August 4th, 2009 by Mind Body and Soul
1. Be An Excellent Manager of Your Own Time
Medical school will overwhelm you. In the four years it will take you to get your MD, you will be presented with more information that you must master than you might have thought possible, even if you did attend a rigorous pre-med program. Accordingly, the first tip to being a good medical student is to develop time-management skills.
2. Be Friends With More Experienced Medical Students
Making connections early in your med school career with students who have been around longer than you can be invaluable. You can learn from their mistakes instead of making them on your own.
3. Be Respectful of Your Own Health
During this overwhelming time, you will be taxing your physical and mental resources to stay on top of your studies. While it’s important that you do well, of course, you must balance your quest for excellence with a commitment to maintaining your health.
4. Be Respectful of The Undertaking
Becoming a doctor is one of the most important things a person can do. Respect this undertaking, and understand that the other aspects of your life (anything non-med-school related) are going to have to take a back seat for a while. A long while.
5. Hit The Books Hard and Often
Get to love studying if you don’t already. There’s only one way to master the amount of information you need to when people’s lives are in your hands, and that’s to immerse yourself in it.
6.Play To Your Strengths, But Don’t Be Limited To Them
Medical school is like any other kind of school in some ways — it’s a learning experience. Do engage in learning opportunities that will showcase your strengths, but also look for ways to grow, to build on areas where you might not be as strong.
7. Choose Your Specialization ASAP
The earlier you can decide about which area of medicine you’d like to practice, the earlier you can become an expert in this area.
8. Find Mentors In Your Field Of Choice
Before you decide on a specialization, talk to the experienced students you know about what they think. Talk to doctors currently practicing in the field that appeals to you. Talk to your instructors. Make professional connections with people who are already doing the kinds of things you want to be doing after you’re out of school.
9. Write As Much As You Can
Med school may be too early to think about publishing your work, but if you are looking for prestige in your field, plan on publishing in the future. The best way to get publication worthy is to write what you can, perhaps by helping already publishing doctors prepare articles.
10. Take The Occasional Break
Good luck with this one!
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July 16th, 2009 by Mind Body and Soul
How do you in high school will have an impact on how you perform at medical school. If you plan on becoming a doctor you can increase your chances of success by preparing early with a good education. If you follow this advice while you are in high school, you will be ready for medical school.
1. Schedule a meeting with a guidance counselor. If you plan to attend medical school, you should first schedule a meeting with your guidance counselor at your high school. Discuss about necessary admission formalities of medical schools of interest to you. Figure out the courses that are required in order to apply to the universities that you want to choose. Also, be careful that your GPA is high enough to meet the pre-requisites for your med school of choice. Talk to your guidance counselor during the year preceding your entrance into medical school. She will be able to give you tons of information that will help you find your way.
2. Make sure you’re in the right classes. Taking the right high school classes can also help you on the road to medical school. You need to have taken all the pre-requisites for the pre-med program to be accepted into your university. Since admittance into the program is dependent on the classes taken by you in high school, make sure you are on the correct path. Take classes like chemistry, biology and physics to increase your chances of being accepted into medical school. If you also consider taking advanced math course, there will be good benefit. [Contact the guidance counselor to confirm that everything important has been covered.]
3. Keep up your GPA. You do not need to keep up a score of 4.0, but it is something to aim for if you really want to be accepted into med school. It is a requirement of the majority of medical schools that your cumulative GPA be at least 3.5. When you apply to a medical school, they will look at your GPA to see if you are really “doctor material”. Keep your average high to prove yourself.
4. Work to improve your reading skills. Great reading techniques are very important for a med-school student. When you’re in medical school, you will be getting through plenty of textbooks. You can prepare for these reading loads by improving your reading skills in high school. While you are reading, think of two things: Improving your study skills, and remembering what you read. Any and all of these are helpful on your path to medical school acceptance.
5. Demonstrate leadership. Medical school admissions officers are also looking for people with strong leadership ability. If you do some volunteer work in high school, you will prove this. Places like hospitals and nursing homes really need volunteers. Health-related experience improves your med school application – it not only highlights your interest in the medical field, but also shows your commitment. As you gather documents for your application to medical school, be sure to get letters of reference from all of your volunteer work and any professional work you may have done.
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