Med school not as bad as everyone says?

[jambro]

Wanted to ask this online since I feel it'd be too crass to ask to any of my classmates... but does anyone think that med school is not as bad as everyone says? Maybe it's because i spent too much time online before, but I just haven't had the experience that I heard so much about before I started.

My friends told me they study 8-9 hours a day, dont have time for other stuff, etc... I wake up at like 10 every day, screw around for a little, do anki, go to the gym, etc. I feel like there's plenty of time to do non-school things, and if I woke up at a reasonable time (not to mention early) there'd be a lot of time in the day. I'm glad because I do not think I could legitimately study 8-9 hours every day; I did that the day before my block test and it sucked. Are people really doing this every single day? 8-9 hours of real concentrated studying? I feel like on an average day you don't really need to study more than 3 actual hours maximum. I still watch lecs at 2x speed, but I doubt I need to, and anki and bnb is such an efficient way to study compared to how I'm assuming others do it.

Med school is definitely hard, and in the beginning I felt like I was constantly studying, but I think I was giving myself too much work back then. I'm sure it'll get harder in the future as I want to add research and volunteering to my plate, etc, but the first semester just wasn't too bad. I even feel like the tests aren't that bad; they test a lot of stuff but they remind me of the psych MCAT part where I'm just bored during it. Compared to an undergrad physics/math test when I felt serious anxiety and like I never had enough time, or even just the other parts of the MCAT, it's way less stressful.

What do you guys think? Maybe this can be a thread to calm premeds down before they start med school! Personally, I felt a lot more anxious/stressed in college where I had to get an A on everything, and it felt like every class was just trying to weed you out.

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[MedScat]

It depends what you want....my personal experience is kind of similar to yours. I studied about 6 hours a day for m1/m2. Life got tough studying for Step 1 and doing school but that was definitely the worst of it so far. But, compared to undergrad I feel the stress is less BUT, if you want a competitive specialty...things start being different. For competitive specialties you need to worry about being ranked well in your class, having research/pubs, extracurriculars, building relationships with attnedings in your field of interest. That stuff can be very time consuming. Thankfully, that wasn't me M1/M2 so I felt pretty good about things, like you do! Also, I'm just an average joe...just trying to pass. For the gunners, it becomes more stressful.

 

[ginsengreset]

My personal take: there's two different things going on when people study for med school. The first is building a general schema of how things work, and the second is filling it in with discrete details. Schema-building generally takes much longer than detail-filling, and trying to learn a bunch of details without having a schema scaffold takes even longer.

Trying to learn about mutations in bacterial peptidoglycan transpeptidases that confer resistance to penicillins is a lot easier if you're very comfortable in in your knowledge that bacteria generally have a peptidoglycan cell wall and what the difference in Gram+ / Gram - is. It's a lot harder when, during lecture, you think to yourself "oh yeah, bacteria have a cell wall, I remember learning that." You'll have students at both ends of the spectrum, and everywhere in between, in your class and that's why people's opinions on how much to study for med school vary so much.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

It depends on what kind of student you are. I was a good but not an elite student. Boards were not used as a metric for residency selection when I was in school, so all you needed to do was pass. I took a blue collar lunch pail approach, studied about 4 to 6hrs a day,( lectures were mandatory), and 6 to 8 on weekends. My wife was an elite student and went to class to socialize. She still graduated in the top 10 % at an east coast university. So YMMV. For this reason, pay no attention to what your classmates are doing. Run your own race.

 

[frenchyn]

How well are you doing in the exams? Scoring consistently above 95% at least if not 100?
My personal take: Med school is not difficult to just pass. To rank among the top 10, you have to study your butt off. Also, what other extracurricular activities do you involve in? Research? Leadership? etc. Add those in addition to med school in addition to top 10...if you still say it is easy and take less than 8 hours a day than kudos to you.

 

[Chemist0157]

Once I got in the groove, it was very manageable. We started with anatomy which was a mind-blowing amount of work compared to college load. It's been a few years, but during the week, I put in my hours in classes and did some studying over the weekend, but it was certainly not 8-9 hours per day. I recall people who did that though, either because they had to do okay, or because that was their personality type, and they wanted #1 in class.

