Advice to (First Year) Med Students: Survival Tips
My advice to you:
- get a comfortable couch or desk chair. You will spend a lot of time sitting down and reading.
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get a copy of First Aid now and review it as you go along. come up with a standard snappy comeback for the aunts and uncles who will insist on asking you “so are you still single?” at EVERY FREAKING family gathering get ALL the Goljan bootlegs (ask a second year. They’ll hook you up)
get some butcher paper and draw out the giant biochemical pathway chart with everything all interconnected. Hang it on your wall and stare at it for 15 minutes every day until you can see it behind closed eyes. dedicate a few t-shirts that you are “so over” to cadaver lab. Your good clothes will appreciate it. Goodwill scrubs are also excellent for this.
eat lunch before cadaver lab so you don’t get woozy and pass out. Then bring a second lunch / snack for after lab because the chemicals are going to make you ravenously hungry. don’t isolate yourself. Get to know your classmates and find one or two that you can be open and honest with about your fears and anxieties and struggles
your grades are yours alone. They are private. Nobody has a right to know them. Don’t feel pressured by the gunners to reveal your scores, and don’t think you have to show any reaction after a test. Mexican places are the best post-test food stops. If you go with a big enough group, it can be a different person’s “birthday” every time you go, and someone is gonna have to wear the giant sombrero. Much party. Very stress relief. Wow.
Your scores don’t define you. You are not stupid because you got a 63 in physiology. Physiology is hard, and your professor writes questions in Klingon. join a few clubs, and not just for the free lunches. Be an actual involved member. when in doubt, call your mom, you loser.
put all your bills on automatic debit. It really sucks paying late fees because you forgot to pay because you were studying your brain off. don’t neglect your hobbies. Take pictures. Go hiking. Knit baby mittens. Do what you do to stay you. Med school will run your life. Try to hold on to some of it.
Coloring books. Get some. Princesses and superheros. And the 96 box of crayons with the sharpener. When you are overwhelmed with stress, pick 2 (not one!) pictures and color them and put them on the fridge. You will not regret this. Your stress will be knocked down a notch. Also works well in combination with juice boxes.
