flunk out, leave of absence or suck it up

[ziffy 850]

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I'm always writing in about having trouble with courses. Guess what-surprise-this year is no different. I could possibly fail pharm, along with 2 other classes that I'm on the brink of trouble. This whole situation is weird because I've never had academic trouble before, but seem to be having trouble just memorizing everything. It's just overwhelming. I get the concepts, but the details are killing me. What am I doing wrong??
Anyway, think I should take a leave??suck it up and try to stick it out??(but maybe not doing well on my boards) .

 

[The Pill Counter]

When I tried to learn anatomy last year, it was pure short term memorisation for the exam with little understanding, even if I tried. Over time, revisiting the subject, I've found it easier to re-read and understand the subject matter as if I had a greater insight I wasn't privied to before. Taking a break from a read-through and revisiting it later can cause a lot of light bulbs to spontaneously flash. I guess the point is, true understanding cannot be rushed.

 

[ziffy 850]

thanks for that insight. I agree with you, but sometimes time is just not there to revisit. No one else in my class seems to have my kind of trouble, and I don't want to sound cocky, especially since I've been totally humbled, bordering on humiliated, but I suspect I may have even been a stronger undergrad student than most. Is it possible that some people cannot do this type of learning? or is it that I just haven't figured out what to do? For instance, do you guys study EVERYTHING or go by a USMLE outline or something?😕

 

[mi79]

First off, I guarantee that you are not the only person having these problems. I too was a stellar undergrad student and am struggling with pretty much every course in second year. I had a great deal of personal problems to iron out this year so started therapy which has been difficult but am moving in the right direction. My philosophy is that second year is tough regardless.

First off, your classmates are probably struggling but may have too much pride to show it. Next off, you have put so much into the pursuit to become a doc, dont give up now. This may sound flowery, but life is not perfect. You might have struggles now and end up better in the end and someone else may be better now and end up having struggles later. Dont worry about other people and they're performance...focus on SELF IMPROVEMENT! Med schl and its struggles make u stronger. To me, being a doc would be the greatest proffession...u get paid to really help people.

Dont listen to the bs people may tell u about how smart they might be. If you have outside problems, get help in a timely manner. If you need time off, take it, fix what is wrong, and get back into the game. Let me know if you need more advise.

 

[care bear]

i don't wanna hijack your thread, but yeah. . .i am having similar problems, except that i am a first year so i have less invested in a sense. . .in any case, i have decided to take a leave and come back next fall and join the new class. i was also shocked and embarrased by my performance (anatomy is the trouble) since i was always known to be 'smart', etc. . .and i know that was the case for everyone in med school. . .but it just hits you hard when a situation like this evolves. guess all i'm saying is hang in there and figure out what's best for you. . .
as for me, i hope it makes me more determined to excel and not just drift by on the 'laurels' of my past accomplishments . . .cause they've pretty much been torn down now! well, just wanted to lend a voice and say you're not alone.
and i know EXACTLY what you mean abt 'concepts' vs 'details'. . that is exactly my problem. i love the small group things where we have to figure stuff out, but i just have floundered when it comes to sitting down and memorizing. . .gonna keep working on that. take care! and try not to be embarrased by any choices you decide to make, i think pride can often be our worst enemy.

 

[Samoa]

Regarding your options, let's consider them:

a) flunking out

You've probably put way too much time and effort into this to let yourself flunk out. The only scenario in which this might be the best option is if you're doing this for someone else whom, for whatever reason, you can't confront about the fact that this is not what you want to do.

b) leave of absence

This might be a good option, but you need to think about what you would gain from it. Are you having problems in your personal life that will resolve with time? If so, this is definitely the way to go. You do yourself and your future patients a disservice by attempting to learn this material when you can't really focus on it.

Or do you feel that this is a problem with your ability to learn at this level? If so, the cause could be a learning disability, or it could be that you never really learned how to learn things--you only know how to memorize, and you're so smart that you were able to get all this way without stumbling.

I suspect it's the latter, which is very impressive. However, memorization doesn't work for this kind of material, and taking a leave of absence will solve very little. I don't know enough about how you study to help you, but you may want to visit your campus study skills center (whatever they call it there), and get some help.

What I've learned so far about studying medicine is that it's all very visual. You have to picture in your mind what's happening in the body, instead of just trying to memorize words about it. It's very strange, but when you truly understand the concept, even the details are easy to remember because they follow logically. If you're struggling with that part of it, your weakness may be in logical reasoning rather than study skills. And if you were able just to memorize everything in college rather than reason through to the answer, that may explain your situation. The people at your school can probably help you with this as well.

c) suck it up

I don't think this is the answer either. Figure out the problem, and then ask for help with it.

