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Studying for USMLE Step 1 (or, the black hole that has temporarily consumed...
I’ve been studying for the USMLE for three weeks now. At some point, I’ll have to write about the way I would have done things differently, and describe a nice, orderly approach as to how a medical...
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First Week on Rotations – Pediatrics
My first rotation is pediatrics. I deliberately chose pediatrics because I thought, “Pediatricians are nice people… it’s probably safe to assume that they will be nice to me.” And thank God, they...
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The Truth About Studying for USMLE Step 1
It’s official: I passed. Now that I know I passed, I feel at least sort-of qualified to give advice about studying. I wrote at least one blog while I was studying, but let’s be honest: anything...
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International Electives as an M1 or M2: Are They Worth It?
Some schools don’t even bother offering international electives to first and second year med students. The argument goes something like this: we don’t know how to do anything. And God knows that’s...
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Med Students: Are We Adults, or Just Old Adolescents?
I’m taking a poll: would you consider me an adult? I ask this because one of my patients, a seven year old girl, totally called me out on my student-ness. We had bonded pretty well over the course of...
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American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Conference
Last week, I went to the American Academy of Family Physicians annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri with a handful of other students from Iowa. The big draw of the AAFP conference is that...
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Medical Students: The Challenge of Finding Appropriate Conversational Material
Given a choice, which bodily fluid would you prefer to have thrown over your shoes? This is the kind of thing medical students talk about. The conversation arose when I was scrubbed in on a surgery...
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Studying for USMLE Step 1: Q-bank Stereotypes
We all know them: the Q-bank stereotypes. Some of them make sense, and may be clinically applicable. Some of them are outdated. Some of them require a little bit of imagination and leaps of logic...
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Medical School Mandatory Lecture Attendance Policy
One of the classrooms that we spend plenty of time in. This year, my medical school decided to try out a mandatory lecture attendance policy. Although we all saw it coming, there was still a lot of...
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A 21st Century Medical Student Problem
This pile of textbooks is only a small percentage of all the medical ones I have. One of the most frustrating things about being a medical student in the 21st century is that it seems like there are...
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Ruminating on Patient Non-compliance
As I was flossing this evening, I considered how much I hate going to the dentist. For the most part, I leave my dentist’s office with a sore mouth and a whole lot of guilt weighing me down about...
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High-stakes Exams – Effective or Burdensome?
My school’s curriculum is a bit unusual because every examination is high-stakes. This means that I must pass every single examination we take, otherwise I need to remediate. If unsuccessful at...
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Am I Cut Out For Medicine?
This scene is a great depiction of my mood for the last week or so. The last week or so has been nothing short of overwhelming. Not because of the usual #medstudentproblems of studying and examinations...
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5 Things I Do Instead of Studying
Doesn’t looking at this BBQ chicken pizza make your mouth water? It happens to the best of us – we have the best intentions to spend an entire day studying and even plan out a course of action to...
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Working in Teams
At OUWB, team-based learning exercises are one of the ways we “actively learn” the material. One of the most important skills that everyone should continually improve upon is working effectively as...
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Exam Weekend
This is what studying from Goljan’s Rapid Review Pathology looks like during exam weekend. Our school primarily has exams on Mondays, making the weekend prior to the exam relatively stressful. We had...
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Exercise: the Secret to Surviving Medical School
The view from my elliptical… usually I’ll watch a lecture or two while working out on this machine. As medical students, we have to learn to be masters of time management. Somehow, we have to find time...
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Starting and Leading our AMWA Branch
My last couple of weeks has been filled with planning and finally executing this large-scale event. The summer before my first year of medical school, I conjured up plans to charter an American Medical...
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Reasons to Love Medical School
I often write notes in the margins of papers to help me understand the material. It is probably not apparent from my whining, moaning and groaning about medical school that I actually really do still...
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Med School Essentials
The coffee brand of choice for medical professionals – Starbucks. (Who else is super excited about the reappearance of the holiday cups?) Now that I’m almost halfway through my second year of medical...
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