MSI's: How's it going so far?

[decal]

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Mental note: respond once this lovely week of tests comes to a close.

 

[Timmythemic22]

And I realize I'm exactly where I want to be. Despite the torture, and the lack of a life, I asked for this. This is what I want.

I could not more emphatically agree!!! 😀

 

[Slide]

To sum up the MS1 experience so far:

Review book > Textbook

Anatomy = Biochem

Friday > Saturday

Beer > Liquor



All-in-all, pretty decent. There are some bumps in the road, but most days I find myself thinking "Wow, I really DID learn a lot today." It's just expected that not every day is gonna be a cakewalk. Most people in my class seem used to it already.

This truth has applied to me as well. I thought anatomy would be rougher than biochem, but it turns out both classes are almost the same: you gotta keep up everyday, and don't get too creative.

 

[drsadness88]

I'm really happy right now . I survied my first quiz in med school( histo) it went great. As far as how med school is going everything is fine. I like my profs and MS2's are awesome. They help us alot through the first month .

 

[polycon7]

Oh gawd! Someone please end my misery over here! Just got done with exam 4 of the week and have 2 more on wednesday. Just found out my grade for the Micro written exam I took today....a little disappointing but hey, I passed. I am definitely not ready to hit the books just yet for exams 5 and 6 but I'm looking forward to some retail therapy this weekend🙂

 

[polycon7]

Oh yeah...I forgot to mention. Even though it's been something like hell in the last week..I'm still excited to be here🙂

 

[kittalin]

We only have two tests for an entire unit. The mid unit was last week. Grades are S = satisfatory (one STD below the mean and up), C = concern (between one and two STDs below mean), U = unsatisfatory (lower than two STDs below mean.

I got a C. There it is. Thank god it's only worth 12 percent of the final grade, so I'm essentially not too far off, but man, is my esteem down. I want to chalk it up to nerves because I had a small anxiety episode, but now I'm doubting myself and my knowledge, and that's the real danger. Not to mention my new anxiety for the big 88%er at the end of the unit.

Any tips for a shrunken self esteem balloon?

 

[SalseraDoctora]

Thank you guys for making me feel better. Like one of the previous posters I am definitely doing exactly what I want to do, and I am SO grateful to be here, but that does not stop me from throwing myself a massive pity party sometimes when it all seems overwhelming (which is most of the time) and I feel sort of hysterical when I think about how behind I am (I am always behind). Plus it is definitely depressing to realize that when you are in med school, everybody is extremely smart, everybody is extremely hard-working, and you are no longer an academic superstar. I am sure most of us attributed a hefty portion of our self esteem to our academic success, so when that takes a bunch of hits it definitely is pretty hard to deal with.

And amen to whoever said biochem was boring. Biochem is SOOOOOOOOOO boring. I thought radiology was boring but biochem seriously makes radiology look like a Broadway musical.

Also does anybody else feel as though the first year is lasting forever? I know 2nd year is more difficult, but lord let it be more interesting too. I definitely don't want to go into research, and I do like people, and I am just trying to remind myself that it will get more interesting after this first year of the grind. Right? Right?

 

[DoctaJay]

I heard that 2nd year is harder in that its WAY more information, but that its also alot more interesting becuse you are learning all of these diseases. So at least we have something kinda to look forward to. I must admitt that I'm enjoying embryo for the shear complexity of it and how everything comes together so nicely, but I'm hating histo

 

[alphaholic06]

I heard that 2nd year is harder in that its WAY more information, but that its also alot more interesting becuse you are learning all of these diseases. So at least we have something kinda to look forward to. I must admitt that I'm enjoying embryo for the shear complexity of it and how everything comes together so nicely, but I'm hating histo

I'm the exact opposite. I love Histo, but absolutely hate embryo.

 

[gujuDoc]

I heard that 2nd year is harder in that its WAY more information, but that its also alot more interesting becuse you are learning all of these diseases. So at least we have something kinda to look forward to. I must admitt that I'm enjoying embryo for the shear complexity of it and how everything comes together so nicely, but I'm hating histo

I have heard that second year is harder depending on the person. For some people second year makes more sense because now you are learning what happens when you get disease whereas in first year you are learning the basics of how things are supposed to be in a healthy individual. So second year is more integrative in some ways and some people find it easier but others find it more difficult because you have to integrate stuff you learned in first year into things you are doing in second year.

For others it is just the schedule. Like at USF for instance, they have blocks in first year where like biochem will be 10 weeks with histo and ethics and then 5 months of anatomy, physio, and some other courses, and then beh sci and neuro in the last block. But all of a sudden in second year they are thrown with 6 courses all at once.

 

[gujuDoc]

Thank you guys for making me feel better. Like one of the previous posters I am definitely doing exactly what I want to do, and I am SO grateful to be here, but that does not stop me from throwing myself a massive pity party sometimes when it all seems overwhelming (which is most of the time) and I feel sort of hysterical when I think about how behind I am (I am always behind). Plus it is definitely depressing to realize that when you are in med school, everybody is extremely smart, everybody is extremely hard-working, and you are no longer an academic superstar. I am sure most of us attributed a hefty portion of our self esteem to our academic success, so when that takes a bunch of hits it definitely is pretty hard to deal with.

And amen to whoever said biochem was boring. Biochem is SOOOOOOOOOO boring. I thought radiology was boring but biochem seriously makes radiology look like a Broadway musical.

