Feeling Overwhelmed

[David1991]

Hey guys, just kind of ranting here, looking for some advice/opinions

I'm a pre-med freshman right now taking Biology, Chemistry 2, Spanish, Psychology methods and tools, and pre-calculus (just so I can take calculus). I have to take 5 classes to make up for some crap that happened last semester so rather than falling behind I'm taking spanish again along with everything else I was going to take.

I have a 4.0 as of now (not counting the spanish which I'm retaking) but I'm seriously feeling overwhelmed. I know being pre-med won't be anything remotely close to easy but it just seems like I have less time than everyone else, even many other pre-meds.

Since the start of this semester all I've been doing is working, eating, sleeping, and working out. The work is never done because there's always notes I could be taking in the next chapters and things to be studying. Is this how it is for all of you guys too? I was planning on allowing myself 2 hours of "free time" per day that didn't fall under the essentials listed above but that's had to be decreased down to 0-1 hours which basically goes towards checking my email.

and now since I've been so excluded to my room studying all the time I have practically no social life because with the little free time I do have it's either too short to do anything with people (like 30min) or even when I may be able to force in 3 hours or so I hardly have anything to do because I haven't had time to build up a lot of friendships (which is weird for me). Basically the only time I'm being social is in class or lunch after class. What's even worse/stranger is that probably 80-90% of my time working is spent of the 2 pre-med classes alone (chem 2 and bio)

I don't know if there's really anything people can tell me to change this. Just wondering if this is typical or what. I can't think of any alternative to what I'm doing that would still result in the necessary A's.

Thanks,
David

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[DrReo]

David,

Let me give you some advice, don't sweat the small stuff. You're putting a lot of time into these classes. Do you feel that the material is down before an exam? You might be able to cut back some of your time for some of the courses. You need to remember, medical schools look for well rounded people that can juggle multiple things at one time, e.g. research, teaching, volunteering, studying, and other activities that will make you stand out. Don't burn yourself out. Go meet some cool people, take Friday night off, whatever. You will be more motivated and refreshed when it comes time to bust some ass.

Hey guys, just kind of ranting here, looking for some advice/opinions

I'm a pre-med freshman right now taking Biology, Chemistry 2, Spanish, Psychology methods and tools, and pre-calculus (just so I can take calculus). I have to take 5 classes to make up for some crap that happened last semester so rather than falling behind I'm taking spanish again along with everything else I was going to take.

I have a 4.0 as of now (not counting the spanish which I'm retaking) but I'm seriously feeling overwhelmed. I know being pre-med won't be anything remotely close to easy but it just seems like I have less time than everyone else, even many other pre-meds.

Since the start of this semester all I've been doing is working, eating, sleeping, and working out. The work is never done because there's always notes I could be taking in the next chapters and things to be studying. Is this how it is for all of you guys too? I was planning on allowing myself 2 hours of "free time" per day that didn't fall under the essentials listed above but that's had to be decreased down to 0-1 hours which basically goes towards checking my email.

and now since I've been so excluded to my room studying all the time I have practically no social life because with the little free time I do have it's either too short to do anything with people (like 30min) or even when I may be able to force in 3 hours or so I hardly have anything to do because I haven't had time to build up a lot of friendships (which is weird for me). Basically the only time I'm being social is in class or lunch after class. What's even worse/stranger is that probably 80-90% of my time working is spent of the 2 pre-med classes alone (chem 2 and bio)

I don't know if there's really anything people can tell me to change this. Just wondering if this is typical or what. I can't think of any alternative to what I'm doing that would still result in the necessary A's.

Thanks,
David

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Im taking basically the same schedule.
Chem 102 is a bitch, i've finally realized that i can no longer get by just doing min studying and survive. Realistically its not easy, but what i can tell you is this. "Divide & conquer." Avoid taking your hardest classes along with a heavy course load. I know that next year I will be doing this by taking 14 credits ( o-chem,physics,experimental psych, P.e). You should really make sure that your going to have to have time and not overload yourself.

 

[the duck]

Did you fail spanish? If so MD schools average the two grades...

 

[nisarg2010]

Hey guys, just kind of ranting here, looking for some advice/opinions

I'm a pre-med freshman right now taking Biology, Chemistry 2, Spanish, Psychology methods and tools, and pre-calculus (just so I can take calculus). I have to take 5 classes to make up for some crap that happened last semester so rather than falling behind I'm taking spanish again along with everything else I was going to take.

I have a 4.0 as of now (not counting the spanish which I'm retaking) but I'm seriously feeling overwhelmed. I know being pre-med won't be anything remotely close to easy but it just seems like I have less time than everyone else, even many other pre-meds.

Since the start of this semester all I've been doing is working, eating, sleeping, and working out. The work is never done because there's always notes I could be taking in the next chapters and things to be studying. Is this how it is for all of you guys too? I was planning on allowing myself 2 hours of "free time" per day that didn't fall under the essentials listed above but that's had to be decreased down to 0-1 hours which basically goes towards checking my email.

and now since I've been so excluded to my room studying all the time I have practically no social life because with the little free time I do have it's either too short to do anything with people (like 30min) or even when I may be able to force in 3 hours or so I hardly have anything to do because I haven't had time to build up a lot of friendships (which is weird for me). Basically the only time I'm being social is in class or lunch after class. What's even worse/stranger is that probably 80-90% of my time working is spent of the 2 pre-med classes alone (chem 2 and bio)

I don't know if there's really anything people can tell me to change this. Just wondering if this is typical or what. I can't think of any alternative to what I'm doing that would still result in the necessary A's.

Thanks,
David

Is this what I have to look forward to next year?

 

[David1991]

Did you fail spanish? If so MD schools average the two grades...

I didn't fail but I'm starting to get worried about this as this is what I read in a book I read "How to get into medical school from someone who has already done it".

What happened was I was basically framed for cheating (even talking about this really annoys me which is why I didn't go into more detail in my first post). I had proof against it and they didn't have proof for it other than 1 girl saying I did. End result was I received an F BUT the dean told me that it wasn't a "disciplinary F" but like a regular F or something so once I retake it it won't go towards my GPA. Now from what I'm hearing from you and that book med schools will average them BUT he told me 2-3 times that it will not be on my official transcript, only my "unofficial transcript". I'm getting concerned about this now though.

David,

Let me give you some advice, don't sweat the small stuff. You're putting a lot of time into these classes. Do you feel that the material is down before an exam? You might be able to cut back some of your time for some of the courses. You need to remember, medical schools look for well rounded people that can juggle multiple things at one time, e.g. research, teaching, volunteering, studying, and other activities that will make you stand out. Don't burn yourself out. Go meet some cool people, take Friday night off, whatever. You will be more motivated and refreshed when it comes time to bust some ass.

Well a big problem is my crazy bio teacher. I tried to get out of the class but there was no change I could make. Looking at records from 07' she only gave out 1 A and it was an A-. I way way over-studied for my first exam last Friday and from what I can tell I did well but at least half of what I took notes and studied wasn't on the test. The problem is it's a "themes in biology" course so we don't go by chapters, so basically if she mentioned any random topic I have to go through the textbook and take notes on all of it just in case. If know you the "campbell and reece" AP book that's what we use. The test was probably 85% on free energy, diffusion and proteins and yet I took notes on the equivalent of 6 full chapters or so.

I'm worried that by taking it a little easier I'll risk worse grades, and it seems like theres always some work to be done. Honestly even right now I'm worried how this time on here is going over my "hour of free time".

And as for taking a night off, it seems like I can't even do that anymore because I have so few people to really hang out with. I mean I do have them but they're often busy too and I haven't been able to put a lot of time into building up my social life here unfortunately.

Im taking basically the same schedule.
Chem 102 is a bitch, i've finally realized that i can no longer get by just doing min studying and survive. Realistically its not easy, but what i can tell you is this. "Divide & conquer." Avoid taking your hardest classes along with a heavy course load. I know that next year I will be doing this by taking 14 credits ( o-chem,physics,experimental psych, P.e). You should really make sure that your going to have to have time and not overload yourself.

