Doing well in med school

[nrddct]

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Is this possible for the common Joe like myself? what strategies do you guys follow?

 

[Rendar5]

GPAs in med school? huh? Do they still even exist? Or are they now as archaic as the telegraph? 😕

 

[nrddct]

Is this possible for the common Joe like myself? what strategies do you guys follow?

I guess I am asking about doing well in general then. Sorry, I'll change the title.

 

[Rendar5]

Well, then sure, it's possible to do well in med school. A lot of people do it. The intellectual level of the material really is not that high as compared to advanced science courses u'd see in college. The hard part is more the time commitment and breadth of material u need to learn. If u mean more like getting the top of the class or all honors, that's not usually an avg joe. It's usually gonna be some sorta gunner (if it's not, then that's just awesome). But that doesn't really come into play at a lot of schools anymore, since there's a huge shift towards P/F or H/P/F systems. ThFrom what I know, some schools isn't that bad to honors, if they offer it, some it's insanely hard. I've only had P/F so far and we don't have any honors until 3rd and 4th year.

 

[tupac_don]

I guess I am asking about doing well in general then. Sorry, I'll change the title.

Doing well in medical school, more or less boils down to being:

1) Consistent--ie. study every day 4-5 hours
2) Persistent--ie. adnauseum go over and perfect perfect perfect material
3) Ability to memorize, large amounts of material and encode it well.

Basically they throw a whole gamut of stuff at you and then they ask very thoroughly say 1-2 questions per say 10 page lecture. So you really need to know your stuff. Now this is not impossible, by any means. But like I said it takes a lot of tedious work of going through the material to really know it inside and out. Now what I am talking about is getting honors or being in the top 5% of the class. You wouldn't need this much work if you want to do just above average or even honor some classes but not all.

I think if you are intelligent, you should be able to do real well, probably top 1/4 of the class with reasonable amount of work. Being top in the class or top 5% will take more extensive efforts.

 

[Agent Splat]

Doing well is also about maintaining your happiness. Don't sacrifice your health, sanity, and life for a few extra points.

So, yeah, do your best to "do well," but it's also important to make sure that YOU are well.

 

[TruTrooper]

I agree with Splat. Doing well for me is keeping my sanity, at least passing classes/clerkships, and having some sort of social life

Sometimes it could be so hard to honor classes that you may wonder if it is worth all of the trouble. If you want a really competitive residency, then maybe it is worth it to you and you may want to allocate a little sanity and social skills to be burned into long and frequent study sessions.

 

[goodies]

what goes on our "medical school transcript"? just classes that you pass, fail, and honor? does it show the actual percentages we received in each class? and our ranking?

 

[TruTrooper]

what goes on our "medical school transcript"? just classes that you pass, fail, and honor? does it show the actual percentages we received in each class? and our ranking?

Mine just showed pass/fail/honor grades. The Dean's Letter shows my class ranking class as a percentile, overall performance score as a whole compared to my classmates, and what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.

 

[redgrover]

Number One mistake I see students in my class making: getting behind on sleep.

Seriously, you can never catch up if you're moving at half speed and sleeping through lecture. If you're passing out in lecture, honestly, go home and sleep. You should never reach that point. If you're bobbing, maybe grab some coffee, fight through the day, and get a good nights sleep.

I see so many in my class wasting their time in lectures. Just not a good thing.

 

[bigdan]

Doing well in medical school, more or less boils down to being:

1) Consistent--ie. study every day 4-5 hours
2) Persistent--ie. adnauseum go over and perfect perfect perfect material
3) Ability to memorize, large amounts of material and encode it well.

I am in strong agreement with this post.

There is so much to learn that it's more of an exercise in how long and strong you can go, not who's "smartest".

And those folks you see in lab, that you didn't even know were enrolled at your school - those are the folks honoring...'cause they are ALWAYS studying...or strung out and on the verge of disaster...

dc

 

[Ypo.]

I spend about 3-4 hours in lecture mon-thurs and another 5-10 hours in lab. Then I really study seriously on the weekends. I don't take a day off, like some people do. I find it hard to study during the week, mostly I am just able to pre-lab (prepare for the next day lab), however, its best to at least look over the notes from that days lectures because otherwise you are cramming. But so far I am doing very well. Consistency is very true, like I said I never take a day off. But pacing yourself is important as well. You can only force yourself to learn so much at one time. This is another reason why time management is so important. You have to push yourself to do extra when you don't feel like it so that you don't have to push yourself to learn more when you really aren't capable of it (like 2 am the night before an exam!).

Dedication and hard work=success in medical school.

 

[nrddct]

Thanks for the replys. I proved to myself that I have the stamina to study consistently. I went at it for about 8 hours everyday while completing my postbacc program. However, I was studying mostly graduate level classes and I would find out half the time, that I was studying material that wasn't even tested over. Then I figured out the trick is to know the professor, and obtain previous tests so I could get an idea what I really needed to study.

Is med school like this or do you truely need to know everything?

 

[tupac_don]

Thanks for the replys. I proved to myself that I have the stamina to study consistently. I went at it for about 8 hours everyday while completing my postbacc program. However, I was studying mostly graduate level classes and I would find out half the time, that I was studying material that wasn't even tested over. Then I figured out the trick is to know the professor, and obtain previous tests so I could get an idea what I really needed to study.

Is med school like this or do you truely need to know everything?

