Medical Struggling to study and learn material as MS1. What can I do?

[TheBoneDoctah]

I am an MS1 in a school that is P/F for pre-clinical grades but they record our numeric grade and track it for AOA. They use cumulative grades for AOA.

I don’t have anyone close with a medical background and have been remote all of MS1. I got off to a terrible start as I had no onboarding or awareness of what medical school entails. I’m an introvert and that totally does not help at all.

I have been working hard once I realized I am flunking and am learning broadly from all materials possible, and am now just at average at my school, thanks to scoring 100% in past few quizzes - so yeah, I started off really bad. I still don’t have a firm grasp on how to go about studying for medical school. I have a friendly MS2 assigned from my school that is available to text advice, but I am a bit lost overall and cramming blindly to keep climbing up in the class average. Given my bad start, I’m not gonna make AOA. And with COVID lockdown/ restrictions where I live, there is not much opportunity to do volunteering or research either. I’m not even sure what MS1s should be doing outside of school if they are highly ambitious (like me).

I believe I’m worth investing in and would love to pay it forward. How do I go about getting formal advice and mentoring for a reasonable period of time so I can get out of this panicked cramming mode and be more purposeful in my activities to succeed in medical school.

This is completely normal to feel like this. You need to figure out what works best for you. For example, some students swear by AnkiDeck. I, personally, hated and never used AnkiDeck. For me, I learned by repetition and videos. So, I would watch the lectures 3x and read the assigned text 3-4x before the exams. This is what worked for me. Once you find something that works, stick with it.

As far as finding what you need to do outside of studying for courses, I really think it kinda matters what you think you may be interested in. If you are gunning for family medicine, it may not be as important or urgent to get on a research paper. But if you want ortho, ENT, NSG, then you likely should start thinking about research (I always recommend NOT starting research until you have a strong grasp on study habits). Research is great, but it won't make up for crap grades and crap boards.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you so much did the reply.

My problem is not that I am unable to study and retain the material, it is that I do not seem to know what material should be covered for the tests. How can this be?

I have now gotten the hang of quizzes and am consistently getting 100% in them. For tests though, I am always missing a substantial portion of the material being tested altogether. We had a recent shelf where the administration recommended we don’t go by the lecture and I basically crammed the entire Anking deck for that subject, and o would have aced if they had tested on it. Unfortunately, they tested to the lectures, and again, I only made average. This was very disappointing. How do others know what to study for a test?

Also, I want to get into research for summer and again, everyone else seems to know how to go about it. I have written to profs and they don’t even email me back, maybe because they can see my grades? How do I go about finding research with profs or labs either at my school or where I live? How bad is it if I don’t get to do research in summer? I feel like I just started and it is hard to accept that I am done for already in pursuing specialties.

That is something that all students struggle with and I really can't tell you how to know what's on the test. We always got tips from upperclassman if that specific instructor went more off lectures or textbook or whatever.

Before you start any research, you need to take a huge breath. You are not done for. You just started. Calm down.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you, I figured my classmates were getting tips from upper classmates, so I requested some of them to share with me going forward. That way, I get inside tips to also focus on the lecture though admin said not to. I am hoping this will help me get my test scores high too, nor just my quizzes.

I am only considering starting research in summer because I need the rest of this semester to get my studying stabilized. However, it looks like I have to apply now for summer research. I am specifically interested in clinical research.

I asked my MS2 and few others at my school a s thwy all said to cold email my school profs/labs but I might not even be there for summer. Are there standard resources folks use to pursue clinical research outside of their school? Would appreciate tips and strategies.

I want to clarify that the "tips" were not "what is on the exam." It was just suggested to us that for certain instructors you study more towards the lectures vs. textbook.

I would advise if you are going to do research, you make sure it's clinical. Bench research takes a long time and you may not get anything out of it (publications) before you graduate. Clinical work is much quicker.

I am a DO so for me to get research I literally just emailed as many docs as I could. I think I emailed ~20 and got 2-3 responses. As an MD student, can't you just walk over and meet with them in person to ask if they allow students to help with projects?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Oh yes, totally get your point on tips. I have no intention to cheat or take shortcuts. I have requested my fellow classmates to share guidance from upper classmen on topics that are expected to be covered in tests so I don’t completely miss out on an area or a source during my prep.

