Plan of Action for Summer

[shibby1111]

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I don't even...

This is what I would recommend if somebody asked the worst possible way to spend their time before medical school.

Grab a dictionary and look up the word facetious.

 

[mcloaf]

Grab a dictionary and look up the word facetious.

That I took you seriously may be a sign I should spend less time reading SDN.

 

[Jepstein30]

You'll be ahead in terms of processing the information beforehand.

would you really though?

you're really telling me you can read through a chapter of a text and still know enough about it months later for it to be useful?

I don't buy it. I personally think it's a waste of time.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

would you really though?

you're really telling me you can read through a chapter of a text and still know enough about it months later for it to be useful?

I don't buy it. I personally think it's a waste of time.

That's actually how learning works. If you really learned something, a review is much faster and more effective than learning it for the first time.

I'd recommend keeping it pretty simple. Study anatomy for 2 months. Hardest first year class, most useful to memorize, does not any other medical knowledge to make sense. The end.

 

[charmiedermie]

would you really though?

you're really telling me you can read through a chapter of a text and still know enough about it months later for it to be useful?

I don't buy it. I personally think it's a waste of time.

Yes, assuming you learned it and didn't just read the words on the page and made the learning active. It will be more familiar when u touch on it in class, than if you had never read it before.

 

[Psai]

Grab a dictionary and look up the word facetious.

That other guy is seriously suggesting to people that they should be memorizing insertions

 

[Jepstein30]

That's actually how learning works. If you really learned something, a review is much faster and more effective than learning it for the first time.

I'd recommend keeping it pretty simple. Study anatomy for 2 months. Hardest first year class, most useful to memorize, does not any other medical knowledge to make sense. The end.

Yes.. within a reasonable time period. Not weeks/months later.

If you want to do some form of pre-studying, then that's what I would do. But it's so absolutely unnecessary. I don't think that use of time is effective at all and you're not really saving much study time later on. Your 'return' on pre-studying isn't worth the burnout.

Yes, assuming you learned it and didn't just read the words on the page and made the learning active. It will be more familiar when u touch on it in class, than if you had never read it before.

So now we're going from just reading two chapters a day to thoroughly understanding it? Well.. I guess we can just do pre-clinical in a month and a half at that pace. Step 1 in October sounds fun.

 

[chasm-e-baddoor]

So now we're going from just reading two chapters a day to thoroughly understanding it? Well.. I guess we can just do pre-clinical in a month and a half at that pace. Step 1 in October sounds fun.

Did you read what he wrote? He said doing more than just reading the words on the page.....nobody said anything about "thoroughly understanding" it. Simply understanding what youre reading and making a minimum effort to remember concepts is mroe than enough and very easy for a medical student to do at a leisurely pace.

finishing guyton's in 2 months is not a pace equivalent to finishing pre-clinical in a month and a half either.

I don't think that use of time is effective at all and you're not really saving much study time later on. Your 'return' on pre-studying isn't worth the burnout.

I beg to differ. Going through a cornerstone subject completely one extra time makes you that much closer to mastery of the subject. If you know physiology or anatomy so well that the abnormal seems even more intuitive then i dont see how it's poor "return". Of course one can always go through this subject an extra time during the school year, but then it negates your argument of not saving much study time.

 

[Psai]

Did you read what he wrote? He said doing more than just reading the words on the page.....nobody said anything about "thoroughly understanding" it. Simply understanding what youre reading and making a minimum effort to remember concepts is mroe than enough and very easy for a medical student to do at a leisurely pace.

finishing guyton's in 2 months is not a pace equivalent to finishing pre-clinical in a month and a half either.



I beg to differ. Going through a cornerstone subject completely one extra time makes you that much closer to mastery of the subject. If you know physiology or anatomy so well that the abnormal seems even more intuitive then i dont see how it's poor "return". Of course one can always go through this subject an extra time during the school year, but then it negates your argument of not saving much study time.

Haha this is such terrible advice
You seriously have no idea what you're taking about, do you

 

[Merely]

This has been a very informative discussion, I just find it interesting that people can have such opposing views on the same topic. Thanks for all the tips and advice given by those who recommended some actions before the start of med school and by those who suggested to chill.

