Highly unproductive M2 year

[Redpancreas]

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So this isn't meant to be super serious but I guess it is a big problem for me and I'm not seeking medical advice here... During M2 I started off very well and even pre read starting material and honored the first class. Now with pharm, I have no problem with the material but I am getting distracted to the point where I'm taking entire DAYS off. With weekly exams this will be a problem very shortly! Like I'll just feel like sleeping or watching an episode of something. Like I don't know what's wrong with me and this terrible procrastination. I get good sleep, my appetite is thriving, I work out almost daily (so again, not a medical issue here) , idk why I'm losing focus so often. What do you all do to combat this second year? What motivates you. Right now with pharm, the drugs are so many and I wish I could just transport myself into the future as a third year where I'm being pimped to know a drug and then come back to the present and be motivated but that's not happening. I don't know what to do...like I'll have classmates who I watch studying and they'll be so engrossed in the material where all they have to do is read their notes and are so focused that when I interrupt them they'll like freak out for a second. Also, during lecture they ask such poignant questions (srs) and I'm like...wow didn't even think of that, I couldn't even remember the name of that one out of a hundred drugs we have learnt that day...(and I know to some extent that's a bad perception to look at because if you compare yourself to 100+ people asking questions there's bound to be diversity in what people learn but I'd say there's a good 15-20 people who consistently are on the ball with all this. )

Temporarily I am thinking of increasing my coffee to 2x a day but I know that'll be a very short term fix as I'll develop tolerance.

I'm just wondering if you guys could provide some insight on how you stay so motivated and interested because I do love Medicine and don't want to be in anything else but I'm having difficulty staying as motivated for some reason.


I usually go to class but have stopped for the pharm unit because it's pointless and I realized I retain 0% from lecture and am left with 5-6 hours to self study and am already tired.

 

[Stagg737]

Sounds like you've got a little bit of burnout going on. Taking entire days off isn't the end of the world as long as you're making up that time off with solid study time. I'd try and just get into some kind of consistent routine, it usually helps get your mind back into focusing when it needs to be. As for the pharm, I'd just say do some major QBanks and realize just how significant the pharm is. It might help you realize how significant drugs are on the boards, and it might help their importance actually sink in.

 

[WingedOx]

Seriously, take days off.

 

[PhillyMed777]

It does sound like you are getting worn down. It's ok to take time off. I'm experiencing the exact thing. What I've done is sped up and made more efficient the time I do study, while simultaneously taking more time off.

 

[togaedere]

Do not compare yourself to others. It's impossible not to, and you're still going to, but at the very least be aware that you're doing it and that it isn't helpful to you.

Pharm is difficult for a lot of people, it's also boring for a lot of people, and as one surgeon I know put it, the most pointless class of medical school -- given that drugs change over time. So it's okay and perfectly natural that you're not feeling that motivated. It's not going to help you if you let the wheels fall off completely, of course, but as people have said above it's perfectly fine to take a day off when you're feeling that. Medical school is long and your life isn't ruined if you don't do completely great in one class.

So, how to get through pharm --> as in my first sentence, you have to do what works for you. I wasn't all that into pharm either so I worked through a variety of different methods to at least get through the material. I tried straight up flash cards and wasn't totally into it. Just did reading, didn't help that much. Online material, same thing. Then I made a diagram of the body (just drew it out on a big piece of paper) and placed flash cards next to the parts of the body that the drug worked on. I didn't get honors in pharm, but it helped me survive and I still take a lot of that information with me. I also will reiterate that I didn't study with anyone else because I learned early on that studying with others just didn't work for me. If that's where you're at, that's cool. If you need people around you, that's awesome too, but make sure they are people who do not stress you out or make you doubt yourself. There isn't a person on the planet who has a complete handle on every medical subject ever, so if you're in awe of someone asking a really poignant question in class, take the material they made you aware of and be grateful they asked (a lot of students do not ask questions in class for fear of appearing behind others). Know that the same person asking that question may have a question about something you know about in the future. It's just how it works.

