Is this unusual for medical school?

[Amit1]

Almost eveyone in my school is "beat-down" by the curriculum and feels that too much is expected from them. The system is pretty standad - with standard subjects, letter graded, and an 8-5pm schedule. We have lots of professors for each subject and they each want us to learn their stuff, and many times their research bull$hit as well. Walking down the halls you see a glum look on everyone's face. The administration doesn't seem to realize how much we are suffering, nor does it seem that they would care (as they seem to make themselves scarce.)

One of the second years told me that you just get used to "being dragged through the dirt." I have many friends from other schools, both MD and DO, and neither group seems to be as depressed as my class is. Plenty of us are social and go out on weekends together, however we all study a lot (~8hrs/day) just to pass.

Is this something all med students deal with? Do some just seem to hide it better than others? My school is a Texas state school, that is pretty average as far as board pass rates etc. go.

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[katrinadams9]

I'm at at state school in Michigan and we all feel pretty beat down here as well. Our Anatomy final is on Friday. I can't believe that we've covered the whole human body in 3 months. I feel like there isn't enough time in the day to learn all this crap. I feel guilty when I'm not studying... but also need to take a break and keep my sanity!

I guess I didn't realize med school would be this emotionally tough. I knew the courses would be hard, but I didn't expect to feel so downright depressed all the time. I used to be a carefree, happy-go-lucky kind of girl. Now I feel so weighed down it's like the world's on my shoulders. I'm hoping it'll get better after anatomy is over ('cuz that's what the 2nd years keep telling us).

 

[tkim]

Is this something all med students deal with? Do some just seem to hide it better than others?

Yes.

Yes.

This happens in every med school to some degree, and affects every student to some degree. Some of the happiest-looking students could be the most miserable.

Hang in there. Stick together. You'll make it out fine.

 

[Paws]

yes, me too. Today Paws came home and burst into tears she was so over tired and fed up with stupid exam bullsh*t ... how the freak are we supposed to have six exams in a few days? I mean, the ones we had today it was like, eeny meeny miney moe when it came to alot of answers. What is the point? to learn us the material or flunk us? And the professors are all mr. smiley pants about it ... 'hey! see ya tomorrow!' they tell you as you leave the exam room, crushed and beaten.

It's stupid because if you gave us a decent schedule then we might do ok and actually learn stuff but this is just a bogus process where we will most likely flunk and haven't really learned the stuff very well. I am so freakin' depressed.

 

[Samoa]

Yeah, first year sucked like that. Second year is actually more work, but it's so much more interesting that I don't feel quite so oppressed by it.

Edit: To me, the whole first year was a bizarre combination of moments where something I'd learned by rote in pharmacy school finally made sense, and other moments where someone would teach us something that I was pretty sure was completely wrong, or else not helpful in solving an actual clinical problem. I also found myself in disagreement with my classmates on a number of occasions, over which topics were clinically relevant and which ones weren't. There seem to be a lot fewer instances of the second kind of issue this year. Before I came to med school, I had learned a lot about how to treat diseases, but the diseases themselves were mostly empty words I had memorized. Now I have a mental picture of the disease itself to go with it, and it all makes so much more sense to me now. That's really why I like this year so much, and found last year so frustrating.

 

[Elysium]

We actually had 13 exams scheduled for our last exam block (physiology of cardivascular and respiratory system - 2 seperate exams, histology final - slide identification for the entire semester, anatomy written and practical, OMM written and practical, Physical Diagnosis written and practical, Introduction to Clinical Medicine, Public Health, Immunology, and Neuro). The administration has decided to schedule our immuno and resp phys test for a week earlier so we only have 11 tests in 4 days! Woo hoo! That's 4 days straight (no weekend in between). Then the administration scratches their heads when half the class punts our tests ("why would the class average in anatomy be a 60? Hmm"). It's so stressful I just want to jump off a tall building. I (and a lot of my classmates) are also starting to get burnt out, which is not helping matters any. I'm not sure what to do to get myself motivated. It all just sucks ass.

