My first week back was all about adjusting.
Adjusting to waking up early again, being back in the classroom, and not using professor-written material as my primary study tool. Here’s a brief recap of my week below!
Monday: First day back! We had one required class and some optional classes. I did attend the optional classes with about 8 other students since I exclusively studied professor written material last year. I was scared to make the commitment to using primarily third party resources to study.
Tuesday: No required classes, but four optional ones. I did attend all, and this is where I started to question if I should pivot my study plan. I talked with my friends about Bootcamp. Afterwards, I had a meeting with the faculty advisor for the Pathology Student Interest Group that I’m co-leading.
Wednesday: We had two required classes bright and early at 9:00am. There was optional classes afterwards but I made the executive decision to not attend (unless I feel the topic isn’t adequately discussed in third party resources). It felt so weird not going to class because I had went to almost every class in the first year :(.
Thursday: We had two required classes, one of which was just us presenting. I definitely don’t miss presenting but my fear of public speaking has subdued. Today was the last day of classes for the first week, so I of course treated myself to a double-chocolate chunk cookie from Insomnia.
Friday: We had no classes today, which is always nice. Us MS2s hosted a Student Interest Group (SIG) Fair for the MS1s so they’re able to see which SIGs might interest them. Other than that, I studied… obviously! I would definitely encourage you to be a leader of SIGs that align with your interests. Connecting with your faculty advisor can give you networking and shadowing opportunities in a more streamlined manner.
It doesn’t matter what year you are in your medical school journey, you’ll always have to make adjustments and be prepared to be uncomfortable. Many of my peers (including myself) are in this limbo of deciding how to study using third party resources while still having professor-written quizzes. At least we’re all in the same boat! Just remember, if a study method isn’t working for you, you can always change it. Don’t compare what you’re doing to what other students are doing.
