How Do Medical Students Learn

Equally a pre-med, you know all nearly the steps leading up to getting that medical school acceptance. Merely, once you've gotten your credence letter of the alphabet, maybe you realized you have no idea what medical school is really like.

Imagine that you lot're officially washed being a pre-med.

Y'all've survived all of your pre-med requisites, maintained your GPA, mastered the MCAT, polished off your personal argument (several times), submitted your AMCAS / AACOMAS, got your secondaries in on time, completed a doc shadowing program, nailed the interview, and cried when you got the acceptance letter.

Bliss. You're officially going to medical school.

Merely, how long does that feeling of security last before you realize y'all know very piffling about what medical school is really similar? Pre-med seems like the hardest thing you accept always done, but then they say it pales in comparing to the firehose of information that is your first year of med school.

What did I truly learn in college? Were my study habits constructive? Volition I have any free time whatsoever in medical schoolhouse?

These were just a few of the questions that replaced the feeling of relief upon finding out I would be going to medical school in the fall. Now that I have graduated from medical schoolhouse and am near to begin my residency program, I can confidently answer these questions from experience.

Neither of my parents are physicians. Although I certainly conducted enquiry on my own and received guidance from mentors, there are notwithstanding several things I wish I had known earlier entering medical school. With those years behind me now, I provide you with several helpful pieces of data, in no particular gild, to smooth your transition.

ane. There is a lot of memorization:

Well-nigh a week before medical school orientation, a physician for whom I have dandy respect told me that she hated the showtime two years of medical schoolhouse and seriously contemplated quitting.

Considering she is now a successful professional who loves her job, I was quite shocked to hear this. Simply two weeks subsequently, as I sat in a very dry lecture on ion channels, I could see what she meant.

There is a lot of memorization. I came into medical school excited nearly helping people and the intellectual claiming of practicing medicine, simply a month into medical school, I didn't seem to be experiencing much of either. Our classes were certainly challenging and required a fair corporeality of piece of work; yet, much of the early evaluations and the board exams seemed to test rote learning rather than critical thinking. Which of these drugs will suppress a patient's white blood cell count? Which nerve signals the muscles that allow you to extend your arm? Is corneal clouding associated with mucopolysaccharidosis type I (Hurler syndrome, due to a defect in alpha-L-iduronidase) or Two (Hunter syndrome, due to a deficiency of iduronate-two-sulfatase)? (Hunter vs. Hurler syndrome is a archetype favorite of board exam question-writers, though they occur in one:100,000 or fewer live births in the U.Southward.)

Ultimately, you volition movement on to more interesting and intellectually stimulating challenges every bit your knowledge progresses. Eventually, y'all'll develop differential diagnoses for a particular constellation of symptoms and decide which is most likely for a given patient. You'll be asked to translate the scientific evidence and decide which treatment is merited for your patient. Maybe you lot'll enquire your own enquiry questions and figure out how to answer them.

I came into medical schoolhouse excited about helping people and the intellectual challenge of practicing medicine, but a month into medical schoolhouse, I didn't seem to be experiencing much of either.

You'll certainly be asked to help patients and families walk through difficult situations– cancer, trauma, dementia, and more. But these can feel remote when your main chore is to memorize on which chromosome the cistron afflicted in neurofibromatosis type II is located. While I was surprised past how much memorization engulfed my study hours, information technology was reassuring to know that it had little bearing on my futurity enjoyment of the practice of medicine.

Pre-Clinical and Clinical Phases

Traditionally, medical school curriculum has been split into pre-clinical and clinical phases; during the preclinical phase, students larn the beefcake, pathophysiology, and pharmacology needed to treat patients, while the clinical phase (traditionally the final two years of medical schoolhouse) focuses on developing the interpersonal and technical skills needed to competently diagnose and care for patients equally a fellow member of the healthcare team. Thankfully, medical schools have recently recognized that early clinical exposure is vital in the student educational experience. Because of this, there has been a significant effort by many medical schools to make the commencement 2 years of medical schoolhouse more than memorizing thousands of PowerPoint slides.

