First year of med school so far... holy crap!

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MagicDrumSticks

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How, this is definetly a lot harder than I thought but it's quite interesting. Only thing is I don't know what the hell is going on in bio chem, someone help me out >_<
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It only gets worse.. Lol.. or so they say.
 
MagicDrumSticks said:
How, this is definetly a lot harder than I thought but it's quite interesting. Only thing is I don't know what the hell is going on in bio chem, someone help me out >_<
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I came in expecting to get killed, but so far i have been pleasantly suprised...but we shall see.
 
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I'm in survival mode.......something tells me it may last for a few years.
 
Enjoy first year for what it is... believe me when I say that they can pile more information on you at a time, and its called 2nd year. It isn't harder per se, but definatley more material at a time (which is hard to think about when you are in the beginning of 1st year drowning in notes). Its also more interesting to me so that helps.

Don't worry though, first year gets you in a hyper-learning mode that makes the transition easier.
 
FrickenhugeMD said:
Enjoy first year for what it is... believe me when I say that they can pile more information on you at a time, and its called 2nd year. It isn't harder per se, but definatley more material at a time (which is hard to think about when you are in the beginning of 1st year drowning in notes). Its also more interesting to me so that helps.

Don't worry though, first year gets you in a hyper-learning mode that makes the transition easier.
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Each year they up the ante. Second year they up the pace and the volume when you don't think that its possible. Third year they expect you to work in the hospital to the point of exhaustion and still come home and study to pass your shelfs and to read up on your patients and to make sure you don't look stupid during a pimp session. I've just come to accept that whatever they ask of me, I'll be capable of, so I don't panic anymore when it seems like they are asking the impossible. I wasted alot of time during first year worrying about how I wasn't going to be able to keep up that could have been spent much better.
 
So far though I must say second year >>>>>> first year

at least the things are interesting nowadays, so I don't mind reading about drugs/diseases/bugs, etc
 
I'll reserve judgement until the end of the semester.
 
Okay, I admit that I've been lazier than a slug these past few days.
 
The truth of the matter is that with every year it gets harder.

Med school has the academic part as being difficult. Residency also requires you to study + work + pass licensing exam.

From my experience things appear easier b/c you are more familiar with the system and more or less used to the stress. But you always feel like you're one step away from failing out.
 
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I thought things were going fine, and then I saw my biochem grade :thumbdown: talk about fulfilling a nightmare, the nightmare score I dreamt of last night came true for that class - fortunately other classes are fine (so far), and we had 6 exams in one day and I was just not motivated for bchem, but now I certainly am.

I like med school material, I find it interesting, but sometimes I wonder if I'm really smart enough for this.
 
sunset823 said:
I like med school material, I find it interesting, but sometimes I wonder if I'm really smart enough for this.
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You wouldn't be there if you weren't bud. I always look at it that way, and the fact that MANY people before me made it through.
 
Cp22kjer said:
You wouldn't be there if you weren't bud. I always look at it that way, and the fact that MANY people before me made it through.
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That is true. And the funny thing is I got the highest grade in my class in embryology, and scored at least 80% in four other exams. I feel that wouldn't happen if I wasn't smart enough? Biochem/chemistry of any kind is just a thorn in my side. Oh well, just gonna have to buck up and kill the next exam for that class, even if I have to study nothing but biochem for the next 3 weeks.

To the OP's earlier question, is there any good review material for biochem? I'm using Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews (admittedly, didn't read it enough in depth for this exam), but wondering if anything else is out there that is really useful for the M1 biochem class, especially for someone trying to move up from a low start *cough**cough*. Thanks.
 
I hate the constant feeling that I should be compelled to study but honestly...it EASILY beats working for a living.
 
Yeah...first year has a pervasive feeling of uselessness about it, and that made me hate it a lot. Knowing that everything other than phys comprises a grand total of 5% of Step 1 questions didn't exactly help my motivation, either. As mentioned, second year is definitely more intense, but learning things that might actually matter is a refreshing change, even if they come at you 50% faster.
 
sunset823 said:
I thought things were going fine, and then I saw my biochem grade :thumbdown: talk about fulfilling a nightmare, the nightmare score I dreamt of last night came true for that class - fortunately other classes are fine (so far), and we had 6 exams in one day and I was just not motivated for bchem, but now I certainly am.

I like med school material, I find it interesting, but sometimes I wonder if I'm really smart enough for this.
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I'm a classmate of yours... remember when I spoke with you guys at orientation and how the first round of exams will kick your behind? :oops:

This is exactly how they do it - and they do it to get you in gear. By this time most of the students have slacked in studying because it's a lot of review from undergrad courses, but the volume is just so much to handle. A bit of "sink or swim" philosophy, and it allows you to figure out your strengths/weaknesses in your study habits.