Honestly so far my other classes aren't even hard, but somewhat time consuming. My psych class so far has been nothing because I took notes on everything for the first exam over winter break but it's about to get much more time consuming because that's all I read up to. Pre-calc isn't too hard but the homework takes about an hour per section so thats like 4 hours per week. Spanish...well this class is all over the place lol.

Really it's chem and bio and as mentioned above it's more Bio than ever. I just don't want to risk getting anything lower than an A-.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I didn't fail but I'm starting to get worried about this as this is what I read in a book I read "How to get into medical school from someone who has already done it".

What happened was I was basically framed for cheating (even talking about this really annoys me which is why I didn't go into more detail in my first post). I had proof against it and they didn't have proof for it other than 1 girl saying I did. End result was I received an F BUT the dean told me that it wasn't a "disciplinary F" but like a regular F or something so once I retake it it won't go towards my GPA. Now from what I'm hearing from you and that book med schools will average them BUT he told me 2-3 times that it will not be on my official transcript, only my "unofficial transcript". I'm getting concerned about this now though.



Well a big problem is my crazy bio teacher. I tried to get out of the class but there was no change I could make. Looking at records from 07' she only gave out 1 A and it was an A-. I way way over-studied for my first exam last Friday and from what I can tell I did well but at least half of what I took notes and studied wasn't on the test. The problem is it's a "themes in biology" course so we don't go by chapters, so basically if she mentioned any random topic I have to go through the textbook and take notes on all of it just in case. If know you the "campbell and reece" AP book that's what we use. The test was probably 85% on free energy, diffusion and proteins and yet I took notes on the equivalent of 6 full chapters or so.

I'm worried that by taking it a little easier I'll risk worse grades, and it seems like theres always some work to be done. Honestly even right now I'm worried how this time on here is going over my "hour of free time".

And as for taking a night off, it seems like I can't even do that anymore because I have so few people to really hang out with. I mean I do have them but they're often busy too and I haven't been able to put a lot of time into building up my social life here unfortunately.



Honestly so far my other classes aren't even hard, but somewhat time consuming. My psych class so far has been nothing because I took notes on everything for the first exam over winter break but it's about to get much more time consuming because that's all I read up to. Pre-calc isn't too hard but the homework takes about an hour per section so thats like 4 hours per week. Spanish...well this class is all over the place lol.

Really it's chem and bio and as mentioned above it's more Bio than ever. I just don't want to risk getting anything lower than an A-.

Well for me personally biology is relatively easy and fun. I took ap biology which gave me a relatively amazing backround in the whole subject. I would really recommend you read the chapter before the class and take good notes. You'll be fine.
For me personally its chem 2. Right not kinetic reactions primarily the temp related ones are screwing with me.
Psychology is really easy as long as you can take notes and remember concepts well. More or less psychology is comparable to biology, both are extremely similar in the way you learn them. However the reason why psych is easier to study is its easy applicability and ability to relate it to everyday life. Biology doesn't give you that aspect very easily and as such makes it harder then psychology to study.
If it makes you feel better I droped pre-calc last semester. Combo of crappy Taiwanese teacher and my lack of desire to study hard.

 

[Velocity]

"Divide & conquer." Avoid taking your hardest classes along with a heavy course load.

This is the best advice. I was in a major that didn't allow me any versatility of my schedule, and I sneered at the people who would arrange their schedule such that they took only one lab science per semester or would take the "difficult" classes on a schedule packed with easy classes. Honestly, if you want to get A's without having to strain and stress, that's the way to do it. Do what you can to shuffle classes accordingly, take summer courses if you can afford them, and find out which professors/classes are easier than others (I'm fairly certain that every school has them). It saddens me that the college experience is basically becoming nothing more than a grade gauntlet, but as the competition rises, here we are...

Well a big problem is my crazy bio teacher. I tried to get out of the class but there was no change I could make. Looking at records from 07' she only gave out 1 A and it was an A-. I way way over-studied for my first exam last Friday and from what I can tell I did well but at least half of what I took notes and studied wasn't on the test. The problem is it's a "themes in biology" course so we don't go by chapters, so basically if she mentioned any random topic I have to go through the textbook and take notes on all of it just in case. If know you the "campbell and reece" AP book that's what we use. The test was probably 85% on free energy, diffusion and proteins and yet I took notes on the equivalent of 6 full chapters or so.
...
Really it's chem and bio and as mentioned above it's more Bio than ever. I just don't want to risk getting anything lower than an A-.

A B+ (and even a B) won't put you into the "wild card candidate" category, but obviously the higher the better.

Not sure what else to tell you - there were generally three types of premeds that I encountered: the types that were total gunners and didn't emerge onto the social scene until they were applying to medical schools (tended to be unpleasant people, in my experience); those that were big-time party-goers and were likely succeeding using methods not readily available to everyone else (group test banks; friends who would help out and share information on tests; manipulating their schedule to their advantage; etc.); and then those who were able to succeed seemingly without too much struggle (skilled test-takers/true genius). I hope you'll be able to find a balance. Don't sacrifice your mental health and personality for this, though.

 

[David1991]

Well for me personally biology is relatively easy and fun. I took ap biology which gave me a relatively amazing backround in the whole subject. I would really recommend you read the chapter before the class and take good notes. You'll be fine.

Yea I took AP bio too and it's definitely been helpful but I don't remember everything of course and thought I should take notes on everything again. Plus this teacher is insane.

For me personally its chem 2. Right not kinetic reactions primarily the temp related ones are screwing with me.
Psychology is really easy as long as you can take notes and remember concepts well. More or less psychology is comparable to biology, both are extremely similar in the way you learn them. However the reason why psych is easier to study is its easy applicability and ability to relate it to everyday life. Biology doesn't give you that aspect very easily and as such makes it harder then psychology to study.

Yea psych is pretty easy but I think I'll be switching to health and exercise major anyway. I'm really not into writing long statistical papers and I love exercise/nutrition topics.

But yea, bio is just so much at one time. Chem 2 we're actually learning exactly the same stuff as you right now. Maybe it's just the difference in teachers but so far it's been easier. Like you, I like bio more, I find it really interesting, but the pressure is what's causing it to be un-enjoyable. Plus full lab reports vs. just answering lab questions for chem

If it makes you feel better I droped pre-calc last semester. Combo of crappy Taiwanese teacher and my lack of desire to study hard.

You need to take calc though right?

 

[the duck]

I would talk to the Dean, and email a few medical schools about that F. Pre-med life is hard, get used to it, that said, you should be able to do well and have a social life. I think what you need is to rework your study habbits, my feeling is you will find that you can laern the same amount of material in less time. The transition from highschool to college is hard, but you can adapt.

 

[David1991]

This is the best advice. I was in a major that didn't allow me any versatility of my schedule, and I sneered at the people who would arrange their schedule such that they took only one lab science per semester or would take the "difficult" classes on a schedule packed with easy classes. Honestly, if you want to get A's without having to strain and stress, that's the way to do it. Do what you can to shuffle classes accordingly, take summer courses if you can afford them, and find out which professors/classes are easier than others (I'm fairly certain that every school has them). It saddens me that the college experience is basically becoming nothing more than a grade gauntlet, but as the competition rises, here we are...

I really wanted to take physics 1 and 2 over the summer but it turns out you need calc so I'll have to wait for that. I would want to take calculus over the summer but it's $1800 which I really can't afford. I might be able to take it at the county college for $400 but med schools wouldn't want that right?

I'm trying to schedule classes better but next year is going to have physics I and Orgo I in the fall and physics II and Orgo II in the spring....that seems like just as much hell. I would try to arrange it differently because Junior year the only requirements I would need then would be genetics but I was planning on using the rest of that time to get upper level science courses in. I would rather take them my senior year but since we need to apply by the end of our junior year I don't think the med schools would even see them.

