I've been looking forward to this for almost two years now. It still doesn't feel completely real.
As I write this, I'm not sure what exactly my intentions are for this blog.
- Do I want to share my experiences with my classmates and friends?
- Do I just want to vent and let off steam privately?
- Do I want to encourage public discussion from the wider world as a whole?
I guess I'll just let this thing evolve as I go and start it off as a mix of self reflection, a description of what I'm doing, and an invitation for comments/suggestions (preferably not antagonistic).
It's Wednesday today, and we kicked off "real" school two days ago. Before that we had a week of orientation and before that we had a week of orientation to orientation (otherwise known as Prologue).
Before coming here, I'd already decided to give myself 2 weeks of fun. I would let myself eat unhealthy food, concentrate on meeting people and socializing, and not worry so much about the road ahead. That was 3 weeks ago. Now I'm in the midst of my planned "self-crackdown" and I find myself tired a lot. I came to med school, because I like interacting with people and I like learning from them. There are just so many new faces and stories to learn from. It can be exhausting. Exciting too! But exhausting. Exciting too! But exhausting... you get the picture.
We have these mini essays to write every week called "Learning Issues," given to us at our PBL "Problem Based Learning" sessions (Medicine loves its acronyms).
While I love the PBL environment (you piece apart what's happening to a mysterious patient through a group clue hunt), more and more I'm viewing the learning issues as road blocks to actually learning what I need to during the week.
I understand the intention of the instructors.
They want to teach us medical students how to research information on our own, how to teach ourselves for lifelong learning. But at this stage in our careers we know very little factual information. I'd much prefer to have a solid groundwork of medical knowledge to stand on and apply to the mystery cases rather than feel as if I'm sinking in quicksand while we frantically try and find the rope to pull us out before the end of the week.
Regardless, I've been keeping more or less on top of things. I'm lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at) to have quite a bit of experience with biochemistry and genetics so I feel fairly confident when approaching these lectures or "murder mysteries." I'm also very grateful to have wound up with such a friendly group of classmates. Folks are so polite and friendly here.
My PBL partner and I meshed extremely well. Right after our PBL session we decided to make our way to a private room in the library and churn out the Learning Issue together. I think our strategy was quite good, so I'll repeat it here for fellow students if they'd also like to try something similar.
Goal: To churn out an acceptable LI in the shortest amount of time. It doesn't have to be perfect as our priorities lie elsewhere (studying other material).
Method:
- Both partners sit at adjacent computers.
- Partners look up sources independently for 30 minutes on shared Learning Initiative topic.
- After 30 minutes, one partner dictates their favorite sources out-loud and converts them into "non-plagiarizer" sentences (what ridiculousness it is to dance around something so much that matters so little to us who are so small) while the second partner types all that is said.
- After the first partner is done, we switch roles until both are done.
- Finally add any interesting pictures and use pubmed or http://mickschroeder.com/citation/ to generate AMA citations.
It helped to have such on awesome partner and friend to work with and in the end we finished everything in a little over 3 hours with minimal stress. I highly recommend the above method.
Finally, I'd like to comment on studying (but with an important proviso).
I've been getting asked by a lot of folks about what or how I'm studying, so I figured I'd post that here. I, like the rest of us, felt a little bit lost as to what was important and what could be left on the wayside. I feel that our administration is already giving us far too much material to read and as such are diluting it's total effect. (It's electronic organization also leaves something to be desired, but that's another story.)
My personal decision has been to go to lecture and absorb what they're telling me, but not to read all the suggested reading and instead study the relevant material that contributes towards the STEP exam.
Finally, I'd like to comment on studying (but with an important proviso).
I've been getting asked by a lot of folks about what or how I'm studying, so I figured I'd post that here. I, like the rest of us, felt a little bit lost as to what was important and what could be left on the wayside. I feel that our administration is already giving us far too much material to read and as such are diluting it's total effect. (It's electronic organization also leaves something to be desired, but that's another story.)
My personal decision has been to go to lecture and absorb what they're telling me, but not to read all the suggested reading and instead study the relevant material that contributes towards the STEP exam.
Proviso - Our dean warned against heeding advise from your fellow med students because they don't know anything and don't have experience and he's quite right. I don't know anything or have experience. The following represents my best guess of a good plan to approach studying and is experimental at this point.
Ok, so what a lot of folks have suggested to me is that in my second year, I buy a copy of "First Aid for the USMLE" (http://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-USMLE-Step-2012/dp/0071776362/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345075876&sr=8-1&keywords=first+aid) and follow along in the book as I go through lectures. I've also been told I'll need to know pathology like the back of my hand (http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Review-Pathology-Revised-Reprint/dp/0323084389/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345075921&sr=1-1&keywords=goljan).
However, both of the above review books are so concise and cryptic that I couldn't even begin understanding them at this point. So, I won't try.
However, the folks who publish "First Aid" also put out a 2 volume set that contains the same "high-yield" testable material, but that is better explained and expanded. I've decided to study the relevant chapters from those books as well as from a more basic and better explained pathology review book. I'll follow along in these two books with lectures and take notes as necessary.
The books I'm using currently can be found here:
So, since we're covering genetics this first week, I'd read the relevant sections in the "General Principles" book in the biochemistry and genetics section (there's even some pages on blood born genetic anemia's!). I'd also pop open the pathology review book and take notes on the genetic diseases chapter.
For notes, I've decided to try something new. I'm doing two things.
1. Making a super condensed review sheet per week.
2. Taking the majority of my notes as flashcards. I use a program called ANKI to make these cards. It's neat, because I can make the cards on my computer and then view them on my iphone later. So I can study from them on the go. The program will show you cards that you get wrong more frequently until you get them right so it's good for continuous learning through a semester or year.
And, yes, I will share my cards with whoever in my class would like them.
Bare in mind, this is still all experimental. I'm not sure if this will be an effective way to study what's important. I don't even know what "important" is at this point. However, I do like how this limits the amount of information I have to learn. It gives me focus and puts the material I'm learning in context for my eventual board exam. I also like how review books get to the point instead of waffle around with needless details. I only have to pass my school exams and I hope that the lectures alone will allow me to do that.
We shall have to see if I keep this up or if it's helpful.
I wish the rest of my classmates who might be reading this well. Feel free to follow along, although I warn you I might spout off some personal thoughts through the course of this blog. Please don't take offense. The last thing I wish is to offend or upset anyone.
Take care world!
I'm with you regarding LIs. I feel like the time could have been spent studying lecture material. But now that I've written up the LI I feel like I've mastered the topic. Of course, there are millions of topics and mastering but one doesn't seem like much of a feat. And as for knowing what's important and what's not, I guess we'll have to wait until the weekly assessment. I truly hope they mirror the block exams because otherwise how will we know what to study?
ReplyDeleteI've also considered getting a book pretty early on to study for the USMLE. I think I like the "new" curriculum compared to the traditional discipline-based version, but I think the latter lends itself pretty well to studying for Step 1. We are discussing genetics this week, but it's mixed in with other topics and I feel that's the way it will continue to be, perhaps more so in future weeks/blocks. I suppose we'll have to do major flipping around in the Step 1 prep books in order to correlate it with lecture material.
Whoops! Looks like I wrote more than I intended. Probably a remnant of my journal-writing days.
--Nima G