What I’ve realized is that basically medical school years 1 and 2 will be difficult for a couple of reasons…
1) You don’t actually learn/retain a lot of things…you hear/read a ton of things, you memorize as much as you can – you hope to hold onto it for the boards, and then you actually go learn how to be a doctor…
2) The material is so far out of context, that it makes it almost impossible to retain what’s happening in any systematic framework. Organic chemists have the IUPAC naming conventions, we have the nucleus retroambigualis and glossopharyngeal nerve and petrosal ganglion…
So as I sit here, pondering my needing to read/memorize approximately 70 pages of material, as well as watch well over 8 hours of lecture video – I wonder why medical school is the way it is…I also think if I had it to do again I would have pursued Duke Medical School really strongly. I could have dealt with North Carolina – I could have dealt with Durham. I might have also pursued Stanford Medical school a little bit harder. The first two years of medical school really should only take 1 year. They should absolutely drill things into your heads so that when the boards come up you are ready to burst with medical knowledge. They should give you a year to pursue an MBA, outside research, volunteering in Ghana or Belize, They should then give you a SOLID two years of experience in an inner city hospital, busting your ass so that you are ready to handle whatever is thrown your way during your internship and residency.
So that is my naieve 1st year perspective on things, I don’t view this as a waste of time so much as I view it as suboptimally used time…but then that may just be a reflection on my character – I tend to be extremely impatient, I tend to see really green grass on the other side. I guess next year will reinforce most of this year, and being at Stanford or Duke would have taxed me in terms of my actual location, finances, and time management MUCH more than being here has…oh by the way – can you tell I’m avoiding naming my school…I don’t want any random repercussions…
So I’m learning patience, work ethic, time management, professionalism in the proper settings, how to drink wine with the best of em, and a little bit about friendship – developing new ones in a distant city. What’s funny is I’ve never consciously set out to climb the social ladder – I’ve always just tried to get by, and I always have, just gotten by…Maybe I’ve been trying too hard to in my first few months…maybe I just need to chill, be myself, do my things, and just be patient and persevering…
So other things about medical school that I could give you the reader, things that aren’t my heart on my sleeve?
Don’t procrastinate – ever…it’s bad for your grades…
Medical school in the first two years so far seems like learning a language and a new city at the same time…after medical school I could probably just fly into another city and take two years learning its’ streets, locations, and language…
Medical students aren’t all incredibly talented socially…
Medical students aren’t all incredible talented intellectually…
Being interested and deeply involved in a broad swath of things will definitely help you in your undergraduate years…being interested and involved in a broad swath of things in medical school will prove extremely distracting, and possibly fruitless.
Don’t procrastinate – Don’t read other peoples blogs (haha – my new worst habit), don’t read the newspaper online, don’t watch TV, don’t play video games, don’t “go for walks”, don’t clean your apartment repetitively, and for some strange reason – don’t listen to music with lyrics while you are studying… It really helps to know these things going into new subjects
For each subject that you come across, try to learn all of the vocabulary as quickly as possible – then try to learn how the vocabulary (anatomy, functions, molecules, etc.) are interrelated. If you can say what happens three doors down to Hemoglobin in the lungs when the muscles start kicking out a ton of lactic acid you are going to do very well.
For each subject that you come across – don’t study for longer than 30 minutes at a time (especially if you are highly distractable like myself), this prevents you from wasting valuable study time…especially in the first two years, what you want to do is take some time every day to study for your boards (almost the only thing that counts) and read a medical journal like NEJM or JAMA…if your block is concentrated on hepatology – reading a hepatology journal isn’t a bad idea
Get and then stay current with the literature of the field you are interested in – even if it changes…it will help later on
Get interested in a field and try to focus early – it will help later on even if you change your mind…
So now that I’ve procrastinated (I did it for you…readers) on my pulmonary physiology to the tune of 30 minutes, I need to go back in and learn something…test in two days
Oh yeah – one more thing – Even if you don’t have to – cram, because realistically…you have to…
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