First, I am just so shocked that I am in my first week of medical school. It feels so unreal. For most of this week, my goals were to do my best to catch up with the biostatistics modules we were assigned in the middle of July. I also worked on making sure I made time to exercise and that I slept as early as I could. There were certainly many nights where I did not get my eight hours, but I am actively working on my sleep hygiene and I am mindful of my routine. 

Let’s begin! This post is about August 9, 2021 to August 15, 2021. 

Monday

On Monday, we went to our Foundations of Medicine (FOM) course. This course covers the knowledge part of medical school for my institution. For this day, we sat in the lecture hall from 8am to 12pm. The first two lectures were focused on explaining the course and how it worked such as how our pharmacology will be asynchronous modules. 

This section alone was a bit stressful because I did not realize how many different distinctions I needed to be aware of until I looked at the schedule in their presentation. Essentially, we have class on Monday and Wednesday from 8am to 12pm. These are all synchronous lectures. 

The best part of that day was definitely seeing one of my previous undergraduate program professors. This professor spent the lecture discussing Engel’s bio-psycho-social model. It was amazing to see him again and it felt good to be in his classroom. This topic was the second lecture of the day because my medical school is very focused on creating physicians who are holistic and consider every aspect of the patient and the variables (social determinants of health) that relate to them. 

Now, the actual lectures for this day were straightforward as they were reviews of the basic premed science courses. I was also very happy to have finished a biostatistics module before a school assembly. However, I got home and realized I was already behind?!

I discovered there were 3 readings that totaled about 57 pages that were suggested we read for the next day. These readings were for our Clinical Arts and Sciences(CAS) course (essentially doctoring) which was going to be from 1pm to 5pm. 

I had planned to go to the gym but settled for a yoga work out and spent most of the evening trying to catch up. Rather than making Anki cards, I decided to take some time to write my reflection for orientation so check that out if you haven’t already. 

Tuesday

Fortunately, those readings were not 100% crucial to this day of classes. Similar to Monday, I had a lecture from 8am to 12pm. These lectures dove a little bit deeper in biochemistry, and it felt good to see some of that material again. Don’t get me wrong though, some of that material still scares me to this day (looking at you enzyme thermodynamics). 

From 1pm to 5pm, I had CAS. Between the break, I did most of the reading. These readings are from a textbook focused on “patient centered care”. At first, the reading felt awkward because it spent most of the time discussing how to have a conversation with a patient. I felt it would’ve been better for me to just start practicing because there was no way I was going to remember all the skills they explained. 

While reading at lunch today, I realized that many of my physicians have used those techniques on me and even one of my medical student friends have practiced on me without my retaliation. It was pretty amazing to recognize those skills. 

During the actual class, the first three hours were dedicated to lectures. These lectures were a bit difficult for me to pay attention to because my body naturally gets exhausted at 2pm no matter what I am doing. I am convinced it has to do with my circadian rhythm. Fortunately, these lectures were recorded so I can go back if I felt like I missed something important. 

Now, the best part of my day. We broke up into our small groups (which feels like a misnomer because there were at least 24 students in the room). We spent two hours going through different vignettes. For these vignettes, we partnered up and took turns role playing. 

These vignettes were all focused on teaching us how to introduce ourselves, allot time to discussing and eliciting the chief concern (notice the wording there), and then exiting. It was very awkward, but so much fun! I know I have to practice more to become more comfortable introducing myself (it felt so strange to practice officially saying I was a first year medical student!). 

This session also revealed that one of my classmates was someone I previously crossed paths with. At the hospital I worked at, I interviewed for multiple Clinical Research Coordinator jobs. One of those jobs, I did not get and I was devastated. I met this classmate at this interview and was so glad that I could finally figure out where I knew him from. Moral of the story: it’s a very small world especially for pre-meds!

This evening, I realized I was a bit unhappy with how our course materials were set up/information was delivered to us. This entire week feels like I finally got my footing right and then someone ripped the carpet out from under me every few hours. 

For instance, I did not know about the Pharmacology modules until Monday and did not know when I would allot time for it. I did not know we had the reading for CAS. I also had no idea there was a quiz involved for Tuesday. Then I discovered there was an Excel sheet for FOM with additional assignments/pre-work that needed to be completed for tomorrow. 

