How was your first week? Lets compare!

[latissimusdorsi]

I just started my first year at a school on the west coast. So far its not as bad as everyone says. Yes i have to study 5-6 hours a night on weekdays, but i have been able to take the weekends off completely. What schools are you guys at? How was your first week? Anyone from you class drop out yet? lol

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[2012mdc]

I just started my first year at a school on the west coast. So far its not as bad as everyone says. Yes i have to study 5-6 hours a night on weekdays, but i have been able to take the weekends off completely. What schools are you guys at? How was your first week? Anyone from you class drop out yet? lol

studying 25-30 hrs in your 1st week is a lot

 

[Hemichordate]

studying 25-30 hrs in your 1st week is a lot

Boo hoo.

 

[Rocher]

I just started my first year at a school on the west coast. So far its not as bad as everyone says. Yes i have to study 5-6 hours a night on weekdays, but i have been able to take the weekends off completely. What schools are you guys at? How was your first week? Anyone from you class drop out yet? lol

I'm starting my third week. It's not as bad as I thought it would be, but it has definitely gotten busier as the weeks go on. I haven't been able to take off either of the 2 weekends I've been in school, but I'm not studying 5-6 hours a day either (probably about 4 a day on weekdays, and maybe 5 on sat and sun). I am freakin amazed at how much I have learned in only 2 weeks. Pretty interesting stuff too.

No one in my class has dropped out. It's tough but it's not that tough (not yet at least)

 

[2012mdc]

Boo hoo.

It was just an observation. I don't understand the boo hoo response. I'm not whining about what OP does

 

[cowme]

30 hours of studying a week as a first year!? You guys realize that this year is completely irrelevant beyond just passing, right? Save up some energy for the next two years, when you will definitely need it.

 

[Hemichordate]

It was just an observation. I don't understand the boo hoo response. I'm not whining about what OP does

I'm just messing with ya

 

[MilkmanAl]

You guys realize that this year is completely irrelevant beyond just passing, right?

Actually, I would bet they don't realize that. Med students aren't generally wired to work hard enough. They're in 110% mode at all times, regardless of how stupid and obviously irrelevant the minutiae in biochem, anatomy, histo, etc. are.

 

[Dyingduck]

Actually, I would bet they don't realize that. Med students aren't generally wired to work hard enough. They're in 110% mode at all times, regardless of how stupid and obviously irrelevant the minutiae in biochem, anatomy, histo, etc. are.

You are studying for the wrong reason.

 

[drizzt3117]

studying 25-30 hrs in your 1st week is a lot

I barely studied 25-30 hours the whole first year... P/F ftw.

 

[MilkmanAl]

You are studying for the wrong reason.

Well darn, I guess I'll have to tell residency programs that I did med school all wrong when I start interviewing in a couple months.

 

[Geekchick921]

I read about 60 pages of extremely dense notes last weekend in prep for this first week of anatomy. Mistake. I need to find my groove in regards to how I want to take notes and study with all this material, but I know just reading copious amounts of material doesn't really do jack for me. It takes me forever, I feel like I read the same things over and over, and I already know I don't learn best that way. I need to type/write things myself and I retain much more when I hear it/see it like I would in class. That said, I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to handle it from here on out.

That said, I did well on my first quiz, so that's good. It seemed like most of my class did, and I'm sure we're all just trying to figure out what's going to work best for us.

 

[Baron Samedi]

Just watch the UofM online dissection videos for anatomy. It shows you 95% of what you need to know, the other 5% being what random little fact nuggets your professors throw at you.

 

[MilkmanAl]

The dissector (presumably Grant's) and the chapter summaries and questions in the BRS are also excellent study tools.

 

[Geekchick921]

Just watch the UofM online dissection videos for anatomy. It shows you 95% of what you need to know, the other 5% being what random little fact nuggets your professors throw at you.

Ooh, I've been to UMich's site before but didn't actually notice the videos before. Thanks, man.

I'm not reading the notes like that again. They told us all the questions will come from material mentioned in the study guide and in the hour-long conferences they give before we go into the lab every day. My plan now is to type my own notes based on the study guide. I'll get the info for my notes from the notesthey provide, but I'm sure as hell not pouring over them like that again.

 

[Mattabet]

http://prosconsult.blogspot.com/2011/08/orientation-realities.html

I don't rightly remember week one, but I remember week 0 being kind of a trial. ^

In any case, congrats - only about 200 more weeks to go. Just keep swimming!

In seriousness, make sure you don't slack off before the first test. It can sting people if they're underprepared, and then you have to deal with all the existential crises and morose 'maybe I'm not cut out for this' BS. Once you know how things go, you can scale it back.