Medical students always allude to the vast quantities of information that must be memorized/learned in medical school, but it's difficult for us "pre-meds" to really get a substantive idea of how much more material must be memorized in medical school classes in contrast to undergrad. science classes.
For example, in the cell biology course I took last fall, each test covered 3-5 chapters and the teacher taught and tested mostly from PowerPoint presentations. Each chapter was divided up into 3 (sometimes 4) separate PowerPoint presentations with each presentation containing approximately 33-45 slides. So most chapters totaled anywhere from 100-140 slides. Tests covered anywhere from 10-13 or 14 PowerPoint presentations total.
For comparison, how much more material tends to be covered in medical school? I'm sure it's much more -- but how much more?
I don't see much utility in providing an answer to your question, but I'll indulge you. It's difficult to get an idea for how difficult medical school can be until you actually experience it first hand and if I sit here and try to hash it out for you, you'll either think it's doable (which it is), or you'll be scared (for good reason).
You can get a lot of material in different types of programs, not just medicine, but one of the more characteristic elements is the time crunch. You get a lot of material in very little time with high expectations. Here's an example:
On the last exam we covered a little over two weeks of presentations and had perhaps 30 powerpoint lectures worth of material, each on average about 60 slides a piece, give or take some. Doing the math, this comes to about 1800 slides, some of which are about as dense as an academic textbook page, in two weeks. In addition to the presentations/lectures, and within the same time period, we had various reading assignments from textbooks and online sources. Furthermore, we had to essentially learn the histopathology of the current system for the pathology practical, which preceded the written exam, again within the same time period of a little over two weeks. Don't forget we also have OMT lab and material to learn concurrently, in a given section, and a practical to prepare for, generally covering a number of labs, and/or techniques (fortunately, the practicals generally come at the end of a section, but not always). In the most difficult of sections, we might have also have anatomy material to learn/memorize and lab, which eats up time. Fortunately, I am now done with all of my anatomy, but it's still eating up my time, because I am tutoring it. There are little assignments and labs here and there, too, that can make time management a bit more difficult. Keep in mind, also, that there are, in a typical six week section, two quizzes/exams per section, each covering similar amounts of information, which usually culminates in a comprehensive final at the end of the section, in some cases, along with practicals, if appropriate.
I should also note that in some lectures, the material is quite dense, so in the most difficult of lectures, 60 slides along with the accompanying reading assignments may cover the equivalent amount of material that is normally covered in a typical semester-long college level class. Usually, though, it takes a couple presentations to cover that much material.
Each system section has it's own challenges. For example, in musculoskeletal, you have a lot of anatomy, so the amount of memorization can be a bit overwhelming to some. In neuroscience, it's exceedingly difficult, because you have all those tiny, gray and white anatomical structures to learn and memorize, as well as the need to learn all the difficult concepts of neurophysiology and neuropathology in a protracted amount of time, which can be a real kick in the pants. In cardio and renal, the physiology and pharmacology can be very hard. Anyway, you get the point.
There is just so much material to learn and it's hard, at least at the beginning, to know what you need for the exam and, thinking ahead, for the boards. Medical students, after a time, get good at sorting through all of it and triaging. It's part of the process. We get good at learning.
Well, I hope this at least provides a two dimensional representation of "volume." Suffice it to say that you will be challenged and that medical school is nothing like undergrad.
