Freak Gunners or just good students?

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Zweihander- two-hander?- you have the idea. Gunners have a one-track mind. They do all the prescribed premed crap not because they enjoy it, although many are a bit sadistic, they do it because it'll LOOK GOOD ON THEIR TRANSCRIPTS. Why aren't they just lawyers?????

Another solution: stick these people in a lab and don't let them come out. They ain't people-persons.

avhart- yeah, we definately just laughed at "the front row"
 
I've been reading the posts on this thread, and some of what you guys have to say really distrubs me...

Many of you gave definitions of a "gunner" that I think are appropriate - sabotagers, show-offs, etc. But some of you called those who always keep their goal in mind, or try to get the highest grade in the class, or study a ton gunners.

I've just finished my third year as a pre-med, and I have been around many different people with very different personalities and approaches to medical school admissions. Some are constantly obsessing about it, but at worst, that makes them annoying - not a gunner. I think that many pre-meds are so insecure about their ability to get into med school, or a good med school, that they feel the need to label the more hard-working, diligent, perhaps "not-fun" classmates as gunners. Given the extremely negative connotation of the word, I really think that it should be reserved for those that try to harm other students. In fact, if you think about it, if you are going around calling people names and putting them down, you are a sort of "gunner" as well...

- Quid
 
Originally posted by JlazyMD
To me, a true gunner is the person who has a this goal in mind- say being a dermatologist- and everything they do seems connected to attaining this goal. They get A's- not because they are interested, but because they want a high GPA. They volunteer in the ER, not because they enjoy helping out, but because they can put it on their AMCAS. They don't help you out, because they are afraid helping you will wreck the grade curve. They grade-grub. They kiss the ass of their clinical instructors hoping to get good written evals.

In other words, they see their entire education as a means to an end, and don't care about taking occasional ethical shortcut to succeed. They don't enjoy their schooling, only worry about their grades and dream about the $500,000 house and Porche in the driveway. Luckily, true gunners are pretty rare I think (there was no-one at my undergrad who completely fit this profile) and I would guess eventually they aren't so successful because no-one will want to work with them.
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First of all, just because someone has a goal in mind, even if they obsess over it, doesn't mean that they should be labeled with a deragotory term. Secondly, just because you have a goal in mind, doesn't mean that the goal has anything to do with money or fancy cars. Couldn't someone be working extremely hard because they really want to be a doctor for MSF? It's these kinds of remarks that really piss me of... just blowing off some steam 🙂

- Quid
 
washkeep -

I definitely think that most people who are premeds are doing something they don't want to out of necessity. Even though you pretty much max out my capacity for mathematics by putting a couple of sticks in front of me and asking me to count them (duh, one plus too ekwal mor than one... duh) I somehow suffered through a year of calculus.

But you're right, it's the nothing else matters mentality (I could probably phrase that better) that I just don't get.

And yes, the handle does mean "Two-hander." Taken from a beanie baby.

(it's a long story)

=)
 
Now that my first anatomy exam's around the corner, I am starting to feel the stress. I am more concerned about being efficient with my time (especially with an upcoming shift shadowing in the ER between now and the exam). I am more irritable than usual. And I get annoyed when my time is wasted.

By the same token, I have been mostly keeping up with the material, though that doesn't mean I have it all memorized (and anatomy is all memorization). This is more than what some of my friends in class can say for themselves.

It hurts when they call me a gunner, even in jest. Yes, I want to do the best I can -- and that is the motivation in itself, not competing with others to get the best grade. I don't want to not know something that I, as future doctor, am responsible for. That doesn't apply to anyone else, it's just that I hold myself to a very high standard. But I will be the first to help my fellow students if they ask for it (and frequently I have done so).

peace 🙂
sunflower
 
I generally agree with the definitions given above. I think gunners are just people who actually go out of their way to not only make sure they do the best in the course...but they have to make sure that OTHER student do worse. As a result, they resort to despicable behavior like trying to destroy the products of other students in labs, giving students wrong information when asked questions about the material, refusing to participate in study groups, etc.

