A New Perspective on Medical School, and Good News: I've Honored my First Class!

I've officially Honored my first class in medical school! woo! I know it's just Biostats and a ton of people honor it as well, but it still feels good to say it. 

I set a goal for myself when I started second semester and I realize now that I never shared it with any of you reading my blog. Once receiving my final first semester grades back in April, my first emotion was relief that I passed all my classes (not that I was ever really in danger of failing anything), but as the weeks wore on, a new feeling crept up. I didn't notice it at first; I was too distracted with all the hoopla from my family and friends, but when things calmed down and I was left to quietly reflect on my lonesome thoughts, I felt it.  That feeling, captive readers, was disappointment. A little unhappiness too, but overwhelming disappointment. How did I let first semester get away from me? That's what I kept asking myself. Later on I just reasoned that fine, it was only the first semester of medical school; it was an adjustment period, anatomy blows, and now its done.  How about making up for that lackluster performance next semester? And then I set a goal for myself to make Dean's List.

In order to make Dean's List at AUC, your grades for that particular semester need to average to an 87% or above. To honor a course, you need to have a 90% or higher. I never really expected to honor all my courses, but I felt an 87% average was definitely a reachable goal for me.  So maybe some of you are asking now why does it even matter? Scores in med school is pretty much Honor, Pass, Fail. That school of thought also runs with the following joke I know you've all heard time and again:

Q:What do you call someone who graduated at the bottom of their med school class?

A: Doctor

Hardy-har-har. 

This belief only begs the question, what motivation is there to excel if it won’t matter? 

But it does matter. I've met some US med schools students who've asked this question and I've read a couple of blogs from people who pose it as well. They talk about the pass. They just want to pass, they are going to blow off the first few weeks and then spend that last one studying so they can just pass. To be honest, I was all about that pass first semester and then I realized...wait a sec.... I'm in the Caribbean... I'm not really allowed to "just pass". Damn stigma! Or Maybe it's more accurate when I say I'm not allowed to "just pass" to get to where I want to go and that is ultimately a Pediatric Neurology residency somewhere in the Boston/Providence area. People don't mess around up there. When I look at the AUC match list no one ever goes there, no one gets matched up there.....  I don't know if it's because they don't apply or if the competition is just that fierce in Boston in particular, but I know that "just passing" isn't going to be enough for me. 

What it all boils down to is this: I need to do well now, so I can do well on the USMLE Step 1. And also, I need to do well now, so I don't look like a driveling fool during clinical rotations. 

The way I see it (and probably not the best way to look at it), the first two years of medical school is pretty much a very long, overwhelming and extremely expensive Kaplan course that prepares you for one of the most important exams of your life-- the USMLE Step 1. If you aren't understanding the information now, when exactly are you going to learn it? Please don't say during breaks or the review month right before the exam. You have to learn the material when you are learning the material in class because there just is not enough time. Everyday you are learning something new, every block you are moving on to another part of the body, every semester you are tackling completely new subjects, and in med school you just keep trudging forward day after day for two years and it's very hard finding the time to look back.

Personally, I can't help but feel I missed the boat on a lot of the stuff in anatomy and embryology, and I will have to spend time looking back/actually learning about those subjects again, but I can't let that happen with anything else. I am putting every ounce of my resolve into everything this second semester and there hasn't been an instance yet where I felt like I've missed something. It is important to do all this work now because when the time comes where I have 4-6 weeks to review for Step 1, I want those weeks to be just that-- a review. I want to say, "oh yea, that's right I remember that" or, "oh yup, definitely familiar with this" when I study those few weeks. Not "oh my god, what is this, why do I feel like I've never seen this in my life???" or "Oh yea, I remember this, I failed this block." That would not be good. No one wants that. In conclusion, work your ass off now to get the best possible grades these first two years, and everything will payoff when the boards and clinicals roll around.

That is all for now,

Andrea