Setting Priorities for M1+M2...

[Jack is Back]

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What is more important for success in your career, having lots of extracurriculars and being a well rounded student OR high level of mastery over the sciences?

Time management obviously is tough. Is it worth it to do extra reading out of textbooks to gain deeper understanding over the sciences (as opposed to just surface learning) or should I spend time making connections with faculty and other extracurriculars with students (service projects, research, etc.)?

It appears that a sacrifice will need to be made.

What is more important going into 3rd year and residency applications. Everyone says 1st year grades don't matter much, but what about mastery level of the sciences which should help for Step 1 also.

 

[UAAWolf]

What is more important for success in your career, having lots of extracurriculars and being a well rounded student OR high level of mastery over the sciences?

Time management obviously is tough. Is it worth it to do extra reading out of textbooks to gain deeper understanding over the sciences (as opposed to just surface learning) or should I spend time making connections with faculty and other extracurriculars with students (service projects, research, etc.)?

It appears that a sacrifice will need to be made.

What is more important going into 3rd year and residency applications. Everyone says 1st year grades don't matter much, but what about mastery level of the sciences which should help for Step 1 also.

Just study hard in your 1st year classes. If your school skips stuff, supplement your classes with review books like BRS or High Yield. Wouldn't touch first aid during first year, kinda dumb.

For ECs just do research...i don't think other stuff is worth it unless you would be doing it anyways

 

[CatFactorial]

Just study what you're told to study (i.e. adhere to lectures and supplement with review books if necessary); in my exalted opinion, textbooks, while providing great depth, are too dense to be a productive use of time.

Also, I think it's time to stop the rat race mentality by doing meaningless activities. If you want to go into global health, international rotations and the like are appropriate. If you'd like to start a lab some day, get started on bench work. I'd say that describes me, but I'm pretty incompetent, so I've just been sitting on a bench.

Also also, if your school is pass fail, do yourself a favor and take advantage of that. It's very important to learn your sciences well, but comma you should be the judge of whether or not you learned it.

More hippy advice to come.

 

[Jack is Back]

My school has grades (H's) and class ranks, wish it didn't.

So would just focusing on 1st year classes give me a good head start? I could do research in M1 summer so I could basically have limited to zero ECs my 1st year.

I kind of wanted to shadow a few specialties to get a better feel on them, but that's it for M1.

I just want to be disadvantaged if all I do is study a lot and do the best I can in classes.

 

[CatFactorial]

Yeah, study a lot, do summer research if you can get a gig, and shadow a bit if you want. That's pretty reasonable for M1. If you can get a sexy step 1 score, doing mediocre (but still passing) in your classes is probably ok.

The freewheeling med students in charge of a billion clubs might as well go to clown college. I'm pretty sure the ones at my school do on a part-time basis (and are probably the deans, no less).

 

[armybound]

I love it when pre-matriculants think they're going to have time for all of these ECs 🙂

 

[Jack is Back]

I love it when pre-matriculants think they're going to have time for all of these ECs 🙂

Yeah, I know I won't.

On a side note, what is the deal with textbooks?

Is anyone able to study from them successfully or is it just better to use the lecture notes? The concepts seem much better laid out but they also take 4 times longer to go through... I just don't think there is enough time for them now.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I love it when pre-matriculants think they're going to have time for all of these ECs 🙂

Always amusing.

My priority would be to have a good time. Enjoy it as much as you can while still learning the material decently. Textbooks suck. Class sucks. Learn it on your own, and you'll be much happier.

 

[lrkoehle]

On a side note, what is the deal with textbooks?

Is anyone able to study from them successfully or is it just better to use the lecture notes? The concepts seem much better laid out but they also take 4 times longer to go through... I just don't think there is enough time for them now.

Text books suck and are a waste of money. I am pissed I wasted my money on them. Review books on the other hand are great.

Textbooks suck. Class sucks. Learn it on your own, and you'll be much happier.

👍👍👍👍 The quicker you figure this out, the quicker you'll be happy in med school.

 

[tigress]

I love it when pre-matriculants think they're going to have time for all of these ECs 🙂

And I think it's amusing when current students think they don't. Many of my classmates were involved in intramural sports, clubs or groups, leadership activities, volunteering, etc. The vast majority take time to exercise regularly and go out and have fun. Who are these people who have absolutely no time for ECs?

I do think it's easy, OP, to get into the trap of over-thinking school before you start. In my experience, once you get into first year, you just do whatever you need to do to learn the material and do well on the tests, and hopefully learn it well enough that you will remember at least some of it long-term.

As far as textbooks, I would poke around in this forum some to get a good feeling for what might be worth having. Most of them are, in my opinion, not worth it, but some definitely are--you need a Netter, for example. Also check and see what you might be able to access online through your school. I was able to get our histology text for free online, and like many of my classmates I did use it during the year.

