Seriously, How Much Harder Can Med School Be?

[JustPlainBill]

are you implying that a large portion of medical education is the history of the procedures and equipment. I know the detail is going to be important but please dont tell me I have to go through the history of medicine- that would be a complete waste of time- and confusing at the same time- instead of drawing blood I am now bloodletting? It could happen

No - I did not mean to imply that you needed to know anything about the history of medicine. I was merely trying to reflect the incredible amount of detail that appears to be useless to mere humans but in fact is vital to Western Democracy (tm) as we know it when it comes to medical school and having a 'cursory knowledge' of a topic......

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Sandlot13]

I love that analogy!!! Well done!!

 

[devlyyn]

I'm not sure if anyone has posted this or not but my first year (LECOM B) was 110 credit hours. That kind of gives an idea compared to undergrad. I don't know, you kind of get used to it though, but I definitely had wayyy more free time in undergrad.

 

[genegirl]

I hate it when people say medical school is "so hard". First of all, what did you think you were getting into? Second of all, you can make anything sound terrible. QUOTE]
I LOVE this post! Maybe it's just because it's what I want to hear, but who cares! I have been working full time for 3 years in a lab (which is not what I ever wanted to do) and I have been told by numerous residents that med school is not all that different from working a full time job, you need good work ethic and the ability to pay attention for long periods of time. I figure, even though med school will be more like an 80 hour a week job, at least its 80 hours of stuff I love learning about!

 

[genegirl]

I hate it when people say medical school is "so hard". First of all, what did you think you were getting into? Second of all, you can make anything sound terrible.

You've got to realize that everything that comes out of a med student's mouth is a lie. You're not really covering "all" of biochem in 5 weeks, no matter what you say. The tests aren't impossible. You won't have to sacrifice your first born just to get through anatomy. And it's not at all like drinking water from a fire hydrant. That just sounds like torture, when in reality what you're really doing is chilling back and drinking a latte while you read some biochem. My god, how awful!

If you described your typical day to anyone who actually does real work for a living, they'd laugh in your face.

"Well, I get up at 7, work out, eat a nutritional breakfast, get some coffee, go to class if I feel like it or I might even stay home, read books and note packets all day, check my facebook, check on all the new celebrity gossip on TMZ's webpage, have dinner, watch some TV, and go to bed. It's REALLY hard!"

The biggest factor is stress, and it can make even the small things seem like Godzilla.

So remember, when anyone says anything about how hard something is, don't believe it. It's not true, and you're not them.

this is the quote I'm refering to. Not sure what happened there!

 

[genegirl]

I'm personally finding it kind of funny that I've heard from multiple, high-ranked students at very reputable DO schools to completely skip class and just study. I personally didn't like doing this in undergrad and felt like I got a lot of information by attending and PAYING ATTENTION (going to lectures and not listening was the biggest drain of my time) to lectures. Unsure if I should switch it up. Should probably just try it out regular at first (attending classes) and go from there.

I'm with you, I benefitted from going to MOST of my undergrad classes. However, there were a few where the prof. was much more concerned with his ongoing research than actually teaching students. In these I did much better on my own. This being said, I knew plenty of people who never went to class and did as well as I did. I think it all depends on how you personally learn. I will have to attend class because my school supposedly has a very strict attendance policy, but I would be there anyway simply because that is how I learn best.

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[DiverDoc]

There was a show on PBS called " the doctors" or something like that (not Dr. Oz) that gave a real life glimpse of med school. They described what it was like and it rang true on a lot of points. They had cameras follow them from the first day till graduation and then had a where are they now. It was quite accurate IMO and interesting.

 

[tkyle56]

It is called Doctors' Diaries and it follows 7 Harvard medical students. You can watch it instantly on Netflix. I thought it was pretty good and my wife also enjoyed watching it.

 

[JaggerPlate]

It is called Doctors' Diaries and it follows 7 Harvard medical students. You can watch it instantly on Netflix. I thought it was pretty good and my wife also enjoyed watching it.