My roommate and I also spent ten minutes trying to understand which modules were being done when, how, and which material because we have half a day of regular lectures tomorrow and then half a day of group learning. Then the next day is just like Tuesday and then Friday is completely different!

Overall, this weekend is going to be a good time to catch up and I know what to expect for next week. I know next week will be much better and that this is just part of learning. 

Wednesday

This day was pretty straight forward. We went to lecture from 8am to 12pm. Of those lectures, the first two were traditional lectures that covered proteins and cell membranes. During these lectures, I tried to change up my in class note taking. On Monday and Tuesday, I followed along with my PowerPoints on my Notability app on my iPad. I took notes on whatever seemed important. 

However, I changed it up on Wednesday. I had my PowerPoints up on my iPad, but I also had Anki and a PDF of the PowerPoint open on my Macbook. I made Anki cards as the lecture happened. BUT (a really big BUT), I discovered I was falling behind because I was still not used to all the keyboard shortcuts. For the time being, I wrote down some notes where I got lost and marked down where I needed to go back. 

The second two hours were actually “Active Learning Classrooms”. For this part of the day, we broke up into smaller groups and went to our designated classrooms. 

I was nervous about the active learning classroom activities because they were the first ones of the semester. I had no idea what to expect. I made sure to do the work beforehand, and I hoped for a good group experience. 

The first activity was focused on enzymes. The activity itself was replicating enzyme kinetics with a box, marbles, timer, and one individual acting as the “enzyme”. The marbles were black and white and the black marbles were the substrate. During this activity, one person would collect a designated number of marbles in a designated amount of time. This happened for multiple time points and the data was graphed in an excel sheet that created the Michaelis-Menton curve! It was very cool!

At the end of this activity, I FINALLY had a good visual and firsthand experience that will help me remember competitive inhibition. This activity was such a great first experience and I can’t wait to do more active learning activities in the future. 

The second active learning activity was focused on acid base chemistry. This activity was just going through a worksheet with my classmates and answering the questions together. This activity focused on deriving the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation which is VERY important for pharmacology. Our school has us complete a quiz to show that we did this activity. 

The academic portion of my day was pretty good. It was when I went home that I struggled. I did not get to do a work out on this day. My goal was to make my Anki cards for as many lectures as I could, but that did not happen. I made sure to get pre-work done and make sure I knew when quizzes and assignments were due. 

Thursday

Thursday was a bit different. We had our Clinical Arts and Sciences in the morning. This session was focused on the introduction, eliciting the chief concern, the list of concerns, making a plan, getting a history of present illness (HPI)  and making sure the patient felt heard. The first part was a lecture that taught us about using non-judgmental language both in person and on the charts (since charts are now open to patient use). It was very interesting and made me think very hard about my experiences as a premed. 

The practice session was so much fun, but don’t get me wrong. It still felt weird. I made multiple mistakes and knew instantly what I did was wrong. It was a great learning experience and I can’t wait for more in the future. 

Now, this part of the day was intriguing to me. It made me realize that I was blessed to have not completed one of my premed experiences. I would’ve spent most of my time unlearning the bad habits that would’ve developed if I had continued with these jobs. I am very grateful they didn’t work out and that I have a clean slate to start from.

The second two hours of the day were FOM but asynchronous. Everyone split off to different areas and did their modules either in groups or individually. These modules were focused on enzymology and acid base chemistry. They were really good and helped me solidify my understanding of enzymes, Km, and Vmax especially in the context of ethanol metabolism(which I already had a small background in from undergrad). 

The second half of the day was focused on our research and capstone course. The research course is longitudinal across all four years. We basically create a project at the end our fourth year but we begin learning the skills for it during our first year. This course assigned the biostatistics modules which many of us were struggling to get done. 

We broke up into different groups for this portion of the day. We essentially had a topic that we needed to research and present to our class. My group picked gamification of fitness. It was pretty interesting and it turns out that I used one popular program back in 2016! 

This day, just like Tuesday, was exhausting. I did not work out again, but I made sure to eat healthy and get as many Anki cards made as possible. (Although I was concerned I had not started reviewing them in depth like I had planned).

Friday

Friday was pretty quick compared to the other days of the week. For Friday we had lectures on pharmacokinetics and nucleic acids. These lectures were traditional lectures which could’ve been completed over Zoom or in person. I chose to go in person.

