Hey guys, I just want to give you a quick update so you know I’m still alive. I have been super busy on my Internal Medicine rotation, so I apologize for the silence. I am on Family Medicine next, so I will have a lot more free time. I have a pretty big backlog of questions to answer, and I will get to them as soon as possible. Realistically, that will be within the next two weeks at the latest. I promise I am not ignoring you, and I will answer each and every one, so feel free to keep sending them in. Thanks for sticking around!
Hey guys! I know it has been awhile since my last post promising some new updates, but the wait is finally over! The past couple weeks have been super intense, but I have some time now to take a breather and fill you guys in. With that said, I wanted to start by just giving you all a glimpse at what med school has been like so far, starting with year one. I will try to offer advice whenever I can. Just keep in mind, I am by no means at the top of my class. If you are looking for a guide on how to honors every class, get published in fancy journals, or cure exotic diseases, you’re in the wrong place. I am simply an average med student, and statistically, most of you will be too. There is nothing wrong with that. Being an average medical student is like being an average Olympic athlete. It may suck knowing there are people doing better than you, but you need to keep in mind that you have achieved something that most people never will. With that in mind, and our egos now in check, let’s start with year one. Welcome to med school.
YEAR ONE:
First of all, I just want to dispel some rumors. It always gets on my nerves when I see a post or an article about how important it is to start drinking coffee all the time, or buy a million different colored highlighters for note taking, or how you will never have time for anything outside of med school again. I wish I was exaggerating, but I see this sort of thing all the time, and I think it sends an unnecessarily stressful message. Honestly, if you’ve gotten into med school, the hardest part is over. The application process is ridiculously competitive, but once you make it, the odds are very good that you will finish and become a doctor. I’m not saying that med school is easy, just that if you’ve come this far, you can handle it.
The first year for me was definitely an adjustment. Majoring in psychology in undergrad definitely left some gaps in my knowledge when it came to things like anatomy, cell bio, biochem, etc. It’s not that the material itself is difficult to comprehend, but there is just so much to learn that it might seem like you can never retain it all. That is OK. Just take things one step at a time. Learn what you need to learn for each test. Learn it again for the final. I think it is safe to say that you’re not going to learn much in med school in just one sitting. Repetition is the key. There may be some “aha!” moments in classes like physiology, but most of med school comes down to memorization.
If I were forced to repeat first and second year again, I would get a copy of First Aid and use it to guide my studying. First Aid is basically the go-to review book for Step 1. It is not comprehensive enough to use as a standalone resource for your classes during first and second year, but it can definitely help guide your studying to what the most important information is. Anyway, overall, first year isn’t really that bad. If you just take things week by week, you should be fine.
In terms of lifestyle, I think people exaggerate how little free time there is. It will certainly vary from person to person, but you will definitely be able to maintain a social life. I ended up skipping most of my morning classes, so I was able to sleep in a lot during the year. I also had most of my weekends free, unless there was a test coming up. Don’t let people make you feel bad for not spending every waking moment in the library. It is OK to take breaks and have some fun. You will not fail medical school by going to a party with your friends.
That’s really all I have to say about first year, but if you want to know about specific classes or anything else in particular, feel free to ask. Moving on:
YEAR TWO:
Honestly, not much changes between first and second year, at least in the beginning. The volume of work increases, but by now you will hopefully be ready for it. Most of the strategies for this year are the same as year one: take things one week at a time, repeat the material as much as possible, give yourself time to relax.
The biggest difference, is the ever looming presence of Step 1. While most of your focus during year two should still be your actual classes, you do need to start thinking about how to prepare for this test. In addition to First Aid, you will also be needing a UWorld subscription and a copy of Pathoma. I recommend using all three of these resources throughout the year to guide your studying, and reinforce high yield concepts.
For Pathoma, I recommend watching his videos before you start a new block in pathology. Then use the book as you go through the block to keep the important stuff fresh in your head.
For UWorld, I personally saved most of it until my dedicated Step 1 study time. A lot of people try to get through the entire question bank once during the year, and again during their dedicated time. Looking back, I think the second option is probably better if you can find the time.
