<p>In honor of med school starting up, I'd like to offer some truths I've learned as a med student.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Make friends during orientation. Med school is invariably like high school. Cliques will form 2 months into the school year and it becomes much harder to make friends. During orientation, everyone is new, eager, and friendly. Take advantage of that.</p></li>
<li><p>Med school will get harder and harder and harder. When we learned all of biochem and genetics in my second week of med school, I thought I had hit rock bottom. But, then second year came along. My first year lectures were 30-40 slides each. My second year lectures were 70-100 slides per 1 hour of lecture time. And we also had 30% more lectures. And we also had to study for boards at the same time. Then third year comes along. I have to be at the hospital from 6AM to 5PM every day. Every 4 days I have to take call during which I have to be at the hospital until 11 PM. If a call day falls on a weekend day, I have to be at the hospital the entire weekend day. Last Saturday, right before my clinical skills and shelf exams, I was at the hospital from 8AM to 11:30 PM. And it sucked. And the best part is: after you come back from the hospital, you still have to study an additional 2 hours on your own. So, that's a guaranteed 13-14 hours devoted to medicine each day. The good news is that most students dig deep and find tenacity they didn't think they had. Somehow you get through it.</p></li>
<li><p>It is okay to become cynical. It doesn't mean you should drop out of med school or that you will become a bad doctor. It just means you've been observant. No matter what field you're in, once you get down in the trenches, you'll discover things that aren't always so positive. </p></li>
<li><p>Don't even attempt to study for the USMLE's before starting med school. Don't even attempt to study for the USMLE's during your first year. But, it's not a bad idea to get some review books sometime during the second year of med school and review the relevant sections while you're learning that topic. Most of my classmates started hardcore boards studying during the 2nd semester of the M2 year and we ended up getting the highest average USMLE score (as a graduating class) in the history of my medical school.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't let P/F fool you. My school is a P/F school but don't think for a second that your classmates will be relaxing. Our means on tests were still in the 85% range and our board scores were still sky high. Your goal is to do your best, not just to pass. </p></li>
<li><p>Do as many EC's as you can in your M1 year. If you like mentoring, mentor. If you like volunteering, volunteer. If you want to learn photography, learn photography. You won't have much time your M2 or M3 year to do any of that stuff. Take advantage of the free time you'll have in your first year.</p></li>
<li><p>Anatomy: you'll either like it or you won't. I didn't like it. We spent over 50% of our lab time just dissecting out all of the fat instead of learning about structures. Quite frankly, there were times when we were more butchers than med students in our attempt to get through the dissection on time. I personally would never donate my body for medical education after going through anatomy lab. The good news is that, with 3-5 students per cadaver, not everyone is going to be dissecting at the same time. If you don't like dissecting, you can usually let other people take over.</p></li>
<li><p>You will feel like a dumb@$$ through most of med school and that's okay. I had an attending ask me 6 straight questions about orbital cellulitis on rounds last week. He said, "You know I'm just going to keep asking you questions until you get one you can't answer, right?" That's the mentality of medical education. You aren't supposed to be comfortable. You are supposed to be learning and challenged at all times. So, it is okay to not know some (or a lot of) things. Just make an effort to read about them later on. </p></li>
<li><p>You can have a great social life. There's somewhat of a misconception that med students are awkward people who've never seen the inside of a club. While most of my classmates aren't party animals, they are reasonable socially. They can hold a conversation (and a beer or 7). They know how to dance (some of them). They have significant others. You should never feel like you can't go out once in awhile (or once a week if you're a M1) and party it up.</p></li>
<li><p>You don't have to go to class. As undergrads, we're used to going to class every day but most med school classes are recorded. My own graduating class is pretty good about attendance but I know, at many other med schools, less than 1/2 of the class actually attends lecture. If you don't go to class, you can playback the recording at 1.5-2x speed and save some time for studying! (or sleeping) </p></li>
<li><p>...the caveat is that if you're used to getting up at 11AM and taking a nap at 2PM every day, your third year will be very very tough. Hello, Mr. Coffee!</p></li>
<li><p>Textbooks: please don't buy every single one on the "recommended" list. Buy 1. At most. You will likely not have time to read more than 1. In fact, through the first 2 years of med school, I didn't read a single textbook except my anatomy atlas. Just as in undergrad, you will likely never be tested on something that wasn't presented in lecture. </p></li>
<li><p>Don't go overboard with equipment. 98% of my classmates haven't bought an otoscope or ophthalmoscope. At the hospital, these will likely be provided to you so you likely don't have to spend $500 on them. Of course, I say this after getting yelled at by the resident last week for not checking the ears of a kid with presumed mastoiditis for signs of an ear infection. I knew to check it but couldn't find the otoscope in the room and didn't have one on me. I forgot to go back to it after I had completed the rest of my physical exam. If you are going to buy an ophthalmoscope, buy one of those new fangled pan-optic ones. They are AMAZING for doing the fundoscopic exam. I think they are also under patent so they cost 4x more than the regular ones.</p></li>
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<p>So, what did I do with the money I would've used on equipment? PS3.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For the M2's: don't go crazy studying for boards either. I used only 1 question bank and First-Aid and I scored 240+. It may not be a bad idea to get a couple of other books like Rapid Review Path or BRS Path or High Yield Neuroanatomy but if you have more than 4 review books, you have too many.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't forget to eat healthy and exercise! Everyone will tell you this and you will still not do it. But, you should make an effort to. It'll give you more energy for school and not make you feel so crummy throughout the day. I didn't include sleep in here because I feel the sacrifice of sleep is inevitable. </p></li>
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<p>Bonus:
You will learn that multiple choice questions can have more than 5 answers. I first discovered this during boards when many of the questions had 7+ answer choices. This was taken to a new level during my M3 shelf exams. Some of the questions had 10-15 answer choices. I had a matching question yesterday that literally had 30 possible answer choices and I had to pick the best one. </p>
<p>Bonus #2: Wash your white coats. They are not self cleaning. They are not sterile. Wash them.</p>
30 answer choices?)</p>