Question for current DMU students

[Ionic]

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How busy is the first week of school? One of my good friends is getting married on the first weekend after school starts. She'll **** a brick if I don't show up but I'm kinda worried about the workload of that week. I'm hoping the first week won't be that intense but what do I know. Let me hear your thoughts. Thanks

 

[oncogene]

How busy is the first week of school? One of my good friends is getting married on the first weekend after school starts. She'll **** a brick if I don't show up but I'm kinda worried about the workload of that week. I'm hoping the first week won't be that intense but what do I know. Let me hear your thoughts. Thanks

Are you talking the first week of class or orientation week? The first week of class is pretty stressful because you are getting used to the school. You will also have your first biochem exam during the second week. If I remeber correctly we started on a Monday and had our first Biochem exam Wednesday of the next week. Just remember it is important to get off to a good start. I know people who did not score well in the first part of that class because they had a hard time adjusting but, did well the rest of the class and ended up failing the class. I am not saying don't go but, I would not recommend it.

 

[GoldenGustie]

I agree w/what oncogene says for sure, but you don't want to miss out on something like a wedding. The first week is very stressful, but if you are able to stay on top of the material and you don't have to drive yourself to the wedding you can always study in the car as well. I am not going to say whether you should or should not go, because ultimately that is up to you. What you need to ask yourself are a few good questions:
(1) How important is the wedding to you
(2) Do you think you can prepare yourself for the exam in week 2 if you do go to the wedding
(3) Will you be able to live with not doing as well on the exam if you do go to the wedding than if you had not gone to the wedding.

Overall, it will be a long semester and you don't want to get off to a rough start. However, knowing what I know now it is very easy for me to sit back and say that it is not worth giving up fun events such as weddings just to sit a study all weekend. You just have to make sure you can handle it and the first week of school may not be the time to test that...sorry this probably doesn't help you much but hopefully gives you some insight.

 

[Orange Krush]

I'm not as wise as GoldenGustie, but if one of my best friends was getting married, I wouldn't miss it. I say this knowing that I would have the discipline to put in the extra study time during the week that I would be missing out on during the weekend.

I actually don't think the first few weeks were that stressful. I spent a lot of time studying, but I think much of that time was really wasted as I searched for an effective and efficient method of studying. Biochem will be your only class during that time, so you won't have other classes distracting you from your Biochem studies.

My advice would be to really focus during your first week, devoting as much time to studying as possible. Then, go enjoy the wedding.

 

[HenryH]

I'm not as wise as GoldenGustie, but if one of my best friends was getting married, I wouldn't miss it. I say this knowing that I would have the discipline to put in the extra study time during the week that I would be missing out on during the weekend.

I actually don't think the first few weeks were that stressful. I spent a lot of time studying, but I think much of that time was really wasted as I searched for an effective and efficient method of studying. Biochem will be your only class during that time, so you won't have other classes distracting you from your Biochem studies.

My advice would be to really focus during your first week, devoting as much time to studying as possible. Then, go enjoy the wedding.

Wow -- do any of the other pod schools allow students to take one class at a time, or just DMU?

 

[Orange Krush]

Wow -- do any of the other pod schools allow students to take one class at a time, or just DMU?

I'm not sure about any of the other schools. I actually misspoke regarding DMU. For the first two weeks or so of class, you will only have Biochem and Intro to Pod Med. After that, Anatomy starts and the level of work will increase rather significantly.

Intro to Pod does not require a great deal of studying outside of class. However, the class is still important as it serves to enlighten students with regards to the profession. Biochem is the main focus over those first few weeks. Starting Anatomy a few weeks later allows students to try out various approaches to studying and find out what works for them before getting buried in work.

 

[SportDPM]

I agree with Oncogene and GoldenGustie about the first couple of weeks of actual classes being very stressful! If it is the weekend after orientation then I would definitely go to the wedding. There is one thing unique to biochem at dmu in that the comprehensive final can possibly count for two tests. If you do better on the final than on another test then it can count for two. So if you get a 70 on exam 1 but get 80 on the final, then they 70 is gone and you get two 80's. I wouldn't bank on not doing good on the test and saying you can just ace the final but it did end up helping me.

 

[Ionic]

Thanks guys. It's the first week of actual classes so I guess I'm in a bit of a pickle. Thanks for the input though.

 

[meats]

so how do people end up doing on the first test? that's gotta be stressful...
would it help to review some material before hand for that test?? what do you guys suggest?

 

[SportDPM]

I think the average on the first test was 85-90(which most tests are in that range). I would not study before school started. Just enjoy your time off! The teachers focus on material in their notes, so if you study those you should do just fine. I ended up summarizing all my notes for each test in biochem which made the final a lot easier to study for. Hope this helps.

 

[j0ez0r]

did the biochem class utilize the drawing of structures, mechanisms, and pathways on the test or is it more conceptual type questions?

 

[GoldenGustie]

did the biochem class utilize the drawing of structures, mechanisms, and pathways on the test or is it more conceptual type questions?

Your days of memorizing mechanisms is over (as far as the electron pushing, etc), but structures and pathways you will do all over again. Biochem at the med school level is much different than from most undergrad levels where you focus more on the chemistry rather than the clinical importance. Of course you will have to know all of the minute details or everything, but you will learn it now in a more clinical light. In some ways this makes it easier and in some ways it is more difficult. Whatever you do, don't waste your summer months studying for anything because as you will soon find out you must take that time off to your advantage to do things other than study.