So, yes, I feel your pain.

 

[roja]

Well, I didn't really feel this way, my first and second year. Second year is definately much harder but you are kind of used to the degree of studying and its generally more intersting.

I don't know what school you are at in texas, but at SA, the students generally don't feel like this (or didn't when I was there and it didn't seem that much different when I was back in sept). Of course, there are always some people that feel like that.

and people would be lying if they said they had NEVER felt like that. Right at the end of a block, I would feel pretty tired from studying...

perhaps your group of friends isn't studying effectively. Or maybe its just taking a little more adjustment time. In general, medical students are very smart and never really had to kill themselves studing. So medical school is often kind of a shock, where you are studying your ass off and just hoping you will pass.


keep your chin up. It only gets better

 

[daria]

I think the average study-related stress level at different schools varies very widely. At Temple, I'm guessing that we're comparatively low-stress; a BIG part of this comes from the fact that class attendance (except for labs, PBL-like case study sessions, etc.) isn't required. If I had to attend class 8-3 then study for 5 hours/day, I'd be sweating it (and some students in my class indeed do this; it's not productive for me). I certainly wouldn't do ANY extracurriculars.

For contrast though, I considered attending one school (which shall not be named) where students felt they were getting a good education, but were ABJECTLY (we're talking widespread use of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs) miserable for the entire first 2 years. (The girl I talked to at that school who was generally most positive about it told me that one of her classmates committed suicide due to the stress level - the administration of course denies this.) Pretty much cemented my decision not to go there. All the students there felt, though, that the clinical years were much better.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Ha ha. Yes that is the "traditional" approach to a T. The mechanism seems to be to stratify the class through differential induction of depression. Only those most comfortable with pure toxicity may succeed. What bugs me is that my school put us all through that hell and then just tacked a bunch of touchy-feely classes onto it. The touchy feely stuff wouldn't be necessary if the main system wasn't so inhumane.

 

[missmod]

During orientation, we had a "Parents and Spouses" day. While we were in another lecture hall being lectured about patient confidentiality, the families were in another lecture hall were the dean told them that most of us will go through bad periods, and to expect us to declare we don't want to be in med school anymore, and it usually is the worst around thanksgiving.

i'm exhausted right now (2nd day of 3 days of exams) and just looking forward to tomorrow, the weekend, thanksgiving, and then one more month until christmas!

 

[Blake]

Yikes. That seems brutal, having so many exams in so little time. Thank God my 90% PBL school has a few exams. I've only done one so far. Granted, it was a 6 hour exam on a ridiculous amount of stuff, but it's less stressful than having short exams every 2 weeks. The next one is coming in 3 weeks, and I'm quite confident I'll do fine in it. I wouldn't say I'm exhausted, but I can't wait for christmas vacations...

 

[ermonty]

Hey all.

To the first years: Hang in there. It sucks I know. You wont remember much of what you're learning, but hang in there and get through it. Second year is much more interesting, but depending on where you are at, its actually alot more material. So while it's not as painful to study, it's more difficult to do well (at least that's been my experience - and we have a 'new' curriculum at my school this year). Do your best and try to find peace in what your future will be. For instance, for whatever specialty you may be interested in, find out what it takes to get into that specialty (Most fields are attainable my most students), and imagine how cool its gonna be to be practicing medicine in that specialty some day. If you are interested in a 'top' specialty and you are barely passing your class, 1) Be afraid - be very afraid , 2) Work harder (yeah right), or 3) Broaden your interests in less competitive fields and chill .

Never forget that you will be a doctor, and that we are all truly fortunate to be here. Peace.

 

[Doc Ivy]

I used to be a carefree, happy-go-lucky kind of girl. Now I feel so weighed down it's like the world's on my shoulders.

I hear you on this, my ex just told me the other day that I used to be a sweet person, then I started medical school and I changed.... That makes me really sad. You don't mean to change, but there's a certain toughness that one has to develop to study ALL THE TIME-- I guess others interpret this as coldness.

