Second year of med school starts in three days...SIGH.
In trying to mentally prepare myself to start this year, I am amassing tips for incoming first years or gung-ho premeds.
1. You are going to be surrounded by people who are just as driven and as smart as you are. DO NOT FALL into the comparison trap. Other people have their race to run and you have your race to run. Don't judge yourself on the accomplishments of others.
2. Going with the last note, do be ambitious, but please don't be a gunner. Don't ask people what score they got on the test or try and take advantage of people to make yourself look good. People will not like you!
3. Find a study method (or a couple) that works for you and stick to it. If you're like me, this may change from block to block or from week to week, depending on the material and on whether you like to switch it up (like me). This is okay as long as you KEEP STUDYING throughout the block.
4. You can cram in med school...but it's a lot harder than in college. It's a megaton of information, so you have to give yourself a certain amount of time to learn all of it before the test. The best way to do it is to study at least a couple of hours each day after class. Then when you are reviewing before the test, you'll have seen the information before, and it'll be easier to remember.
5. I always felt better studying the information I learned on the day. If I wasn't able to get through all the material for August 7, for example, instead of spending August 8 trying to catch up, I'd just leave the rest of the August 7 material until the weekend and skip over to August 8 material. This way, I was able to keep up with the material pretty well and not fall behind too much. Falling behind is very discouraging, so I try to avoid that as much as I can.
6. You may fall behind. You may violate your perfect study schedule sometimes. You may even unintentionally take a day off because you're tired. That's okay. You're not perfect, and you don't have to be perfect in order to be successful in medical school. If you make a mistake or two or seven, don't dwell on the fact that you messed up. The righteous person falls seven times and gets back up eight times. If you fall, get up and try again.
7. If you budget your time well, you WILL have time on weekends to have fun! People think that med school is the end of all fun...it isn't. You will study a lot, but there will be some free time! (When studying for Step 1 or on rotations where you work on weekends, there will be less free time. But you'll be okay.)
8. For me, talking to patients was a LOT scarier than studying was! A lot of the confidence for that comes with practice. If your school gives you chances to practice, TAKE THEM. You may feel uncomfortable or like you're being annoying, but your grades third and fourth year as well as your future patients will thank you.
9. Don't be afraid to ask for help. No one expects you to know everything yet; you are a medical student, and a first-year one at that. You've barely been inducted into the profession, and everyone expects you to need help at some point. Also, it reflects badly on the med school if the students do badly, so most schools should have plenty of help resources. Take advantage of them. Get a tutor if needed.
10. Try and get on an exercise regimen and to eat healthy. Most people go into med school after their teenage years, and our bodies start reacting to bad treatment as time goes on. At least in my experience, if I go too long without exercising, my thighs start aching and I get super lethargic, which is not something I can afford with med school's fast pace. I've heard of similar experiences with my classmates. You don't have to look like a model; just find a way to be active for thirty minutes or so more than once a week. It's similar with eating; clean eating makes me feel really good and gives me energy.
11. Going along with number 7, find time for at least one hobby that you liked before medical school and keep doing it. For me the thing I did most consistently was learn languages, a hobby I've had since I was ten years old. It engages another part of my brain and makes me happy.
12. Medicine consists of a lot more than learning copious amounts of biology. It also consists of forming positive relationships with patients (yay social skills) and learning how to do research (at least in my medical school) among other things. Don't skimp on these parts of the job just because learning the science is harder! The science is what gives you good grades now, but the other things (especially the doctor-patient relationship thing) will make you a better doctor later.
There is plenty more advice to give, but I don't know it yet, so you get this. Congratulations on medical school, and hope this helps.
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