Originally posted by cheesypoofs
Hey Panda, I will be starting in the fall. And I was wondering what do you suggest about the first semester. I mean how much did you have to study, did you have any sort of life? I am married and about 3 or 4 years older than the average student coming out of college and was just wondering what I could expect. Also, do they have a good orientation type situation or do they just throw you in there. Any advice would be great. THANKS!
First of all, you will probably really like the new curriculum. On most days during first year you will probably be done for the day by two o'clock leaving you, in theory, plenty of time to study without having to "burn the midnight oil."
I am forty and I have three kids (two when I started medical school). During first and second year I had plenty of time to spend with my family. Because I took advantage of free afternoons to study it was really, from a time point of view, no different then working a typical eight-to-five job.
During first semester I probably studied about three or four hours a day. I never crammed for tests or pulled all-nighters. On the other hand I studied consistently every day except Sunday (usually) and made sure that my three or four hours were all quality study hours.
A warning, however. Your mileage will vary. I have never "honored" a class and I am in the bottom third of class rank.
On the other hand, I have comfortably passed everything, have never failed a test, and generally had a reasonably stress-free first and second year.
Many people will claim to study eight, ten, or twelve hours a day but what they don't tell you is that they might blow off studying for a couple weeks after a test and then fight to catch up. Or they might spend eight hours at the library but four of those hours are spent "grab-assing," day-dreaming, or logged on to SDN.
I would recommend that you study like a fiend until the first test (like I did) and see how you do. If I recall the first test covered four weeks of material. By all means overdo it. Only start slacking off (again, like I did) once you see what it takes to pass.
This will draw flames to me but after first semester I kind of got the hang of it and with the exception of studying for Step 1 in the Spring of second year I really only put in about two hours a day of studying. Less as we got closer to the end of second year.
You will get up to seven weeks off to study for Step 1 so don't sweat it. I may not have been top of the class but I handily beat the class average for Step 1 scores.
They will have a one week orientation for you when you start in August. This orientation is about four-and-a-half days too long, if you ask me. Mostly they will stroke your egos and and tell you, repeatedly, that you are good enough, you are smart enough, and gosh-darnit, people like you.
Stand by for the "masturbation is OK" lecture. (You'll see.)
Don't sweat it. Enjoy the week. Come Monday of second week you will feel like an information train has slammed into you and all the happy-happy fuzzy orientation propaganda will fade quickly from memory.
Then it will just be a grind, a slow, painful slog to Christmas break. Just put your head down and forge ahead. keep a good attitude and remember that second year is better then first year and third year, except for the hours, beats the crap out of both first and second year.
I have only attended one medical school so I have no basis for comparrison with other schools. But I like LSU Shreveport just fine and have never regretted quitting a perfectly good career to go to medical school.
Oh, and don't, don't, don't buy any textbooks unless you don't care about money. I know they will give you a list of required texts but since 99% of the lectures are on power-points which are available on our web site and you will probably organize a (redundant) note taking service you will not really need the textbooks.
The only books from the required list that are either useful or good to have are Netter's, Robin's pathological Basis of Disease, and a good physiology textbook like Guyton.
Plus it is not efficient to study from textbooks. Too much trivia and no way of knowing what is important or testable. Get review books instead like the BRS Gridbooks.