During this lecture, I tried making Anki cards again with my Notability up. One of my classmates was actually watching me and wanted to know how I was making those cards so fast. It definitely made me feel better, but I am still not perfect at making them during class. I definitely started taking notes on the slides during the unfamiliar parts of pharmacokinetics. 

After the two lectures, we were sent to different rooms to complete our case study of the week. Truth be told, I was super nervous for this case study because I had no idea what it would be like. Our professor had us introduce ourselves and fortunately I had met a few of these students earlier during orientation and classes. 

During this session, we went over the case. Some people had roles, I took the role of the scribe. We basically went through a case about methanol poisoning. This case study felt amazing to me. We took our time and went through each slide and the professor filled in any gaps. We covered topics from acid base chemistry to vital signs to steady state balance to ethanol consumption.

I was able to make so many connections, it really felt like I was consolidating information! I even knew the treatment before we finished because I remembered what one of the professors taught us in class. 

This assignment basically helped me feel better about being a bit behind on reviewing lectures. I definitely began making connections and applying it to the problems we were given. However, I won’t know if my study techniques are just right until our first formative exam.

Now, Friday afternoon and evening were discouraging. I left campus early and got my groceries, went home and made food for lunch, and tried doing my laundry. I ended up wasting my time (about 2 hours) because I didn’t know how to do laundry because my landlord didn’t explain it. It was frustrating. I ended up getting fewer lectures done and didn’t work out, but I tried making a plan for the weekend. 

Weekend

Now, the plan I made on Friday did not go through as I initially thought. I decided to sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday because my body needed the rest. 

I did get through making all my Anki cards and I got into good review sessions on Friday and Saturday night. I am so much faster at Anki now, I love it even more!

The plan for the rest of this Sunday is to outline this week of classes, assignments, and quizzes now that I know where everything is. I have already begun my meal prep and will schedule what meals I will have throughout the week to ensure good nutrition. Since my school’s gyms are still on summer hours until the undergrad students come, I will be thinking of alternative workouts to plan to get in this week to keep up my physical fitness. 

(Below is a picture of me smiling to let you know how much I love being here.)

Overall

I want to note some important aspects of my school. My school is very focused on making sure we learn. Many of the activities allow multiple attempts, and the activities are focused on ensuring we can learn these concepts. 

My first exam will be on August 27th. This exam is formative which means that there is no official grade for this exam. The purpose of this exam is to make sure that I am where I’m supposed to be and assess what needs to be changed in my study habits. Another three weeks after that will be the summative exam which will be part of my official grade. 

My school also gives us “Big Sibs.” My Big Sib is a good friend of mine from undergrad. We decided that we would talk at the end of the week to see how I’m doing. During our talk, I realized that I am feeling pretty good.

I think I came to medical school fairly prepared. I have the perfect tech set up for myself. I know what studying techniques will work for me and I just need to play around until I find the right combination for this block and next block. I know whatever I do in these two blocks will probably not work for the third block because that is when the “real” medical school information starts. 

My Anki skills have improved significantly now. My Big taught me a shortcut that’s helped save some time and I learned a few other shortcuts to make making cards easier. 

In terms of my overall health, I have many areas that need some work. My skin care is going pretty great so I am happy with that. I have been on top of my nutrition plan for the week and have been making some healthy meals throughout the week. I also make sure to drink 48oz or more throughout the day. However, my exercise and sleep routines need some work. 

For this week, I think I will try to start my night time routine around 8:45pm. I think that will give me enough time to do my skincare, set up my room, and really get into the mindset to sleep. I, surprisingly, have been doing great on sleep though. My OB-GYN was definitely right about not drinking coffee after 12pm. 

Now, exercise is going to be difficult. The gym on our campus closes at 4pm due to summer hours. The undergrad gym closes at 6 which does not give me a whole lot of time to get there. I am going to try my best to figure out non-gym workouts or maybe even get to the gym after class on Monday or Wednesday. Whatever I decide, I am going to write it out in my planner. 

My main lesson from this past week is to look ahead. I definitely wish I spent time during orientation week looking through the modules and seeing what my class schedule was like. It would’ve saved me so much time and I wouldn’t have felt like the carpet was being ripped from under me. 

Let me know what you want to hear more about in the comments!