I also agree with the poster above who stated that gunners have no clue what "education" means...they only take classes because they are a) required or b) they think they can earn an 'A' in them. They don't take classes out of personal interest and they don't even want to pursue their own academic interests for their own growth (probably because they have no academic interests other than med school...). I took the first semester of physics along with an upper division history course on the American Revolution, an upper division biology course in epidemiology, and an introductory level astronomy class together in one semester. However, only 1 of those classes is actually required for medical school and I signed up for the rest just because I was interested in the topic areas that they covered and I knew I wanted to explore these areas before I graduated. I only took Physics for a letter grade and took the rest of the courses pass/fail so I wouldn't even have to worry about the grade and I could just the digest the material on my own pace without worrying about what's going to be on the midterm, what the paper topics will be, etc. I wasn't at all concerned with how med schools would look at those courses or their grading options...in fact...I didn't even really care. It amazes how some gunners will take 4 upper division molecular-cell biology courses in 1 semester and one "Public Health" course to "round out" their courseload...

I sometimes wonder whether these people realize that college is their LAST OPPORTUNITY to explore subjects outside of the sciences. Being a science major does not mean that you still cannot take courses in comparitive literature, rhetoric, political science, economics, psychology, Near Eastern Studies, Religious Studies, etc. Why not spend some of your units (outside of your major of course) on these courses instead of taking a "public health" class in hopes that med schools will look favorably upon your premature, undergraduate, I've-never-been-in-the-real-world-before enthusiasm about medicine...
 
i thought people weren't gunners until they are in med school.

Originally posted by Shades McCool
I keep hearing people talk about freak gunners in the pre-med classes. I am just wondering this: do you all think someone who works really hard and gets their A is a freak gunner or just a good student? I think there is a big difference in some respects, but they are similar too.

I think they are similar because they both will not settle for anything less than an A. I think a gunner stems further from that in trying to hurt the other students in route to get their A.

What if you don't try to hurt others, but do not go out of your way to help them either?

What does everyone think of that?
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It hurts when they call me a gunner, even in jest. Yes, I want to do the best I can -- and that is the motivation in itself, not competing with others to get the best grade.
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this is exactly how i feel. i have a 4.0 GPA, which makes some people turn their nose up at me. i don't do it out of some repugnant competitive disorder or anything, its just my feeling that i should be able to get an 'A' in every class out of a desire for knowledge and personal satisfaction (hell, if i'm paying thousands of dollars for these classes, i'm going to get my friggin' money's worth!).

like some have said, i thing that the term "gunner" should only apply to those conspiring, sabotaging bastards. most of the people described on this thread are simply "irritating ass pimples" in my book.

lastly, refusing to study with people is totally FINE. i hate studying with other people because, in every study group, one strong-willed, pompous, loudmouth know-it-all will always emerge, imprinting on the others in the group a series of wrong answers and bogous explanations. blech!
 
I haven't worked my way through much of this thread, but I just wanted to post my gunner experience. I am a first year at a school that is attracts a very collegial student environment and people are always exchanging notes, useful, websites etc. For example, everyweek I send out a list of study terms.

Anways I am sitting in lecture and a kid behind me says something like "I don't understand why kids are sending out all these study sheets and whatnot over the internet, don't they realize we are being graded on a curve and by sharing these things they are not helping themselves at all."

This quote epitomizes gunner mentality, caring less about learning the material than the grade and not wanting to help other people learn the material unless it helps them. I , and almost eveyone here, feels that med school is about being the best doctor you can. If I can help other people do that to, I am going to improve the state of healthcare. If that means not getting honors, who cares.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this helps people get an idea of what a gunner is.
 
Originally posted by hamedn
I haven't worked my way through much of this thread, but I just wanted to post my gunner experience. I am a first year at a school that is attracts a very collegial student environment and people are always exchanging notes, useful, websites etc. For example, everyweek I send out a list of study terms.

Anways I am sitting in lecture and a kid behind me says something like "I don't understand why kids are sending out all these study sheets and whatnot over the internet, don't they realize we are being graded on a curve and by sharing these things they are not helping themselves at all."

This quote epitomizes gunner mentality, caring less about learning the material than the grade and not wanting to help other people learn the material unless it helps them. I , and almost eveyone here, feels that med school is about being the best doctor you can. If I can help other people do that to, I am going to improve the state of healthcare. If that means not getting honors, who cares.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this helps people get an idea of what a gunner is.
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yours is the mentality that many first years have, particularly early on. you think that getting into medical school ends all the competitiveness and you are set....

YOU'RE NOT. not if you want to go into a competitive field. Thinking about ortho? derm? how about plastics or ENT?

everybody wants the "honors" grade. don't be an ass about it. but don't pretend that it's not important, either.
 
Gunners and good students are hard-workers. Point blank.

It has nothing to do with being introverted or extroverted. Nor the way they dress, or how fast they bend their necks as they are copying the board.

