G
grapefruit17
Who I am: Intern resident physician at a university residency program. Graduate of osteopathic medical school. Survivor of OMM.
why I'm posting this: I read this forums every now and then and seems like theres a lot of threads lately w/ people struggling. So here are lessons I learned. Take it with a grain of salt, may or may not work with you.
1. Class vs no class. Figure this out early on, the earlier the better. Do you absolutely need to go to class? Because if you don't, the amount of time you save by not going is a nice advantage. Benefits of not going include...
-Ability to watch lectures at your own speed. Your teacher tells an annoying 5 min story? Fast forward. The lecture steers of topic into something completely random? Fast forward. The class is taking a 5-10 min break but you want to keep going? Np. Go to the part where the break is over. While in school I would often do a "2 hour block lecture" in 45 mins (maybe an hour), maybe a little more, maybe a little less. So instead of 2 hours spent listening to one lecture, where I prob only heard 20% of it, I would instead finish in around 45 mins or so and hear 80-90 percent of it. Your mind wanders too much while sitting down, in a large group of people, where someone isn't directly talking to you. unless you have intense concentration, going to class is usually not the best way to send your time. To add to all this, 8 hours of lecture could be dwindled down to 4-6 hours depending on how many times I would need to pause or stop. Oh, and thats another high yield thing about not going to class. The ability to pause. So many times in class we would go over a concept that I had no idea what they were talking about and the lecture would just keep going. I realized I wasted time by this happening. Watching a lecture and don't understand a concept? Pause it, go back to it, think about it and google it.
-better personal life. You don't study well when you're depressed or stressed for time. Just doesn't happen. You need to be rested and at least somewhat happy to maximize your studying. if you aren't taking. little time out of each day for yourself, something is very wrong with your routine, imo. remember, you aren't a robot. You aren't designed to sit in a dark library 24/7 and be expected to still retain masses of information. Your mind/body needs a break every now and then.
-Review ability. This is hy. My routine was this...Mornings: Review all the old lectures. Lectures I haven't reviewed much took longer, lectures I felt good on I did a quick glance/review to keep the material fresh in my head. Afternoons: watching the new lectures. Watch them, take notes, put them in your review pile for tomm morning.
-Sleep. Not getting at least 6-8 hours of sleep each night is a sure way to fall into depressive type feelings, eventually. You need sleep to retain material.
2. Study groups. Even the closest study group at my school eventually fell apart. In most, but not all cases, they're too inefficient. Why? Because everyone has their own pace. Everyone has their own strengths and weakness. If you're reviewing crap that you're 100% good on, because someone else is weak on it, that is eating away at your time. Plus, when you study with your friends its just way too easy to veer off.
-A good alternative to this...I had a few close friends in my class. We shared notes and kept each other motivated. We had group messaging chats and would just answer any questions we would between our group. Fast, and efficient way of group studying vs meeting up and trying to over things together. My advice- choose friends that are smarter and more motivated than you are. They often will indirectly make you a better person.
3. Keep number of resources small. Focus on class notes more than anything. There isn't enough time in the day to read books, memorize pps, watch lectures, etc. Keep resource number small, figure out where test questions come from and focus on that. Survive your classes before you worry about boards, otherwise you won't get to boards anyways.
4. Don't waste too much time making guides/anki cards. First year I would make study guides for myself where it was a 1 page per 1 hour of lecture fast summary that allowed for quick review. Was super helpful for me. I only dropped it second year because by then I didn't care about grades too much. Second year I would download the powerpoint for class, and immediately delete every PP slide that I felt had no chance of being tested. I would routinely turn a 40 slide PP into 20 or less. Became much faster to review. I wouldn't recommend spending several hours making guides or your own notes tho. Often its a lot of time for limited return and time is your greatest resource in medical school.
5. Don't eat like crap too much. you'll feel like crap. try to exercise every now and then, it gives a feeling of euphoria that coffee gives, but drinking too much caffeine can lead to crashing, exacerbating depression/fatigue.
6. Ignore people who talk about their scores. They're prob lying. The loudest people were usually the ones who did the worst while the quiet ones were the sharpest.
7. Board study. Board study is a culmination of your two years at medical school. If your school is anything like mine, you prob didn't learn too much HY stuff. But thats ok. You should have picked up at least a small foundation of knowledge along the way. You can build off that. I started really studying 6 months out from boards. I won't get too much into that since how people board study for step 1 hasn't changed much since I've been a student and everyone has their own slight variation. But essentially time*effort=success. Thats my formula that I always used. If you spend 12 hours studying with zero effort, you will have 0 success. Both need to be maximized to do well. Studying is not looking at Facebook every 5 mins. Once I was 6mo out, every morning would be nothing but board study. Every afternoon would be class, with the intent to finish class stuff as soon as possible. Your friends, loved ones, family will have to realize this is your time.