That’s about it for second year, so since we’re on the subject let’s talk about the beast that is:
STEP 1:
First, I just want to let you guys know that I got my scores back, and I passed! It feels so good to have this monstrosity behind me, but for those of you who have yet to wrestle with it, I have some advice.
In case you don’t already know. Step 1 is the first of three board exams that one must pass in order to get a medical license in the US. It is technically pass/fail, but many if not all residency programs use your Step 1 score as a measure of competitiveness, much like the MCAT. Different specialties have different standards for admissions, so someone who gets say a 220 might be competitive for family medicine or psychiatry, but not so much for plastic surgery or dermatology. Needless to say, it is very important that you do as well as you possibly can, although people may have different goals depending on their desired specialty. At my school, the test had to be taken before starting rotations in July, and our last second year exam was in May, so we had roughly a two month window to study for and take the test.
Personally, I took about one month of dedicated time to study so I would at least have some vacation. Some of my friends took almost the full two months, and some took even less time than I did. It all depends on how comfortable you feel with the material.
Ultimately, I think a significant part of your score is determined by how well you learned the material the first time. If nothing else, doing well during the first two years, and continuously reinforcing the material will save you some time that you might otherwise have been forced to spend reviewing things you should already know.
How you spend your dedicated study time will depend on how you learn the best. I personally chose to break things down based on chapters in First Aid, then I would spend each day reading First Aid and Pathoma, and doing UWorld questions related to what I had learned. Towards the end of the week, I would review that week’s material, focusing on anything I was struggling with. The next day I would take a practice test, and then I would take the weekend off. This schedule worked well for me, but like I said, everyone is different.
In terms of other resources, I used Picmonic to memorize things like microbiology and biochem and I thought it was extremely helpful for those subjects. Picmonic uses silly pictures and stories to allow you to associate difficult to remember words with easy to remember pictures. Sketchy Micro is a similar resource that my friends have recommended, although I believe it is only for microbiology, whereas Picmonic covers every subject.
For practice tests, I found the UWorld tests to be the most similar to the real deal, and my score on the actual test was within one point of both my practice tests. Other people say the NBME practice tests, particularly the most recent one, are the most similar, but I thought the format and question style was totally different, and it significantly underestimated my score. Again, your mileage may vary.
NOW WHAT?
I had planned on including some information about third year here, but I think I want to keep this post dedicated to surviving the first two years, and keep third year separate, since it really is like two different worlds. Expect another post possibly next weekend about how things have been going on the wards. My inbox is still full of unanswered questions, and I apologize for that, but I really wanted to get this out of the way first. Now that it is done, I will spend some time answering as many as I can. Thank you for your patience, and good luck!
Hello everyone! I hope you will forgive my lack of updates recently. I’ve been really busy enjoying my short summer vacation and getting ready for the upcoming school year. Last week was orientation which pretty much served to reinforce how different this year is going to be. I have a day of orientation tomorrow at my first Internal Medicine site, and then the rotation officially starts on Tuesday! I know this week is going to be intense, but I promise as soon as I have a day off, I will sit down and knock out all the questions that have piled up. On another note, I should be getting my Step 1 score on Wednesday, so hopefully I’ll have some good news to share!
This is going to be a crazy year, and I’m excited to share it with all of you!
The ridiculousness that is Step 1 is now behind me. I am now officially halfway to being a doctor. I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by! I got a lot of questions during my study time, so I want to thank all of you for being so patient. Over the next few days I will make sure to get through all of those, and hopefully make a post or two about what the first two years are like and what to expect for Step 1. It’s good to be back, and I can’t wait for third year to start so I can tell you all about it!
Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts recently. The end of this semester has been busy, and now that it’s over, I will be entering full-on Step 1 mode. Please feel free to continue submitting questions. I only ask that you bear with me, as it will probably take some time for me to answer them. I promise that I will get to all of them eventually! Thanks for your patience, and good luck finishing up your semesters, taking the MCAT, applying to schools, and anything else you may be doing!
A mentor once told me that if you are social sciences major as your pre-med (like psychology, etc.), you have an advantage in medicine than those with natural sciences as their major (biology, chemistry, etc). What is your stand on this?
