The test is over so I’m saying it out loud now.
I still have to look at the results but I can already tell you what I got. Besides Physiology, I got anywhere from 40% (at the worst) to 70% (at the best) on every other subject tested. This estimate is based on the results I was getting the practice Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) I was taking and how confident I was answering each question on the actual exam. This is about as bad as I was expecting it to go and this is exactly where I didn’t want to be, one month into medical school. And like I always say, when you try and completely fail, it’s time to change the pattern – doing twice as much of the same is just an exercise in futility and recipe for disaster.
And besides, I couldn’t study twice as hard if I tried. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.
[Physiology is a different story. Like I’ve said a couple times in the past, I’ve previously taken Human Physiology twice and Animal Physiology once. Besides the equations which I committed to memory (Fick’s Law of Diffusion, Van’t Hoff Equation, Nerst Equation, Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz Equation), I didn’t waste a single hour studying for Physiology. (And of course, there wasn’t a single question that required any of the equations.) Without even looking at my notes, right now, I could tell you everything there is to know about action potentials, the effects of ionic concentrations across membranes, and the importance of solute concentrations in solutions of varying osmolarities.]
I had a study strategy from the day school started and, for the most part, I stuck to it. It didn’t work so I’m going to do something new. In other words, for everyone reading who’s been following along, disregard every study tip I’ve shared on this blog for the past month. If you follow it, you’re going to fail.
(This also makes me wonder how many current medical students read my blog and have been waiting for me to fall on my ass.)
*squints eyes*
The good news is I still have time to fix my mistakes and change what I’ve been doing. And after taking Mini 1, I have a lot more information to go off of when it comes to what I think is going to work best.
First of all, this exam is the hardest test you would have ever taken (just like the MCAT before it). The difference between the Mini’s and the MCAT is that the MCAT challenges you through the way in which questions are asked of you (passage based questions, focusing on critical thinking instead of strict memorization) and the Mini’s challenge you to bring your own information to the table in order to answer the questions efficiently. For as much information they curriculum throws at you on a daily basis, they also expect you to expand upon that information on your own and in addition.
I’m not saying that the exam is going to test you on information that hasn’t been given to you.
I’m saying if all you do is sit in class, pay attention, review, re-read, and self-test yourself, you’re only going to have a fraction of the information that’s presented to you on the actual exam – the important fraction, but still just a fraction. You could piece it together, if necessary, but you’re still missing big chucks (and you’re clearly missing the point).
The majority of questions are going to be asked with their clinical applications in mind. If it’s a bone question about the medial epicondyle of the humerous, it’s most likely going to reference a common injury that leads to damage (fracture, break, avulsion) of the medial epicondyle of the humerous and it’ll test you on the effected nerves and arteries in the surrounding area or the new found limited movements of the associated limbs and the muscles that are compensating for the resulting loss of function. If it’s a question about a particular enzyme that inhibits a ribosomal subunit, it’s going to reference a common disease that affects that enzyme’s ability to function and it’ll test you on the body’s response to cope with that stress. Without the context in which to frame the question correctly, the majority of the questions might as well be written in foreign languages. Through it all, you’re left sifting through the scraps, attempting to narrow down answer choices. And all you end up with is the most likely correct answer, never with absolute certainty of its correctness.
You’re left to connect the dots in the moment, when in reality, the dots have most likely already been connected – you just have to put in the active, extra effort to look.
From the practice questions I’ve been doing for the past few days, this is a problem I knew was coming. This is also the reason why I’ve been spending so much time on Wikipedia. (And no, if I ever make it to graduation, I’m not going to use Wikipedia as my primary source of information. If I have a question, I’ll reference the proper medical journals or friends that are smarter than me on the subject. Wikipedia is just too good a tool and there just isn’t enough time for anything else.)
My new strategy for Mini 2 (in one month) is this:
- Start going to all non-Anatomy classes (again) and focus on subject matter that is either stressed by the professor or is particularly confusing. Write that down, underline it, and highlight it (and whatever else it takes to get my attention later). That night, hop on Wikipedia, research, and read about common, clinically related applications for that topic.
- Continue skipping Anatomy and “Media Site” it online later. (I like to take my time in drawing each bone, muscle, nerve, and artery.)
- Hunt down different sources of MCQs on all the subjects and attempt to answer them on a daily or bi-daily basis. Find out what I don’t know and check out (whatever it is) on Wikipedia later that day.
- Attempt to preview all classes again, before lecture. A quick scan of the Power Point files, at the minimum.
(I've had a couple days to think about what I'd do differently and this is what I came up with.)
I’ll try to stick to this approach for the next month and see how it works. I’m going to be all over Wikipedia and hopefully, it’s going to get me through medical school.
(And it better work or I’m going to be repeating 1st semester.)