 

[Blazers_33]

Med school has been pretty easy for me (so far). Easier than undergrad. Agree with the above poster, if you are just chilling trying to be an average med student its really not that bad. I was lucky to find a good study strategy early that works very well for me. I study from about 8-3 with a few breaks and do a little research here or there. Rarely do much on weekends

Caveats:

I am interested in mild to moderately competitive specialties
P/F school with NBME tests

If you are interested in super competitive specialties and need to be top in everything you probably aren't gonna have a good time.

 

[jambro]

How well are you doing in the exams? Scoring consistently above 95% at least if not 100?
My personal take: Med school is not difficult to just pass. To rank among the top 10, you have to study your butt off. Also, what other extracurricular activities do you involve in? Research? Leadership? etc. Add those in addition to med school in addition to top 10...if you still say it is easy and take less than 8 hours a day than kudos to you.

This is basically my caveat - my plan for the first semester was just making sure I wasn't going to have an issue academically so I didn't focus on ECs or anything like that. I'm mainly talking about just the academic portion, which I think has enough of a reputation by itself.

I get a little bit above average on the tests, but our averages are pretty high like 80s. And when I look at what I missed I'm not sure it's things i wouldve gotten by studying more - stupid mistakes, things that weren't even on my radar, etc. But for some reason I've always done better on standardized tests than class stuff, my school if P/F, and my study method is essentially boards based anyway so I think Ill be in good shape for that (hopefully step 2 is still scored)

 

[IlDestriero]

I learned by going to class. Some people can’t learn that way. I had friends that read for ~6 hours and almost never went to class. I know a couple that went to every class and studied long into the night. They appeared on the party/bar/dinner scene 2-3 times a year after finals for about 90 minutes and vanished again. I don’t think they’re not very smart, they just never learned how to study efficiently. I never studied 6 or 8 hours a day unless it was right before exams. Did well. But I did drag my ass to class on time every day for 6 hours. Theres penty of time to add balance in your life if you find what works for you.
Also, never get behind. Not more than a day or two. That’s the beginning of a very hard stretch trying to claw your way back.

 

[frenchyn]

This is basically my caveat - my plan for the first semester was just making sure I wasn't going to have an issue academically so I didn't focus on ECs or anything like that. I'm mainly talking about just the academic portion, which I think has enough of a reputation by itself.

I get a little bit above average on the tests, but our averages are pretty high like 80s. And when I look at what I missed I'm not sure it's things i wouldve gotten by studying more - stupid mistakes, things that weren't even on my radar, etc. But for some reason I've always done better on standardized tests than class stuff, my school if P/F, and my study method is essentially boards based anyway so I think Ill be in good shape for that (hopefully step 2 is still scored)

Well med school is not difficult to do average or above average. I studied at least 12 hrs a day to rank top 10. When you look at top 10 people, this literally consistently score 95% and above every single test. The person who rank top 1 literally only missed 1-2 questions. So med school is difficult or not really depend on how well you want to do

 

[lanzhou_lamian]

Well med school is not difficult to do average or above average. I studied at least 12 hrs a day to rank top 10. When you look at top 10 people, this literally consistently score 95% and above every single test. The person who rank top 1 literally only missed 1-2 questions. So med school is difficult or not really depend on how well you want to do

I'm so glad I go to a P/F school without rankings. I neither know nor care what the top 10 students in my class received on exams.

 

[ciestar]

Honestly based on circumstance. I struggled with med school but dealt with a lot of personal stuff that legit caused me to do poorly.

 

[jambro]

Well med school is not difficult to do average or above average. I studied at least 12 hrs a day to rank top 10. When you look at top 10 people, this literally consistently score 95% and above every single test. The person who rank top 1 literally only missed 1-2 questions. So med school is difficult or not really depend on how well you want to do

Well assuming the scores are roughly normally distributed, statistically, it would not only be difficult, but actually impossible for any random person reading this to all do average/above average. Someone has to do worse than average by definition. I'd also argue that there are probably plenty of people who study a lot and do worse than average, and study less and do better than average, and everything in between. But considering that many schools are unranked, P/F, and everyone says preclinical grades arent that important anyway, it doesn't seem worth worrying about.