-Take the comlex PE seriously. I did an insane amount of studying for it. Too much. Why? Because I'm not lazy and the idea of flying to Philly again to pay >1000 and do OMM did not sound like a good day. What I did was the Kauffman stuff, in addition it thought of all the common stuff you see in FM, as well as screening cases, and wrote down guides of what questions I would ask/what PE id perform as well as A/Ps.
-Step 2 learn from your rotations and do questions nonstop. Most of the book sources sucked for step 2. Onlinemeded is gold. Helps for step 2 and you'll look like a baller on clinical rotations.
8. For clinical years, its totally ok to sound stupid. I work with med students and sometimes they sound stupid. I don't call them out for this because I was there. I care more about if you are in a positive mood/friendly than how much you know. A positive student can be taught to learn more than a negative student who thinks he knows everything. Most attending won't judge you for sounding dumb, or doing dumb things. The person who will judge you the most, is you. So ease up on yourself. Sometimes you'll feel tired, or maybe a little depressed. At that point its best to take some time out for yourself after youre done with your shift and pursue a hobby. If you feel overwhelmed, talk to a resident that is easy going. Most will understand and could offer further advice. Chances are, they feel the same, lol. Once on my unit I had one patient having sx of stroke while simultaneously another pt having sx of a MI while my attending was at another clinic. So yea. it happens.
9. When applying to residency, have zero regrets. you can always make the money back. I recommend over applying because why not? you don't get dinged for applying to 100 residencies and you can always cancel interviews. You can't cancel interviews you don't have. Unless you're a rockstar applicant for your field, look at the average amount of places to apply to, and apply to more then that. Not even joking. My program gets an insane number of applicants, and during residency season you're just a piece of a paper before you get an interview.
10. Find someone you can confide in. Helps if they know what you're going through. Sometimes having someone to blow off steam to/complain to can make you feel a bit better. Just do all of it at home, and don't bring any to work/school
ok, that was just some random stuff I thought of. Feel free to ask questions if you think I may have an answer. I may or may not have one. Dunno. Goodluck DOs.
why I'm posting this: I read this forums every now and then and seems like theres a lot of threads lately w/ people struggling. So here are lessons I learned. Take it with a grain of salt, may or may not work with you.
1. Class vs no class. Figure this out early on, the earlier the better. Do you absolutely need to go to class? Because if you don't, the amount of time you save by not going is a nice advantage. Benefits of not going include...
-Ability to watch lectures at your own speed. Your teacher tells an annoying 5 min story? Fast forward. The lecture steers of topic into something completely random? Fast forward. The class is taking a 5-10 min break but you want to keep going? Np. Go to the part where the break is over. While in school I would often do a "2 hour block lecture" in 45 mins (maybe an hour), maybe a little more, maybe a little less. So instead of 2 hours spent listening to one lecture, where I prob only heard 20% of it, I would instead finish in around 45 mins or so and hear 80-90 percent of it. Your mind wanders too much while sitting down, in a large group of people, where someone isn't directly talking to you. unless you have intense concentration, going to class is usually not the best way to send your time. To add to all this, 8 hours of lecture could be dwindled down to 4-6 hours depending on how many times I would need to pause or stop. Oh, and thats another high yield thing about not going to class. The ability to pause. So many times in class we would go over a concept that I had no idea what they were talking about and the lecture would just keep going. I realized I wasted time by this happening. Watching a lecture and don't understand a concept? Pause it, go back to it, think about it and google it.
-better personal life. You don't study well when you're depressed or stressed for time. Just doesn't happen. You need to be rested and at least somewhat happy to maximize your studying. if you aren't taking. little time out of each day for yourself, something is very wrong with your routine, imo. remember, you aren't a robot. You aren't designed to sit in a dark library 24/7 and be expected to still retain masses of information. Your mind/body needs a break every now and then.
-Review ability. This is hy. My routine was this...Mornings: Review all the old lectures. Lectures I haven't reviewed much took longer, lectures I felt good on I did a quick glance/review to keep the material fresh in my head. Afternoons: watching the new lectures. Watch them, take notes, put them in your review pile for tomm morning.
-Sleep. Not getting at least 6-8 hours of sleep each night is a sure way to fall into depressive type feelings, eventually. You need sleep to retain material.
