Archive for category Pre-med
MedChatter – A Student Community Resource
MedChatter
Some of you may know my good friend Joshua and his blog MedHopeful.com. I just wanted to introduce the new project he’s involved in MedChatter.com
Their aim is to be the #1 resource for Canadian premedical and medical students. They have a forum, lots of blog posts, articles and resources. I’m excited for them. We’ll see if they can get as big as premed101, the current undisputed community for Canadian medical school admissions information.
Sometime in the past, I wanted to create a website/community similar to MedChatter, but the constraints and responsibilities of medical school just didn’t provide enough time to do that. I am quite content with how this blog has turned out so far, it has been a great learning experiment in the world of blogging.
Go Check out MedChatter if you haven’t already. I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it was helpful. All of Josh’s old articles are there and they are extremely well written and thought out. This is coming from a down to earth guy who won over $100,000+ in scholarships and is humble about it.
Canadian Medical Schools Prerequisites Summary
Posted by medaholic in Admissions, Pre-med on February 15, 2010
The single most effective thing you can do to improve your chances of getting into medical school is to complete the right prerequisites. The more prerequisites you do, the more medical schools you will be eligible for and the greater your chances will be for an acceptance letter. Attached below is a table of all the Canadian schools and their prerequisites, including whether they require the MCAT and a degree. (Click on the picture to enlarge)
After looking at this table, you would see the most important courses to take would be are the following. Duration of each course may vary between schools, check the individual school websites for more complete information.
- Biology - 1 year
- General Chemistry – 1 year
- Organic Chemistry – 1 year
- Physics - 1 year
- Biochemistry – 0.5 year
- Social Sciences – 1 year
It is also in your best interest to take the MCAT as almost all schools require it. Surprisingly, only a handful of schools require you to complete a degree before starting medical school.
[Note] The courses do not have to be completed by the time you apply, they only have to be completed before you enroll into medical school. Eg. You can apply for medical school in September while taking Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry during that year.
Hopefully this will save you some time and help you plan your course selections. If you have any further questions, please leave a comment below and I will try to answer them all here.
Learning to Learn in Med School
Posted by medaholic in Medical School, Pre-med, Studying, Thoughts on December 31, 2009
http://www.flickr.com/photos/curious_zed/500646353/
Learning in medical school is quite different from learning in a undergraduate setting. The concepts of medicine themselves aren’t that hard to grasp or different from the biochemistry, physiology and general biology in a typical premed course.
Simply put, each individual concept in medicine is easy to understand; connecting all the ideas and knowledge together is the more challenging part and is what makes a doctor. The increased volume of knowledge, need for long term retention and integration with clinical skills is what makes learning in medical school different, but not necessarily more difficult. Although, I have only studied medicine for a short time, I have begun to notice what works for me and what doesn’t and would like to share my own lessons on learning medicine.
1. Be an Active Learner, not a Passive Student
Learning is fun! As a medical student in preclinical and clinical years, your main responsibility is to learn, doing so in a respectful and enjoyable manner. No one is as responsible for your education than yourself. It’s your job to make sure you acquire the knowledge and clinical skills needed to become a competent doctor, not your school, not the licensing board, but YOU!
Do you still remember your transition from high school to university and how nobody was there to hold your hand anymore when it came to learning? Same goes in medical school. Luckily, there is no shortage of things to learn and do in medicine. Don’t feel obliged to just stick to just whatever the professor or lecturer says in the classroom, medicine is a far broader field than most know. Shadow, get clinical exposure, talk to physicians and learn outside of the classroom. Don’t spend all your time just focusing on material that you will be tested on, take time to learn what is important and essential to the practice of medicine! You would be surprised how poorly what is tested and what is important correlate, just ask a practicing doctor.
Remember that you are not in medical school to get good grades so you can get into the residency of your choice. That may have been true in your undergraduate studies, but it shouldn’t be in medical school. You are studying to become a doctor and you should ensure that you take the necessary steps to become a good one. Never let school get in the way of your education.
