A (quick) reflection on MS-1

We finished our first year of medical school a few weeks ago and in addition to all of the information we obtained, there are a few important lessons I learned over this year that I would like to share.

Med school tip #1. Life goes by way too fast during medical school.

If you ever thought your life was flying by, wait until you get to medical school. Medical school is a time machine that is set on super fast forward. This past year has easily been the fastest year of my life. With studying all day and night and our schedules revolving around when the next test is rather than the months in the calendar, one year is over before we even saw it start. With knowing that, it is important to use any free time during the days or weekends that you may have to do things that you really enjoy instead of sitting around watching TV (unless, of course, that is something you truly enjoy). For me, making use of this time meant traveling to visit friends that I do not get to see that often but for others, this time may be used totally differently. However, making good use of the little free time we do have makes the time machine slow down just a bit and makes the year much more meaningful.

Med school tip #2. No matter what you think, you do have time to go to the gym.

As medical students, we are studying all of the time trying to fit every fact into our brains. Sometimes this leads to making sacrifices in order to leave enough time to study to the point where we feel comfortable. However, most of these sacrifices made are not necessary, such as skipping out on going to the gym. Not only is going to the gym very important in the sedentary life of a med student, but no matter how much you still need to study, you will always have time to go to the gym (at least during first year). From my experience, as I am guilty as well, many students loose hours during the day to various distractions while studying including consistently refreshing Facebook to see that nothing has changed, watching the same episode of Modern Family again and again on Hulu, or watching updates on the face-eating Miami man on Youtube. By simply being aware of how much time is wasted to these distractions, eliminating them can allow you to create enough time to do the things that are much more important, for example, lifting some weights or getting on the treadmill. Don't use studying as a way to make excuses for yourself. 

Med school tip #3. Textbooks can be overrated. 

In nine months of med school, so far I have only bought three textbooks and that did not affect my test performance or ability to learn all of the relevant information at all. Every student studies differently so this may not apply to everyone, but if you are not a fan of textbooks, just like in college, make sure you really need a textbook before you decide to buy it. Ask the students in years above you to get advice on which textbooks are worth getting and which will just collect dust.  There will be several suggested textbook for all courses but not all of those, if any, will be needed and it is not worth adding more to your student loans. Wait a few days into the course to see if you think you will need the textbook and if you do, Amazon Prime can get you the textbook in 2 days. If you do feel like supplemental information will be helpful, remember that the Internet is full of it. Also, if you have not checked out Syncytia, make sure you do. It is a resource created specifically for the medical school curriculum.

Med school tip #4. Going to class can negatively correlate to test performance.

Once again, this may or may not apply to certain students, depending on study habits. Every day of med school is filled with more information than the last. At some point during the year, following lectures while in class can become overwhelming. You end up sitting in class hearing noises that you believe to be gibberish while day dreaming about sleeping on fluffy pillows. Sometimes this is because there is too much information at once, the lecturer is going through material too fast or there is simply a concept that is not easy to understand the first time you get exposed to it. If you are lucky and your school records lectures or audio to look at later, it may be beneficial to skip class and listen/watch them at a slower speed. For a one hour lecture, this will potentially allow you to finish going through a lecture thoroughly in one and a half hour by yourself while taking good notes rather than wasting one hour in class and re-listening to it for another hour to get all of the missed details. This may only seem like 30 minutes lost, but over the time of a full course of classes, this can add up to a ton of wasted time which means less time for more valuable studying.

Although most of these tips are very common sense, in the fast paced life of med school, they can easily be overlooked and it always helps to be reminded of the simple things.

What are some of the med school tips you would like to share from your medical school experience so far? Tweet them to @MDRoadMap