 

[shibby1111]

You actually shouldn't study the summer before medical school. you don't know which details are important and which are a waste of brain space. I knew every origin/insertion/nerve/artery/function of back muscles going into anatomy lab the first day. 2 years later that brain space is now replaced with anti-arrhythmic drugs. All I know is I wasted time that could have been spent at the pool drinking beer or just walking around aimlessly. Drink beer and walk around aimlessly while you can - its a sacred opportunity that will soon expire.

 

[JimmyB123]

You actually shouldn't study the summer before medical school. you don't know which details are important and which are a waste of brain space. I knew every origin/insertion/nerve/artery/function of back muscles going into anatomy lab the first day. 2 years later that brain space is now replaced with anti-arrhythmic drugs. All I know is I wasted time that could have been spent at the pool drinking beer or just walking around aimlessly. Drink beer and walk around aimlessly while you can - its a sacred opportunity that will soon expire.

Advice like this is golden. People that actually pre studied and come back to tell everyone how big of a waste of time it was

 

[charmiedermie]

So now we're going from just reading two chapters a day to thoroughly understanding it? Well.. I guess we can just do pre-clinical in a month and a half at that pace. Step 1 in October sounds fun.

Not at all what I said, but thanks.

 

[charmiedermie]

You actually shouldn't study the summer before medical school. you don't know which details are important and which are a waste of brain space. I knew every origin/insertion/nerve/artery/function of back muscles going into anatomy lab the first day. 2 years later that brain space is now replaced with anti-arrhythmic drugs. All I know is I wasted time that could have been spent at the pool drinking beer or just walking around aimlessly. Drink beer and walk around aimlessly while you can - its a sacred opportunity that will soon expire.

You could have easily found out before that u don't have to memorize every origin and insertion.

 

[SoSimplyKari]

Even if you think you won't be burnt out by not taking the summer before M1 off, believe me, once you hit the middle of anatomy you will want to shoot yourself. Burnout hits fast and it hits hard.

 

[shibby1111]

Even if you think you won't be burnt out by not taking the summer before M1 off, believe me, once you hit the middle of anatomy you will want to shoot yourself. Burnout hits fast and it hits hard.

Tru dat. everyone ends up taking a break whether they want to or not, whether the time is appropriate or not. if you start studying 2 weeks before the term begins you might end up breaking 2 weeks before the term ends - which means you fail and have to work at Pet-Smart for a year.

 

[Jabbed]

You actually shouldn't study the summer before medical school. you don't know which details are important and which are a waste of brain space. I knew every origin/insertion/nerve/artery/function of back muscles going into anatomy lab the first day. 2 years later that brain space is now replaced with anti-arrhythmic drugs. All I know is I wasted time that could have been spent at the pool drinking beer or just walking around aimlessly. Drink beer and walk around aimlessly while you can - its a sacred opportunity that will soon expire.

Perfect example of what not to do. Do not try and pre-study to get ahead.

I took a gap year after college and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Africa and worked 30 hours weeks for the few months that I was stateside. With the few hours that I squeezed out of bedtime reading, layovers, flights, bad weather, and those days that I just felt like spending lying around reading, I managed to get through the following medical books:

• Lilly's Pathophys of Heart Disease
• Dubin's EKG / 12 lead EKG Art of Interpretation / half of Chou's Electrocardiography
• West's Pulmonary Physiology
• Acid, Base, and Electrolytes MRS
• Rennke's Renal Pathophysiology
• Half of Pulmonary Medicine

I also read a few classic novels and an evolutionary sociology book. The bottom line is that I would have read these books regardless of whether or not I was matriculating to medical school in the fall. I wasn't "pre-studying to get ahead", I was just naturally curious and had a spontaneous urge to spend some of my free time learning. I ended up spending most of my time on Chou's, which was by far the least useful for my preclinical coursework, but also the most interesting to me (you might notice that I love cardio). I do think that my reading these texts has helped reinforce my knowledge base and has likely benefited me throughout the preclinical curriculum, but I wouldn't hand this book-list to a would-be med student and call it worthwhile summer reading unless you happen to have a crazy interest in cardiopulm and hemodynamics.

All in all, it was worth it and I don't regret one bit of it. In fact, I even miss the times when I used to read purely for the intellectual pursuit of it. Now a lot of it is just work.

