I wrote a book! Atypical Premed Available Now!!!!

Click the picture to buy now!

I am excited to announce that I finally wrote and published my first book!

I have teased about writing a book over the past few years, but for various reasons I never finished the process. Well, it's a new decade and a great reason to stop procrastinating, so I finally got it done.

Writing this book was certainly not easy! I not only wrote the book, but completely self published meaning I was responsible for making sure every aspect was complete from finding an editor to book cover design to even creating the ebook and finding a distributor (please don't punish me on the ebook formatting...that was the hardest part!). I have developed a new respect for all authors out there, especially ones who self publish. It was a completely new world for me, and I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I am happy with the final result.

So what is the book about?  

Atypical Premed: A Non-Traditional student's Guide to Applying to Medical School is filled with advice, tips, and my own personal experiences to both guide and encourage students from all backgrounds who are interested in pursuing a medical career. Whether you are overcoming low GPA and/or MCAT scores, a single parent, changing careers, involved in the military, an older (or even younger) student, or involved in anything else that does not fit the typical view of an entering medical student—if you plan on applying to medical school, this book will have something for you.

In full disclosure, I will also say that the majority of my book comes from previous blog posts that have been edited to reflect my current status as a physician. This means you can still find answers to your most frequently asked questions within my blog since I have always been an advocate for affordable and/or free resources for premedical students. I am also open to feedback and suggestions so that I can create updated editions in the future to reflect the needs of current premedical students.

So surreal having a book with my name on it!

Help Atypical Premed reach #1!

Atypical Premed is available now in both paperback and Kindle ebook versions on Amazon, and can be purchased by clicking HERE. The book will also be available through major book retailers such as Barnes & Noble in the coming weeks (or you can request it directly at your local bookstore to get it faster), and I plan on putting out an audiobook version in the coming months.

For those of you who may already be medical students or physicians, my book would make a great gift for your mentees. For the premedical students, my book is an excellent starting point to helping you on the path to becoming a physician, and it was written by someone who has already went through the process (me!). I would be more than honored if you all would buy my book, take pictures of yourselves with the book, and post using the hashtag #AtypicalPremed. I not only want to hear your stories, but I want my book to reach those who may need it the most. I would also love it if those who buy the book would leave me a 5 star review on Amazon so that others may find it too (note: Amazon gives more weight to verified purchases when leaving reviews).

Win a free signed copy of Atypical Premed!

Giveaway Alert!

If you're tight on money, I have great news! I am offering the ebook version of Atypical Premed free for the next 24hours, and will have a few more free promotion days over the next couple of months. The ebook is also free indefinitely for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. As for the paperback version, I am giving away signed copies of my book to five lucky readers. All you have to do is the following:

- Follow me on Instagram
- "Like" the post on Instagram with the above picture of me holding the book
- Tag two friends in the Instagram post with this picture
- Extra points if you comment under this blog post and tell me what makes you an "Atypical Premed"

*Giveaway ends Monday, January 20, 2020 at 12am EST
*Multiple entries allowed with additional tagged friends
*Winner will be randomly selected and announced in both my Instagram comments and story section in addition to receiving a DM

Thank you so much for inspiring me to reach another goal, and I hope you all enjoy my book!

Life as an Urgent Care Physician

Managing more than just colds and coughs!

Since I've started practicing, a lot of you have reached out to me wondering what it's like working as an urgent care physician, and what a typical day entails. This post will hopefully give you a glimpse into my current role and answer a lot of your commonly asked questions.

How would you describe urgent care?

The best way to describe urgent care would be something along the lines of "Emergency Medicine meets Family Medicine (with a sprinkle of Surgery)." I manage patients from 3 months old to 100+ years old, and I get to do a little bit of everything. Whether I'm treating an asthma exacerbation, performing vaginal exams, managing fractures, suturing lacerations, doing incision and drainage procedures, or treating something as simple as a UTI (just to name a few), urgent care pretty much does it all. We don't treat super complex things like heart attacks or other life-threatening issues, but oftentimes these patients will come to the urgent care instead of going to the emergency room, and it is my job to stabilize them until EMS transport arrives to take them to the emergency room. We perform x-rays, EKGs, place splints and boots, and can even provide IV hydration if needed. We then refer to specialists for ongoing management if a patient requires continued care. Urgent care offers a great deal of variety and I think it's a really great way to keep clinical skills current while avoiding burn out.

What are the hours like?

Urgent care offers a very flexible lifestyle and the hours are pretty nice. The practice where I currently work has two locations, one that is open 9am - 1030pm seven days a week and the other that is typically open 9am - 8pm (with slightly earlier closing times on Fridays and on the weekend). At the location with longer hours, shifts are 9am - 4pm and 4pm - close. The other location usually just has one shift that lasts the entire day until closing time. I usually work until about an hour or so after closing time since we have a rule that as long as a patient walks in the door before the official closing time, they will be seen. Usually someone will walk in around 10:28pm with something more complex to deal with, which means I'm working until at least midnight or whenever that patient is fully managed. Despite this, the hours are still insanely better than any day in residency since I never worked less than a 12 hour shift on any given day during my training. 

What is the patient load?

I typically see an average of 20 patients per shift, but this number can vary by more or less depending on the day. It is a job that requires quick thinking and efficient management, but I have never felt super overwhelmed. Sometimes a ton of patients will all come into the waiting room at once, and other times it is a more steady flow of about 3 patients per hour.

Is there help?

When I work, I am the only physician on staff, so I am responsible for seeing and managing all the patients. There is a front desk person that checks everyone in, a medical assistant who does triage and any procedures I may need done (such as x-rays, injections, strep tests, giving IVs, etc.), and at the busier location, I also have a scribe who follows me into the room and types up the majority of my notes so that I can focus on patient care. During my training, I often split my work with at least one other individual and I usually had more senior residents and attending physicians to step in if I needed help. Urgent care differs in that I do not have anyone to split the load with, but I never truly feel alone as I can always call up one of the other physicians in the group for advice, to provide a second set of eyes on an x-ray image, or to even come in if I feel swamped and need help (thankfully I have not had to do this yet *knocks on wood*). Our medical malpractice insurance company also provides helpful resources such as UptoDate for free, so I always have access to the most current medical information and treatment guidelines for my patients.