2. Nobody Remembers Everything their First Time Around
There is a lot of memorization in medicine, there is no avoiding it. But even the brightest students don’t remember everything their first time through. Spaced and constant exposure to the material is needed for any long term memory to be created.
Cramming may work to pass an exam but I highly doubt you will learn anything in the end. That is why I have found frequent reading and continual exposure critical to acquiring and retaining large amounts of knowledge. You may not remember all your antibiotics and bugs the first time through, but the more you repeat it, the better it sticks.
However, I must caution against repeating a lecture over and over again. Many schools record their lectures for student convenience and I think it is a waste of time to attend a lecture and then to go home replay the same lecture. Not only are you spending twice the time to cover the content, you are also becoming a passive learner who is hoping to absorb all the information by osmosis. It is the same as glazing over lecture notes repetitively but never taking the time to grasp the concepts. That is why focused and active learning must always take place.
3. Build a Basic Skeleton, then Fill in the Details
With the vast amount of knowledge to be learned, it’s quite common to get caught up with memorizing minutiae. After all, most exam questions tend to be focused on specific nitpicky facts. However, if a skeleton of knowledge isn’t built for each topic before these details are learned, it becomes hard to keep track of all the information floating around.
For any disease, I try to approach it in a systematic and consistent way. I like to start with a good definition or summary sentence for each new term. Using a good medical dictionary (and acronym and abbreviation dictionary) can make a big difference. Mondofacto, MedTerms, Medline, MediLexicon, Taber’s or even a dictionary or wikipedia are good sources.
Always start with the basics if you do not know them. Normal human physiology, anatomy, biochemistry, etc should be understood first before learning about the abnormal pathophysiology and disease states.
Apart from Etiology, Epidemiology, Clinical Signs, Diagnostic Tests, Treatment, Prognosis, etc I try to summarize the main points for each disease on one page of paper. Often a review book such as Toronto Notes or First Aid can be an excellent resource to learn the key and essential facts. Once you have the main points down, feel free to fill in any additional details.
4. Learn from Multiple Perspectives – Peers included
It would be a shame if your entire medical education was based on just your class lectures and recommended readings. Sure, the material you will be tested on will be from these notes but there is also a lot of material that will be left out that is important! Furthermore, class notes are often poorly organized and sometimes even incorrect.
Better yet, once you begin learning from multiples sources (and not just wikipedia) you will be able to differentiate what is important and what is not. The key concepts and facts will be repeated in multiple books because … they are important! Even comparing your class notes with a textbook will help you organize the information better and in turn you will spend less time with irrelevant material.
This applies to more than just textbooks. Learn from different teachers, learn on the wards and learn from your peers. There are a lot of nifty learning aids and tools that you may be unaware of.
5. Make the Knowledge Your Own
Take ownership of the things you learn about. If that means rearranging lecture slides into something you can understand, do it! Mark up your textbook with multi-colored highlighters and side notes if it will help you learn. If you want to learn the difference between multiple diseases, creating a comparison table is an excellent exercise and quick visual aid you can use.
Similarly, creating your own mnemonics or finding ones you will remember can make dry material more interesting. Create songs, rhymes and dances when possible.
Every time you create your own notes, you are reorganizing the information in a way that you can understand and digest. However, I would caution against just copying out notes mindlessly. You must organize the information to suit how you learn.
6. Ask Questions
There is no quicker and effective way to find your gaps of knowledge than by asking questions. That is why tests are such a practical tools in learning and that is why pimping (pdf) by attendings can be beneficial to you.
The pursuit of knowledge begins with a good question. After going over a topic, I like to turn over my notes and ask myself some questions. What did I just learn? Why is such and such important? How does this relate to this other condition? How can I differentiate between this and that? In doing so, not only do I come to realize what I don’t know, but I also create links between different concepts which further solidify my base of knowledge.
7. See one, Do one, Teach one
The old adage of seeing one, doing one and teaching one holds true when practicing clinical skills. It combines the best of repetition, active learning, different perspectives and taking ownership to help you learn and remember.