The difference is the way they *portray* themselves to others (their attitude).

I have no problem with gunners or any other person on my campus or my undergrad campus. Each person to his/her own business. The only thing that I have a problem is people who *actually* try to impede me from moving upwards (ex. lying to the prof about me, stealing my books, etc..)
 
I have to say after reading some "horror stories" on this subject that i didn't face anything like that in my 3.something years of college. There were 2 times that i found some people to be weird. Once was in a humanity course that the professor had assigned us in groups. Well my group refused to show each other the answers (the entire group could write 1 paper and turn in it , instead of 6). I spoke to the professor and he put me in a friendlier group which did MUCH better (all As) than the other one (some of them got Cs hehehehe). Also another time the class before us was taking a test. Well since we were the class right after them i asked some of the students what the questions were and they REFUSED to answer. Their lame ass answers were "if you studied you will know" etc. I cut off speaking to any of those people.

My roommate and plenty of my friends are applying to med school. We all have worked extremely hard to achieve our goals but NEVER EVER were that lame between us. Actually we helped each other, gave advice and there is always the best of luck towards everyone.

It's sad to see friendships and human relationships destroyed for a stupid grade.

Plus all those "boycotts" are stupid. If you are found out that you did something like that, then good luck getting a LOR. And you bet your ass if someone did something like that to me that i would confront him/her in front of the professor and i would request that the university take action against that BS. I really can't stand people like that.

I am in the top 5% of my class purely on hard work. Not because of what i wear, not because i brown nose nor because i boycott others. It's 100% hard work and dedication.
 
Originally posted by Tezzie
... Also another time the class before us was taking a test. Well since we were the class right after them i asked some of the students what the questions were and they REFUSED to answer. ...
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I may be wrong here, since I don't know how your particular university operates, but telling someone what questions are on the test sounds a bit like cheating. At the very least, it's unethical. If your professor wanted you to know the exact questions you were being tested over, he or she would have covered it on the test review.

As for me, my only experience with a gunner has been when someone switched the colored stickers on some specimens we were supposed to be identifying in a lab exam. That person apparently didn't realize that the professor made a list of what order everyone went through the stations in, and when it turned out that half the class got a bad score on that station, it wasn't hard to ID the idiot who switched the stickers. :laugh:

I've been accused of being a gunner because I don't do study groups (I'm not antisocial, I just study better when there are no distractions), and also because some kids who hadn't studied before a test, despite having a review sheet, asked me for answers and I wouldn't tell them. Actually, just last week, some girl in zoology class asked me 2 minutes before an exam (while I was reviewing the structure of amino acids) who Pasteur was, while mispronouncing his name egregiously. If you can't be bothered to listen in lecture, crack open the textbook or, heck, be remotely familiar with major scientific figures who most of us learned about in third grade, why should someone give you the answers? If someone asks me outside of class, and not right before the exam, I am happy to direct them to the right passage in the text or explain a concept to them. But don't party all semester and then expect me to spoon feed you the material 10 minutes before the test.

I'm an A student. Do I try to ensure other people get bad grades? No. If you are genuinely trying to learn the material and ask me for help, will I turn a cold shoulder? No. I will go get coffee with you and do my best to help you out. If we're in the same lab group and because you misunderstood the professor's poorly-worded sentence, the answer you put on your report is erroneous, will I avert my eyes and keep the correct answer to myself? No. But if you're lazy and basically want me to help you get a grade that you didn't earn, will I look at you with my patented Glare of Utter Contempt and tell you that you should have studied the material? Yes I will! If that makes me a gunner, tough. The grading system allows smart, lazy people to get As. It also allows not-so-bright but diligent people to get As. Ideally, it will NOT allow people who are both dull and lazy to get a top grade. After all, weeding out students who are neither intelligent nor hard-working is the whole POINT of the grade system. Somebody has got to get the Cs and I can't think of anyone more deserving than the person who doesn't give a crap about class until five minutes before the exam.
Edited for ambiguous wording. That is more directed at the idiots in my classes than at you, Tezzie, since you seem like someone who cares enough to study ahead of the test.

I realize that everybody cheats the system, and that if I don't help them they're just going to go somewhere else. That doesn't mean I have to help perpetuate scholastic fraud.

