Having difficulty in M1 year

[drw2015]

Hello everybody,

I am an M1 who just had my Final Exams for my Anatomy 1 and Biomedical Sciences 1 courses. About a month ago we had our first round of Midterm Exams and I did not do well, failing both (though I passed the Practical for Anatomy). While I was bummed, I knew it was due to (a) lack of preparation (did not study a lot of the material well and even punted on a few lectures for each course), (b) lack of focus (missed home and my old friends a lot, had a bad attitude), and (c) sleeping 1 hour the night before the exams. To sum things up, I knew there was a lot I could do to improve.

I matured a ton in the past month, started studying a lot harder, and changed my attitude about life. I have not received my Anatomy scores yet, but overall I felt good about the Written portion and alright about the Practical portion after completing them. Compared to the Midterms, these exams seemed easier because I had studied so well. There were plenty of questions I knew I got correct since I knew the material that well, there was little uncertainty.

However, I failed my Biomedical Sciences final and am really at a loss for words. I was well prepared, as I had gone through each lecture multiple times for weeks to aid memory retention and avoid cramming. I was feeling confident and knew that my study habits for the course were a million times better than they were when I took the Midterm. During the exam, I was able to narrow down the answer choices from 5 to 2 on every question, so it's not like I was ill-prepared. Yet here I am again, a month later with another Fail in this course and will in all likelihood need to remediate the course over the summer.

So I suppose I'm posting all this in search for advice. This is really hitting me hard as I felt I had corrected all the issues that lead to my failing before. We start our Biomedical Sciences 2 course tomorrow and I just don't know where to go as far as making improvements.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[samac]

I'm getting in here to read the tips.

 

[W19]

Biomedical Sciences?

 

[bashwell]

Hello everybody,

I am an M1 who just had my Final Exams for my Anatomy 1 and Biomedical Sciences 1 courses. About a month ago we had our first round of Midterm Exams and I did not do well, failing both (though I passed the Practical for Anatomy). While I was bummed, I knew it was due to (a) lack of preparation (did not study a lot of the material well and even punted on a few lectures for each course), (b) lack of focus (missed home and my old friends a lot, had a bad attitude), and (c) sleeping 1 hour the night before the exams. To sum things up, I knew there was a lot I could do to improve.

I matured a ton in the past month, started studying a lot harder, and changed my attitude about life. I have not received my Anatomy scores yet, but overall I felt good about the Written portion and alright about the Practical portion after completing them. Compared to the Midterms, these exams seemed easier because I had studied so well. There were plenty of questions I knew I got correct since I knew the material that well, there was little uncertainty.

However, I failed my Biomedical Sciences final and am really at a loss for words. I was well prepared, as I had gone through each lecture multiple times for weeks to aid memory retention and avoid cramming. I was feeling confident and knew that my study habits for the course were a million times better than they were when I took the Midterm. During the exam, I was able to narrow down the answer choices from 5 to 2 on every question, so it's not like I was ill-prepared. Yet here I am again, a month later with another Fail in this course and will in all likelihood need to remediate the course over the summer.

So I suppose I'm posting all this in search for advice. This is really hitting me hard as I felt I had corrected all the issues that lead to my failing before. We start our Biomedical Sciences 2 course tomorrow and I just don't know where to go as far as making improvements.

Are you in a non-US med school?

 

[Glandzburg]

Hello everybody,

...I was well prepared, as I had gone through each lecture multiple times for weeks to aid memory retention and avoid cramming...

Can you tell us a bit about how you were going through the lectures? Were you simply reading them a bunch, or were you actively learning by doing practice problems and trying to reword things and explain concepts to yourself/others?

I've found that trying to just read over things many times leads to a very superficial "understanding." If you are not attempting practice problems, you may not even know what you don't know.

 

[drw2015]

Are you in a non-US med school?

No I'm at a U.S. M.D. school.

 

[drw2015]

Can you tell us a bit about how you were going through the lectures? Were you simply reading them a bunch, or were you actively learning by doing practice problems and trying to reword things and explain concepts to yourself/others?

