The trick to medical school (the first two, class-room based, boring, pre-clinical years) is simple. It's not about being good at biochemistry, anatomy, or even histology. It's all about
RECALL.
If you can memorize X, Y, and the relationship between them, then spit it back out on test day, you're golden.
Now, just learn to deal with 10,000 Xs and Ys and you're really set. Again. Recall.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Specialty
And so, you mature with age. You mature in many different ways - as a student, as an automobile driver, as a member of an intimate relationship, as an engineer/lawyer, anything.
I have realized that your perspective of medicine changes so rapidly from day to day, that it's a waste of energy to funnel yourself down into a given specialty any earlier on than mid-late 3rd year or even later.
It's great to read up on everything you can, shadow, ask questions, and learn. But keep an open mind! I realized that I cannot possibly know the first thing about any specialty until I've at least spent considerable time in the hospital during oh say...3rd year and 4th year. And even then, you're only seeing a small slice of the pie (academic setting, given hospital in given state, etc). It's fine to think you're "leaning towards" one thing or another as you move through the system...
But my advice, which I'm following, is to just freaking focus on getting through years 1-2 and doing your best on Step I. Do that first. Then worry about the next step. Don't even think about pigeon-holing yourself into anything right now.
A few kids in my class know with fair certainty what they want to do. One example is an older gentleman (mid-30s) who has spent considerable time as a paramedic. He wants to go Emergency Med. and will probably stick to it.
Anyway, I just tell myself "keep your mind open, don't think about it too much."
I have realized that your perspective of medicine changes so rapidly from day to day, that it's a waste of energy to funnel yourself down into a given specialty any earlier on than mid-late 3rd year or even later.
It's great to read up on everything you can, shadow, ask questions, and learn. But keep an open mind! I realized that I cannot possibly know the first thing about any specialty until I've at least spent considerable time in the hospital during oh say...3rd year and 4th year. And even then, you're only seeing a small slice of the pie (academic setting, given hospital in given state, etc). It's fine to think you're "leaning towards" one thing or another as you move through the system...
But my advice, which I'm following, is to just freaking focus on getting through years 1-2 and doing your best on Step I. Do that first. Then worry about the next step. Don't even think about pigeon-holing yourself into anything right now.
A few kids in my class know with fair certainty what they want to do. One example is an older gentleman (mid-30s) who has spent considerable time as a paramedic. He wants to go Emergency Med. and will probably stick to it.
Anyway, I just tell myself "keep your mind open, don't think about it too much."
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Mental Mas---- what?
I don't really let things get to me. As far as school's concerned, anyway.
Im about to jump head-first into my first battery (block) of exams this semester, and I'm ready to go. I've studied more for anatomy than probably 1/2 of all my undergraduate education put together; and I'd say it's not so bad. The material can be dry, but as long as you try to organize everything sensibly in your head, it comes together.
But back to my point. I think the reason that medical school/medical education doesn't really attack and stun me the way it does to a lot of my peers is because I'm a ...well, a reductionist.
I'm not special or different or above anyone else in my class in terms of who I am, I just take things for what they are and don't expect anything more. Not that I'm a pessimist or fatalist, no, not at all. But what I see a lot of kids doing is, again what dear Uncle Panda calls "Mental Masturbation."
So much of what we do and what we expect is lofty, heaped-on happy stuff. And yeah, we need it; we as a society and culture need all of this showy stuff like student-council, activities, study groups, class president. But on the fringes of my class, I just take what comes. I go to class, come home, learn the material, then go take the tests. If I expected to have some sort of huge, life-changing experience, than I'd either construct one out of nothing and live a lie, or be sorely disappointed.
You see, a great deal of group-think is involved whenever you have a tight group of people in one place at one time. Psychologists and sociologists would have a ball with medical school classes. Everyone is understandably under a ton of stress. We all share the same locker-room, facilities, anatomy lab, lecture halls, etc. We are all funneled into the same classes, tests, finals and we're all under the same administration. It's so easy to get lost and caught up in this new reality that I see kids losing themselves already and it's only been a month.
It's just school - I don't intend on being at the top of my class. Or even in the top 15%. The amount of work it takes to do that is extreme and is reserved for the inevitable 15% that actually want to live this stuff. As I've heard a lot, someone who is all study completely lacks breadth. What does 100s on anatomy exams and a class rank of 1 mean? To them it might mean a lot...but I can't imagine that lasting forever. They might get a coveted dermatology residency position and practice in a cush suburban town earning 400k/yr doing botox injections.
But it is what you make of it...what you expect. The tendency here at this point is to put life off and say "it will get better later." Sure, to a degree, it will. Second year is supposed to be a bit more interesting and the clinical years are supposed to be pretty enjoyable (overall...the key is overall). But you can't put everything on hold. Life is going by right now - you're in your early-mid 20s and at your prime. Live now. I will keep going out (not as often as before) and playing video games and doing all my geeky things because that is who I am. You don't have to put in 100 hours a week to master this stuff.