Hahaha, wasn't this the show where like half of them were divorced, fat, etc???

 

[Black Adder]

Hahaha, wasn't this the show where like half of them were divorced, fat, etc???

Pretty much all of them were single, divorced, or fat.... or all three. This doesn't bode well for us.. lol.

 

[JaggerPlate]

This doesn't bode well for us.. lol.

Hahah for sure. Maybe we'll learn from their mistakes ... you know? My FP has been married for like 30 years, has a couple of very successful, well-balanced daughters, etc. Although, he is a DO. Maybe that's the secret ...

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[Daedra22]

He claimed that he took his time seeing his patients and that the hospital administrators didn't like that. So they didn't renew his contract. I think in the end he finally found a job at the VA. He had 3 unsuccessful marriages, and was on his fourth wife when the documentary ended if I remember correctly.

Yeah... doc I worked with was helping out an orthopedic surgeon who was bankrupt... he explained it as "You can only divide a paycheck in half so many times before you're broke." Divorces are expensive.

 

[moto_za]

You will never realize how much harder it gets, until you start.

 

[tkyle56]

Yeah the ER doc was pretty self destructive, and the psychiatrist guy had the lowest self-esteem in the world every time someone would criticize him he would get his feelings hurt.

Another one of the docs didn't even go into medicine when she graduated, she started a non-profit organization that has nothing to do with medicine. That's great that she is doing that but medical schools don't teach students medicine so that they can start a non-profit organization and never utilize their abilities that were taught to them.

The ER doc didn't live in the real world which is why he couldn't hold a job. He hated to fill out the paper work so he never did, that will only last so long before the hospital says yeah that's great that you have such a great rapport with your patients but we are losing to much money because you won't fill out the necessary paper work that will allow us to bill for the medical care that you have delivered. No hospital will keep that guy around.

I enjoyed the part where they followed the students around in school more than the "Where are they now" part. My dad married my mom before he started medical school and they have never separated or anything like that. My mom had me 7 months before my dad started school, she already had my sister who was 5 when my dad started, and my brother was born in the beginning of my dad's 3rd year. It is what you value and who you want to be that determines what your personal life is, being a doctor doesn't doom all of us to divorce and unhappy families. My dad told me that the training and the hours definitely are hard to balance with a family but that he always put his family first and I believe that is one of the main reasons my parents never divorced. This is much easier said than done but I will try my hardest to follow in his foot steps.

P.S. Everybody has told me that the fastest way to be a broke doctor is to get divorced.

 

[TeamZissou]

Hahah for sure. Maybe we'll learn from their mistakes ... you know? My FP has been married for like 30 years, has a couple of very successful, well-balanced daughters, etc. Although, he is a DO. Maybe that's the secret ...

Are they desirable and available?

 

[bomgd3]

I literally studied, went to class, or worked nearly every waking hour during my last two years of undergrad except for short meals and spending some time with the girlfriend. I goofed off big-time during my first two years of college and just felt that I needed to make it up, plus I transferred into biomedical engineering during sophomore year so I was cramming an already tight curriculum into a shorter period of time.

I don't think I could physically study more, but I'm scared of the material being totally different. Engineering was mostly learning a few concepts inside-out and then applying them... Med school seems like a totally different beast. We'll see. Classes start in late August for me.

 

[countthestars]

For me, the hardest part of this whole process was trying to stay motivated. The work load is not that difficult if you can stay on top of things and if you're organized. The thing is once you hit your mid 20s and you start to realize that your whole life has been nothing but one big giant study fest it becomes really depressing. Med school can be very lonely at times as well. I have lost touch with many of my close college friends because I was too busy studying on weekends for tests. My school had tests on Mondays and the weekend before the tests everyone was studying. We as med students don't have time off like most other professionals. Fridays/Saturdays were study time for me, where as for my I-Banking friends, the weekend was party time.