That last statement is how I really feel, about losing the college experience. This is supposed to be the "best 4 years of my life" and college seems to have way more potential for a crazy/fun time than when I'm a doctor/dentist, but I feel like I'm losing all of that time.

A B+ (and even a B) won't put you into the "wild card candidate" category, but obviously the higher the better.

Not sure what else to tell you - there were generally three types of premeds that I encountered: the types that were total gunners and didn't emerge onto the social scene until they were applying to medical schools (tended to be unpleasant people, in my experience); those that were big-time party-goers and were likely succeeding using methods not readily available to everyone else (group test banks; friends who would help out and share information on tests; manipulating their schedule to their advantage; etc.); and then those who were able to succeed seemingly without too much struggle (skilled test-takers/true genius). I hope you'll be able to find a balance. Don't sacrifice your mental health and personality for this, though.

It seems I'm unfortunately slowly becoming the first option which really isn't my normal personality

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Yea I took AP bio too and it's definitely been helpful but I don't remember everything of course and thought I should take notes on everything again. Plus this teacher is insane.


Yea psych is pretty easy but I think I'll be switching to health and exercise major anyway. I'm really not into writing long statistical papers and I love exercise/nutrition topics.

But yea, bio is just so much at one time. Chem 2 we're actually learning exactly the same stuff as you right now. Maybe it's just the difference in teachers but so far it's been easier. Like you, I like bio more, I find it really interesting, but the pressure is what's causing it to be un-enjoyable. Plus full lab reports vs. just answering lab questions for chem


You need to take calc though right?

Chem 2 is more or less learning a lot of things that you already know. I know kinetics personally isn't too difficult its just the snow screwed me over (9day break + kinetics lab missed). Biology is pretty easy for me.. just is.. haha.
Screw calc... I'll take college algebra + statistics. I dont want to risk wreaking my sgpa for the sake of 1 class.
Calc 1 is good add stat and your good for 99.9% of all schools. Realistically just taking algebra + stat will work me through in about 70% schools. I mean I wont be able to get into JHU or Harvard... But I had no interest in those schools anyway.

 

[David1991]

I would talk to the Dean, and email a few medical schools about that F. Pre-med life is hard, get used to it, that said, you should be able to do well and have a social life. I think what you need is to rework your study habbits, my feeling is you will find that you can laern the same amount of material in less time. The transition from highschool to college is hard, but you can adapt.

Any suggestions for this? As far as adjusting time. I'm already skipping 1 pre-calc class per week right now because the class isn't really helpful, sometimes chem too. Everything else is basically a necessity (eating, sleeping, working out )

Chem 2 is more or less learning a lot of things that you already know. I know kinetics personally isn't too difficult its just the snow screwed me over (9day break + kinetics lab missed). Biology is pretty easy for me.. just is.. haha.
Screw calc... I'll take college algebra + statistics. I dont want to risk wreaking my sgpa for the sake of 1 class.
Calc 1 is good add stat and your good for 99.9% of all schools. Realistically just taking algebra + stat will work me through in about 70% schools. I mean I wont be able to get into JHU or Harvard... But I had no interest in those schools anyway.

Hm, I guess. I took AP stat so I guess I might as well just continue on and take Calculus....I would just feel wrong not doing everything I could

 

[circulus vitios]

It looks like you're taking 17 credits, which is quite a bit. Why not drop one course and instead take it over the summer?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I really wanted to take physics 1 and 2 over the summer but it turns out you need calc so I'll have to wait for that. I would want to take calculus over the summer but it's $1800 which I really can't afford. I might be able to take it at the county college for $400 but med schools wouldn't want that right?

I'm trying to schedule classes better but next year is going to have physics I and Orgo I in the fall and physics II and Orgo II in the spring....that seems like just as much hell. I would try to arrange it differently because Junior year the only requirements I would need then would be genetics but I was planning on using the rest of that time to get upper level science courses in. I would rather take them my senior year but since we need to apply by the end of our junior year I don't think the med schools would even see them.

That last statement is how I really feel, about losing the college experience. This is supposed to be the "best 4 years of my life" and college seems to have way more potential for a crazy/fun time than when I'm a doctor/dentist, but I feel like I'm losing all of that time.

It seems I'm unfortunately slowly becoming the first option which really isn't my normal personality

Well do what im doing.. Take 4 classes at most and make sure you have a lot of time before o-chem and physics. I mean take O-chem on thurs and physics on mon and wends and friday. Make sure those classes start around 12ish btw. Make sure you can study a little bit before the tests....
Umm yah.. Make sure that your schedule is easy fits you.

 

[tinery]

you don't need to be reading ahead in every class every time. that can save you many hours.

 

[David1991]

It looks like you're taking 17 credits, which is quite a bit. Why not drop one course and instead take it over the summer?

18, but the pre-calc credits don't really count towards graduation or anything, it's just so you can take calculus. Does anyone know if taking calc at a community college is OK by med/dental schools compared to say a science which I would imagine you shouldn't do?

I was actually planning on doing pre calc and calc over the summer but it's the most ******ed thing...they actually have calculus the first summer section and pre-calc the 2nd section (wtf?)

Well do what im doing.. Take 4 classes at most and make sure you have a lot of time before o-chem and physics. I mean take O-chem on thurs and physics on mon and wends and friday. Make sure those classes start around 12ish btw. Make sure you can study a little bit before the tests....
Umm yah.. Make sure that your schedule is easy fits you.

Yea I think the 5 classes is what's taking it's toll. I don't know if I'd want to drop a course now though honestly.

The only course I'd be ok with dropping at this point is pre-calc and there's really no point in dropping it because it's a pass fail course, so I could get a 61% and be fine. I guess my personality though is just to do the best I can so I've still be working hard in it. I could just not do some but if the whole point of me taking it is to be able to take calculus then it seems counter-productive to do poorly in it. On the other hand I've heard most of calc doesn't even need calc...

you don't need to be reading ahead in every class every time. that can save you many hours.

Well you're going to need to be reading it at some point right? So it seems like the end amount of time would be the same. Plus I'd probably be much more lost in the class otherwise



Alright guys well I've got some ranting out of my system but hopefully this results in actual being helpful for something other than letting some steam off. I really appreciate all the feedback but basically, what do you think I can do other than just "not worry so much" that will help things not be so crazy? I was actually considering joining a frat just to practically force myself to have more social time but I pretty much missed the last rush by one day (thought about it last night and the rush actually began earlier in the evening)

so far it looks like nothing can really help out this semester:
1.Schedule harder and easier classes together (kind of already doing this)
2.Don't take more than 4 classes (that's what I plan on doing from now on, too late now though and honestly even if I only had 3-4 classes right now it's still the chem 2 and bio taking up almost all of the time. Very little so far for psych and spanish but since that's going to increase soon I'll be even more screwed
3. ......?

 

[Velocity]

I really wanted to take physics 1 and 2 over the summer but it turns out you need calc so I'll have to wait for that. I would want to take calculus over the summer but it's $1800 which I really can't afford. I might be able to take it at the county college for $400 but med schools wouldn't want that right?

I'm not sure that they'd care - we're talking one to four courses. As long as you do well and your performance matches how you're doing in your primary university, I don't think it'd matter. The main concern when you're looking into summer courses is whether the institution and their courses will transfer back to your main university. My university was a bit picky about that, and we had to submit what courses we wanted to take (along with the description and syllabus) and get it OK'd. Otherwise there was a chance that the university wouldn't accept them and factor the work into your transcript.

It'll probably vary between medical schools, but I'd be pretty surprised if it counted against you (unless you somehow managed to take every prerequisite at the community college - some might scrutinize that).

I'm trying to schedule classes better but next year is going to have physics I and Orgo I in the fall and physics II and Orgo II in the spring....that seems like just as much hell. I would try to arrange it differently because Junior year the only requirements I would need then would be genetics but I was planning on using the rest of that time to get upper level science courses in. I would rather take them my senior year but since we need to apply by the end of our junior year I don't think the med schools would even see them.