Inb4 Psai's "but you won't know how to connect the dots to help your patients!!!!!"

 

[Psai]

You read multiple ekg books for "fun". Just wow

 

[Jabbed]

You read multiple ekg books for "fun". Just wow

I admit, that part makes me a bit weird. 🙁

I basically see them as little Sudoku puzzles at this point.

 

[VisionaryTics]

My advice to the incoming M1s is this: everyone is going to tell you to read Costanzo or some other "easy" "pre-clinical book". Bypass that crap and go right for the meat of medicine: clinical textbooks.

So, working by each major field, I recommend every MS0 (I love that term) have done at least a cursory readthrough of each of the following

Internal Medicine: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine
Psychiatry: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry
Ob/Gyn: Gabbe Obstetrics and Williams Gynecology (Sorry, two books. But you must read each.)
Surgery: Sabiston's Textbook of Surgery (Schwartz or Greenfield is also appropriate, or all three plus Mastery of Surgery and Cameron's since you are interested in a surgical field)
Pediatrics: Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics

I would also recommend since you are interested in a specific field, you should read the authoritative text in that field. You should be able to crank out all six volumes of Neligan's Plastic Surgery.

I think if you have all that covered before starting med school, you shouldn't be too far behind your classmates.

With regards to research, I would try to have your own lab running by the start of school so you can gather some data during Ms1 for use as part of your R01 grant submission.

 

[hotwasabi]

@VisionaryTics. thanks for the advice! I will definetly read all those books before term starts. I think it should put me on par with my future classmates.

(btw... I was being facetious. I already have my own lab and a tenure track position at my med school). what have you done @VisionaryTics?

 

[Psai]

@VisionaryTics. thanks for the advice! I will definetly read all those books before term starts. I think it should put me on par with my future classmates.

(btw... I was being facetious. I already have my own lab and a tenure track position at my med school). what have you done @VisionaryTics?

He's ENT homie, get on that level son

 

[VisionaryTics]

He's ENT homie, get on that level son

Higher average board scores than plastics, doncha know.

 

[Psai]

Higher average board scores than plastics, doncha know.

For now
Just wait til me and my homeboys apply to plastics, we'll change that around for you at the next Charting the Outcomes

 

[shibby1111]

My advice to the incoming M1s is this: everyone is going to tell you to read Costanzo or some other "easy" "pre-clinical book". Bypass that crap and go right for the meat of medicine: clinical textbooks.

So, working by each major field, I recommend every MS0 (I love that term) have done at least a cursory readthrough of each of the following

Internal Medicine: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine
Psychiatry: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry
Ob/Gyn: Gabbe Obstetrics and Williams Gynecology (Sorry, two books. But you must read each.)
Surgery: Sabiston's Textbook of Surgery (Schwartz or Greenfield is also appropriate, or all three plus Mastery of Surgery and Cameron's since you are interested in a surgical field)
Pediatrics: Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics

I would also recommend since you are interested in a specific field, you should read the authoritative text in that field. You should be able to crank out all six volumes of Neligan's Plastic Surgery.

I think if you have all that covered before starting med school, you shouldn't be too far behind your classmates.

With regards to research, I would try to have your own lab running by the start of school so you can gather some data during Ms1 for use as part of your R01 grant submission.

Should I also purchase a subscription to AccessMedicine and UpToDate, and do 2 or 3 passes through every single article?

 

[MrGrrrMonster]

(btw... I was being facetious. I already have my own lab and a tenure track position at my med school). what have you done @VisionaryTics?

hmm... Sounds like someone didn't care for the humor...

I for one got a pretty decent chuckle out of it.

 

[Espadaleader]

I know my reply is late but I think it's helpful...

I agree with everyone above. Don't pre-study. Enjoy your summer.

I would use the summer to email and find some people to do research with for the summer after your M1 year. My school pushes research heavy and requires that we start searching for a scholarly project mentor the first week of school so many of us did that and it worked out.

This is even more important if you want to do global health. Those projects are complicated and you want to have time to hammer out logistics.

