Don't care as much in med school...?

[SnowTown]

For some reason I don't really care much about how I do on exams and stuff compared to undergrad. I "wasted" so much time doing pretty much nothing important or spend a lot of time playing sports...etc. I find myself not even finished with a quarter of what I needed to study for the day and just say to myself "f' it, I'm going to sleep' and proceed to sleep for, on average, 9 or so hours a night...

Weird.

Anyone feel/does the same?

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[Heimerfink]

same. med school is boring.

i'm thinking about dual degree.

 

[cfdavid]

I don't necessarily care about exam scores too much. The only thing I really care about is, did I understand the information and will my level of performance make me "competent" in terms of having a handle of the material.

But, I haven't done too much "strategic" studying, which I kind of despise.

I'm way more concerned with being a competent physician that getting some poorly worded question correct on any given exam. It's just not worth the stress, which there will be plenty of in coming years. Not to mention that real world problem solving (i.e. what we'll be doing for the rest of our careers) doesn't present as a test question. However, in order to solve those problems, you DO need to know what's up.

I usually do pretty well, but could not care LESS about honoring. To me, it's not worth the extra strategic studying needed to do that. To each his own though.

 

[JC Denton]

It's strange. I used to care about that "A" so damn much in high school, even.

But right now, I'm in danger of failing, and I'll still be happy with just a C....

 

[edfig99]

congratulations to you all. you've realized you are no longer pre-med and that in a few years you are going to be doctors and no one could care less what you got honors on. Enjoy these years...it's all downhill afterwards

 

[Law2Doc]

Med school won't let you coast for long. There are folks who end up re-taking courses or even first year because of not putting enough distance between them and the pass line. If you decide you'll settle for a C, sometimes the settling sinks a bit deeper than that. Figure out a way to get yourself fired up about something. It only gets harder and more voluminous.

 

[HEADintheCLOUDS]

Med school won't let you coast for long. There are folks who end up re-taking courses or even first year because of not putting enough distance between them and the pass line. If you decide you'll settle for a C, sometimes the settling sinks a bit deeper than that. Figure out a way to get yourself fired up about something. It only gets harder and more voluminous.

She is right. I was barely shooting to pass then ended up failing by 1% my last system. I now must remediate the test in the summer. Althought it scared me ****less and now I am in super study mode non-stop. And on my last test I got a 96% so I guess it was a blessing in disguiese!!

 

[Doublecortin]

She is right. I was barely shooting to pass then ended up failing by 1% my last system. I now must remediate the test in the summer. Althought it scared me ****less and now I am in super study mode non-stop. And on my last test I got a 96% so I guess it was a blessing in disguiese!!

Law2Doc is a she?

 

[lilnoelle]

I've done the same.... its getting worse too. I tried really hard for my first year, worked relatively hard during the first half of my second year and now I'm just sort of messing around. I'm getting pretty freaked out about Step I though.... I feel like I've forgotten EVERYTHING and I just don't have the attention span (or the desire) to buckle down and study for it.

 

[da8s0859q]

congratulations to you all. you've realized you are no longer pre-med and that in a few years you are going to be doctors and no one could care less what you got honors on. Enjoy these years...it's all downhill afterwards

I actually do find this oddly encouraging.

 

[ZagDoc]

Part of its natural, but like Law2Doc said, apathy can also stem from burnout and can sink you past the pass line, so trying to find something that keeps you engaged in the material is a healthy way to go about it.

But yeah, pass makes me happy. Not because its some grand accomplishment, but because I don't really care about that "honors" crap.

 

[GreenShirt]

I hear ya OP. I had a my final today for cardiopulmonary and I calculated that I only need a 15% on the final to pass so I didn't study at all. I'm crossing my fingers right now that I actually managed to get 15 questions right today or else I'm going to have a nasty surprise waiting for me when I return from Spring break.

I think the apathy stems from burnout as someone else has pointed out. Hopefully, I'll learn to study smarter and balance my time between work and play when I get back. (I couldn't figure that out in the first 8 months of med school, but maybe I'll get it in the last 12 weeks.)

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I hope you don't regret this one day.

 

[thesauce]

Since studying my booty off for Step 1, I haven't wanted to do anything. It doesn't help that the floors don't reward hard work.

 

[sprinkibrio]

I feel a lot less pressure to do any extracurriculars... volunteering, running groups, etc. I feel like this could be a bad thing because I need that kind of pressure or I'll just drink and watch tv in my time off.

 

[da8s0859q]

I feel a lot less pressure to do any extracurriculars... volunteering, running groups, etc. I feel like this could be a bad thing because I need that kind of pressure or I'll just drink and watch tv in my time off.

Which is presumably enjoyable - a good thing!

 

[Blesbok]

I am the exact opposite. For the first time in my life I actually enjoy the material and try my hardest. Not too mention for the first time in my life I realize that it has a direct effect on my future by determining where I get a residency and what I get that residency in. In the past I have always settled with doing pretty well by doing the bare minimum.

