New med student question

[Dr Who]

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I am starting med school this year so as you can imagine I have a couple of questions. i have heard that the first half of the first year of med school (MS1) is by far the hardest. Not only do we as ms1's have to make that HUGE mental, social and even physical adjustment to life as a medical student, but we also have to keep ourselves sane. One person told me that they just throw LOTS of material at you from the FIRST DAY!! and it just keeps on coming, never letting up!!
What did you do personally to help make this transition manageable. Those of you with a girlfriend/ boyfriend at the start of med school, did maintaining the relationship become a strain even if you both thought you knew what you were getting into???
Med school is still a few months away for me and already I feel stressed.

 

[ravi]

I am starting med school this year so as you can imagine I have a couple of questions. i have heard that the first half of the first year of med school (MS1) is by far the hardest. Not only do we as ms1's have to make that HUGE mental, social and even physical adjustment to life as a medical student, but we also have to keep ourselves sane. One person told me that they just throw LOTS of material at you from the FIRST DAY!! and it just keeps on coming, never letting up!!
What did you do personally to help make this transition manageable. Those of you with a girlfriend/ boyfriend at the start of med school, did maintaining the relationship become a strain even if you both thought you knew what you were getting into???
Med school is still a few months away for me and already I feel stressed.

Dr. Who, I may not be the best person to answer this question (since I didn't start med school yet), but just remembering how I felt up on receiving my first addmission will help me keep my spirits up. 🙂

 

[mfrederi]

Thousands of people make it each year, just take solace in that fact. That is what med school is for the most part, doing something that at times feels insurmountable but knowing full well that there are at least a hundred other people in the library that feel the same way you do.

 

[2112_rush]

Thousands of people make it each year, just take solace in that fact. That is what med school is for the most part, doing something that at times feels insurmountable but knowing full well that there are at least a hundred other people in the library that feel the same way you do.

I definitely second this. I got through gross anatomy somewhat sane by not thinking about the HUGE amount of information to learn and getting overwhelmed, but focusing on one test, one dissection, and one fact at a time.

 

[Dr Who]

Thanks for the reply guys...
Im interested in knowing how the transition from pre-med to MS1 was. Was it painful? what did you do to cope with the different lifestyle and constant stress?

 

[fork1976]

I think there is too much studying. my girlfriend is far away, and we hardly get to see each other. med school is definately a life changer...

fork

 

[Blake]

Thanks for the reply guys...
Im interested in knowing how the transition from pre-med to MS1 was. Was it painful? what did you do to cope with the different lifestyle and constant stress?

Not painful, at least in my opinion. It's not hard, it's just that you have to be willing to sacrifice a lot in order to make it through med school. Some folks don't want to spend 99 % of their free time studying. Some do. It's all about personal choices in the end, but you can be a successful student while maintaining a balance. Personally, I'm pretty unbalanced, but I've made that choice, so got to live with it. Good luck !

 

[SaltySqueegee]

Yeah it has its moments of insanity. But you get used to operating at a break-neck effecient level. You find out what you need to do to make it work.

When starting first day, try to focus on the material at hand, or what you should 'chunk' out for that day, instead of the material that has yet to come. Med school can be a bit of a mental mind trip/game sometimes.

Best of luck, and congrats on the acceptance. 👍

 

[MSHell]

Just take it one small (or huge) chunk at a time.

We were (over)dramatizing about our schedule of exams once and a prof caught us. He said to just take it one week at a time. He graduated from the same med school so he knew what it was all about.

They expect you to learn every last detail from every book printed on "their" subject. You can't. Deal with it as soon as you can. It makes life much easier.

 

[siempre595]

Transition to med school is largely dependent on what your undergrad years were like. I worked harder in undergrad than I did first year. Second year is by far much more difficult than first. (our grading scale changes with second year, and the classes become more difficult/important). You basically adjust to spending most of your time reading. It's not that difficult because everyone around you is also basically reading non-stop. Just learn to read really fast 😉

 

[fielight]

"they just throw LOTS of material at you from the FIRST DAY!! and it just keeps on coming, never letting up!!"

well, that's how it is going to be in medical school for the next 2 years (there's never going to be much of a break, except for winter/summer vacation). but i think most people adjust to it pretty quickly. a month or two into it, you won't be able to remember the last time you didn't study so much. how difficult of an adjustment really depends on your undergrad years (personally, i was used to studying and taking hard classes in undergrad, so it wasn't such a bad transition -- though i think everyone is initially surprised at the quantity.) at this point, there's not much you can do (e.g., some of the other crazy entering students want to study ahead of time, but that's just a waste and pretty useless imo). just have fun for the next few months, gain some perspective, and get ready to work hard the day classes start.

 

[ekimsurfer]

I am starting med school this year so as you can imagine I have a couple of questions. i have heard that the first half of the first year of med school (MS1) is by far the hardest. Not only do we as ms1's have to make that HUGE mental, social and even physical adjustment to life as a medical student, but we also have to keep ourselves sane. One person told me that they just throw LOTS of material at you from the FIRST DAY!! and it just keeps on coming, never letting up!!
What did you do personally to help make this transition manageable. Those of you with a girlfriend/ boyfriend at the start of med school, did maintaining the relationship become a strain even if you both thought you knew what you were getting into???
Med school is still a few months away for me and already I feel stressed.

yea, you're probably going to fail out and be miserable at the same time.

it's not a big deal, set aside 4 hours a day outside of class each day and you'll do just fine (and by fine i mean A's).

****ing relax and enjoy... you're already beginning to worry and you're months away from even starting. maybe you can find out what books you need and start reading. I'm kidding...

but seriously, it's not that big of a deal. just be prepared to have about 3 hours to yourself in the evening and the rest of the time read or something. it's really not as bad as everyone makes it seem.