- Joined
- Jun 17, 2009
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It's the dawn of Block 3 at my school, and I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. The first two blocks, I was OBSESSED with honoring everything. My school is H/P/F, and sometimes I made it, but a lot of the time I didn't. So here I am, facing the very real possibility of getting all "P's" for my first semester of med school. This last block, I narrowly missed honors in most of my exams.
I'll admit: it kind of sucks because I'm interested in a few competitive specialities like urology. However, not sure if this is sour grapes or what, but I feel like the gunning and point-grubbing mentality I started with was 1) turning me into a whiny little bitch 2) preventing me from enjoying material that I'm actually really interested in and worst of all 3) preventing me from really learning it in a way that is meaningful and applicable. For example, when we would be doing cases in class, I'd often find myself trying to squeeze in studying for the quiz that was to follow, thus probably missing relevant points from the cases that, while not graded, could actually be useful on the wards someday. And isn't that the whole point?
So, I'm really trying to change my mentality. At first, I'll admit, I sneered at the "P= MD" thing, but I'm starting to think that studying for numbers might actually do more harm than good in the long run. For block 1, I memorized EVERY detail, got honors or very close, and could recite it all like Rain Man LOL, but had the uncomfortable feeling of not really "knowing" anything. For block 2, I got away from this somewhat, aiming more for true understanding of things that I know will matter in the clinical setting. I scored 3 points lower on my anatomy written and just about the same on all others, but had the feeling of really knowing my stuff. Honestly, some of the **** on that exam reminded me of the Progressive commercials: "If it's the third Wednesday of the month and the moon is in the house of Aquarius..." etc. Sure, I could have trained myself to parrot back a bunch of nonsense, but favored a working knowledge instead. I work prn as a nurse, and I can really see the difference in how I am able to apply what I learned in block 2 to the patients I see, versus that of block 1.
This block, I'm going to try to learn the material as well as possible and think of it in terms of clinical relevance while getting a reasonable amount of sleep and trying to remember to behave like a civilized human being at all times 😉 so who's with me? Am I kidding myself by sort of jumping on the P= (GOOD QUALITY) MD (as long as you actually know your stuff) wagon?
I'll admit: it kind of sucks because I'm interested in a few competitive specialities like urology. However, not sure if this is sour grapes or what, but I feel like the gunning and point-grubbing mentality I started with was 1) turning me into a whiny little bitch 2) preventing me from enjoying material that I'm actually really interested in and worst of all 3) preventing me from really learning it in a way that is meaningful and applicable. For example, when we would be doing cases in class, I'd often find myself trying to squeeze in studying for the quiz that was to follow, thus probably missing relevant points from the cases that, while not graded, could actually be useful on the wards someday. And isn't that the whole point?
So, I'm really trying to change my mentality. At first, I'll admit, I sneered at the "P= MD" thing, but I'm starting to think that studying for numbers might actually do more harm than good in the long run. For block 1, I memorized EVERY detail, got honors or very close, and could recite it all like Rain Man LOL, but had the uncomfortable feeling of not really "knowing" anything. For block 2, I got away from this somewhat, aiming more for true understanding of things that I know will matter in the clinical setting. I scored 3 points lower on my anatomy written and just about the same on all others, but had the feeling of really knowing my stuff. Honestly, some of the **** on that exam reminded me of the Progressive commercials: "If it's the third Wednesday of the month and the moon is in the house of Aquarius..." etc. Sure, I could have trained myself to parrot back a bunch of nonsense, but favored a working knowledge instead. I work prn as a nurse, and I can really see the difference in how I am able to apply what I learned in block 2 to the patients I see, versus that of block 1.
This block, I'm going to try to learn the material as well as possible and think of it in terms of clinical relevance while getting a reasonable amount of sleep and trying to remember to behave like a civilized human being at all times 😉 so who's with me? Am I kidding myself by sort of jumping on the P= (GOOD QUALITY) MD (as long as you actually know your stuff) wagon?