That last statement is how I really feel, about losing the college experience. This is supposed to be the "best 4 years of my life" and college seems to have way more potential for a crazy/fun time than when I'm a doctor/dentist, but I feel like I'm losing all of that time.

It seems I'm unfortunately slowly becoming the first option which really isn't my normal personality

Well, you could apply during your senior year. It seems that isn't as rare an option as I'd have thought. As long as you're doing something worthwhile during that year between when you submit the application and when you ideally enter medical school, it doesn't look bad. I can certainly understand not wanting to put it off any longer than you have to, though...

As to the college experience, it's what you make of it I suppose. College was pretty hard for me, but in hindsight I can say that I enjoyed it. Not sure that I would have wanted to do anything differently, other than choose a different major and be friendlier with professors earlier The strange thing for me was that I used to spend almost all of my time in the library studying, but my grades were crap (except for my foreign language classes, which I fought with my adviser to take). After some life changes occurred I barely set foot in the library and my study time really dropped off, yet I was scoring well with ease. Maybe see if there's a way that you can optimize the way that you process information and study?

I mentioned that last bit about personality for a few reasons. I'm big on personal growth and development, for one. Being a pre-med tends to bring out the worst in people, I think. We're driven to being ultra-competitive. The irony is that most of us (ideally all) want to be doctors because we are altruistic and have pure reasons. I wonder if a number of unpleasant doctors are the way that they are because they were corrupted by the process (stresses of the job and life aside). Try not to lose yourself to the process.

Good luck, and may better things come your way.

 

[chman]

A couple points:

-If you can, treat studying like a job. Set aside specific time to study each day and stick to it. Don't let anything distract you during this time (SDN, TV, etc). You may be surprised how much you can get done.

-Take breaks and switch subjects often. If you study the same subject for hours you may reach a point that is counter productive.

-Explore different study methods. Do you like note cards, outlines, etc. That way you don't need to waste your time studying a way that does not work for you.

-Make priorities. Figure out what is important and what is not. You may find you are doing more work than needed.

-Lastly, as said, find some time to relax. You will actually be more productive.

Good luck.

 

[chman]

18, but the pre-calc credits don't really count towards graduation or anything

Are you sure? Yes it is low level, but most colleges still count it as college level.[/QUOTE]

Does anyone know if taking calc at a community college is OK by med/dental schools compared to say a science which I would imagine you shouldn't do?

If you are going to go that route, that is one of the better classes to take...IMO

 

[David1991]

It'll probably vary between medical schools, but I'd be pretty surprised if it counted against you (unless you somehow managed to take every prerequisite at the community college - some might scrutinize that).

Well I wouldn't take any sciences at a community college, but I guess I'll take Calc.

Well, you could apply during your senior year. It seems that isn't as rare an option as I'd have thought. As long as you're doing something worthwhile during that year between when you submit the application and when you ideally enter medical school, it doesn't look bad. I can certainly understand not wanting to put it off any longer than you have to, though...

Yea I don't think I'd want to wait another year to get started.

As to the college experience, it's what you make of it I suppose. College was pretty hard for me, but in hindsight I can say that I enjoyed it. Not sure that I would have wanted to do anything differently, other than choose a different major and be friendlier with professors earlier The strange thing for me was that I used to spend almost all of my time in the library studying, but my grades were crap (except for my foreign language classes, which I fought with my adviser to take). After some life changes occurred I barely set foot in the library and my study time really dropped off, yet I was scoring well with ease. Maybe see if there's a way that you can optimize the way that you process information and study?

That seems really strange, what happened that you could someone go from studying all the time to studying much less but doing better? Were the classes easier?

Out of curiosity, what was your major?

Honestly if I do well on these first exams (bio last friday, chem tomorrow, psych friday) maybe I'll just go a little easier and see what happens. The problem though is that I will not retake these courses because I see that as a huge waste of time and money, so I can't afford to just be like "OK whatever, if I get a C it's fine"...because it's not fine lol. And even if I have a 95 or something for example that doesn't seem good enough to me to just go easier because below a 94 is an A- compared to an A, so a 3.67 compared to a 4.0 GPA. And even if I could, as I mentioned above, psych and spanish are about to become much more time consuming. I must sound insane right now...

I mentioned that last bit about personality for a few reasons. I'm big on personal growth and development, for one. Being a pre-med tends to bring out the worst in people, I think. We're driven to being ultra-competitive. The irony is that most of us (ideally all) want to be doctors because we are altruistic and have pure reasons. I wonder if a number of unpleasant doctors are the way that they are because they were corrupted by the process (stresses of the job and life aside). Try not to lose yourself to the process.

Good luck, and may better things come your way.

I definitely notice the change in competitiveness. I've always wanted to score higher than others since high school but now I purposely avoid giving any help to people in my classes because I actually want them to do poorly in order for me to look better by comparison :\

 

[David1991]

A couple points:

-If you can, treat studying like a job. Set aside specific time to study each day and stick to it. Don't let anything distract you during this time (SDN, TV, etc). You may be surprised how much you can get done.

Yea I've noticed when I don't take breaks I can get a lot done but now even doing that it seems I'm never done. Like before I would get distracted with people coming in my dorm room and leaving email open all the time but now even just giving myself an hour per day and the rest of the time goes towards studying it's hard to set time limits because there's always more to do. Right now I'm probably going on almost 3 hours though with this thread lol

-Take breaks and switch subjects often. If you study the same subject for hours you may reach a point that is counter productive.

This is definitely something I find to at least mentally help. Unfortunately it seems nearly all of my work is chem and bio so it just goes between those two.

-Explore different study methods. Do you like note cards, outlines, etc. That way you don't need to waste your time studying a way that does not work for you.

I basically outline all the sciences. This is where a very large amount of the time goes but also what I feel allows me to do better than most when it comes time for exams. My notes are very extensive. For example, a pre-med girl I know showed me her notes for a bio chapter last semester, it was about 5 notebook pages about 3/4 filled each and she said it was a lot. For me 1 chapter is about 8 densely packed notepad pages filled up.

Pre-calc I take some notes but don't need to study much, spanish is kind of weird. Never been a big fan of note cards though

-Make priorities. Figure out what is important and what is not. You may find you are doing more work than needed.

-Lastly, as said, find some time to relax. You will actually be more productive.

Good luck.

1. School 2. Working out (yea, kind of a serious hobby and is something I look forward to more now than ever as it's the little time I can escape from the work) 3. social life

# 3 is what's hard to get to

Are you sure? Yes it is low level, but most colleges still count it as college level.

If you are going to go that route, that is one of the better classes to take...

Yea unfortunately they don't count it towards graduation. The "2 credits" is just there to be able to relate it to cost and how many classes you can take per semester (max of 18 credits)

 

[chman]

So how many hours a day do you study, about?

 

[David1991]

So how many hours a day do you study, about?

It's hard to say because the amount of time I'm in class varies. For example tomorrow I'll probably study maybe 3-4 hours at most because I wake up at 8am, go to classes (with 2-3 meals thrown in) until 6:30 and then go to sleep around 1am. So really there's about 6 hours not in class and all of the goes towards studying minus some general time like going to the bathroom, maybe a conversation here and there, etc..
But other days, like wednesday with only 1 class, I'll spend the entire day studying other the my workout, eating, class, and maybe an hour or so of free time.



****, I'm really pissed right now. I emailed the dean and it turns out that the spanish grades do get averaged! What the hell, he told me specifically med schools wouldn't see them. That means even if I get an A then it's the equivalent of a C and and that's 2 B's I may have been able to afford that I now have to get an A in.

 

[chman]

It's hard to say because the amount of time I'm in class varies. For example tomorrow I'll probably study maybe 3-4 hours at most because I wake up at 8am, go to classes (with 2-3 meals thrown in) until 6:30 and then go to sleep around 1am. So really there's about 6 hours not in class and all of the goes towards studying minus some general time like going to the bathroom, maybe a conversation here and there, etc..
But other days, like wednesday with only 1 class, I'll spend the entire day studying other the my workout, eating, class, and maybe an hour or so of free time.



