MS1s how are things going so far?

What are things you thought were important but turned out to be insignificant?
Going to class. Man, what a waste of time. I spend every lecture with my headphones in and reading.

What are things you wish you had done differently?
I wish I gone to the gym more and ate better before OMM started. I'm not even fat but sitting in a room with everyone in your class half naked is not great for the body image self-esteem.

Is medical school really as hard as people make it out to be?
Yes and no. It's hard because they throw a bunch of **** at you and it's easy to let yourself get overwhelmed, to fall into your insecurities and become paralyzed with fear of failure. But if you just make yourself a schedule and stick to it, do what works for you, ignore everyone who is freaking out next to you -- it is completely manageable. A positive attitude goes a long way.

How was your adjustment to first year?
I'm not doing as well as I would have liked, but I'm consistently above average and I'm okay with that. I've never crammed hardcore to get the top tier grades some of my friends are getting, but I still come away with a good foundational understanding, and I spend a little time on Firecracker every night to maintain my knowledge base. My philosophy: slow and steady. Marathon, not sprint.

What advice would you give to c/o 2020?
Spend some time this summer researching various study methods and available resources. Everyone is going to tell you to relax and if you're anything like me (and you probs are since you're on SDN), you'll be like okaaaayyyy but still feel like you should be doing something. So look up resources now so that when the time comes, you can pull it out and start using it immediately. Just knowing about things like Sketchy helped me a lot when we started doing Micro and having a giant collection of PDFs I had already collected for practice questions helped immensely so I didn't have to waste time searching for it. Otherwise, my only advice: when you get to a tough spot, take a deep breath, go watch stupid YouTube cat videos, and then come back and keep working. No one ever said it would be easy, but thousands of us do this every year, and you can too.

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MS1s how are things going so far?

MS1s how are things going so far?

For people in the c/o 2019 can you please share what you have thought of your first year?

I've found medical school to be an interesting affair. I find myself very strongly loving the material and experiences I'm learning. However I can honestly say that 4 months in I'm exhausted.

What are things you thought were important but turned out to be insignificant?

Vacuuming. I think I've vacuumed like twice.

What are things you wish you had done differently?

I'd probably worry a bit less. The last 4 months were hard, but they were doable.

Is medical school really as hard as people make it out to be?

There are ups and there are downs. You have material you're good at and material you're not. I'm completely awful at anatomy and if something isn't grouped physiologically or by some sort of biomechanical function then I'll probably forget it in 30 minutes. Likewise I find things clinically relevant or logical based to be very manageable, I found EKGs to be honestly a ton of fun because it's like a puzzle that you can analyze. Physiology is also interesting, though also disheartening because there are parts that are clearly ambiguous or worse irrelevant.

How was your adjustment to first year?

As a product of SDN I started my first course studying 3-4 hours a day. Plenty of my friends came close to failing the first two courses and had I been in similar circumstances I would have set myself up for an entire painful year of even worse anxiety. My recommendation is to never have a legitimate reason to be afraid of failing.

What advice would you give to c/o 2020?

Medical school is not a joke. You're learning something that will one day impact the life of another human being. If you approach medicine with respect then you'll find motivation to learn it. If you approach it as a hoop then you'll be a ****ty doctor and an even ****ter medical school student.

I'm going to add my own statement/question: Do you think it's worth it/ How much do you want it.

You're going to spend the first 2-3 months questioning whether you want to be a doctor. My recommendation is to be serious and dig deal to find strength within your motivation. My strongest motivator beyond the fact that it's imperative to saving lives, is how much I want what lays at the end of the tunnel.

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MS1s how are things going so far?