Studying for Med School Exams

      During my med school orientation one of the deans mentioned that the information you study in undergrad is like drinking water from a water fountain, but in med school, it's like drinking water from a fire hydrant. At the moment it seemed a little dramatic but after having taken two exams in medical school, I know he was right. The material itself is not intellectually harder, there is just A LOT of it. Every two weeks or so we get tested on 25-30 hours of lecture, excluding anatomy (from the lecture hour count, not from the test). Exams are multiple choice, two questions per lecture hour. Being a science major was of MUCH help. A lot of the material they start with is advanced genetics and biochemistry with clinical correlations, so if you have a good foundation of those, you shouldn't be too overwhelmed. Professors will not break down or dumb down the material piece by piece for everyone to digest peacefully. They have 50mins of lecture and if you didn't get it, go to their office hours or ask a friend for help. Professor's are not rude regarding questions, but their lecture is being recorded and they only have so much time to get it all into the tape. Plus, this is the big leagues now. People are good about learning things on their own without a professor.
      Even though I have always had good study habits, after the first exam I had to make some adjustments to adapt. Re-listening to the lectures, and going over my notes a few times was not enough. There is so much information that by the time you finish going over all of it, the material from the first few lectures is already slipping out. I found ways to organize information so I could process and understand it faster: flow charts, YouTube videos, pictures, tables, outlines, dirty mnemonics, you name it, I've done it. Group study was also of tremendous help. People find different ways to teach each other important material, and once you talk about a certain topic, you will not forget it. My class is a great team when it comes to helping each other. We have a Sharepoint account where we upload notes on unrecorded presentations, practice quizzes, summarized anatomy, etc. We also have a Facebook page where we post links to helpful videos and websites. My peers have been my teachers as much as my professors have, or more.
         A week before the exam, the  only balance you will have in your life is the one between food, sleep, and studying. Nothing else matters. Dishes? Pile them on the dishwasher. Hamper? Overflowed. Bathroom? Dirty. Phone rings? Ten missed calls; from mom. Again, having a science major is a good prep for the type of life style you will find in med school. Studying in a group also helps you keep your sanity. People tend to make jokes or just start a conversation and that time can loosen up the tension and help you keep going. I have never been able to study at home for long focused periods of time, so I basically spent my weekend in school. As long as I have my student ID  I can go in any time I want. They have a lounge there with fridges and microwaves, so I went prepared with lunch, dinner, snacks, and coffee for the day. Saturday I went in at 8am and left at 10pm. Classmates that came in later, say noon, stayed up until 3am. Of course, we took breaks. Usually to eat, take a small walk, talk to other people studying at school, but anything more than one hour is a luxury we cannot afford.
         In an optimal study plan, the weekend is just for memorizing and developing a good grasp of the information. By this time you should have finished re-listening to lectures and writing notes. For both of my exams I woke up feeling confident about them. But when I took the test I felt like none of the important information I had studied was there, and I struggled to remember little details I knew I had studied but was not 100% sure  I remembered correctly. Talking about the test afterwards makes it all worse because everyone has different answers and they all have good arguments for each of them. It seems like any answer would be possible and the only definitive factor is what the professor says is right, because the professor says it's right. Even though, I felt awful after both exams, I did better than I expected for both, scoring in the high B range. The average was also in the high B range, but fortunately for me USF has a pass/fail policy and the average does not factor into my grade unless everyone has scored poorly.
         The day after an exam is my off day, and I use to catch up with life. Get everything in order and call everyone I haven't talked to in days. You just get one day though, because even though you just took a test you already have more information to study before it piles up. It is a stressful process, however, the nerd in all med students secretly enjoys what they are learning. But I would advise to anyone who is not passionate about medicine to stay away from it. It is the passion that keeps you going through all of it, knowing that this information could potentially save a patient's life someday. If you are still a pre-med, try to get yourself out of  a path in medicine as much as you can, and if you can't, then you know it's for you.

The White Coat Ceremony

    On August 17, 2012, 163 first year medical students of the largest incoming M.D. class ever at USF MCOM, received a white coat. It was a two-hour ceremony on a rainy afternoon. We still had class from 8am-12pm, but many students skipped to receive the family members that would attend the ceremony. My family is a 3-hour plane ride away, so they could not be present, but my best friend of 11 years now came to see me, so it was as if I really had family there after all. All the excitement and commotion usually present at graduations was there, except we were starting a journey instead of ending it. Dressed in our business-best, ready for the marathon of camera flashes that would come our way, we marched in the ballroom behind a man playing bag pipes, in our respective alphabetical order. We sat facing the crowd, with gleaming faces; in the melee it was hard to tell who was bursting more with pride, the students or the families.

    Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine, proceeded to give a speech about the meaning of the white coat. Without the coat, he is a regular guy, but as soon as he puts it on, people look at him differently. They show respect and trust because he is representing something more than himself. Receiving the white coat marks the start of our professional life. It still blew my mind to think that the 163 students around me WOULD be doctors one day. It was a certainty and not a possibility anymore. 

        Dr. Brownlee, professor of medicine and 2012 recipient of the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, spoke about the dangers the white coat can bring. Illusions of power that interfere with patient care and about the importance of taking the white coat off every once in a while to just be human.  Simple things like saying "I'm sorry" to a patient can be the most humanistic and hardest thing to do for a physician some times. Alicia Billington, a third year medical student at USF MCOM and president of the Student Council, spoke about humanism in her experiences as a student. She encountered a three-car crash on the highway once and stopped to help the victims while an ambulance arrived. At that point in her academic life, however, the most she could do was give CPR if a victim's heart stopped, and there was not much she could do without equipment to aid her. She spoke about how she sometimes felt she had been clinically right, but she still felt she had failed the patient. “Please don’t forget to smile and touch your patients. Don’t for forget to be human,” Alicia said. I surprisingly enjoyed each of the speeches. I expected them to be monotonous and boring but they held everyone's attention the entire time. l also loved how they emphasized the advantages and disadvantages of the white coat; like they're about to raise you on a pedestal, but they ask you to remember to step down and level with everyone else at the same time.

       Then the official coating began. Members of the faculty coated the students as we walked to the stage in groups of four. The coat had the school's seal on it, as well as a gold pin in the collar that read "Humanism in medicine". Theoretically, it should have had our names embroidered on them, but the order was not done on time and we had to return the coats after the ceremony was over.When everyone had been coated, the class was presented. The audience's exhilaration swelled our chests even more. We proceeded to pledge the Oath of Commitment, USF's modified version of the Oath of Hippocrates. In it vowed to practice medicine honorably and morally; to improve healthcare in our community; and to recognize when our abilities reach their limits, and seek assistance when that happens. We also made a commitment to life-long learning and respect of patient confidentiality.