 

[tupac_don]

I hear you on this, my ex just told me the other day that I used to be a sweet person, then I started medical school and I changed.... That makes me really sad. You don't mean to change, but there's a certain toughness that one has to develop to study ALL THE TIME-- I guess other interpret this as coldness.

Yea being in med school you have to develop the soldier mentality. While everyone else is living a normal life, you are like a soldier in a trench, being constantly shelled and bombarded. But the sad thing is that people don't get this, b/c they are not going through it. Good luck soldier.

 

[azzarah]

Hang in there! MS2 is much better and much more rewarding imho.

 

[Stitch66]

Almost eveyone in my school is "beat-down" by the curriculum and feels that too much is expected from them. The system is pretty standad - with standard subjects, letter graded, and an 8-5pm schedule. We have lots of professors for each subject and they each want us to learn their stuff, and many times their research bull$hit as well. Walking down the halls you see a glum look on everyone's face. The administration doesn't seem to realize how much we are suffering, nor does it seem that they would care (as they seem to make themselves scarce.)

One of the second years told me that you just get used to "being dragged through the dirt." I have many friends from other schools, both MD and DO, and neither group seems to be as depressed as my class is. Plenty of us are social and go out on weekends together, however we all study a lot (~8hrs/day) just to pass.

Is this something all med students deal with? Do some just seem to hide it better than others? My school is a Texas state school, that is pretty average as far as board pass rates etc. go.

Do you go to UT-Houston?

 

[MadameLULU]

Do you go to UT-Houston?

Sounds like UT-SW. I believe they are the only letter graded med school in tx

 

[Tiki]

I've gone through the depression stage. Actually, one of our deans told us at the beginning of the year to expect to go through those stages. She likened the journey through med school as a rollercoaster ride, and so far its been exactly that.

I'm not miserable right now though, because we just recently had one of our exam blocks and I did fairly well. Right now I'm just thinking about the nice four day weekend coming up.

 

[fever5]

Yea being in med school you have to develop the soldier mentality. While everyone else is living a normal life, you are like a soldier in a trench, being constantly shelled and bombarded. But the sad thing is that people don't get this, b/c they are not going through it. Good luck soldier.

lol, my dad said the exact thing. he says there is a gap of about 10 years in his head where he knew very little of what else was going in the world.

in the summer when he worked in the ICU, he was so exhausted/wrecked that one night he thought/dreamt he was on the ward and this patient's (who he had worked closely with the day of) respiratory had come unpluged, and he kept feeling around in the dark to plug it back in...my mom woke up and thought he'd gone nuts...

another time, apparently he semi-woke up and was going through the motions of putting a central line in my mom.....this was in residency...so I guess its something to look forward to! haha.

 

[lullaby]

haaaaaaaahaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh
as tupac's said:
KEEP U'R HEAD UP

 

[Quixotic]

I have had a slightly different experience. At my school we only have four hours of classes a day and then are generally free for the rest of the day except one day a week. It provides plenty of time to study and keep my sanity by doing the things I enjoy. Plus, with the extra time I have begun work on a research project and auxiliary shadowing and volunteering. I couldn't image having to go to class from 8-5 every day. It just seems like such a waste to me. Sure they give us ample amounts of information and we will finish anatomy in about 9 weeks, but it is definitely more relaxing than I could have expected. The main idea is to keep up with studies. If you study material every day, by the time the test arrives, it simply becomes review.
Q

 

[roja]

Sounds like UT-SW. I believe they are the only letter graded med school in tx

SA is letter graded as well.

 

[trex92499]

Seriously sounds like san antonio...the multiple profs and the 8-5 schedule is all them....

 

[Espion]

Tech is 8-5. We're the last class (2006) to be letter graded though. Its all high pass/pass/fail now.

 

[kappasigMD41]

I liken med school to being kicked in the nuts on a regular basis. The pain goes away just in time for them to deliver another nauseating blow.