Definitely look into which review books will be most helpful, though. I used a lot of BRS this past year.

 

[Jack is Back]

When you guys say learn it on your own, what do you mean?

Just go through the lecture and then use wikipedia or something else?

What if something isn't making sense to you in a lecture? Is this when you go check out a text at the library or what?

 

[alwaysaangel]

And I think it's amusing when current students think they don't. Many of my classmates were involved in intramural sports, clubs or groups, leadership activities, volunteering, etc. The vast majority take time to exercise regularly and go out and have fun. Who are these people who have absolutely no time for ECs?

👍

Agree. First, second year are a cinch. They're like college, minus going to class.

I had plenty of Time to hang out with friends, visit family and do a bunch of ECs I was interested in.

And frankly, I feel like what I did in med school was a much bigger part of a successful residency application and match than my grades were. I embraced mediocrity early in med school and studied as much as i needed to but otherwise did what I wanted. And the things I did were the center points of my interviews. Granted I didn't do anything super competitive (EM).

Don't do stuff just for applications (same is true for college students applying to med school) but if there are things you're passionate about and want to do - then do it!

 

[richse]

I love it when pre-matriculants think they're going to have time for all of these ECs 🙂

We had lots of time in 1st year for EC's once anatomy was done. Second year was a different story.

 

[armybound]

We had lots of time in 1st year for EC's once anatomy was done. Second year was a different story.

I'm teasing them more than anything. First and second year weren't nearly as hard as they're often made out to be, and you have plenty of time to get involved in outside activities if that's a priority for you.

On the other hand, I think a lot of pre-matriculants get this idea that they need to be as crazy about their ECs as they were as pre-meds, but it's funny watching it go from "Where are the volunteering opportunities? Are there any more clubs I can join? Who wants to go to every single (major sports team) game this season?" to "ZOMG you want to go to a movie some time this month? I can't! Biochem and gross are killing me!"

 

[armybound]

When you guys say learn it on your own, what do you mean?

Just go through the lecture and then use wikipedia or something else?

What if something isn't making sense to you in a lecture? Is this when you go check out a text at the library or what?

You can use wikipedia if you want, but for most of the core material you won't need it.

Lecture and lecture notes/syllabi will be good enough for most classes. For some classes like gross anatomy, you'll need additional resources with more/better pictures, which is where something like Netter's or Rohen will come in very handy. You'll use additional resources to study outside of class.

Hopefully the rest of your classes will be easy enough to learn from your syllabi or lectures. There wasn't really much to "clarify" in biochem, for example, that wasn't covered outside of lecture/syllabi, but sometimes other resources like BRS review books will have the material laid out in a way that's easier to learn. I think you'll find that the material is not hard to understand, but that there's a style of presentation that is best for you, and you'll have to seek out the resources that present the material in that way.

I was freaking out before first year because I didn't understand how a syllabus was going to be all you need, but give it a little time. You'll soon learn that syllabi are sufficient, med school tests aren't as hard as you're imagining, and the whole med school experience isn't as stressful as you expect.

It's easy to say since I'm not in your shoes, but just relax. Everything's going to be fine.

 

[lrkoehle]

I do think it's easy, OP, to get into the trap of over-thinking school before you start. In my experience, once you get into first year, you just do whatever you need to do to learn the material and do well on the tests, and hopefully learn it well enough that you will remember at least some of it long-term.

I like this. I know it can be hard, but just go with the flow at first. Get a feel for how you want to study (same as undergrad or maybe try changing it up). Get to know people. Check out the clubs (not night clubs), and then ease in to things.

When you guys say learn it on your own, what do you mean?

Just go through the lecture and then use wikipedia or something else?

What if something isn't making sense to you in a lecture? Is this when you go check out a text at the library or what?

At my school, we get notes for every lecture and access to power points. They also outline what the learning objectives for each lecture are. I usually make a study guide based on this. I use outside resources, like wikipedia & review books, to clarify anything I have trouble with. I have never had to resort to text books.

As for something in lecture not making sense, I don't go to lecture so I don't have that problem...jk. You can still email professors if something is really confusing, but if it's confusing in the notes, usually it was equally confusing in lecture. This is because the professor didn't understand it well enough to make it clear in either of them. Wikipedia or review books usually take care of this problem.

Unless you're unfortunately at one of the few schools that require attendance at lecture, I'd suggest you take the first few weeks of class to experiment with study styles, including attending or not attending lecture. It took me a few months to realize how much of a waste going to lecture was for me, but when I did, my happiness shot through the roof (not that I was unhappy before). Just make sure if you don't go to lecture that you actually spend that time studying, so you stay on top of stuff. Nothing is worse than falling behind while they continue to pile more and more new crap on top of you.