 

[slowthai]

It's as hard as you want it to be, not including low yield professor written exams and mandatory crap that your school wastes your time with.

If you're gunning for 260+, AOA, multiple first author pubs, etc, have fun. If you're just wanting to pass and match into a non-competitive field, it's a different story. Granted, I'm not including outliers on either end (people that legitimately need to put in 10+ hours/day just to pass and straight up geniuses).

 

[Gilakend]

Well med school is not difficult to do average or above average. I studied at least 12 hrs a day to rank top 10. When you look at top 10 people, this literally consistently score 95% and above every single test. The person who rank top 1 literally only missed 1-2 questions. So med school is difficult or not really depend on how well you want to do

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I'm so glad I go to a P/F school without rankings. I neither know nor care what the top 10 students in my class received on exams.

My school is H/P/F with rankings only for AOA (ranking isn’t reported on MSPE apparently). No one cares how anyone else does except that we are happy when our classmates do well. None of us even know or care who is in the top 10% or 25% or whatever.

 

[Redpancreas]

Wanted to ask this online since I feel it'd be too crass to ask to any of my classmates... but does anyone think that med school is not as bad as everyone says? Maybe it's because i spent too much time online before, but I just haven't had the experience that I heard so much about before I started.

My friends told me they study 8-9 hours a day, dont have time for other stuff, etc... I wake up at like 10 every day, screw around for a little, do anki, go to the gym, etc. I feel like there's plenty of time to do non-school things, and if I woke up at a reasonable time (not to mention early) there'd be a lot of time in the day. I'm glad because I do not think I could legitimately study 8-9 hours every day; I did that the day before my block test and it sucked. Are people really doing this every single day? 8-9 hours of real concentrated studying? I feel like on an average day you don't really need to study more than 3 actual hours maximum. I still watch lecs at 2x speed, but I doubt I need to, and anki and bnb is such an efficient way to study compared to how I'm assuming others do it.

Med school is definitely hard, and in the beginning I felt like I was constantly studying, but I think I was giving myself too much work back then. I'm sure it'll get harder in the future as I want to add research and volunteering to my plate, etc, but the first semester just wasn't too bad. I even feel like the tests aren't that bad; they test a lot of stuff but they remind me of the psych MCAT part where I'm just bored during it. Compared to an undergrad physics/math test when I felt serious anxiety and like I never had enough time, or even just the other parts of the MCAT, it's way less stressful.

What do you guys think? Maybe this can be a thread to calm premeds down before they start med school! Personally, I felt a lot more anxious/stressed in college where I had to get an A on everything, and it felt like every class was just trying to weed you out.

As I've learnt the best way to rile people up is saying that their issues are not that bad so you're not really calming anyone down. To answer your question succinctly it's not about the difficulty of the material, but the volume and it's going to keep piling on and then the years of training will get you sooner or later. Also how does your school determine ranking/AOA?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It's as hard as you want it to be, not including low yield professor written exams and mandatory crap that your school wastes your time with.

If you're gunning for 260+, AOA, multiple first author pubs, etc, have fun. If you're just wanting to pass and match into a non-competitive field, it's a different story. Granted, I'm not including outliers on either end (people that legitimately need to put in 10+ hours/day just to pass and straight up geniuses).

Or you do what I do. Just try to do decent and also do research cause you like it. As long as I’m comfortably passing, I’m happy.

edit: well I guess that should be in past tense since I’m done with preclinical now. I care even less about honoring now because I just assume clerkship grading will be super subjective. Although the grading is weighted here so that the resident you spend the most time with has more impact than the attendings.

 

[frenchyn]

I'm so glad I go to a P/F school without rankings. I neither know nor care what the top 10 students in my class received on exams.

