should get ready for the hardest course of our lives (literally those were the words used) soooo

 

[Stagg737]

They actually changed things so now it's Biochem --> MSK --> Immuno. Not sure if this is better because it breaks things up lol

We did get an email from the immuno professor 6 weeks in advance to class starting that we should get ready for the hardest course of our lives (literally those were the words used) soooo

Shnyra will destroy you all both in the classroom and in his CORE classes. I love the guy to death, but seriously: enjoy MSK because trying to learn immuno in greater depth than most other med students from a guy with a heavy Russian accent may have been worse than dedicated period for Step/Level 1...

 

[DrRedstone]

Shnyra will destroy you all both in the classroom and in his CORE classes. I love the guy to death, but seriously: enjoy MSK because trying to learn immuno in greater depth than most other med students from a guy with a heavy Russian accent may have been worse than dedicated period for Step/Level 1...

Luckily they can just watch the Joplin lectures if they so desire.

 

[sab3156]

Hey guys.

So I just finished up my first week of medical school and the way our curriculum is set up, we are blowing through biochem in 3 weeks. We took our midterm this morning and I did decently well, but this last week has been relentless non-stop studying of a bunch of metabolic pathways which isn't particularly my favorite subject.

I just want it to get better. Right now, the days seem long and it's hard to study for significant periods of time. It doesn't help that the material isn't particularly interesting and the sheer volume was enough to make me lose several nights of sleep.

Does it get better? Does it become easier to study for days on end? Does the material become more interesting? Any advice or words of encouragement would be amazing.

Thanks all.

You at KCU? Just wait. You are will soon lose faith in life and ask yourself how you did so poorly in college to end up here. Appreciate what you have right now (Zaidi and Shnyra are outstanding professors). It will get worse very quickly, and it is best to accept this now and be prepared mentally.

 

[DrRedstone]

You at KCU? Just wait. You are will soon lose faith in life and ask yourself how you did so poorly in college to end up here. Appreciate what you have right now (Zaidi and Shnyra are outstanding professors). It will get worse very quickly, and it is best to accept this now and be prepared mentally.

Is there no limit to your doom and gloom?

 

[QueenJames]

You at KCU? Just wait. You are will soon lose faith in life and ask yourself how you did so poorly in college to end up here. Appreciate what you have right now (Zaidi and Shnyra are outstanding professors). It will get worse very quickly, and it is best to accept this now and be prepared mentally.

This is the same story with ATSU.

God I wish I could go back to undergrad and decide to pursue medicine wayyy earlier than I did.

I do not envy the 1st and 2nd years though lol

Those years suck the most!

 

[sab3156]

Is there no limit to your doom and gloom?

No need to be in denial. Did you have fun learning the details of one dozen or more diseases for Neuro that are never going to be tested on Step 1, while skimping out on tested pathology? I didn't.

This is the same story with ATSU.

God I wish I could go back to undergrad and decide to pursue medicine wayyy earlier than I did.

Same. Despite a 98%ile MCAT, my GPA was a 2.7. There was no coming back from that GPA.

 

[Goro]

No need to be in denial. Did you have fun learning the details of one dozen or more diseases for Neuro that are never going to be tested on Step 1, while skimping out on tested pathology? I didn't.

Same. Despite a 98%ile MCAT, my GPA was a 2.7. There was no coming back from that GPA.

And you know they're not going to be on Step I how? Because they're not in FA????

I hope that you're sitting down for this, because what I have to tell you will shake your entire worldview:

Your medical education doesn't end after Step I.

 

[sab3156]

And you know they're not going to be on Step I how? Because they're not in FA????

I hope that you're sitting down for this, because what I have to tell you will shake your entire worldview:

Your medical education doesn't end after Step I.

Nope. Because they are not in First Aid, Firecracker, Kaplan qbank, UWorld, and barely any info on pubmed on some of them, as well.

What you just said is a huge cop-out. Honestly, I would have no problem if we are taught stuff that is never tested on Step 1. However, as you can see if you read my post, the problem I brought up has more to do with the fact that we skip a lot of important, frequently tested material. It is a large amount. It seems only the people who are keeping up with board prep are actually aware of this problem.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

SDN is a great forum for med students to vent. I suppose I vented too in med school. No doubt years 1 and 2 are very stressful and just plain stink from a lifestyle standpoint. Just a little jolt of reality, ....who went through pre med requirements, and applied to med school NOT knowing it was going to be miserable? Only elite students(and there are many btw), breeze through the 1st 2 years? My wife was one, and there were classmates several orders of magnitude above her levels. But the majority of us had to slog through it. Remember, everybody scraped and fought to get into med school to be part of this misery. It's hard, but try to remember why you are there and try to channel that ubiquitous frustration into positive learning strategies. The good news is that the brain can improve its ability to process informations as you continue to work hard.
Also, wasting students time and only wanting to know what is on the boards seems to be a common thread. If you want to be my physician, you better be excellent! If excellence isn't your goal,.....well you can be the doctor I send my Mother on Law to. Work hard, it covers up many deficiencies. If you aren't getting what you want, your not working hard or smart enough. Good luck and best wishes

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

We had a two hour lecture the other day on “alternative medicine” and how we need to hold these treatments for consideration when we make treatment plans..... It was absolutely insane. I wanted a refund of whatever chunk of my tuition dollars paid for it lol

This semester we are slated to have an ND come and talk to us about the finer points of an “integrated practice.” Sure. I’m here thinking “y’all just keep on throwing everything your heart desires, along with the kitchen sink, at your patients to see what sticks while I use actual science to be precise.”

 

[TheRealCookieMonster]

Despite a 98%ile MCAT, my GPA was a 2.7. There was no coming back from that GPA.

I guess that depends on how you identify.