       In a way, the White Coat Ceremony felt like a marriage ritual. Even though we get a coat instead of a ring, we still promise to practice it faithfully for as long as we shall live, and it still marks first day of the rest of our lives.

Short Video of Ceremony-Tampa Bay Times

Article by USF Health on WCC: http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/blog/2012/08/18/a-commitment-to-humanity-in-medicine/#.UDPfQrGgvIQ.facebook 

         

      
     

Medical School Week#1

       Even though it's been a week already, it's still surreal to think that I'm in medical school. Getting into med school is a long term goal and you work hard on it for so long that it almost seems unreachable. There are 120 core M.D. students in my class, plus 40 in a special M.D. program called SELECT. Surrounded by 160 people packed in an auditorium, and ALL of us becoming doctors, makes me realize how blessed I really am. I knew a few people already because we had done undergrad together. Familiar faces on a first day full of new ones definitely enhance the experience.

        The first week was nothing like I expected it to be. I thought I would have homework and quizzes by the second day at least; and that most of my classmates would be know-it-all-snobs or anti-social nerds. I'm glad to report  neither was true. Although most of my classmates have extremely different life stories, when talking to them I can tell we have all been carefully handpicked and polished from a thousand others because of similar traits. Everyone seemed very well-rounded, approachable, with a good sense of humor, good social skills, and of course, smart (No more awkward silences after making a science-joke!). 

         At USF COM, the second years have a peer advisory committee and they prepared a week's worth of activities for us to socialize and meet each other. Starting with a park mixer the Saturday before the first day of class, where we had a barbecue, played football, and other ice-breaking games. At first it was a little awkward to randomly introduce myself to different people over and over, but everyone else was in the same boat, and I soon got used to it.Sunday night the class was split into groups of 7-10 for a welcome dinner with 3-4 second years (MS2s). The MS2s were full of advise and very supporting toward the year ahead. In my group we went to a Mexican restaurant and clicked so well, that we were there for 3.5 hours. The MS2s were so normal and fun that suddenly the first year was not so intimidating. No one was left out of the conversation, sure at times there were about three different conversations going on, but we did take the time to get to know each other as a group. Monday night (after the first school day!) we had trivia night at a pub. Yes, you read right, med students went drinking :O hahaha. I met more people there but by this third event I began to see that the same group of people were the ones going out to have fun. Not that the rest don't like fun, but there was a fair amount of classmates that were married, had kids, or were engaged, and as such they had pressing priorities.

          Tuesday night the American Medical Association (AMA) at our school had a social at restaurant-bar. I met a lot more people in the social and saw their true fun colors when the official meeting was over, the lights went out and the music began. The first day everyone seemed so serious and professional in their business clothes and med school mode, but that impression melted away when we all sang "Call me, maybe", "Titanium", and "Wild one", while busting out crazy moves in the dance floor. If anything that's when I really started to think I was dreaming and not in med school at all. Wednesday night, we went to a local baseball game, Rays vs. Toronto. While I don't follow any sports, I went anyway for the sake of having that experience with my classmates. I barely payed any attention to the game, but I did learn a few things about teams and plays from everyone else there. At this point people were naturally falling into groups of those they had the most in common with. Finally, Thursday night, we went to a small theme park Grand Prix to go-kart race and play miniature golf. There was free pizza and chicken wings as well as really cheap beer. I had a lot of fun during this first week, but all MS2s say, the first year is the "easiest" relative to the other years and the time to enjoy yourself is now. I room with an MS2 ad while I've been going out every night she has been studying non-stop, taking breaks only to eat or drink coffee.

          Academically speaking this week has been very orientation and mostly an introduction to our courses. We had lectures on the health care system and how Obamacare will change insurance. We also had several lectures discussing the importance of  professionalism, ethics, and cultural competence. Now that we are medical students we represent the health care system as well as our career and who we are anywhere we go. We were warned about how things we post online and how we conduct ourselves in our social time can affect our careers. We also discussed the importance of team work in health care. As doctors we work with pharmacists, physical therapists, nurses, and its important to value all of the members without demeaning either of them. Our first year lectures are shared with physical therapist students so we will be practicing this inter-professionalism starting now.
            Our curriculum runs by body "systems". Our first course is the musculoskeletal system and it is about 8 weeks long. In those 8 weeks we will learn everything related to that system from development, anatomy, diseases, etc. After that time we take a test and move on to the second system and so forth. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays will be our science days while Tuesday and Thursdays we have ethics, humanities and Doctoring. In doctoring we are divided into smaller groups directed by an attending preceptor and an MS4, and we learn communication and history taking skills. Already in our first week we paired in twos and had to take the medical history of a standardized patient (actor) in a simulated clinical environment. The patients are not allowed to voluntarily give information just clues here and there, and as "doctors" we have to dig deeper on everything they say. Patients don't usually relate their symptoms but think of them as separate issues, so they may not mention other symptoms because they don't think it relevant to their pressing concern. In addition to Doctoring we also got CPR and AED certification this week. It was a four hour training in one and two-rescuer methods on adults and children.
          The week ended with a student organization fair. The COM had various interest groups for any occupations that students were interested specializing in their residency. National medical organizations were also present such as the AMA, Medical Students for Choice, Project World Health, AMSA, and many more. All of this offer volunteering opportunities, international mission trips and national conferences. Membership in any of this can enhance your residency application and also provide you with hours for the 80/hr volunteering requirement in the first two years.
           The science courses will be starting next week. Subscribe with your gmail account to follow up on how the med school heat builds. Hope you enjoyed this post :)

       

Interview Day III: What Happens On The Big Day

     When you finally have an interview scheduled the first thing you should do is ask around people who have also been interviewed at that schools or try to find out from the students themselves. While all interviews have a similar outline, few things vary her and there, and knowing ahead of time can help you. Usually the interview will take a whole day; not because they are questioning you for eight hours but because they take advantage that you are there to give you a tour of their school, educate you on their curriculum and give you a chance to talk to med school students attending that school.You will be e-mailed all the necessary information from parking arrangements to places you can stay for the night before the big day.  BE ON TIME! If you are driving in, you should scan the place the day before to avoid getting lost , know where you need to park etc. In some schools med students host candidates overnight. They can guide you through the school, give you tips for the interview and their insight of their experience in that school. 
      Dress code: Suit up! 