The trick is to find some way to stay motivated because if you don't you will stop caring and once you do that your one test away from failing a class. The work will always be there and it can get daunting at times but it's not impossible. I just hate med school because I have lost the drive to do this. I've had setbacks in this process and they were things that I could never have planned for. This has been a really hard year for me not because of the workload but because of life. And it takes a very strong person to manage the personal stress and the stress of med school.

Just try to stay motivated and see through the light at the end of the tunnel. At times, it just gets farther and farther away. I feel as though that light has grown even more distant for me due to my own personal issues that I am going through right now. The best and happiest medical students still have that drive. They are found their own inner peace and are chugging along. If you find that, then med school won't be that hard. However, no one can plan for what the future holds for you. You have to be strong and resilient to any setbacks that come your way because you never know what curve balls life will throw at you.

 

[avatarftw]

a

 

[kopitar]

Yeah, I know of a doctor that had to pay ONE MILLION DOLLARS to his wife for the divorce. One million net dollars is almost 2 million gross, if you live in an expensive tax state. That's several years (at least) of income for him.

Women are evil!

 

[avatarftw]

...

 

[kopitar]

Thats the spirit!

 

[radiodoc99]

Also, having harder courses is better when it comes to COMLEX. COMLEX demands all the details and when you have an easy class you will probably miss out on things you wish you had learned.

 

[DrDre2001]

I started reading this thread. The first 10 posts or so scared the ish out of me. Then, some others (like Chris Knight) came in, and totally changed everything around. Then, some more scary posts were made. Then, some more Chris Knight's came around.

F it. Whether or not someone thinks med school is hard depends on a lot of things: That person's work ethic, prior work or school responsibilities, outlook on life, personality, etc.

One of my best friends from high school is starting med school in August. We had similar work ethics in high school, and similar personalities and outlooks on things. I'm waiting on him to tell me how hard or easy med school is, because the difficulty level of med school has changed from no harder to undergrad to 10 times harder than undergrad about five times already in this one thread.

 

[singinfifi]

Also, having harder courses is better when it comes to COMLEX. COMLEX demands all the details and when you have an easy class you will probably miss out on things you wish you had learned.

Go shout this from the rooftops, take out an add, maybe a radio spot...Students don't understand this.

As for the divorces being expensive?

Pre-nup, Yo.

 

[ElDOc]

The hardest part is the amount of material... not the actual material. I would commit 12 hours per day for studying with a half-day off per week. That is way more than a undergraduate Biology degree would require. Others may say they only study 6 hours a day, good for them. My whole study group studies all day almost everyday.

 

[RitaHayworth]

The hardest part is the amount of material... not the actual material. I would commit 12 hours per day for studying with a half-day off per week. That is way more than a undergraduate Biology degree would require. Others may say they only study 6 hours a day, good for them. My whole study group studies all day almost everyday.

Does that include going to class, or do you skip class and study instead?

 

[TeamZissou]

I started reading this thread. The first 10 posts or so scared the ish out of me. Then, some others (like Chris Knight) came in, and totally changed everything around. Then, some more scary posts were made. Then, some more Chris Knight's came around.

F it. Whether or not someone thinks med school is hard depends on a lot of things: That person's work ethic, prior work or school responsibilities, outlook on life, personality, etc.

One of my best friends from high school is starting med school in August. We had similar work ethics in high school, and similar personalities and outlooks on things. I'm waiting on him to tell me how hard or easy med school is, because the difficulty level of med school has changed from no harder to undergrad to 10 times harder than undergrad about five times already in this one thread.

First of all I just gotta say props on the name/icon. That album was and forever will be a classic!

Med school is as hard/frustrating/stressful as you make it. You'll find out soon enough and it doesn't really matter how difficult it is because once you start you're thrown into the middle of it and there's no looking back so you just have to adapt and live with it (kinda like life).

To all future MS-I's this year, stop reading and go play outside.

 

[CoachPutMeIn]

To add perspective (and some hope to incoming 1st years), I graduated undergrad with a 2.7 gpa mostly due going clubbing 3-4 nights a week. I'm not kidding. Long story short, five years after undergrad, I managed to get into ONE med school the day before orientation started. (PCOM, I love you.).