I've found that trying to just read over things many times leads to a very superficial "understanding." If you are not attempting practice problems, you may not even know what you don't know.

The day we get lectures I'll spend a good 40 - 60 minutes after lecture reviewing each on my own and creating my own study guide/outline on Word. Then I go through it again so in total I'm spending almost 2 hours per lecture. I used to hand-write my study guide but it was too time consuming. I did every practice problem I could get my hands on, but it was not like say doing Grey's for Anatomy where there are hundreds of relevant questions at our disposal. We had weekly review sessions where they handed out worksheets which I would complete. We have 4 weeks between every exam so I would try to go through lectures on a weekly-basis so that I wouldn't forget material. Doing this definitely helped me understand things better, but obviously didn't help the end result much.

I did find that the lectures I studied with other people cemented in my brain a little better, but I mostly studied alone because I like to work through them on my own first beforehand. There's such a high volume of material that it's difficult for me to find time to study with others, but it is something I think I should start doing more regularly.

Does anybody here use Anki flashcards, Firecracker, or any other external study resources? I didn't use them because I've heard mixed responses plus they are very time-consuming.

 

[drw2015]

Biomedical Sciences?

It encompasses all the Biochemistry, Micro, Pharm, etc.-type material.

 

[W19]

It encompasses all the Biochemistry, Micro, Pharm, etc.-type material.

Is that a US school?

 

[drw2015]

Is that a US school?

Yes a U.S. Allopathic school.

 

[W19]

Yes a U.S. Allopathic school.

Don't know what to tell you... I struggled in MS1 as well because I approached med school the same way I did in undergrad... Doing better now after I changed my strategy and it was simple. I spend most of my time doing Q&A now and I am scoring consistently above average... Not great, but it's a heck of a lot better than when I was barely passing.

 

[ruedjgtc]

Get help (tutor, study-buddy, group), copy what both works for others and for you, keep what is already working. Ask your upper classmates, or people who seem to have figured out their strategy. I had a mixed first year, as far as success. Now, things are more consistent and I don't need to think about if I'll pass or not anymore. But really, without knowing anymore than what you've presented I think all answers given will necessitate some degree of "hand-waviness" in response. Everyone has their "way", and they'll tell you it's the best, and it might be for you too. But, often it doesn't fit you — i.e., not sure what to really tell you other than you'll probably be okay, it's just growing pains.

 

[drw2015]

Don't know what to tell you... I struggled in MS1 as well because I approached med school the same way I did in undergrad... Doing better now after I changed my strategy and it was simple. I spend most of my time doing Q&A now and I am scoring consistently above average... Not great, but it's a heck of a lot better than when I was barely passing.

In the first month I was studying like I did in undergrad... inefficient and cramming. I learned after that first round of exams that that strategy wasn't going to fly and I matured quickly. Hopefully it paid off for Anatomy (will know for sure tomorrow) but again I'm baffled with this Biomed course. What do you mean by "doing Q&A?" Are you referring to actual practice problems, or more like discussing lectures with a study group and bouncing questions off one another?

 

[CremasterOfScience]

First, I think you'll probably improve after each test. It takes practice and time to learn how to med school. Second, do what @ruedjgtc just mentioned. Third, from how it is at my school anyway, the administrative departments are very welcoming to students and really truly want you to do well. Ask them to see what options are available to you (i.e.: alternate pathways of doing med school in 5 years with a reduced course load, dropping a class or two and retaking in summer, etc). Med schools want to get you through the program once you're in. There isn't a drive to fail out 70% of the class like there used to be.

 

[W19]

In the first month I was studying like I did in undergrad... inefficient and cramming. I learned after that first round of exams that that strategy wasn't going to fly and I matured quickly. Hopefully it paid off for Anatomy (will know for sure tomorrow) but again I'm baffled with this Biomed course. What do you mean by "doing Q&A?" Are you referring to actual practice problems, or more like discussing lectures with a study group and bouncing questions off one another?