Guys this means get a haircut, shave, remove piercings, hide tattoos, nice shoes, belt, tie, jacket. Aim to look like Bruce Wayne, or your favorite wealthy superhero. Girls: no cleavage, skirts (if you decide on a skirt suit) at or below the knee, hide tattoos and crazy piercings as well, no funky nail or hair colors. This is not the time to wear heels you can't walk in either. Your make-up should be enough to look fresh and radiant but not too much that you look like you are going to the club. I would not suggest wearing eye shadow or lipstick, but if you have to, stick to neutral colors. You clothes should be tight enough to know you are a woman but loose enough to know you are a lady. The body language you project throughout the day should match your appropriate dress code. No slouching, yawning, crossing arms or looking bored. Avoid sarcastic comments and stereotypical jokes, if you can.
      NO CELLPHONES. They will tell you this also in the scheduling e-mail. It is rude and disrespectful to have a cellphone ring on such an important day. If you can avoid taking it with you at all, do it, otherwise, turn it off. This is not the time to text or shoot pictures of your day to post on Facebook. From the moment you walk into the building you should treat the whole day like a test. It doesn't matter if it's the janitor leading you to were you are supposed to be; it doesn't matter if that school is your back-up plan; you should be nice to everyone and show impeccable behavior. Treat everyone like they are your interviewer, socialize with other interviewees as well. The interview may only be part of the day but you will be watched the entire time and every little thing can count toward or against you. You will be given a schedule of the entire day, as well as brief information of your interviewers as soon as you arrive. This allows you to prepare questions for them ahead of time.
      The most important thing you should remember in your interview day is to not let yourself be intimidated by anything. As you meet other interviewees you will find out most of them are older than you (or maybe younger, it depends), more experienced in the academics, or graduated from Ivy league schools or they work in hospitals already; they may already have a family, or a masters or a doctorate, or publications in research or a number of other things that you may not. Whatever the admissions committee saw in them, they saw it in you as well and you are in line for the cut, so root for yourself! You should not let the tour of the school or the curriculum outline or you even your interviewer intimidate you either. It's all a challenge you have to pass. The minute you lose hold of your confidence, the nerves kick in and threaten everything you have worked for. The way it works is, your interviewers (you may be interviewed by a max of 2 people individually depending on the school) will become your advocates once the admissions committee meets to decide which students to accept. Your job is to impress your interviewer enough so that that person will vouch for you in front of twenty others later on. 
       There are three types of med school interviews: question-oriented, conversation-oriented, and group interviews. With question based interviews the interviewer has already prepared a set of questions he/she wants to ask you. Usually they will make notes while you talk. Be confident and don't let yourself be intimidated by the notes. Part of the interview is measuring how you behave in a uncomfortable situations. In conversation based interviews the interviewer simply gets to know you in a social and approachable way. No pre-written questions but he/she will probably have your AMCAS printed out in hand. While question-oriented and conversation-oriented interviews are one-on-one between you and the interviewer, group interviews are made in a conference room with everyone else in it.Group interviews are question-oriented too, the downside to this is that there is always that one person that makes everyone else look like an idiot. So you have to make sure that you ARE that one person if you are in a group interview.
       The school will let you know the result in four to six weeks. At this point most schools will either call you for an acceptance or e-mail you that you have been wait-listed. Being wait-listed is not quite a ejection, but not exactly an acceptance either. You become their back-up plan.The deadline for students to decide on which  school to attend is May 15th. After that, the school will evaluate how many missing spots they have and start calling the people they wait-listed. Some wait-lists are ranked and some are random. Your best chance to get promoted from it is to call the school frequently to inquire about your status. It shows interest and increases your chances of acceptance. Some applicants that get wait-listed never hear from the schools again, unless they keep in touch with the school. However, if you have multiple acceptances go for a school that already wants you and start running that paper work. You don't want to risk an a school that wants you for one that has you as their plan B.
       Don't forget to prepare for you interview! Check out my previews blog posts for more tips. Hope it goes well :)

       

Interview Day Part II: Interviewers' FAQs

         As I mentioned on "Interview Day Part I" preparation is key for a successful medical school interview. That includes answering interview questions as practice. I would not suggest writing out an answer and memorizing it for each one. You want your responses to sound naturally eloquent and honest, not rehearsed and false. Plus your nerves in the interview might cause you to forget what you memorized and you might make a fool of yourself trying to remember. I would suggest knowing only key points to your answers; this way you give the main answer while nonchalantly elaborating it in a calm and natural way. NATURAL is key. The interviewers want to see who you are behind your paper application; they don't want a performance.  

     While some interviews are conversation-based, others are in the more traditional interview question-answer format.Chances are you interview will be harder if your interviewer took the time to compile questions for you and is ready to take notes of what you say. Below I gathered some of the most common interview questions that you should be prepared for. Even though some of them are pretty basic you should still practice answering them to make sure you have your thoughts in order.

• Be ready to respond on weaknesses in your application. They WILL be addressed. Your interviewers wants to know if there is a reason they should be overlooked to accept you in their school. For example: lower than required MCAT scores, why didn't you take it again?; if you took the MCAT multiple times, why?; explain why you don't have enough physician shadowing and/or volunteering; any classes that you got Cs in, classes that you withdrew from or had to re-take. Get your story straight. If there was a family situation, make that clear. If there were flaws in your character at the time that are no longer present, make that clear as well. 

• Any question that addresses negative qualities in your personality/character. In this question the answer that you give is not as important as what the interviewer can learn from it. They will not frown upon whatever the flaw is that you have, they want to see if you are humble enough to admit that you are not perfect. Holding on to a perfectionist view of yourself in this scenario only shows shallowness and self-esteem issues. Talking about your flaws makes you more likable, mature, and shows that you have a realistic view of yourself. When saying anything bad about yourself always remember to end on a positive note. Talk about how you are trying to change your bad habits or how you are working to become a better person. Perfection will not come to you once you are a doctor, but a change in progress striving to it will.

• Why should you be chosen to attend that school? What would you bring to enrich the school? These both require similar answers. Mention the positive traits that you have that would benefit the school, or benefit you as a medical student. Any qualities that you posses that you think doctors in general should have should also be mentioned. If you can back up these qualities with how you have used them in past experiences to your success, even better. For example, "My perseverance has helped me strive in such  and such situations and I believe it will also help me strive in the difficult cases I may have when I  become a physician".

• What would you do if you did not get accepted to medical school in this application year? Have a plan ready. Believing you will be accepted without a single doubt demonstrates shortsightedness and an unrealistic view of yourself. As long as you say that you will quit medicine, anything from getting a masters, traveling, working, and re-applying is okay.