****, I'm really pissed right now. I emailed the dean and it turns out that the spanish grades do get averaged! What the hell, he told me specifically med schools wouldn't see them. That means even if I get an A then it's the equivalent of a C and and that's 2 B's I may have been able to afford that I now have to get an A in.

Personally, I don't see why you would need to study more than 3-4 hours a day on weeks with no tests. I think you are being a little hard on yourself.

As far as the Spanish; yes that sucks, but all you can do now is move forward. One C won't kill your app. At least it is not a discipline action, that would be worse.

 

[David1991]

Personally, I don't see why you would need to study more than 3-4 hours a day on weeks with no tests. I think you are being a little hard on yourself.

I'm not sure what it is, I guess it just adds up. I realize it maybe shouldn't take so long but it just seems to. Taking notes for 1 textbook page literally takes me about 10-20 minutes to fully write down everything i think is important, like for example all the steps of how excretion works or the multiple pages on the details of cellular respiration (and from talking to others in my class it seems like I'm not alone in this aspect). So the actual note taking process takes a long time, then when it comes to studying it takes about 15 minutes per notepad page (which generally fits about 3 textbook pages worth of my notes). So I figure for a 30 page chapter that's 450 min. just to take notes, then 150 minutes to study the notes so that's 10 hours for 1 chapter. My bio class goes at a pace of about 2 chapters per week it seems so 20 hours of bio a week and that's 1 class. I wrote out an excel sheet with my schedule and basically everything I do (including time for showering, sleep, meals, etc..) and it comes out to about 55 hours of "free time" per week (yes I'm that anal about it lol, tried to be as organized as possible coming into this semester). So 20 for bio alone, then 4 other classes, general conversation, email....

As far as the Spanish; yes that sucks, but all you can do now is move forward. One C won't kill your app. At least it is not a discipline action, that would be worse.

Yea he made a point that it wouldn't be a disciplinary F but holy crap I feel sick right now. I mean it sucked before but at least once I got through a crappy semester of taking it again along with everything else it would be over with and as if it didn't happen. Now there's absolutely nothing I can do and like I said even if it doesn't kill my app I can't afford any mistakes now. Getting a B in a class is almost always easy and having the mental relief of being able to afford that was huge.

 

[Velocity]

That seems really strange, what happened that you could someone go from studying all the time to studying much less but doing better? Were the classes easier?

Out of curiosity, what was your major?

I'm not really sure that I'd say that the classes were easier. I still had no control over my schedule; I was still stuck taking two lab sciences per semester. But there were a few critical differences that occurred in my life...

1) I changed from Engineering to "pre-med." The mentality in engineering was poor. "C's get degrees" and "2.5 to survive" were often repeated, along with the idea that we were in high demand and could get a job regardless of academic performance. I also had a few professors mention that what we learned in class didn't matter, because we were "learning how to learn" and we'd have to re-learn everything for our job anyway. That was all terribly demoralizing and took away my drive to really struggle for top grades.

As a pre-med things became different. I became more competitive, focusing on material in a manner that would be applied to tests (rather than just material for education's sake). I utilized social ties to gain access to test banks maintained by honor societies, but those weren't as helpful as I'd imagined.

2) I met the woman who became my wife! She's a very disciplined studier and a very skilled test-taker. I'm sure she rubbed off on me.

3) I cleared up some family issues. I suspect this was a major drag on my performance.

I think that a lot of it was just the drive to do well. My engineering adviser once told me (correctly) that the amount of time I spent in the library wasn't actually an important factor. I wasn't totally engaged the entire time I was in there. Perhaps knowing that I'd be in there for the rest of the evening caused me to slow down a bit, as well, as I felt that there was no incentive to stay focused and get through the material at a good pace.

A lot of it is personal drive. I went from spending hours in the library and earning 2.8's for my trouble to studying less and earning 3.8's. I just hope that admissions committees are as impressed with that as I am

I definitely notice the change in competitiveness. I've always wanted to score higher than others since high school but now I purposely avoid giving any help to people in my classes because I actually want them to do poorly in order for me to look better by comparison :\

The worst I've seen was when a student told another student the wrong answer to a question intentionally, right before a test. That was one of those "premed weeder" classes where the top 15% earned A's (including A-'s). Getting someone to do worse would potentially benefit you.

I used to share my notes and resources with everyone, but as a premed I became very selective. If someone asked I'd still give them up, but I certainly wouldn't offer everything, as I might otherwise have. If I felt that someone would make a good doctor I'd still offer as much help as I could give, but I became judgmental like that.

What can I say - ideally it wouldn't be like this. Just don't forget your sense of kindness and caring entirely.

 

[chman]

I'm not sure what it is, I guess it just adds up. I realize it maybe shouldn't take so long but it just seems to. Taking notes for 1 textbook page literally takes me about 10-20 minutes to fully write down everything i think is important, like for example all the steps of how excretion works or the multiple pages on the details of cellular respiration (and from talking to others in my class it seems like I'm not alone in this aspect). So the actual note taking process takes a long time, then when it comes to studying it takes about 15 minutes per notepad page (which generally fits about 3 textbook pages worth of my notes). So I figure for a 30 page chapter that's 450 min. just to take notes, then 150 minutes to study the notes so that's 10 hours for 1 chapter. My bio class goes at a pace of about 2 chapters per week it seems so 20 hours of bio a week and that's 1 class. I wrote out an excel sheet with my schedule and basically everything I do (including time for showering, sleep, meals, etc..) and it comes out to about 55 hours of "free time" per week (yes I'm that anal about it lol, tried to be as organized as possible coming into this semester). So 20 for bio alone, then 4 other classes, general conversation, email....



Yea he made a point that it wouldn't be a disciplinary F but holy crap I feel sick right now. I mean it sucked before but at least once I got through a crappy semester of taking it again along with everything else it would be over with and as if it didn't happen. Now there's absolutely nothing I can do and like I said even if it doesn't kill my app I can't afford any mistakes now. Getting a B in a class is almost always easy and having the mental relief of being able to afford that was huge.

Don't get me wrong, there are days that I end up studying for long periods. Usually on the weekend. I don't know, just try to be as productive as possible.

 

[Morsetlis]

I never felt overwhelmed in college except when staying up late to write a lab report.

Curse labs.

 

[David1991]

I never felt overwhelmed in college except when staying up late to write a lab report.

Curse labs.

Did you have semesters with 2 lab sciences? That's what seems to make a big difference for most. I'm guessing as a pre-med you would have had to but just wondering.

Anything in particular you did to get A's while still having a social life and not studying 24/7?

 

[erskine]

I'm not sure what it is, I guess it just adds up. I realize it maybe shouldn't take so long but it just seems to. Taking notes for 1 textbook page literally takes me about 10-20 minutes to fully write down everything i think is important, like for example all the steps of how excretion works or the multiple pages on the details of cellular respiration (and from talking to others in my class it seems like I'm not alone in this aspect). So the actual note taking process takes a long time, then when it comes to studying it takes about 15 minutes per notepad page (which generally fits about 3 textbook pages worth of my notes). So I figure for a 30 page chapter that's 450 min. just to take notes, then 150 minutes to study the notes so that's 10 hours for 1 chapter. My bio class goes at a pace of about 2 chapters per week it seems so 20 hours of bio a week and that's 1 class. I wrote out an excel sheet with my schedule and basically everything I do (including time for showering, sleep, meals, etc..) and it comes out to about 55 hours of "free time" per week (yes I'm that anal about it lol, tried to be as organized as possible coming into this semester). So 20 for bio alone, then 4 other classes, general conversation, email....

this is just some advice that let me survive undergrad while participating in 2 honors programs, taking at least 2 science courses with accompanying labs every semester, 16+ credits every semester, and finishing it all in less than 3 years.