I can't speak from experience yet...but I know that you can log your 4-5 hours a day on the material and veg-out for the rest of the day. This should leave at the least an hour or two every single day to chill, on top of getting a good 7-8 hours of sleep! If you have the discipline, log 9a-5p on Saturday and perhaps another 8-hour "shift" on Sunday, and you can go out Friday and Saturday nights without a hitch! Even before a Monday exam I know people who survived and kept up a semblance of a normal life.
I can't wait until I actually have the credibility to talk about study-habits, but I can say that studying for hours and hours every day hasn't been all that awful. Yeah, it's a marathon. One semester feels like hell and forever and there are 4 vicious pre-clinical semesters to endure. After that lies 3rd year, surgery rotation, intern year, etc etc etc.
I think that ... there's just too much hardship to get scared about. Yeah, it sucks and its hard. Everyone who applies (should) know this. It's a path to choose and to walk. But I believe it's all in attitude and what you make of it. You can go into this and just rip yourself to shreds to get into a neuro-surgery residency at Harvard. That same person would probably be #1 at whatever they chose to do in life because they're a hard-worker, period.
But happiness is relative. What is happiness to you? To me? I can't imagine someone needing so much academic achievement to be happy. Is their appetite that big that they need to immerse themselves in uninterrupted study 24/7 to become a respected doctor? I guess so. But for me, happiness is a balance of a fulfilling career and lots of friends and family. That's what everyone tells you...but don't create realities for yourself in here, you just can't afford more stress than what's already going to come.
I think my bottom line is that person A and person B can take radically different approaches, experience radically different amounts of stress, yet still achieve the exact same thing. It's all in personal preference and approach. I can commit the brachial plexus to memory while sitting at home in my PJs and listening to Tool. You can do the same thing at the medical library at 11pm in your cubicle in dead silence. That's great. Come test day we'll both have the same thing in our head. I'm happy doing my work at home and you want to stay at school to do yours; that's fine.
Just do what's best for you, I think. And, while not being a pessimist, don't expect anything more than what you see. There doesn't have to be sugar-coating on everything. People get sick, people die, kids get cancer, good people have bad things happen to them. Lots of things in this world just suck and I think all one can do is look for the glimmer of light and live according to their own principles. I'm happy - I love medicine but I will not let it enslave me. There are so many other things that I love to the point of fanaticism (rock bands/music, Japanese animation, video games, computers, my closest friends, my girl-friend). These things, for me, make the world great despite all the bull-shit, and make things worth living through.
This post has no real point. I just dumped a bunch of mental masturbation on here myself, I think. But if you haven't caught it before, mental masturbation is simply when a group of people stand around and talk BS/blow hot-air about nothing. Happens a ton in medical school...especially by first-years who want to sound cool.
By the way; remember that essay (...personal statement) you had to write to get into medical school? That's pretty much mental masturbation in purified form. I can't believe how imperfect the admissions process is, but it is the only way of screening the masses of eager pre-meds out. It's unfortunate, because once you're in, your essay is just a pile of too-good-to-be-true words written for a perfect world that won't exist. But so it goes....I can tell you now that over 75% of those happy essays mention how they want to altruistically journey abroad and work for the betterment of humanity. Lump 8 years of debt and academic/personal/emotional abuse on them and that 75% turns to the true 5% or less.
I'm out - good night.
Im about to jump head-first into my first battery (block) of exams this semester, and I'm ready to go. I've studied more for anatomy than probably 1/2 of all my undergraduate education put together; and I'd say it's not so bad. The material can be dry, but as long as you try to organize everything sensibly in your head, it comes together.
But back to my point. I think the reason that medical school/medical education doesn't really attack and stun me the way it does to a lot of my peers is because I'm a ...well, a reductionist.
I'm not special or different or above anyone else in my class in terms of who I am, I just take things for what they are and don't expect anything more. Not that I'm a pessimist or fatalist, no, not at all. But what I see a lot of kids doing is, again what dear Uncle Panda calls "Mental Masturbation."
So much of what we do and what we expect is lofty, heaped-on happy stuff. And yeah, we need it; we as a society and culture need all of this showy stuff like student-council, activities, study groups, class president. But on the fringes of my class, I just take what comes. I go to class, come home, learn the material, then go take the tests. If I expected to have some sort of huge, life-changing experience, than I'd either construct one out of nothing and live a lie, or be sorely disappointed.
You see, a great deal of group-think is involved whenever you have a tight group of people in one place at one time. Psychologists and sociologists would have a ball with medical school classes. Everyone is understandably under a ton of stress. We all share the same locker-room, facilities, anatomy lab, lecture halls, etc. We are all funneled into the same classes, tests, finals and we're all under the same administration. It's so easy to get lost and caught up in this new reality that I see kids losing themselves already and it's only been a month.