No you hit it on the NOSE my friend. That's exactly what it is. Yes there is a ton of info. But if you go to lectures, know the professor, and stick to the notes they give you and don't get too bogged down in other sources, you should do well. You don't truly need to know everything. But you still need to know most of it and plus they throw 400 pages your way say for 1 exam. I would say you need to have a very good idea of everything though. But you truly need to burn certain things in your brain. But you still have to study everything if you want top grades (I mean top 10% of class), you can't just skip a topic. B/c 2-3 questions always sneak through, that are more difficult than usual. I think that is the best way to do it. Look at old tests, and kinda get a general idea what seems to be tested. But for top grades, you still have to study everything. The strategy you mentioned is great, you should do that right in the beginning of studying for the test, to hit the most important stuff. This will put you in good shape, for scoring at least avg, probably above average. But for top grades, you gotta turn on the jets. People who get 100% or close to it on all exams, read everything. And there is no need to keep going like that the whole time, just squeeze yourself maximally last week before the exam, so long as you study consistently prior to that.

With aformentioned strategy, it is possible to do real well, and you should still have time to hang out and have somewhat of a social life.

From what you are telling me, you should be A ok, I wouldn't worry if I were you. Just keep it up, and work hard and smart. Best of luck.

 

[PoorMD]

No you hit it on the NOSE my friend. That's exactly what it is. Yes there is a ton of info. But if you go to lectures, know the professor, and stick to the notes they give you and don't get too bogged down in other sources, you should do well. You don't truly need to know everything. But you still need to know most of it and plus they throw 400 pages your way say for 1 exam. I would say you need to have a very good idea of everything though. But you truly need to burn certain things in your brain. But you still have to study everything if you want top grades (I mean top 10% of class), you can't just skip a topic. B/c 2-3 questions always sneak through, that are more difficult than usual. I think that is the best way to do it. Look at old tests, and kinda get a general idea what seems to be tested. But for top grades, you still have to study everything. The strategy you mentioned is great, you should do that right in the beginning of studying for the test, to hit the most important stuff. This will put you in good shape, for scoring at least avg, probably above average. But for top grades, you gotta turn on the jets. People who get 100% or close to it on all exams, read everything. And there is no need to keep going like that the whole time, just squeeze yourself maximally last week before the exam, so long as you study consistently prior to that.

With aformentioned strategy, it is possible to do real well, and you should still have time to hang out and have somewhat of a social life.

From what you are telling me, you should be A ok, I wouldn't worry if I were you. Just keep it up, and work hard and smart. Best of luck.

Obviously Tupac is gunning for the top. Some of us are simply aiming for Top 50% of the class. Personally I am planning a research project in surg and possibly some Honors rotations (surg, IM?), I think these things coupled with 210+ Step 1 should get into a general surgery residency..

But please. At my school, we have blocks every 3 weeks. After each exam, you can take a day or two (maybe 3) off to relax. After that, its a time I call "reorientation" period where you need to read for maybe 2 hours each day (of course, this is on top of going to lecture for 4+ hours). The next week is back to the grindstone, with several 5 hour days, and a few days off. The week of the exam you need to go at it 6-8 hours per day, and put in 24 hours the weekend before the exam (preferably with a study partner).

The net result is I have a good bit of time to do my own thing (i.e. hang out with friends, go to the rec center, play IM sports) and also pass the exams (93% on my last test). Do NOT take anyone else's advice on how or when to study, including my own.

 

[erin682]

what goes on our "medical school transcript"? just classes that you pass, fail, and honor? does it show the actual percentages we received in each class? and our ranking?

Varies by school. Some schools will give rank, other quartiles and others none at all. Schools that have hp/p/f report that. And GPA's do still exist in med school. We still use typical A,B,C, F (90+=A,80=B etc) and get quartiles on our dean's letter but not before.

 

[quideam]

I don't know about you guys, but at my school, pretty much everyone studies really hard and our averages are very high - in the high 80's usually. So, in order to be "average", you really do have to know your stuff. Honors is the top 20% of the class, so you basically have to be getting in the mid-90s to do that.

Q

 

[gary5]

Thanks for the replys. I proved to myself that I have the stamina to study consistently. I went at it for about 8 hours everyday while completing my postbacc program. However, I was studying mostly graduate level classes and I would find out half the time, that I was studying material that wasn't even tested over. Then I figured out the trick is to know the professor, and obtain previous tests so I could get an idea what I really needed to study.

Is med school like this or do you truely need to know everything?

Get the BRS books for every med school class. Once you can answer the questions, you'll pass every test. Ask other students (a year ahead of you) for study advice. Many school have big sib programs - that's what they're for. Get old test and quizzes from older students.

 

[YouDontKnowJack]

Get the BRS books for every med school class. Once you can answer the questions, you'll pass every test. Ask other students (a year ahead of you) for study advice. Many school have big sib programs - that's what they're for. Get old test and quizzes from older students.

god. if all it takes is answering brs questions, your school is waay too easy.

BRS questions are cake. but that doesn't mean you'll do well on an exam. 👎

 

[nrddct]

what are brs questions?

 

[erin682]

what are brs questions?

Question in the series of books called Board Review Series. There are different ones for each of the subjects.

 

[redgrover]

god. if all it takes is answering brs questions, your school is waay too easy.

BRS questions are cake. but that doesn't mean you'll do well on an exam. 👎

What the heck does "too easy" mean?

If you're scoring a high score the boards and know that material, who cares about the crap you're going to forget in a few days, anyway?

What is it with pre-meds and meds in their belief that something has to drain every last drop of their existence before it's hard enough? It's ******ed, if you ask me.

 

[synapse lapse]

I don't know about you guys, but at my school, pretty much everyone studies really hard and our averages are very high - in the high 80's usually. So, in order to be "average", you really do have to know your stuff. Honors is the top 20% of the class, so you basically have to be getting in the mid-90s to do that.

Q

Agreed, same here!