Starting Med School After 1-2 Gap Years

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rocketbooster

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It'll technically be 2 years in between undergrad and med school for me. I'm starting in August with the rest of the new upcoming class. I haven't really "studied" anything since undergrad but have been working.

For those who also took time off school in between undergrad and med school, was it hard getting back into the study groove?

Did you do anything to prepare yourself in the coming months before class started or was it easy to just jump right back into school mode?

Were the first few months hell because you weren't used to studying for a while and now you've been hit with 10x more studying than in undergrad?

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It wasn't hard for me at all. I think you'll be so worried about falling behind and not doing well that you'll go overboard with it.

I didn't do anything to prepare, just showed up and studied.
 
For reference, I took 1 year off. I don't think 2 would be any different.

It'll technically be 2 years in between undergrad and med school for me. I'm starting in August with the rest of the new upcoming class. I haven't really "studied" anything since undergrad but have been working.

For those who also took time off school in between undergrad and med school, was it hard getting back into the study groove?
Not at all

Did you do anything to prepare yourself in the coming months before class started or was it easy to just jump right back into school mode?
I didn't do anything to prep for med school. I know a lot of my classmates were worried because they had been out of school for quite a bit longer (8+ years), and some of them "prepped." From a couple of them that I've talked to, they said they didn't think it helped them at all in the end. So I wouldn't recommend it.

Were the first few months hell because you weren't used to studying for a while and now you've been hit with 10x more studying than in undergrad?
Not really. It was actually nice because I felt more refreshed than I had compared to coming back to school in undergrad after just a couple months of summer break. I thought it was actually a plus, because I really hit the ground running and knocked the first couple of exams out of the park which helped when I started to burn out towards the end of the semester. To this day, my best exam score was the very first exam in med school.
 
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Took two years off. Had no problem getting back in the groove (no more than my counterparts who hadn't had time off, of course there is an adjustment period to medschool pace for everyone). In fact many of my counterparts complained of feeling burned out while I was ecstatic not to be waiting tables or working in a cubicle lol.
 
I think if you did well enough to get into med school, you obviously know how to study. It should be like riding a bicycle..
 
I think if you did well enough to get into med school, you obviously know how to study. It should be like riding a bicycle..
Med school is quite different from undergrad. It's very possible to do well in undergrad and be overwhelmed by medical school.

If you studied 12 hours a day to get a 4.0 in undergrad, there aren't enough hours in the day for you to do that well in medical school.
 
Med school is quite different from undergrad. It's very possible to do well in undergrad and be overwhelmed by medical school.

If you studied 12 hours a day to get a 4.0 in undergrad, there aren't enough hours in the day for you to do that well in medical school.

I found that success in medschool is for the most part about two things 1) drive 2) adaptability.

You have to have inner motivation to push yourself through each new obstacle that medschool will present. Every semester they will change the game on you by intensifying the pace, by putting you in clinical scenarios while expecting you to read, by presenting new standardized tests etc. You have to have the type of personality that will stubbornly stare down those obstacles and find your way around them.

Which brings us to adaptability. For most of us what we did in undergrad just doesn't cut it for medschool. With each new obstacle or each new raising of the bar you have to be willing to abandon previous techniques and jump into new ones. You need some personal insight to guide your choices along the way since what works for you will not necessarily be what works for your classmates. With each new clinical rotation you have to adjust even your personality at times. When the attending says "you're too quiet in the OR" on your midrotation eval you better come out of your shell, when they say "you're too jovial, I don't know if you take this seriously" you better get a filter fast.
 
thanks for all the responses! so, i'm going to do nothing (except for my normal work) over these next few months before I start.

also, thanks to whichever mod moved this to the pre-allo forum. perhaps you should read the post first before moving it lol. I was asking about life in med school. pre-med students are not going to be able to answer this b/c at best they're in my same spot: ABOUT to start med school. how is a premed going to know if it's hard to begin med school after a gap year when they have not started med school? *sigh* i'm just glad you med student guys got to this thread first before the mod did lol. thanks again guys!
 
posts like these belong in pre-allopathic. plenty of med students posts in pre-allopathic and will answer these questions for you.

I answered this question in PA.. so it was moved from allopathic BEFORE any of us responded. it was moved at 949am, 10 minutes after you posted it and 20 minutes before I responded.
 
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