Best,

E

 

[pathologyDO]

What visionarytics said is obviously a huge exaggeration, I mean, those books are for clinical years and residency. What you should really do is focus on getting through Big Robbins 2-3x, along with Clinically Oriented Anatomy, and I would definitely throw in UpToDate as shibby has mentioned, as you need to be ready for M3 before setting foot in your medical school for M1. Make sure when you read through UpToDate that you really explore all the fun and interesting articles that they cite as resources because that is where the meat of your education should be coming from, peer-reviewed studies, not some well thought out and organized book.

 

[hotwasabi]

wow.... this thread is kind of getting out of hand, especially with the trolls. can one of the Mods please close this thread?
Thank you again to everyone who gave thoughtful advice! 🙂

 

[chronicidal]

Read research about study methods and thoroughly convince yourself of the utility of ideas from educational psychology such as retrieval practice with spaced repetition. An easy place to start would be some popular nonfiction books, such as Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. You can move onto some amateur reviews of spaced repetition like by Gwern. Try out Anki. Practice identifying discrete facts and making good cards. Enter medical school with the motivation and know-how to study efficiently.

 

[GoPelicans]

Kidnap one of your local homeless geezers, preferrably someone with decent muscle mass, and get a head start on cadaver dissection. Navigating the infratemporal fossa in anatomy lab will be much easier if you've already done it once.

 

[hotwasabi]

UPDATE:

I will shadowing physicians in a local (non-academic hospital) this summer in the following specialties:
anesthesiology, oncology, orthopaedics, cardiology, neurology, neurosurgery, radiation oncology, radiology, internal medicine, and general surgery.

I would like to seek advice from med students/residents/attendings regarding how much time (i.e. hours and days) I should seek to be in specialty to get a decent view of the field, the hospital, the cases, and patient care.

For instance, I think general surgery is a wider field than say neurology. Hence, should I request more time in general surgery than neurology?

 

[GoPelicans]

Bruh just enjoy your damn summer, seriously. So much time to do that crap later on. If you want to shadow 1-2 doctors then fine, whatever, but that list is way overkill.

 

[hotwasabi]

@GoPelicans. Most of the specialties for shadowing are only offering 1/2 days. I prolly won't spend more than 3 weeks worth of shadowing. Although, if I could get more days I would definetly go for it.

 

[mcloaf]

Bruh just enjoy your damn summer, seriously. So much time to do that crap later on. If you want to shadow 1-2 doctors then fine, whatever, but that list is way overkill.

I can already tell OP is on his way to being the M1 I saw doing a qbank today. Smdh.

 

[hotwasabi]

@mcloaf.... qbank for step 1?

 

[hotwasabi]

@mcloaf... your are probably correct! haha... better early than late.

 

[mcloaf]

@mcloaf... your are probably correct! haha... better early than late.

Trust me, you don't want to be that guy.

 

[Slack3r]

Trust me, you don't want to be that guy.

He already is that guy. Just look at the posting history.

 

[hotwasabi]

@Slack3r. thanks! just cause Im curious thought doesnt mean Im a gunner. if you look at all my posts I messed up huge in college, which is why I am really proactive right now. I wasn't like this during college which is why I am not going to a top med school.....

 

[tennischamp822]

...

 

[cs24]

He already is that guy. Just look at the posting history.

Waiting for the post asking about top ENT journals... any day now. Maybe futuretopdoctor doesn't know ENT is another one of the most competitive specialties yet.

 

[Psai]

Waiting for the post asking about top ENT journals... any day now. Maybe futuretopdoctor doesn't know ENT is another one of the most competitive specialties yet.

Man there's a person who came in to school talking about neurosurgery and how cool brain dissection is and as soon as the new charting the outcomes comes out it's all about ent and how awesome ent is and can't wait to do aways in ent and apply to ent btw they want to do ent

 

[tiedyeddog]

I can already tell OP is on his way to being the M1 I saw doing a qbank today. Smdh.

What an extreme waste of time. Save the Qbanks for second year/Step 1 prep time.

 

[cidem2065]

@Slack3r. thanks! just cause Im curious thought doesnt mean Im a gunner. if you look at all my posts I messed up huge in college, which is why I am really proactive right now. I wasn't like this during college which is why I am not going to a top med school.....

You don't have to work to support yourself, do you?

 

[Ace Khalifa]

You don't have to work to support yourself, do you?

If he did work, he wouldn't have graduated from college with $300k in debt like a *****.