It's just school - I don't intend on being at the top of my class. Or even in the top 15%. The amount of work it takes to do that is extreme and is reserved for the inevitable 15% that actually want to live this stuff. As I've heard a lot, someone who is all study completely lacks breadth. What does 100s on anatomy exams and a class rank of 1 mean? To them it might mean a lot...but I can't imagine that lasting forever. They might get a coveted dermatology residency position and practice in a cush suburban town earning 400k/yr doing botox injections.
But it is what you make of it...what you expect. The tendency here at this point is to put life off and say "it will get better later." Sure, to a degree, it will. Second year is supposed to be a bit more interesting and the clinical years are supposed to be pretty enjoyable (overall...the key is overall). But you can't put everything on hold. Life is going by right now - you're in your early-mid 20s and at your prime. Live now. I will keep going out (not as often as before) and playing video games and doing all my geeky things because that is who I am. You don't have to put in 100 hours a week to master this stuff.
I can't speak from experience yet...but I know that you can log your 4-5 hours a day on the material and veg-out for the rest of the day. This should leave at the least an hour or two every single day to chill, on top of getting a good 7-8 hours of sleep! If you have the discipline, log 9a-5p on Saturday and perhaps another 8-hour "shift" on Sunday, and you can go out Friday and Saturday nights without a hitch! Even before a Monday exam I know people who survived and kept up a semblance of a normal life.
I can't wait until I actually have the credibility to talk about study-habits, but I can say that studying for hours and hours every day hasn't been all that awful. Yeah, it's a marathon. One semester feels like hell and forever and there are 4 vicious pre-clinical semesters to endure. After that lies 3rd year, surgery rotation, intern year, etc etc etc.
I think that ... there's just too much hardship to get scared about. Yeah, it sucks and its hard. Everyone who applies (should) know this. It's a path to choose and to walk. But I believe it's all in attitude and what you make of it. You can go into this and just rip yourself to shreds to get into a neuro-surgery residency at Harvard. That same person would probably be #1 at whatever they chose to do in life because they're a hard-worker, period.
But happiness is relative. What is happiness to you? To me? I can't imagine someone needing so much academic achievement to be happy. Is their appetite that big that they need to immerse themselves in uninterrupted study 24/7 to become a respected doctor? I guess so. But for me, happiness is a balance of a fulfilling career and lots of friends and family. That's what everyone tells you...but don't create realities for yourself in here, you just can't afford more stress than what's already going to come.
I think my bottom line is that person A and person B can take radically different approaches, experience radically different amounts of stress, yet still achieve the exact same thing. It's all in personal preference and approach. I can commit the brachial plexus to memory while sitting at home in my PJs and listening to Tool. You can do the same thing at the medical library at 11pm in your cubicle in dead silence. That's great. Come test day we'll both have the same thing in our head. I'm happy doing my work at home and you want to stay at school to do yours; that's fine.
Just do what's best for you, I think. And, while not being a pessimist, don't expect anything more than what you see. There doesn't have to be sugar-coating on everything. People get sick, people die, kids get cancer, good people have bad things happen to them. Lots of things in this world just suck and I think all one can do is look for the glimmer of light and live according to their own principles. I'm happy - I love medicine but I will not let it enslave me. There are so many other things that I love to the point of fanaticism (rock bands/music, Japanese animation, video games, computers, my closest friends, my girl-friend). These things, for me, make the world great despite all the bull-shit, and make things worth living through.
This post has no real point. I just dumped a bunch of mental masturbation on here myself, I think. But if you haven't caught it before, mental masturbation is simply when a group of people stand around and talk BS/blow hot-air about nothing. Happens a ton in medical school...especially by first-years who want to sound cool.
By the way; remember that essay (...personal statement) you had to write to get into medical school? That's pretty much mental masturbation in purified form. I can't believe how imperfect the admissions process is, but it is the only way of screening the masses of eager pre-meds out. It's unfortunate, because once you're in, your essay is just a pile of too-good-to-be-true words written for a perfect world that won't exist. But so it goes....I can tell you now that over 75% of those happy essays mention how they want to altruistically journey abroad and work for the betterment of humanity. Lump 8 years of debt and academic/personal/emotional abuse on them and that 75% turns to the true 5% or less.
I'm out - good night.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Medical School Sucks
I'm thankful to be in, and for the vast myriad of opportunities that await me and my hard-working colleagues.
That said, medical school really does suck no matter how you spin it. It's a prestigious profession with pretty much the longest training time-scale of anything a person could choose to go into. It's expected that the training will take sacrifice, sacrifices I was willing to make when I interviewed and that I'm still willing to make now that I'm in and starting to really make them.
That said again, (bitch, moan) it sucks. My class-mates are so competitive. We're all going into different specialties for the most part - who cares who gets the highest grades? Oh no...if you're not in the top 10% of the class you might....not get into medical school or something! Truth be told, the higher your marks, the more chances you will have for residencies and specialties that you want. If I wanted dermatology, I'd be studying this instant instead of typing a blog-post...that is just how bad dermatology is to match into, for instance. Luckily, I don't want the ultra-competitive specialties. The things I think are cool are the mid-level ones, so I gotta still work as hard as possible.