2. Curriculum varies betwixt medical schools

Medical schoolhouse curriculum is highly structured. The LCME (Liaison Committee on Medical Instruction) has very detailed guidelines for how schools should role, what fabric should be covered, etc. Everyone applying to U.Southward. residency programs takes the same board exams– either USMLE (allopathic) or COMLEX (osteopathic).

Every bit mentioned previously, medical school had been traditionally divided into preclinical (get-go two years) and clinical (last ii years) curricula. At that place are probably equally many different medical school curricula as there are medical schools.

Premedical students tin easily go lost in the weeds of trying to understand which curriculum is best for their learning style: Pure lecture? Flipped classroom-style minor groups? A heavy emphasis on early clinical exposure, or fourth dimension to focus on learning the basic pathophysiology well before picking up clinical skills?

While in that location are some curricula that don't fit particular students well, the importance of this question is debatable. Variations in the structure of the curriculum will affect your daily life as a medical student. Are you worried well-nigh being prepared for your small group, or that you've fallen behind in watching lectures from habitation? Are you concerned about whether yous'll become an honors on the cardiology exam, or kicking yourself for bravado off that pass/fail renal examination 3 months ago now that yous have to know that fabric for boards?

Most medical schools use a multifariousness of teaching methods to communicate information to their students. Imagine a continuum with large group lectures at one end and small, "flipped classroom" discussion groups at the other. You may have encountered flipped classrooms during undergrad courses; in that location are many varieties, only the essential idea is that students are responsible for covering the content outside of the classroom and and so reinforce and use this material in pocket-size groups. At some medical schools, nearly all didactics occurs in large lecture halls, while at others, almost all education takes place via flipped classroom-style groups. Most medical schools fall somewhere in the middle with a mix of large lectures, flipped classrooms, and medium-sized group labs or discussions.

When deciding between ii otherwise similar medical schools, it tin can be helpful to consider which structure might work amend for your learning style. Of course, this can be a challenge to predict in advance. In my instance, I probably would have opted for a flipped-classroom fashion curriculum if I had been given the choice before medical school. Even so, halfway through my first twelvemonth, I came to really appreciate the flexibility allowed by a lecture-based curriculum (since almost all of our lectures were video-recorded, they could be watched at whatsoever time from anywhere).

One of the simultaneously wonderful and non-so-great aspects of medicine is that (typically) healthcare providers demand to exist physically present. This is positive, in that the doctor-patient relationship continues to experience existent, even in an era when we are disconnected in many ways.

On the other mitt, it is unlikely that those of usa in medicine will end up with the flexible or remote-working arrangements that take become more than common in other fields, such equally tech or advertising. Because of this, I tried to take reward of the flexible studying arrangement of my preclinical years while I could. Sometimes this meant spending a long weekend at dwelling with my family and watching lectures from hundreds of miles away. At other times, it meant sleeping in and watching lectures until 3 AM– I felt similar I could pay better attention at 1 AM than immediately after dejeuner at 1 PM. This too allowed for some flexibility to be involved in student groups. For example, during my second year of medical school I did outreach to community organizations for our student-run free clinic. Recorded lectures immune me to run across with employees from local nonprofits during their normal work hours, so become back and watch lectures at night or early the next forenoon.

This is how the curriculum worked for me, but everyone is different. Students should consider their ain learning style while remembering that they will be more adaptable than they look. There will likely be many situations later in life where content commitment is not tailored to your learning style, and mastery is notwithstanding expected.

At some medical schools, well-nigh all educational activity occurs in large lecture halls, while at others, nigh all pedagogy takes place via flipped classroom-style groups. Virtually medical schools autumn somewhere in the center with a mix of large lectures, flipped classrooms, and medium-sized group labs or discussions.

three. In general, medical schools are very cooperative rather than competitive

Many pre-meds experience an atmosphere of ruthless competition in undergrad. Their peers are notorious for hyper-competition and perfectionism. And, given that virtually medical students and physicians are former pre-meds, these traits carry on over time. But most of us also notice that the environment is dramatically less competition-friendly and more collaboration-friendly once we reach medical schoolhouse.