2. Study groups. Even the closest study group at my school eventually fell apart. In most, but not all cases, they're too inefficient. Why? Because everyone has their own pace. Everyone has their own strengths and weakness. If you're reviewing crap that you're 100% good on, because someone else is weak on it, that is eating away at your time. Plus, when you study with your friends its just way too easy to veer off.
-A good alternative to this...I had a few close friends in my class. We shared notes and kept each other motivated. We had group messaging chats and would just answer any questions we would between our group. Fast, and efficient way of group studying vs meeting up and trying to over things together. My advice- choose friends that are smarter and more motivated than you are. They often will indirectly make you a better person.
3. Keep number of resources small. Focus on class notes more than anything. There isn't enough time in the day to read books, memorize pps, watch lectures, etc. Keep resource number small, figure out where test questions come from and focus on that. Survive your classes before you worry about boards, otherwise you won't get to boards anyways.
4. Don't waste too much time making guides/anki cards. First year I would make study guides for myself where it was a 1 page per 1 hour of lecture fast summary that allowed for quick review. Was super helpful for me. I only dropped it second year because by then I didn't care about grades too much. Second year I would download the powerpoint for class, and immediately delete every PP slide that I felt had no chance of being tested. I would routinely turn a 40 slide PP into 20 or less. Became much faster to review. I wouldn't recommend spending several hours making guides or your own notes tho. Often its a lot of time for limited return and time is your greatest resource in medical school.
5. Don't eat like crap too much. you'll feel like crap. try to exercise every now and then, it gives a feeling of euphoria that coffee gives, but drinking too much caffeine can lead to crashing, exacerbating depression/fatigue.
6. Ignore people who talk about their scores. They're prob lying. The loudest people were usually the ones who did the worst while the quiet ones were the sharpest.
7. Board study. Board study is a culmination of your two years at medical school. If your school is anything like mine, you prob didn't learn too much HY stuff. But thats ok. You should have picked up at least a small foundation of knowledge along the way. You can build off that. I started really studying 6 months out from boards. I won't get too much into that since how people board study for step 1 hasn't changed much since I've been a student and everyone has their own slight variation. But essentially time*effort=success. Thats my formula that I always used. If you spend 12 hours studying with zero effort, you will have 0 success. Both need to be maximized to do well. Studying is not looking at Facebook every 5 mins. Once I was 6mo out, every morning would be nothing but board study. Every afternoon would be class, with the intent to finish class stuff as soon as possible. Your friends, loved ones, family will have to realize this is your time.
-Take the comlex PE seriously. I did an insane amount of studying for it. Too much. Why? Because I'm not lazy and the idea of flying to Philly again to pay >1000 and do OMM did not sound like a good day. What I did was the Kauffman stuff, in addition it thought of all the common stuff you see in FM, as well as screening cases, and wrote down guides of what questions I would ask/what PE id perform as well as A/Ps.
-Step 2 learn from your rotations and do questions nonstop. Most of the book sources sucked for step 2. Onlinemeded is gold. Helps for step 2 and you'll look like a baller on clinical rotations.
8. For clinical years, its totally ok to sound stupid. I work with med students and sometimes they sound stupid. I don't call them out for this because I was there. I care more about if you are in a positive mood/friendly than how much you know. A positive student can be taught to learn more than a negative student who thinks he knows everything. Most attending won't judge you for sounding dumb, or doing dumb things. The person who will judge you the most, is you. So ease up on yourself. Sometimes you'll feel tired, or maybe a little depressed. At that point its best to take some time out for yourself after youre done with your shift and pursue a hobby. If you feel overwhelmed, talk to a resident that is easy going. Most will understand and could offer further advice. Chances are, they feel the same, lol. Once on my unit I had one patient having sx of stroke while simultaneously another pt having sx of a MI while my attending was at another clinic. So yea. it happens.
9. When applying to residency, have zero regrets. you can always make the money back. I recommend over applying because why not? you don't get dinged for applying to 100 residencies and you can always cancel interviews. You can't cancel interviews you don't have. Unless you're a rockstar applicant for your field, look at the average amount of places to apply to, and apply to more then that. Not even joking. My program gets an insane number of applicants, and during residency season you're just a piece of a paper before you get an interview.
10. Find someone you can confide in. Helps if they know what you're going through. Sometimes having someone to blow off steam to/complain to can make you feel a bit better. Just do all of it at home, and don't bring any to work/school
ok, that was just some random stuff I thought of. Feel free to ask questions if you think I may have an answer. I may or may not have one. Dunno. Goodluck DOs.