I promise you, it will be never be this hard again on test day for the rest of the year (if you prepare adequately). No more 6-exam days, at worst 2-3.

Congrats on your embryo success, most find that to be the worst course of the fall semester!
 
Random MS said:
I'm a classmate of yours... remember when I spoke with you guys at orientation and how the first round of exams will kick your behind? :oops:

This is exactly how they do it - and they do it to get you in gear. By this time most of the students have slacked in studying because it's a lot of review from undergrad courses, but the volume is just so much to handle. A bit of "sink or swim" philosophy, and it allows you to figure out your strengths/weaknesses in your study habits.

I promise you, it will be never be this hard again on test day for the rest of the year (if you prepare adequately). No more 6-exam days, at worst 2-3.

Congrats on your embryo success, most find that to be the worst course of the fall semester!
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Thanks for the advice - I don't think I actually showed up the M2 panel, too much going on that week, sorry :) Yeah, I figured that it was a wake up call, it certainly was to me since I took BChem in undergrad. I think I just took it for granted and put way more effort into other classes because I had never had them before as a non-science major (unlike some of my bio major classmates). And that certainly came back to bite me.

And yeah, my embryo grade puts me into a good position in two ways 1) I know that studying the day before the exam (from scratch) is high-yield for that class lol and 2) since the second biochem and embryo exams are scheduled together, I'm going to put 95% of my effort into biochem and <5% into embryo cuz it won't take much for me to pass (admittedly, I would like the idea of going for the O, but not failing bchem is more important)
 
It hasn't gotten too hard on my end yet. Nothing is hard to understand, there's just a lot more to it. Of course, I still haven't started neurosciences, biochem, or physio yet...
 
Quidbert said:
To the OP, you could try reading Goljan Biochem. Its only ~ 250 pages of easy to read text. I didn't understand biochem well when I first took it in undergarrad or during 1st year. I read this book prior to Step 1 and never felt better about the subject.

Though, as you can see from comments on Amazon, some people think it's better for the boards than the class because it's best at tying things together with path/pharm/micro. But I still think it gives you a nice big picture look at biochem that I never got from my medical school classes.

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Review-Biochemistry-STUDENT-CONSULT/dp/0323044379/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
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Hey thanks! I bought Lippincott's Illustrated reviews but it was hard to read for me.

Any tips on what books are "easy to read" for our other classes? for anat and phys?

I REALLY just care about learning the material, not scores, undergrad is over now and I don't want to read books with extensive and redundant detail.

sunset823 said:
I thought things were going fine, and then I saw my biochem grade :thumbdown: talk about fulfilling a nightmare, the nightmare score I dreamt of last night came true for that class - fortunately other classes are fine (so far), and we had 6 exams in one day and I was just not motivated for bchem, but now I certainly am.

I like med school material, I find it interesting, but sometimes I wonder if I'm really smart enough for this.
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Thank god I'm not the only one. After the first 2 weeks I really wanted to cry and was telling myself that I don't think I'm cut for this. But then I found out my classmates were experiencing the same thing, nobody likes to talk about it though.

TMP-SMX said:
Biochem sucks. Get what you can from it and get out. I had 2 biochem questions on Step 1.
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That's it? I hear Step 1 has a lot of biochem man.

ensuii said:
I hate the constant feeling that I should be compelled to study but honestly...it EASILY beats working for a living.
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This is what my parents say but sometimes I have doubts, especially since I see my friends starting out at 60k jobs and stuff, they are always out having fun and stuff while I'm stuck studying my ass off, reassure me that it gets better down the line!
 
1. Medical school is actually pretty fun.
2. Pleasantly surprised about the workload. 8 hours/day and you're good.
3. Block style curriculum is where its at... the firehose analogy still applies, but its all coming at you from one direction.
4. WAAAY beats a real job. We practically set our own hours.
5. I feel lucky to be where I am.
 
MagicDrumSticks said:
That's it? I hear Step 1 has a lot of biochem man.
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It probably varies by test. I spoke with someone recently who said they had very little Biochem on their Step 1 this past summer.
 
It's better than having a real job. Just keep at it. Consider yourself to be greatness gestating .
 
If you consider nutrition to be biochemistry then yes there is slightly more on Step 1. Otherwise, it is still not that important. There is also genetics that you can consider the biochemical basis of for diseases but that is just pure memorization of the deficient enzyme and the substrate. Lastly, there is a lot of pharmacology, so in a way you can consider that biochem also. All in all, the pathways (which is what makes biochemistry suck) are not that important at all. About all you need to know is that the answer is HMG CoA reductase.
 
