Starting M1 in a month and I’m really excited, but also a little nervous. I did well in undergrad but I’ve heard that nothing you do can really prepare you for the shitstorm. What advice do you have for new medical students?
Fist and foremost welcome to the med school life and congrats!!
In terms of advice, I recommend trying your best to give yourself a good foundational understanding of the content. While you will definitely see a lot of the material over and over again from M1 to M4 year, it can be really frustrating to struggle with a concept that you know you’ve seen before. In my personal experience, I was lazy when it came to learning pulmonology and it’s definitely bitten me in the ass a few times while studying for shelf exams 😅 (pro tip: pulm is 1000% worth learning the first time).
I’ll also echo the advice about picking a Qbank. I’ve found that most exams test concepts through clinical vignettes, and QBanks do a good job of mirroring this.
Just enjoy the ride! Focus on learning as much as you humanly can because a lot of it will keep coming back over and over again. My biggest piece of advice would be to figure out how to use Anki early on and be consistent with it. It’s got a steep learning curve if you’ve never used it before, but it’ll make learning the material much more efficient. Other than that, figure out what resources you like (e.g., Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Sketchy Micro, etc.) and a good QBank to use (I liked Amboss for preclinical before dedicated, then switched to UWorld for dedicated). And get to know your upperclassmen because they can be a valuable resource for institution-specific advice. Good luck, you got this!!
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