Non-trad M2 here sending good vibes to all of you! One thing that I don't see mentioned a lot is how crucial the wise expenditure of your mental energy is to your success. Medical school requires a TON of mental energy, so using your mental energy efficiently can help a lot. Here is what I have learned:
1. Obsessing over how hard it is = bad use of mental energy. Of course it's hard, and I have plenty of days where I feel dumb as hell. But I find it easier to to have a mindset of "it is my JOB to figure this out." As anyone who has had a job knows, when you have a job you show up and do your job well. It doesn't matter how you feel about it, or if it's difficult. You do your job. If you were a divorce lawyer I am certain you know how to put your emotions aside and do your job. In medical school, your job is to learn a ton of stuff and figure out concepts. So think less about how hard it is and focus on knowing your stuff.
2. Definitely look into third party resources as others have said! Sketchy for micro/pharm, Pathoma/Boards and Beyond for pathology, and UWorld/Amboss for practice questions. And Anking every day. The power of Anking is that it you can do cards based on Sketchy, Pathoma, Boards, UWorld, etc. This means you do not waste mental energy trying to think about whether you need to review something. Anking tells you what you need to review, so you spend your mental energy learning your stuff, not going trying to remember to review stuff.
3. If you are using third party resources, sitting there thinking "was this concept in the lecture?" = bad use of mental energy, especially if your school has NBME exams (if your exams are in house, you'll need to rely on lectures more). If you know a disease or bug wasn't covered in lectures then sure, don't do those cards. But if you watch a Pathoma video on something that mentions a detail about a disease that wasn't covered in lecture, just do the damn Anking cards. Learning a few extra facts (within reason) is a FAR better use of your mental energy than sitting there thinking "do I need to know this?" Chances are, even if you don't need to know it now you might need to in a week. And if not then, then you'll need to know it for Step. Now, I don't lose sleep over stuff not emphasized in lectures, but putting in a little extra effort to familiarize yourself with a concept on the front end will pay off hugely on the back end.
Edited to add: try to develop a self-awareness of when you are and aren't in a good mental space to study, and use that to your advantage. If your brain is fried and you're hangry, DO NOT spend 2 more hours trying to study. You will have wasted 2 hours where you studied badly and didn't rest. Instead, stop what you are doing and do what you need to do to rest/recuperate. And try to align your most high-yield studying to the part of the day when you are feeling the most rested/fed/alert. For me, that means doing new Sketchy/Pathoma/Boards videos and their associated Anking cards in the morning after breakfast. Same deal with UWorld. It would be a terrible waste of UWorld if I did it at 4:30pm when I'm tired and hungry.
And finally, if you got into medical school that means you deserve to be there 🙂 Part of being resilient is learning how to keep going even when you feel super dumb. So stick with it, try different third party resources, and don't be afraid to ask for help. You will continuously adapt as time goes on!
