exhausted

[sjdent]

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Hi guys,

I could use a little encouragement. I'm a freshman at......well, I want to remain REALLY anonymous. Hope you can understand. We're nearing finals week. I'm so dead tired and discouraged. So sick of studying, it's really wearing me down. How did you guys get through some of your low points?

 

[Yah-E]

Sjdent:

You're not the only one so don't feel that you are. You would have to explain your situation more thoroughly for us to give you a better feedback.

For myself, there were definitely moments where I get discouraged either because of a grade I earned that was below my goal or get stressed when I have exams after exams to study for.

In addition, being a class officer there are definitely more stress and frustration than being a regular classmate because I have to deal with classmates and faculty members on various situations.

My suggestion for you is, if it's grades that's discouraging you, than seek academic help ASAP, talk to faculty and professors, and perphaps use tutoring programs.

Also, you might think joining organizations will take your time away from your studies, but to the contrary, joining organization such as a dental fraternity, various clubs, and/or student groups will help you find a "shoulder" to lean on.

In my opinion, to succeed in dental school, you must find a balance between studies and life.

To relieve stress, things I do are:

lifting weights
listen to music
go out with classmates
go out on dates
watch reality TV shows
talk & communicate with classmates
talk & communicate with faculty
golfing
go to the beach
sleep

Hang in there my friend, you've made it this far! Things will eventually get easier!!

 

[sjdent]

well........to be more specific....

I just miss my "normal" life! I miss studying hard for a class, and knowing I'll do well. Here, I can study and study and still fail a quiz or test. Very annoying. I really miss having time off. I'm just constantly going, going, going until late at night. I always feel behind. I always feel like my studying isn't enough. It's mentally draining!

I know freshman year is the hardest. So I'm just trying to push it till the end and just look forward to vacations. Arrggh. I guess I just wanted to know if these feelings hit everyone else at some point...

And to Yah-E, I actually am really involved in school activities and class offices/positions. It's really fun and I recommend it to everyone who likes leadership activities.

 

[DesiDentist]

sjdent:

Take it a day at a time! If you look too far into things life becomes unmanageable. Make sure you make some time for you. Sometimes people just work too hard and at the end when the tests come they become uneasy and doubtful and that screws up the momentum. I do this all the time.

One thing you will learn from people who are successful in school, is that no matter how much they prepare they are always confident and their positive attitudes and confidence helps them out. If you ever get to meet YAH-E in person, you will see what I mean.

DesiDentist

 

[nycdoc]

hey sjdent,

I'm also a freshman and I know exactly how you feel. So far there have been a lot of positives, but also an equal amount of frustration and dissapointment. It sucks when you work hard for an exam and it doesn't pay off...I think it happens to everyone at some point (at my school anyways). The best thing I've developed in dental school is a short memory.

I don't know if I can give you an easy answer. I have little ways to deal with it on really bad days. I write down the name of every movie I want to see but can't right now, and keep in mind the restaurants I don't have the time or money to enjoy right now. I put up pictures in my room of all the places I want to visit when I have the $. I also go to bookstores and look at architecture books to try and think about the house I'll be able to design. You know, stupid **** like that really helps me get through it some days....it's all about not losing perspective.

Every time you feel like you're missing out on the best days of your life, just remember that you're doing something meaningful and working towards your goal. A lot of people out there are stuck in crappy jobs and don't have the opportunity you do right now. (not preaching to you....this is just what I tell myself)

I think the worst part of dental school is the times you feel like you don't know anything. We're still learning right now and it's so easy to get down on yourself if you blow a proximal box or overcarve that MB cusp or whatever. I don't know if this has happened to you but it doesn't feel so great. I try to use that frustration to motivate me for the next exam....so far it's worked every time. I've been told by every upperclassman I've talked to that it'll get a lot better. Hang in there! We're all going through it.

 

[DesiDentist]

I'm getting scared already.

DesiDentist 🙁

 

[Yah-E]

"Just look at all of us (he was refering to all his classmates), if we made it, so can you!"

After earning high marks in cumulative GPA the first semester, I receive my first "F" this semester for my first practical in the beginning of the semester. Now looking back, I can't believe I failed a Class I prep on #30!? I've done so many Class IIs now that I can't believe I failed a Class I occlusal prep!

But I'll tell you what, boy was I frustrated when I received my grade for the practical! For stress relief, I had a great day in the gym and I studied my butt off for the other exams and did well.

One other thing, do you guys tend to study harder for those courses that carry more credit weight? I start to find myself dedicating 2-3 days cramming for those 3 or 4 credit courses, but when it comes to these 1 credit courses, it's a one day "crammer"! 😀

Well, today I have my second pratical in Operative. I'll be prepping a Class II MO on #29 and restore a MO on #3, both on the manniquin with the rubber dam in 2.5 hours. I'm going to rock this one!!

Have a great week everyone!

😎

 

[Pi__Guy1]

I hate rubber dams

 

[DocDrtySanchez]

I don't mean to discourage anyone...but things do get harder as you go on in dental school. First year is tough of course due to the transition between undergrad and grad school...but the stress level just continues to rise as you go through the years. I'm finishing my third year right now and I've never felt so exhausted. This is the general consensus among all of my classmates. I guess we all need to be able to manage stress, as we're likely to experience a high level of it throughout our careers...but dental school is a bit out of hand.

