what's missing??

[zippie]

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Hey everyone, I just finished up half of my first year courses (took biochem, microbio and other little courses...sorta like flexing the curriculum), and am getting really disappointed and frustrated at myself. The thing is, since I'm taking half the courseload the regular MSI's are, I theoretically have a lot more time to study (although I work approx 20hrs/wk, and procrastination does find it's way into my schedule 🙂). So with more tiem to study, I should be doing really well compared to the regular kids, no? wrong.

I'm passing my classes (grading system here is honors/hp/p/lp/f), and I wouldn't be so upset if I knew I didn't know the material, but the thing is, I do, and I can spit out all the microbio info you'll ever need to know, but come tiem for the test, I don't know what happens to me. I sorta keep up with the material (preview and review the notes, but no hardcore memorizing), and a week or two before exams, I really go hardcore. Soemtimes I think maybe I'm missing on the finer, finer details of the material, sometimes I think it's bc I'm younger (i'm 20), but at this point, I don't know anymore & I don't think I can evaluate myself unbiasedly.

What's the missing link here?? What am I doing "wrong"? This is really frustating me bc I can't seem to get out of this rut and I know I'm capable of much more. I want to fix whatever I'm doing wrong before anatomy, histo, neuro, and physio next year. SDN is a great group of people with some thoughtful insight and advice, so ANY input or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

[Samoa]

I've had that happen on some tests I've taken. I study the objectives and the lecture notes until I have a good handle on the level of detail they're asking for, and then on the exam, the questions make me wonder if maybe I've walked into some other class's test by accident.

I've also taken several exams and felt like I nailed every question, except maybe one or two where I wasn't completely sure, and then gotten my test back and had missed quite a few more than that. That's much more frustrating than when I know I'm guessing, and yet my grades end up very similar.

I've also taken exams where I studied pretty intensively, and still had a very unsettling number of questions on which I had to guess despite the amount of studying I had done. I'd walk out thinking, "oh well, screwed over again," and then gotten close to a perfect score.

There seems to be no correlation whatsoever between the amount or kind of studying I do and my score on the exam. It's quite frustrating.

 

[zippie]

Yeah! That's exactly what happens to me... I see first years who haven't read the material at all and usually don't start until after their exam (like 2 days before the exam) and yet they still come out with HPs. I'm scared bc I don't want this to be an indicator of how I'm going to do later on...

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong...I do old exams, review the ones I got wrong, reread the material, etc., but you know the odd thing I've noticed is that the scores I get on the old tests are usually exactly the scores I get on the actual ones. ??

to all the people who did well MSI: how did you approach the material and exams?

 

[BIMS 01]

Especially in Micro, but for alot of other classes, I have found the best way to study is to look at what makes each process/bug unique. For example, when you study parasitology it's impossible to know every miniscule detail about each organism, but you can one or two things that are really unique for a given species. Some people are better at picking out these important points, and if you have a hard time identifying these things, try studying with one of your friends. Good luck. One thing that I figured out pretty early during med school is that it's not just how much you study, but how well you study during that time.

 

[Samoa]

Especially in Micro, but for alot of other classes, I have found the best way to study is to look at what makes each process/bug unique. For example, when you study parasitology it's impossible to know every miniscule detail about each organism, but you can one or two things that are really unique for a given species. Some people are better at picking out these important points, and if you have a hard time identifying these things, try studying with one of your friends. Good luck. One thing that I figured out pretty early during med school is that it's not just how much you study, but how well you study during that time.

You know, I tried that too. But I'm generally the one who's best at picking out what's important, so the only thing I get out of that is simply the discipline to spend time studying. At even that's pointless if I'm not able to get the group to study the stuff I think is going to be on the test. The other problem is that we're frequently tested on things that are NOT important--you know, the kind of questions written solely to distinguish honors from high pass, that really have NOTHING AT ALL to do with the practice of medicine.

 

[MSV MD 2B]

funny you said that you thought it was because you are younger and i think that i don't do as well becuase i am older! 🙂 i used to forget everything in tests also and i started doing better once i did thre things: 1) relax. this is a second career for me so i said that if it isn't meant for me to be an md then it just isn't. i can't force it. i am doing the best that i can and i can do no more. then i stopped freaking out the day befor ethe test and got more wokr done. 2) at my school you shadow a community physician starting in the firts year. tis reminded me why i am going through this hell. 3) iwas told by a second year to read my notes over and over and over again. sad but true. i had been using text books and study guides, etc. but all i needed were the syllabus notes and again my grades went up.

