From D1 to DR: The First Week is Over...I Survived

It is Monday evening and I literally just woke up from a much needed power nap before I start reviewing today's lecture material, which is on neural tissues and reading histological slides (yay). I have now realized what studying in med school is really like and I could not be more thankful for the program that I am in. I have now realized that my study habits that I have so precisely mastered in my undergraduate degree, does not necessarily transfer over as easily at this level. This is what my typical day looked like last week:

Wake-up: 6:00am
Lecture: 7:30-11:30am
Lunch: 11:30-12:00pm
Academic Success lecture: 12:00-1:00pm
Usually anatomy lecture/Meeting/Reviewing questions: 2:00-3:00pm
Study: 4:00pm-9:00pm
Sleep: 10pm-6:00am

After leaving campus, I take about an hour off and study from 4:00pm-9:00pm reviewing important concepts that I learned that day, and re-writing a bulk of my notes and highlighting terms I am not familiar with. I have realized this past week that it is WAY too time consuming. I did well on my quiz today (we have an individual and group quizzes every Monday, and today we had another anatomy lecture after an intellectually stimulating morning, it was an extremely long and exhausting day..but it is definitely practice for the island in May), but I felt that I "over-studied" if that makes any sense. I learned almost too much of everything, and not each subject really well. I literally memorized entire chapters, where I needed to know only the pathway. This week I have made the decision to re-read and review the textbooks while highlighting important terms, and only then will I write out pathways and diagrams on my white-board. This will save me time and will help me memorize the material in a more "active" studying type way. I will see how it goes!

I am slowly realizing the fact that I am in this for the long haul...four more years and potentially four more years on top of that of residency for my future Physiatry program. The weird part is...I am actually excited about it. We are such complex human beings and learning about how our bodies fight off pathogens without the use of vaccines is absolutely amazing or more specifically how B cell and T cells undergo somatic recombination to create specific antibody receptors for certain antigens in our body..all without us knowing. This process is happening all the time. I also love collaborating in groups, and trying to come up with the "best" answer in a clinical scenario, and helping others succeed and understand complex material along the way.

I am definitely tired, but I think that was my own fault of my time-management this past week. I am not used to having all this free time in the late afternoon/evenings so I filled it with studying instead. I also want to point out that yes, it is definitely a lot busier than undergrad, but for future MERP students out there it is definitely doable. I know I am only one quiz in, but if you study properly and set aside some time for yourself each week, you will do fine. You can do anything you put your mind to, and I honestly believe that we are always learning, so why not challenge that learning?

Off to make some dinner! Steve and I are having chicken (for Steve), Veggie patty (for me), and big bowl of ceasar salad (for both...no bacon bits though :)). Yum.

Keep me in your thoughts this week and know that even though I don't have time to post every week, I am thinking about it 24/7!

Bye for now,

E xo