 

[nycdoc]

alright, I wasn't having the greatest day yesterday, so maybe I made d-school sound like it was going to be horrible.

It seems to go in cycles.....it takes a few days to get your mind focused, then the steam starts building up for a week or so, the pressure builds, then you start to reach exhaustion but you keep going, then a couple of tests on which you do quite well, then 2 weeks when you're really flying and doing absolutely great and then a bombed practical. D'oh! Then a few days of frustration and lingering dissapointment and then you start to focus to do it all over again. Throw in a few nights out with friends and 4 hours of sleep a night and the occasional worry about your personal life and the future and there's my dental school experience so far for you.
So far (and I know I've yet to receive the infamous 2nd year raping) there have been more good experiences than bad so I'm still glad I'm doing this.

didn't mean to make it sound like it's all gloom and doom. The best feeling is when you've had a great week and you're with your friends on a Friday knowing that you're taking care of business.

I'm thinking of starting a thread about what I've learned in my vast 3/4 year experience 🙄 so far. There are some things I wish somebody had told me...would have saved me some time.

But right now the pressure's building, so back to the books😉

 

[XxdtxX]

If you dont have the best manual dexterity in the world are your grades going to be poor or can hand skills be learned quickly.

 

[sjdent]

Hey guys,

Wow, thanks for the encouragement. I hadn't really seen a post like mine before (telling the truth about how draining dental school can be), so in a down moment, I bitched a little bit. Appreciate the support.

I don't know why I'm so discouraged right now...I did FINE last quarter, got B's, which is good enough for me. I don't know, maybe I'm getting burned out. I worked SO HARD last quarter, and Anatomy is really getting the better of me. OK, so maybe I slacked a little bit at the beginning of this qtr, but who hasn't made a mistake like that? I'm entitled to make a few! So midterms sucked really bad for me. Now I'm desperately trying to pick up the pieces. Yikes. This is not good.

To all of you who are scared reading this......don't worry about it! We'll probably all make it! 😡 .....eventually. It's just a rough transition. It's all about the individual person. I have friends who are a whole lot more intelligent than I am. They study HOURS less and do way better than I do. There are also people who are even more screwed than I am. So don't worry about it too much. Stay close to your classmates...they're going through the exact same thing. The biggest thing I've learned is that most people don't want to be open about it and tell you they're stressed....odds are, everyone IS stressed! Dental school is intense.

2 weeks till break...2 weeks till break...😴

 

[Big_Poppa DDS]

Some would argue sophmore year was more difficult, but I found freshman year the worst.

Here's my story:

I came to dental school with fairly good "book smarts" and could do very well on written tests - but I had no hand skills what so ever. Now I noticed my class was either like me, or the other way around good hands and no brains! Some were deficient in both and hence are still there, but not too many were good at both right off the bat. So first semester we had dental anatomy, and we had to carve teeth out of wax blocks, and wax them up. First big practical of the year - - 57% F. Still ended up passing the class because didatics were more stressed. Second semester comes along with operative and Crown and bridge - and failed the first practicals in each. Needless to say, I practiced a lot, every saturday and by the final practical I had scored one of the top scores in operative for a cl 2 prep and a class 2 fill and did well on the crown and bridge practical. By second year I would say I consistently scored B's on practicals without practicing every weekend.

My point is in most cases if you got into dental school you will get out. I would say I struggled in years 1 and 3 (clinic) but I ended up doing well on both NDB 1,2 and the Canadian NDBE and passing the the clinical boards CRDTS on my first attempt. I also learned to study less and with groups of people to keep motivated. Rarely did I miss a class social event and I worked out 3 - 5X a week before classes.

Last piece of advice - Don't get stressed out about NDB exams, there will be a lot of questions that you will have no clue about - chances are most of your class and the others taking the exam will also have no clue.

Dental school will go by like the blink of an eye, Ok so sophmore year may seem by a long blink, but its the relationships you make in school that will help you through it and be with you when you graduate.

 

[Dr. Pedo]

Big Poppa couldn't be more right. However, the second year is by-far-and-away the worse of them all. The work load is heavier, the responsibilities are greater (clinic), the profs expect more, the lab work is ridiculous, and NDB I is looming over-head. (How the hell am I to remember physio. nearly 18 mos. later?) The 2nd yr "raping" is alive and well. Back to Poppa and others-----dental school in general is a hyperspeed education. The information isn't all that difficult---but taking 30 sem. hrs. creates a time management problem. They could easily make it a 4 yr w/ 1-2yr mandatory residency curriculum--- but who the heck wants that----save that for the MD/DO's. Dental school is stressful, challenging, difficult, cruel, and at times flat-out wrong but I think 99% of us wouldn't have it any other way. We are a select group of individuals that have accepted the vigors of a dental education/career and if becoming a DDS was easy then every Tom, Dick, and Harry plus the kitchen sink would be one.