In terms of walking upto profs: I am remote and have not even been on the campus so far. I have anxiety about reaching out through email to profs that do not even know me, and though I overcame that and emailed a few, no one has gotten back so far, which increases my anxiety in sending the next set of emails. I low key feel they look at my grades and choose not to respond. I guess I gotta keep at it - at the least, I’m getting over my email-anxiety 🙂

I was genuinely hoping there might be sources for looking up clinical research outside the medical school that I could pursue, especially since this is for summer research. Would there be something like that? Regardless, I’ll cold email labs in my area hoping for better response.

With the exception of a handful of highly-competitive fellowships, there generally aren't a ton of online resources.

You might start with the program director for your home residency program in your field of interest. Sometimes they have an idea of faculty who are looking for students to help with a clinical project, or can point you in the right direction.

Or they could be useless. But that's who I would start with.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Similar to what @GoSpursGo said, you can contact residents nearby or at your own institution in the field of interest. Residents have requirements to complete research and love to have students help.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you both. My biggest challenge is that I am completely remote and feel that I have little to no connection to my institution. I also do not yet know what field I want to go into. I‘ll be reaching out to program directors in my school to identify research opportunities so I can get familiar with some areas. This should fix my feeling of isolation which is likely making me feel unsettled and also help me explore my interests.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to study. I’m getting to know the material rather than memorizing facts, snd I feel good already. I am assuming I will look at my grades as well as rotations in MS3 to understand what residencies I could best match into. I am also gathering that if I find strong passion for an area in MS3 and I don’t feel well-qualified for it, I can do a research year after MS3 to strengthen my residency app. Am I going about this right? Anything I could tweak or improve?

Thank you all so much for reading through my insecurities and taking the time to respond to give me advice. I appreciate it and hope to make the best of your recommendations.

Research in your desired specialty is best, but any research is better than no research. One problem that I can potentially see happening with the USMLE Step 1 going to P/F is that now more emphasis will likely be on Step 2 (hence more pressure/stress later in your medical school career when you are trying to finish up research, get LOR, go on auditions, etc) For me, I did all of my research during 3/4 year, but Step 2 wasn't as important/time consuming.

Learning the material well is important. It will make it stick better and make it easier to answer board questions that make you integrate many different topics to get the correct answer (which is a lot of USMLE).

Once your get your grades, boards, etc, you will get a better idea of where/what you can match into. However, if you are seeking something competitive, you will want to at least start getting research now (for the reasons I listed above).

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thank you so much. I’m trying to get opportunities for summer research, while making my studies a priority. Somehow, getting a research option does not seem so easy.

Identifying info that I hope will be removed: I helped with research in my medical school prof’s lab during 2 years of my UG but it is very slow research with no paper or publications during all of that time. I was working with a PhD student in the lab, not with the prof, and I felt like I was helping with lab tasks instead of being engaged in the research hitself. My other collegemates kept suggesting I pursue a research opportunity that will let me publish a paper or poster so I begged out of that lab. Was that time not well spent? I am trying to do some academic research now while reaching out for clinical research options for summer.

How should I go about getting LORs? I am one of the few remote MS1s in my school and I feel this puts me at a disadvantage. However, I am an introvert, so I do not have confidence that me being on campus would make a huge difference either. Any tips on building up to good LORs?

Any research you did in undergrad was probably time well-spent because it was part of the package that got you accepted to Med school in the first place. students getting pubs during undergrad is the exception and not the rule. There’s no sense in looking back now and wondering what you could have done differently years ago.

LORs come from clinical preceptors, not basic science profs. Don’t even worry about those right now.

Above all, keep in mind that your number one priority needs to be doing well in class. You almost failed in the fall, so don’t take your eye off the ball for anything that would jeopardize your academic performance. It would be great if you could find a research experience for summer, but if you don’t it’s not the end of the world. As long as you are passing and progressing you should be proud of your performance and not measure yourself against what you perceive others in your class are doing.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Most students in undergrad do not have publications (or meaningful publications where they mentally contributed to the project). I have heard stories of undergrad students having "publications" in huge journals simply because they fed the fish used in the study.