 

[divinemsm]

I hate anatomy......I REALLY HATE ANATOMY.........I feel you on the memorization problem....to me it's PROOF that you don't have to be smart to become a physician....just have the ability to amass massive amounts of, what in essence are, information lists. I lack this ability, and am suffering big time. You are already midway through second year.....don't abandon your plans for this temporary setback....... It's almost over !

 

[erininseattle]

Have you thought of expanding your 2nd year into two years? At my school (U.Washington) students have the option of expanding either the first or second year (most people who choose this expand second year). At my school you take half the classes (which is still considered full time) one year and half the next. You might approach the administration and see if this is an option.

 

[gwyn779]

I am just like you, great at concepts, absolutely suck at memorizing f***ing little details. I struggled through the first 2 years w/ several conversations w/ the dean and indivdual professors, but I just kept trying new ways of studying and I didn't give up. I made it through Step 1 and did ok. Now I'm in 3rd year and it's so much better. We still have those stupid multiple-choice exams at the end of rotations, and they're still bringing my grades down, but I'm happier and I'm doing better. You're hardly the only one going through this. I've discovered that med students in general are liars when it comes to grades and how much they work. Don't pay attention to your classmates. I guess the biggest question you have to answer is how much would a leave of absence help? For me, I didn't think it would really make a difference, so I kept going.

 

[Megalofyia]

Originally posted by erininseattle
Have you thought of expanding your 2nd year into two years? At my school (U.Washington) students have the option of expanding either the first or second year (most people who choose this expand second year). At my school you take half the classes (which is still considered full time) one year and half the next. You might approach the administration and see if this is an option.

Does this affect residency options later?

 

[jbish]

I'd say no (that it won't mess up your residency chances). In my mom's class (Creighton 1998) I know two people took five years (expanded first year into two) and one took six (had two kids while in med school..that'll do it!) years. All three got residencies they wanted so I can't see that it is too much of a problem.

 

[lattimer13]

Originally posted by jbish
I'd say no (that it won't mess up your residency chances). In my mom's class (Creighton 1998) I know two people took five years (expanded first year into two) and one took six (had two kids while in med school..that'll do it!) years. All three got residencies they wanted so I can't see that it is too much of a problem.

out of curiosity, what were their residencies in?

 

[leorl]

Hi, I know this doesn't exactly help the problem at hand, but have you ever tried really short concise review books? It helps you get the very important concepts very quickly. For instance, Medical Pharmacology at a Glance is great for pharm. As far as memorizing drugs and stuff, that's just something you're going to have to get stuck in and memorize cuz at the end of the day, we will need it for practice. I know time is short now, but making flashcards really helps just even for quick short term memory. Or making stupid pnemonics (I wanna B LIke mike for remembering that Lidocaine is a class Ib antiarrhythmic)

 

[BiggMann79]

As long as these type of threads come up, I want to do what I can to encourage.

Last year I was in a very similar situation. I was going into med school with MCAT scores significantly higher than our class average, so I was feeling pretty good about myself, until the first test that is. Made it through the first block of cell biology and biochemistry with a C and B, respectively. I really had hoped to do a lot better though. Then we started gross and microanatomy, and thats when it got ugly. Like many that hate gross I'm more of a logical thinker who likes to solve problems and learn concepts. I saw rote memorization as a lower form of learning and hated classes that required it. I loved physiology but hated anatomy as you might guess.

Anyway, long story short. I barely passed microanatomy with a VERY borderline D and flunked gross anatomy quite badly, out of 8 tests I only passed two (upper limb written and practical with very low C's). I was very depressed at the time and started going to see the psychiatrist in student mental health. I took a leave of absence in order to get myself in order.

I returned to school this Fall in order to retake gross anatomy. At the moment I am #1 in the class and although I don't know the results of my last test (thorax and abdomen) yet I am very confident that I got A's on both the written and practical. My scores on the thorax and abdomen test last year were 52% on the written and 36% on the practical.

I say all of this not to brag, as that is the last thing I want to do any more (it's amazing what flunking out of med school will do for humility), but to encourage others who are in the same boat as I was last year.

I could give more specific advice about studying, but I also want to say that if there is any chance that you might be depressed or other personal problems effecting your ability to learn get some help.

If it take a leave of absence, then by all means do it. I'm very glad I did, it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me.

 

[Joe Joe on da Radio]

i think a deaccelerated course load sounds like it would be the best option for you. a leave of absence will serve no purpose if you come back the following year and have NOT changed your study habits/skills.