Actual practice questions and I read the answers thoroughly... I use Lippincott, Pretest, USMLE-Rx... It was an advice given to me by an upper classman (MS4) and it has worked for me so far.

My school uses NBME (actual step 1 questions) and if you are not use to these style of questions, it might be difficult to answer these long vignette in 70 something seconds. Overall, I think I learned a lot more by doing these questions and read the answer than reading books and power point presentations... In fact, I don't even look at my prof power points anymone...

 

[drw2015]

Actual practice questions and I read the answers thoroughly... I use Lippincott, Pretest, USMLE-Rx... It was an advice given to me by an upper classman (MS4) and it has worked for me so far.

My school uses NBME (actual step 1 questions) and if you are not use to these style of questions, it might be difficult to answer these long vignette in 70 something seconds. Overall, I think I learned a lot more by doing these questions and read the answer than reading books and power point presentations... In fact, I don't even look at my prof power points anymone...

I'll look into what "types" of questions my school uses on exams, and look into some of the resources you pointed out. Thanks a lot.

 

[Glandzburg]

Does anybody here use Anki flashcards, Firecracker, or any other external study resources? I didn't use them because I've heard mixed responses plus they are very time-consuming.

I use Anki and it works very well for me. The caveat with Anki is that you really have to commit to using it... it won't do you any good to make the cards then not study them daily. It is very time-consuming but I have gotten high returns from it.

 

[QofQuimica]

Unless someone here attends the same school that you do, it will be hard to give you specific advice. Find an MS2 "buddy" at your school who can help you figure out how to prepare for your school's exams effectively (and ideally give/sell cheaply their MS1 study aids to you.)

 

[sloop]

However, I failed my Biomedical Sciences final and am really at a loss for words. I was well prepared, as I had gone through each lecture multiple times for weeks to aid memory retention and avoid cramming. I was feeling confident and knew that my study habits for the course were a million times better than they were when I took the Midterm. During the exam, I was able to narrow down the answer choices from 5 to 2 on every question, so it's not like I was ill-prepared. Yet here I am again, a month later with another Fail in this course and will in all likelihood need to remediate the course over the summer.

So I suppose I'm posting all this in search for advice. This is really hitting me hard as I felt I had corrected all the issues that lead to my failing before. We start our Biomedical Sciences 2 course tomorrow and I just don't know where to go as far as making improvements.

I'm gonna be real with you. You failed the exam. You were ill-prepared. That's all there is to it. Stop sugar-coating things for yourself by telling yourself you weren't ill-prepared because you could eliminate answer choices. There is something seriously flawed with your system if you are failing this much stuff.

In my experience working with students, there are really only two ways people fail: either they're not prepared for the content or they're not prepared for taking the test/time management, etc. the vast majority fall into the former category and any issues they have with the latter are a manifestation of the former.

The other thing I noticed is that a huge reason people are not mastering material is that they simply don't put in the focused, non-distracted time needed to learn the material. How much time do you really spend studying per week? Do you troll Facebook, the Internet, YouTube, Netflix or anything else while you study? (It's okay, almost everybody does). How much of your "studying" time is spent doing this? How many times do you go through class notes before an exam?

 

[theSmurfette]

Our student affairs office has names of more senior students who are willing to provide help. Many of my classmates took advantage of them. Some were more help than others. Maybe there's something like that at your school.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sloop]

Our student affairs office has names of more senior students who are willing to provide help. Many of my classmates took advantage of them. Some were more help than others. Maybe there's something like that at your school.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I agree with this.

From a tutor's perspective though, what you get out is what you put in. Let your tutor know specifically what you're having trouble with. It's their job to help you, but it's usually not their job to coordinate a personalized crash course for you.

Most of the tutors at my school are great. How my and others' tutees have felt about the experience has mostly related to expectations and the information provided about what they want help with. 3 weeks into working with someone and "I need help with biochem" ceases to be an appropriate response when I ask in advance of the session what you need help with.