TMP-SMX said:
If you consider nutrition to be biochemistry then yes there is slightly more on Step 1. Otherwise, it is still not that important. There is also genetics that you can consider the biochemical basis of for diseases but that is just pure memorization of the deficient enzyme and the substrate. Lastly, there is a lot of pharmacology, so in a way you can consider that biochem also. All in all, the pathways (which is what makes biochemistry suck) are not that important at all. About all you need to know is that the answer is HMG CoA reductase.
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I had a lot more biochem on step 1 than that. It does vary widely, but you never know what you're going to get. I had a lot more biochem than I expected.
 
Cp22kjer said:
It probably varies by test. I spoke with someone recently who said they had very little Biochem on their Step 1 this past summer.
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actually, no it doesn't vary by test. biochem is barely tested at all on step 1.
 
Well I'm at Med school in India because I didn't have the money for school back in the states. It's unfortunate but it has to be done.

Therefore, I'm EXTREMELY worried about my steps because I want to get into top residencies like Derm or something, even if that's not possible, I still want to do stellar on the Steps to keep doors open.

Someone please tell me how I should be studying with the MLE in mind because I don't care about doing well on the Indian Medical Exams, it's not like it's going to matter as much as the MLE.
 
MagicDrumSticks said:
Well I'm at Med school in India because I didn't have the money for school back in the states. It's unfortunate but it has to be done.

Therefore, I'm EXTREMELY worried about my steps because I want to get into top residencies like Derm or something, even if that's not possible, I still want to do stellar on the Steps to keep doors open.

Someone please tell me how I should be studying with the MLE in mind because I don't care about doing well on the Indian Medical Exams, it's not like it's going to matter as much as the MLE.
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Loans??? That's what most of my colleagues are doing :confused:

Being an FMG is going to make it EXTREMELY difficult to match into a US derm residency, so prepare yourself for an uphill battle at best. Best of luck to you
 
whoever was asking about easy to read books...get the "Made ridiculously simple" series. They have one for nearly every med skool subject
 
1st year hasn't been that bad for me yet, but this test block is definitely harder than the first, mostly because our exams are back to back. I think what has helped me is I developed good study/preparation techniques during undergrad. I'm NOT a good crammer, never have, never will.

I usually go home after class and review what we did that day, then go over it several times until the test. Our professors call it "spatial repetition" lol.

My sleeping habits are also much better than in undergrad. I'm usually asleep by 11:30PM and up at 6:30 most days, as opposed to bed at 2-3AM and up at 10-11AM schedule of undergrad. I haven't had to pull late night study sessions yet *knocks on wood*

I think that slashing the time I drink/party/barhop by 70% also helped me. I think it has something to do with less alcohol consumption :laugh:
 
Anyone else starting to have trouble with discerning left from right in real life because of anatomy?
 
engineeredout said:
Anyone else starting to have trouble with discerning left from right in real life because of anatomy?
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Wait until Neuro. Neuroscience is by far the most difficult thing Ive done in my entire life. You wont be able to discern not only right from left, but up from down in Neuro.
 
DiverDoc said:
Wait until Neuro. Neuroscience is by far the most difficult thing Ive done in my entire life. You wont be able to discern not only right from left, but up from down in Neuro.
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Patient comes in because he fell while walking. He had a blue crayon in his right hand and a pencil in his left. What does he have??

Clinical Neuro sucked. :rolleyes:
 
ChiDO said:
Patient comes in because he fell while walking. He had a blue crayon in his right hand and a pencil in his left. What does he have??

Clinical Neuro sucked. :rolleyes:
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Then, once you go through all the trouble to figure out the cause, there's not even a treatment for most things other than referral to neurosurgery or palliation of symptoms.
 
TMP-SMX said:
Biochem sucks. Get what you can from it and get out. I had 2 biochem questions on Step 1.
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I like biochem more than I like cell bio...who gives a damn about p53! :mad::mad::mad:
 
TMP-SMX said:
If you consider nutrition to be biochemistry then yes there is slightly more on Step 1. Otherwise, it is still not that important. There is also genetics that you can consider the biochemical basis of for diseases but that is just pure memorization of the deficient enzyme and the substrate. Lastly, there is a lot of pharmacology, so in a way you can consider that biochem also. All in all, the pathways (which is what makes biochemistry suck) are not that important at all. About all you need to know is that the answer is HMG CoA reductase.
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Damn that enzyme...I confused it with another my biochem exam today:mad:
 
riceman04 said:
I like biochem more than I like cell bio...who gives a damn about p53! :mad::mad::mad:
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One of our professors described it as the "Guardian of the cell." I liked that, because now I just picture it like a type of terminator. T-800 defended John Connor, and the p53 defends our cells :) Whatever helps to remember it I guess, ha
 
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