I recently told a friend that medical school is changing me fundamentally as a person. This sounds dramatic, but there’s truth to it. This program and education are successfully training my brain to think in new ways, sloughing off parts of who I…
Category: Education
Scent of a hospital: a medical student’s perspective in a developing country
A little background before I set off: I study in a medical school in India whose attached public hospital is as busy as it can get. It serves its people absolutely free of cost and is often a refuge for the poor of the society. We often run out of res…
It’s time to abolish the MCAT
The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) should be abolished. This single test — which ranks students by the science they’ve learned before going to medical school — prevents the physician population in the U.S. from looking like the population …
Most of what you learned in medical school is wrong. And that’s OK.
“90 percent of what you will learn over the next four years will be wrong in a couple of decades from now.” Speaking to a lecture hall of 120 first-year medical students, our professor’s prophecy seemed to fall on deaf ears. Looking a…
Medical schools cause burnout. Here’s how to fix that.
Students’ time in medical school should help them grow and become insightful, caring doctors. Instead, medical education is somehow turning smart, gifted, enthusiastic applicants into exhausted and unhappy students who become interns, residents, and ph…
The medical profession needs more shadowing opportunities
Job shadowing is a long-standing tradition. High schools often have dedicated shadowing days, during which students can come and spend time with people working in careers that the students find interesting. While a few hours isn’t really enough to kn…
Want to crush USMLE Step 1? Here are some evidence-based study tips.
Interleveling strategy Interleveling is the process of studying/learning multiple unrelated concepts across different subjects during the same study session. This can make studying appear difficult and more disjointed. However, research shows it yields…
Sometimes it takes more than asking, “Are you OK?”
The attending physician looked concerned. My fellow medical student’s face was wet with tears. I knew the next words out of the attending’s mouth would be “Are you OK?” and indeed they were. I have encountered this phrase many times, almost exclusively…
In defense of pimping in medical education
The definition of pimping in the medical field is different than the colloquial usage by artists like Jay-Z, Snoop, and Kendrick Lamar. Although most people are aware of pimping in the vernacular language (which will not be discussed further, I would s…
An interview with a medical student who failed the Boards
The first two years of medical school are geared towards learning enough so you can pass your first round of Boards. All the sleepless nights and the tears can be overwhelming, but to finally get to the finish line is an incredible achievement. It rein…