You are way early to be looking for LOR right now. Deep breath. LOR comes from your 3rd/4th-year clinicals mostly. Focus on your classes. It may calm you down to know that I have multiple publications (1 first-author manuscript, many other mid-authors, and a few case reports) and didn't start doing research till 3rd year.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Same. I applied to a much less competitive specialty so research wasn’t a huge focus for me, and I was still able to get a first author and a second author despite not starting in 3rd year.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you both! I am extremely grateful for your time, attention and advice. I am also thankful for this confidential forum that enabled me to get advice on concerns that I’ve been struggling to voice openly.

Takeaways for me:
1. Should not have taken ‘chill in summer before MS1’ literally, especially coming from family/background lacking any medical exposure. Even knowing how demanding MS1 would be and setting up Anki and having some exposure to other learning materials would have helped. I will pass this forward to anyone that asks me for advice.
2. Medical school is no different than high school/UG - focus on GPA/scores/quartile first, everything else comes later.
3. Keep pursuing research. Clinical research over lab/bench research but any research is better than none.
4. Residents may actually welcome students to help in their research - this was news to me. Start with residents and program directors for research opportunities. I’ve bothering profs who probably do not appreciate the disruption.
5. Going with 4., I don’t have to read someone’s past research and be able to comment intelligently on it to email someone with interest in research opportunities. I did not know this and read up on research/publications and wrote just three emails so far (no replies). Now I will cold email broadly to program directors and residents in possible areas of interest. This frees up a lot of my time and reduces my stress about research.

Potentially identifying info:
I am told my MS3 is going to be hard as Step 1 is P/F and I need to do well in the clerkships and Step 2 to get noticed now. Also, I am told my school is going from P/F to ranked for Preclinical from next year. My batch is the only one with P/F in both preclinical years and Step 1 - lucky us!! If I take a research year after MS3, my class rank/grades might be shared along with the rest of the students who will have their grades/ranking available. This will be unhelpful for my residency selection, so I need to plan without a research year. As long as I can get relevant research in MS2, I think I should be good.

I am going back to focus on my studies (and cold emails) with gratitude for this forum and you both!! Thank you SO MUCH and I hope to pay it forward.

1. I still would advise incoming MS1s to chill. Make sure you have everything ready to go, but there is really no need to prestudy.

2. Focus on LEARNING THE MATERIAL. Grades and boards will follow suit if you learn the material well the first time around.

3. Yes, manuscript publication, case report publications, posters are all good. Specialty specific is better. But you need to get something. So start with whatever you can get your hands on. If you have 50 projects roll in, then you can be more selective.

4. Yup, ask residents if they need help with research.

5. I didn't know anything about the research the people I emailed were doing. Now if they want to set up a meeting with you, then yes, you need to understand what their interests are and read up on their research.

Take a deep breath. I sense a lot of anxiety from you in your posts. I do understand you want to do everything "correctly," but as I said you do have quite a bit of time. If you have a road map, you will reach your goals.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I completely agree with everything @TheBoneDoctah said. There is no one “right” way to do things; furthermore, you can do everything “right” and still not wind up matching into a competitive specialty. At the end of the day just do your best and things will work out.

Finally, I would absolutely NOT forgo a research year because you’re worried your preclinical grades would be unblinded. The grades might not look great, but if you need time to get research you need time, and it would be worse to try and cram it into MS2 and wind up not doing well in your classes.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I completely agree with everything @TheBoneDoctah said. There is no one “right” way to do things; furthermore, you can do everything “right” and still not wind up matching into a competitive specialty. At the end of the day just do your best and things will work out.

Finally, I would absolutely NOT forgo a research year because you’re worried your preclinical grades would be unblinded. The grades might not look great, but if you need time to get research you need time, and it would be worse to try and cram it into MS2 and wind up not doing well in your classes.

Agree. A ton of ortho applicants take a year for research.

 

[AlteredScale]

I think it's important to still know what the research is about and reading the papers coming out of that lab may be beneficial, especially if the PI asks to interview you. Shotgun approach is good if you are just looking to get involved with anything.

Make sure when you are doing this that you CHANGE who you are addressing the email to.