• Do you have a specialty in mind, which one and why?While it is completely  normal that you don't this early in the career, showing interest in one or several fields shows that your pursuit of medicine is genuine and that it is not a decision you have taken without further research of it. Never undermine other specialties, just state a lack of interest in the ones that do not attract you, if you are asked in depth on this question.

• Have an opinion about different issues in health care, especially ethical or political ones like abortion, euthanasia, health insurance policies, Obamacare, etc. Try take a stance without being too extremist in your response. You are unaware of your interviewer's opinion and you don't want to offend anyone. However, having your own opinion shows that you are educated in the present issues, it shows decisiveness in difficult situations and your ability to evaluate pros and cons. You will need all of these to become a physician.

• How are YOU willing to change medicine?/ What are some disparities in medicine that need to change? These ones imply several things: that certain aspects of medicine need to change, that you know which aspects these are, and that you have a plan for it. These are among the most difficult questions because they are not directly about yourself. They require knowledge of the affairs of health in the country and possibly in other countries. Educate yourself as much as you can. By the way, disparity in this scenario means a lack of equal treatment in medicine. What would you do to equalize the treatment that patients receive nationwide? Have at least four aspects of change and disparities ready.

• Why do you want to be a doctor and not a nurse? Careful with this one. Don't put nurses down or criticize their roles. They are vital to medicine. The key to conquering this question is to say you want "a more leading role in the treatment of patients" or something among those lines. Variations of this question can also be presented such as, why not osteopathic medicine, or dentistry or any other field in health care.

• Difference between HMOs and PPOs. These are the two types of health insurances. In the Health Maintenance Organizations, you will pick your doctor from the providers within the HMO network. In the Preferred Provider organization, you can choose doctor/provider you want whether they are from the PPO network or not. If you choose an out-of-network provider, chances are it will be more expensive.

• Nontraditional students. A traditional student is the one that enters a college of medicine right after finishing a bachelor's degree, without any gaps of a year or more. Nontraditional students are everyone else, including applicants that are married and/or have kids. If you are among these then be prepared to answer personal questions about your life. Why the time gap between college and medical school? What have you done between college and now? Have you considered the consequences that this decision will have on your family? Does your partner support you in this choice? The questions may be uncomfortable but they need to be sure that you are not rushing into this, that you are prepared for what will come and that you are doing it for the right reasons.

Stay alert for "Interview Day Part III: What Happens On The Big Day" to be posted within a week's time.

Interview Day Part I: How to Prepare For Your Med School Interview

      All your work in the four years of a pre-med career will start to pay off the moment you receive your call for a medical school interview. If you have just received one of these, congratulations!

         Acceptance is just one step away. Most schools don't interview students they don't want to accept in the first place. But there is so much potential that they use this day to narrow it down. It's game time.

     However, if you think you can walk into your interviewer's office with just your charm, zero prep and blow their minds away, you are sorely mistaken. This is nothing against your ego or yourself. The interview is one more test you need to pass; and like all tests, some studying has to be done to pass it.This foundation will give you confidence when hard questions are thrown your way, and will allow you to react appropriately to uncomfortable situations. Below are some suggestions as to what you should do to rock the  MD admissions' world:

1) Go over your primary AAMC application: activities that you included, personal statement, etc. Also go over the secondary application you filled for that school.  This is their main source of questions because it is where they get their knowledge of you. Everything you say has to be in accordance to what they already know about you. Discrepancies between your word and the application are signs of weaknesses or possible lies  in your interviewers' eyes. Make sure you know your story.


2) Know your research, if you have any. Go over any abstracts or publications that you might have written, as well as the conferences that you presented at. Even though you should already know this, it doesn't hurt to refresh your memory. Review especially, technical terms related to your work and any news about other research done in the same field. Interviewers are selected purposefully for each interviewee. If you have done a lot of research in one field, chances are you will get paired with someone that is familiar with that field.


3) Research the school! Look for its strengths, weaknesses, special programs, specialties in certain fields, and anything else pertaining to its reputation. You should know as much about them, as they know about you. Having extra knowledge about the school demonstrates genuine interest as an applicant that other interviewees might not have. Researching is especially important if you receive more than one interviews. Do NOT confuse schools! 

4) Keep up with current affairs. Read or watch the news everyday, you don't want to look ignorant to your interviewer. News are also another source of questions, especially the ones related to health care such as the new universal health care law (formal name "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", in case they want to trick you). Educate yourself in issues in the medical world, ethical and otherwise. They love asking questions about "health care disparities"--what they are, what do you think their solution is, what are you willing to do about them etc, etc.

5) Have questions for THEM. At the end of the interview they will ask you if you have any questions. You should. Just like researching the school, having questions for your interviewer shows genuine interest. Knowing about the school is a way to draw questions, such as advantages and disadvantages the school provides. You can also ask the interviewer about their career, their specialty, their journey though all of it. Don't be shy, this is what they want you to do.

6) Practice, Practice, Practice. Round up a set of possible interview questions and have different people (separately) conduct a practice interview for you. This you receive multiple opinions about flaws in your answers, nervous ticks you might show, projected body language and tips for better answers. This also reduces your anxiety when it's time for the actual interview because you have done it before and you are prepared. I would not suggest memorizing answers for certain questions because you might sound overly rehearsed and fake. You want to project the most natural state of perfection.

    Stay tuned for "Interview Day Part II: FAQs" where I will present a set of the most common questions in med school interviews and how to answer them appropriately.

What NOT To Do In A Personal Statement for Medical School

        Besides the MCAT, the personal statement has to be the second thing students struggle the most with in their primary application process. Many  people just know that they want to be doctors without a significant experience or reason for it. However, this is not enough to write a convincing 5300 characters essay and get away with it. When it was time for me to write my personal statement I read a book by Princeton Review that had a compilation of MD essays. More so, it included the student's scores, the schools they had applied, and the schools they had gotten accepted in. While reading this book and also while proofreading essays for some of my friends, I noticed certain trends in the writing that made the essays all similar to one another. You don't want an average statement in your application. For you to have a strong application, every single component of it needs to be good. Here is a checklist of things to avoid when writing your personal statement:

1) Re-count all the activities in you application--> The average essay narrates everything the applicant has done to prepare for a career in medicine. This is the path most people take when they don't know what else to write. However, these activities are already present in another section of the application. Make your essay focus on the most significant experiences; tell a story related to them, something powerful that gives insight on medicine as your calling. If there is a life experience that  changed you, related to medicine or not, it belongs in the essay because it will talk about your character and your response to adversity.