Agh, it's all driving me nuts. Just nuts. The first exam block is beginning and I'm losing it.
That said, medical school really does suck no matter how you spin it. It's a prestigious profession with pretty much the longest training time-scale of anything a person could choose to go into. It's expected that the training will take sacrifice, sacrifices I was willing to make when I interviewed and that I'm still willing to make now that I'm in and starting to really make them.
That said again, (bitch, moan) it sucks. My class-mates are so competitive. We're all going into different specialties for the most part - who cares who gets the highest grades? Oh no...if you're not in the top 10% of the class you might....not get into medical school or something! Truth be told, the higher your marks, the more chances you will have for residencies and specialties that you want. If I wanted dermatology, I'd be studying this instant instead of typing a blog-post...that is just how bad dermatology is to match into, for instance. Luckily, I don't want the ultra-competitive specialties. The things I think are cool are the mid-level ones, so I gotta still work as hard as possible.
Agh, it's all driving me nuts. Just nuts. The first exam block is beginning and I'm losing it.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Pretty Laid Back
I'm a pretty laid back guy...
I've always prided myself on being able to distill things down to their essence and then accomplishing them with speed and efficiency. This applies to school, as I got through pre-med college work accomplishing the same as others while putting in 50%-75% of the energy.
I realized that a lot of energy is wasted on things as simple as gossip, freaking-out, and over-studying. The group of super-gunners at my school will study in the medical center for 12 hours straight with no breaks and burn out. I stick to a solid schedule of daily study, leaving time for relaxation, keeping my head fresh for the next day. All the while, I feel relatively comfortable with the material, though this will change as time goes on and things become more unfamiliar and nasty.
We had some "soft" classes today; I think I'll enjoy them because they provide the training for the other half of being a physician: clinical work. Actually, being a good clinician is probably 90% of being a doctor, while the hard-science background is still just as important.
Concepts of Health and Disease: This one is pretty cool. Think of the scenes in House M.D. when the team stands around a white-board and writes down what the diagnoses could be. Only in real life (on previously written-out cases). Seven of us sit in a little conference room with a faculty facilitator. In our case, it's a tough, mid-40s guy from Brooklyn with a thick New York accent. Seriously, the guy sounds like a mobster and you think he's picking a fight with you when he talks, but it's just how he talks! He's a Ph.D. in immunology and microbiology so he's going to be schooling your ass, too. And he does!
His job is to steer us in the right direction and keep us from going too deep into blind alleys. So we started with a case that seemed simple enough; a 45 year-old guy comes into the Emergency Dept. complaining of crushing chest-pain, shortness of breath, all that. Turns out, things get real tough real fast. We're all first-years, so we're all newbies when it comes to real medicine like this. We'd get stumped all the time and the facilitator would have to be like,
"...maybe....do a physical exam?"
"...try asking for a blood test? But be specific!"
"Hold on! Is a cholesterol level of 250 mg/dl really unremarkable?"
"You're missing an important detail!"
It got tough. We'd get to a part where we collectively said, "we need data from a physical exam" or "we need to do a urine test", at which point the facilitator would hand out the results of those tests. With the new data, we'd develop our hypotheses and think of more things to try to narrow things down. Along the way, we run into countless terms, procedures, tests that we know nothing about and have to go home and look them up. He had chest pain, but how can you rule out pulmonary edema? His WBC count was a little high, but that tells you nothing about a possible myocardial infarction. His serum albumin level was this but you thought it should be that...or his creatinine phosphokinase level said this.
It was all over and by the end of the session we only had a vague idea of what might be wrong with lots of data pointing nowhere (because we're all very new). Humbling, exciting!
Evidence Based Medicine: Decent. Not too exciting but kind of fun. Run by the emergency medicine department, so you get to see lots of Emerg. docs and read a lot of emerg. cases. I like that aspect of it. This course is about accessing data and articles and scientific/clinical studies within the scope of practice. It's about using patient data to help your own practice and how to know when a study has valid/invalid, relevant/irrelevant results. Cool.
Well...tonight I'm going to hit some more thoracic-region anatomy. Biochem and molecular cell started off really fast, but mostly college review. *deep breath* Let's do this...
I've always prided myself on being able to distill things down to their essence and then accomplishing them with speed and efficiency. This applies to school, as I got through pre-med college work accomplishing the same as others while putting in 50%-75% of the energy.
I realized that a lot of energy is wasted on things as simple as gossip, freaking-out, and over-studying. The group of super-gunners at my school will study in the medical center for 12 hours straight with no breaks and burn out. I stick to a solid schedule of daily study, leaving time for relaxation, keeping my head fresh for the next day. All the while, I feel relatively comfortable with the material, though this will change as time goes on and things become more unfamiliar and nasty.
