With lots of schools (including mine) starting this month, what are things you wish you knew when you were in our spot? Life/study hacks, common misconceptions, etiquette that may not seem obvious at first, etc. Hit me (and my cohort) with whatever you've got (please!)
Advice for incoming MS1s
- Thread starter fetuccini
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Experiment with a variety of study methods. I'm a firm believer that everyone's study process looks a little different. Ask upperclassman how they studied and actively try different methods until you find one (or a combination) that works well for you.
The people I saw struggle with the information load were the ones who tried to study the exact same way they studied in undergrad. You have to learn to be flexible and introspective on your personal learning process.
The people I saw struggle with the information load were the ones who tried to study the exact same way they studied in undergrad. You have to learn to be flexible and introspective on your personal learning process.
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We have a survival guide compiling past posts and threads that we made available to SDN members for filling out a member survey.
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stay away from basic science research unless it’s a passion. Too many of these projects fail and turn out to be a waste of time
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Lots of great past threads on this. Couple quick thoughts:
1) if you’re recently out of undergrad, realize that all your non medical friends who are starting regular jobs and making decent money and seem totally happy will likely hate those same jobs in a few years. Everyone thinks their first job is awesome, and their social media will make it seem like their lives are perfect while you’re grinding away learning physiology. I think this was a huge advantage as a non trad - all my friends hated their jobs and were envious of me for getting to go back to school! Don’t let the grass is greener sensation get you down too much.
2) give classes your absolutely best effort to start, then titrate to sanity. For the first few weeks/months, really go all out and study like it’s a full time job. Do way more than you think you need to. Probably the biggest mistake I see new M1s make is getting behind and having to play catch up. Try and be the top scoring student in the class at first, then see where your efforts land you. If you’re barely passing, then you’re going to need to maintain that level of effort for awhile. If you’re near the top of the class, you can decide if it’s worth the effort to stay there or whether you want to dial back a bit.
3) the one unredeemable sin in preclinical is procrastination. It will absolutely crush you, and I say that as the official king of procrastination myself. The velocity of new information is simply too high. It’s 5 days a week of new material, and there are only so many hours left for study even including weekends. It doesn’t take long to get so behind that new material doesn’t even make sense anymore. And you won’t have time to catch up.
1) if you’re recently out of undergrad, realize that all your non medical friends who are starting regular jobs and making decent money and seem totally happy will likely hate those same jobs in a few years. Everyone thinks their first job is awesome, and their social media will make it seem like their lives are perfect while you’re grinding away learning physiology. I think this was a huge advantage as a non trad - all my friends hated their jobs and were envious of me for getting to go back to school! Don’t let the grass is greener sensation get you down too much.
2) give classes your absolutely best effort to start, then titrate to sanity. For the first few weeks/months, really go all out and study like it’s a full time job. Do way more than you think you need to. Probably the biggest mistake I see new M1s make is getting behind and having to play catch up. Try and be the top scoring student in the class at first, then see where your efforts land you. If you’re barely passing, then you’re going to need to maintain that level of effort for awhile. If you’re near the top of the class, you can decide if it’s worth the effort to stay there or whether you want to dial back a bit.
3) the one unredeemable sin in preclinical is procrastination. It will absolutely crush you, and I say that as the official king of procrastination myself. The velocity of new information is simply too high. It’s 5 days a week of new material, and there are only so many hours left for study even including weekends. It doesn’t take long to get so behind that new material doesn’t even make sense anymore. And you won’t have time to catch up.
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Focus on your own performance and not how you compare to others.
Understand that there will likely be classmates that are smarter/better than you. You were probably the smartest/one of the smartest students at each level of your education up to this point. This will change. Just accept it now and you will be happier for it.
Understand that there will likely be classmates that are smarter/better than you. You were probably the smartest/one of the smartest students at each level of your education up to this point. This will change. Just accept it now and you will be happier for it.
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Regularly exercise. Develop/establish a sustainable dietary lifestyle. These are more important than your grades.
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Where can we find this survey?
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Also make sure you read the criteria for AOA and what not before hand. Some people in my class didn’t study that hard for the first few exams thinking that only clinical grades mattered for AOA only to find out later on that preclinical grades also factor into AOA. Since only like the top 15% academically are nominated, they were basically eliminated from contention before the game began. Some of these people wanted to do ortho, optho, derm etc. and basically don’t have a chance now since my school is low tier and you need AOA for a realistic chance at those specialties
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We sent a survey to SDN members back in mid-June. If you completed the survey, you got a link. Did you fill it out (around June 15: "Calling all members! We want to hear from you!"). Is it in spam?
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Do your best to maintain past friendships and cultivate new ones. Stay connected with your family.
It is not the end of the world if you did not get x USMLE score or if you do not match to X program.
Enjoy Medical School. It indeed is brief and goes by too fast. I wish I hung out more with my class.
It is not the end of the world if you did not get x USMLE score or if you do not match to X program.
Enjoy Medical School. It indeed is brief and goes by too fast. I wish I hung out more with my class.
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Others have said this, but run your own race. Unless you are an elite student, med school will be challenging and stressful. There is an adjustment at the beginning. Don't listen to what your classmates are doing as some are scary smart and don't need to put in the time you might have to. The biggest complaint I heard from students was they weren't getting A's all the time. You are in an elite group. Work hard and you'll be fine.
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Second this bigtime.
The other issue is that everyone studies/reviews material at slightly different times. I think I started realizing this a few months in. So you may wind up in some PBL group going over a case where there are aspects of the underlying physio that you havent' had time to really digest yet, but your classmate may have just spent 4 hours pouring over those lectures in detail. It will feel like they're way ahead of you when in fact it's just where the session fell in your respective processes. So long as you learn everything you need to by exam time, you'll be fine. But it's easy to get discouraged when it seems like everyone else is doing better than you are. Hopefully you find a good friend group and you can talk openly about this stuff and then you'll just blow it off when someone knows a lot more about topic X because you probably know a lot more about topic Y on that given day.
I might also add to disregard all the rumors you're going to hear. You'll hear about so and so who blows off every class and never studies and magically aces the exams. I heard these rumors all the time in M1/2, but when junior AOA came around those rumored geniuses were nowhere to be seen. There are definitely some really smart people, maybe even some smarter than you are (which can be a first for many medical students), but there's also a lot of baloney floating around that just isn't true. Just focus on your own work and try to ignore what everyone else is doing.
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Aw man I missed it. Will there be another opportunity to get the guide?
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Med school is brutal and life is short. Take time for yourself, spend time with your family/do fun stuff as much as it’s feasible, take care of your mental/physical health. Life doesn’t stop just cause you’re in med school. If you act like it does, cause thats how administration in med schools will treat you, then your mental health is going to tank.
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The one from the survey was on interviews:
We're working on additional ones like this that cover other topics, including Med School Survival Tips.
We're working on additional ones like this that cover other topics, including Med School Survival Tips.
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Ah... whoops! Then I jumped the gun. 