2) The good ol' "I want to help people/ Save lives"--> This is the mother of cliches in MD applications. While it may be true, there are hundreds of less expensive, less time-consuming, and easier ways to help people than to go to medical school. You can help people right now without taking an average of $200,000 in loans. The trick to getting away with this is SHOWING in your essay that you want to help people, not stating it directly. Talk about an experience that has made you want to be an active change in society, something specific that takes a unique angle. Your story lies in specificity; that is what makes you different from the thousand other applicants. One of the greatest essays I read just narrated one experience about a student who was doing missionary work in Central America. He didn't even talk about the  whole trip, he just focused on one story in which he admired one of the doctors from his group and how the doctor gave hope, where he couldn't give anything else. It brought me to tears. If your essay can  move your reader, you're good.

3) Too many details-->  Keep your experiences focused on their main point. Too many details drifts the essay from what your trying to say and it makes it harder for you to transition between paragraphs and keep the whole essay unified. This can be fixed by editing your essay multiple times to cut off non-essentials.

4) Bad grammar & run-on sentences--> By the time you apply you should be either completing a bachelors or have a bachelors already. Your writing should reflect this. Sloppy sentences are inexcusable. Have different people proofreading your essays to prevent this from happening.

5) Naming people-->  If you are mentioning any doctors you have worked with, just say Dr. X or Dr. Y. Name dropping can be tacky. Also remember no one is universally liked, you don't know who is reading your essay and the off chance that that person knows the doctor you are referring to. Don't name patients either, their privacy is protected by law and you can get in trouble by mentioning a case too specifically. Keep it political.

6) 5300 characters--> You don't have to reach the limit. If your essay conveys the message in less characters, then don't add anymore. You don't want to risk weakening your essay when it's not necessary.

7) "Because my parents are doctors"--> Careful with this one. While it may be true, it can sound like you are being pushed/brainwashed into a decision. You have to write it in a way in which it seems like you came to the idea on your own. You should also state other experiences that have influenced you  medicine; don't make your parents your primary reason, just an initial inspiration.

   So basically your personal statement should focus on significant experiences that have influenced your life and hardships that you have overcome. Any detail that makes you different from average people should be included. Show why you want to be a doctor rather than say it. To perfect the piece, give it to different people to proofread it for you as many times as it takes.

Good luck!

Review of MCAT Books & Companies: Which one is right for you?

     The average MCAT course, during a period of 5-6 months, costs about $1500-$2000. If this price range is out of your budget, and you feel you have the discipline and study habits to study on your own, that might be the better choice. Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Examkrackers are the companies that offer the books you will need to do this; during my preparation for the MCAT, I used all three. I discovered that neither is outstandingly better or worse than the other, but the advantages they each offer depend more different ways that people learn. The review I provide below is based on my experience with each; none of the companies paid me to say anything in particular about them or the others.

KAPLAN MCAT Review Complete 5-Book Series--This package contains one book per general subject tested in the MCAT: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Organic Chemistry, and Verbal Sciences. After each chapter it has 10-15 exercises on the material covered and it has three practice tests on the same subject at the end of the book.

-Advantages

• Material is presented thoroughly and in-depth.
• Has a more conceptual approach to teaching,
• Has an accurate representation of the types of problems that show up on the MCAT and how to solve them.
• Their teaching method contains many analogies and metaphors that help you understand scientific jargon in your own words.
• Their full-length practice tests are actually two hours longer than the real MCAT. This prepares your mind with endurance and focus for the when you take the real thing.

-Disadvantages

• Their layout is weak. The information is presented in long paragraphs that intimidate the reader at first glance.
• Hardly any graphs, tables, or pictures available, with the exception of the Biology book. If you are a visual learner this is not the package for you.
• The math you use in these books is more complicated than the math needed for the actual MCAT. The MCAT uses easy numbers because it tests your application of knowledge, not the math used to solve it.
• If you dominate all or certain part of the material already, you will find the metaphors they use comical and unhelpful. Sometimes they spend a page or two just telling a story related to the material they are about to teach in the following pages, instead of just teaching straight away. 
• Not enough practice problems per chapter. Practice is crucial!

Conclusion: Use Kaplan if you need to LEARN  the material again or for the first time. It is also helpful if you prefer the conceptual approach to understanding science. Don't use it if you just need to review basic concepts because their extensive paragraphs will waste your time.

EXAMKRACKERS Complete MCAT Study Package (5 Books)-- Again one book per general subject. Each chapter has sub-subjects and 8 practice problems per sub-subject inside the chapter itself. At the end of the book there is a 25 question test per chapter.

-Advantages

• Good for visual learners. Each chapter has a plethora of pictures, tables, and graphs. The important material is already highlighted for you and helpful side notes with tricks for solving problems are available.
• More practice problems per chapter.
• Each chapter test has a key that breaks down the problems in a way that you can understand where you went wrong.
• Their visual layout allows you to absorb more information per time. Information is presented in a straightforward and concise manner.
• Provides lots of tricks and short-cuts to solving specific problems. Points out how the wording in certain questions can help you get a question right.

-Disadvantages

• Their full-length tests evaluate you more on the precise information they teach rather than accurate AAMC material.
• Not conceptual enough if your understanding of any topic is weak.
• Their physics and chemistry is too concise. It is literally a review of information.
• I also used some of their 1001 Question series. These questions, like their full-length questions, test you in the material they specifically taught you. They are also easier than MCAT questions because they rely more on memorization than application.

Conclusion: Use this company if you just want to REVIEW material, not re-learn it. Avoid Examkrackers if you have a  weak grasp of chemistry or physics. You can use its visual aid as a course supplement.

PRINCETON REVIEW Cracking the MCAT 2010-2011 Edition-- One book that contains reviews of all five general subjects. Each chapter has a practice passage at the end. You also receive access to 4 full-length practice tests online.

-Advantages

• Straightforward and concise information.
• Excellent for refreshing basic concepts.
• Their practice tests are the most similar to the actual MCAT in reference to organization of questions, types of questions and timing.
• You can obtain optional feedback on the essays you write in the online tests.
• Their online tests gives you a report of the questions you got right and wrong. This is helpful to detect your weak areas.
• They also sell a review book per subject that contains more thorough information per subject.

-Disadvantages

• Review is not thorough; too summarized. It  is actually missing information in certain chapters.
• Not enough practice problems per chapter.
• Their full-length exams are MUCH harder than the MCAT. While this is good to help you learn it is unhelpful in regards to accurately tracking your progress, and it is also very frustrating to fail over and over. 
• In one of the practice tests I found material that I had not learn until I took Advanced Biochem. Enough said.
• Does not help you learn difficult concepts. Just review.

Conclusion: Use this book if you have to take the MCAT for a second time and the material from the first time is still fresh. Do not use it for actual learning or as a course supplement.

All of these books can be found in Amazon for a reasonable price.