How is your work-life balance?

My work-life balance now is spectacular compared to how it was during my training. Before I worked no less than twelve hour shifts per day at least six days a week with every third day consisting of a full 24 (which almost always turned into a twenty-eight) hour shift. Right now, I work an average of three days a week with shifts that range from seven hours to eleven hours. The most hours I have worked in one day since starting urgent care was 14.5 and that is only because I picked up another physician's shift and worked a double. I work less than half of what I did during my training, am more than fairly and doubly compensated, and I have time to explore my passions and do some of the things I love outside of medicine. Even better, we are asked for our desired work schedules in advance of each month's schedule being made, so I am able to plan trips and spend more time with my daughter. The work-life balance is without a doubt one of the best things I've got going for me right now, and it will surely be missed if I end up going back to residency.

What new insights have you gained from working at an urgent care?

Believe it or not, I have learned a lot working in urgent care and not all of it is medical. The main thing I have learned is the power of collaborative relationships. I don't think I truly appreciated the power of collaboration during my training (probably due to fatigue and the type of environment I was in), but now it is more evident than ever and a daily necessity. Whether I'm speaking to a radiologist about a patient I sent for an outpatient CT scan, getting advice from a specialist, or working with my staff to make sure a patient is fully taken care of, I am so appreciative of the collaboration that urgent care involves. It has also enhanced my teaching skills as I am frequently educating patients on things like why I will not prescribe antibiotics for their colds or the importance of seeing their primary care physicians for follow up care. Medicine truly is a team sport, and it sometimes takes many individuals working together to ensure a patient gets the most appropriate care. Additionally, working at an urgent care has strengthened my critical thinking and self-directed learning skills, and the beauty of having work-life balance has taught me a lot about self-worth and recognizing the signs of burn out. Lastly, I've gained more insight into my self as an individual. Whether it's been learning to trust my own inner knowledge base or recognizing my limits as a physician, I continue to work on myself daily and being in the urgent care setting has truly allowed me to continue to learn and grow as a physician.

I hope this sums it up and answers most of your questions, but if not, feel free to ask away in the comments below!

A Post for the Pre-Meds: Low GPA? Low MCAT? There’s Still Hope!

A couple of people recently contacted me freaking out about the new AACOM Repeat Policy Coursework change that was recently announced, and it prompted me to write this post. I’ve always been transparent about the fact that I had extremely low undergraduate GPA and MCAT scores when applying to medical school, but outside of the MCAT, I never actually revealed how low my actual GPA was. I think now would probably be a good time to reveal those scores and explain why I think this new policy change is something that really shouldn’t be stressed about in the grand scheme of everything, especially when it comes to applying to osteopathic medical schools.

My AACOM GPA

My AAMC GPA

I graduated from my undergraduate institution with a 2.2 GPA and over 150 hours. No amount of retakes was going to raise my GPA above the 3-point-whatever GPA that everyone thinks you absolutely need to have when applying to medical school. Additionally, my school had a rule that you could not retake a course that you received a C or higher in, and the main reason for my low GPA was the fact that I made a lot of C’s in my courses. It was an absolute requirement to retake any course with a grade of a D or lower, and I will admit that I did have a few retakes in there. Additionally, I entered into college with a low GPA to start because I attended a full-time joint enrollment honors program at a university during my senior year of high school, didn’t take it seriously, and later found out that any and all college coursework would be included in my application. As you can see above, I barely scored above a 2.5 on my AACOMAS application with the retakes included, and my AMCAS GPA was absolutely abysmal! My graduate GPA was a huge saving grace for me (my GPA was higher when I graduated, but at the point of my application it was as listed), but even with that included, my AACOMAS GPA only went as high as a 2.7.

With that being said, I was still able to gain an acceptance into medical school, so it just goes to show that some schools really do more than just screen based on numbers. There are both MD and DO schools that will look at the last 30 or so hours of your coursework and only focus on that as your cumulative GPA which will still give an advantage to students taking post-bacc or graduate coursework. If you have been retaking courses and were counting on the DO grade replacement policy to help you get an acceptance, I wouldn’t give up hope. As stated on the AACOM website: “Osteopathic medical schools may continue recalculating and weighing applicant GPAs per their established admissions practices. The scope of this policy change is limited to the AACOMAS verified GPA calculation.” To me, this pretty much means schools will continue to look at applications in the same way as before, although now they might have to make a few adjustments. Just focus on continuing to improve both your GPA and overall application, and everything will work out the way it should in the end. Also, if you are applying to DO schools, keep in mind that the majority of them tend to focus on the entire applicant and not just the stats, which is a major reason why I applied. If every other part of your application is stellar, but your GPA and MCAT scores are lacking, just be able to explain it and prove that you would be able to excel in medical school despite your shortcomings.

My MCAT Scores

Speaking of the MCAT, this post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t throw that in here as well. I know there is a new MCAT with a completely different scoring system than there was when I took it, but as you can see (and also as I previously mentioned HERE) my scores were even low with that! I was seriously a true underdog when it came to applying to medical school, but my passion wouldn’t let that stop me from pursuing my dreams.

To those of you applying to medical school, I think it is extremely important to avoid the negativity and continue to push hard and work towards achieving your dreams. I remember reading posts on SDN that said someone with my stats (and especially a single mother) would never make it through the first year of medical school or pass their board exams, and now I am sitting here as a third year medical student who not only made it through my first two years without any major issues, but managed to pass the first part of both my MD and DO board exams, and to date, I have not received less than an honors evaluation (with some final grades as high passes after the shelf exams LOL) on any of my clinical rotations. I say this not to brag, but to be a source of encouragement and inspiration for those of you who have the dream of becoming a physician, but do not think it’s possible. I still have another year and a half to go, along with more upcoming board exams (please pray for me!), but even I have the faith that if I continue to do my best, keep the faith, and push through, everything will fall into place as it should. I’ll end here, but I truly hope this post helped motivate, inspire, and put some of you at ease.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dream and live the life you've imagined" - Henry David Thoreau

Interviewed by Daily Medicine Blog!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! A few months ago I was interviewed by my dear friend Ashley Roxanne, founder/author of Daily Medicine Blog, and it is now live! In the interview, I discuss why I applied to osteopathic medical school, my hardships, where I see my future, my top three networking tips, and many other topics. Feel free to check it out HERE, and as always, let me know what you think!

