How to prepare for the grind of M1?

[butidontwantto]

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Echoing what so many others have said about getting your basic life stuff in order. The more life stuff you can automate the better, so setting up automatic bill payments, building habits like regular maintenance cleaning, getting some form of exercise every day, knowing how to make a few quick, easy, healthy meals that you actually like, etc. (Pro-tip even if you aren't vegetarian, find a few vegetarian meals that you like and can easily make - you never know when anatomy or a lecture on parasites or whatever is going to put you off meat for a while. Also it's usually cheaper so win-win!)

Also agree that you definitely don't need to pre-study anything. The one thing I did the summer before was I got an anatomy coloring book. I hadn't done any anatomy prior other than what had come up in bio1/2, so it was a chill way to familiarize myself with both the structures themselves and also how we organize them. If drawing is your thing, drawing out various structures would work too. Just don't go down a rabbit hole of trying to memorize a bunch of details when you don't know yet what's actually going to be important. Cause there's a TON of details, in anatomy especially, that end up being more trivia than actually useful (at least during your first year...).

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy the ride! And congrats!!!

 

[doctor_crane]

I’m finishing my first year and a year ago, everyone gave me the advice to do nothing.

I strongly disagree.

Become VERY familiar with Anki and how it works before school. Get familiar with other resources (but do not purchase yet) like Sketchy, boards and beyond, Pathoma, Online Med Ed, osmosis and see which one you prefer.
To save you some time, sketchy is the best. Most people use it to memorize pharm. but you can also memorize all the bacteria, viruses and various pathologies of diseases.

you don’t need to really study all of this, but I think it is better to use your free time to explore your resources.
If I were to go back a year and study something, I’d start to learn all the muscles of the back and arm and what nerve innervates them. But I did well in anatomy so it was not necessary, but it certainly would decrease the burden during the first exam.
I think most textbooks start with the back/upper extremities, so that is why I chose those. The best way to study anatomy is through Anki. There is also a website called Anatomy Guy that is free and can quiz you.
it wouldn’t take too long to do that. Saving a couple days of time it would take to really memorize all of that makes a difference in med school where time is so scarce to what you need to memorize.

but you certainly do not need to feel like you have to do anything other than get familiar with resources.

 

[drgoldenboy]

Thanks everyone! These are excellent suggestions. I feel better.

 

[T687]

I suppose I’m in the minority here, but if I could do the months before med school over again, I would have wished someone told me to watch Sketchy Micro, Pixorize Biochem, and Pixorize Immunology before starting M1. But Step 1 going pass/fail means this is less pertinent for incoming classes I suppose.

Agree. I did sketchy micro (and associated anking cards) before starting and it has saved me a ton of time (and cost very little of my time each day in the summer before school when I had nothing else to worry about). My only prestudying regrets are that I didn't also do all of immunology and biochem, as you're suggesting. It varies by person but I would rather work every day and work less each day (be overall less stressed) than cramming more work into less time. You already have to remember the material over multiple years, spacing it out over 6 more months shouldn't make a huge difference in regards to retention.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I’m finishing my first year and a year ago, everyone gave me the advice to do nothing.

I strongly disagree.

Become VERY familiar with Anki and how it works before school. Get familiar with other resources (but do not purchase yet) like Sketchy, boards and beyond, Pathoma, Online Med Ed, osmosis and see which one you prefer.
To save you some time, sketchy is the best. Most people use it to memorize pharm. but you can also memorize all the bacteria, viruses and various pathologies of diseases.

you don’t need to really study all of this, but I think it is better to use your free time to explore your resources.
If I were to go back a year and study something, I’d start to learn all the muscles of the back and arm and what nerve innervates them. But I did well in anatomy so it was not necessary, but it certainly would decrease the burden during the first exam.
I think most textbooks start with the back/upper extremities, so that is why I chose those. The best way to study anatomy is through Anki. There is also a website called Anatomy Guy that is free and can quiz you.
it wouldn’t take too long to do that. Saving a couple days of time it would take to really memorize all of that makes a difference in med school where time is so scarce to what you need to memorize.

but you certainly do not need to feel like you have to do anything other than get familiar with resources.

No one is saying not to do this stuff. They’re saying not to study medicine. There’s no point in trying to learn stuff because you don’t know what the school will focus on. Most people agree that familiarizing yourself with the most used resources would be useful.

 

[Doodle451]

I think it's super important to learn how to create balance of studying hard and allowing yourself time to relax and do things you enjoy. A huge part of the grind is learning when to step back and reconnect to yourself. A lot of psychological and emotional changes happen during the first year and it takes a while to adjust and learn how to prioritize your life. I would suggest learning about different specialties you may be interested in, think about how you will study for certain courses and get access to resources like Anki, think about what areas of research you would like to become involved in, buy things you will need for your move or studying, organize your calendar and plan trips during vacation times, and read about coping skills and techniques you can use when it gets tough. Good luck!

 

[acstylin]

Figure out how to use Anki maybe get familiar with different studying methods on this forum. Find a therapist, get a workout routine. Find a meal prep system you like. Chill tf out and enjoy this time! You likely won’t have it again.

I stopped reading after I saw this post. This is absolutely everything you need to know before you start. Every single thing here is essential. Students have a tendency to get down/depressed, stop working out, then get more depressed in a nasty cycle. Learn to exercise everyday even if it isn’t your thing. It may be the only physical activity you get each day (not speaking for everyone but I’m speaking for many). The school usually provides therapy for their students I think. I’d only add to “learn Anki.” LEARN ANKI!! It’s more than making a flash card. Making custom decks, study plans, timers, searching methods, suspending/unsuspending, then learn how to make high quality cards with embedded reference materials. Do you have to use Anki? No, but probably 75% or Med students use it for a good reason.