What kind of "studying" does med school require?

[Chris127]

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Hi, first of all, I am in my third semester of undergrad, and I am looking to hopefully apply to med schools in the coming 1.5- 2 years.

I have two cousins, one which is finishing up her last year in residency as an OB/GYN, and the other who is entering his intern year in ortho.

I recently asked them what the medical school experience was like (yes, I know, plenty of studying, maybe more than one could handle, but..) I was trying to find out something I didnt know.

They both came to the agreement that in med school, you dont study, you memorize. This got me to thinking, so I did some looking around and decided to pose this question here.

What kind of studying is actually involved in med school? Is it really just all simple memorization? I mean, I know now in my chem classes, there are problems on our exams that require some intricate knowledge and thought, in order to define the problem, set up the equation, and solve it, etc. Is there anything like this in med school? Am I doing more critical thinking now in my general and organic chem classes than I will be doing in med school? Other than anatomy, are all the other subjects simply memorizing info and producing it again on the test?

 

[eklope2000]

There is problem solving in medical school classes. Individuals who can only memorize but not think logically will have a difficult time doing well.

However, unlike in some other academic pursuits, students who can think logically but can't memorize will also be at a great disadvantage. The main reasons for this are, in my opinion...

1. Because there is rarely a "complete" understanding of any one biological/medical phenomenon, it is difficult or impossible to extrapolate purely based on logic from something that you know to arrive at something you haven't previously memorized.

2. Again, because of the incomplete understanding, extrapolation and logical thinking will often cause you to arrive at the wrong answers. In other words, there are lots of exceptions to any one rule you can think of, and there would be no other way to arrive at those exceptions without having memorized them.

3. The logic required is relatively simple. The number of logical steps to arrive at an answer are almost always one or two. A causes B to go up. C causes B to go down. D causes E to go up which then causes F to go down. There are exceptions, but this is the level of complexity for the vast majority of medical school content.

4. Often, even in situations that are very logical, you can't apply the logic without a significant number of facts memorized correctly. For example, normal lab values, names for physical findings, names of diseases (you might know of a pathological process, but not recall the name of it, for example), names of drugs, etc.

In summary, medical school is quite a gigantic pool of facts that you must learn. But you do have to be able to use that information logically once you've memorized it.

 

[skypilot]

What kind of studying is actually involved in med school? Is it really just all simple memorization? I mean, I know now in my chem classes, there are problems on our exams that require some intricate knowledge and thought, in order to define the problem, set up the equation, and solve it, etc. Is there anything like this in med school? Am I doing more critical thinking now in my general and organic chem classes than I will be doing in med school? Other than anatomy, are all the other subjects simply memorizing info and producing it again on the test?

I haven't run into any problems more difficult than Algebra 1. It is mostly just memorizing vast quantities of information and the most simple applications of that information.

 

[deuist]

I haven't run into any problems more difficult than Algebra 1. It is mostly just memorizing vast quantities of information and the most simple applications of that information.

For my pharm class, we had to demonstrate the clearing time for a drug given its half-life. After working on the problem for an hour, my only solution was to use integral calculus to solve for the rate constant, and then back calculate the answer. I had to present the solution in class. All the professor could say is, "That's beautiful math."

 

[the1doc]

I haven't run into any problems more difficult than Algebra 1. It is mostly just memorizing vast quantities of information and the most simple applications of that information.

I'd say that is a pretty accurate reflection of my experience. Conceptually, it really isn't difficult. It just requires memorizing definitions, or pathways, or acronyms...then maybe applying a little bit of reasoning with all of the material you've crammed into your head.

 

[UCSBMed1]

I'd say that is a pretty accurate reflection of my experience. Conceptually, it really isn't difficult. It just requires memorizing definitions, or pathways, or acronyms...then maybe applying a little bit of reasoning with all of the material you've crammed into your head.

Sure, I think the first two years of med school are filled with mindless, rote memorization, but the last two involve a lot more critical thinking.

For example, your third year clerkships are meant to solidify the knowledge you've gained in the first two years and to apply this knowledge as a student-physician. Therefore, although you may know how a certain dz presents, you still must be able to interpret that knowledge to come up with a solution.

In other words, you must integrate your knowledge of many different organ systems (GI, Cardio, Neuro, etc.) in order to know "what the h*ll is going on."

Hope that helps. Good luck with the admissions process!

 

[angel80]

Sure, I think the first two years of med school are filled with mindless, rote memorization, but the last two involve a lot more critical thinking.

For example, your third year clerkships are meant to solidify the knowledge you've gained in the first two years and to apply this knowledge as a student-physician. Therefore, although you may know how a certain dz presents, you still must be able to interpret that knowledge to come up with a solution.

In other words, you must integrate your knowledge of many different organ systems (GI, Cardio, Neuro, etc.) in order to know "what the h*ll is going on."

Hope that helps. Good luck with the admissions process!

I agree. The first 2 years are just a ton of memorization. You have hundreds of new pages of notes a week, and everything on those notes is fair game for the exam. In the 3rd and 4th years, you must be able to take all that info, integrate it, and apply it to real life situations.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi, first of all, I am in my third semester of undergrad, and I am looking to hopefully apply to med schools in the coming 1.5- 2 years.

I have two cousins, one which is finishing up her last year in residency as an OB/GYN, and the other who is entering his intern year in ortho.

I recently asked them what the medical school experience was like (yes, I know, plenty of studying, maybe more than one could handle, but..) I was trying to find out something I didnt know.

They both came to the agreement that in med school, you dont study, you memorize. This got me to thinking, so I did some looking around and decided to pose this question here.

What kind of studying is actually involved in med school? Is it really just all simple memorization? I mean, I know now in my chem classes, there are problems on our exams that require some intricate knowledge and thought, in order to define the problem, set up the equation, and solve it, etc. Is there anything like this in med school? Am I doing more critical thinking now in my general and organic chem classes than I will be doing in med school? Other than anatomy, are all the other subjects simply memorizing info and producing it again on the test?

Applying info to a problem is generally the easy part for most in med school - the critical thinking component won't be as intense as in orgo. But actually having the database of info you need in your head is where some come up short. You won't necessarilly be asked straightforward questions. But the answers may involve straightforward application of some obscure tiny detail of the subject matter, that in real life outside school, nobody but a specialist would ever know (or need to). You will cover an enormous amount of material, and everything said in lecture or printed in course notepacks will be fair game -- this will prove to be far in excess of anything you will have seen in undergrad. The key is to find an approach that works for you -- everyone will need to do something a little different to succeed. (Also a change from undergrad).