My school is P/F too...but the ranking is used only for mspe/AOA. It is very important to find out what your school does...AOA comes up multiple times during my interviews...especially top programs.

 

[frenchyn]

Or you do what I do. Just try to do decent and also do research cause you like it. As long as I’m comfortably passing, I’m happy.

edit: well I guess that should be in past tense since I’m done with preclinical now. I care even less about honoring now because I just assume clerkship grading will be super subjective. Although the grading is weighted here so that the resident you spend the most time with has more impact than the attendings.

At the end of the day, whether med school is difficult or how well you need to do depend on your goal. Just passing may not work for everyone. For someone who want to do academic competitive specialty, passing is usually not enough. But if you just want to do less competitive specialty and at any program, passing is enough....in general.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

At the end of the day, whether med school is difficult or how well you need to do depend on your goal. Just passing may not work for everyone. For someone who want to do academic competitive specialty, passing is usually not enough. But if you just want to do less competitive specialty and at any program, passing is enough....in general.

I don’t think just passing your preclinical blocks will hurt anyone. And I think not honoring most of third year also doesn’t hurt most people. But yeah, if you want something competitive and a top program, doing better is obviously better.

 

[jambro]

As I've learnt the best way to rile people up is saying that their issues are not that bad so you're not really calming anyone down. To answer your question succinctly it's not about the difficulty of the material, but the volume and it's going to keep piling on and then the years of training will get you sooner or later. Also how does your school determine ranking/AOA?

I agree that it's the volume and not the difficulty. I definitely have to be more consistently on my game than in college, but overall I'm just glad that imo it doesn't take 6+ hours of hardcore studying a day just to keep up like I was lead to believe.

 

[Redpancreas]

I agree that it's the volume and not the difficulty. I definitely have to be more consistently on my game than in college, but overall I'm just glad that imo it doesn't take 6+ hours of hardcore studying a day just to keep up like I was lead to believe.

Making Step 1 P/F was a really good move and will create a better system for pre-clinical education.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Making Step 1 P/F was a really good move and will create a better system for pre-clinical education.

Yeah I can’t wait to find out that my step 2ck score isn’t competitive enough for the specialty I’ve been working toward when it’s already too late to switch.

 

[frenchyn]

I don’t think just passing your preclinical blocks will hurt anyone. And I think not honoring most of third year also doesn’t hurt most people. But yeah, if you want something competitive and a top program, doing better is obviously better.

It does if your school use it for AOA...during my interviews, I don’t know how many times I was asked “I noted you are aoa?” Junior AOA>senior AOA...because junior AOA you have to be top 10 vs senior AOA top 20...depending on school

 

[Redpancreas]

Yeah I can’t wait to find out that my step 2ck score isn’t competitive enough for the specialty I’ve been working toward when it’s already too late to switch.

Oh crap...yeah I don't know about that...definitely a weird situation. I maintain getting rid of Step 1 as the main decider was a good thing...but you're right that there's a lot of things to adjust to since the game was designed around Step 1. Maybe pull Step 1 to end of first year and Step 2CK to the end of second year? It will force schools to go for an integrated curriculum as opposed the garbage M1 year many of us have where we're stuck memorizing the Krebs's cycle and whether rate determining steps are exothermic/endothermic (not an exaggeration).

 

[jambro]

I don't think making step 1 p/f was a good move. They did it to allegedly make people less stressed out, but they got rid of the symptom, not the cause. The reason people are stressed out is because too many people want to do x specialty at prestigious institution a or nice location b. Getting rid of a scored step doesn't change this fact, it just ensures they'll either be judged by metrics far more subjective OR by objective metrics that happen later on in medical training. I believe that PDs are probably gonna just defer to the next score-based standardized test, Step 2. If that's the case, congrats applicants, you now only have one shot to do well on a test, and it happens later on so you have less time to course-correct if you don't want to risk not matching.

