Course load in med?

[Oak]

Sorry in advance if my question seems dumb.

 

I've heard from various sources that medical school is much, much harder than undergraduate studies. Some have said that it's load is equivalent to ~9-10 undergraduate courses per term, while others said it's not bad at all.

 

Could someone currently in med please tell us about what it's like in there?

 

Thanks!

[Superking25]

First year so far has been okay.

 

First semester was pretty good for me, I had a pretty solid background in biochem/physiology/immunology/chemistry, so I was fairly familiar with most of the concepts through the semester. I liked the gross anatomy labs, histology wasn't that fun, and the rest of PRIN (lectures, PBL, communication skills, etc.) were all right. Overall I felt it was like an average undergraduate semester.

 

This semester has gotten a lot busier! We are now in the foundations of medicine blocks where we do five weeks of host defences and infection, five weeks of cardiovascular, five weeks of pulmonary, and five weeks of fluids, electrolytes, renal, and genitourinary. We're combining lectures with clinical skills (cardiac, pulmonary, abdominal, ENT exams, etc.), and we have some assignments in our Doctor, Patient, and Society class, and we have more regular family practice visits. We can see finals coming up in the beginning of June, so many are already starting to review for the finals if they haven't been doing so already.

 

For the most part, it's not that the material is hard to understand, it's just the volume. We have five weeks to learn everything about the cardiovascular system that we can, and that's it until we're on the wards in 3rd year. The pressure is building and there is a bit of anxiety, but if you can get into med school, you have the smarts and the study skills to get through it. The bigger pressure is on trying to do well on the exams, rather than pass.

 

Next year will be more of the same I guess, since it's the same structure as this semester, so I don't foresee it getting "harder". I'm really looking forward to 3rd year to actually apply some of what we learn, as it's quite hard to memorize all kinds of details about cardiovascular pharmacology when you don't actually see the patient in front of you in severe congestive heart failure. Until then, we just keep plugging away.

[hiebs13]

The majority of what Superking said is correct except the I don't forsee it getting any harder. The material does not get harder but the volume does. Every semester from the beginning of year 1 until the end of year 2 gets worse. A friend pulled out info from an undergrad course the other day and our neuroanatomy lab manual had more info in it (that portion was 2 h a week for 8 weeks). So yeah by the end of 2nd year it probably does equate to 9ish undergrad courses.

[ontariostudent]

The difficulty lies in the volume and the quality of the resources. If you had an enough time to find a perfect resource and go through it well, there would be little to no difficulty. The issue arises when you have a 6 inch stack of notes for an exam and a week to go through it and understand everything, while you're still learning more and having a significant part of your day taken up with classes and labs.