Things I wish I knew before starting medical school
To all of you who were recently accepted to medical school, congratulations! I still remember the morning I found out that I would be going to medical school. This remains one of the greatest days of my life. The moment of acceptance represented the culmination of 4 years of hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance. To you, the reader, I hope you’re feeling very proud of such an amazing accomplishment. While the road hereafter will be challenging, it is infinitely more rewarding than being a pre-medical student. Below, I reflect on some things I wish I knew going into medical school.
You will be challenged, but that’s okay because you’re more than equipped to meet the various challenges of medical education. This obviously will not come as a surprise, but medical school will be harder than college. There is much more information to learn. Additionally, you’ll have to retain the information you’re learning beyond your exam, as it’ll also eventually show up on the boards.
You will have fun in medical school! Your life is not over on day 1 of classes. I was scared my life would never be the same upon starting, but thankfully I was so wrong. Yes, you’ll work very hard and spend hours upon hours studying. But, there is plenty of time for a life outside of medicine and you must enjoy your free time. Some of my best times have been in medical school and residency. In fact, I had just as much fun as a medical student as I did as a college student.
Your study habits from college might need to change. When I first arrived and started medical school, I wasn’t really sure how to study. Initially, I did what worked for me in college and just read the information over and over until I memorized it. But, in medical school, there was too much information to simply memorize from reading. I was not particularly successful on my first few tests using these old methods. Eventually, I adapted and started focusing on applying the information with practice questions and flashcards (i.e. spaced repetition). I also learned all about the Method of Loci. Eventually, after some tweaking of my study skills, I started meeting my individual goals on my exams.
Try to resist the urge to start studying before you begin. I remember seeing people during orientation week reviewing anatomy flashcards. There will be plenty of time to learn what you need to learn once classes start. Realistically, you’ll probably forget most of what you learn by the time school starts anyway (unless you’re studying like it’s a full time job). I think you’re better off having fun and enjoying yourself before school starts. If you must study, don’t let me hold you back though. But, you’ve been warned. Burnout is real.
It will be an adjustment having classmates that are all as smart (or smarter) than you are. Most of us were at the top of the class in college. It is important not to tie your self worth to your class rank. Just do your best to learn what you need to learn. It’s okay to be average and even below average. You’re still exceptionally smart. If you want to be at the top of the class, you can certainly achieve this and don’t have to be a genius to do so. You’ll just have to put in more hours (which is what I ended up doing). It is true that to match into some specialties (dermatology and plastic surgery, for example), you need to have very strong grades and scores.
Make friends, not enemies. Your medical school experience will be a lot more fun if you work together with your colleagues rather than seeing one another as competition. Another individual’s success does not preclude you from reaching your goals as well!
I recommend getting a roommate. Not only will you save money (one of my favorite things to do), but you’ll have someone at home to hang out with once you close the books for the night. I think it’s good for your mental health to have a great roommate/friend to spend time with (especially when boards studying comes around). I had awesome roommates during my time in medical school.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. I think there is a certain amount of trial and error that needs to happen for most everyone at the beginning of medical school. Your initial successes or failure will not define your med school experience. You might not ace your first exam because you’ll still be stuck in your old study habits from college. I certainly did not ace my first few exams (anatomy was our first course). It might take some experimentation and trial and error until you find a rhythm. Inevitably, you’ll have to adapt and find methods that work best for you.
Try not to take advice from too many of your classmates. Everyone will have different resources or study strategies that work for them. You know what is best for you, so trust yourself. Don’t put too much thought into what others might be doing. There are many ways to skin a cat, and the same goes for crushing it in medical school.
Avoid resource overload. Again, people will be quick to speak out about how great of a resource a certain book or website is. Don’t listen to this. If you do, eventually you’ll have 10 different things you’re trying to learn anatomy from (this happened to me and it did not go well). Pick one student a year above you that has succeeded and take advice from him or her (find someone you trust or who has similar learning style as you). The reality is that you’ll be better off knowing a few resources very well rather than trying to master a bunch of different things.