All students will observe, proactive learners will do, few will teach. I guarantee that if you take the time to teach somebody else a topic or a technique, you will end up benefiting from the experience. Even though I am not a big fan of group studying, one type of group work I do enjoy is when every group member first does their own reading and studying and then comes together for a review session. Every member is assigned a topic to go over and teach; they are to be the expert. By teaching in front of your peers, you get to know your topic inside and out because you will need to outline and explain all the concepts clearly. Furthermore, your peers will ask questions that can identify your weaknesses and similarly, they can contribute to the discussion if details were left out.
8. Practice Makes Perfect
Finally, I’ve come to realize that the journey I am on is a long one and everything doesn’t always come easy the first time around. I often forget my anatomy or confuse two different things for each other. I mispronounce drug names and many times I just don’t know. But luckily, I am still in the early stages and there is much more to go and with dedicated practice, I will improve. It’s important to set high standards but not to be too hard on yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were doctors in days, weeks or even a year. It takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in a field (Outliers, Gladwell) which roughly works out to be somewhere after medical school and in residency. And even though I feel as if I have learned a lot, I know that there is still much more to learn ahead of me. So I look forward with optimism and excitement because I am slowly getting better at learning and I find learning medicine fun. =)
If you have any tips on how to learn, please leave a comment. I would love to hear how other people approach their learning!
Nothing Can Prepare You for Medical School
Posted by medaholic in Medical School, Pre-med on June 4, 2009
Looking back over my first year of medical school, I can say it has exceeded my expectations. It was life changing. It was exciting. Definitely thought provoking. School was tough and I ended up learning a lot about myself as a person. Thinking back, there’s nothing I could have done the summer before starting to prepare myself for this journey.
Don’t Pre-Study – There is really no point in reading textbooks, studying anatomy, learning biochemistry or doing anything academic related before starting school. For one, they’ll teach you all the medicine you will need, and in a more organized and structured format. Secondly, you will be learning medicine for the rest of your career. It really is life-long learning, the education doesn’t end in the classroom. What’s an extra 3-4 months of your own self-study, before you know anything, going to do? You won’t even know what you don’t know. You will have no clinical setting to learn and practice in.
What you Should do - There are a number of activities I would recommend people do before starting medical school. A lot of them are practical and many of these things will help answer questions you will eventually think about.
Get a Job – Medical school is expensive. If you can, be productive with your time. Do something you like where you can learn. Most people find it hard to hold a job while studying for classes in medical school. The more you earn now, the more less worried you will be financially during next year.
Travel – See the world. Remember, these are one of the last summers where you have large chunks of time do pursue anything you want. For people going into 3 year programs, your summers are over! Take advantage of the few remaining breaks you have to do something you have always wanted to do. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Have a Meaningful Volunteer Experience
There are a lot of reasons to volunteer your time. You can make a positive contribution to your community, help people who need it and learn about yourself and how to serve with others. However, too many people volunteer for the sake of making themselves a more “competitive” applicant. A lot of hospital volunteers do so only because it seems like everyone else is doing it. If you are one of these people, I would like you to consider NOT volunteering.
- Find something you Enjoy Doing – If you’re going to give away your time without any monetary reward, you might as well choose an activity you enjoy doing. By choosing something you like, you will be less likely to think of it as a burden. You won’t feel as if you are wasting your time helping others. For example, if you like working with kids, volunteer with Big Brothers and Sisters instead of at an old folks home. If you like teaching, tutor someone instead of being a fundraiser organizer.
- Put your strengths and skills to use – If you’re good at public speaking, find an activity that takes advantage of that. If you are musically inclined, consider volunteering with music programs for disadvantaged or sick people. By finding a volunteer position that uses the talents you already have, you will find yourself to have a much more important role. Everyone likes to feel useful and that their actions matter. Choose an activity where your talents can be fully appreciated.