1) Go to every single lecture with the intent of learning as much as you possibly can during that hour or 2 hour interval. I constantly witness students attending lecture, only in a purely physical sense- they sit there going on their blackberries, chatting with friends, or just napping. I've never understood this- you're paying a small fortune to attend college and what's more, you should be budgeting your time in the most efficient manner. I had pretty intense course schedules every semester, but i still managed to get 7 hours of sleep every night, and at least 1-2 hours of free time every day to work out and just chill. If you nail the concepts down during lecture, that's that much less you'll have to study for.

2) In my experience, i used textbooks as references/supplements to lecture ie, thoroughly reading each chapter and going over every new piece of info was unnecessary. Generally most lecturers you have will be tenured professors doing research in that field and hence their understanding of the subject matter will generally exceed that of the books OR be more focused in one area. Hence, they often can contradict the book because they have more recent knowledge, skim over parts they think are unimportant, or introduce entirely new information as a result of their research that is not present at all in the book. I think professors also tend to focus on subject matter they bring up in lecture, as opposed to testing material stated in the textbook but never specifically mentioned during lecture, because it allows them to know who is accountable in terms of attendance. I remember one physics exam where the professor stuck a pure BS question on the exam that was extraordinarily difficult and almost impossible to get, but one that she went over in class so it was fairly easy for people who regularly attended.So in summary, lecture info >>>> textbook info

3) the laborious note-taking process you described is in my opinion unnecessary. Outside of lab reports, for my science courses i really didn't do that much homework (unless a physics problem set was due or something). After lecture, on that same day i would review the notes i took, brush up on any confusing topics and look over previous lecture notes. Probably ~30 minutes / lecture. Then when test day rolled around it might shoot up to 3-5 hours a few days before. Just read and highlight in the book.

4) DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED! These lower division bio classes and premed prerequisite classes are in my opinion tougher than the upper div stuff. Part of it is the material can be new, wheras the upper div stuff you're just building on foundations. Partly because you're adjusting to college life. And partly because of all the neurotic premeds taking these classes where you feel that you have to constantly work all the time just to stay ahead of the curve. The prereqs, especially ochem, are the weedout courses which typically have high dropout rates and harsher grading schemes because they're trying to separate the people who have a shot at medicine from the hordes who want to become doctors because they love scrubs and grey's anatomy.

 

[Morsetlis]

Did you have semesters with 2 lab sciences? That's what seems to make a big difference for most. I'm guessing as a pre-med you would have had to but just wondering.

Anything in particular you did to get A's while still having a social life and not studying 24/7?

Yeah, the double-lab quarters were the worst ones. Luckily, they're quarters.

Labs I took in college: 1 gen chem, 1 ochem, 1 physics, 1 biochem, 1 physiology. Seeing as how you have 8 semesters (or 12 quarters) in 4 years or 6 semesters (or 9 quarters) in 3 years, it is totally possible to only take at most 1 lab each semester/quarter.

I had to take the ochem and biochem ones together because of poor planning T_T.

I'm not sure why you think I needed to study to get A's, lol. I maintained >3.9 GPA for my first two years, and I got a 3.2 GPA for my last year because I didn't buy any books and didn't go to any discussion/review/office hour sessions. I'm pretty sure I could've partied every weekend and still got all A's if I studied during the week.

 

[David1991]

Erksine, thanks for typing all that up, I need to run to class so I'll get to it when I get back

Yeah, the double-lab quarters were the worst ones. Luckily, they're quarters.

Labs I took in college: 1 gen chem, 1 ochem, 1 physics, 1 biochem, 1 physiology. Seeing as how you have 8 semesters (or 12 quarters) in 4 years or 6 semesters (or 9 quarters) in 3 years, it is totally possible to only take at most 1 lab each semester/quarter.

I had to take the ochem and biochem ones together because of poor planning T_T.

I'm not sure why you think I needed to study to get A's, lol. I maintained >3.9 GPA for my first two years, and I got a 3.2 GPA for my last year because I didn't buy any books and didn't go to any discussion/review/office hour sessions. I'm pretty sure I could've partied every weekend and still got all A's if I studied during the week.

Well I think that's far from the norm. Unless it was just your particular school I don't think many can get by with a near perfect GPA without studying a lot.

As for the labs, you need to take all 8 pre-req sciences (2 chem, 2 bio, 2 orgo, 2 physics) before applying at the end of your junior year so at least 2 semesters would require 2 sciences with labs. And that's if your doing the minimum amount. I think if you want med schools to see that you took upper level sciences that you need to take them before senior year (maybe you could tell them you'd be taking them but I doubt it would have the same impact)

 

[Danlee07]

One thing I learned about when people "say they will do things." GET IT IN WRITING. Ask the dean to write down what he said in typing with a date and everything.

I actually wish I did a better job, but I had a low science prereq grades as a result of not studying. But, now, I'm just doing much more practice right after lecture and that's improved me a lot.

 

[chman]

One thing I learned about when people "say they will do things." GET IT IN WRITING.

True, especially when money is involved.

 

[tinery]

Well you're going to need to be reading it at some point right? So it seems like the end amount of time would be the same. Plus I'd probably be much more lost in the class otherwise

You could skim ahead, so that you can get an idea of what's going on in lecture, and then skim/review afterwards only the areas you were unclear about, as opposed to studying the material twice (before and after lecture).

I really appreciate all the feedback but basically, what do you think I can do other than just "not worry so much" that will help things not be so crazy? I was actually considering joining a frat just to practically force myself to have more social time but I pretty much missed the last rush by one day (thought about it last night and the rush actually began earlier in the evening)

Joining a frat would definitely NOT help you not worry so much. It would force you to have social time, but that would probably make things worse for you. You'd spend time (likely daily) trekking to your frat to socialize, and during pledging forget about studying at all. This would probably be added stress.

 

[David1991]

this is just some advice that let me survive undergrad while participating in 2 honors programs, taking at least 2 science courses with accompanying labs every semester, 16+ credits every semester, and finishing it all in less than 3 years.

1) Go to every single lecture with the intent of learning as much as you possibly can during that hour or 2 hour interval. I constantly witness students attending lecture, only in a purely physical sense- they sit there going on their blackberries, chatting with friends, or just napping. I've never understood this- you're paying a small fortune to attend college and what's more, you should be budgeting your time in the most efficient manner. I had pretty intense course schedules every semester, but i still managed to get 7 hours of sleep every night, and at least 1-2 hours of free time every day to work out and just chill. If you nail the concepts down during lecture, that's that much less you'll have to study for.

Maybe I'm expecting too much. 7 hours of sleep with 1-2 hours for working out/free time is basically what I have going on now.

2) In my experience, i used textbooks as references/supplements to lecture ie, thoroughly reading each chapter and going over every new piece of info was unnecessary. Generally most lecturers you have will be tenured professors doing research in that field and hence their understanding of the subject matter will generally exceed that of the books OR be more focused in one area. Hence, they often can contradict the book because they have more recent knowledge, skim over parts they think are unimportant, or introduce entirely new information as a result of their research that is not present at all in the book. I think professors also tend to focus on subject matter they bring up in lecture, as opposed to testing material stated in the textbook but never specifically mentioned during lecture, because it allows them to know who is accountable in terms of attendance. I remember one physics exam where the professor stuck a pure BS question on the exam that was extraordinarily difficult and almost impossible to get, but one that she went over in class so it was fairly easy for people who regularly attended.So in summary, lecture info >>>> textbook info

My dad actually told me something very similar. This kind of seems like how my biology course is but I actually even skip chem lecture sometimes because the way it's set up is that we have our textbooks, then in class we're presented a 50-70 slide powerpoint, which my professor proceeds to read from directly, so it's basically the same information 3x. I learn almost nothing in the lecture so it seems like I can save time by not going honestly. For bio though she has mentioned stuff not in the book but for the most part she mentions topics.

I find it very hard to get a grasp of what she wants though. For example as I mentioned I took very excessive notes for the first exam, then the week before it she gave us a review sheet and not only was half of what I outlined not even on the sheet but half of what was on the sheet wasn't even what she said we needed! So I had to take notes on even more and then half of what was on her review sheet wasn't even on the test!!

