Studying in MS vs. Undergrad

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Crake

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Ok, I see this thread about everyone studying for 6+ hours/day in medschool.
My question is: "is the material more intrinsically interesting than what you studied as an undergrad?"

I'm going to be honest, I absolutely hate studying physics or chemistry. I pull long hours like everyone else, but there is absolutely no way I could study for physics 40 hrs/week. As it is, I absolutely hate what we study, especially general chemistry, which seems both boring and irrelevant. Is medschool at least a bit more interesting? Can I leave my TI-89 at home and walk away from projectile motion and acid base equilibrium equations forever?

-Crake

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Crake said:
Ok, I see this thread about everyone studying for 6+ hours/day in medschool.
My question is: "is the material more intrinsically interesting than what you studied as an undergrad?"

I'm going to be honest, I absolutely hate studying physics or chemistry. I pull long hours like everyone else, but there is absolutely no way I could study for physics 40 hrs/week. As it is, I absolutely hate what we study, especially general chemistry, which seems both boring and irrelevant. Is medschool at least a bit more interesting? Can I leave my TI-89 at home and walk away from projectile motion and acid base equilibrium equations forever?

-Crake

Crake... as opposed to Oryx?

(I wonder if anyone will get that)
 
Crake said:
Ok, I see this thread about everyone studying for 6+ hours/day in medschool.
My question is: "is the material more intrinsically interesting than what you studied as an undergrad?"

I'm going to be honest, I absolutely hate studying physics or chemistry. I pull long hours like everyone else, but there is absolutely no way I could study for physics 40 hrs/week. As it is, I absolutely hate what we study, especially general chemistry, which seems both boring and irrelevant. Is medschool at least a bit more interesting? Can I leave my TI-89 at home and walk away from projectile motion and acid base equilibrium equations forever?

-Crake

You definitely can't walk away from your acid-base equations, considering renal physiology and pulmonary physiology deals primarily with acid base regulation in the body.

And no, to answer your question, first year isn't really that interesting. You are forced to memorize tons of minutia that you'll forget right after the exam, because your Ph.D professors like torturing you with stupid non-clinical crap about their research. Not to mention there are some classes which are just straight out memorization, like Embryology and Neuroscience. I swear those two classes are like a foreign language, and while some of it is interesting, most of it is just more crap to stuff in my brain.

I hear second year gets better. It's suppose to be harder, but I hear its at least more interesting.
 
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I sat in on a renal clearence lecture the day I interviewed at wayne and there were quite a few equations....so better pack the TI :thumbup:

BTW I was wondering the same thing about study time but I figure that the material WILL be more interesting than the QUANTUM MECHANICS class I'm taking now, so it'll be easier to study for. Plus everyone will be in the same boat as you.

In the end just remember, what do they call the person who graduates last in medical school?
 
SaginawPremed said:
Crake... as opposed to Oryx?

(I wonder if anyone will get that)


I love Margaret Atwood.
 
To the OP - I asked my boss (an MD) this same question and he said that the first year wasn't interesting, that he spent most of his time cramming and regurgitating information he could care less about (he hated anatomy) which in turn made him rather depressed...at least for the first year. But it's only a year, and we've come this far already... ;)
 
Have read it, but no, it's not where the ol' nickname came from.
P.S. Oryx was a hottie.
 
You'd think the material would be more interesting - you're learning about what happens when you have sex, how you ****, and a lot of other fascinating stuff.

But somehow, in the process of making these topics into lecture and powerpoint presentations, taught by PhD researchers, they become deathly dull and packed with minutiae. Yes, even a 12-foot-high projection of the female genitalia can put you to sleep.
 
It all depends on what you like. The only thing that I actually enjoy studying was physiology and cardio path/pharm (especially hated embryo and histo). Most of the other stuff are just classes you gotta get through. 2nd year isn't much better when you realize you have to memorize over 100 bugs for micro and the 100 antibiotics used against them with the 100 side effects from each drug (ok...I'm exaggerating =)).

Crake said:
Ok, I see this thread about everyone studying for 6+ hours/day in medschool.
My question is: "is the material more intrinsically interesting than what you studied as an undergrad?"

I'm going to be honest, I absolutely hate studying physics or chemistry. I pull long hours like everyone else, but there is absolutely no way I could study for physics 40 hrs/week. As it is, I absolutely hate what we study, especially general chemistry, which seems both boring and irrelevant. Is medschool at least a bit more interesting? Can I leave my TI-89 at home and walk away from projectile motion and acid base equilibrium equations forever?

-Crake
 
Some of it you will find interesting some of it you won't. I found almost everything interesting except behavioral science, and drug names. Some people well have to study 6+ hours a day 5day/week just to pull average (I'm one of the *******es in this group), and others well cram 2-3 days before finals and do fine.
 
Its not that bad...if its what you want to learn..and also depending on how well you want to do. I have classmates who study 1-2 hours a day, and some that study 10 hrs a day, depends on your goals and how you learn. I'd say the biggest thing is the volume is 3x undergrad at least. Good luck
 
I hate to tell you this, but, no med school (at least first year) pretty much sucks. I can't tell you how horribly uninteresting all this crap is to me. Anatomy is a nightmare, biochem...well, just biochem, embryo (hard to understand just how ridiculous it is until you actually try to remember what a somitomere is compared to a somite), histo (blobs of color), neuro (dorsal columns, what?), phys (one word: renal), etc. I'm trying to think if I've learned one clinically relevant thing this year. Hmm. The answer is NO. I hope and pray it gets better because right now I think about quitting on an hourly basis.

Maybe it'll be better for you, though. Some of my classmates love anatomy (despite out horrible instructor) and neuro.
 
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