- Make it Fit with your Schedule – Volunteering is the giving away of your time and talents. Make sure you only give away the time you want to. If your evenings are your most productive study times, you will do a big disservice to your school work if you choose to volunteer at that time. Consider whether you would prefer volunteering in a large chunk of time once a week or several sessions of shorter periods. The secret is to pick something that works for you and is less likely to disrupt your regular routine. The more it fits with your schedule, the more you will stay committed and enjoy it.
- Location, Location, Location - The distance to your volunteering position matters. You don’t want to commute an hour just for a one hour volunteer session. Likewise, if you don’t have a car, an accessible venue is a must. A place that is convenient will make your volunteering sustainable for the long run. If you volunteer near where your parents work, you could catch a ride back home if the timing is correct.
- Work with Good People – A good supervisor can make such a big difference. It is the difference between doing mundane menial tasks and exciting, rewarding roles. If the organization is full of volunteers who are not friendly and open, it can make you dread your placement. Another suggestion, volunteer with friends that you know you can work and get along with or take the chance to meet new people. Almost all volunteer jobs work in teams. You might as well work in a good one.
- Choose a position where you can learn and grow - There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a repetitive and boring job. Pick something where there are things to learn, challenges to overcome and small variations. Whether that’s something where you talk to different people every time or a job where you constantly with changing responsibilities, new challenges and situations will keep you thinking and motivated. Really take advantage of volunteering to understand something you didn’t know before and pick up new skills.
And if you don’t enjoy, or even dread, your current volunteer position. Don’t do it. If you’ve made a minimum commitment, finish the end of your term and then drop it. I once applied for a research volunteering role which sounded good on paper. I was interviewed and accepted over several other candidates. However, when I showed up for my first shift, it turned out I was doing data entry and filing paperwork. After my first 3 hour session, I dropped it immediately and never felt better. The hours weren’t flexible, their was no communication with the supervisor, it was out of the way, a monkey had the skills to do the job, and I was simply not interested in office work.
I went on to run teaching sessions with ESL international students and I loved it. The job was challenging, interactive and fun. I enjoyed preparing and running each weekly session. I was even kind of sad when the sessions ended.
Volunteer for the right reasons. Volunteer only when it works for you. If you feel like your current position is a drag, consider the factors above and see if you can change any of them to fit you better. After all, if you are going to give up your time and energy, you might as well do it on your terms.
Don't Choose a School Based on Prestige
Posted by medaholic in Medical School, Pre-med on March 23, 2009
It’s a common mistake to think that going to the most prestigious university or medical school will lead to greatness. Often when we read the profiles of highly acclaimed scientists and doctors, it seems like an Ivy League education or a degree at a top school is needed to achieve success. This idea of belonging to a prestigious and famous institution leads to success is in fact backwards. You won’t become a successful person just because you went to Harvard or the likes.
The reality is that these schools attract people who are already successful. Highly accomplished individuals will choose prestigious schools because it is often there that they will receive the resources and funding needed to continue their work. The faculty of the best universities don’t go there to become a successful person. They are there because they are already qualified and that happens to be the best environment for them.
In the long run, it’s much more important to find a school that will help you help you develop as a person. As Terence Tao, a world-famous mathematician, says “It is common to focus on the general prestige of the institution, but actually it is the specific strengths of an institution which should play a more important role in your decisions.”
At any institution, it’s much more important to find opportunities and positions that enrich yourself. The old cliche, “it’s better to a big fish in a small pond that a small fish in the ocean” should be in the back of your mind when you are choosing schools. Everyone should find the place that fits them best, sometimes that happens to be a prestigious sounding university, but more often than not, it doesn’t have to be.
In medicine, you will get your prestige and respect regardless of where you graduate from. If you are a fully licensed doctor who is competent and good at what you do, patients won’t care where you did your training. A job well done is a job well done.
When you do end up choosing a school, the real factors you should consider are 1) location, 2) quality of program, 3) finances. Each school has a different fit for each person. A perfect school for you may not be for someone else.
If you understand the relative insignificance fame and glory, and base your decisions on rational and personal reasons that matter, you will be much better off in the long run. After all, it’s not the credentials and degrees after your name that matters, but what you can do with what you have learned that matters.
