How bad is medical school for people who actually enjoy studying?

[Royalprincess19]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So I'm a highschooler right now and I'm starting to try and gather information about my path to being in the medical field. People say that medical school is so hard because there is so much information you have to learn and you have to study for hours and stuff and you will get depressed. What if I actually like studying though? Outside of high school, I study anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry just for the heck of it and I've gotten kind of addicted to studying honestly. At one point it was actually a problem because I didn't want to do much else. To me, med school sounds like a dream because there is so much to information to learn but obviously I don't know exactly what volume of info you must learn so my vision of med school is warped.

So how much time will be spent studying daily in medical school?
What is a days worth of information to learn?
If you are like me and went to medical school, was it a dream or a nightmare?
Will me studying things ahead of the time help in med school?

This question's not really related but will going to community college and then transferring to uni affect my chances of getting into med school and can I make up for it by getting stellar grades?

 

[deleted972488]

Sounds like you’ll be fine, but take it one step at a time. Focus on doing well in college and meeting all the entrance requirements.

 

[Goro]

So I'm a highschooler right now and I'm starting to try and gather information about my path to being in the medical field. People say that medical school is so hard because there is so much information you have to learn and you have to study for hours and stuff and you will get depressed. What if I actually like studying though? Outside of high school, I study anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry just for the heck of it and I've gotten kind of addicted to studying honestly. At one point it was actually a problem because I didn't want to do much else. To me, med school sounds like a dream because there is so much to information to learn but obviously I don't know exactly what volume of info you must learn so my vision of med school is warped.

So how much time will be spent studying daily in medical school?
What is a days worth of information to learn?
If you are like me and went to medical school, was it a dream or a nightmare?
Will me studying things ahead of the time help in med school?

This question's not really related but will going to community college and then transferring to uni affect my chances of getting into med school and can I make up for it by getting stellar grades?

My students who do very very well tell me that they love learning, so enjoying studying is a plus.

In the mean time, enjoy and finish high school, and then enjoy and finish college.

 

[pms_testosterone]

Sounds like you'll be fine. There's a lot of hyperbole on the internet about how much you need to study in med school, but don't believe it. It's really not the thing to be worried about, anyway; the stress in med school doesn't come from the studying, it's from the busy-ness of your schedule and the sheer number of different activities (mandatory and not) you have to fit in in a given week. The weight of the responsibility that awaits you and, often, not meeting expectations you have of yourself, can also add to stress.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

So I'm a highschooler right now and I'm starting to try and gather information about my path to being in the medical field. People say that medical school is so hard because there is so much information you have to learn and you have to study for hours and stuff and you will get depressed. What if I actually like studying though? Outside of high school, I study anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry just for the heck of it and I've gotten kind of addicted to studying honestly. At one point it was actually a problem because I didn't want to do much else. To me, med school sounds like a dream because there is so much to information to learn but obviously I don't know exactly what volume of info you must learn so my vision of med school is warped.

So how much time will be spent studying daily in medical school?
What is a days worth of information to learn?
If you are like me and went to medical school, was it a dream or a nightmare?
Will me studying things ahead of the time help in med school?

This question's not really related but will going to community college and then transferring to uni affect my chances of getting into med school and can I make up for it by getting stellar grades?

I legitimately enjoy studying and teaching (hence the tutor gig) and i thought med school was absolutely awesome. If these things come easy to you, you'll be very happy in the medical sciences.

Also, don't fret about starting at CC. I did. Didn't stop me one bit.

David D MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[CherryRedDracul]

If you enjoy learning, like I do, med school isn't that hard. But it does require adjustment.

The average high schooler would find the volume overwhelming without being acclimated to it first.

 

[TheDataKing]

Moving thread to hSDN - link here

 

[mmmcdowe]

Medical school studying is like eating pancakes. You are given five pancakes to eat every day seven days a week. As long as you eat those pancakes each day then the load is manageable. However, if you decide that you don't want pancakes for a few days or weeks, those pancakes get stored in the freezer for you and all of the sudden you find a plate of 100 pancakes that you have to eat by tomorrow. That's a lot of pancakes to swallow. Good time management is the key. Cramming becomes less successful of a strategy. Enjoying being organized is more important than enjoying studying. The vast majority of people in medical school have some level of passion for learning.

 

[El-Rami]

Honestly, if you enjoy studying, it won't be that bad provided you enjoy the material. You will study several hours a day, at the bare minimum. It will be the hardest you have ever studied in your entire life most likely.

However, keep in mind that there's a reason why mental health problems are so pervasive in medicine. It all begins in medical school, and often there are insufficient resources to help people who are struggling. You will not find much sympathy if health problems lead to poor performance. In fact, they will use it against you and just say that you couldn't handle the pressure. There are no second chances in medicine, unless you're a physician and abusing alcohol while on duty of course. Then people will cover for you unless you really mess up.

It is often said by residents that they face emotional abuse from attending physicians. Sadly, there is a toxic culture of hazing in medicine. The constant trauma and taboo against failure sadly drives talented young people to suicide. People jump out of windows if they don't match. You take out over a quarter of a million dollars of debt, and there's few options if you want out or are forced out. A medical degree doesn't have very many uses if you do not get a residency so you can practice as an attending, and med school courses generally aren't transferrable to other institutions, meaning you will have wasted your time if you are one of the "few" who end up falling victim to attrition. Attrition can happen to the best of students, not just the crappy ones.

Think long and hard if you really want to pursue medicine or not. There are other careers out there, and there's an infamous statistic of only half of physicians would be willing to do it all over again if given the option.