2 answers
Hafsa
Student
1
Question
Updated
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What are some study habits for pre-med school students?
I am trying to get into Med-school and I want to do pre-med during college. What are some methods I should use to study in order to achieve good grades?
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2 answers
James Hanson
Pediatric Intensive Care Physician; Consultant
160
Answers
Oakland, California
Updated
James’s Answer
Different people learn in different ways. In any case, you will need to devote a reasonable amount of time to study. Many find it helpful to find a small group of like-minded classmates to study with. Do take advantage of professor office hours. Make sure you take time for health: sleep enough, eat well, get exercise, enjoy social encounters.... We all learn better when we are happy and healthy.
It is usually true that procrastination is not a good idea. If you tackle one obligation early in the day, you will find you are better off than pushing until later when you are tired or more likely pulled to social engagements.
See if your school has free tutors. Sometimes you find someone who can explain things in a way that makes better sense to you than how the professor explains them.
It is usually true that procrastination is not a good idea. If you tackle one obligation early in the day, you will find you are better off than pushing until later when you are tired or more likely pulled to social engagements.
See if your school has free tutors. Sometimes you find someone who can explain things in a way that makes better sense to you than how the professor explains them.
Rita Chuang
Physician
259
Answers
Henderson, Nevada
Updated
Rita’s Answer
This is a hard question to answer because what I experienced is different than what other doctors experienced so I'll give you my version as well as theirs and you can make your own decison.
Medical school was very hard for me. It was so hard that I thought of killing myself. There was a week that I cried every day. High school and college was hard but not to the degree of medical school. When I speak with others, they had the opposite experience. Several had told me that medical school was easier and that undergraduate was more difficult. So why the difference? I think one is that I am slow at memorizing. The volume of information you need to memorize in medical school is unbelievable. In high school and undergraduate, I didn't mind studying on the weekends. In medical school, they kept giving you more information to memorize. I'm slow. If I had to do it again, I give everyone interested in medicine this advice. I would work as a medical scribe.
Why a medical scribe? First, they pay you but that's minimal importance. When I was in high school and college, everyone said to volunteer. No matter what I did volunteering, it did not give me any information about what it would be like as a doctor. As a medical scribe, you are in the room with the doctor and patient. You see how to deal with difficult patients. You see what doctors actually do. You learn the language of medicine. This will make medical school much easier. Also, if you are working as a scribe and you cannot wait to get home and your thoughts are, "I don't like this," DON'T GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL or do something as a doctor that doesn't deal with patients like Radiology or Pathology. Unfortunately, AI is probably going to take a lot of the scribing jobs. I would even scribe for 1/2 the pay. The experience is what you are after. You get to talk with the doctor and see what they do...not what TV tells you what doctors do. I also challenge you to go to work when the doctor starts work, not when they start seeing patients but when they start working and answering patient questions, refilling medications, reviewing charts and leave when the doctor leaves. If while you are doing this, your thought is, I hate this, then this is not the job for you.
Unfortunately, getting into medical school in my personal opinion is not right. They want you to take Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physics. I was a Molecular Biology major and this did not help me for medical school except maybe a the first few months of medical school. These subjects unfortunately are what they test you on to get into medical school but doesn't help you to learn the topics of medicine. If you have a great memory, then medical school should be easier.
I don't think the brightest people are necessarily the best doctors. If you have a great memory, you know how to handle difficult people, and you can multitask, medicine might be right for you.
Medical school was very hard for me. It was so hard that I thought of killing myself. There was a week that I cried every day. High school and college was hard but not to the degree of medical school. When I speak with others, they had the opposite experience. Several had told me that medical school was easier and that undergraduate was more difficult. So why the difference? I think one is that I am slow at memorizing. The volume of information you need to memorize in medical school is unbelievable. In high school and undergraduate, I didn't mind studying on the weekends. In medical school, they kept giving you more information to memorize. I'm slow. If I had to do it again, I give everyone interested in medicine this advice. I would work as a medical scribe.
Why a medical scribe? First, they pay you but that's minimal importance. When I was in high school and college, everyone said to volunteer. No matter what I did volunteering, it did not give me any information about what it would be like as a doctor. As a medical scribe, you are in the room with the doctor and patient. You see how to deal with difficult patients. You see what doctors actually do. You learn the language of medicine. This will make medical school much easier. Also, if you are working as a scribe and you cannot wait to get home and your thoughts are, "I don't like this," DON'T GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL or do something as a doctor that doesn't deal with patients like Radiology or Pathology. Unfortunately, AI is probably going to take a lot of the scribing jobs. I would even scribe for 1/2 the pay. The experience is what you are after. You get to talk with the doctor and see what they do...not what TV tells you what doctors do. I also challenge you to go to work when the doctor starts work, not when they start seeing patients but when they start working and answering patient questions, refilling medications, reviewing charts and leave when the doctor leaves. If while you are doing this, your thought is, I hate this, then this is not the job for you.
Unfortunately, getting into medical school in my personal opinion is not right. They want you to take Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Physics. I was a Molecular Biology major and this did not help me for medical school except maybe a the first few months of medical school. These subjects unfortunately are what they test you on to get into medical school but doesn't help you to learn the topics of medicine. If you have a great memory, then medical school should be easier.
I don't think the brightest people are necessarily the best doctors. If you have a great memory, you know how to handle difficult people, and you can multitask, medicine might be right for you.