What they actually could have done would have been to tighten up the standard error of the exam, only report quartiles or quintiles, take out the hour(s?) of exam that are experimental and not scored. That would have actually made things less stressful and encouraged less of an emphasis on comparing a 241 to a 246. But no, they threw it all out, on an insanely fast timeline that is amazingly unaffected by the freaking pandemic going on that has affected all the aspects that will eventually be used to judge future applicants.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

It does if your school use it for AOA...during my interviews, I don’t know how many times I was asked “I noted you are aoa?” Junior AOA>senior AOA...because junior AOA you have to be top 10 vs senior AOA top 20...depending on school

Even in neurosurgery, only like 39% of matched students had AOA. Clearly not a deal breaker. (And about 20% of unmatched were AOA.)

 

[slowthai]

Making Step 1 P/F was a really good move and will create a better system for pre-clinical education.

It'll only give schools free reign to pile heaps of low yield mandatory garbage onto students. Couldn't imagine a worse system.

 

[Redpancreas]

I don't think making step 1 p/f was a good move. They did it to allegedly make people less stressed out, but they got rid of the symptom, not the cause. The reason people are stressed out is because too many people want to do x specialty at prestigious institution a or nice location b. Getting rid of a scored step doesn't change this fact, it just ensures they'll either be judged by metrics far more subjective OR by objective metrics that happen later on in medical training. I believe that PDs are probably gonna just defer to the next score-based standardized test, Step 2. If that's the case, congrats applicants, you now only have one shot to do well on a test, and it happens later on so you have less time to course-correct if you don't want to risk not matching.

What they actually could have done would have been to tighten up the standard error of the exam, only report quartiles or quintiles, take out the hour(s?) of exam that are experimental and not scored. That would have actually made things less stressful and encouraged less of an emphasis on comparing a 241 to a 246. But no, they threw it all out, on an insanely fast timeline that is amazingly unaffected by the freaking pandemic going on that has affected all the aspects that will eventually be used to judge future applicants.

A lot of Step 1 material was a waste of time. Much of the material was low-yield clinically and this will force schools to get rid of their dinosaur-faculty teaching minutiae in biochemistry, histology, neuroanatomy, and anatomy and focus more on clinical material.

Maybe a better alternative would be to overhaul Step 1's curriculum to focus more on clinical material instead of making it P/F because I agree that the logistics of managing the P/F are a headache.

 

[slowthai]

Even in neurosurgery, only like 39% of matched students had AOA. Clearly not a deal breaker. (And about 20% of unmatched were AOA.)

That stat is very similar to the % of matched students in derm, plastics, and ortho.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

A lot of Step 1 material was a waste of time. Much of the material was low-yield clinically and this will force schools to get rid of their dinosaur-faculty teaching minutiae in biochemistry, histology, neuroanatomy, and anatomy and focus more on clinical material.

Maybe a better alternative would be to overhaul Step 1's curriculum to focus more on clinical material instead of making it P/F because I agree that the logistics of managing the P/F are a headache.

Why would they change their curriculum to be more clinical? If anything it gives them free reign to teach whatever they want because the students can’t complain that they aren’t getting step 1 material.

 

[Redpancreas]

It'll only give schools free reign to pile heaps of low yield mandatory garbage onto students. Couldn't imagine a worse system.

Respectfully disagree. I think Step 1 does what I've bolded. I suppose overhauling the Step 1 curriculum would be a better idea overall though now that I'm thinking about all the downstream consequences of P/F Step 1.

 

[Redpancreas]

Why would they change their curriculum to be more clinical? If anything it gives them free reign to teach whatever they want because the students can’t complain that they aren’t getting step 1 material.

I would hope the emphasis gets placed on Step 2 CK and potentially future more-objective clinical tests such as OSCEs. Or maybe make Step 1 more clinical so that these pages of First Aid can be ripped out.

 

[jambro]

A lot of Step 1 material was a waste of time. Much of the material was low-yield clinically and this will force schools to get rid of their dinosaur-faculty teaching minutiae in biochemistry, histology, neuroanatomy, and anatomy and focus more on clinical material.

Maybe a better alternative would be to overhaul Step 1's curriculum to focus more on clinical material instead of making it P/F because I agree that the logistics of managing the P/F are a headache.