We had some "soft" classes today; I think I'll enjoy them because they provide the training for the other half of being a physician: clinical work. Actually, being a good clinician is probably 90% of being a doctor, while the hard-science background is still just as important.
Concepts of Health and Disease: This one is pretty cool. Think of the scenes in House M.D. when the team stands around a white-board and writes down what the diagnoses could be. Only in real life (on previously written-out cases). Seven of us sit in a little conference room with a faculty facilitator. In our case, it's a tough, mid-40s guy from Brooklyn with a thick New York accent. Seriously, the guy sounds like a mobster and you think he's picking a fight with you when he talks, but it's just how he talks! He's a Ph.D. in immunology and microbiology so he's going to be schooling your ass, too. And he does!
His job is to steer us in the right direction and keep us from going too deep into blind alleys. So we started with a case that seemed simple enough; a 45 year-old guy comes into the Emergency Dept. complaining of crushing chest-pain, shortness of breath, all that. Turns out, things get real tough real fast. We're all first-years, so we're all newbies when it comes to real medicine like this. We'd get stumped all the time and the facilitator would have to be like,
"...maybe....do a physical exam?"
"...try asking for a blood test? But be specific!"
"Hold on! Is a cholesterol level of 250 mg/dl really unremarkable?"
"You're missing an important detail!"
It got tough. We'd get to a part where we collectively said, "we need data from a physical exam" or "we need to do a urine test", at which point the facilitator would hand out the results of those tests. With the new data, we'd develop our hypotheses and think of more things to try to narrow things down. Along the way, we run into countless terms, procedures, tests that we know nothing about and have to go home and look them up. He had chest pain, but how can you rule out pulmonary edema? His WBC count was a little high, but that tells you nothing about a possible myocardial infarction. His serum albumin level was this but you thought it should be that...or his creatinine phosphokinase level said this.
It was all over and by the end of the session we only had a vague idea of what might be wrong with lots of data pointing nowhere (because we're all very new). Humbling, exciting!
Evidence Based Medicine: Decent. Not too exciting but kind of fun. Run by the emergency medicine department, so you get to see lots of Emerg. docs and read a lot of emerg. cases. I like that aspect of it. This course is about accessing data and articles and scientific/clinical studies within the scope of practice. It's about using patient data to help your own practice and how to know when a study has valid/invalid, relevant/irrelevant results. Cool.
Well...tonight I'm going to hit some more thoracic-region anatomy. Biochem and molecular cell started off really fast, but mostly college review. *deep breath* Let's do this...
Friday, August 17, 2007
MS1-WK1...over
So week one of MS one is over...meaning now things about only about to begin. All the little orientation activities drove me insane by the end. Lectures are one thing. But sitting through 2-hour session after 2-hour session back to back to back of boring presentations gets really old really fast. One more and I think I'd have just started skipping. I've already found a super-gunner...for those uninitiated:
Gunner = medical student hell-bent on achieving the most possible at all costs. Has no social life, does not go out on weekends, studies every waking moment, and will talk down to fellow class-mates. Extremely competitive. Usually going for surgery, plastics, dermatology, ophthalmology, and in some cases radiology. Always annoying.
This girl wears her scrubs...during morning lecture. There's no need for this, as you're given plenty of time to change around 3 PM before anatomy lab starts. I see her walking around at 9 AM in scrubs, her name-tag proudly and deliberately displayed on the front pocket. Nobody else does this, because there's just no need to. Plus, those are supposedly scrubs from lab...they're likely pretty nasty, unless (heaven forbid) she has a clean pair just to wear for the hell of it during the day. She goes to eat at one of the on-campus hospitals and makes sure everyone sees her, sits in the very front row at lecture, and doesn't talk to anyone. To her, I say: Have fun with that!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the intro. lecture to Molecular Cell Biology this morning. I like the room it is in, and the professors seem very excited, friendly, helpful, and even fun! It's probably my favorite topic of all the classes I'm in right now, so I see it as quickly becoming my favorite class of the semester. Speaking of which, this is my proposed schedule for next week, Monday through Thursday...I think this is a decent start. It's going to be madness, I tell you.
8:00a - Wake up (pissed, no doubt)
9:00a - Arrive at lectures at school
12:00p - Lunch
1:00p - Anatomy lecture (MWF), other classes (TR)
3:00p - Anatomy lab (MWF), other classes (TR)
4:00p - I'm outta here! (TR)
5:00p - Anatomy lab should end (MWF)
6:00p - Get home, grab dinner, shower anatomy-smell off, regroup my thoughts...
7:00p - Off to Barnes-and-Noble/Starbucks/Apartment for focused study
11:00p - Dedicated AIM/phone time for friends/additional study/thoughts of bed?