 

[Samoa]

Well, the bottom line is, I'm actually doing pretty decently, I'm just not doing as well as I would like. I don't know the situation for the OP, though.

 

[Kalel]

Unfortunately, your performance on many med school exams aren't dependent on the amount of time that you put in studying for them after you get to a certain point. I'd reccomend doing practice questions if you think that you are spending enough time learning all of the material.

 

[zippie]

Thanks for all the responses guys!
I think I am in the same situation as you, Samoa. I guess technically I'm doing 'okay', but I feel like I know the material well enough to do better than okay.

I don't think I'm freaking out before the exams or anything, and the Micro notes for us are pretty amazing, he bolds the important stuff (which ironically is most of the notes lol). I think I have a good grasp of the material overall; I know the distinguishing features of each and every virus and bacteria, but I seem to get stuck on the ones that call for the finer detail it seems. (that and stupid mistakes). All my friends who I study with say I seem to know the material pretty well (part of the reason why this is so frustrating), but somehow, the exam questions trip me up.

Some recent suggestions made to me include reviewing the ones I got wrong and seeing why I got them, how I approached the question, and how the prof approached it/ wanted you to approach it. Sortof what I do know, but I guess I need to do it more often and pound it in more? Also, the need to look at the material in a different aspect, which, in retrospect, I think is part of my problem.

Any ideas on how to approach the material 'in a different way'? I usually read the notes over, taking my own notes, memorizing as I go along, and then reviewing/quizzing myself with the old material as I progress with the reading. This seems to me like just straight up memorizing, not viewing the material in a different aspect.

 

[UCLA2000]

You shouldn't be working 20 hours per week in med school. That's where all of your extra time is going.

Are you doing anything for fun to keep yourself sane? If not, then no wonder you're frustrated!

Hey everyone, I just finished up half of my first year courses (took biochem, microbio and other little courses...sorta like flexing the curriculum), and am getting really disappointed and frustrated at myself. The thing is, since I'm taking half the courseload the regular MSI's are, I theoretically have a lot more time to study (although I work approx 20hrs/wk, and procrastination does find it's way into my schedule 🙂). So with more tiem to study, I should be doing really well compared to the regular kids, no? wrong.

I'm passing my classes (grading system here is honors/hp/p/lp/f), and I wouldn't be so upset if I knew I didn't know the material, but the thing is, I do, and I can spit out all the microbio info you'll ever need to know, but come tiem for the test, I don't know what happens to me. I sorta keep up with the material (preview and review the notes, but no hardcore memorizing), and a week or two before exams, I really go hardcore. Soemtimes I think maybe I'm missing on the finer, finer details of the material, sometimes I think it's bc I'm younger (i'm 20), but at this point, I don't know anymore & I don't think I can evaluate myself unbiasedly.

What's the missing link here?? What am I doing "wrong"? This is really frustating me bc I can't seem to get out of this rut and I know I'm capable of much more. I want to fix whatever I'm doing wrong before anatomy, histo, neuro, and physio next year. SDN is a great group of people with some thoughtful insight and advice, so ANY input or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

[UCLA2000]

Well, the bottom line is, I'm actually doing pretty decently, I'm just not doing as well as I would like. I don't know the situation for the OP, though.

Med school is full of really smart people. Some are going to be smarter than you, and some are going to be better exam takers than you.

Kicking butt in undergrad is like being a big fish in a big pond....

Med school is like taking that fish outta the pond and throwing it into the ocean. We quickly learn that we weren't as big as we thought we were...

 

[mward04]

Zippie-
You're not alone. Many people feel this way in med school partly because you were able to shine in college (and usually all of your life) but med school attracts those same types of people. Someone has to finish first and someone has to finish last...Couple of points that might help:
*I gather these are multiple choice tests? If so, how well have you tested the majority of your life on MC questions? Also, are you doing hundreds of questions in prep for each exam?
*keep up with the material, don't wait until the last 2 weeks to really learn it
*Talk to upper level students to get their advice on how to study, it's never to late to change your strategies
*Do the same with your classmates, talk to them, how do they study? Maybe you could go over an exam with them?
*Are you studying alone? Maybe you could form a small study group together?
*Refocus your energy this energy and come up with a new strategy for the 2nd year. I've known a number of students who did mediocre the first year and crushed the second year. And even if you don't rock the 2nd year, that's okay.