 

[amedstud88]

I have had a major problem trying to motivate. I am a 2nd year and so sick and tired of memorizing power-point presentations. For our last exam (Skin), a history major could have aced it; very little in the way basic science concepts. Just memorize a bunch of bullet points that have no rhyme of reason, and then regurgitate. Success on this exam = make up a bunch of pneumonics (most of the time dirty) so the stuff will hang in the head for a few hours. Not too enjoyable.
I am into "why" stuff happens and linking facts that make some logical sense. That is learning and knowing, and that stuff sticks! Some people have photographic memories and the facts just line up for them. And I doubt the usefulness of this for the future.
But.....I did fail a block and have to retake a test when school is done for everybody else. Also I skipped out on a clinical experience to lengthen my spring break, and I have to make that up too. The second f... up was a Major wake up call.
The stuff we are studying is very important and we should take it seriously, but at the same time maintain our sanity and not become a sheep.
88

 

[indo]

I will resort to cleaning and laundry in order to postpone studying.

 

[da8s0859q]

I have had a major problem trying to motivate. I am a 2nd year and so sick and tired of memorizing power-point presentations. For our last exam (Skin), a history major could have aced it; very little in the way basic science concepts. Just memorize a bunch of bullet points that have no rhyme of reason, and then regurgitate. Success on this exam = make up a bunch of pneumonics (most of the time dirty) so the stuff will hang in the head for a few hours. Not too enjoyable.
I am into "why" stuff happens and linking facts that make some logical sense. That is learning and knowing, and that stuff sticks! Some people have photographic memories and the facts just line up for them. And I doubt the usefulness of this for the future.
But.....I did fail a block and have to retake a test when school is done for everybody else. Also I skipped out on a clinical experience to lengthen my spring break, and I have to make that up too. The second f... up was a Major wake up call.
The stuff we are studying is very important and we should take it seriously, but at the same time maintain our sanity and not become a sheep.
88

Before anyone else does it: mnemonics

I guess I can't add anything productive since you're a couple of years ahead of me. So I'll just go back to editing my PS.

 

[sprinkibrio]

I am the exact opposite. For the first time in my life I actually enjoy the material and try my hardest. Not too mention for the first time in my life I realize that it has a direct effect on my future by determining where I get a residency and what I get that residency in. In the past I have always settled with doing pretty well by doing the bare minimum.

Agreed. This "not caring as much" about schoolwork is likely a coping mechanism because we're not getting all A's.

 

[sprinkibrio]

Before anyone else does it: mnemonics

I guess I can't add anything productive since you're a couple of years ahead of me. So I'll just go back to editing my PS.

No offense, but any advice from you is highly unlikely to be helpful

 

[da8s0859q]

No offense, but any advice from you is highly unlikely to be helpful

None taken, which is why I said I wasn't going to be offering any advice. It'd be like a one-year pianist trying to tell me how to play while I have eleven years on them. 'Course, I suspect that I'll agree with several things I've seen you say here once I get to MSland myself.

(Thanks for the mdapps comment. If it's okay with you, I'll be coming and going through the allo forum to attempt and see what awaits me.)

 

[SnowTown]

I hope you don't regret this one day.

I hope so too...

Med school won't let you coast for long. There are folks who end up re-taking courses or even first year because of not putting enough distance between them and the pass line. If you decide you'll settle for a C, sometimes the settling sinks a bit deeper than that. Figure out a way to get yourself fired up about something. It only gets harder and more voluminous.

I haven't really come close to failing yet... maybe I need to to give myself a wake up call

edit: or maybe not, that would really suck

Agreed. This "not caring as much" about schoolwork is likely a coping mechanism because we're not getting all A's.

It might be. But the times when I do put in the effort/time to study regularly I end up in the top 10% (honor is top 15%) on exams, problem is I'll just slack off again and drag myself out of the cut off.

I'm just not feeling the immense volume of relatively unchallenging materials. Yes most of the things we're learning are quite interesting, but after a while, it's like whatever, I'm gonna go do something else.

Plus I eat a lot while I study. I mean A LOT. And I don't think that's good for me...

The only thing that really pushes me along is thinking that I'll need a good grasp of all these materials to do good on step 1 so as not to shut a bunch of doors to various specialties before 3rd year even starts.

 

[GreenShirt]

I hope so too...

I haven't really come close to failing yet... maybe I need to to give myself a wake up call

edit: or maybe not, that would really suck

It might be. But the times when I do put in the effort/time to study regularly I end up in the top 10% (honor is top 15%) on exams, problem is I'll just slack off again and drag myself out of the cut off.

I'm just not feeling the immense volume of relatively unchallenging materials. Yes most of the things we're learning are quite interesting, but after a while, it's like whatever, I'm gonna go do something else.

Plus I eat a lot while I study. I mean A LOT. And I don't think that's good for me...

The only thing that really pushes me along is thinking that I'll need a good grasp of all these materials to do good on step 1 so as not to shut a bunch of doors to various specialties before 3rd year even starts.

I don't know if this applies to you, but part of my apathy stems from the fact that I don't balance work and play very well. When I'm in study mode, I study my but off around the clock with no time for fun....which burns me out and puts me into complete slacker mode for the next few days/week where I study minimally.

Setting aside 2 or 3 hrs in the day to do something fun and non-school related whether or not you could study more during those hrs helps you stay focused those hrs that you do study. That's my goal for the next 15 weeks of class, anyway. Yay, time management!