So this isn't meant to be super serious but I guess it is a big problem for me and I'm not seeking medical advice here... During M2 I started off very well and even pre read starting material and honored the first class. Now with pharm, I have no problem with the material but I am getting distracted to the point where I'm taking entire DAYS off. With weekly exams this will be a problem very shortly! Like I'll just feel like sleeping or watching an episode of something. Like I don't know what's wrong with me and this terrible procrastination. I get good sleep, my appetite is thriving, I work out almost daily (so again, not a medical issue here) , idk why I'm losing focus so often. What do you all do to combat this second year? What motivates you. Right now with pharm, the drugs are so many and I wish I could just transport myself into the future as a third year where I'm being pimped to know a drug and then come back to the present and be motivated but that's not happening. I don't know what to do...like I'll have classmates who I watch studying and they'll be so engrossed in the material where all they have to do is read their notes and are so focused that when I interrupt them they'll like freak out for a second. Also, during lecture they ask such poignant questions (srs) and I'm like...wow didn't even think of that, I couldn't even remember the name of that one out of a hundred drugs we have learnt that day...(and I know to some extent that's a bad perception to look at because if you compare yourself to 100+ people asking questions there's bound to be diversity in what people learn but I'd say there's a good 15-20 people who consistently are on the ball with all this. )

Temporarily I am thinking of increasing my coffee to 2x a day but I know that'll be a very short term fix as I'll develop tolerance.

I'm just wondering if you guys could provide some insight on how you stay so motivated and interested because I do love Medicine and don't want to be in anything else but I'm having difficulty staying as motivated for some reason.


I usually go to class but have stopped for the pharm unit because it's pointless and I realized I retain 0% from lecture and am left with 5-6 hours to self study and am already tired.

 

[byaaaaaaah23]

Try studying in a different way-- agree with the above recommendation to try a qbank, or maybe firecracker. Sounds like you are having trouble just sitting down reading notes or a book.

 

[sloop]

It's Saturday night, so I'll say this: trade your coffee for a beer, sit down and let's have a talk.

I can personally attest to the fact that it is possible to have a life/take time off and still honor everything in MS2 and do very well on step 1. You can do as well as you want to while still taking time for yourself. It just depends on how you are spending your study time. I can tell you that I am no prodigy at efficient/effective use of time—I have ADD—but you have to figure out a balance that works. That's really the key.

During MS2 most weeks I would take an afternoon or two off during the week plus one full day or two half-days on the weekend. That's a lot of time to take off, but I have a girlfriend, hobbies and need alone time to simply relax and do my own thing. So I just spent time efficiently, looking forward to my time off. If I had a lot of material I needed to cover, I'd work through lunch. I'd set realistic goals on how much material I wanted to cover in a given day rather than on how much time I would spend studying. If I got through all the material I set out, whatever time that was left was mine. If I was still feeling energetic, I could continue studying and reduce my load for the next day, but I didn't have to. I could also just call it quits, make a drink and watch a few episodes of something.

Taking time for yourself is fine and necessary. The key is knowing how much material you can get through in a day and setting realistic goals. When you've met your goals for the day, you can feel satisfied and use the rest of your time however you want, guilt-free. And if you don't meet your goals because you're having an off day or something came up, that's fine too but you just know that you need to make up the work in the coming days.

As far as specific tips for pharm, here's what I can offer: Pharm is a lot of brute force memorization, no doubt, but people make this out to be more important than it is. There's also a lot of conceptual stuff in pharm (such as how the mechanism of action of autonomic drugs relate to their effects on HR, BP, epinephrine reversal, MAC for anesthetics, how effects of antipsychotics relate to actions on the mesolimbic, nigrostriatal, and tuberoinfundibular pathways, etc). Learn these well and it will help you with the other stuff. This is also high yield stuff for Step 1. Additionally, pay attention to word roots when learning drugs. Most drugs are named in a way that all or most members of a class have similar names. Pay attention to weird side effects (esp. amiodarone, quinine, spironolactone, digoxin, etc.) A lot of people in my class made their own flash cards, but I only recommend this if you learn from writing them. I don't and I just bought the Brenner flashcards and found them great. They're missing a lot of antibiotics and antifungals, so you might have to make your own for some drugs but they have everything you need to know. Quiz yourself regularly and ask friends if you can spend an hour or two quizzing each other once in a while.

Just relax. It's gonna be okay. Enjoy your free time and flexibility, because this is far less guaranteed once you start clinicals.