3) the laborious note-taking process you described is in my opinion unnecessary. Outside of lab reports, for my science courses i really didn't do that much homework (unless a physics problem set was due or something). After lecture, on that same day i would review the notes i took, brush up on any confusing topics and look over previous lecture notes. Probably ~30 minutes / lecture. Then when test day rolled around it might shoot up to 3-5 hours a few days before. Just read and highlight in the book.

So what do you do for finals? I could probably just read a chapter right before a quiz or something but I couldn't do that for 14 chapters before an exam (and actually at the end of chem 2 we take a cumulative exam of chem 1 and chem 2 together). Maybe the classes are just taught differently here? But it seems like anything in the chapter/topic is "fair game"

Honestly I don't even take notes in my classes. i mentioned how chem is taught above and with bio she basically just flies through the slides which are basically blown up pictures from the textbook. So basically what I do is find where she got the pictures in the textbook (which she doesn't tell us so I need to use the index to find everything) and then take notes on everything around the page that the picture came from, and there's about 15-20 pictures per lecture usually.

Did you get A's with just the 30 minutes or so per class? It's many hours for me per class but it seems like my friends who just "highlight the chapter/make sticky notes/skim through" all get worse grades than me.

 

[David1991]

Hm, so I brought the whole averaging grades thing to my dad and he decided to email admissions at UPitt medical school. They said:

"Hello,

We would only require an official transcript if you were to matriculate here."

That's great news but I wonder how common that is.

 

[searun]

OP, the key to a satisfying life, as a premed, and even as a med student, is balance. If your entire life revolves around your studies, then all of the joy of living will be squeezed out of you.

When I was in college, I always had a hot girl friend, I played a varsity sport, soccer, and I belonged to a fraternity, so I was always at a party on Friday or Saturday night. I studied hard, but efficiently and with 100 percent concentration, and I made time to live my life and enjoy myself with activities other than my studies. Trust me, it can be done.

Med school is even more demanding, especially third year rotations. But I found myself a hot girl friend after my first year of med school and we have alot of fun together, exploring the big eastern city where I now live and attend med school. I am really into the live music/concert scene here.

Live your life, make time for some fun and socializing. Work hard and play hard. Like I said, be efficient in how you use your time and be organized and know how to set priorities and figure out what is important and what is not important.

Letting your studies consume your entire life is a recipe for failure in my opinion.

Good luck, lighten up, and have some fun. Laugh as much as possible.

 

[SusGob711]

I am sorry you are having such a hard time...I think a lot of pre-meds underestimate how hard some of their classmates have it. The only advice I can offer is that you HAVE to work in some free time or you'll want to quit before you get to medical school. Personally, I work myself to the bone M-F and I take a morning Saturday class. I'm generally tempted to hop right into studying/hw for the remainder of my weekend but I make it a priority to do something fun at least once during my weekend, even if it's just going out to dinner (ya gotta eat). A lot of times I'm still anxious about school when I'm out, lol, but you'll have to find a balance. If all else fails remember spring break comes eventually, haha.

 

[erskine]

Maybe I'm expecting too much. 7 hours of sleep with 1-2 hours for working out/free time is basically what I have going on now.


My dad actually told me something very similar. This kind of seems like how my biology course is but I actually even skip chem lecture sometimes because the way it's set up is that we have our textbooks, then in class we're presented a 50-70 slide powerpoint, which my professor proceeds to read from directly, so it's basically the same information 3x. I learn almost nothing in the lecture so it seems like I can save time by not going honestly. For bio though she has mentioned stuff not in the book but for the most part she mentions topics.

I find it very hard to get a grasp of what she wants though. For example as I mentioned I took very excessive notes for the first exam, then the week before it she gave us a review sheet and not only was half of what I outlined not even on the sheet but half of what was on the sheet wasn't even what she said we needed! So I had to take notes on even more and then half of what was on her review sheet wasn't even on the test!!


So what do you do for finals? I could probably just read a chapter right before a quiz or something but I couldn't do that for 14 chapters before an exam (and actually at the end of chem 2 we take a cumulative exam of chem 1 and chem 2 together). Maybe the classes are just taught differently here? But it seems like anything in the chapter/topic is "fair game"

Honestly I don't even take notes in my classes. i mentioned how chem is taught above and with bio she basically just flies through the slides which are basically blown up pictures from the textbook. So basically what I do is find where she got the pictures in the textbook (which she doesn't tell us so I need to use the index to find everything) and then take notes on everything around the page that the picture came from, and there's about 15-20 pictures per lecture usually.

Did you get A's with just the 30 minutes or so per class? It's many hours for me per class but it seems like my friends who just "highlight the chapter/make sticky notes/skim through" all get worse grades than me.

can you get ahold of the lecture slides? My school uses blackboard, which is an online supplement to classes where professors can post lecture slides, readings, etc.... If not, try emailing her. At least try to take notes during class since i feel it aids in retention and is infinitely more valuable than notes from textbooks, which you can just directly read from.

It does take awhile to become an efficient note taker- i remember for ochem, where we went over so many damn reactions and synthesis problems that i could fill 4 sheets of notebook paper front and back in a single 50 minute lecture. Just copy main ideas down; not the lecture verbatim. I guess, you just have to cultivate an ear for what is significant and what is not.

Maybe also form a study group with other smart, dedicated people. Definitely go to any exam review sessions, or office hours before exams, that your professors hold since they can give out review guides or focus your studies.

Generally, all my exams could include textbook material to be fair game as well, but i've never had a test where a professor included some obscure, random detail from the textbook that wasn't in the lecture. Everything was at least mentioned in lecture once. If it's mentioned frequently throughout lecture, then you should definitely attribute it as being important in the professor's mind and likely to show up on the exam.

I definitely know your feeling of being overwhelmed, though. It took me a while to figure out the college grading system and how different it is from high school. I was able to do extremely well (gpa above 3.9 both bcpm and cumulative) and i've never considered myself "smart" but more dedicated than other students and more efficient at studying.

For each science lecture (which meet 2-3 times a week) i would
-briefly skim the topic (ie just look at the chapter headings, chapter summaries) maybe 10 minutes before a lecture.
-go throughout lecture and take efficient, concise notes
-then that day, or the next i would review those notes, look up confusing topics, and look back at previous lectures so i don't forget anything for ~30 minutes.
The object here is to keep everything fresh in your mind, in regards to how the major topics interrelate. Then when exam rolls around, you just have to focus on the small details, like the names of proteins in a particular cascade or the specific solvents needed to carry out a reaction. On the weekends, sometimes i would spend sat morning just looking back over all the past weeks' lectures.

Final exams were the only times i was tested on more than 14 chapters of info, which thankfully happen at the end of the semester where you have at least a few stop days. But my methods were still the same- give priority to whatever review sheet your professor gives you, then review using primarily lecture notes and the book as a supplement.

damn i wrote a lot- hope this is useful.

 

[erskine]

i would say just go to chem lecture- you're paying for it, you might as well learn what she's saying rather than teaching yourself with the book, and you never know when she might break with the pattern and show something actually useful. My philosophy is to try and learn everything during lecture and make homework minimal. I've always felt its also a good idea to get to know your professors, at least have them able to recognize you. Even though some might constitute this as academic dishonesty, if they recognize and like you they'll be more willing to meet you halfway if you feel a grading error was made on your exam, or nudge you up to the next grade if you're straddling the no-man's land between B+ and A-.

 

[David1991]

OP, the key to a satisfying life, as a premed, and even as a med student, is balance. If your entire life revolves around your studies, then all of the joy of living will be squeezed out of you.

When I was in college, I always had a hot girl friend, I played a varsity sport, soccer, and I belonged to a fraternity, so I was always at a party on Friday or Saturday night. I studied hard, but efficiently and with 100 percent concentration, and I made time to live my life and enjoy myself with activities other than my studies. Trust me, it can be done.