*** OK, rant's over! ***
 
doc05,

I didn't mean to imply that I don't care about getting honors. Obviously it would be great. However, I will not break my code of ethics to do it. I never did in undergrad and I am not about to now. Again, I don't know you so I am not implying that you would. I am only stating my own opinion.
 
hamedn,
I sent you a PM. Now, after you reply, let's get our butts back to studying! 😉

good luck 🙂
sunflower
 
Originally posted by hamedn
doc05,

I didn't mean to imply that I don't care about getting honors. Obviously it would be great. However, I will not break my code of ethics to do it. I never did in undergrad and I am not about to now. Again, I don't know you so I am not implying that you would. I am only stating my own opinion.
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what the hell do you mean by that?

the secret to to getting honors: study. study. study.
 
I mean that if the only way for me to get honors is to not help out my classmates I don't want it.
 
Originally posted by Ischemia
Letting others into our group would disrupt our equilibrium, so why do it? If it isn't broken, don't fix it.
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That doesn't mean there isn't a better way to do it.

Many people are fooled in life by the theory that what isn't broke doesn't need fixing--they forget that if they rely on that throughout life they'll miss opportunities to really excel.
 
It is that time of year where we got our scores back, o I thought it would be a good time to bring up the gunner thread(which I don't think are bad...unless they hurt others).

So which is it:
I. Good Student
II. Gunner
III. Hypoxia

A) I & II
B) II
C)II & III
D)I
 
Oh come on, the question is even in MCAT style for you!
 
washkeep said:
😡
Gunners! They're taking over my school like a fungus. They're the ones that sit up in the front row, laugh at every horrible joke of the professors, go to every office hour, make orgo home videos... i could go on, but I'm afraid I'll just incriminate myself.

It's tough to avoid when it's all around you. :scared:
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hahaha... i will second that as a recent alum of the school that i believe you are speaking of 😛
 
I knew of someone who had copies of old tests and didnt give them out to anyone. What do you think of that?
 
Tezzie said:
Also another time the class before us was taking a test. Well since we were the class right after them i asked some of the students what the questions were and they REFUSED to answer. Their lame ass answers were "if you studied you will know" etc. I cut off speaking to any of those people.
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Wait, you mean they're gunners for NOT cheating, and you stopped speaking to them because they wouldn't help you cheat?

Luckily all my tests have been in blocks with all sections at the same time, but placed in a similar situation as those you mentioned, I too wouldn't tell the next class the answers to the test. Then again, I view cheating as gunner behavior.
 
Gleevec said:
Wait, you mean they're gunners for NOT cheating, and you stopped speaking to them because they wouldn't help you cheat?

Luckily all my tests have been in blocks with all sections at the same time, but placed in a similar situation as those you mentioned, I too wouldn't tell the next class the answers to the test. Then again, I view cheating as gunner behavior.
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Cheating is worse than anything these so called gunners do.
 
I have mixed feelings about gunners, I guess it really depends on the person. Some are just out for blood and others just want to make sure they do really REALLY well, but don't cut anyone's throats to get there.
 
Misty said:
I have mixed feelings about gunners, I guess it really depends on the person. Some are just out for blood and others just want to make sure they do really REALLY well, but don't cut anyone's throats to get there.
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Doesnt the latter just make them good students?
 
What I meant was more of a personality-type thing. I know of gunners who won't even talk to others or even try to hide the fact that they're out for blood...there's also the type that will be buddy-buddy with you but in reality all they want are your notes or something along those lines (i.e., phonies 😡 )
 
A gunner is someone who works incredibly hard and goes above and beyond the required work. They will often become the kiss-@ass of the class and then the professor will stop calling on them because they are killing the lecture flow. They will also set the curve on a test then tell everyone about it. They will deliberately try to bring others down around them to make themselves feel better. This is a true gunner. Have witnessed many.
 
W222 said:
A gunner is someone who works incredibly hard and goes above and beyond the required work. They will often become the kiss-@ass of the class and then the professor will stop calling on them because they are killing the lecture flow. They will also set the curve on a test then tell everyone about it. They will deliberately try to bring others down around them to make themselves feel better. This is a true gunner. Have witnessed many.
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I'm taking physics this summer and we have a kid in there that is the brownnoser from hell. At first people didn't say anything about it, but it's gotten to the point now where everyone's so frustrated with him that whenever he opens his mouth people have to tell him to shut up or he'll kiss butt forever.
 
How about the guy with plenty of charisma who kicks all the classes asses and then acts like it is no big deal?
 
Ok so thats not a gunner. We are making some progress!
 