 

[littleredwagon]

there are many reasons why someone would fail a test - you have mentioned many, as have others in this thread. many have focused on HOW you study. i think it might be helpful to ALSO consider one more reason: WHAT you are studying.

in my preclinical curriculum, the lectures and tests were not written by the same person and there was very little alignment between them. therefore, one could spend a lot of time studying certain slides from the lecture, but not get a single question about them on the test. the biggest offenders in my experience would be slides detailing the presenter's own research or other topics that seemed to me to go into way too much detail (of course, i realize that second clause is super subjective).

suggestion: i would try talking with M2's who have taken the tests before as far as what they thought was the high-yield content to study. similarly, if you have any M1 friends who have been doing well on the tests, ask them WHAT they study, not just HOW.

not to say that how you're studying isn't negatively impacting your scores, but figuring out the best content to study from in the first place may also help you. wishing you the best!

 

[HelpPleaseMD]

i am sorry you are having a tough transition. I don't envy you ... the transition from college to MSI is very hard. Everyone studies a little differently, but I saw two varieties at my school back when I was a student

1) preread notes/powerpoint --> show up to class and listen to instructor live and pay attention
2) preread notes/ listen to powerpoint at home at 1.5-3x speed (most people)

and do practice questions from old exams. if lectures completely sucked, supplement with outside text. Med school is tough, but gets easier if you build a good foundation now. You will forget a lot of stuff, but you will be able to recall what you need rather quickly through an easy google/uptodate search afterwards.

first step to doing well when struggling is admitting you need help It is not easy for a lot of his medical people to admit to

 

[solitarius]

Unless someone here attends the same school that you do, it will be hard to give you specific advice. Find an MS2 "buddy" at your school who can help you figure out how to prepare for your school's exams effectively (and ideally give/sell cheaply their MS1 study aids to you.)

More like, it would be hard for someone to give you the specific advice if they are not in the same type of curriculum. Example, we're on an organ block system. I'd say to do anatomy at least half an hour a day, but this is impractical if Anatomy is your entire course for say 1 month.

At the same time though, I'd say a few things strike out as glaringly bad.

Sleeping for 1 hour before an exam is just self-defeating. Our exams are so thought-intensive that they require a well-rested brain to handle it for 2 - 3 hours straight for a block exam.

Both of your classes (Anatomy, BMS) are memorization-intensive, which doesn't come easy or natural for the vast majority of medical students. You need to optimize the best way to memorize stuff for you. Some people need flash cards, others use mnemonic associations, others are visual, etc. Do you know which is the memorization aide for you?

 

[drw2015]

Update today:

So I got my results for my Anatomy Written and Practical and am happy to say I passed both. The adjustments I made after the Midterm paid dividends and I finally feel like I know how to study for Anatomy.

For Biomed Sciences I got to see my Exam today and found that while I did miss a few easy questions (didn't read them properly so that I could speed through and save time for hard problems) I still would have been borderline passing if I had gotten those correct. So there is clearly a lot of room for improvement. I performed better on conceptual questions compared to the minute-detail memorization questions, so memorizing small details is something I need to improve on. Many of my incorrect answers were on questions that I narrowed down to 2 answer choices but selected the wrong one.

I met with the Course Director and he suggested studying in groups to reinforce the knowledge, which in my experience in undergrad was helpful. He also recommended spending 15-20 minutes pre-reading each lecture the night before classes (so if we have 3 lectures the next day I should spend an hour). I haven't done this due to lack of time, but I think it's something I will start doing because I will get more out of lectures from it and won't have to spend as much time the next day reviewing lectures. He didn't recommend doing any USMLE, Kaplan, etc. type of questions because according to him 80% of them won't be relevant to my classes as an M1. Instead he recommended bouncing questions off one another when studying in groups.

 

[drw2015]

I'm gonna be real with you. You failed the exam. You were ill-prepared. That's all there is to it. Stop sugar-coating things for yourself by telling yourself you weren't ill-prepared because you could eliminate answer choices. There is something seriously flawed with your system if you are failing this much stuff.