12:00a - Watch anime episode to cool-down before bed/go to bed
1:00a - Passed out
So, 7-11pm, if I can pull it off, is the most valuable time of my days. If I can make good use of that time and get in the habit of focusing daily, I can keep up (and still, jussst barely). Weekends are a wild-card. I can plan on Friday-night off, but towards exams, weekends will be crunched. Sundays are generally going to be full-on study days as well. You learn fast here that time is precious.
First semester is the big hump, the proving grounds, the do-or-die, the sink-or-swim. If I can get past this huge monster, no more labs await me, ever. Histology and Microbiology lab are nothing compared to the involvement of anatomy lab. Some gems lie ahead, such as Christmas break and next summer, but I'll get to those when they come. Right now? Day by day...
Gunner = medical student hell-bent on achieving the most possible at all costs. Has no social life, does not go out on weekends, studies every waking moment, and will talk down to fellow class-mates. Extremely competitive. Usually going for surgery, plastics, dermatology, ophthalmology, and in some cases radiology. Always annoying.
This girl wears her scrubs...during morning lecture. There's no need for this, as you're given plenty of time to change around 3 PM before anatomy lab starts. I see her walking around at 9 AM in scrubs, her name-tag proudly and deliberately displayed on the front pocket. Nobody else does this, because there's just no need to. Plus, those are supposedly scrubs from lab...they're likely pretty nasty, unless (heaven forbid) she has a clean pair just to wear for the hell of it during the day. She goes to eat at one of the on-campus hospitals and makes sure everyone sees her, sits in the very front row at lecture, and doesn't talk to anyone. To her, I say: Have fun with that!
Anyway, I really enjoyed the intro. lecture to Molecular Cell Biology this morning. I like the room it is in, and the professors seem very excited, friendly, helpful, and even fun! It's probably my favorite topic of all the classes I'm in right now, so I see it as quickly becoming my favorite class of the semester. Speaking of which, this is my proposed schedule for next week, Monday through Thursday...I think this is a decent start. It's going to be madness, I tell you.
8:00a - Wake up (pissed, no doubt)
9:00a - Arrive at lectures at school
12:00p - Lunch
1:00p - Anatomy lecture (MWF), other classes (TR)
3:00p - Anatomy lab (MWF), other classes (TR)
4:00p - I'm outta here! (TR)
5:00p - Anatomy lab should end (MWF)
6:00p - Get home, grab dinner, shower anatomy-smell off, regroup my thoughts...
7:00p - Off to Barnes-and-Noble/Starbucks/Apartment for focused study
11:00p - Dedicated AIM/phone time for friends/additional study/thoughts of bed?
12:00a - Watch anime episode to cool-down before bed/go to bed
1:00a - Passed out
So, 7-11pm, if I can pull it off, is the most valuable time of my days. If I can make good use of that time and get in the habit of focusing daily, I can keep up (and still, jussst barely). Weekends are a wild-card. I can plan on Friday-night off, but towards exams, weekends will be crunched. Sundays are generally going to be full-on study days as well. You learn fast here that time is precious.
First semester is the big hump, the proving grounds, the do-or-die, the sink-or-swim. If I can get past this huge monster, no more labs await me, ever. Histology and Microbiology lab are nothing compared to the involvement of anatomy lab. Some gems lie ahead, such as Christmas break and next summer, but I'll get to those when they come. Right now? Day by day...
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Calm.
Ok, so I've calmed down a little.
Found an alternate route to school that saves 5-7 minutes and bypasses about 8 (count 'em!) traffic lights, giving my car an easier time and increasing overall gas-mileage. Interstates can be crowded in the mornings, but they keep things moving nonetheless.
This first week is pretty light...I like to think of it as a transitional week. The only class I have is gross anatomy (and lab), plus a molecular cell biology (MCB) lecture Friday morning. The rest of the time is (unfortunately) spent doing what I call really soft stuff. Part of my school's curriculum is hard-science; the meat-and-potatoes of medical school. But, of course, they have a soft side that deals with ethics, moral reasoning, understanding patient's social contexts and all that. Good stuff, but I say its best left to specific classes like Intro to Clinical Medicine, which I'm taking.
So anyway, as part of this week, we spend time in ... workshops or modules, talking in little groups and "exploring" these other aspects of being a physician. Reasonable enough rationale, but in practice, it's really boring and annoying. I dread going in tomorrow morning to another four-hour block (8a-noon) of this crap. I'd rather wait and have an extra week of summer, then jump head-first into all my classes.
Whatever. It's just been funny, because here I am, officially started medical school, and I've spent my days playing games and watching anime. That'll all change soon enough, but I can't help but cling desperately to that last shred of freedom.
