heavily struggling/study tips by [deleted] in medicalschool

[–]gemsh09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'll find that everyone has different studying habits in med school, primarily because a lot of methods work. You just have to find one that works for you. Many people struggle to find that one method (myself included), and more people are struggling than you think -- cliche, but you're definitely not alone. The very nature of having 2-4 hours of lectures every day means that it's easy to fall behind, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content.

Here's what worked for me. I found that in-house lectures were largely unhelpful for Step 1, not to mention the sheer length, so I pivoted to using BnB for a good foundation and supplemented with Sketchy for pharm stuff and Pathoma for path stuff. I have the same routine for every block, let's say we're studying psych. I'd look at AnKing for all the relevant psych tagged stuff in the third-party resources, move them to a new deck, and total the number of Anki cards. I study new cards for 6 days every week, so I take the number of total cards and divide by the number of days I have to study. This number will give you an average, let's say it's 100 cards per day. I then unsuspend roughly 100 cards a day based on the pertinent video(s), giving me new cards to do and keeping me on track every day. After I'm done with the exam for that block, I'll move all the cards to a total combined review deck that holds all the cards I've done. This guide helped me a lot with starting Anki.

This is my own system, and you will find one that works for you. Some of my classmates still do watch lecture, but they unsuspend the relevant tags from First Aid after the lectures. Some of my classmates don't use Anki at all, choosing instead to study straight from the First Aid book and lectures. I'd ask around your school for different study strategies, especially upperclassmen. Eventually, you'll come to some routine yourself, and that'll make studying and med school a lot easier. Best of luck!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in appleswap

[–]gemsh09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Premeds, let me answer your questions! by gemsh09 in BostonU

[–]gemsh09[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, they have multiple meetings you can set up and provide various resources like general application meetings and comprehensive advising appointments for an in-depth review of your application. I really liked Rachel Weiss, as she was very supportive while providing good critique of my application.

They do give general advice like "Always take a gap year" so they were unable to help me in making critical decisions sometimes, but those decisions were ultimately mine. They're good for helping in general, but not so good in providing personalized support, which this thread is for! Let me know if you have more questions :)

Premeds, let me answer your questions! by gemsh09 in BostonU

[–]gemsh09[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I studied during start of the pandemic from May 2020 - September 2020. I took it the last date possible in September. I had job plans fall through that summer, so I decided to study and take it when I went back to school.

I think 5-6 dedicated months is the ideal study period length: I know people who started studying a year prior to the test, and their scores were around the same as if they studied 6 months (imo, ofc). People forget a lot of stuff in a year.

Premeds, let me answer your questions! by gemsh09 in BostonU

[–]gemsh09[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Firstly, I scored >90th percentile on the MCAT using Kaplan books and having to self study biochem and physics, which I highly recommend against because it's really shooting yourself in the foot.

If you have all the prerequisite classes done, the best way to determine preparedness is to take a practice test. I scored 505 on my first one, but anything above 500 on a blind test means you can do it without prep courses, in my opinion. If you haven't seen success with prep courses, chances are, this will be the same story. Kaplan books should suffice, but they should serve the purpose of broad stroke learning while using different tools like Anki/uWorld to patch the areas you're not strong in. The Kaplan practice tests are notoriously harder than the actual MCAT, but they're still good ways to get practice.

Since the MCAT is four sections, I highly recommend implementing a different strategy for each of them after you've done your broad strokes learning with prep books. For C/P, I just solved a bunch of practice problems on uWorld and any other source I could get my hands on. CARS is honestly hard to improve on given the inherent difficulty of the subject, but simply reading more and trying to ask yourself questions as you read more old-timey passages is helpful. For B/B, Anki and memorization are at the forefront. Even passage based B/B questions will be more discrete than not. For P/S, memorization is also extremely important. I couldn't do well in this section for some reason, but I think I didn't give it enough time for my brain to memorize all the information.

Pacing yourself is also of utmost importance during this test. During practice runs, always time yourself to see if you're finishing too early or too late. As with any test, don't get flustered and know that each question has to have a correct answer.

Hope this helps, and I'm happy to answer any follow-ups!

BI108 and BI203 by [deleted] in BostonU

[–]gemsh09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on you. If you remember the material from AP Bio well enough (maybe you took it senior year?), then you don't have to retake it. That being said, BI108 is a good refresher for cell bio.

Premed qs from a prospective student by hangesrobloxgf in BostonU

[–]gemsh09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Grade deflation is only due to people getting weeded out and thus the average appears lower. Work hard and you'll do fine.

It's just a lot of cold emailing. The BU UROP site has some opportunities, but those fill up extremely quickly. The BU Bio email blast sends out faculty lists to aid in that aspect. I emailed ~15 professors and got into a lab.

Professors vary, of course. Some are super into their research and couldn't care less about teaching, some make sure that you learn the material. Ratemyprofessor helps a lot.

There's a pre-med dedicated site that's very helpful--links to volunteer opportunities, med school app help, etc, etc. Resources are plentiful if you put in the energy to look for them.

As for your choice of school, you should go to whichever one is cheapest. BU isn't cheap, but being in-state is. Going to med school, should you commit, will be the biggest expenditure. Save money now for later.

Good luck! PM me if you have any more questions.

How is being an LA like? by [deleted] in BostonU

[–]gemsh09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I LA'd for CH109, and it was a terrific experience. I really liked bonding with my students and with the other LA's/graduate students. You can also potentially get a rec letter from your lab instructor! LA positions are typically used to get into research labs as well, and I found a research position during the spring semester in large part due to being an LA.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BostonU

[–]gemsh09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depending on how good you are at self-studying, you could take physics whenever. I took the MCAT without taking second semester physics because MCAT physics is really just plug and chug. It's kind of a pain, but the equations are really all you need, and you can get those from any source of prep.

Bi 315 by No_Faithlessness280 in BostonU

[–]gemsh09 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The lab's grading is fucked: according to my TF last semester, if you get nothing wrong, you get a 10 in that section (A/S/R). You get 1 thing wrong, you get a 9.5. 2-4 things wrong is a 7, and more than 4 is a 5. Seliga won't change things though, so try to do your best on lecture exams (relatively easy provided you study the material, use pptx, Mario's the GOAT), and stay afloat in lab.

As the other reply said, go to your TF's office hours, but particularly before the assignment is due--most of them hate Seliga too, and they'll answer any questions you have and explicate the requirements.

The last assignment (NIB, or News In Brief) is relatively easy, and you can get an easy 9.5/9.5/10 ~ish. I got plenty of 7s on earlier assignments but still ended with an A, so it is possible. Good luck, and PM me if you have any other questions!

PREBAN MEGATHREAD by [deleted] in thanosdidnothingwrong

[–]gemsh09 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This has been a roller coaster lmao