Also does anybody else feel as though the first year is lasting forever? I know 2nd year is more difficult, but lord let it be more interesting to. I definitely don't want to go into research, and I do like people, and I am just trying to remind myself that it will get more interesting after this first year of the grind. Right? Right?

Yeah I think that's what SDN is here for. To allow people to vent with those who understand.

 

[LegacyDoctress]

I think I have biochemistry on lock...

Im havin problems with anatomy...thousands of pieces of information, confusing lectures, so much information. Spent 4 weeks on head/neck/back...

not feeling the euphoria or the enthusiasm some of y'all have...

this is more like torturous hell...

 

[Crazy4F1]

4 hours of class a day? yuck. we usually only have 2 and i'm generally asleep by the end of the second one

i think i could pretty much second everyone's responses so far...some things have been good, others not so much. i have my raw scores from our first exam but they havent finished generating final grades yet as we got to gripe some questions in embryology and they havent finished deciding if any questions are being thrown out yet. hopefully they will throw at least one out, b/c i'm only like 1 question from honors in that class

 

[pseudoknot]

Really, I love med school more with (almost) every passing day.

 

[spreebee]

Help!

All right, well I'm going to be ok, I just need to get some things out.

I just took my first anatomy exam on Monday and got the results today. I've been totally jarred by the results. While I definitely passed, I scored in the bottom third of my class. Having studied studiously since (literally) day one, I expected a heck of a lot more out of myself. I kept on top of things, went to lab, practiced questions, and have spent the last two weekends completely at home just to ensure a solid start.

Well, quite unexpectedly, I got a real jolt. Let me back up. I went to a small, private college with a really solid science program known for its great pre-med preparation. I graduated with excellent grades and got into my medical school of choice early fall of my senior year. After a long and wonderful summer of just chilling and doing research, I started medical school here, 3 hours from my home.

I'm no gunner, but I'm no slacker either. I worked for my grades in college and am used to putting time in = getting grades out. I expect to be able to consistently place at least somewhere in the middle of my class (~125 kids). Now, it's too early to make any calls, but this start has my groove completely shattered. We've had a quiz and exam (today) in molecular-cell and I've been rocking that class. Biochem is unknown as of yet, but anatomy! I expected more out of myself.

What do you think I should do? I love medicine and would never think of trying anything else. But I can't believe I'm having trouble hacking this. My deficit on the exam was mostly the practical. I rocked the straight MC part of the written exam until the section where you have answer choices like this:

A. None of these are correct
B. One of these is correct
C. Two of these are correct

...etc all the way up to three and then the choice that "All of these are correct." Those screwed me.

But what eats and eats at me is that I put in time. I can bet you kids in there coming from the same background as I spent the same or less time and rocked the exam. I'm thinking my sub-par performance is not a function of time spent studying as it is efficiency of time spent studying...

It's really hard to kick yourself back into full-speed again once you take a blow like this. I can't afford to stumble lest my other classes start suffering (let alone the inevitably more difficult 2nd anatomy exam). It's a real jab to self-confidence. Maybe I'm just a 30%tile person no matter what I do? I refuse to succumb to such a thing 🙁

...and all I can think is that if I start slipping now, the moderately-competitive specialties I have my eye on will start to become less and less possible to match into.

Stress! But I plan on picking up and moving on and seeing where I end up.

Study the material in a way you can teach it to others (That's when your ready to rock the exams)...

 

[smq123]

It's really hard to kick yourself back into full-speed again once you take a blow like this. I can't afford to stumble lest my other classes start suffering (let alone the inevitably more difficult 2nd anatomy exam). It's a real jab to self-confidence. Maybe I'm just a 30%tile person no matter what I do? I refuse to succumb to such a thing 🙁

Actually, I found that the first exam of any course was always the hardest. With the second exam, I knew what kinds of questions to expect, so I found it a little easier, generally.

 

[sprinkibrio]

Biochem is over!!!! Forever! I'm sooooo happy! That has always been my most dreaded subject, so it's all up from here!

And no one go tell me about how I'll have to use it later, it's on step I, blah, blah--never again at the intensity it was!

 

[OncoCaP]

Biochem is over!!!! Forever! I'm sooooo happy! That has always been my most dreaded subject, so it's all up from here!

And no one go tell me about how I'll have to use it later, it's on step I, blah, blah--never again at the intensity it was!

You will start to miss it ((((Biochem)))) you can't escape it's tentacles ... it is everywhere.👎laugh:

I heard you all cover anatomy in six months as well. I guess it's intensity followed by nothingness?

 

[sprinkibrio]

You will start to miss it ((((Biochem)))) you can't escape it's tentacles ... it is everywhere.👎laugh:

I heard you all cover anatomy in six months as well. I guess it's intensity followed by nothingness?

I'm hoping for nothingness! We just had our first lab practical on the head/arm/back, our lecture test is monday, and I have a feeling the second half of anatomy won't be as bad. Genetics (replaces biochem) was actually "too" hard last year, so we're the suckers who get to deal with a completely renovated class... soo hoping for nothingness.

 

[WiscDoc]

M1... going well so far. Biochem here is much easier than the one I took in undergrad... anatomy/histo/embryo/radiology can be a pain since its all combined, but my school lets students take anatomy over the summer, I have embryo and anatomy out of the way. If you think of it, first semester is almost over, 3 more semesters and we are in the clinics guys!

Oh, and about the clinics, I find volunteering/shadowing or just being in a freaking clinic/hospital really helps motivate me.

Wisc