In my experience working with students, there are really only two ways people fail: either they're not prepared for the content or they're not prepared for taking the test/time management, etc. the vast majority fall into the former category and any issues they have with the latter are a manifestation of the former.

The other thing I noticed is that a huge reason people are not mastering material is that they simply don't put in the focused, non-distracted time needed to learn the material. How much time do you really spend studying per week? Do you troll Facebook, the Internet, YouTube, Netflix or anything else while you study? (It's okay, almost everybody does). How much of your "studying" time is spent doing this? How many times do you go through class notes before an exam?

I appreciate your advice and after reflecting on the situation you are absolutely correct. Even though I did a good job of narrowing down answer choices, at the end of the day I was still selecting the incorrect answers and was thus ill-prepared.

For my Midterm, I was unfocused and undisciplined. I did spend a lot of time messing around on Facebook, Youtube, reading about cars and sports, etc. After that first Midterm I changed a lot and would do that stuff during study breaks between doing lectures. I consider myself fairly disciplined now but know that there is always room for improvement.

 

[Marine to MD]

I appreciate your advice and after reflecting on the situation you are absolutely correct. Even though I did a good job of narrowing down answer choices, at the end of the day I was still selecting the incorrect answers and was thus ill-prepared.

For my Midterm, I was unfocused and undisciplined. I did spend a lot of time messing around on Facebook, Youtube, reading about cars and sports, etc. After that first Midterm I changed a lot and would do that stuff during study breaks between doing lectures. I consider myself fairly disciplined now but know that there is always room for improvement.

Refreshing to see students take an honest evaluation of themselves. I am happy that you are making progress and seeing ways to make further improvements! Good luck moving forward!

As a tip, I am a big fan of pre-reading. I normally outline my syllabus for the next day's lecture the night before. This way, I can focus in on and highlight the key concepts that the professor stresses during the actual lecture. This is especially helpful when topics are completely foreign. Works for me, may or may not be a help for you.

Also, every now and then, sit back and think about why you're here. Try and remember why you decided to pursue this career. It helps me refocus when I am starting to burn out studying.

 

[doctor opal]

Hi. This seems more of a personal struggle than academic. You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for medical school. With that comes sacrifices. Network with other people, talk to your peers and see if you can set up a support group for yourself.

 

[TBV]

doctor opal lurked for over a year and this is what she decided to comment on...

 

[Glandzburg]

I performed better on conceptual questions compared to the minute-detail memorization questions, so memorizing small details is something I need to improve on.

Let me just take a moment to make another plug for Anki. This is exactly what Anki was designed for.

 

[samac]

doctor opal lurked for over a year and this is what she decided to comment on...

Not even a super insightful comment. Just a "you suck and you should stop" kind of thing.

 

[Crayola227]

Seek mental health counseling. See a primary care. Seek tutoring. Be very proactive in seeking strategies from upper classmen and course instructors on studying. Also as you are doing going online. Be sure you are really structuring your time as well.

Also know that failing anatomy is pretty common. More than any other course it really is straight memorization (there's plenty of that elsewhere too though)

 

[CaptainQ]

I have a question. How do you guys do group studying? I have been studying by myself and I did pretty well. But I was told I should always seek for more efficient study method. And studying in groups is one of the recommendations. I tried one group but I see them going to side tracks way too often. I was wondering if it is just not the right group. Any ideas are appreciated.

 

[sloop]

I have a question. How do you guys do group studying? I have been studying by myself and I did pretty well. But I was told I should always seek for more efficient study method. And studying in groups is one of the recommendations. I tried one group but I see them going to side tracks way too often. I was wondering if it is just not the right group. Any ideas are appreciated.

Anybody recommending group study for its efficiency has clearly never studied in a group.

 

[Glandzburg]

I have a question. How do you guys do group studying? I have been studying by myself and I did pretty well. But I was told I should always seek for more efficient study method. And studying in groups is one of the recommendations. I tried one group but I see them going to side tracks way too often. I was wondering if it is just not the right group. Any ideas are appreciated.