How I Studied for the COMLEX Level 1 and USMLE Step 1 Exams

My approach to studying for boards was slightly different from that of my classmates and probably what most people do. If you’ve been following my blog from the beginning, then you already know my bad history with standardized exams which includes taking the MCAT four times, and this scared me into starting extra early with my board preparation and maybe even going slightly overboard with it. For the record (and in my opinion), the MCAT has absolutely no bearing on how a student will perform in medical school or on their board exams, but I wasn’t about to take any chances. So with that being said, while most students start studying for boards 6 weeks to 3 months out, I started my studying 6 months from my exam date, and I have absolutely no regrets.

I had two major goals before I started studying for boards: I wanted to keep my resources to a minimum to avoid getting overwhelmed and I wanted to have done at least 8000 questions before my exam date. I met both of my goals and even exceeded the minimum number of questions I had planned.

Resources

For both exams, I used First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, Pathoma (both the book and videos), UWORLD, USMLERX QMAX, and Combank. I also took all six NBME exams along with the free NMBE exam, and I completed both UWORLD assessment exams. For my COMLEX exam studies, I added in the Saverese OMT book, but did not take any COMSAE or NBOME exams outside of the one that was administered by my school. I did every single question in each question bank listed, and for UWORLD, after my first pass was complete at the end of February I re-did all my incorrect and marked questions. When I was 6 weeks away from my exam, I reset UWORLD and completed the entire bank again on timed, random mode (I used tutor mode during my first pass). I also completed both the USMLE and COMLEX side of Combank, along with all of USMLERX and when all was said and done I believe this added up to having completed a little over 10,000 questions (not including the assessment exam questions). I also dabbled with the Doctors in Training videos, but I wasn’t a huge fan, and I did read the First Aid book completely through about twice. Additionally, I used Picmonic for any topics that I just couldn’t get drilled into my head, since it was a lifesaver for me during my first two years of medical school. If there was anything I would have done differently, it probably would have been getting in another pass of UWORLD because on my USMLE exam, there were multiple questions that were extremely similar and the exam also had the exact same format as UWORLD. I also would have probably read my First Aid book a few more times.

Maximizing the Question Banks

I know a lot of people tend to get caught up about their scores on the question banks, but I focused on using the question banks as strict learning tools. By this I mean I did not get upset with my super low UWORLD scores when I first started, but instead I used it as an opportunity to explore my weaknesses. Also, outside of my first pass of UWORLD I did all of the questions in each bank without assistance so that I could really see what I needed to work on. This meant lower percentages, but I tend to learn from things I get wrong, so more information stuck with me. What I found extremely helpful was reading over EVERY answer choice explanation on questions I got both wrong and right, and I annotated the information I did not know into my First Aid book.   

Schedule

Studying for boards was hard while classes were in session, so I think when I first started I would just do maybe 20-40 questions per night. I treated the upcoming exams as if I were preparing for a marathon, and eventually (towards the end of my exam preparation) I was doing over 200 questions a day. I waited until I was six weeks from my exams to create a dedicated board study schedule, and I previously gave a snippet of what my daily schedule was like HERE, so I won’t go into too much detail about it right now. Our school does not offer a set dedicated board study time without classes, but I was lucky enough to have tested out of the OMM written exams during my last term, so I only had to be on campus for about 3 hours each week during my final six weeks leading up to my exams. This allowed me to really be able to put in full days where I only studied for my board exams, and that was typically between 10 – 14 hours of study time each day. My days were starting at 430am and not ending until 8 or 9pm, so it was an extremely stressful time. I made sure to schedule in breaks so I didn’t go crazy and I also took one day every week where I did absolutely nothing exam related and just relaxed or spent time with my daughter.   

Summary

So basically, my approach to my board exams was questions, questions, and more questions! It is true that everyone studies differently, but doing questions will not only help you figure out what to expect on the exams, but it will help build your test-taking stamina as well. Most people swear by UWORLD, First Aid, and Pathoma and while I did slightly more than that, I’m pretty sure this would have been sufficient. I don’t think there would have been any way to pass either exam without UWORLD, so if you’re on the fence about buying it, just suck it up and get it! Also, if you’re an osteopathic student who only plans on taking the COMLEX, I would still suggest using UWORLD because it is that good.

In my next post I will compare and contrast the USMLE and COMLEX exams, so stay tuned for that, but hopefully this gave you all an idea of how to go about these exams. Feel free to email me if there is any confusion, but hopefully my next posts will clear any of that up. Just keep it simple, do questions, stay positive and everything else will fall into place :-) 

A Post for the Pre-Meds: Choosing Your Major as a Pre-Medical Student

Happy Sunday! I recently wrote a post for DiverseMedicine, Inc. that focused on choosing the right major as a pre-medical student. The link can be found HERE, so let me know what you think!

Involved Single Mother in Medical School? Who's Watching Your Daughter???

My daughter helping my group with community service this past weekend

I am a single mother to two toddlers. I am not in medical school, yet, as I still have to officially finish my bachelor degree (this is my last semester) and then finish up my prerequisites to medical school. But, I notice you have so many pictures of having a night on the town or taking a trip for a conference. I do not have any free time. I realize my kids are still really young and I hope it gets better when they actually begin school.

My question is: Who do you have watch your daughter when you go out with friends or go to a conference? Do you have a nanny or is there a different option you have found to care for your daughter? I would just like to have a more balanced academic/family/social life like you seem to have, so any advice you have will be appreciated.

I love your blog! :)

This was a comment someone wrote a while ago that I thought would make for a great blog post. While I usually make it a point to write about where my daughter is when I’m doing certain things, I never realized how to new readers, or someone just scrolling through my posts, that it might look a little odd that I’m able to be involved with so many different things as a single mother. The purpose of this post will be to give a little more insight into how I am able to deal with a child, medical school, and the million other things that I have going on in my life.