Ok, this is for real. This path is tough! You work your ass off to get in in the first place, then an up-hill battle awaits you. Talk about needing dedication! I'm already feeling like I'm drinking from a fire-hose and nothing has really started yet. But here are the good points, if there are any:
Textbooks Are History
That's right; virtually no textbooks. I know a 4th year who used none and did awesome. You can easily get by on notes alone. I personally have two and only two text-books. One is the anatomy dissection guide so I can study the cadaver better ($51.00). The other is a hand-me-down from my older sister; an anatomy atlas. That's it. I spent about 1/6 the money I usually do for a semester of college. But here's where it gets nasty. The notes, which you have to know cold, are pretty much entire reams of paper for each class.
I got my gross anatomy note packet (all shrink-wrapped and all) and was delighted! Oh, look at all these notes! It's 1 1/2" thick, thicker than a bible, and has to have around 400 pages! I realized only later that this is just the packet for exam 1, of which there will be 3 exams. Multiply that stack of paper by 3 and you have a stack of paper as high as about 3 Holy Bibles stacked on top of each other. Each page containing loads of information you are responsible for. And that's just anatomy...
Throw in Molecular Cell Biology, Immunology, Biochemistry, and two "soft" classes and you have a sick amount of information to learn, even if only by notes. And that's just first semester of first year.
Overwhelmed doesn't even start to describe what I am.
The fact that I haven't ran to the Dean's office crying "I quit" is testament to my desire to actually do this, so I think I'm going to make it.
Medicine really does threaten to consume you, but I've met enough Emergency Medicine doctors who have big-time lives outside of medicine to be convinced that you don't have to die for it. Plus, my friend from Livejournal graduated from my school and is a 1st year resident. A huge gamer like me, his advice to me was helpful.
I'm overwhelmed. As long as I retain important contacts/relationships and have fun now and then, I'm up for anything...
You'll Spend Less and Less Time at School
Yeah, my schedule is kind of crappy. 8a-5p most days for now. Later in the semester, it cuts back some and I get to come in a bit later, but typically, first semester is by far the worst when it comes to time spent at school. The reason is gross anatomy lab, which consumes hours and hours of time at school. I spend Mon/Wed/Fri in lecture for that class, 1p-2:30p, then hit the lab from 2:30p-5:00p and more if they had their way.
Spending 9 hours a day at school then going home with only studying to do is quite, quite demoralizing and dehumanizing. But there is hope...
All lectures are recorded and posted online. Most are even video-taped and posted online. All recordings are typed out verbatim and posted online. Get this? This means you don't have to come to lecture at all. And many don't. After the drudgery of first-year anatomy lab, the focus shifts to predominantly lectures, most of which I plan to skip. I retrieve the information at home and get a heck of a lot more done. Get this:
A) Spend the hour driving through rush-hour traffic to and from school, walking to and from your car, dealing with in-between class nonsense, lunch, etc to get home at 6:00pm exhausted
B) Get up, study, retrieve lectures, study them, finish a full day of focused work by dinner-time (at home) and spend the evening chilling out/going out.
Yeah, I choose choice B. You'll get just as much (or more) done during a full day at home from 9a-5p then you will from 9a-midnight going to school. Energy is important. Trying to get your best studying done when you're exhausted from a day at school is counter-productive. I'm all for efficient, convenient at-home learning which saves time for better things later.
Now, I can't practice this wonderful philosophy just yet; first year has far too many at-school engagements. But mark my words, I'm going to milk this system for all its worth and get the most out of it. That's how I like doing things and I plan on having fun!
Study Habits
Haven't figured this out yet. In college, I did my most heavy-duty work at the computer-lab, which was a 5-minute walk from my dorm. I can't just walk to places anymore. Studying in my room is looking to be more and more something I don't want to do, but it takes so much energy to go anywhere that I don't want to leave it. My 1st choice is Barnes and Noble; I can get my latte/chai/french-vanilla or what have you, and work efficiently. Then I can browse/buy manga when I'm done! There's a Starbucks really close to where I live, but I like the book-store aspect of things.
I'm not someone who likes studying at school (at all), so studying at the medical library or in a lounge on campus is out of the question. It's a decent campus, but to me it is strictly a tool for using and getting out when possible. I study best at my own places where I'm comfortable.
So I might try studying at home at first when things get tough. Then I'll see how that goes and try at the bookstore and compare the two. Who knows what will transpire. I'm just overwhelmed right now so excuse me.
Found an alternate route to school that saves 5-7 minutes and bypasses about 8 (count 'em!) traffic lights, giving my car an easier time and increasing overall gas-mileage. Interstates can be crowded in the mornings, but they keep things moving nonetheless.
This first week is pretty light...I like to think of it as a transitional week. The only class I have is gross anatomy (and lab), plus a molecular cell biology (MCB) lecture Friday morning. The rest of the time is (unfortunately) spent doing what I call really soft stuff. Part of my school's curriculum is hard-science; the meat-and-potatoes of medical school. But, of course, they have a soft side that deals with ethics, moral reasoning, understanding patient's social contexts and all that. Good stuff, but I say its best left to specific classes like Intro to Clinical Medicine, which I'm taking.
