I already covered some of this in a PM, but for the benefit of the general population....
What is your cGPA/sGPA?
3.93/4.0
How did/do you study?
I went to class. I'm the type of learner who has to go to class to understand a concept. If I didn't go to class, I got behind, because it's less efficient for me to teach the concept to myself. My notes also had to be colorful. For my chemistry classes, I printed out slides and used color pen to write. For cell bio and biochemistry (and to some extent genetics), I used color pencils when doing my drawings. Sometimes, this meant redoing my notes at home because we were going too fast in class to get good notes.
That being said, I'm also a conceptual learner. I don't memorize, because I don't have that great of a memory. There are some things you can't get around memorizing, but most everything you can learn in a conceptual way. For me, at least, this meant that even if I didn't remember the exact answer on a test, I could work my way through it in a way that would get me to the right answer.
This, consequently, is one of the reasons I chose the medical school I did to go to. Their curriculum focuses on concepts, not pure memorization.
How do you prepare for exams?
For my science classes, I took the practice exams that our professors gave us mostly. I'd read through my notes a few times. For classes that were more heavily conceptual, like cell biology and biochemistry (as I took it), I re-drew or re-wrote pathways.
For my history classes, I did a lot of reading. Going off the conceptual learner thing, I wasn't great at dates, but I worked hard at trying to figure out why someone did something. Of course, most of my exams in my history classes were essays, and I got good at BSing those pretty well in high school.
Units/Classes per semester?
At my low, 12 credits per semester. That was my first semester, because I didn't register until most of the general ed classes were already full. I had another semester where I only had 13 credits. I had a semester where I had 17 credits, but one of my courses there was an online course, and one was a pre-semester course (intense course we took in the two weeks prior to the beginning of the semester), so I only really had like 2 classes during the semester itself. The rest of the time, I believe I took the standard 15 credits per semester, and made it a point to take at least one non-science class each term (I'm a science major), as well as a science class I was really interested in, rather than one I had to take to graduate.
Hours spent at work/volunteering/research per week?
This varied heavily by semester. I didn't do much of anything my freshman year and spent most of my time with my boyfriend. First semester of my second year, I got involved in one of the ECs I still do (non-school), and I put about 10 hours a week into it. I did a couple of projects here and there, and participated in our housing student government, which was another 2-3 hours/week. Still, spent most of my time with my boyfriend.
Second semester of second year, I started volunteering more regularly; I did 4 hours/week at the local hospital, in addition to my other ECs. This was also when I was studying for the MCAT. I got put on the staff at my non-school EC, so I started putting a lot more work into that as well.
First semester of third year, I took on a job working 10 hours a week in addition to all that, and got more involved in our student government (went to doing about 8 hours a week, up to 15 hours a week when we put on an event). I was also interviewing at schools during this time.
Second semester of third year, I dropped my volunteering because all the driving around and stress of it all was making me sick. I had a lot going on in my personal life, and my grades took a bit of a hit. Then I got rejected from medical schools and graduated from college.
Post college, I went to school to become a phlebotomist, and started working full time. I kept up on the staff of my non-school EC, and took on the additional responsibility of being a guardian to my little sisters (who are now 12 and 14).
Never did any research. Didn't do any additional clinical volunteering. I'm certainly no superstar like some of my friends, who work full-time and go to school full-time, but they think they have it easy compared to some of the things I do. Different perspectives, I guess.
Any tips?
Get into a hospital and look at some other career choices. Look at what the respiratory therapists do, what the lab techs do, what the nurses do, what dietitians do, etc. Don't just focus on the doctors. Then, if you still decide that becoming a doctor is what's best for you, you'll have a better foundation on which to describe why. And somewhere along the way you may decide that medicine isn't the best place for you. This was honestly the best thing that I did after I got rejected across the board, and I wish I had done it sooner than I had, but I was arrogant and figured that I could easily get into medical school (I certainly had the stats for it). I had my blinders on and my eyes set on the prize. Now I appreciate that prize a whole lot more.