The biggest benefit I have over some of my peers with children is the fact that my daughter is a lot older. She’ll be turning nine next month and is pretty independent. She’s in school at the same time I am in school, studies when I do, and if I get caught up in studying, she will either remind me that I need to cook or help her with something.  When she was a toddler, I was trying to make it through my undergraduate courses, while working at least two jobs, so it felt like I had no life at all. I was also very wary about having people watch her because she wasn’t old enough to tell me if anything bad were to happen, and I really couldn’t afford babysitters to begin with, especially when I was paying expensive weekly daycare fees (after care is way cheaper!).

Nowadays, things are definitely a lot different. You know that saying “it takes a village to raise a child”? Well, now that I am in medical school, that saying could not be even truer! My classmates and peers at my school have been a major help in allowing me to take care of business while raising a child from the very beginning of my first year. Last year, when we had mock anatomy lab exams in the evenings, one of my classmates would allow me to drop my daughter off at her place so that I could go take the exam without issues. And whenever I wanted to go out for an evening or just have some time to myself another classmate would watch my daughter. The same pretty much applies to this year, and I’m pretty sure at least half my class has either watched or interacted with my daughter at one point or another, lol. When my entire group wants to get together for a night on the town (usually to celebrate birthdays), I use care.com (such a lifesaver!). I was actually really lucky this year, because the current babysitter I use actually sent me a message with my daughter’s name (completely freaking me out), and then it turned out that my child was in the same class as her son last year, and we had already met multiple times. So now when I do need a sitter, my daughter gets the benefit of hanging out with one of her classmates :-)

So, no, I do not have a nanny, and I try to avoid paying for babysitting whenever I can, even if this means having to bring her to an event with me (if I feel it is child-appropriate). The crazy thing is that I just realized this year that a masters student I’ve been friends with on-campus has a daughter who is the same age and has the same personality as my daughter. Since we’re both single parents, we’ve been switching weekends with the kids and it’s been great! Labor Day weekend, my daughter had the chance to have her new friend stay over the entire weekend, and when I needed to go to Duke University School of Medicine for the SNMA NLI, my daughter spent that weekend over their house. It’s pretty much a win-win situation for everyone involved.

As for next year when I start rotations, I’m not sure how I am going to do things. We will be ranking our desired rotation spots sometime next month and then hopefully before Christmas, I will find out where I will be next year. Right now, I am considering an anchor location where I would be in one place for at least all of next year, as opposed to the floating “J-track” where I would pretty much be in a different place around Atlanta (up to 2 hours away) every month, but I really don’t know. Either way, I may end up requesting a cost of attendance increase so that I can get a nanny during my rotation times, but all of that is up in the air until I find out where I’ll be next year.

    

But to make a long post short, life as a single parent definitely gets better as your children get older. I’m sure I’ll be biting my words when my daughter hits her teenage years, but that’s when I’ll be busy with residency, and boarding schools might be an excellent option at that point. For me, it’s really important to have a balance between school, family, and a social life, or I would probably be completely miserable. I couldn’t do half of what I do if I didn’t have such wonderful peers and a daughter who really wants to see her mommy succeed. I also have an awesome family, and even though they’re 6 hours away, they don’t mind watching the little one over the summer or during some of her longer holidays. It’s a lot easier for me to be away from my child for conferences and such because I realize that everything I do will eventually make her life better one day, but I understand that other parents might not feel the same way. There are always going to be times when it gets tough, but as long as my child is happy and thriving, and I’m succeeding in my goals, then I’ll continue to balance it all and find a way to make it work.  

A Post for the Pre-Meds: Newly Accepted, but Afraid of Future Failure

@D Ward Something has been plaguing me. How did you adjust to your first year? I got accepted to WVSOM and I'm trying to think of good studying techniques before starting my first year. How do you know when you are ready? I'm just afraid of having a bad exam lol losing it. I just guess I'm just a little scared of the unknown lol

Sorry to go out of order from answering the questions I have received, but even though this one was asked more recently, I feel it’s a question that many newly accepted students are having at the moment. In my opinion, I don’t think any student entering medical school feels completely ready at the beginning. I mean, sure you might have advanced degrees, honored your way through college, and/or a whole bunch of other things that affirm your ability to handle what is to come, but like any new thing in life, you will still be entering into the unknown. You really won’t know you’re ready until you’re actually in the midst of everything, but you would not have been accepted if your school didn’t feel you were ready for the challenge. Now I am just a first year student myself and still adjusting, but I have felt the same anxiety with each new term, and probably will continue to with each new step.

As for being afraid of having a bad exam, I think it would be pretty hard to complete medical school without having had at least one bad exam. For some people, the word “bad” could mean not making an A on an exam, and for others it could mean failing an exam, so I think the word is pretty subjective. I think it is more important to stay positive and focus on the good, rather than the bad. It just doesn’t make sense to plant negativity in your mind and set yourself up for failure before you even start.

 For what it’s worth, I have already had the experience of having failed an exam, and even though I thought it was the end of the world at the time, I still ended up being fine. My second term of medical school was a great one for me, but it was a lot harder for me to adjust to my first term. My worst exam occurred a couple days after the white coat ceremony, and I performed so poorly on it that I was called into a meeting with the Student Progress Evaluation Committee (SPEC). At the time, I thought students were only called into a meeting with this committee if they were a part of the bottom ten percent of the class and in danger of being kicked out, so I completely freaked out. Apparently, this was not the case, but it still really stressed me out. When I walked in the door, the first thing one of the professors asked was “what the hell happened?,” and I was given the opportunity to explain why my performance was so low on that particular exam. At the end, I was basically told to go back to doing what previously worked for me, but I took away a few important points from the entire experience that I have shared below.

Don’t get bogged down with resources

I might be a bit biased, but I’m pretty sure my class beats out any medical school class out there. Not only am I surrounded by a bunch of wonderful, intelligent individuals, but everyone is always willing to help out each other in any way possible. Whether it’s sharing textbooks, websites, notes or anything else needed to succeed, there is always someone in the class willing to go out of their way to help the next person. With that being said, it is so easy to become overwhelmed with all the resources offered! It is so important to identify the best (and least amount) of resources possible that can help you achieve your goals. If you try to use every resource that you are offered, not only will it add more time to your studies, but it might burn you out even faster.    

