How You Can Spend Summer As A Medical Student

This is advice I would have appreciated before summers of the past years of med school. Unfortunately very few people in life - especially med students - like to share information that might help others (one of the main reasons I started this blog, to provide information that might help everyone)

1. Summer after Foundation year: Foundation year is like an extension of high school. So unless you need to repeat a course you got a less than optimum mark in, then this is pure beach- and sleep-filled vacation. There is nothing career - medical career that is - related you can do, that I know of, at this stage.


2. Summer after Year 1:
   A) Summer courses (university electives and compulsory courses), if need be, are preferably taken here.
   A chat about summer courses is overdue at this point: In foundation year, lecturers scare you about not finishing elective and compulsory courses before graduation. They tell you stories of students in their final year of medical school but who had not finished the elective and compulsory university courses and were not allowed to graduate because of that. Scared shitless, many medical students spend all 3 summers after foundation year trying to finish these courses during the summer semester. This is an utter waste of time, unless you feel you cannot manage studying an elective course with your usual medical studies. With a little planning, you can finish all your university compulsory and elective courses before Year 3. I felt confident enough to juggle elective and compulsory courses alongside with my medical studies. Based on that, I laid the following plan for myself. Remember, lay down the plan you feel suits you. You don't need to compare yourself to others. By year 2, students who had taken 2 summers filled with courses were nearly done but I wasn't. Yet they spent a 3rd summer to finish these courses while I got to enjoy 2 summers more than they did.

B) Start preparing for USMLE Step 1 if you are planning to take it in the next few years. Most, if not all, students think that the USMLE, like all exams, is cramming. Exams are not about cramming. Give your brain time to consolidate memories of information. Read and re-read. Then read again the same information. And again. Over time. That is the real secret to understanding and keeping information in your long-term store for use even past the USMLE and college exams (which I assure you, you will need). Even though cramming works, students know it is only a temporary storage of information. Yet we are forced into it because of a lack of time.


3. Summer after Year 2: If you are interested in research, allocate a time during this summer to learning about research (whether in our university or elsewhere). Research labs. Community research. Whatever interests you. Contact professors in university or other universities who are conducting research and ask to be mentored. (This is a point I wish I had known about at the right time. I only discovered the fact that our university conducts research a few weeks ago.)


4. Summer after Year 3: This summer should be for a clinical attachment. Public hospitals may have clinical attachment programs (Rashid Hospital, Dubai Hospital, you may want to try Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah. There are many more hospitals but these are the ones I know of.). Contact the department you are interested in and ask them or visit their website.



Alternatively, you can take a break in the summer after Year 2 (I know how hectic that year is). Then in this summer, allocate 1 month to research and 1 month to clinical attachment.
(I juggled both research and clinical attachment in 2 months at the same time. It was utterly exhausting. Why did I do this? I didn't know till this summer that our university conducted research.)


5. Summer after Year 4: shortest summer of med school. You will have 6 weeks to do your elective in any place of your choosing (I'll write a post after I've stepped in a few puddles myself and found the solutions and right way of stepping over the puddles)

Note to all med students reading this: Medical life is tough because of the competition. It's easy to get lost in the heat and jumble of things, lose yourself, your health and your life. Summers were meant to be a break for the mind and body. The above is only a humble suggestion from yours truly. But you can always spend summers to grow your talents. 

Year 3: Semester 1

Note: All books I recommend are books I've read unless otherwise stated. 
Also, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have more questions or are in need of any books or help.

The 2 poles of opinion on this semester:
1. This semester gave me a brain-gasm! 
2. I don't think I could hate medicine more than I do now.

No gray area in the Neuroscience Unit. What team you are depends on how you're studying. I am not going to sugar coat this one for you.

Pros of semester:
1. It's all about neuroscience. Not a billion units in one semester. Advantage? Your study is focused. 
Disadvantage? Delving into minute details.
2. Pathology here is the most fun and easiest of all units. But this is mainly because you will understand neuropathology like no other pathology you have taken before. It will still be imprinted in your brain a year later.
3. A lot of pharmacology will be repeated over the weeks.