Despite my dismall undergrad performance, I started med school with a vengence. "Lets do this" type of attitude. I discovered early on my learning style -- SKIP ALL CLASSES and study all day. I studied practically everyday but nothing stressful. Wake up after 8 hours of sleep (this is key), work out for an hour, shower and eat a huge breakfast. Then stroll into school around noon refreshed (while everyone else just sat through 4 hours of lecture), pick up the scribed notes and hit the cubicle. I'd study until midnight most days then call it quits. I always went back to VA/DC on Thursdays and spent the weekend with my ex-gf. I took my books with me and got in about 4 hours of stress-less studying on the weekends then partied at night. Sunday drove back to Philly. Rinse and repeat.

This method worked out beautifully for me. I was very well rested the first two years of med school. Graduated top 10% of my class and got into a competitive allopathic residency.

IMO, third year is the armpit of medical education. But you play the game and that, too, passes.

In short, yes, there's a lot of material in med school but your brain is capable of wonders. Skip class if you can, learn on your own and enjoy the free time you have.

Best of luck my friends!

You gotta be kidding me. Wow I wish I was like you then, or my school was like yours. At my school, while we get the powerpoint slides, the professors often will throw in something like "you dont have to worry about this" or edit some stuff around, to which I am forced into listening to lecture that I missed.

My schedule for first year went like this - Woke up at noon, did my afternoon stuff at school like labs almost everyday...then came back around 4, ate lunch, watched lectures, studied till 2-3 am. Slept, woke up. It worked but it was out of control toward the end...sleeping at 4 am and waking up at noon really does you in overtime.

Anyhow, congrats DoctorSaib on it all.

 

[apoptosisisfun]

To all future MS-I's this year, stop reading and go play outside.

No, seriously, I promise I spent time outside today... but now it's dark

 

[dozitgetchahi]

What is the average number/percent of 1st year dropouts/failouts??

I would like to think those who do not succeed in medical school are those who do not have an inherent love for medicine and healing.

In the UMDNJ-SOM class of 2013, we lost 6 people out of 135 in the first semester alone. This was said to be an unusually high number of dropouts/failouts/"medical leaves" relative to past years, but still...it made the rest of us worry a little bit more.

Sadly, some of these people who failed out seemed to have that "love of medicine" you speak of. But honestly, this "love of medicine and healing" is necessary but not sufficient to get through medical school IMHO. You have to know how to push yourself, bust your ass, play the game and "git 'r done".

Some people have the "love" but not the drive, frankly.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Oh yeah, and another thing.

If you want to maximize your grades and use your time most effectively, than DON'T GO TO CLASS.

Most lecturing in medical school is useless, and even if it wasn't you should be able to read faster than the lecturer can talk anyway. So spend your time grinding the notes in by yourself. You'll thank me for this later.

Also, make sure to read pertinent portions of First Aid and/or other board review books sequentially with your curriculum. This will make studying for boards MUCH EASIER down the road.

 

[ChandutheMagici]

To the original poster, I'll try to break down to you why I think my first year was harder than I expected.

Concepts

Easy. There is nothing that you can't wrap your mind around.

Volume of Material

When I think about it, the volume of material was on par with what I expected. Besides, our brains can process so much information it's astounding. So it's not volume of material perse.

Relevance

So if it's not the concepts and it's not the volume then what is it you ask? Well, I'll tell you. The last year of my life has been spent memorizing what I consider to be one of the most worthless knowledge bases ever.

Now, some will argue that it's important to memorize that a plasma cell looks like a clock face, the virulence factors for every bacteria known to man, the chemical formula for oxaloacetate, the chemical structures for all 20 amino acids, how to read a pedigree, the Henderson Hasselbach equation, every nuclei in the hypothalamus, the side effects for 300 different pharmacological agents, 8000 random gene names, etc. I would argue that not only is it a complete waste of your time, but it's also irrelevant.