Yeah... I think the issue is that they made it pass/fail, but they didn't change the actual material tested. It's still testing stuff that maybe isn't so important for clinical medicine. If they made Step 1 more like Step 2, and reported quintiles not exact scores, I think people would be a lot less frustrated. For me, I feel that there was at least an understood pathway to be competitive for residency, and now it feels like they've blown it up without thinking about how people are supposed to adjust. I certainly don't feel more relaxed from the change at least.

 

[frenchyn]

Even in neurosurgery, only like 39% of matched students had AOA. Clearly not a deal breaker. (And about 20% of unmatched were AOA.)

Not a deal breaker does not mean it does not help lol...literally at couple T10 program, “you have junior AOA?”...you are good to me...it came up multiple of times...There are so many factors play into match you can’t just look at AOA status and match alone and say it is not important lol. Look at residents/faculties profile...they usually make sure they list whether they are AOA or not. I am not saying having AOA you will match for sure btw...but it is definitely important

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

That stat is very similar to the % of matched students in derm, plastics, and ortho.

Also ENT. Derm is actually almost 50%. But still, that means half of the people who matched weren’t AOA. Now I wonder how many of them were at schools without AOA.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Not a deal breaker does not mean it does not help lol...literally at couple T10 program, “you have junior AOA?”...you are good to me...it came up multiple of times...There are so many factors play into match you can’t just look at AOA status and match alone and say it is not important lol. Look at residents/faculties profile...they usually make sure they list whether they are AOA or not. I am not saying having AOA you will match for sure btw...but it is definitely important

Well you’re arguing against a strawman since I never said it wasn’t important or helpful.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Well med school is not difficult to do average or above average. I studied at least 12 hrs a day to rank top 10. When you look at top 10 people, this literally consistently score 95% and above every single test. The person who rank top 1 literally only missed 1-2 questions. So med school is difficult or not really depend on how well you want to do

I studied 10 ish hours per day and was nowhere near the top 10. Top quartile, sure. But the top 10 at my school are basically some kind of superior species compared to me. I know the number one person only missed a handful of questions (like <5) every semester.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I would hope the emphasis gets placed on Step 2 CK and potentially future more-objective clinical tests such as OSCEs.

We take step 1 after a year of rotations here so our preclinical curriculum is already emphasizing clinical stuff. Maybe that’s a better solution.

 

[Redpancreas]

Yeah... I think the issue is that they made it pass/fail, but they didn't change the actual material tested. It's still testing stuff that maybe isn't so important for clinical medicine. If they made Step 1 more like Step 2, and reported quintiles not exact scores, I think people would be a lot less frustrated. For me, I feel that there was at least an understood pathway to be competitive for residency, and now it feels like they've blown it up without thinking about how people are supposed to adjust. I certainly don't feel more relaxed from the change at least.

100% agree. We're on the same page.

 

[slowthai]

Respectfully disagree. I think Step 1 does what I've bolded. I suppose overhauling the Step 1 curriculum would be a better idea overall though now that I'm thinking about all the downstream consequences of P/F Step 1.

Listen, these people are chomping at the bit to overwhelm us with mandatory everything. Now they have the license to make their curricula even more bloated without consequence. Why do you think the "stakeholders" were pushing so hard for scores to disappear? Because their value to students has been eroding year after year, in accordance with step 1's increasing importance, and they're feeling it. I'm not grasping at straws here. How many times have we heard of professors poopooing FA or sketchy and actively testing on stuff outside of those resources just to spite students? The immaturity and passive aggression is just laughable.

To add on to this, I even heard about one school deciding to start up mandatory attendance because of this nonsense. The email was something like: "Due to step 1 going p/f, we are happy to announce the adoption of a mandatory attendance policy" or something along those lines. I feel terrible for the next incoming classes.

 

[Kardio]

I would hope the emphasis gets placed on Step 2 CK and potentially future more-objective clinical tests such as OSCEs. Or maybe make Step 1 more clinical so that these pages of First Aid can be ripped out. View attachment 325488

Many people are of the opinion that doctors are distinguished from midlevels, in part, because of a robust basic science knowledge base. Some of these concepts may have little clinical relevance today, but there’s no guarantee the minutiae doesn’t gain relevance tomorrow.