Cons of semester
1. Pharmacology is not very logical (few exceptions) and includes many classes and each class contains many drugs (but then again, I hate pharmacology. For a reason might I add. Not blind hate.).
2. The final 2 weeks are in the wrong place. That is to say they shouldn't be the final 2 weeks. What smart organizer places the introduction of TWO new systems (hearing and vision) in the final 2 weeks before the exam? Incompetent fools is who. But there is no changing that. Or is there? (Do I hear the Student Academic Council anyone?)

General Tips:

1. Study the Sight and Hearing unit lectures before the teachers give you the material and after they give you. Then when you study for the exam make sure you start with these two weeks first and work your way backward. Why? I found this helped me a lot. How? Well the neuroscience unit is connected each week with the next. So by the time you reach the final few weeks you would have gone over the material of the first few weeks a bunch of times. But not too much for the last few weeks. So starting from the last weeks helps consolidate the material better. But if you feel near the exam times that you still do not have a good grab on material, then start chronologically. Each to his own after all.
2. Every student knows the key to this semester. That is why a lot of our class scored somewhere in the lower 90s spectrum. Repetition. This will come indirectly with the weeks. But you must also spend considerable effort and time on your own. Do not rely solely on lectures. Library books are free. Rummage the library for books you feel suit you best. Read material from different sources. This way, you may chance upon facts missed by one source or you may find clearer explanations in another. But do not confuse yourself with TOO much sources. Find one or two to your taste and stick to them in a particular subject.

How to Study:

Pathology

1. ATTEND ALL THE PATHOLOGY SESSIONS. Do not just solve the TBL and leave the class discussion and teacher explanation.
2. Attend all practical labs. You may get one-on-one teacher explanations of histopathological pictures if you ask. Important for getting information stuck in your synapses till the OSPE.

Anatomy

1. There are 2 main domains: 
1. Head and Neck
2. Neuroanatomy
2. They go hand in hand. Study them in chronological order if you can because they are connected. Do not study them as separate sections because one is related to the other. If you miss out on a few lectures, you may be lost later on because of the inter-connectedness of the subject.
3. Try to integrate the studying of anatomy. At the end of the semester by the time of the exams, study everything all over because everything will fall in line and you will feel satisfaction as you everything goes single file through your neurons (you understand everything thoroughly in other words).
4. Make the most of your anatomy lab timings this semester. Then, go to the anatomy labs after class hours. Bring your anatomy atlas along (you may be quite lost without it). Go at least 3 times before the exam (before written, OSPE and OSCE) because this is the time you will have finished all the theoretical knowledge and can finally put everything together in your imagination using models.
5. If you feel you may not manage alone, bring a study partner along. (Make sure it is someone who is willing to learn, optimistic and fast-paced. Be sure it is someone encouraging, and not someone envious and greedy for self-knowledge only.)
6. You may find it helpful to do as I did if studying alone is what gets information in your mind but you need a partner to consolidate information and make sure you are not learning wrong information: alternate visiting the lab alone and with a partner. I used to think studying alone was more efficient. But while revising with a partner, we joked and that helped the information stick till now.
7. In the first week, focus on scrupulously understanding the motor and sensory spinal tracts. Why? They are of utmost importance in nearly all the upcoming cases. (At least this is how I felt when I studied them in the first week. The PBL cases and mini PBL problems during the rest of the semester were a breeze to diagnose based on the signs and symptoms that relate to motor and spinal tracts.)
8. Books specifically for neuroanatomy - in addition to your traditional anatomy books:
1. BRS Neuroanatomy: great for reviewing things just before each lecture of neuroanatomy or the exam
2. Clinical Neuroanatomy Made Ridiculously Simple
3. High Yield Series - Neuroanatomy
4. Snell's Clinical Neuroanatomy

Physiology

1. In summary: studying the lectures is enough for exams if you are lazy. 
2. If you are genuinely interested in neuroscience physiology (because the brain physiology is truly breathtaking and grand to behold), I suggest not only reading books but also websites with animations and explanations (not that I need to recommend that to a 21st century student).
3. Books: 
1. Guyton's Physiology: many students don't like it because it goes into details. If you are like me and would like to understand things to minute levels, then you will like this book for neuroscience.
2. Costanza: I personally haven't read it, but I have heard many compliment this book for not only the neuroscience unit.

