TripleDegree said:
Hey thanks for helping out here.
I was wondering - for the first 12 weeks, what are the attendance requirements? How often is lab, and lecture? what are the general timings? Do folks generally stay later, or come in over the weekends and stuff?
Also with ISP, is it possible to work a part time job in the mornings and do the studying in the rest of the day?
I'm excited that you're on this thread!
Why did I choose ISP? hmm.. When I first came I was 100% sure I was going to do IP, and then as I started talking to more and more m2s, ISP started sounding better and better. I think some of the major reasons are:
-I'm from california, and it was easy to go home often, or spend an extra week or so for thanksgiving or winter break.
-I hate lecture, never went to lecture in college, and always studied everything on my own from the textbook anyways. it makes a huge difference in my day to wake up at 10 am (or um, 2 pm) rather than 8 am.
-I prefer studying normal, then abnormal, rather than an integrated cirriculum.
-IP sees pharm once....the cardio drugs with the cardio module, the renal drugs with the renal module, etc. We have a module where we just do all the pharm at once, and then we go over all the drugs again once we do cardio path, renal path, etc. m2 ISPers also say that they review normal phys before they start each of the abnormal modules. all of this required review is appealing to me. makes it seem like board studying will be a little easier. ISPers have a higher board score average, but this could also be due to the fact that more of the gunners might be in ISP rather than IP.
-i like the fact that i have my own cubicle...a place on campus where i can lock up my books and laptop (also food, drinks, magazines, a frisbee, pillow, etc...), and i like how we have our own 24/7 private library (IPers use the normal health science library which closes at midnight). but don't let that scare any of you IPers... the med building is open all hours, and IPers who study late just use one of the many classrooms that we use for small group...
-the fact that i can push my test back a day or two if i feel like i don't understand the material well enough.
-makes it easy to do research or other stuff during the morning when IPers have class.
-the potential of finishing year 2 early and either taking the boards earlier or having more time to study for them.
my study schedule? i guess i'm one of the slackers... after each test, i take about a week or two off and spend way too much time socializing and doing other non-study stuff...then i spend about 10-14 days studying about 8-10 hrs a day. if you're a good studier who doesn't goof off too much, i think it's entirely possible to spend 4-6 hrs a day studying and be entirely on top of everything. people who stick to a strict schedule of studying for a good deal of hours every single weekday have said they have spent almost no nights or weekends doing school work.
for the first 12 weeks, i would seriously consider going to anatomy class. the anatomy tests are pretty easy compared to the ones after, and many of the answers are pretty much just given away in class. however it's not mandatory...you get the lecture notes and lecture slides. i never went to embryology and did just fine, same with biostatistics and epidemiology. those are all kind of 'joke' classes...the ones you study for the day or two before the test. you'll have lecture everyday starting at 8:30 am, and lab 3x/week (4x/week for head & neck), but will rarely get out after noon or 1 pm. lab time was more than enough for me, and i usually came in once a week, like sunday night, to review structures, especially the last 6 weeks. some people didn't even go to lab and just studied rohen's atlas (atlas w/ real pictures) and did fine. but lab's a great experience and a great way to start meeting the huge number of people in our class.
i think it is entirely, entirely possible to have a PT job. there's some guy who has some wierd oncall job where he works like 40-60 hrs some weeks, and 0 hrs other weeks. so some weeks he's just working and doesn't touch his books, and then studies on the off-call weeks. i could probably have time to work a FT job if i was disciplined enough. i work about 10 hrs/wk now as an undergrad anatomy TA (something IPers can't do due to their class schedule) and it doesn't put a dent in my schedule at all. a few people work at kaplan.
i'm more than happy to answer any other questions, but don't stress about IP/ISP too much right now. all of your anatomy student TAs will be ISP and will give you lots of info as you become more familiar with the cirriculum. and you guys will make friends with alot of us M2s, especially during orientation and first week, where we'll be following you around and helping you out like crazy.