Assessments set incentives. The ‘assessment’ left in place of scored Step 1 is research, not clinical knowledge or experience. I’m not sure that the deemphasis of preclerkship course material will have the clinically-beneficial effect you’re expecting.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Listen, these people are chomping at the bit to overwhelm us with mandatory everything. Now they have the license to make their curricula even more bloated without consequence. Why do you think the "stakeholders" were pushing so hard for scores to disappear? Because their value to students has been eroding year after year, in accordance with step 1's increasing importance, and they're feeling it. I'm not grasping at straws here. How many times have we heard of professors poopooing FA or sketchy and actively testing on stuff outside of those resources just to spite students? The immaturity and passive aggression is just laughable.

To add on to this, I even heard about one school starting up mandatory attendance because of this nonsense. The email was something like: "Due to step 1 going p/f, we are happy to announce the adoption of a mandatory attendance policy" or something along those lines. I feel terrible for the next incoming classes.

That’s definitely not every school though. My school gives us FA, some of our block directors include good ways to use it in their intros, we have a faculty approved anki deck, etc. My school can’t be the only one like that.

 

[slowthai]

That’s definitely not every school though. My school gives us FA, some of our block directors include good ways to use it in their intros, we have a faculty approved anki deck, etc. My school can’t be the only one like that.

Of course, but too many are. Your school is the minority. It just is, lol. When we're talking down on our schools on here, you're like the only one that consistently has something good to say about the way your school does things. I would happily transfer if given the chance lol

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Of course, but too many are. Your school is the minority. It just is, lol. When we're talking down on our schools on here, you're like the only one that consistently has something good to say about the way your school does things. I would happily transfer if given the chance lol

That makes me sad lol. There are things my school does that annoys me, but nothing like some of the stuff I see here lol.

 

[Lawpy]

That’s definitely not every school though. My school gives us FA, some of our block directors include good ways to use it in their intros, we have a faculty approved anki deck, etc. My school can’t be the only one like that.

I wish all schools follow your school's curriculum model but sadly there's way too many out of touch and delusional admins who need a job

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I wish all schools follow your school's curriculum model but sadly there's way too many out of touch and delusional admins who need a job

I think more are moving this way. But the school I almost went to is still on a traditional curriculum where they do biochem, path, etc all separate over two years. Like wtf, is this the 19th century?

 

[Redpancreas]

Many people are of the opinion that doctors are distinguished from midlevels, in part, because of a robust basic science knowledge base. Some of these concepts may have little clinical relevance today, but there’s no guarantee the minutiae doesn’t gain relevance tomorrow.

Assessments set incentives. The ‘assessment’ left in place of scored Step 1 is research, not clinical knowledge or experience. I’m not sure that the deemphasis of preclerkship course material will have the clinically-beneficial effect you’re expecting.

We'll have to agree to disagree here. I've heard this argument too many times in faculty meetings from basic science faculty when trying to fix our dinosaur curriculum.

1.) That robust basic science knowledge base comes from MCAT, GPA standards on admission, not whether we make students memorize amino acid properties based off their structure, which is cool, but not relevant.
2.) We live in a digital world where these facts are out our fingertips if we need them. Introduce the concept (i.e. polar/nonpolar). Don't make us memorize it.
3.) This material is not rocket science and I have a hard time believing it differentiates us in any positive way from PAs/NPs. If anything, I think PAs/NPs can use this as bulletin material to justify how outdated medicine's mentality is.

Also, I don't think research by any means fills the void left by Step 1.

 

[jambro]

My school includes a subscription to BnB, sometimes links relevant videos in the lecture slides, and studying from zanki pretty much gives me everything i need to know for our exams which are mixed in-house/boards. Honestly, the idea that my professors would bash resources like that or explicitly make questions on things those resources don't talk about seems incomprehensible. It's crazy to me that that happens at other schools!