Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Medical school is a completely different animal than college.

  • You're jumping into a new world and learning a new language.

  • Here are four things you need to know before starting your first day of medical school.

  • What's going on guys?

  • Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.

  • First, study habits need to be perfected.

  • Even if you were a top student in college, like I was,

  • your study habits will more than likely need tweaking, like mine did.

  • Trust me, I've been there.

  • From active versus passive learning,

  • to time management,

  • focus tricks,

  • study planning,

  • and more,

  • learning the material in medical school is unlike anything you've ever done in college.

  • It's crucial to understand your personal study style

  • what works for one person may not work for another.

  • Are you a visual or auditory learner?

  • A morning person or night owl?

  • How is your focus after meditation or working out?

  • Are your most effective studying at a coffee shop,

  • the library, or at home?

  • Luckily, you can find free blog posts and videos at Med School Insiders

  • that will get you well on your way to studying more effectively and efficiently.

  • That means better grades with less time studying.

  • Talk about a win-win.

  • If you want to really take your studying to the next level,

  • our tutors and doctor advisors at MedSchoolInsiders.com

  • can guide you better than anyone.

  • Number two, you will doubt yourself.

  • Your self-confidence will come into question.

  • Imposter syndrome is not uncommon.

  • What am I doing here? Do I really belong? Am I good enough?”

  • This tends to come up particularly for students who are not performing optimally

  • in their first or second years of medical school.

  • Remind yourself of the reasons you went into medicine and are becoming a doctor.

  • Have compassion for yourself

  • after all, no one is perfect, and we are all bound to make mistakes and struggle at some point.

  • The key is rather to stay resilient and even become antifragile.

  • How will you address your struggles?

  • Will you be proactive and actively create a solution,

  • or passively feel sorry for yourself?

  • Reach out for support, critically assess

  • and be honest about what is and what is not working,

  • and make the necessary adjustments.

  • A struggling first year medical student recently reached out to me.

  • He was struggling with depression and his course was work suffering,

  • but he managed to completely turn things around.

  • He wanted to give back and help others who may be in a similar situation,

  • so he wrote a blog post chronicling his struggle and victory.

  • It's actually quite inspiring. You can find a like down in the description.

  • Now, everyone is dealt a bad hand at some point.

  • It's not the cards, but rather how you play your hand thats the secret.

  • Number three, professionalism and hierarchy of Medicine

  • At each stage in your education, you've started from the bottom and slowly worked your way up to the top.

  • In high school, you started as a freshman and by the time you were a senior,

  • you felt like you ran the place.

  • Similarly in college, freshman year was a significant adjustment,

  • but by the time senior year came around, things were smooth sailing.

  • Medical school is similar,

  • but I would argue even more pronounced.

  • You'll again be at the bottom of the hierarchy.

  • It goes attending physicians,

  • then fellows,

  • then residents,

  • then medical students.

  • For better or worse, medicine is a very tradition-bound profession

  • and hierarchy is closely adhered to in teaching hospitals.

  • Know your role and excel at it before moving to the next phase, and don't get ahead of yourself.

  • What I mean is to be sure to respect the hospital staff and to your colleagues.

  • I have too frequently seen overzealous and arrogant medical students disrespect the nursing staff

  • or other healthcare workers.

  • Not only is this is an ineffective way of carrying oneself,

  • but those nurses will make your life a nightmare.

  • You'll realize that residents and medical students who are respectful of their peers,

  • and more importantly the nurses,

  • physicians, and other hospital staff,

  • tend to fare better than those who don't.

  • This holds true for life in general,

  • but even more so in medicine

  • Again, you're in a traditional hierarchal profession,

  • where those above you will control several aspects of your training.

  • So be respectful.

  • And number four, you will change your mind about your specialty - constantly.

  • There are a few people that just know.

  • I thought I was one of them,

  • thinking I was gonna be a Pediatric Gastroenterologist.

  • Fast forward four years and I matched into plastic surgery.

  • You can learn my story of how I went from GI to plastics on my vlog channel.

  • Now in choosing your specialty, it's totally fine to change your mind or to not even have a clue.

  • That being said,

  • the only way to truly determine if a specialty is a good fit for you is by spending time in that setting.

  • Read about it, speak with others,

  • but more importantly, get hands-on experience in the form of shadowing,

  • clinical research, and appropriate selection of your third-year clerkships and electives.

  • For those of you just starting,

  • remember that you most likely won't know your specialty until you do your clinical rotations.

  • And if you think you do already know your specialty,

  • be prepared to change your mind.

  • A lot.

  • Get exposure where possible, but in the meantime, prioritize your MCAT,

  • getting stellar grades, becoming a competitive applicant,

  • and matriculating to medical school.

  • Let me know down in the comments what you are most concerned or apprehensive about

  • regarding medical school.

  • For those of you who are already in medical school, what do you wish you knew on day one?

  • Special thanks to my Patreon supporters that help make videos like this possible.

  • If you want to vote on upcoming videos, get exclusive commentary, get a t-shirt or have a video chat with me,

  • visit our Patreon page.

  • Thank you all so much for watching. If you liked the video, make sure you press that like button.

  • Hit subscribe if you have not already and I will see you guys in that next one.

Medical school is a completely different animal than college.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it