And that's what really killed me about this last year. It wasn't just that the volume of material was high. It was the fact that it was a huge volume of material that was completely uninteresting and mostly irrelevant (I figure about 80%) to what I will be doing.

I did an experiment in the spring semester to confirm my belief that the first year of med school was about as useful as poop flavored oatmeal. One time per week I would find a clinical skills instructor and ask them a basic science question that we were being tested on. I'd say I did this about ten times. The only time I didn't get an "I don't know" I got an answer that was light years away from the correct one.

Teaching

You see, when I got here I thought I was going to be learning a method. Like chess. First you learn how the pieces move. Then you learn how to use them in conjunction with each other. Then you learn opening strategies...etc etc. The key being that you learn them all in context of the game.

Well the first thing you do in any medschool class is learn how the pieces move. Then they put the pieces in a bunch of random ass positions (out of context of the game) and ask you questions about them. And that's fine...if you're good at memorizing (which is a skill I've developed in this past year).

So basically, the teachers believe that if they show you positions and they teach you how the pieces move, you'll just somehow magically figure out to play. I had roughly 15 classes the first year and I guesstimate about 5 teachers per class. If we subtract some for professors who lecture in multiple subjects I'd say I've had about 50 different medschool teachers. I can count on one hand the teachers that don't just read off slides. 90% of my teachers put a slide up and read it. They explain NOTHING. They teach NOTHING. My ten year old nephew (not a joke) could do what 9/10 of my medical school professors do.

I'll give you an example because I just finished pharmacology. I know that acetominophen is processed in your body by a series on conjugation reactions (about 95%). The other 4-5% is processed by your liver through a certain CYP450 enzyme. Should a toxic dose of acetominophen be reached (10g) it will cause failure of the backup glutathione system resulting in sequential failure of said liver mechanism. The ultimate result will be liver failure. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but if you asked me how much tylenol to give a hospitalized kid with diabetes I wouldn't have the first damn clue. Pretty much any practical question (the chess game) I'm toast on. But hey, at least I know digoxin comes from the foxglove plant.

Formula

Poorly taught + irrelevant + uninteresting + massive volumes = HELL.

HELL = progressively falling motivation.

How to Cope

Here's my pseudo sage wisdom.

1. Accept the fact that most of your first year is a giant flaming hoop of BS you have to go through cause someone thought you should and schools want to make money.

2 Ask yourself what you feel the road to being a good doctor is. Personally, I waved goodbye to being a good student a long time ago. For me, P = Perfect. I feel the road to being a good doctor involves careful analysis of what you're learning and grasping on to the pieces of information that will better serve your patients (it's maybe about 20% of the total of what you learn). Like, it's probably important to know that Hashimoto's is the leading cause of hypothyroidism, or that the neurovascular bundle is inferior to the rib of it's corresponding spinal level, or that G6PD deficiency affects 1 out of every 10 Africans.

3. Find a study partner that you can learn with and bitch to. It does wonders.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

^^^^ *Thwack* - that was the sound of a nail being hit on the head.

I can't believe how disorganized and simply bad some of last year's lecturing/instruction was. I'm still appalled at how many clinical lecturers would cobble together a sloppy, error-ridden set of Powerpoint slides and come in and just obviously wing their lectures in front of us. Then, to add insult to injury, the school wants to act as if students who choose to ditch these useless lectures to actually get some reading done are being "lazy" or "irresponsible". Thanks a lot, guys.

Then, sadly, the exams are largely an exercise in regurgitating trivial, irrelevant minutiae that won't appear on the boards or be important for practice. (Paradoxically, the people who are the best at this regurgitation also seem to be the worst at actually retaining the information for the long term; for instance, many people who had aced the early exams didn't seem to remember a damn thing about the material covered on those tests by the end of the year.)

In many ways, the defining element of first year is frustration. While I feel I learned a lot and enjoyed a fair amount of it, I also feel that the process could (and should) be improved dramatically.