Remember, the first 2 years of med school do not make you a doctor, they merely teach you the vocabulary you need to know. The third and 4th years (clinical years) are what define you as a medical student. Good luck I'm sure you'll do great!

 

[orthoman5000]

Check out this link, it has a lot of information that will probably help.

http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/Success/default.htm

Buy his book "Success Types for Medical Students" if you can, it helped me a bunch.

A lot of people are good at memorizing and regurgitating facts, but are not as good at analyzing the questions and then integrating the memorized facts into unfamiliar situations. Some people are just the opposite. In the Success Types book you determine your Briggs-Meyer personality types and these have a bearing on how you learn. Those that are of the "sensing" type are good at memorizing facts, but may not be skilled at multiple choice tests. Those that are of the "intuitive" type tend to be better at multiple choice tests but may neglect a lot of details.

He goes into this in the book in much more detail, but the best way to develop intuitive abilities is with practice questions. Get your hands on as many practice questions as possible. Old test books, BRS series, PreTest series, and the Review Questions series are all excellent choices. I used all of them this last year. Do not use the questions as a guage of how much you know but as a learning tool. You can do this with a 4 step approach.

1. Identify the topic being tested
2. Identify why the correct answer is correct
3. Identify why the incorrect answers are incorrect, and what words you would change in order for them to be correct. This is very important because the difference between a correct choice and an incorrect choice is usually just a one word difference.
4. Reword the question into a different form

If you do this with enough questions you are going to cover virtually all of the high-yield questions on an exam. A small percentage always seem to come from some minutae in the book or syllabus so you should not neglect these sources, but practice questions and question analysis will go a long way toward improving your scores.

 

[Samoa]

Med school is full of really smart people. Some are going to be smarter than you, and some are going to be better exam takers than you.

Kicking butt in undergrad is like being a big fish in a big pond....

Med school is like taking that fish outta the pond and throwing it into the ocean. We quickly learn that we weren't as big as we thought we were...

Actually, I was never a big fish academically in college. I was smart enough to pass without a whole lot of effort, and that was all I cared about at the time. I spent my high-quality effort on extracurricular activities. So I didn't really try very hard in my classes until grad school and post-bacc. Consequently, this is actually much less of an adjustment for me than it is for many of my classmates. The drive to excel is definitely present, but I already know I'm an OK person and can still be a really good doctor no matter what my grades are.

 

[zippie]

Hmm, thank you for all the responses everyone! I'll def check that book out. Next year I'm definately cutting down on my work time; only working on Sundays. And it seems like I really do need to do more practice questions, from sources other than my school's old exams. I actually did that once, and while they did have a different style and feel to them (prob part of the reason I decided not to continue using them and concentrate on my notes/old exams more), maybe that's where I can get my different perspective on the material from.

Also seems as though I should really put more effort into keeping up/memorizing the material as the term progresses. It's just so hard to keep that motivated and pressed to study, especially when you have half the courseload that the others have...Guess I need to get rid of those super memorization right before the exam study habits that worked so well in undergrad, heh.

 

[gaslady]

One of my friends constantly struggled with this issue throughout medical school. I think as she got more upset she wound herself up so tight that it hurt her ability to study effectively. In the end she matched well in a competitive specialty because her grades were consistent and she was very likeable. Some points to keep in mind:
1. No matter how much you study you will never know everything, you just need to know enough.
2. Make sure you take out time for yourself to relax doing something you really enjoy doing. This will help your stress level and make your productivity increase.
3. Sleep!!!

 

[doc05]

why are you doing the 1/2-courseload?

 

[zippie]

One of my friends constantly struggled with this issue throughout medical school. I think as she got more upset she wound herself up so tight that it hurt her ability to study effectively. In the end she matched well in a competitive specialty because her grades were consistent and she was very likeable. Some points to keep in mind:
1. No matter how much you study you will never know everything, you just need to know enough.
2. Make sure you take out time for yourself to relax doing something you really enjoy doing. This will help your stress level and make your productivity increase.
3. Sleep!!!

Wow! That was really encouraging to hear 🙂 Did your friend simply do 'average' (passing)? And I'm assuming her boards went well in order to counterbalance her grades?

doc05: doing half the load bc I'm in a joint degree program.