Hope it helps!

The Waiting Game

    Once your secondaries are submitted, it's all out of your hands until you are called for an interview. It takes about a standard two to three weeks for them to review it, however, you will not hear from everyone right after they review you. The amount of time you will have to wait depends on when you submit your secondaries. Medical schools don't wait until everyone has submitted everything to then evaluate the applications. They start evaluating applications and having interviews as they come. They usually start interviewing in August through September and don't finish until March-April. While this is the general timeline some schools may finish interviews sooner than others, so it's important to submit everything early. A late secondary app submission is around November through December; the closer to the deadline of submission, the later it is.
     Submitting late has the small advantage that you will have to wait less than everyone else to hear the news (rejection or interview). But it has the large disadvantage of appearing like a redundant applicant to schools. If you are late, it means the admissions people have already viewed hundreds of other applicants. Unless you have an amazing application, it will be hard to stand out and still look refreshing when compared to all the previous candidates. You want all cards on your side for this.Schools will usually call if they want you, and email you if they don't, so now is the time to start taking calls on your phone from unknown numbers.
      The waiting game can be tough, especially when you submit early. You start hearing about peers who already have interviews; people keep asking you if you have heard from any schools all the time; then you receive your first rejection and that lowers your morale a little more. All the while there is nothing more you can do to increase your acceptance chances. During this period two key things will help: keeping busy and having a  plan B. Now that you are done working on the application process, you have free time! Use it to do anything that you may have put aside while applying. Hobbies, sports, people, anything. Go out, have fun, relax, put your mind in a different place to keep it from stressing out about the lack of news. It's easier to to do this when you have a plan B. With a career as competitive as medicine, the odds really come out to whoever is meant to be a doctor, will be a doctor. You have to be realistic about the competition and consider what would you do if you do not get in this year. Will you re-apply the next year? Take some time off to work, travel, do research, improve components in your application, apply to PA school? While everyone like to think they're amazing and they're hard work is bound to be noticed, there have been students with excellent numbers that have been rejected. Have a plan ready and don't lose hope. When you finally get that call, things will start looking up.

Filling And Organizing Your Secondaries!

    Once you submit the primary AAMC application,  it takes 6 weeks for it to get verified. Once get the green light, your secondaries will start coming in. You will receive an e-mail with instructions, a deadline and a link to the website where you will be filling everything out. Beware of secondaries arriving before your AAMC is verified. Often these require around $100 fee (or another large number) and a week later, they reject you. It's how they earn money. If you feel you are qualified for that particular school and you want to run the risk, it's on you. But if you feel your numbers are a a little off from the required ones at that school, wait until someone else applies first and hear their story. You don't want to throw money down the drain that you can use for another school.
    Secondary applications are a more personalized application for each school. Some schools send secondaries to all of their applicants, but some schools are more select. There is no way of telling which school is more selective or not other than by word of mouth, so fill out all the ones you receive just to be safe. Secondaries become difficult to manage because they tend to arrive at different dates and have different deadlines, they are located all in different websites (unlike the primary AAMC) and you can't do them all in one sitting. Some of them just require some basic information and a an essay answering a specific question. However, many of them ask several short-essay questions that are more personal and harder to answer, such as "Write a 800 word statement that tells us who you are", "What do you think makes a good leader?", "Tell us about an experience in which you had to deal with a negligent team member"; others require you to read specific ethical articles and respond to them.
     The questions they ask you should be thought of carefully and proofread a few times as if it was your personal statement all over again. Their admissions people selected those questions for a reason. For example, when they ask you what it means to be a good leader, there is no one correct answer they want. Studies have proven that when most people answer this question they look for characteristics that they already have that they think makes them a good leader. Rarely does someone answer this question objectively. So the admissions people evaluate how you look at yourself as well as your leadership qualities all in one question. The answer you give is not as important as what can be learned from you in it.
    If you are taking classes and applying at the same time it can become overwhelming to manage everything. The secondaries, however, should be prioritized at this point. The sooner they are submitted, the sooner you are considered for an interview and potentially given a call. Waiting is the worst part of the process, the less of it you have to do, the less stressed you will be.
Here are a few management tips that will make your life easier:

1) Create a file/section in your e-mail just for med school e-mails. This will make it easier for you to find information you receive instead of fishing for it in among all your other e-mails.

2) In your calendar and/or agenda write  out all the deadlines for the secondaries as you receive them. This way you know which ones you should fill out first and will give you an idea of how you can balance school with the applications.

3) Also make a list of the fees each one requires. Make sure you have the money to pay for all of them. Fees vary from $25 to $150 depending on the school. If you received the Financial Assistance waiver for AAMC primary, most schools will honor it and waive the secondary fee as well.

4) Copy-paste the questions into a word document and answer them in your own time. This way: you can still fill them out if your Internet connection is down or if it fails, you can send them to other people for proofreading, and you can make sure all the changes are saved as you write them. Some of the pages expire if "inactive" for a certain amount of time, so if you click submit or save after that time has passed, you will lose everything you wrote.

5) Having your secondary in a word document will make it easier for you to keep count of the number of words/characters you are writing. All of the questions have a limit, but most of them don't count the words as you write them. You will find yourself having to cut out sentences and phrases or having to add more to reach the requirement.

6) Some of the questions will overlap or require a similar answer. If the secondaries are saved in your computer you can easily copy-paste, and adjust the answer to save you time.

7) Research each school before filling out the respective secondary app. Most of them will ask you why you want to attend that particular school or what can you contribute to their growth. Answer this question for -each school as if they are all your top choice, to-die-for-dream-school. If the answer sounds generic they won't believe you. Plus they are more likely to interview someone that is thrilled about attending their school.

Hope it helps. Keep calm and start writing!

Getting Personal With Your MD Application

  In the 2011-2012 application year, about 44,000 people applied to medical school in the U.S . Each school receives about 3,000 to 5,000 applicant depending on the school's reputation and excellence. Each school enrolls a class of about 100 students. Not matter how many schools you apply to, those odds are slim. If you've done everything right, you should not let these numbers discourage you. But, how do you make sure you get picked out from a thousand others for an interview? Although GPA and MCAT scores are important, at this level they serve more as a cut off point. You passed the first test, but why would they pick you  between someone else with the same numbers? This is were your application comes in.

    Besides the transcripts, courses, scores, and basic biography, the application contains a section for extracurricular activities, and of course, the personal statement. These are your chances to point out what makes you different. You are not just a 3.6 GPA with a 28 MCAT. You are the president of the poetry club who has done lung cancer research for two years and works at a retail store to pay your expenses. The activity itself is not as important as the conclusions that can be drawn from it."President of the poetry club" means you have practiced leadership skills but also that you have dominance in the humanities as well as the sciences. Describing work experience tells schools that you have not been spoiled all your life and you know what it is to earn what you have and also that you managed good grades while working a certain amount of hours. When it comes to the application details such as these can be vital. 

