Anatomy of a Successful Medical Student

those that enter medical school have already proven they're intelligent and hard-working but during those four years there is a subset that thrive and not only enjoy the process but also place themselves to match into the most desirable residency programs these are the strategies of those highly successful medical students dr jubal medschoolinsiders.com thriving in medical school isn't about foregoing any semblance of a life and having a committed relationship with your textbooks rather it's about focusing on these five key elements the medical students who can manage the immense volume of information aren't smarter than those who cannot rather they rely on evidence-based learning principles rather than the antiquated and more comfortable passive strategies that we've all come to know and love i thought i knew how to study in college i had strong grades and i did well in my mcat so surely i could handle medical school without issue i was wrong and the first two months were a wake-up call it wasn't until i revamped my study strategies that i was able to live a more balanced life rather than spending friday nights at the medical school buried in books some students are overly focused on their varc learning style meaning visual auditory reading and kinesthetic it turns out that using your vark learning style to guide your medical school studying will hold you back although it may feel more comfortable to you the scientific literature suggests that studying to your vark preference is not correlated to better academic performance even though it may feel more comfortable instead relying on active learning principles is a reliable way for everyone to improve their test performance the two main ones to focus on are one spaced repetition with active recall and two practice questions there are five other strategies that i've elaborated on in my evidence-based study strategy video i can tell you from personal experience that active learning initially feels quite uncomfortable you'll probably be tempted to regress to passive methods that are much more comfortable and less challenging the reason active methods are initially uncomfortable is because they're working they're causing your brain to have to process on a deeper level and with greater intensity it's just like lifting weights in the gym if it was too easy you wouldn't be stimulating any meaningful progress this may at first feel unpleasant but with time you'll adapt and it will become your new baseline burnout amongst medical students and resident physicians is a systemic problem requiring reform however we're not going to fix that problem overnight so rather than waiting until things change for the better you must mitigate the risk for yourself take responsibility for your own health and well-being even when the system seems stacked against you this may look different for each person but the foundations hold true for everyone be uncompromising with your healthy habits around sleep nutrition and exercise some students get caught up with the latest neotropic or hot productivity hack thinking that will give them the edge they need the truth is that none of these will yield anywhere close to as strong of returns as focusing on these foundations of sleep nutrition and exercise and i'm not just talking about a 2x improvement by focusing on getting better sleep compared to gulping down coffee there will be an order of magnitude improvement by focusing on the fundamentals in medical school i had an extremely clean diet which definitely did its part in helping me endure higher intensity i was also regular about getting exercise in through the form of weights at the gym or riding my bike for transportation rather than driving my car but in hindsight i didn't prioritize my sleep enough and i averaged seven hours a night during my pre-clinical years and less during my clinical years during your pre-clinical years depriving yourself of sleep points to a lack of efficiency and focus during your waking hours during your clinical years there may be times when you're on call or simply have to be in the hospital for over 16 hours in a single day in those instances you won't get adequate sleep but they'll be the exception not the rule you'll find that the top performing medical students don't blindly follow the pack instead they question assumptions and seek to understand why things are done a certain way in doing so they are able to adapt and improve their own approach to yield stellar results when i was in medical school i was told that research was done a certain way and if you followed those principles you could hopefully get a publication or two i questioned the assumptions knew there must be a better way and created my own systems that resulted in dozens of publications and presentations which was a strong selling point of my residency application research is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate yourself from other applicants particularly in highly competitive specialties by adopting this mindset you'll learn to experiment and improve upon your study methods hone your research skills and find better ways to navigate the seemingly insurmountable challenges that inevitably arise this mindset will serve you well not only in medical school in your future residency training but also elsewhere in life this is where you'll unlock so many hidden opportunities that are difficult to even imagine now the possibilities are endless for me it started with questioning why my school didn't have a biomedical incubator so i decided to start one i then fell in love with entrepreneurship started some side hustles and ultimately those gave me the option to redefine my future career in ways i couldn't have even imagined just a year prior for you it could be something totally different perhaps you invent a medical technology to help those with limited resources in developing countries or maybe discover you enjoy hospital administration and want to improve healthcare in meaningful ways for both physicians and patients or something else entirely different it's completely up to you if you haven't experienced it yet you'll realize learning in medical school is far different from college because of one key factor volume the volume of content and the pace with which you need to go through it is immense in medical school the actual subject matter isn't necessarily as conceptually challenging as some college majors but you'll be pushed to your limits in learning a great quantity of information in a short period of time medical students who focus on efficiency are the ones who don't drown in the content or fall behind this pursuit of efficiency translates to better use of downtime and breaks for example using breaks to get through chores or tasks you'd otherwise have to do anyway like cooking or handling errands which gives you a mental break from studying while still taking care of necessary things this focus on efficiency also means knowing when is the best time to apply yourself for example if you experience an afternoon slump you'll learn to study before or after that time to maximize the value of each minute you spend studying this isn't to say you need to push yourself constantly to the limit that's a recipe for burnout and suboptimal performance long term optimal performance occurs from brief high exertion bursts followed by high quality rest and recovery this occurs not only in physical performance and sports but mental performance as well remember go all in on work or relaxation but never both at the same time the last principle of the successful medical student is that they understand the importance of investing in themselves i didn't come from a privileged background but even still my family always highlighted the importance of investing in my own education we could be frugal with clothes travel food tech and just about anything else but anytime i needed a book or resource i was reminded that my education is a priority not to be taken lightly i could have downloaded the textbook pdf from a friend and saved a hundred dollars but the experience of reading the paper book and taking notes and marking it up gave me a marginally better experience and that marginally better experience could be the difference of me getting through 50 practice questions or just 15. just as people invest in the stock market to get a return on their investment your education is an investment in yourself the main difference is that your education can have a significantly higher roi by focusing on my education and investing in myself i was able to get into multiple top medical schools and little did i know even make me competitive enough to earn merit-based scholarships that save me hundreds of thousands of dollars if you want to get more meta this investment paid off thousands of times more because without it i wouldn't have been successful with med school insiders think about it if i was an average student that barely got into medical school aspiring physicians like you would be less eager to learn from me and the quality of my insights or advice would also be compromised invest in your future success through any of our services at med school insiders whether it's crushing the mcat or usmle finessing a personal statement honing your interview skills or anything else related to excelling as a pre-med or medical student we've got you covered we've had over 3 000 customers so far and have an industry-leading 99 customer satisfaction rating that's not an accident we've obsessed and invested heavily over the past few years in creating our proprietary systems that allow us to consistently provide excellent service and deliver stellar results that is the med school insider's difference learn more about why our customers love us at medschoolinsiders.com if you enjoyed this video check out my video on the anatomy of a perfect morning routine or my comparison of medical school and residency much love and i'll see you guys there

Channel: Med School Insiders

Views: 83,144

Keywords: Pre-med, Premed, Med Student, Medical School, Med School, Medical Student, how to study in medical school, medical school study strategies, is medical school hard, successful in med school, successful medical student, medical school fire hydrant, medical school publications, med school research, efficiency, productivity

Id: uaz6V5l98EE

Length: 10min 5sec (605 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021