Freshman year

[SlickRoseNeer16]

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How did you make the most out of it (volunteering , clinical research, clinical observation)?

Study Habits – What study techniques did you apply or not apply?

Any word of advice. Anything that you should have done but did not do. Something that worked. Experiences that wasted time.

Thank you ahead.

 

[Turkishking]

Freshman year is about to be over. As I look back, I volunteered, and got into a research position for the summer. Study habits? Study a week or two ahead. Keep up with the material.

 

[fahimaz7]

I drank too much. 2.8 GPA. It was #winning.

 

[thisismyacct]

I'm about to finish my freshman year. I did pretty terrible (mostly in chem) because of a lack of maturity and not knowing how to study. No EC's done during the school year but will do some this summer and definitely next year.

This was the year I had to learn how to actually study. For my biology classes, I just looked over my notes for a little bit everyday and then a week and a half before the test started to actually study. For chemistry, I learned too late that doing practice problems are what will help. Also, you should get as much help from office hours, tutors, etc as you can because I didn't and now it will haunt me.

Overall all I have to say is don't screw around like I did/do (getting better at it though). And I wish I didn't procrastinate so much.

 

[Cookiess]

Academics: (1) Go to your professors' office hours and make it a habit to get to know your professors. This can help you do better in the class and also create opportunities to get to know your professors on a more personal level, which can help when it comes time to ask for LOR (2) Form study groups. Reviewing lecture material with other students helped me recognize what concepts I knew well vs. concepts I struggled to explain (3) Spread out your studying so that you review a little bit of material everyday so it remains fresh and so you avoid cramming. Also plan out your study schedule ahead of time and avoid procrastinating. I pulled my fair share of all nighters during freshman year and that could have been avoided if I had evenly spaced out my studying.

Extracurricular Activities: I joined a ton of student groups because I was interested in a lot of different areas. I probably joined too many during my freshman year. I was really eager to get involved and I wasn't great at balancing my time between academics and extracurricular activities. On the other hand, doing so allowed me to network with people from a lot of different interests outside of medicine. I would probably stick to 2 or 3 if I could do it again.

Research: I didn't join a research lab my freshman year, but I would have started exploring research areas of interest so I could start at the beginning of my sophomore year.

Clinical Experience: I volunteered in the hospital and the experience helped reinforce that I wanted to become a physician. It also helped keep me motivated to do well in school.