"Ive Fallen and I Cant Get Up"

As Melissa spoke of mini one is right around the corner and time seems to be moving quicker than ever. This past week I was excited to see that on my schedule there was no anatomy dissection or PACE which account for like 10 hours of study time per week. The optimist in me then scheduled an insurmountable amount of lectures to review everyday. By last night I was so overwhelmed I wanted nothing more than to be transported back home and sit on the couch with a pint of Haagen Dasz Cherry Vanilla (my favorite). I had begun to contemplate what my life would be like going home “a failure” the “Ross reject”, if you will. What would I do? Pursue a different career path? Go back to school? I took a long shower and realized that this defeatist attitude would never aid me in my study. I mustered the courage to close Dr. Kallie’s Histology lecture, Anatomy muscle chart, the drawing of the brachial plexus and Dr. Meisenberg’s Biochemistry book, and hit the bed.

By morning, I was a changed man. I got up energized and with a motivation I hadn’t seen in myself in over a year. I went to the annex (my place of study) so that I would have no external distractions and put in a solid four hours of studying. I was able to cover the same material in half the time as the night before. It’s all in your attitude my dad would tell me. But if it were that easy I wouldn’t look up at the T.A in confusion when he asked me “the anastomosis of the scapular region”. For those of you who felt the need to know what an anastomosis was, looked like or who needed to know it wasn't a word i made up, Ive provided illustration below.

If there is any good that has come out of this past week it is that I feel as though I have figured out my recipe for success while at Ross. Like every upper semester student we have spoken to has said “everyone is different” and “you have to find what study habits work for you”. Some went as far as saying “you will be fine with 2 hours of study outside of lecture”. What Bull. Also, many have warned us “to figure out your study methods before its too late”. You mean [cough cough] Mini 1.

Another thing I feel is important to note is that I have heard from several upper semesters that failing one portion of mini 1 is like a rite of passage. It will happen and it CAN be overcome. Of course, biochemistry is a little bit more difficult to recover from since it will be weighted so heavily as Melissa elaborated on.

In my case it just may be too late but I feel that I will do better if I follow my own advice below:

1.) NEVER leave a lecture that was given TODAY for TOMORROW.
a. “ill just watch it tomorrow” has been a major problem for me.

2.) KNOW and LEARN everything that was lectured on TODAY by TODAY.
a. “ill memorize all that stuff just before the mini”.
b. “ill just watch it on 2x (fast forward) and know it backward and forward for the mini.

3.) At the end of the day (or right before bed preferably), do a run through of all the material you were presented with that day with as little help from your notes as possible. Fill the gaps in your knowledge with help from your notes.

4.) Over the weekend, really drill yourself on the key concepts covered in each lecture that week. This is the LAST time you will see this information for up to a month. Ask yourself, “will I know the details of this lecture when the mini arrives?”

5.) Do practice questions for lectures that were covered in the week, you should not only be prepared to answer questions that your own professor’s write, you should be able to answer questions that external examiners will write (USMLE).

6.) For Anatomy lab, make sure you know all the bones and muscles (including their origin, insertion, actions, nerve supply, vascular supply and any clinical relevance) AS THEY COME UP IN LAB. At that rate you have maybe 10 muscles per week. And not 40 the week before the mini.

I should mention that I went back over this post several times and realized how simplistic this all sounds. I kept asking myself “who does not know that they should stay on top of their lectures, memorize pathways and muscles as they come up?” The truth is I think everyone KNOWS this but only those that I find to be fully prepared for mini 1 have DONE this. Now that I have the formula for what I believe to be MY success, will I be able to EMPLOY it?

Until next time,

Michael