 

[ShyRem]

much of that information in the first two years you will be pimped on in the second two years and during residency. I am two days into my residency and I have already seen two diseases that have less than 2,000 cases diagnosed world-wide each year. In third year of med school I saw a disease that my instructor flat out said "you will never see this." You WILL be pimped on that "useless" information. Sometimes your attendings will be wrong. Many times it's not that they're wrong, they're just looking for something other than the answer you're giving them.

Also bear in mind the questions you may be asking the clinician you're shadowing in the first two years may not find the question you are asking relevant to their particular practice and thus haven't kept that information in the forefront of their brain.

 

[cliquesh]

I don't think osteopathic medical school is any more difficult than college. In college, I got mostly "A's." However, I always got between 90-93%; my college didn't have + or -.

Anyway, I just completed my first year of medical school, and I received a 92% for the year. So, I don't think it is any harder than college; it is just a lot of material.

Also, on a side note, you DO have time to have fun. It is kind of like college all over again.

 

[rkaz]

Oh yeah, and another thing.

If you want to maximize your grades and use your time most effectively, than DON'T GO TO CLASS.

Most lecturing in medical school is useless, and even if it wasn't you should be able to read faster than the lecturer can talk anyway. So spend your time grinding the notes in by yourself. You'll thank me for this later.

Also, make sure to read pertinent portions of First Aid and/or other board review books sequentially with your curriculum. This will make studying for boards MUCH EASIER down the road.

If you don't go to class, you'd better have darn good friends who go to class and are willing to pass on any announcements to you. In my school, we unfortunately don't have any audio or video recordings of lecture (though people often secretly record stuff). I once missed a quiz that was posted online and got a zero on it, as the instructor had announced it during class (but hadn't sent out any emails or blackboard announcements to let us know). Since I wasn't in class, I didn't know about it and no one told me... and I couldn't ask to make it up, as it was my fault for not being there in class to get the announcement. Sometimes other stuff can happen, like an exam time might be changed (which you might not realize as the original syllabus has the outdated info.... unfortunately, yes, this actually happened to me many years ago in a college class). So even though going to class often is tiresome, it occasionally has benefits.

Personally, I have found that if I haven't read the material beforehand, then going to class is an absolute waste of time (and I'm just sitting there not to miss any announcements). On the other hand, if I've actually gone through the packet of notes BEFORE going to class - then going to class can be extremely helpful, especially as it allows me to know what to focus on in the notes and clears up confusion of things that I didn't understand the first time through. The other benefit of reading beforehand is that I can actually ask questions in class (that I didn't understand during my first run through as well as the lecture). If I don't read the notes beforehand, then I have nothing to ask in class, because I don't know what I don't know since everything sounds unfamiliar the first time through.

 

[kopitar]

To the original poster, I'll try to break down to you why I think my first year was harder than I expected.

Concepts

Easy. There is nothing that you can't wrap your mind around.

Volume of Material

When I think about it, the volume of material was on par with what I expected. Besides, our brains can process so much information it's astounding. So it's not volume of material perse.

Relevance

So if it's not the concepts and it's not the volume then what is it you ask? Well, I'll tell you. The last year of my life has been spent memorizing what I consider to be one of the most worthless knowledge bases ever.

Now, some will argue that it's important to memorize that a plasma cell looks like a clock face, the virulence factors for every bacteria known to man, the chemical formula for oxaloacetate, the chemical structures for all 20 amino acids, how to read a pedigree, the Henderson Hasselbach equation, every nuclei in the hypothalamus, the side effects for 300 different pharmacological agents, 8000 random gene names, etc. I would argue that not only is it a complete waste of your time, but it's also irrelevant.

And that's what really killed me about this last year. It wasn't just that the volume of material was high. It was the fact that it was a huge volume of material that was completely uninteresting and mostly irrelevant (I figure about 80%) to what I will be doing.

I did an experiment in the spring semester to confirm my belief that the first year of med school was about as useful as poop flavored oatmeal. One time per week I would find a clinical skills instructor and ask them a basic science question that we were being tested on. I'd say I did this about ten times. The only time I didn't get an "I don't know" I got an answer that was light years away from the correct one.

