Worried About My Success...

[TRH01]

Just wandering if there's anyone who can relate to me? So I am a junior now and am planning on applying to medical school next year and take a gap year. Right now I am taking 16 credit hours of classes (Orgo 2, Physics, Physics Lab, Spanish 2, and an online class). I am in a sorority, which requires a decent amount of my time a week, and also participate in other volunteer and service activities. I am worried about my success in medical school because everyone is telling me that if I am stressed right now I am never going to make it. I currently feel like all of my time is devoted to studying and I never get to do much else. People are telling me that spending about 6 hours a day is way too much studying and that I'm crazy, or not going to be smart enough for med school. In my defense, Physics and Orgo together are not the easiest, however I know med school will be way harder. Physics at my school is known for being pretty hard. The organic professor I got stuck with is notoriously one of the hardest professors at my University and requires a ton of work compared to the other professors. Could it be that I am just in a few difficult, "weedout type", classes right now that I am spending so much time studying? I still have classes like physiology, microbio, genetics, etc. which my advisor says will get better and help me pull my GPA up. I'm just starting to freak out a little because my science GPA is only a 3.6 and people are telling me that I won't be good enough for med school if I already spend around 6 hours a day of studying.

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[Biochemistry69]

I'm in a similar position, doing physics 2 and organic 1, and I'm also a junior.

Traditionally, it's always taken me a long time to study. As much as I hate to say it, I go around 10-12 hours (keep in mind that I learn mainly from reading the textbooks, so reading sucks up a lot of my time) a day to get near perfect scores on everything. I always read about these kids who can apparently do little studying and still ace every class, but I've never met one. All the premeds I know at my school who are doing the more difficult classes are spending 15-20 hours a week per class. The ones that aren't are failing hard.

I think a lot of people, in school and on SDN, downplay how much they actually study.

 

[pseud0]

Orgo is hard, period. Physics can be hard, depending on the type of class and professor, period. If you can get through them and keep your gpa at 3.6 and up, manage a capable MCAT score and such..you can get in. Don't give up yet.......yeah med school is obviously going to be hard, but the failure rate/non-match rate at MD/DO schools in the USA is very low. If you get in, they know you can do it.

 

[byrdhouse]

People are different. You may need to study 6+ hours a day to get by, other may only need 2. Doesn't mean you are dumb. It could mean that you aren't studying as efficiently as you could be. You would be ill pressed to find a med student who is not stressed, or who doesn't change up their study tactics because what they did in undergrad doesn't work anymore.

Orgo is hard. It is a notorious time suck for a lot of students, just by its nature.
Physics can be hard too.

Take a deep breath and relax. You will be fine. AdComs will give you a seat if they think you can manage the work. They don't really care how much you study or how little you study. If it works for you, then it works. Your GPA rarely has any strings attached or asterisks, and none of them are related to how you studied.

 

[TRH01]

Thank you for the advice and support you guys!