  

Don’t focus on what (or how) other students are doing

This bounces off the last point, and I know I’ve said it before, but it is so important to do what works for you! You might have a classmate who only studies the PowerPoint slides the night before an exam, and somehow ends up acing everything, or another who spends at least twelve hours a day studying to do well. The reason why I failed the exam that I previously mentioned was because I started focusing on what everyone else was doing. I asked my classmates what worked for them, and then I tried to incorporate everything into my studying which turned into a disaster. Plus, if everyone around you seems to be doing well, and you aren’t, it can cause you to become slightly depressed which will negatively affect your grades.  

Study smarter, not harder

The first term of medical school I studied a minimum of five hours every day and tried to at least get in sixteen hours on the weekend. Looking back now, this was overkill. I was studying my notes, reading textbooks, doing practice problems, and using board review resources. If I had identified the best resources early on, then my studying time would have been cut in half. I also sacrificed a lot of sleep, which is always a no-no. It doesn’t matter how many hours of studying you accomplish in a day if you have nothing to show for it, so figure out how to make your time most effective. This will also allow for things like exercise and free time which will help you feel like school is not completely consuming your life.

Don’t be afraid to reexamine and change study habits

Going into medical school, you have to be willing to completely change your study habits. Even if you were able to study an hour before an exam in college and always make an A, that is probably not going to cut it in medical school. If simply reading a textbook has always helped you do well, you might have to change that as well, unless you’re able to read through thousands of pages a night, every night. If you tend to spend a lot of time on social media sites or watching television in between studying, you might even have to cut that out if you start to struggle. Medical school is a constant adjustment, with new terms and new professors, so you have to be willing to adapt and go with the flow in order to achieve the best results. In the future, you won’t be treating every patient the same, so there is no reason why you should treat every class the same.   

Seek help before it becomes a problem

If you enter school and you feel like you are drowning from the start, seek help! Most (if not all) schools have learning centers designed to help you succeed. They can help you discover your learning style, find you a tutor, and just about anything else you can think of. Don’t wait until you are failing to seek help, but instead get help before you even need it. At the very worse, if you do end up having an entirely bad term, at least it will be on the record that you actively sought out help and it could end up being the difference between being dismissed from a school or given the opportunity to come back and try another year.

Take a moment to sulk (but get back up and try again)

If you do end up having a bad exam, it is ok to take a moment and be upset about it. If that means fifteen minutes of crying in your car or stopping everything to take a nap, then do whatever it is you need to do. After that, brush yourself off and try again. Medical school truly is a marathon and not a sprint, so don’t dwell on one bad moment. Use it as an opportunity to figure out your weaknesses and how you can improve. Lastly, realize chances are high that you are not the only one in your class going through the same thing. Failing an exam might seem like the end of the world when it first happens, but I can promise you that years from now when you are finally a physician, it won’t even matter.

I hope this fully answers the question, but as always, let me know if I need to clarify anything. I answered the question about study habits in a previous post (which can be found HERE), so I tried not to be too redundant. But basically, my main point is to not worry about failing out of medical school before you even start, and always be willing to adjust. For the newly accepted students, take this time now to celebrate and relax, because it won’t be too long before you’re in my shoes.

A Post for the Pre-Meds: Do Upper Level Undergraduate Courses Really Help in Medical School?

Sounds like the workload is super intense! Does it really help to have taken undergrad classes like microbio, immunology, etc.? Or are you referring to your master's level classes? It seems like a lot of people say not to bother with taking more science classes in undergrad because the focus and volume in med school will be very different... but I'm wondering if it's true?

I was asked this question about a month ago, and I promised I would expand further upon my initial answer. The workload in medical school will be intense regardless of whether or not you have had previous exposure. I took anatomy and microbiology solely on an undergraduate level, and the exposure did help, but very little. Understanding the terminology is a huge part of anatomy, and without any previous knowledge, it can make things a bit harder once you hit medical school, although you will probably make out just fine. I previously took anatomy back in 2006 and retained very little of the information I was taught. What did help was being familiar with terms such as prone, supine, origin, insertion, etc. This was not taught to us in lecture in medical school, but instead it was provided as a very large word document full of common terms. Since I remembered these terms, I was able to spend more time actually learning and retaining the material than trying to understand what every other word meant. The same applies for microbiology. We are now taking it this term, and I can say with almost one hundred percent certainty that I retained less than 1% of the material taught in undergrad, but being familiar with it helps.

When it comes to classes I took in my master’s program, I can say that they are super helpful! Last term, practically every course (with the exception of anatomy) was brand new to me, and I actually had to force myself to really learn the material. This term, practically every single subject we are covering (minus pathology) was taught to me in my master’s program. In my graduate program, I focused more on learning than memorizing, and it is paying off really well for me this term. I actually feel like I have more free time this term, because I get to skip the basics. I can also say that medical school is not more difficult than graduate school in the level of the course work. In grad school, I had to literally write out mechanisms in biochemistry and I needed to learn, what felt like to me, every single, small detail about a subject. Biochemistry is way more enjoyable when you only have to know the major steps and components of glycolysis, versus having to know and be able to draw out the complete mechanisms like I did in grad school.

So what is it that makes medical school so intense? THE WORKLOAD!!!!!! Pretty much what might have taken me a month or two of graduate school to learn, we cover in about two weeks or less. This pretty much applies to every subject, so imagine an entire month of maybe 19 credit hours in undergrad, double that, condense it into one week, and you have how fast we cover everything in medical school. It is extremely overwhelming, and enough to make even the brightest students struggle. The focus is also different, but only in the sense that everything is now more clinically-oriented. This is a positive aspect to me though, because I feel like I am actually learning about stuff that is relevant to my goals as a future physician.

So, if you’re currently a pre-medical student considering taking advanced science courses, my recommendations are below. If you are not able to take some of these courses, please do not stress about it. Even if it means you will have to put in a little more effort than your peers, chances are that you will make out just fine with or without taking them. I hope this helped answer the question, and if there is anything else you want to know, feel free to ask!