Teaching

You see, when I got here I thought I was going to be learning a method. Like chess. First you learn how the pieces move. Then you learn how to use them in conjunction with each other. Then you learn opening strategies...etc etc. The key being that you learn them all in context of the game.

Well the first thing you do in any medschool class is learn how the pieces move. Then they put the pieces in a bunch of random ass positions (out of context of the game) and ask you questions about them. And that's fine...if you're good at memorizing (which is a skill I've developed in this past year).

So basically, the teachers believe that if they show you positions and they teach you how the pieces move, you'll just somehow magically figure out to play. I had roughly 15 classes the first year and I guesstimate about 5 teachers per class. If we subtract some for professors who lecture in multiple subjects I'd say I've had about 50 different medschool teachers. I can count on one hand the teachers that don't just read off slides. 90% of my teachers put a slide up and read it. They explain NOTHING. They teach NOTHING. My ten year old nephew (not a joke) could do what 9/10 of my medical school professors do.

I'll give you an example because I just finished pharmacology. I know that acetominophen is processed in your body by a series on conjugation reactions (about 95%). The other 4-5% is processed by your liver through a certain CYP450 enzyme. Should a toxic dose of acetominophen be reached (10g) it will cause failure of the backup glutathione system resulting in sequential failure of said liver mechanism. The ultimate result will be liver failure. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but if you asked me how much tylenol to give a hospitalized kid with diabetes I wouldn't have the first damn clue. Pretty much any practical question (the chess game) I'm toast on. But hey, at least I know digoxin comes from the foxglove plant.

Formula

Poorly taught + irrelevant + uninteresting + massive volumes = HELL.

HELL = progressively falling motivation.

How to Cope

Here's my pseudo sage wisdom.

1. Accept the fact that most of your first year is a giant flaming hoop of BS you have to go through cause someone thought you should and schools want to make money.

2 Ask yourself what you feel the road to being a good doctor is. Personally, I waved goodbye to being a good student a long time ago. For me, P = Perfect. I feel the road to being a good doctor involves careful analysis of what you're learning and grasping on to the pieces of information that will better serve your patients (it's maybe about 20% of the total of what you learn). Like, it's probably important to know that Hashimoto's is the leading cause of hypothyroidism, or that the neurovascular bundle is inferior to the rib of it's corresponding spinal level, or that G6PD deficiency affects 1 out of every 10 Africans.

3. Find a study partner that you can learn with and bitch to. It does wonders.

Well Put- although only 20% of the material will be needed for actual medical practice at least that number trumps that of undergrad with its .000001% useful information

By the way I happen to be a fan of poop flavored oatmeal thank you very much! ; )

 

[LeeRain]

I went to an average public school and did the bare minimum to get a 3.9+ GPA. On average, my total study time was around 10 hours per week and it was all cramming.

I just finished first year and came very close to failing an entire integrated class block. The workload isn't harder to comprehend, it's just MORE. And you have to know what's relevant and what's not. You have to study efficiently, it's too bad some of us never figure out how.

 

[slick27]

It's not only more info but less time to learn it in. Can you remember material from one week ago, two weeks ago, or three weeks ago? That is medical school.

 

[LawJigga]

"I was near the top of my class in undergrad so I do not have much experience struggling and dealing with intense studying pressure."


This is probably going to be one of the more difficult things peopl ehave to deal with. EVERYONE was near the top of their class in medical school, so many will suddenly find themselves right in the middle.

THis was very much the truth in law school for me! Kicking ass and taking names in undergrad, law school or any professional school will be quite an awaking process.

 

[littlealex]

I think people are exaggerating just a bit in this thread. Med school is obviously difficult, but most people would probably be fine putting in about 5 hours day. I think people just like to inflate the difficulty/time spent.

You can still have a life outside of med school. It is not all-encompassing. The key is just to make sure to study consistently. No more cram sessions.