Pharmacology

1. Study each week as you pass it. Do not leave lectures to accumulate till the end of the semester. Neurogenic drugs are many.
2. If you don't know some neuroanatomy and physiology, you may not understand the mechanisms involved in neurological drugs. Therefore, if you miss out on lectures, it is most important to read neurophysiology and anatomy before proceeding to the pharmacology.

Microbiology
The written exam (Paper 2) was filled with microbiology. I managed to breeze through it because I had studied the microbiology lectures thoroughly (up to the minute boring details). Others were not so fortunate because they thought microbiology was a joke - wasn't so funny in the finals though. 

Refer to the microbiology post for the books I used: 
http://taleoftwoidentities.blogspot.ae/2014/06/best-medical-microbiology-books-for-med.html

Neuroscience is all about understanding. If you memorize, you are doomed to find it difficult to answer the exam. It is also the most enjoyable of units. So enjoy it. Do not wait for day by day to pass so you can "get over with it" and enjoy the holidays. Enjoy each day as it comes. 
Life is passing too as your medical years pass. Young years of life. Keep in mind that you are studying to try to cure others and thus bring back hope and happiness into their lives so don't forget to bring the optimism and pleasure to your life as well.

Next post will be about how to spend summer as a medical student.

Year 3: Continuing Community Based Research (CBR)

You have 2 options:
1. Finish the poster and the abstract during summer so you can add extra time you would have used preparing them during the semester to your entertainment time or studying hours.

2. Use your summer for enjoyment because you deserve it after The Great Battle of Year 2. Then start the abstract and poster when school starts. This leaves you with less time for leisure or studying - depending on which you shall sacrifice - during the semester.

Note: many people cannot do Option 2 because most of the group members are off traveling during summer or in different cities. What many groups believe is that group work means "All members being present in the same vicinity to complete a work". Wrong. And inefficient. Divide the work. Each person takes a part. For example, Person A takes the methods. Person B takes the results. And so on. Then assign one editor, preferably the group leader. This person will collect all parts, assemble them and edit them. The finished document is to be sent to the entire group for agreement. For this to work, group members must be in harmony and the editor must be competent at work. If you do not think any member of your group can pull off editing, do not take to this.

My advice: OPTION 1. Take a week off your summer vacation (preferably right after exams are done) to finish the assignment. This leaves you free time in winter to enjoy the weather (trust me, being imprisoned at home during winter in Dubai to produce a well kempt poster is not the way to go).

How to go about the assignment:
Option A: Started with the poster, then concluded with the abstract.

Option B: Fished out our important results and put them in a document as a graph with an explanatory sentence for each point or just stand-alone sentences with no graphs. 

Then we started the abstract by taking out the most important of the important results. 

Lastly we did the poster and included all the important results we had put in the document.

Abstract: Your introduction and aims should be ready from your research proposal.

Methods are unique to each group and how they dealt with their data. Include the research design, instrument used, how data was analyzed and your sample size.

At this point you have reached the results. This is where it will be easier if you had a document to review your important results and pick THE most important (or if you start with your poster you can refer to the results from there to pick what's imperative).
Summarize the bullet points. Include only percentages (unless it is vital that you include a frequency).

Your conclusion should be 1 or 2 concise sentences giving a clear idea of your research and its results.

Poster: Start by preparing a document of all that will be included. Leave the design till last.
Here you elaborate integral findings on your abstract.
Include your study limitations after your discussion.
Lastly, your design. Don't go wild on it. They don't want something that looks like an advertisement. 
Something that looks nice + not distracting to the reader = the perfect poster.

Always have the reader/audience in mind while working. What would they want to know? What are the questions in their mind while reading the introduction and aims that are imperative I answer? Has the conclusion answered the reader's peaked interest and questions? Does it summarize the research with integrity, not missing out enormously important conclusions?

And remember: To Each His Own. (I think I'll adopt that as a moto for my blog just to emphasize the importance of each person's unique experience. I feel the need to re-emphasize this: What I go through may not be the same for you. I am only providing MY experience and advice. I obviously don't need to tell you to feel free to take your own path through experiences.)

At the end of the day, this is all for your own sake. Don't worry about the marks. (I don't think the poster and abstract are graded to be honest with you. CBR marks depend on the CBR exam papers.) You want your work to be neat and perfect for presenting in case you would like to share it with the world in a conference.

Next post will be about the first semester of Year 3.

And may the odds be ever in your poster's favor!