Recommended Courses to Take Before Medical School

Anatomy

Embryology

Histology

Microbiology

Biochemistry

Cell Biology

Genetics

Immunology

And I’ll add to the list as the terms progress!

Improving Study Habits in Medical School

A large part of medical school so far has been finding the most effective ways to study and retain the huge amount of information that is constantly being thrown at me. I’m still working on tweaking my study habits, but since I was asked, I figured I would make a post about what is currently working for me. Hopefully by the end of the term, I will have a more solid breakdown of the things that really help, but this post should serve as a good general breakdown.

Time Management

I’ve mentioned it before, but time management is a huge part of succeeding in medical school. People constantly tell me that they don’t know how I do everything while raising a child, but I think it’s actually a really big advantage for me. While most students have the option of going home and probably taking a nap or doing other things that distract them from studying, I don’t have that luxury. Because I have a child, virtually every minute has to be accounted for. I don’t have the same amount of study hours as my peers, so I have to make every second count. It’s easy to put off studying when you have the option of waking up early to do it, but it’s a different story when you have to wake up at 6am and get your child ready for school.

What works for me is breaking down the schedule and giving each lecture a set amount of time spent studying for it. We are expected to study 5-7 hours outside of lecture, but right now I am currently averaging around five hours a day of studying. Normally one class will have had more hours than the others, so I try to devote three hours a day towards studying for that, and I give the other classes about an hour of study time. If I get out of class at 5, then that gives me one hour of study time before I have to pick up my daughter, and then my mommy/free time is typically from 6-8pm. I study another four hours from 8-12, and then I am done for the night. So far I have been good about hitting my goal, but there’s always a little extra time when anatomy lab gets out early or when my group is not going for OMM lab where I can get in some extra study time.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

This is definitely something I can improve on. The only way you can truly gauge how you’re doing on a subject is by quizzing yourself and doing practice tests. There are a ton of websites that have quizzes to help you, and so far I have found the Board Review Series (BRS) books pretty amazing. Also, make sure to go over your answers and figure out where you went wrong. I did not do this with the exam I just took, and I am convinced that at least one of the questions was very similar to one I did in the BRS book, but did not go over. For anatomy, the University of Michigan has excellent practical and written exams, and I also really like the SUNY Downstate material. I used Firecracker for about a month until my free trial ran out, and I think it’s a pretty good resource as well, although a bit pricey.

Review the Material Multiple Times

I recently got great advice from one of the second year medical students on studying, and the key point was to make sure to review the material at least five times outside of lecture. That means attend or listen to the lecture at least once, review the material three times over a semi-spread out timeframe, use the fourth time to take quizzes, and devote the fifth and final time to group studying. Even if you’re not a fan of group studying, it can reveal things to you that you might not have learned, so it’s a good thing to do if only for an hour or two. I haven’t actually done this yet, but we just started a new block and I plan on implementing it, so I will let everyone know how it works out for me after the next exam.

Ways to Retain the Information

Outside of repetition, YouTube and mnemonics have been lifesavers when it comes to retaining information. Mnemonics make it easier to remember long lists of things (ie the branches of the external carotid artery), and I find that the more dirty they are, the better they work. I have also found some amazing videos on YouTube that have explained things to me in five minutes or less despite having spent hours on my own trying to figure it out. YouTube pretty much has videos on anything you can think of, so if you get stuck on something, use that search function! I remember things that are really off-the-wall and eccentric, and some of the videos posted have all the elements needed to make the information stick in my mind.

Know What Works Best for You

 It’s important to remember that everyone has different ways of studying, so what works for me might not necessarily work for you. During orientation, I took a LASSI exam and found out that I am a strong read/write learner. I already knew this, but I learn best from reading the textbook and taking my own notes. This doesn’t work for everybody, and it is a really big waste of time to not study in a way that feels comfortable to you. Furthermore, what worked for you during your undergraduate years will probably not work in medical school just because of the sheer volume of material. Don’t be afraid to spend a month or two tweaking your study techniques until you find something that works. Also, I’m pretty sure that all schools have learning centers with people there to help you find effective study skills, so use them!

This pretty much sums up everything for now, but I’m sure I will have more posts on the subject in the future. The current term ends for us in November, and then we will start a completely different block that will consist of full days of lectures without labs. This is probably when I will have to really get a handle on things, but for now I am sticking with what I have written above. I wrote this post in terms of medical school, but I think the tips can be used by anyone whether you're in medical school, graduate school, or undergraduate school. It's important to build a good foundation early on so that you don't struggle later, so I hope this post helps!

Post-Bacc, SMP, or Another Degree: What's the Best Choice?

If you’re a non-traditional student who has been out of school for a while, or you are looking to bring up a low undergraduate GPA, then you’ll need to explore all your options for becoming the most competitive applicant possible. There are many options available to prove to schools that you will be able to handle the heavily course load that comes with medical school. The following will be a discussion of some of these options, so that you can best decide what will work best for your situation.

Post-Baccalaureate Coursework

A popular choice among many non-traditional students is to take undergraduate courses as a non-degree seeking student. This is commonly referred to as a post-bacc. Most medical schools will count these courses as part of the overall undergraduate GPA, so this could be a good way to boost your GPA. This method is also particularly useful if you were a non-science major during college, because it can be used to take all the required science pre-requisites in addition to increasing your science GPA. The science GPA is weighed most heavily by medical schools, so if you do decide to go the route of taking post-bacc coursework, make sure that it mostly consists of science coursework. Also, if you a non-traditional student who already has an undergraduate degree in the basic sciences, pursuing a post-bacc will only be beneficial if you take upper-level advanced science courses.

For some students, pursuing a post-bacc might not be as beneficial. If you already have an undergraduate degree with over 130 hours, taking more classes may do very little to increase your overall GPA. Also, as a non-degree seeking student, you will not be eligible for any federal financial aid, so you will have to either pay out-of-pocket or take out private student loans. When the high interest-rates associated with private loans and course fees are taken into account, this can prove to be a very costly path. (Note: There are now some post-bacc programs that offer federal financial aid, so make sure you ask the school you plan on attending about this.)

