What topic would you brush up on before medical school?

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CNS

music & caffeine junkie.
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If you had time before medical school to focus on any topic related to the field, what would you study? What topic have you found yourself wishing that you paid more attention to in your undergraduate years?
 
If you had time before medical school to focus on any topic related to the field, what would you study? What topic have you found yourself wishing that you paid more attention to in your undergraduate years?

In all seriousness - Relaxation techniques. If you have a chance to do a biofeedback program it will make your life in med school a bit less stressed.

Everything else you will learn as you go - multiple times in fact.
 
I would suggest not studying til you have to- but if you simply must study I would say I would have done biochem- I didn't have an undergrad course in biochem so it was all new and we covered over a years worth of biochem in 2 weeks so it would have been nice to know.

Other than that nothing has really been too hard that you couldn't do it and pass the exam with the time allotted even if you didn't have the course before.
 
How to enjoy free time. It will be scarce.

If you had time before medical school to focus on any topic related to the field, what would you study? What topic have you found yourself wishing that you paid more attention to in your undergraduate years?
 
In all seriousness - Relaxation techniques. If you have a chance to do a biofeedback program it will make your life in med school a bit less stressed.
Right, I have heard this is really the ideal choice. Anything to alleviate the inevitable stress is beneficial. I'm just curious, academically speaking.
 
Cooking. If you can teach yourself how to prepare a decent meal in 20 - 40 minutes, you're golden. I'm in my third year and living on take-out, pizza, cafeteria food, and prepared foods... then lecturing patients about healthy diets. Oh the irony... I wish I had spent more time learning how to prepare simple, healthy meals!
 
Cooking. If you can teach yourself how to prepare a decent meal in 20 - 40 minutes, you're golden. I'm in my third year and living on take-out, pizza, cafeteria food, and prepared foods... then lecturing patients about healthy diets. Oh the irony... I wish I had spent more time learning how to prepare simple, healthy meals!

So true.
 
Cooking, time efficient yet intense workouts, non-medical books and magazines as well as news, get everything fixed on your car (and a new battery might help too if it is old), beers and wines of the world, movies, music, regional things you might miss (if you are moving to a new area), and destressing exercises. The last one sounds like a joke but it isn't. Start learning various methods to destress in short periods of time through breathing and other hippy type stuff. Then apply it when you are in school. You will feel much better.

People tend to forget that as a physician and a medical student, you will interact a ton with people who AREN'T in the field. So, being well read, cultured and interesting can pay off in the long run. I've established fantastic rapport with people simply because I could talk about something seemingly obscure that they were passionate about.
 
First and foremost, do not try to pre-study the summer before your M1 year. The material you manage to cover at your current "undergraduate studying level" over the summer will be eclipsed within the first couple weeks of medical school anyway and you'll hate yourself for having a miserable summer.

Relax. Read anything that you enjoy outside of school. Healthcare economics might be a good subject to learn this summer.
 
focus on the stuff you're not gonna be able to do for the next 7+ years: spontaneous trips with friends, world traveling, reading classic (non-medical) literature, enjoying the way time passes when you don't think about medicine a significant amount of your day..
 
Thanks for all the advice so far! Believe me, I will certainly enjoy the few months of freedom that I have left.

However, the intent of my original post was to find out what subject you found yourself wishing you had focused more on in your undergraduate days. I'm not trying to master MS1 material; I'm trying to build the strongest foundation that I can in the time being.
 
I had never taken a course in microbiology and I wish I had some sort of intro to it prior to this semester.

Of course the best advice is just to get a little bit of experience in everything. Physiology is also one of the more difficult first year courses to grasp.
 
I've taken Italian (I II III) and French (I II) but I would like to brush up on Spanish. Haven't studied it since high school and it is probably the most relevant in terms of medical application.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far! Believe me, I will certainly enjoy the few months of freedom that I have left.

However, the intent of my original post was to find out what subject you found yourself wishing you had focused more on in your undergraduate days. I'm not trying to master MS1 material; I'm trying to build the strongest foundation that I can in the time being.

I think like 6 other med students have said for you to relax. I don't particularly see the difference between you trying to master MS1 material and trying to build the strongest foundation possible. People can say study biochem but what aspect of biochem are they going to hammer home at your particular school? You just won't know what to focus on and how much to focus on and most likely it'll be covered in 1 or 2 lectures anyway. So relax, and just enjoy the months leading up to med school. You'll never be able to adequately build a strong enough foundation without knowing what to expect.
 
Honestly, I don't think that I would study much the summer before medical school. I'd much rather travel and enjoy my time.

I would probably refresh myself on acid/base chemistry and enzyme kinetics, though. They're pretty important in medicine from my understanding.
 
Honestly, I don't think that I would study much the summer before medical school. I'd much rather travel and enjoy my time.

I would probably refresh myself on acid/base chemistry and enzyme kinetics, though. They're pretty important in medicine from my understanding.
neither of those topics were very difficult or important in biochem. you'll pick it up quickly
 
Personally, I think I'll leisurely try to study stats. Never had it before, and I hear it is somewhat important. Of course I don't know if this will pay off or not...

But seriously, a lazy summer is the main objective for me!!!😎
 
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