Term 4

Term 4 is underway.... kind of. We just got done with term 3, which consisted of a behavioral science course, kinda like psychology, bioethics, health systems around the world, and how not-to-get-sued as a doctor all wrapped up into one. So, needless to say, I immediately threw my notes away for this class the second I got out of the final. I ended up getting an A though. So that's cool.

Now, we are starting term 4... which, as the rumors on the island have it, is the most daunting term in all of medical school. Why? I think because we have a 13 credit course called pathology (the study of disease) and a rote-memorizing course called microbiology. This week, we have just had a couple classes a day in microbiology, so it still kinda feels like vacation. Next week, however, is when pathology starts and the fun begins.

I don't know... I'm feeling pretty good so far about term 4. I think I have a pretty good game-plan for this term. Ahhh yes, the game-plan, the most important part of studying, in my opinion. The easy part is sitting down to studying the material. The hard part is coming up with a plan that will maximize your time studying and be most efficient as possible. I think that this is the reason why most people fail out of medical school. They don't have a game-plan. You really need to focus your time on what is important and come up with some good study aids and decide exactly what and how you are going to study for a particular subject.

I'll give you an example of kind of what I am talking about, a few weeks ago, a friend was looking through my notes for a class and started freaking out b/c I had put an X through a bunch of the lecture slides. She asked me, "why did you do that, you are crazy, you have to know that, it's in the slides." That is the completely wrong attitude to have... Lecture slides are literally hundreds of pages long for each course. Just because it is in the notes does not mean that it is important. If the professor spent 1 minute on one slide, and 20 minutes on every other slide, freaking cross out the 1-minute-slide. Seriously. Don't waste your time.

So, anyways. That's my rant. I'm feeling pretty good about this term. My game-plan for pathology: www.pathoma.com and a BUTT-LOAD of practice questions. My game-plan for microbiology: Study microbiology over this past summer break and get really ahead... **check that one off the list**.

We'll see how the next few weeks go. Oh, and one more thing about the game-plan: more often than not, it changes.