Special Masters Programs

Another great option for proving that you can handle the heavy course load of medical school is a special masters program (SMP). These programs typically last between 1-2 years, and they generally cover advanced science coursework. A few SMPs are linked to medical schools, and as a student you will be taking the same classes as first-year medical students. Some of these programs also take place at medical schools, and allow you to take the courses right alongside current medical students. This is an excellent way to prove that you can handle medical school, and if you are interested in attending the medical school of the program you attend, then it is also a great way to network and get to know the professors. Furthermore, these programs are also covered by federal financial aid.

The only downside with SMPs (and pretty much any program) is that if you do not do well it can greatly diminish your chances of gaining an acceptance into medical school. SMPs are also a popular choice among many pre-medical students looking to increase their GPAs, so acceptance into some of the programs could be very competitive. Also, while there are many SMPs throughout the United States, there may not be one in your area. This may mean that you will have to relocate to pursue the program, and this may not be feasible for some non-traditional students.

A Second Bachelors Degree

Some students decide to getting a second degree is a better option for them. A second bachelors degree is probably most beneficial to students who previously obtained a non-science degree and previously did not perform as well. In this case, a second bachelors degree would not only give them a science GPA to work with, but it would also work to increase their non-science GPA as well.

Unfortunately, pursuing a second bachelor’s degree can prove to be very costly out of all the options due to the fact that you will essentially be paying for another four years of school. If you’re a non-traditional student who has been out of school for more than a decade, this might not seem like a bad choice, but this commitment does not come with a guaranteed acceptance into medical school and it will take longer to complete than all of the other options listed here. If you have been in the workforce for a while, and you’re looking to get an advance in your career as a plan B option, another bachelors degree just might not be useful as most companies require a masters degree or higher in order to climb up the ladder.

A Masters Degree (or higher)

Obtaining a graduate degree is another viable choice for making yourself a competitive applicant, but unfortunately it is not a common path for pre-medical students. Obtaining a masters degree was the path I chose to take in order to boost my competitiveness as an applicant, and it is what I credit to my acceptance into medical school. Typically it only takes 1-2 years to complete these programs, and a thesis-based program is not required if your only goal is to go onto medical school.

Some non-traditional students are career-changers, so they might already have a graduate degree when they decide to apply to medical school. If the degree is recent, then it may help boost your chances of gaining an acceptance, but in some cases you may still have to have current coursework that will prove your ability to medical schools. Also, if medical school is your main goal, then you will have to seek out programs that do not require the added time of completing a thesis. For non-traditional students who have more advanced graduate degrees, such as a PhD, there are medical schools with pathway programs specifically for non-traditional students of this type, so please do your homework.

So What’s the Best Choice?

Whenever somebody asks me this question, my response is almost always “whatever works best for you.” You have to decide how much money and time you want to invest in pursuing an alternate path, and it will also be important to take into account your current lifestyle. Ultimately, the decision rests on you, but I hope this post will help you make the most informative decision. 

Pre-Meds: Don’t Get Taken Advantage of!

Finding a good mentor shouldn't cost an arm and a leg

Lately, I have been receiving a ton of e-mails from individuals/companies wanting me to list them as a resource for pre-medical students. Most of these resources have a fee attached to them, so I typically decline and keep it moving. One message I received recently involved mentoring services for pre-medical students at a price between $20-40 per hour, and I felt compelled to write this post.

If you are currently a pre-medical student, there is absolutely no need to pay anyone to help mentor you in your journey to becoming a physician. Mentors can be found for free all around you. There are professors, current medical students, pre-medical forums on the internet, and a multitude of other free resources. While I don’t knock these services if you have the money to blow on them, if you’re anything like me, then these services can be a huge financial burden. I have made posts regarding ways to obtain help with the medical school process in the past, but here is a brief recap:

Help with Personal Statements

One of the greatest resources you can use for help with your personal statement, is the forum section of Student Doctor Network. This forum has current medical students, school administration members, and fellow students who are willing to look over, revise, and offer suggestions to improving your personal statement completely FREE OF CHARGE! In my opinion, there is no reason not to take advantage of the resource.

If you are someone who does not want complete strangers to read your personal statement, then there are other options as well. Even if your school does not have a writing center, you could still take your personal statement to any English professor and ask them for help with grammar and such. Also, if you have a physician who you shadow, don’t be afraid to ask them for help in looking over your PS. They can be one of the best resources because they know how the game works. I remember having an ER appointment a few years back, and randomly asking one of the residents if they would take a look at my PS. The person didn’t even hesitate to give me their e-mail address, and they provided great feedback after I sent them my PS.

Finding a Mentor

When it comes to medical school, finding a mentor is not as hard as people like to make it. Again, SDN has many forums where you can ask questions and get advice from current medical students, members of admissions committees, and attending physicians. If you’re applying to osteopathic schools, the AOA went out of its way to make a website dedicated to making physician mentors available to both pre-medical and medical students alike. I previously did a blog post on this, which can be found here. As far as I am aware, a program like this does not exist through the AAMC, but finding a physician mentor can be as simple as looking through a local physician directory and making a few phone calls.

You could also utilize professors as mentors, and contact the medical schools that you’re interested in and set-up an appointment to discuss the ways in which you can become a more competitive applicant. Once you have found a mentor, they can help guide you through the application process and be a source of encouragement. Many individuals will do this for free, so again, I see no point in paying for this.

Put in the Effort

Basically, this post was just my way of saying that I do not promote high-cost companies as a resource to pre-medical students. I was not in a position to afford these companies when I was going through the process, and I do not want my readers to feel that they need to shell out cash in order for their applications to stand out. Even if you do not personally know anyone who can help you with your application, or if you have been out of school a while, all it takes is a little effort to find the help you need. Don’t be afraid to reach out of your comfort zone and find the individuals who can help you achieve your goals. Applying to medical school alone is a very expensive process; Finding the help and support you need shouldn’t be. 

Paying for Medical School (Loans, Loans, and More Loans!!!!)