Med school is even more demanding, especially third year rotations. But I found myself a hot girl friend after my first year of med school and we have alot of fun together, exploring the big eastern city where I now live and attend med school. I am really into the live music/concert scene here.

Live your life, make time for some fun and socializing. Work hard and play hard. Like I said, be efficient in how you use your time and be organized and know how to set priorities and figure out what is important and what is not important.

Letting your studies consume your entire life is a recipe for failure in my opinion.

Good luck, lighten up, and have some fun. Laugh as much as possible.

I read this and I'm thinking "Yea he's right, definitely" but I don't know what I would do to change it. I can make myself more social which I think I should do but as far as studying less, I don't see it as an option if I want to get A's. For instance I had my chem test today, I felt ****ty about my performance but literally every single person I talked to afterwards didn't get to finish so I'm thinking, OK that really sucked, so if I study less I'll be in an even worse position.

It seems though, that if I were to have things specifically scheduled in, I would somehow find the time and make it happen. That's a big part of why I thought of joining a frat and now I'm wishing I did because I would basically be required to build up my low social life (which, like I mentioned, is only low because of how busy I am so it's not my normal personality). I appreciate the post though, and I think I will have to make myself go out more even if I don't necessarily want to at the time so I can socialize more.

I am sorry you are having such a hard time...I think a lot of pre-meds underestimate how hard some of their classmates have it. The only advice I can offer is that you HAVE to work in some free time or you'll want to quit before you get to medical school. Personally, I work myself to the bone M-F and I take a morning Saturday class. I'm generally tempted to hop right into studying/hw for the remainder of my weekend but I make it a priority to do something fun at least once during my weekend, even if it's just going out to dinner (ya gotta eat). A lot of times I'm still anxious about school when I'm out, lol, but you'll have to find a balance. If all else fails remember spring break comes eventually, haha.

I pretty much figured I'd try to get ahead over spring break lol

At one point my dad had a new kid (my older brother), ran a business, and was in law school and I always think "damn that's pretty intense" and he mentioned that even with that he would make himself take off from saturday evening until sunday morning.

I don't know if the same applies to me though given I give myself 1 hour or so everyday anyway rather than a bunch of time on one specific day.

 

[David1991]

can you get ahold of the lecture slides? My school uses blackboard, which is an online supplement to classes where professors can post lecture slides, readings, etc.... If not, try emailing her. At least try to take notes during class since i feel it aids in retention and is infinitely more valuable than notes from textbooks, which you can just directly read from.

Yea we have access to all the slides. Like I mentioned though the chem slides come directly from the book and the bio slides are blown up figured from the book so they're really just for 1. helping the professor teach the class and 2. I guess for those who don't take notes from the textbook like I do. I could maybe get away with just reading the chapter and studying the slides instead of taking notes on it all, but I feel like I wouldn't understand it as well. The slides don't cover everything. I'd definitely be willing to try it as it would definitely be a huge time saver but I pretty much bombed my first chem exam today (along with the entire class...pretty ridiculous actually lol)

It does take awhile to become an efficient note taker- i remember for ochem, where we went over so many damn reactions and synthesis problems that i could fill 4 sheets of notebook paper front and back in a single 50 minute lecture. Just copy main ideas down; not the lecture verbatim. I guess, you just have to cultivate an ear for what is significant and what is not.

Maybe also form a study group with other smart, dedicated people. Definitely go to any exam review sessions, or office hours before exams, that your professors hold since they can give out review guides or focus your studies.

Generally, all my exams could include textbook material to be fair game as well, but i've never had a test where a professor included some obscure, random detail from the textbook that wasn't in the lecture. Everything was at least mentioned in lecture once. If it's mentioned frequently throughout lecture, then you should definitely attribute it as being important in the professor's mind and likely to show up on the exam.

I definitely know your feeling of being overwhelmed, though. It took me a while to figure out the college grading system and how different it is from high school. I was able to do extremely well (gpa above 3.9 both bcpm and cumulative) and i've never considered myself "smart" but more dedicated than other students and more efficient at studying.

I feel the same way, I don't feel like I'm naturally gifted with intelligence (although my parents thing otherwise ) but I'm just extremely dedicated to my goals. I guess I really just need to start trying to figure out what is important but it's very hard depending on the subject. For instance on this chem exam it was all problems to work through and any of the equations were fair game. Well there were literally about 40 equations, probably one every 1-3 pages so you pretty much had to know it all and be able to relate them.

For each science lecture (which meet 2-3 times a week) i would
-briefly skim the topic (ie just look at the chapter headings, chapter summaries) maybe 10 minutes before a lecture.
-go throughout lecture and take efficient, concise notes
-then that day, or the next i would review those notes, look up confusing topics, and look back at previous lectures so i don't forget anything for ~30 minutes.
The object here is to keep everything fresh in your mind, in regards to how the major topics interrelate. Then when exam rolls around, you just have to focus on the small details, like the names of proteins in a particular cascade or the specific solvents needed to carry out a reaction. On the weekends, sometimes i would spend sat morning just looking back over all the past weeks' lectures.

Final exams were the only times i was tested on more than 14 chapters of info, which thankfully happen at the end of the semester where you have at least a few stop days. But my methods were still the same- give priority to whatever review sheet your professor gives you, then review using primarily lecture notes and the book as a supplement.

damn i wrote a lot- hope this is useful.

Yea it is a lot lol but also useful. What you're describing seems so efficient, but the potential risk is what prevents me from doing/trying it. I mean I take excessively extensive notes and even doing so I sometimes can't pull off a high A. So by just reviewing certain topics you've found you can still get all A's? I mean there's no doubt in my mind that I could read through a chapter and understand it without even taking notes, but then 4 weeks later when I've learned 3 other chapters it would all become a mess in my head unless I took specific notes. Especially Bio, I remember when reading through the steps that every single sentence contained what seemed like an important fact that could be tested. It turned out the test was actually more general so I guess that's something to learn from. (which is why I didn't take ridiculous notes on things like glycolysis and the citric acid cycle, but rather just the main ideas).

One thing I did near the end of my last bio unit, because I was just so tired of all the outlining and studying, was just writing down the little "review" it gave in the back. This was about 3 times as fast, and given my knowledge from AP bio this actually worked out well since it was about DNA, a pretty common topic I already had some background knowledge about. I guess that's something I can try out more in the future.

i would say just go to chem lecture- you're paying for it, you might as well learn what she's saying rather than teaching yourself with the book, and you never know when she might break with the pattern and show something actually useful. My philosophy is to try and learn everything during lecture and make homework minimal. I've always felt its also a good idea to get to know your professors, at least have them able to recognize you. Even though some might constitute this as academic dishonesty, if they recognize and like you they'll be more willing to meet you halfway if you feel a grading error was made on your exam, or nudge you up to the next grade if you're straddling the no-man's land between B+ and A-.

I've noticed this as well and tend to try to "make friends" with all of my professors because of it. Chem in my class really is taught straight from the slides (unlike last semester where my prof did exactly what you mentioned and would state unrelated but tested material only in the lecture so it was important then). For the most part though I will be going though

 

[TX515]

David, I just wanted to caution you from burning out and bring to your attention the demands medical school and residency will bring. You have been complaining of one semester of sacrifice. Now turn that into 12 years. It does all add up and I'd like to say, there is no shame in doing something else that will make you happier.

 

[David1991]

David, I just wanted to caution you from burning out and bring to your attention the demands medical school and residency will bring. You have been complaining of one semester of sacrifice. Now turn that into 12 years. It does all add up and I'd like to say, there is no shame in doing something else that will make you happier.

Residency doesn't seem too bad, in the sense that your not writing things up and studying, but working long hours. Plus I plan on going into dentistry so only 1 year of residency

I do realize medical/dental school will be very hard, I guess I was wondering if what I'm going through is typical and if there's changes I can make to make it more tolerable, and it seems I got many answers about just that.

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Although I'm sure things will still be rough I'm going to make a point out of trying to get out more when there is some free time and also trying to be more efficient in my note taking and studying and seeing if there are unnecessary things I can get rid of.