Pre-Med Students - Like or Dislike?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/top-5-reasons-t/

According to this article in wired.com, the Medical School application process causes pre-med students to act in a way that they dislike.

I will admit, the Adderall thing - I have been tempted. I have not gone that route, because I know that I would like it. A lot.

The point about pre-med students trying to get that A by any means necessary, and choosing classes because the professors are "easy", yes, I can see that. Although I will admit that I took inorganic chemistry 1 with a tough professor, and worked HARD for my A, but I felt like that class really helped me learn. I try to keep in mind that all of these subjects WILL come back to haunt me on the MCAT so I should try to learn them well so that it will be easy to recall them when I need to.

I thought this was an interesting article. I have definitely seen the things they speak of. :) I may have even been guilty of these sins from time to time. I DO believe that I try to learn because of my curiosity. I am VERY naturally curious.

So Much Studying To Do!

I have a test Tuesday. In Embryology - which is a class that requires a lot of memorization. So I have a lot of memorizing to do. :) Tomorrow I will be heading to Borders with my brain turned on and ready to study study study! Hoping to get the majority of this memorization done there. Of course, my friend Jennie asked me if I would help her with her chemistry too. Here's my thought process on helping her with chemistry. While yes, it does take me away from studying for my own class, it DOES cause me to review inorganic chemistry, which is a good thing for the MCAT. And if it is good for the MCAT it is good for me, right? So I will hopefully get Jennie on the right path with her chemistry quickly and easily and then memorize my heart out.

I was one of the smartest kids at my community college. I am so frustrated because now that i am in a school that really caters to the pre-med students, I don't feel like one of the smarties anymore. I feel like I am behind. I feel like there are people there that are so far ahead of me and that i will have to spend the rest of my life memorizing just to catch up. *sigh* I was a straight A student at the community college and so far at MC I have made Bs on all of my tests. VERY frustrating.

Stress and regrets...

At some point last reek I realized that if I want to apply to med school for the 2012 school year i would have to take the mcat this summer!! Meaning 2011. Okay, so I have less than a year to take the most important test of my life, the test that will determine where I will go to med school, where my family will live, oh yeah, and if I get into med school at all! It seems incredible that things are moving this quickly.

I met with a professor at school about job shadowing a doctor. I told her that I was interested in pediatrics so I will be following a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist October 4th and 5th. The 4th he has surgery in the morning and clinic in the afternoon, and on the 5th he just has surgery. I am excited that I will get this experience. I feel like right now I am doing a lot of the extracurriculars right-volunteering, and job shadowing, but I do regret not taking one more science class this semester. I really really wish I had taken cell biology and the cell and genetics lab. That is just one more thing I am going to have to add to next semester. Apparently there are a few other classes I need to think about taking before mcat. I am taking physics 1&2 over the summer, and then Tuesday someone told me that I should consider taking medical physiology before the mcat because that is sometimes on the test. Fun! Med Phys is a 5 credit hour class.

Sooooo, right now for the spring I have to take cell bio plus the cell and genetics lab, med phys, calculus, organic chem 2 plus the lab. That's not including any electives! That is 17 hours. I feel like I should be taking at least one science elective, like virology or something. Starting to get stressed.....and I really wish I had taken cell bio!!!! :(