GA-PCOM 2014-2015 Cost of Attendance Breakdown

Attending medical school is expensive! Sure there are public medical schools where the tuition can range from $10-20K per year, but if you’re not lucky enough to get an acceptance or be a resident of the states where these schools are located, you’ll be embarking on a very expensive journey. Most medical schools have tuition in the range of $25-50K, but there are quite a few that have tuition considerably way higher than this. When I was applying last cycle, I encountered a school where the tuition alone was over $80,000! So if you are reading this and planning on applying to medical school, please be aware of the financial commitment that you will be making.

One of the most common questions I get asked when people find out that I will be attending medical school is how I am going to pay for it. My response: loans, loans, and more loans! I do not come from a family that can afford to help pay for my medical education, and as a single parent, I have the added expense of caring for a young child. I also do not plan on working while I am in medical school, because working throughout my undergraduate years took away from time that I could have been focusing on my education. This is literally my last shot to achieve my dreams, and I do not want anything to get in the way of it. If I feel that I can manage school and work down the road, then things might change, but for the first year of school, I’ll be all in.

So to answer the question of paying for medical school, I have taken out subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans, along with GradPlus loans to cover the rest. All of my loans are federal loans, and I strongly encourage everyone to avoid private loans at all costs! (I took out a few as an undergraduate, but I’ll save that rant for another post.) I have also applied for a few scholarships, but I won’t know the outcome until later on.

As you can see from the above picture, most schools factor in a “cost of living” that will allow you to take out loans for room and board, supplies, transportation, etc. Basically, once my loans have taken care of tuition and school costs, I will receive a refund each term that will be used to cover my living expenses. This means I will have to carefully budget each term for around three months at a time, but for me, the amount is doable. If you are a fellow non-traditional student with a large family, you will have to take into account what your living expenses will be, and contact the school to see if they can increase your cost of living.

In a nutshell, if you really want to become a physician, do not be discouraged by the price. Federal loans are readily available, and if you’re willing to write a few essays, there are scholarships as well. Thinking about repaying loans can be overwhelming, but there are also a ton of programs that can help you pay down your loans when you graduate and even some that offer loan forgiveness. Also, everyone who I have spoken with has assured me that paying off medical school loans is possible within ten years, but it may require frugal living for a while. If you’re like me, then medical school will probably be the biggest investment that you ever make in life, so I hope this post helped make the decision a little bit easier. 

More Personal Statement Advice

This post is my attempt to combine some questions I have been frequently asked regarding my personal statement. Previously, I posted some general personal statement advice (see here) along with my own personal statement (here), so if you don’t see what you need in this post, then please check out those links. I know it’s turning into crunch time for perfecting and submitting medical school applications, so I hope this helps everybody out.

How do I include all of my ECs in the personal statement?

There's really no need to write about every extracurricular activity you have ever had in the personal statement. Admissions committees can already see that in your overall application and it will come off as redundant. If there was a particularly meaningful experience that you had while on a mission trip or volunteering then write about that, but don't try to list all your ECs in paragraph form. Just focus on one aspect. You could even center your whole personal statement over one experience in particular and try to tie in how the other ECs either helped you get to that point or how you discovered new Extracurricular activities because of the experience.

How did you talk about your extracurricular activities in your personal Statement?

I talked about a few of my ECs in my PS but it was really light. I mentioned them as a way to show how I still continued to be involved even though I had other responsibilities to deal with. I did not mention anything specific in particular. I just said that I took leadership positions within a few organizations, and wrote briefly about how they let me stay involved.

Were you specific about osteopathy in your personal statement? I heard some people saying that it's better to be specific in the secondary so that it doesn't sound repetitive. What do you think?

Do not write about osteopathic medicine in your personal statement. When you receive secondary applications, the majority of them will ask "why this school" and/or "why osteopathic medicine". If you address it in your PS, you will have a really hard time answering the question in your secondary essays. Just write about your desire to be a physician. (Note: make sure you say osteopathic medicine. Some people take offense to the word "osteopathy" because it can mean something entirely different overseas).

How long was your personal statement? (# of words) 

For AMCAS, my PS was 869 words and came out to be 4693 characters with spaces. The max character limit for AMCAS is 5300.

For AACOMAS, my PS was 790 words and 4485 characters with spaces according to Microsoft Word. On my application, it says that I have a total of 4500 characters which is the max limit for the AACOMAS application.

Where can I find examples of Personal statements and meaningful experience essays?

Finding good personal statement examples was one of the hardest things for me when I originally drafted my PS. This was almost 6 years ago though and now examples are only a short click away. Below are some really good resources I have found:

Medical School Essays that Made a Difference by Princeton Review – This was literally the only thing I used for examples when I originally drafted my PS. It helped me formulate a good starting point, but I felt that my first essay was too cookie-cutter because of it. To correct this, I dramatically changed my PS over the years to reflect me and my growth. Unfortunately, this book isn't available online.

http://www.accepted.com/medical/sampleessays.aspx - (Good example personal statements from Accepted.com)

http://www.mcw.edu/Medical-School/Student-Affairs/Residency-Match-Process/Sample-Personal-Statements.htm - (These are personal statements for residency (via Medical College Wisconsin), but I figured I would include them anyway)

DoctorORBust - A fellow blogger who not only listed his personal statement as an example, but gives excellent tips on the entire writing process.

I think that’s it for common personal statement questions. I’ll add more examples if I come across any, and if there’s anything else you want to know, just shoot me a message!

Pre-Meds: Turn Up! It’s Time to Apply to Medical School!

The lack of posts last week can be attributed to taking the time to respond to the flood of e-mails in my inbox. Medical school applications can officially be submitted June 3^rd of this week, and it seems as if everyone is freaking out accordingly.

My main advice is to stand back, take a breath, and relax! I have been in your shoes, and I know how stressful it is applying to medical school. While applications can be submitted this week, they won’t be transmitted to individual schools until the end of the month. In other words, there is absolutely no need to rush to get everything submitted on the very first day. Don’t be afraid to take a few days to look over your application and tweak it in any way you need to.

If there is any part of the process that you need a bit of advice about, don’t be afraid to contact me. I do answer every e-mail, and I try to as quickly as possible. I will also be putting together some posts in the next few days to further clarify a few things that I get asked about often. This week will probably be the best time to contact me, so if you have any questions, shoot me an e-mail or comment below.

Good luck!!!!