-jj

 

[medstud.ro]

dude i'm on the fifth year right now and still hard to get every thing and to memorize all details,,
and knowledge needs time
(remember we have a short and long term memory )
and the longer you take to learn the harder to forget


the best way ,which have worked with me is to outline the important points and once you are pretty sure of what lined get into details one by one (never rush )

 

[smugrinch]

I agree, with all of it. I'm finishing my first and it was hell. I was a PA for 7 years and I thought I could breeze by , I learned the hard way that this basic science is something you must get through. I had students in the class that were straight out of college killing the class with 98 on every exam while I slid by with 78...and I proise you I studied longer and harder. That just goes to show that you can study an hour and get as much info as studying 12 hours. If you don't know your best way of learning you will strugle. I didn't strugle in PA school or college, but I am now. Also, just as an aside, don't let people trip you out by anouncing just loud enough for you to hear, the grades they got. One guy in my class recieved 96 on every single exam he took in in Gross...come to find out later he took it last year in a med school in Canada before he flunked out. When he bragged about it the last time I caught him on it in front of the class, very deflated ego and no more class anouncements.

 

[smugrinch]

I love Care bear

 

[care bear]

thanks 🙂

 

[smugrinch]

Care bear, marry me...I'll leave my wife and girlfriend for you!

 

[ziffy 850]

you guys have been great. I am starting to make charts and take more notes instead of just trying to READ and MEMORIZE. It seems to be helping a bit, but it's still hard to know WHAT TO LEARN, as it appears to be impossible to learn everything. I've been using board review series(lippincott) and it is a little more concise. As far as this year goes, I will keep plugging away. I really do not think that taking a year off will help, maybe only hurt, as it will get me out of studying mode, though doing research might be interesting for a bit. If I have to repeart courses, I may choose not to do makeup shelf exams, but really learn the stuff by retaking and then taking boards. I'm just not sure. It is reassuring to know I'm not the only one in this boat.

 

[Goober]

rote memorization never works well. It is much better to put all the facts in sort sort of framework or it is totally meaningless. Personally I had the same problem my first years of med school. I barely passed anatomy. The main reason is I tried to rely on rote memorization.

I stuck it out and ended up matching in a very competitive specialty. Now I probably know more anatomy than most physicians because my sepcialty requires it.🙂

 

[BiggMann79]

I only supported the possibility of a leave of absence because it did so much for me.

If it's only a matter of simple study habits then a leave probably won't do much. If it's a matter of personal problems affecting your ability to learn then it can do a lot.

I didn't study much at all during my leave (even though I had grandiose plans of reading all my first year textbooks cover to cover), but had no problems studying more than I ever have before when school started back up.

For anatomy I found that reading the textbook (Moore and Dalley) helped a lot. I know a lot of people do not espouse reading the text for classes like gross anatomy, but in my case all of the small details helped me learn the material because I then understood why something was named something and it become more than just rote memorization.

The second thing that also helped so much is doing tons and tons of practice questions. I highly recommend a book entitled Review Questions for Human Anatomy by Patrick Tank. Now it probably helps that Dr. Tank is our gross anatomy course director, but I think the questions would help anyone who uses them correctly.

The key is not just to do the questions and know the correct answer but to go through each possible answer and tell yourself why it is wrong, what words you would change in order to make it correct, what question would this be the correct answer to, etc.

We have the questions on a computer program in our library and I would do a cumulative review of them after each lab. I would go into the program and select the regions we are covering for that block and I would work through the questions, skipping over those we had not covered yet in lecture/lab. So at the beginning of each block I would work fairly few questions, but with each day I would work more and more. By the time of the test I had probably seen each question 5-10 times and almost had them memorized, but more importantly I had a deep understanding of all of them. The questions on the actual test would be different than the practice questions but the content would be the same.

For practicals I can't recommend the Color Atlas of Anatomy by Rohen enough. I barely use my Netter's atlas at all. The cadaver pictures make you think about relationships in order to identify what you are seeing instead of just simple recognition like is easy to do with the Netter atlas.

Reading the textbook, practice questions, and the Rohen atlas have done wonders for my gross anatomy grade. It has helped that I've had the class before, but the fact is I learned very little of it the first time around, and the biggest factor in my recent anatomy success has been the study methods I mentioned above.

 

[Yogi Bear]

its possible to take summer courses at other universities. u might consider scarificing one course to focus on the others....

 

[moo]

I too had trouble memorizing stuff last year when I was a first year. Being a math and physics major in college, the transition to med school was not easy. I came close to failing my second exam but since then have been in the top half, and this year the top quarter of my class.

The thing I learned most was to NOT READ THE TEXTS. I take very little notes in class, and basically go off the slides and handouts completely, because this is likely what the profs will ask off. So you may miss the itty bitty detail that he mentioned in class. Big deal! And then I try to memorize basically every single sentence on the slides/notes. Even obvious statements like, I will actively memorize because I figured that was my problem... that I wasn't sure of certain things because I hadn't actively memorized it.

The thing I did wrong on the exam I almost failed last year was that I was just reading the notes and saying, oh that's obvious, I understand it. THAT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR MED SCHOOL. I figure in med school, profs can make any statement in your notes into a question. So might as well try your best to memorize everything.

I hope this helps. Med school truly isn't about how smart you are but how you study and how hard you study.