In my feel (which friends at more than than ten other medical schools have corroborated), classmates were often my all-time resource, whether studying for the upcoming beefcake examination or board exams, or getting the lowdown on expectations for the upcoming trauma surgery rotation. I however remember reviewing a life-saving slide deck entitled "The Odyssey of The Puppy Lymphocyte" around two AM on the night earlier a histology exam, for which I was very unprepared. This was created by my classmate Mindy, and explained T- and B-cell maturation using cute puppy and kitten photos. I learned my preferred method of studying for boards from a friend.

I learned how to ask my resident "Can I go home now?" and how to "pre round" on patients first affair in the morning from a student in the class alee of me. My beginning week of third twelvemonth was the first fourth dimension I actually met this student, but I had reviewed his shared electronic flashcards thousands of times during my 2nd year.

There are several reasons for this increase in collaboration. 1 is that the proportion of people existence accepted into the next step of grooming is much college in medical schoolhouse than it is for pre-medical students. Approximately 92-95 percentage of graduating US allopathic seniors match to a residency program in a typical year, while in recent years only around 40 percentage of applicants to U.S. medical schools have been accustomed.

Second, medical schools recognize that healthcare is a team sport and actively encourage collaboration among their students. I'm sure there are many other reasons for this change, but the last i I'll list here is that you're likely to make lifelong, wonderful friendships inside your medical grade, and information technology's hard to non assist each other out during this time.

4. It'southward perfectly OK to not know which field of medicine you desire to exercise

"Oh! What kind of doctor are you going to exist?" is a question you'll have to answer hundreds of times earlier graduating medical schoolhouse. Often, people expect at you like you're a chip foolish if y'all answer "I'grand non sure," as if you are spending all this time and money to go to medical school without a plan for what y'all'll be doing afterward.

In reality, it is pretty rare to discover medical students who know exactly what they'll be doing for the rest of their careers, and it's probably better for most of us to avoid becoming emotionally committed to a particular field too early. When I started medical schoolhouse, I told people I wanted to be a urologist. However, the basis for my decision was based on much more than than meeting a urologist who was very charismatic and enthusiastic near his work. Many of my friends changed their specialty target multiple times throughout medical school. Keep in heed that sharing your plans to pursue a specialty can create pressure to follow through with information technology, even later on yous've realized that it is not a good fit.

5. Stay on top of health

Final on this list, but certainly not least, is the importance of staying well. Depending on who you lot ask, wellness has different meanings. If I could go back to my first year, I would remind myself to get plenty rest and cultivate relationships and hobbies outside of medicine. Medicine has a noble tradition of self-sacrifice and putting the needs of patients starting time. This is a proficient affair in many ways; healthcare should be about the patient, non the providers.

However, this impulse tin can become pathological when we fail to care for ourselves and become unable to provide excellent care for others. Despite my fond memories of living on frozen Trader Joe's burritos for six weeks while studying for Pace ane of my board exams, I probably would take washed improve had I been more intentional about wellness. Acceptable sleep, exercise and cooking a repast now then will not ruin your chances of success; they volition probably improve them. Increasingly, medico burnout is recognized as a claiming to our healthcare system. Ready yourself on a healthy rails as presently as possible.

Other resources:

When Breath Becomes Air is a beautifully-written memoir by a old Stanford neurosurgery resident who died of lung cancer at age 38. In addition to his reflections on literature, life equally a physician and a patient, and decease, he vividly describes life as a medical educatee.

AAMC What to look from the American Association of Medical Colleges

Our Alumni Enter Great Medical Schools

Well-nigh Atlantis

Atlantis is the leader in pre-health shadowing and clinical experience, offer brusk-term programs (1-10 weeks) over academic breaks for U.Due south. pre-health undergraduates. Medical schools want iii things: (1)healthcare exposure, (2)GPA/MCAT, and (three)certain competencies. Atlantis gives you a great version of (1), frees you to focus on (2), and cultivates/shows (3) to medical schoolhouse admissions committees.