Too stupid for med school?

[kendrick lamar]

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I suspect that you will be fine. Medical school has a way of dragging you "along for the ride" and before you know it, you will instinctly memorize anything that is placed in front of you, the telly log, the menu at Applebee's, the phone numbers on the wall in the loo, etc.

What got you into medical school in the first place will keep you there. Medical school doesn't take brains just perseverance. "The last man standing wins the war". If you hung in there through undergraduate and managed to be successful with whatever, you can get through first and second year. Third and fourth year are more about learning the practical things that will make you a good physician rather than cramming your brain with factioids.

I think you will have a ball and the factioids are pretty interesting at times.

this is a good to hear. I'm a pharmacy major, about to graduate. I had a low GPA in pharmacy school; a lot of drug memorization, which was hard for me, especially because I didn't have a job and no vision of what I wanted to do when I graduate. I felt incredibly stupid compared to the rest of my peers because I was once a very high performing student. When I did an internship at a retail pharmacy through school hours, I hated my life there lol. Everyday, I came into the store and asked myself why on earth I chose this field. I'm starting to feel my low grades were not really because I was stupid but because I lost a lot of motivation during school not knowing what I wanted to do when I graduate. I just finished an internal medicine rotation and rounded with medical doctors where I feel like I learned so much in one week than I learned in my entire 6 years of school. I firmly believe that being in that environment of the career field you want to be in will reaffirm why you are doing what you are doing. I'm considering medical school, in a few years, I'm just going to have to do more shadowing and somehow fix my GPA before I actually make that decision o_o

 

[ACSurgeon]

I feel like I am way too stupid for med school! What do I mean? I read too slow, I don't memorize fast enough, I don't retain enough, and I feel like I forget things too easily. In undergrad I had a ton of time to work, and ALL I did was study. I barely came out with a 3.5 GPA (granted it was Duke and an engineering double major, but I'm good at math). I don't know how I got a 31 on the MCAT (13P, 9V, 9B)...since I felt like I failed it and thought the bio passages had NOTHING to do with the freaking questions. Now, I'm trying to study BIOCHEM and ANATOMY and it's taking forever to get the stupid crap in my head. I have no freaking idea how I'm going to survive when I get to the fire-hydrant of info. You know near infinite volume + limited time. My brain can only tick so fast.

I'm not throwing a pity party. I'm not looking for sympathy. I really want to be a doctor, but I get pissed off because I feel WAY TOO FREAKING STUPID, SLOW, AND DEFICIENT in memorizing-capacity.

I've been accepted to med school, but I wonder if I'm actually going to be able to pass with a limited amount of time...I always had tons of time to study. Med school won't be like that. I will constantly be pressed.

Recommendations, anyone?

Sounds like a lot of this is self-inflected pain. Either find a better way to handle stress, or save yourself the misery. I'm sure you can get through if you study hard like everyone else, but if this is your attitude before starting, you're in a world of self doubt and self loathing once school starts.

Regarding memorizing: if you start with reading through stuff, just trying to understand what's being taught, that's half the battle. Read through the material 2-3 times, and you should be able to retain enough. There are exceptions (pharm/micro) where memorization is more intense, but you should NOT go through med school trying to memorize every page of the book...

 

[DermViser]

Sounds like a lot of this is self-inflected pain. Either find a better way to handle stress, or save yourself the misery. I'm sure you can get through if you study hard like everyone else, but if this is your attitude before starting, you're in a world of self doubt and self loathing once school starts.

Regarding memorizing: if you start with reading through stuff, just trying to understand what's being taught, that's half the battle. Read through the material 2-3 times, and you should be able to retain enough. There are exceptions (pharm/micro) where memorization is more intense, but you should NOT go through med school trying to memorize every page of the book...

For the love of God, the OP posted, nearly 8 years ago, back in 2006. I'm pretty sure he or she is done with medical school by now.

 

[doctorasoy]

You'll be fine. It's not as bad as people make it out to be if you stay on top of your work. And even if you fall behind, you'll eventually learn how to manage. Everything has a learning curve, and once you get through the curve, you can look back at your past and laugh at how hard you thought undergrad was.

I'm 20+ lectures behind and I have an exam on Monday. I ain't even phased.

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