The Road to Medical School [Video]
Posted by medaholic in Admissions, Interview, Medical School, Pre-med on March 17, 2009
Getting into medical school is tough work. We often get so caught up with the whole rat race and the plethora of hoops to jump through that we forget to look at the humor and comedy involved. I came upon a video put on by the University of Alberta for their 2009 interview weekend.
The video is about the typical path a premed must journey through and the many types of people he will encounter along the way. I hope you enjoy it.
Links
Studying Can be Fun – Microbiology and Pokemon
Eventually at one point, memorizing large amounts of information becomes tedious. In my current case, studying dozens of infectious diseases can be quite boring. Learning about different bugs and their structural make-up, virulence mechanisms, mode of transmission, clinical presentations, diagnostic methods, treatment and prevention can soon become mindless.
A few weeks ago I browsing around in a bookstore when I stumbled upon a Pokemon picture book in the children’s section. Having been an avid player back in the day, I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the book that I could still identify most of the creatures. Not only that, I could also recall their characteristics, special attacks, locations of capture and weaknesses. This got my brain thinking. Learning and memorizing doesn’t have to be boring, it can be fun. If you have the interest and time commitment, recognizing bacteria can be very much like recognizing pokemon. So I have created a table below (strictly for academic reasons of course!) contrasting a bacteria and a pokemon, to show that studying can sometimes be fun and silly too.
| Shigella | Pikachu | |
| Species | Invasive Gut Bacteria | Mouse Pokemon |
| Picture |  |
 |
| Type | Gram-negative, Non-spore forming, Rod shaped | Electric |
| Physical Description | No distinct nucleus, lacks internal structures | Short, chubby, ground dwelling rodent. Yellow fur with brown stripes on back and black-tipped ears. A tail resembling a lightning bolt. |
| Related Species / Strains | S. Dysenteriae
S. flexneri S. boydii S. sonnei |
Pichu
Raichu |
| Endemic Locations | Confined populations
Refugee camps Developing countries |
Viridian Forest
Power Plants |
| Habitat | Found in unhygienic environments, fecal contaminated areas | Found mostly in forests, though due to of attraction to electricity, seen in civilized areas too |
| Risk Factors / Groups | Contaminated food, immunocompromised, HIV/AIDS, weak gut | Flying and Water Type Pokemon are high risk groups |
| Mode of Transmission | Oral-fecal | Pokeball, herd movement |
| Pathogenesis | Stationary growth phase to avoid stomach acid, Entry into M cells and lamina propria of intestine | Evolves from Pichu. Can invade homes, harmful pests around wires and electronics |
| Toxins / Abilities / Virulence Factors | IcsA (intracellular spread protein)
Shiga Toxin |
Tail Whip
Quick Attack Thunderbolt Slam Thunder |
| Clinical Symptoms | Bloody diarrhea with mucus & pus, fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps, bowel movement, seizures, coma, reactive arthiritis | Most common symptom, lightning has a chance of causing paralysis.
Burnt grass and objects, as result of electric discharge. |
| Diagnosis | WBC in Stool
Stool Culture for Shigella |
Pokedex |
| Treatment | Amoxicillin. Fluoroquinolones (cipro), TMP / SMX, rehydration | Ground based attacks are super effective (eg Earthquake, Dig, Fissure) |
| Resistance | Some antibiotic resistance with genetic mutations. | Resistant to electric, flying and steel attacks. |
| Prevention | Hand washing, proper cooking of food | Proper use of pokeballs, frequent discharge of electric cheeks |
I’m sure you can see how these two areas of study can overlap significantly. The possibilities are up to you. Make learning and studying fun. Always try to look at old things in a new way.
Why You Shouldn't Volunteer
Many med school applicants volunteer for the sake of volunteering. They do it to write on their CV. They do it because everyone else is doing it. They volunteer because they believe it is what they should be doing. To all the volunteers with this mentality, “You’re wasting your time.”