So anyway, as part of this week, we spend time in ... workshops or modules, talking in little groups and "exploring" these other aspects of being a physician. Reasonable enough rationale, but in practice, it's really boring and annoying. I dread going in tomorrow morning to another four-hour block (8a-noon) of this crap. I'd rather wait and have an extra week of summer, then jump head-first into all my classes.
Whatever. It's just been funny, because here I am, officially started medical school, and I've spent my days playing games and watching anime. That'll all change soon enough, but I can't help but cling desperately to that last shred of freedom.
Ok, this is for real. This path is tough! You work your ass off to get in in the first place, then an up-hill battle awaits you. Talk about needing dedication! I'm already feeling like I'm drinking from a fire-hose and nothing has really started yet. But here are the good points, if there are any:
Textbooks Are History
That's right; virtually no textbooks. I know a 4th year who used none and did awesome. You can easily get by on notes alone. I personally have two and only two text-books. One is the anatomy dissection guide so I can study the cadaver better ($51.00). The other is a hand-me-down from my older sister; an anatomy atlas. That's it. I spent about 1/6 the money I usually do for a semester of college. But here's where it gets nasty. The notes, which you have to know cold, are pretty much entire reams of paper for each class.
I got my gross anatomy note packet (all shrink-wrapped and all) and was delighted! Oh, look at all these notes! It's 1 1/2" thick, thicker than a bible, and has to have around 400 pages! I realized only later that this is just the packet for exam 1, of which there will be 3 exams. Multiply that stack of paper by 3 and you have a stack of paper as high as about 3 Holy Bibles stacked on top of each other. Each page containing loads of information you are responsible for. And that's just anatomy...
Throw in Molecular Cell Biology, Immunology, Biochemistry, and two "soft" classes and you have a sick amount of information to learn, even if only by notes. And that's just first semester of first year.
Overwhelmed doesn't even start to describe what I am.
The fact that I haven't ran to the Dean's office crying "I quit" is testament to my desire to actually do this, so I think I'm going to make it.
Medicine really does threaten to consume you, but I've met enough Emergency Medicine doctors who have big-time lives outside of medicine to be convinced that you don't have to die for it. Plus, my friend from Livejournal graduated from my school and is a 1st year resident. A huge gamer like me, his advice to me was helpful.
I'm overwhelmed. As long as I retain important contacts/relationships and have fun now and then, I'm up for anything...
You'll Spend Less and Less Time at School
Yeah, my schedule is kind of crappy. 8a-5p most days for now. Later in the semester, it cuts back some and I get to come in a bit later, but typically, first semester is by far the worst when it comes to time spent at school. The reason is gross anatomy lab, which consumes hours and hours of time at school. I spend Mon/Wed/Fri in lecture for that class, 1p-2:30p, then hit the lab from 2:30p-5:00p and more if they had their way.
Spending 9 hours a day at school then going home with only studying to do is quite, quite demoralizing and dehumanizing. But there is hope...
All lectures are recorded and posted online. Most are even video-taped and posted online. All recordings are typed out verbatim and posted online. Get this? This means you don't have to come to lecture at all. And many don't. After the drudgery of first-year anatomy lab, the focus shifts to predominantly lectures, most of which I plan to skip. I retrieve the information at home and get a heck of a lot more done. Get this:
A) Spend the hour driving through rush-hour traffic to and from school, walking to and from your car, dealing with in-between class nonsense, lunch, etc to get home at 6:00pm exhausted
B) Get up, study, retrieve lectures, study them, finish a full day of focused work by dinner-time (at home) and spend the evening chilling out/going out.
Yeah, I choose choice B. You'll get just as much (or more) done during a full day at home from 9a-5p then you will from 9a-midnight going to school. Energy is important. Trying to get your best studying done when you're exhausted from a day at school is counter-productive. I'm all for efficient, convenient at-home learning which saves time for better things later.
Now, I can't practice this wonderful philosophy just yet; first year has far too many at-school engagements. But mark my words, I'm going to milk this system for all its worth and get the most out of it. That's how I like doing things and I plan on having fun!
Study Habits
Haven't figured this out yet. In college, I did my most heavy-duty work at the computer-lab, which was a 5-minute walk from my dorm. I can't just walk to places anymore. Studying in my room is looking to be more and more something I don't want to do, but it takes so much energy to go anywhere that I don't want to leave it. My 1st choice is Barnes and Noble; I can get my latte/chai/french-vanilla or what have you, and work efficiently. Then I can browse/buy manga when I'm done! There's a Starbucks really close to where I live, but I like the book-store aspect of things.
I'm not someone who likes studying at school (at all), so studying at the medical library or in a lounge on campus is out of the question. It's a decent campus, but to me it is strictly a tool for using and getting out when possible. I study best at my own places where I'm comfortable.
So I might try studying at home at first when things get tough. Then I'll see how that goes and try at the bookstore and compare the two. Who knows what will transpire. I'm just overwhelmed right now so excuse me.
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