I think "gunner" is a label that is applied to good students that come accross as being obnoxious or snobby. Not every good student is a gunner. I have known excellent students that were willing to help their fellow student within reason. Let's be honest about the opposite of gunners: slackers! Slackers are the type of students who mooch off their fellow students to succeed. They always photocopy their notes because they skip class. Or they study with the best students on the day prior to the exam/ They aren't studying together as the slacker would propose. What ends up happening is the good student essentially tutors the slacker the entire evening, which is unfair in my opinion.

I think students should start adopting a gunner mentality. The best students in the class regardless of their outer demeanor are gunners. No one studies that much because they enjoy it. People study because they want to be the best student or the most competitive. It's that competitive drive that enables students to sacrafice doing other things in exchange for studying.

In my early years of undergrad, I was misled thinking that some students were so smarter than others or that you could balance fun with hard work. Later, I learned the reality behind it all. The best students worked the hardest and sacraficed the most to be where they were. There were no geniuses just con artists. The people who said they never studied were usually lying. And if you spent enough time around them you could catch studying quite a bit. These people feared having a nerdy reputation or wanted to appear smarter than they were so they would underreport how little they studied. If they studied 8 hours for a test, they would just say they read for a few hours.

Don't be fooled by any of this. If you want to succeed in academics, you have to adopt the gunner mentality. You don't have to mistreat your fellow students; just be fair with them. Don't allow them to mooch off of you but if you see a student who is genuinely trying then help that person. Also, be honest about how much you studied. You will get more respect from your peers if you admit that you studied hard for a test than lie about studying only a couple of hours before the exam.
 
I have a feeling (I know) that some people in my classes don't care for me. I hang out with my buddies in class. We are the types that are always cutting up every chance we get(not during class but outside of class ie during breaks or before it starts).

An example would be after we took the PS section on our Kaplan diagnostic, JB stood up and said "man did everyone get a 15 on that or was it just me?" Of course we all knew he was just saying how hard it was but not everyone understood his humor.

We also happen to usually do very well in our classes too. They just lump us together as being obnoxious fraternity guys. Oh well.

Then again others think we are really funny and enjoy having us around.

Gunner or not? I dont care.
 
About the cheating thing, I think you as a student have to apply some common sense and reason. No, I won't help a student cheat on an exam but in regards to lab, I have no problem helping out a student that I know is a diligent worker. We all have bad weeks where family emergencies, illness etc enter the picture. Yes, I will cover for that student on his or her bad week. A friend of mine's sister had her baby the night before one of our labs. She didn't do the lab for obvious reasons so I helped her out the next day and let her copy my lab. Was it unethical of me to do so? Yeah probably but I helped her out because I know she isn't a slacker who mooches off students. And guess what, I had a similar predicament weeks later and she helped me out. The same applies to notes and skipping class. If someone is having a bad week and misses a few lectures, I have no problem helping them out if I know they aren't slackers who mooch off students like that on a consistent basis. These are usually people in my study group who I have gotten to know.

Or another example is if I'm studying with my close friends and we are filling out an assignment, I'm not going to provide a lame and indirect response as to where the answer to the question can be found. I will just tell them the damn answer. Only a gunner provides those cheesy indirect responses. My friend isn't mooching off me. We all work together and he will give me some answers too. And just because he provides me an answer, it doesn't mean I don't look it up or strive to understand how he got that answer. But nothing pisses me off more when you get some prissy gunner that says look on page 420 or whatever. Like I said, you just have to apply common sense. If Joe Fraternity who everyone knows is a slacker catches in the library, I'm not going to give him the answer because he is obviously only coming up to me because he wants answers. I will give him the indirect response but to people who work hard and are sincere, I'm not going to be a pain in the ass and give them some roundabout answer.

I won't help a student cheat on an exam. And I won't help a slacker 10 minutes before the exam because that is their own damn fault. But if a sincere and hardworking student doesn't understand a concept 10 minutes before class, I will teach him or her. It's all about judging the type of student one is. And slackers are easy to identify because they develop a reputation for being a slacker really quickly. They always cite some lame excuse for why they didn't do their work and there is always an excuse every time.

To me, the gunners are sanctamonious and they never yield on these ethical issues. Are they just really honest? Hardly, I have seen these really honest gunners suddenly revert to dubious methods if they need to get an A. It's just that most of the time, they can be honest and still get their A's.
 
i thought everyone wanted the best grade in the class? Why wouldnt you?
 
I know I do but I know other people have other things that they are worrying about too.
 