When I use the term volunteering in this post, I am describing the many extracurricular activities people pursue. It can be helping out at the soup kitchen, spending time with residents at a nursing home, tutoring ESL students. Any item on a typical premed laundry list. Now I understand that there are many instances where volunteering has a tremendous impact – running into a burning house to save a life, performing the Heimlich maneuver, forming a search party for missing individuals. I am not talking about these brave acts of volunteerism. I am talking about plain old, “I volunteer at a hospital, giving directions, providing drinks and warm blankets to patients, handling paper work.”
The main criteria of volunteering is that one offers an act of service without pay. So whether you’re a big brother/sister, a child care volunteer, doing data entry, coach of a sports team, playing piano for your church, communicating with dialysis patients, helping out in an African orphanage, you’re all doing this free of charge. The problem with the majority of volunteering activities is that they do not offer any valuable service. The easiest way to determine if you’re volunteering is worth anything, ask yourself, “how much would someone pay for me to do my job?” For the majority of cases: absolutely nothing.
There would be no difference if a volunteer disappeared, most organizations would still be functional. The hospitals would run just fine, perhaps maybe even better without all the confusion, training and interruptions of volunteers. Some will argue that teaching English to third-world children is valuable, English tutors are expensive! I would agree with you too, except for the fact that you cannot teach someone English in a week, a month, a summer or even a year. When you decide to give up several years of your life teaching English for free in a foreign country, I will change my mind. If you were a cardiovascular surgeon volunteering to do heart transplants for free, you are making a difference. For the majority of people who volunteer for the sake of doing it, the volunteering you do has no value.
Money is power. It allows people to buy useful goods and services. Volunteering does not generate any money, which leads to the point that volunteering is not self-sustaining. People cannot work for free forever, we all have bills to pay, necessities to buy. Eventually, funding will have to be brought in from somewhere. Even charity staff are paid for their work. Furthermore, if you’re motivation for volunteering is to put it on your CV, as a resume padder, you will hate your job. You will be emotionally drained. You are better off not volunteering at all.
So am I against volunteering? Absolutely not. Volunteering has a lot of good merits and I believe people should volunteer. Medical schools will look favourable on volunteer experiences. What I want to get across is to volunteer for the right reasons. Volunteering won’t change the world, but volunteering will change you. You will learn and grow with your experiences and hopefully, you can go on afterwards to change the world.
[Article coming soon: How to make the most of your Volunteering]
Learn Using What Works For You
A big change in medical school is to be surrounded by the same classmates, day in and day out, everyday for at least the next two years. Naturally, you begin to observe their studying habits. Some print out their notes and follow the lectures in class, coloring them with six shades of highlighters. Others, open up their laptops and follow the presentation on their own screen while chatting away on facebook.
A lot of people like to study in groups; much time is spent “pimping” each other on obscure facts from lectures. Some use group study time to learn from others or as an opportunity to teach. Most student-made notes and study cheat sheets are shared with each other.
I’ve tried many different learning methods since starting medical school, changing it up to see if I can become a better student. I’ve tried copying what other people do, maybe by imitating their study styles, I’ll become more effective. After two months, I’ve come to realize I must do what my instinct has been telling me all along.
Study the way that fits you. I should be true to my own learning methods and continue to do them. I’m a visual learner who does most of my education outside of the classroom. For me, nothing is more effective than a big chunk of time in front of class notes, textbooks and making my own notes. Lectures aren’t effective for me, I retain absolutely nothing. Flashcards are nice, but whenever I make them, I don’t use them. I don’t listen to podcasts and reading notes over and over again doesn’t do it for me.
And for the past two weeks I’ve gone back to my old and time-tested methods. And I have never felt more confident with my choice. I am beginning to grasp the concepts taught quicker and in more depth. I use less time to study more topics. I skip class occassionally and I don’t feel guilty. Use what works for you. Learn the way you are most comfortable with. Knowing how you best study is important. Don’t be intimidated by people who learn differently from you. Do what you do best. After all, it got you through undergrad and into medical school and I guarantee it will get you through pre-clinical years.
I’ve heard clinical learning though is completely different.