Had an experience today that made me think... Perhaps I'm not the only one who feels this way.
The other day, I was talking to a girl in my class who I had regarded as relatively ditzy. We got on the subject of grades. I worked my ass off for the most recent round of tests. Like outworked many of my peers, even gaining a reputation as a "gunner". I scored right around the class average (on some tests; others higher). This girl annihilated me. She ended up scoring 90+ on everything. She does that consistently, apparently. My jaw almost dropped. I guess it was a lesson not to judge others at face-value. Still, she was one of those people that seemed to not really know that much when you talked to her in class, or in discussions of concepts. Yet somehow destroyed the exams. At first thought, I couldn't really understand it.
Perhaps this is just me getting disgruntled as a second year, but that experience touches on a common complaint I'm having lately. A lot of my classmates aren't really super "intelligent". They just read, and read, and read. When a topic comes up that they have read about, they literally regurgitate everything they've read without any critical thinking. They are completely devoid of logical parsimony in their approach, and it's almost astounding at times. They'll whiff spectacularly when it comes to even the simplest task that requires reasoning instead of recall.
Upon thinking more about it, I guess it came down to the fact that I sacrificed studying lecture minutiae for nailing down high yield concepts in Pathoma and First Aid, that will hopefully show returns in the form of higher board scores. In exchange, my test grades suffer. But does anybody else feel disgruntled like I do? Maybe this is something I shouldn't give too much thought to. But it really just hit me that you don't have to be that smart to be a doctor. It really just takes hard work.
The other day, I was talking to a girl in my class who I had regarded as relatively ditzy. We got on the subject of grades. I worked my ass off for the most recent round of tests. Like outworked many of my peers, even gaining a reputation as a "gunner". I scored right around the class average (on some tests; others higher). This girl annihilated me. She ended up scoring 90+ on everything. She does that consistently, apparently. My jaw almost dropped. I guess it was a lesson not to judge others at face-value. Still, she was one of those people that seemed to not really know that much when you talked to her in class, or in discussions of concepts. Yet somehow destroyed the exams. At first thought, I couldn't really understand it.
Perhaps this is just me getting disgruntled as a second year, but that experience touches on a common complaint I'm having lately. A lot of my classmates aren't really super "intelligent". They just read, and read, and read. When a topic comes up that they have read about, they literally regurgitate everything they've read without any critical thinking. They are completely devoid of logical parsimony in their approach, and it's almost astounding at times. They'll whiff spectacularly when it comes to even the simplest task that requires reasoning instead of recall.
Upon thinking more about it, I guess it came down to the fact that I sacrificed studying lecture minutiae for nailing down high yield concepts in Pathoma and First Aid, that will hopefully show returns in the form of higher board scores. In exchange, my test grades suffer. But does anybody else feel disgruntled like I do? Maybe this is something I shouldn't give too much thought to. But it really just hit me that you don't have to be that smart to be a doctor. It really just takes hard work.
