- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
- Messages
- 1,356
- Reaction score
- 16
Ok, enough about how hard or easy MSI has been 😉. Let's talk about stuff that has purely SURPRISED you in MSI. I'll start.
-- how it's really NOT like high school/cliquey, what not
IME, people really seem to just do their own things and go their own ways. Yeah, I guess perhaps there's a core of people that like to party and be social. But really the cliqueness is not as bad as I would've expected based on everyone's comments.
-- how the basic science courses don't go into as much detail as I thought they would.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of detail to memorize. But it mostly consists of knowing the names and terminology for things. Back when I was in undergrad o-chem, for ex, when we went through units at the end like DNA or proteins, or whatever, I would think, oh I'm sure in med school we're going to go even more in-depth in understanding how these structures are put together, etc. etc. I'll have plenty of time to really learn these structures in the future.
Thought FAIL. There's no time at all in med school to spend dwelling on those kinds of conceptual details. We barely have time to memorize the names of diff protein transporters or what not. Certainly no time to spend considering o-chem type issues of how these structures are put together... moral of that story: Learn those things in undergrad well, 'cuz you'll never see them again in med school!!
(Unless you hated those types of things to begin with, in which case I have good news for you, which is that you won't see them in med school!!)
-- how big of a difference there is between regionally-based and systems-based anatomy.
Going into med school, I was like, oh whatever, I'm flexible, either will be fine. In short, I didn't pay that much attention to how schools differed in this regard. Well... what has been surprising is how much the way the curriculum is structured really makes a difference! I think I screwed myself over because I'm good at seeing relationship and memorizing, let's say, 100s of blood vessels all at once. But if you chunk that memorization out over several unrelated units, I seem to lose track of what's going on.
I really would've benefited from a functional, systems-based perspective. On the flip side, I have developed my rote-memorization skills a TON, and we all know how important those skills are. Being exposed to a way of learning that is just completely antithetical to my nature, I can't help but gain something from that.
-- how important people are
I'm talking about TAs and small-group profs, etc. Without'em, it would've taken me 2x as long to dredge up on my own through digging through notes etc. Regardless of how the curriculum is structured, good teachers still matter a ton. They can really make a huge difference.
-- how fast time passes 😉
-- how it's really NOT like high school/cliquey, what not
IME, people really seem to just do their own things and go their own ways. Yeah, I guess perhaps there's a core of people that like to party and be social. But really the cliqueness is not as bad as I would've expected based on everyone's comments.
-- how the basic science courses don't go into as much detail as I thought they would.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of detail to memorize. But it mostly consists of knowing the names and terminology for things. Back when I was in undergrad o-chem, for ex, when we went through units at the end like DNA or proteins, or whatever, I would think, oh I'm sure in med school we're going to go even more in-depth in understanding how these structures are put together, etc. etc. I'll have plenty of time to really learn these structures in the future.
Thought FAIL. There's no time at all in med school to spend dwelling on those kinds of conceptual details. We barely have time to memorize the names of diff protein transporters or what not. Certainly no time to spend considering o-chem type issues of how these structures are put together... moral of that story: Learn those things in undergrad well, 'cuz you'll never see them again in med school!!
(Unless you hated those types of things to begin with, in which case I have good news for you, which is that you won't see them in med school!!)
-- how big of a difference there is between regionally-based and systems-based anatomy.
Going into med school, I was like, oh whatever, I'm flexible, either will be fine. In short, I didn't pay that much attention to how schools differed in this regard. Well... what has been surprising is how much the way the curriculum is structured really makes a difference! I think I screwed myself over because I'm good at seeing relationship and memorizing, let's say, 100s of blood vessels all at once. But if you chunk that memorization out over several unrelated units, I seem to lose track of what's going on.
I really would've benefited from a functional, systems-based perspective. On the flip side, I have developed my rote-memorization skills a TON, and we all know how important those skills are. Being exposed to a way of learning that is just completely antithetical to my nature, I can't help but gain something from that.
-- how important people are
I'm talking about TAs and small-group profs, etc. Without'em, it would've taken me 2x as long to dredge up on my own through digging through notes etc. Regardless of how the curriculum is structured, good teachers still matter a ton. They can really make a huge difference.
-- how fast time passes 😉
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