Medical school was rough but also it was some of the best years of my life.
Many expectations I had were rooted in misconceptions about medical school.
In this video, we'll debunk those myths.
What's going on guys,
Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
Many believe you must be incredibly intelligent to make it through medical school.
I would argue that is not the case.
Work ethic and discipline trump's intelligence in med school.
I'll give you an example.
One of my good friends is a brilliant guy.
As a result, he skated through high school and Harvard with minimal studying.
He was able to rely on his excellent critical thinking and reasoning skills to perform quite
well.
But once he got to Harvard med school, he was in the bottom quartile of the class, as
he didn't have the work ethic to study properly.
His critical thinking didn't help him much as medical school subject matter didn't rely
heavily on reasoning - it mostly requires memorization.
And memorization requires repetition, no matter how smart you are.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're not smart enough for medical school.
If you're not doing well in school, it likely has a little to do with your intelligence,
and much more to do with your study strategies, time management and work ethic.
Many believe that your social life is over once you start in med school, at least if
you want to do well.
While your academic responsibilities and pace of learning is much greater, you're also doing
fewer extracurriculars.
Overall, you'll have less time than you did in college, but it's not nearly as bad as
most people make it out to be.
I was able to go out with my classmates a couple times every month, I was able to stay
active and even pursue new sports like surfing and cycling and enjoy other social activities
with my friends.
The first year and second half of fourth year offered the most flexibility with your time.
Socializing during your second and third years will certainly be more challenging but it's
far from impossible.
In fact, I would urge you to put in the effort to make it happen, as bolstering and maintaining
a strong social support system is key to success in med school.
Third, student overemphasize the importance of Step and under emphasize the importance
of other factors.
The competitiveness of your application for residency is not simply set by your Step 1
score.
While both Step 1 and Step 2 are incredibly important for your application, there’s
much more to it than that.
So, the most influential factors will vary based on the specialty you apply to.
For example, studies surveying program directors of plastic surgery residency programs and
they concluded that applicants’ letters of recommendation were the most heavily weighted
factor.
Don’t ignore the importance of performing well on your clinical rotations, either, even
if the specialty you’re rotating on isn’t what you plan on matching into.
For example, getting honors in psychiatry looks great for those applying to plastics,
because much of plastics relies on foundational principles in psychiatry.
AOA status, research experiences and publications, and appropriately preparing for your interview
are also important factors that can greatly influence your competitiveness for residency.
We have all new, high yield, super comprehensive guides to the med school and residency interviews
on the website that will help you crush your interviews.
Number four, if you don't do well on Step your career is over.
Like any standardized test, there’s a normal distribution to the Step and COMLEX exams.
By definition, not everyone can have a stellar score or perform above average.
And that’s ok.
If you don’t do well on Step, your career is not over.
I know several students that matched into very prestigious programs, some even in competitive
specialties.
And as stated in the earlier point, your Step score isn’t everything.
Again strong research, letters of recommendation, and clinical rotation grades can make up for
lackluster boards.
Next, because many medical schools are on a pass/fail system, lots of students believe
that the bar to aim for is just to pass.
As they say, "P = MD."
It’s great that the pass/fail system reduces student stress, but don’t let this be an
excuse to not push yourself to do the best that you can.
Studying hard and learning to the best of your ability will serve two purposes: first,
you’ll be establishing the foundation for the care of your future patients.
The purpose here isn’t to only earn an MD, but more importantly to become a competent
and effective physician in the process.
Second, studying and performing well on your boards will become that much easier as well.
It’s no surprise that students who performed well in medical school classes were usually
the same students that performed well on Step, and match into strong residency programs.
And number six, the myth that you can be good at everything.
Getting into med school is insanely competitive, and as a result, many students are type "A"
overachieving personalities.
Med school will be a wake-up call for these students.
Medicine is a rapidly expanding field and it’s impossible to be the best at everything.
The further you go along in your medical training, the more your interests and studying will
become specialized at the expense of other areas within medicine.
I can tell you a great deal about surgery and nuances of technique, but I’m definately
not the best person for managing bipolar disorder.
And I’m okay with that.
So, these are some of the most common misconceptions about medical school that I see.
Thank you to my good friend Dr. Villette for helping in the creation of this video.
What misconceptions have you seen?
Let us know down in the comments below.
Thank you all so much for watching.
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