      The AAMC application contains 15 slots for extracurricular activities. If you have less, search among your high school extracurricular. If you have more, try to compress them by category. For example, "physician shadowing" can be one category, "pre-med club" can be another if you participated in one, and so on.  The important thing is to make it as unique as possible. Show that you are a well-rounded human being, that your life has not revolved around studying for four years. There are three slots of these fifteen that can be marked as significant to your desire to become a physician. Although you have a limited amount of words, personal stories and experiences can and should be included in this area. Anything that couldn't fit into your personal statement can be re-located here. 

      Don't be shy, especially with the personal statement. Don't enumerate in length all of your activities in it. Talk about choices, difficulties you have faced in your life, your family, their history and anything that has shaped you into what you are. Think about it like a visit to the therapist. But instead of seeking for help, write about what you have done to overcome those difficulties and what you learned from those experiences. Life experience may not be an official requirement for medical schools, but it is one that makes you stand out. There may be experiences that are too personal, that you won't mention to just anybody. But they make you real to the admissions' people, so they must know.

       What makes you  unique, whether it's you hobbies, sports, music, or your family paints a picture to medical schools about the kind of doctor that you will be. This picture is what will get you interviews.

The Smart Way to Pick Which Med Schools to Apply

           By the time you have to apply to medical school, you may have heard which are the best schools just by reputation. However, if your MCAT score, GPA, and activities don't match up to their requirements, they may not be the best choice for you.

            In theory we all want to think that all of your hard work in the four years of college has put you above everyone else. This work will be seen by the most prestigious of schools and they may ignore a lower-than -expected-score for you. But the the truth is there are thousands of others working just as hard or harder than you. Ivy League schools recycle students among themselves. To break into their elite circle the student has to stand out in ALL areas of their application; something easier said than done. If you really want to be a doctor, the school you attend should not matter as much as the career. However, you still should not apply to a school you don't want to attend. Here are some tips to pick wisely:

1.  Research the acceptance score ranges of the schools you are interested in. If your MCAT is a 26 with a 3.5 GPA, but the average MCAT of the school is a 35 with a 3.8 GPA, then you would be wasting your money by applying. If your scores are too far off a school you want to go to, as much as it breaks your heart, cross it off. Applications are expensive and you should invest your money wisely.

2. Have two groups of schools to apply to: dream schools and realist schools. The realist schools are the ones that accept students with scores within you range. Don't let your ego get the best of you--if you have to apply to a Caribbean school, do it. The dream schools are a little out of your range, but not by much. Maybe your GPA falls within range, but your MCAT is off by a few points or vice verse. You should still look like a competitive candidate to them. If you are part of a minority group, your chances in getting an interview at a dream school increases.

3. Pick at LEAST two schools in your state of residency. They are required to accept a percentage of student of the same state. At the same time, you should apply to at least two out-of-state schools, even if you don't want to leave. Play all the cards. If out of state schools are more likely to accept you, then apply to more of them, and vice verse.

4. Of course you should consider factors such as weather, location, expenses, family and relationships when picking schools. You don't want to be stuck for four years in a place where you'll be miserable. Don't apply to a school you don't want to go. 

5. Research the curriculum focus of the schools as well. If it is a research oriented school, or an osteopathic school, educate yourself on it. They will want to see what they are looking for reflected in your application. If you have not done research, don't apply to a research-based school. At the same time, if you have lots of it, apply to more research oriented schools.

  There are resources out there that will help you measure your compatibility with schools. In the following link you can calculate this from your MCAT  scores and GPA http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html.

Also, in the AAMC page provided below, you can see the acceptance rates depending on ethnicity, GPA and MCAT.
https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html

Choose wisely and you will see results! :)

MCAT Strategies by Section

While you may think that knowing all your pre-req science courses back and forth should be enough to give you a good MCAT score, this alone is not enough. Other variables factor into your score, either to lower or to raise it. The MCAT does not just test you in your knowledge and its application; it tests you in your test-taking ability, how you can outsmart the test. Here are some of the strategies that helped me raise my score in each section.

A. Physical Sciences: Chemistry+ Physics

1) Since no calculator is allowed learning tricks to do quick math will help a LOT. The test won't have complicated numbers but it will have very big or small numbers. Converting those numbers to their scientific notation equivalents will make things faster.

2) Don't just memorize the equations, learn the relationships between variables. If you double the volume, what happens to the pressure? Many students read the questions searching for an equation to use, but if you know the variable relationships, you won't even need to use the formula. If you get stuck, try to think about what is going on in the problem conceptually. For example: if you double the volume that means the molecules will be less compressed and have more space to move around, hence the volume should decrease by the same factor.

3) Another variable relationship trick: If in the equation the variables are multiplied, they are inversely proportional. If they are divided (or you can rearrange the equation to make it so), then they are directly proportional. For example: PV=nRT. P and V are inverse to each other, but they are both directly proportional to T.

4) DON'T skip passages and do the easy ones first. Do the passages in order. This way you have a better idea of how much you have left in relation to the time left. Skipping sections gives you a false sense of confidence because you feel you have plenty of time. Then when you get stuck in the harder passages you will spend more time in them thinking you can afford it and time will slip. When this happens you will rush the remaining passages and get a higher percentage of the questions wrong. Spending and equal amount of time in each passage and then going back to double check the harder ones will work in your favor.

5) If the answer seems to easy, it's probably wrong. Amateurs fall for this one, you must eliminate it at once.

6) Educated guessing!!! Especially in harder questions when you are pressed for time. You are graded in the amount of questions you get right, but you are not penalized for the wrong ones. So never leave a question blank!

B. Verbal Section


1) Find what works for YOU. Many test prep companies offer recycled advise from the SAT verbal. However, the MCAT is made foolproof against those strategies. The whole summarizing each paragraph?  Time wasted. Identifying the type of subject (i.e. philosophy, art, religion) in the passage? Time wasted. Looking for the main idea? Time wasted. The test will rarely ask you that directly because it's what everyone expects. Experiment with different tips and use the ones that benefit you the most.

2) Paraphrase the questions AND the answers.

3) With the allotted time for the section, training yourself to do each passage in about 7-8 minutes should give you enough time to finish and go back to double check answers. So memorize the time intervals for each passage, for example, by 52 minutes left you should be in the second passage already and so on. This one helped me a lot.