Our professors give us lecture objectives telling us what we should focus our studies on... my group usually takes turns trying to "teach" each other about each objective. Explaining something to others is a good way to both cement your own understanding as well as gauge how well you actually know the topic. If your professors give you practice problems that are more open ended (i.e. not multiple choice or single-word answers), it can be helpful to talk through them with others as well. Often, others may provide another perspective on a question that you had not considered.

TL;DR - group work is more helpful for cementing your knowledge rather than initially learning it

 

[Stagg737]

Update today:

So I got my results for my Anatomy Written and Practical and am happy to say I passed both. The adjustments I made after the Midterm paid dividends and I finally feel like I know how to study for Anatomy.

For Biomed Sciences I got to see my Exam today and found that while I did miss a few easy questions (didn't read them properly so that I could speed through and save time for hard problems) I still would have been borderline passing if I had gotten those correct. So there is clearly a lot of room for improvement. I performed better on conceptual questions compared to the minute-detail memorization questions, so memorizing small details is something I need to improve on. Many of my incorrect answers were on questions that I narrowed down to 2 answer choices but selected the wrong one.

I met with the Course Director and he suggested studying in groups to reinforce the knowledge, which in my experience in undergrad was helpful. He also recommended spending 15-20 minutes pre-reading each lecture the night before classes (so if we have 3 lectures the next day I should spend an hour). I haven't done this due to lack of time, but I think it's something I will start doing because I will get more out of lectures from it and won't have to spend as much time the next day reviewing lectures. He didn't recommend doing any USMLE, Kaplan, etc. type of questions because according to him 80% of them won't be relevant to my classes as an M1. Instead he recommended bouncing questions off one another when studying in groups.

Given your reasoning for why you failed, I have to give a second plug for this advice:

Let me just take a moment to make another plug for Anki. This is exactly what Anki was designed for.

I agree with a lot of what's been said. Spend 10-15 minutes 'pre-reading' just so you know what will be covered in the lecture. If you're going to go to lecture, use an app like iAnnotate or Notability or just print off slides so you can write notes directly onto the slides and pay better attention. Use Anki regularly for small details (if you can manage the time and be disciplined about it). Find a group to quiz each other on the weekend or just before tests once you've already learned most of the material to solidify what you know and help fill in the gaps that you missed.

I'd also say to stick with what works for you. I went from writing things out by hand to typing things briefly during first year to save time. Problem was that I retained almost nothing by typing notes out, and writing things out was almost like making 3 passes at the material. So if writing things out helps them stick better, try and figure out a more efficient system. If typing works, then do that. Don't just do something because someone says it works for them or everyone though, because it may be useless to you.

 

[Glandzburg]

Given your reasoning for why you failed, I have to give a second plug for this advice:



I agree with a lot of what's been said. Spend 10-15 minutes 'pre-reading' just so you know what will be covered in the lecture. If you're going to go to lecture, use an app like iAnnotate or Notability or just print off slides so you can write notes directly onto the slides and pay better attention. Use Anki regularly for small details (if you can manage the time and be disciplined about it). Find a group to quiz each other on the weekend or just before tests once you've already learned most of the material to solidify what you know and help fill in the gaps that you missed.

I'd also say to stick with what works for you. I went from writing things out by hand to typing things briefly during first year to save time. Problem was that I retained almost nothing by typing notes out, and writing things out was almost like making 3 passes at the material. So if writing things out helps them stick better, try and figure out a more efficient system. If typing works, then do that. Don't just do something because someone says it works for them or everyone though, because it may be useless to you.

Well said. If there were a single study method that works best for everyone, there wouldn't be so many options available. The first year is your chance to find what is most efficient for you, so that when things start to pile up during M2 and board review, you won't be wasting precious time with stuff that doesn't work.

 

[moisne]

You will change your learning style a few times. I didn't get the "hang" of it till my second semester. Whatever you do... make sure you sleep a minimum of 6 hours a night (best for 8 hours).

Assuming I go to class at 8 (which I usually don't) - as soon as midnight hits - I drop everything and go to bed. Life saver.