Hey, I get asked this a lot actually. Here is a link to an old post that should help!
Hi, I'm also a first year med student in Iloilo City, Philippines. Incoming second year this year (hopefully) omg, how can I survive med school without worrying too much? Hihi
The best advice I can give is just remember why you’re there. You wouldn’t have gotten into med school if you weren’t meant to be there. If you just keep your goal in mind, and know that every day is one step closer, eventually you will make it!
Hey :) I'm from europe but I wanna study medicine abroad.. so could you describe how "the way" goes for becoming a doctor/psychiatrist in the US? Thanks :) your blog is really helpfull :)
Thanks, I’m glad you like it! In the US, the traditional path is four years of undergrad/college/university/whatever you want to call it, four years of medical school, and then a residency in your specialty of choice, which ranges from 3 years to I believe 7 years for some surgical specialties. For psychiatry specifically, the residency is 4 years if you don’t do a fellowship. I don’t know what it’s like anywhere else, but in the US there is a distinction between a psychiatrist and a psychologist. A psychiatrist follows the path I just mentioned, whereas a psychologist does 4 years of undergrad followed by a Masters degree, and/or a PhD or PsyD. Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any more questions!
Hi, I'm in my first year of medical school and lately and I feel like I could not manage to arrive until the end of the year, any tip? I really love the career, but kinda scare me that maybe I'm not that smart for it. Sorry for the bad english, greetings from México
I think the best thing to do in this situation is to talk to an academic adviser at your school to see about getting some personalized help. I think pretty much every med student worries that they’re not smart enough at some point. The vast majority of the time, it’s not true. Your school should have faculty that will be able to help you with things like time management, study skills, test taking, and everything else that makes a good med student. One realization that helped me is that there is a finite amount of material that you’re expected to know, even if it doesn’t seem like it right now. The further you get into med school, the more the important material repeats itself, and the less important material gets forgotten. For now, I recommend getting a copy of First Aid if you don’t already have one. Not only is it the main thing you’ll be using next year to study for the boards, but it can help guide you to the important information in your classes as well. It probably won’t cover all the information your professors want you to know, but it will be a pretty good start. Good luck with everything!
Hello! Firstly, I love your blog! I'm in my first year of undergrad, and am currently in the process of declaring a biology major. I'm a bit older than most first year students, (I'm 22; I went the military route first), so that poses interesting issues, but the overall question I have is: Do you think it'd be more difficult for me to maintain a romantic relationship and go to medical school? I have such a strong passion for the human body and everything about it, so I want to do this. Thanks!
Hey, thanks! Are you talking about a long distance relationship? If so, I can tell you it will almost certainly be difficult, but I don’t think it is impossible. You need to be clear with both yourself and your significant other that school will be your number one priority for a while. That can be hard to accept, but it is the truth. If you’re both OK with that, I think the most important thing is maintaining contact as much as possible. That means phone calls, skyping, and visiting each other whenever you can. Without communication, things will fall apart pretty quickly. If both of you are willing to put in the effort, I think you can definitely make it work. And if medicine is something you truly want to do, I am sure it will be worth it.
Hey guys! I just wanted to share this video I found about staying motivated and not giving up! Hopefully it will keep you going as finals week approaches.
Hey! What has drawn you to psychiatry? Was the specialty always an area of interest prior to getting into medicine? Congrats on your rotations by the way! :)
Thanks!
Honestly, I’ve been interested in the mind for as long as I can remember. I studied psychology in undergrad, and I just loved learning what makes people tick. I entered med school with the intention of pursuing either psych or neuro, but I am currently leaning more toward psych. A big part of it is the fact that with psych patients, you are really treating the aspect of them that makes them a person. When someone breaks a bone, they feel like a part of them is messed up. But when a person has a psychiatric illness, they feel like they as a person are messed up. I think being able to help someone feel like themselves again is a powerful and rewarding thing.
Overall, I’m pretty satisfied. It would be nice to have psych a little earlier since that’s what I’m leaning toward. I also feel like I might burn out by the time I get to surgery, but I don’t plan on becoming a surgeon so it’s not a huge deal. I can’t wait to get started and let you guys know how everything goes!