Honestly? Med school isn't much more work. The material is harder, no doubt, but the workload isn't that different. The trouble is that most people simply do not do work on a daily basis in college.

Personally I feel that if you study for 4 hours a day outside of class in med school you'll be fine. I studied probably around 3-4 hours outside of class in my first 2 years and did very well.

The third year is a different story though. Because so much of your time is spent physically being at the clerkships, studying outside of it becomes taxing. I would say the third year is very difficult in terms of simply having almost no free time for yourself. But of course, once you make it past surg/medicine/obgyn, life gets better again.

Also I would strongly advise against listening to those that say the information in the first two years are not relevant. Medical education is not without reason. The first two years are designed to give you an intrinsic understanding of the human body. One of the above posters mentioned the mechanisms of acetaminophen metabolism, which is clinically extremely important. Understanding WHY something happens is what separates a doctor from a nurse.

Ending the second year you begun to prepare for your COMPLEX and USMLE. At this point you've learned the information necessary and you begin to transition into learning to make differentials.

The third year is when you get introduced to clinical judgement and management. This is the point in your education that you begin to learn how to dose a medication and watch out for potential side effects. All this is only possible on a strong foundation that you develop in the first two years.

 

[angryazn88]

Just curious, does anyone read up on the material before they attend the lecture and does it help at all. Or is it better to just attend lecture and then read on the material?

 

[fahimaz7]

Just curious, does anyone read up on the material before they attend the lecture and does it help at all. Or is it better to just attend lecture and then read on the material?

It takes, on average, 3-5 passes through the material to really start to learn it. How you decide to cover these passes is totally up to you.

 

[avatarftw]

When you say 3-5 passes, are you counting lecture? In addition to lecture, I go through the material about 3 times more. What would be the average for med students?

Also, does anybody else have to rewrite the notes to remember it? Reading it doesn't seem to help me much....any other tips?

It takes, on average, 3-5 passes through the material to really start to learn it. How you decide to cover these passes is totally up to you.

 

[Slane]

Just curious, does anyone read up on the material before they attend the lecture and does it help at all. Or is it better to just attend lecture and then read on the material?

With our class, that happened for about the first week. Then you got so far behind that the first time you saw it was in lecture, the second time you saw it was when you read (or haphazardly skimmed) the book that night, and the third time you saw it was when you flew through the lecture slides during a different lecture that was unimportant (OPP, healthcare management, Doc Talk, et cetera). I got out of the lecture-based pathway first chance I got...

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Honestly? Med school isn't much more work. The material is harder, no doubt, but the workload isn't that different. The trouble is that most people simply do not do work on a daily basis in college.

I feel exactly the opposite. The material is easier, but the workload is a lot different. There's nothing in med school so far that I've found hard. But the hours I put in at least 10 times what I did in undergrad.

 

[fahimaz7]

I feel exactly the opposite. The material is easier, but the workload is a lot different. There's nothing in med school so far that I've found hard. But the hours I put in at least 10 times what I did in undergrad.

Nothing is hard? Memorizing 150 drugs two weeks isn't hard? Learning 150 new diseases isn't hard? Learning immunology and microbiology in 10 days isn't hard? Who are you kidding?

Medical students are some very bright, motivated, and hard working students. There reason that it's "not that hard" is due to the fact that you've spent 4 years getting ready for our load, and then had time to get used to the amount of material and the effort that is required.

Medical school is no joke. Is it astrophysics? No, but it's damn hard to keep up the effort that is required, day in and day out, for a semester at a time.


Plus, you're a first year medical student, no? You haven't even gotten to anything that hard yet. Wait until pharm, micro, immuno, and path take your time up.

PS. Are you pass/fail?

 

[Dr Oops]

I feel exactly the opposite. The material is easier, but the workload is a lot different. There's nothing in med school so far that I've found hard. But the hours I put in at least 10 times what I did in undergrad.

Id say in terms of difficulty comprehension wise it is about the same as college, its the fact thats theres just so much more of it that makes it alot harder than college.