4) Pretend everything you are reading in the most interesting thing in the world!!!! Allowing yourself to start thinking it's boring will let your focus slip, make you lose information and re-read. Actual interest in the subject makes you capture more information without re-reading.

5) Read the first half of the passage first. Then read the questions and answer the ones pertaining to that half. The read the second half and answer the remaining questions. Sometimes you don't even have to read the whole passage to answer all the questions.

6) Reading the questions first might make you focus on searching for the answers to them. But some of them are application, so you need to get the basic theme of the passage to answer them. I advise against reading the questions first.

7) Practice taking the verbal section right after you have taken a practice physical section. This is the order in which the sections appear in the MCAT. You may do great taking a verbal practice by itself. But when you take it after the Physical your score may lower because of the weariness of your mind from the previous section. This will give you a more accurate idea of what your score will be.

C. Biological Sciences: Bios+ Orgos

1) Index cards are your friends! Write it all out and test yourself over and over. Bio is mainly memorization.

2) Watch Youtube videos on the bodily systems. It helps you learn and visualize better. If your native language is not English, then watch them in your native language; it helps you remember the system better.

3) Orgo questions are very basic. Memorizing every single reaction there is will be pointless. Learn to recognize possible products from reactions.

4)Hormones: They're all about cause and effect. Learn not just what they do but what would happen to the rest of the body if they are in overdose, mutated, or deficient. Also recognize which symptoms would be caused by which hormones. There's an insane amount of questions on hormones, so learn to love them.

5)Genetics: know how to predict probabilities of genes occurring in different scenarios. Know how to read a  pedigree chart and trace back from offspring to grandparent the genotypes and phenotypes.

IN GENERAL


1) The more time you practice taking the test, the more comfortable you will feel for it. Practicing taking longer versions of the test will also help a lot.

2) Princeton Review's tests are known to be much harder than many of the other prep companies AND the actual MCAT itself. Their score is not accurate, so don't lose your cool if you keep scoring low in these.

3) When you practice, make the environment as similar to the test as possible. Shut off your phone, browsers, go to a quiet place where you can't be bothered and don't cheat in taking longer breaks than you should.

4) Study all sections equally. If you focus more time on a section you think is your weakest, the rest of them WILL fall a few points. Don't get cocky with your expertise in certain subjects.

5) Aim high. Hardly anyone actually gets the score they want, so the higher you aim, the higher your actual score will be.

Hope it helps! Good luck!

Memoirs of an MCAT Mental Breakdown

    Oh, the MCAT,  nightmare of every pre-med student. Whether you're studying on your own or taking a course, it's hard. Four hours of unrelenting focus and top speed intelligence power testing you in four years worth of material and more. Its score will define which Medical Schools you will be able to get into or at least apply. For all those of you going through this process right now, let me share my story with you.
    In the Summer between my Junior and Senior year of college, I scheduled to take my MCAT. I studied on my own using books from different companies. I tested which ones worked the best for me, the made an eight week study plan to prepare for it. In the first five weeks, I would be reviewing all the material covered, and in the last three weeks I would practice practice practice. I was not taking classes, working or anything else at the time. All my time was for the MCAT. The plan seemed brilliant at first but I oversaw one minor detail...
    For those first five weeks, all I did was study. Literally. Weekends, days, nights. I predicted a "directly proportional relationship" between the time I studied and the improvement in my practice test scores. Close to the end of the five weeks hit a rut, stuck in a score of 23 ( I was aiming for a 30). Eight hours of studying a day and I couldn't get past the 23. Slowly the frustration and stress crept in my brain. I started losing sleep. I slept uneasily thinking about test questions, formulas, or I would stay awake thinking of what would I do if I never got into medical school. Would I take a year off and re-apply? What would I do in that time? Should I apply to Caribbean schools as well? The more I thought about it the more stressed I became. The day after a sleepless night,  I would be tired but I would forced myself to study anyway--not an effective strategy. Studying while tired only made my frustration ad stress grow as missed questions from material I knew. I began to take sleeping pills to aid my rest.
  Two and a half weeks before the test I was still stuck in a 23, and I was considering cancelling the exam, when my dad called. He asked me how was I feeling for the test. Before I could manage a "fine" I broke down crying. And when I say crying I mean BAWLING my eyes out, sobbing-can't-breathe-I'm-a-fourth-year-old-little-girl crying. After he calmed me down, I told him all I was doing to prepare for the test. He analyzed my plan, then said, " I see.Maybe you should try studying less?" I went ballistic. LESS? Study less? Two  and a half weeks before and I should study less. He explained there was so much information that a brain could take in a day and it needed time to process it all. Tiring it day upon day would not yield results. Finding the prefect balance between relaxing and studying  in optimal conditions would be the best thing to do. Even if it did involve studying less.
  While I did follow that advice, it came in too late. Had I done that from the beginning, I might have had higher than a 24. Nevertheless, I took the test again the following January and with the advice and five weeks of studying, instead of 8, I scored two points higher.
    So when you're studying, PLEASE, remember to relax. Take a day off in the week. Go out with your friends. Its ok to have fun. Be confident in yourself and don't let it get to you. Keep in mind that the MCAT is not taking you, YOU are taking it. Good luck :)

Hard Work Pays Off!!

    Take it from somebody that recently got accepted into Medical School. Hard Work. Pays. Off. However, before you get to that moment when everything starts going right, you must go through a few years where things seem to go nowhere. You must really WORK HARD. Weeks after weeks where all you do is go to the library (or wherever it is you study), do research, volunteer work,no personal time, little sleep, it's like you're hiding in your own personal cave.

      You WILL reach moments when you doubt the choosing this career at all. Is it really worth it? Do I really want to be a doctor this badly? Is there anything else easier to do? It is at these moments when the really devoted students come through, and when the people that are in it for the wrong reasons switch to something else. If you are one of those that have made it through the darkest of the night, this blog post is for you.    

       When you finally get the call for your first interview, it's like spotting an oasis in the desert. Waiting for the call is the most stressful period because at this point because you've done all you can do, and there's nothing else but to wait. If you're at this stage, you are almost there. But if you haven't, keep going!! Being stubborn ( or as I like to call it--perseverant lol) will come in very handy. Through every all-nighter, through every marathon of tests, through hours and hours of MCAT studying, keep going!!!! Don't let any of these get you down. Because the day you've been waiting for gets closer and closer with each step. If you are a true physician at heart you know the goal is worth it. Getting there can be a long, frustrating journey, but you can do it. Keep away from insecure thoughts. Doubts just bring weak behavior and even more doubting thoughts. Don't loose focus from the goal. Every step is one step closer.