What gives me the most pleasure is letting all the gunners think I am one of the worst students in the class. That way they can't gun for you. I finished in the top 5% of the College of Engineering at my school, but I bet if you asked the folks I had classes with they would think I was in the bottom third. I accomplished this by not caring and by hanging out with folks who don't care. The only difference is the folks I hung out with didn't care about their grades and I did. I just didn't care if anybody else knew them.

Also, I think folks who won't answer other people's questions are losers. I mean, if it helps that person get 5 more points on an exam, good for them. I'd rather help somebody out than be a jerk about it.

By the way Shades, talking crap like your buddy did at Kaplan is pretty dang funny. Anybody who takes themselves so seriously that they can't laugh at that needs to get a grip.
 
Yeah another example of us messing around is one day before class started people were asking each other what their goal on the MCAT was. I got asked and said that I wanted a 52T. My firends knew I was joking but everyone else just looked at me like I was a nut. Some even told me that the highest you could get was a 45T. I replied with "I know that".
 
If you're talking about Placek over in my department, you are absolutely right. Except that he is not a man, he is a cross between a troll and a hobbit. But maybe you were talking about someone else.
 
Not I was chem e for two years. He taught my 2100 lab. He turned into some cros between a matlab and critical thinking class. I had the two highest grades on our tests and they were 52 and a 60.
 
I too had never heard of the word "gunner" before coming here. But I have a definition based on experiences I've had with students that fits parts of other peoples' definitions.

To me, a gunner is a person who doesn't necessarily care so much about his or her own grade, but rather how his or her grade stacks up against everyone else's. They want to be at the very top, no matter what the top score is. If the highest scores are 95-99%, they want a 100%. If the highest scores are 65-67%, they want a 68%. To this end, they'll refuse to give even reasonable help to fellow students and may even resort to sabotage; they'll give incorrect info about what topics will be covered on an exam, they'll tell people to go to the wrong room for the final, they'll show up early to an exam and write on the board that it was cancelled, they'll tell people an assignment was pushed back when it wasn't, undermining other peoples' confidence by loudly saying how easy a difficult exam was, etc. The gunner will refuse to help even his or her own friends understand confusing concepts and will refuse to reveal their study habits just in case it helps others improve theirs in order to get better grades. If given a choice between being able to get free private tutoring which would raise his or her grade by 20 points or magically lowering everyone else's scores by 21 points, they'd choose the latter option.

A gunner is someone who is more concerned about being better than everyone else than actually learning the material and improving their knowledge-base. A gunner is someone who needs the validation of being #1 in order to maintain their self-image, and has a "me versus the world" kind of mentality. A gunner thinks that it's every man for himself, and believes that only suckers waste their time by helping others succeed.

That's my definition anyway.
 
Just to add an anectode:

In one CS class that I took a long time ago, one student successfully argued his case that the professor had made a mistake in grading his exam. However he was not satisfied with this, because he felt that the answer the professer had listed as the correct answer was incorrect, and demanded that everyone else's scores be lowered to reflect this.

That's what I call a gunner.
 
I still don't see what is wrong with wanting the highest score. I always want the highest score, and can't understand why people would try and not get the highest. But just because you want to be at the top, does not mean you would resort to deviant behavior to lower their grades.
 
Since I'll be starting med school this fall, I have this weird feeling that everything I learn, someone's life is hanging in the balance ... I mean, does the Krebs cycle come up on the hospital floor? Maybe it does!!! Anyone else have this feeling? *cranial pressure* *slight masochistic thrill*

I only like to study with people (1 or 2 at a time, tops) who are about the same as me in study habits/level/whatever you want to call it, 'quality'. Because then we all help each other equally without being a leech (or an intimidator!). In undergrad, my main study buddy and I learned quite differently and were able to help each other a lot ... and we exchanged photocopies of our notes when we were both in classes that one of us hated 🙂 good times.

Since there's no curve at my med school, helping out someone wouldn't cost me anything except time, so I'll do what I can, within reasonable limits. If I saw anyone cheating or sabotaging, I would probably explode with righteous indignation on the spot. So don't try it.

My main plan is to find new study buddies and stick with them. The slackers and psycho students are on their own. I care about learning this stuff to treat patients, and the grades will follow.
 
NOELJAN Do you go to parties and bring up your MCAT scores? How about what your GPA or undergrad school was and how well you did there? How about how you are a Dean's Scholar because you got the highest MCAT at that school? This would be gunner-like and I have witnessed this at one particular med school and the parties thrown by MS1s. It is just stupid because these things really mean nothing once you are in the door.
 
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