Medical school is hard.

I always knew that it was going to be difficult to succeed in medical school. But the last four months have been even more busy than I'd ever pictured. The thing that they don't tell you about before medical school is the exams. Partly the bi-weekly quizzes they give us to make sure we're staying up on the material, but mostly the standardized national exams. Since December I've switched over to a system where I study all day, every day for my national board exam (I take it in June) for 10 days, then cram for three days to pass the quizzes. At first I was hesitant because I was afraid that I would start failing the quizzes--oddly enough I started doing better. I have two theories for why this is:

1. There is some overlap between the board material and the class material.
2. The quizzes touch on small details from the powerpoints that are better held in the short-term memory for a couple of days (knowledge binge-and-purge method).

In reality it's probably a mixture of both. Either way, I've discovered a few things about my learning style in the process that have been helpful.

I think that there are three different principles of learning: memorizing, understanding, and integrating. Unfortunately for me, memorizing has never been my strong suit. I've always known this, but haven't had a good solution to the problem. But I'm coming to realize that if I can memorize stuff I can usually do pretty well understanding bigger picture concepts. So I've started focusing on flashcards (yesterday I made my 2000th flashcard since December). I spend at least a couple of hours going through cards every day on my computer in an effort to memorize everything. The remainder of my time I do practice questions (which is a whole different beast--I'll try to describe what they're like on here some other time).

These days I spend about 15 hours a day studying or in class, leaving about three for playing and eating. As much as that would have sounded miserable to me a couple of years ago, it's actually surprisingly rewarding. In some ways it feels like being a missionary again--you kind of just put your head down and go. It's not impressive or exceptional--it's just what you do when you're in medical school. And you find happiness in small successes, like getting the right answer on a question you would have missed a week before. It's progress, and that feels good.

As you can imagine, all this studying doesn't leave too much time for blogging. Even if I did have more time for it, not too much happens to you when you live at school. Still, I'm not ready to completely abandon my blog. But if you're reading this I'll warn you that, while there may be a couple more posts in the next few months, they're not likely to have anything too interesting.

To my siblings who don't live in Salt Lake...

I took both of these pictures 20 minutes apart, the first up at Jeremy Ranch and the second down in the valley. I thought this might make you feel better about not being here for Christmas--the smog this year is extraordinary.

I'm always trying to figure out how I can be less tired in class. Not that I'm falling asleep or anything, but sometimes I'm just sleepy in the mornings. So the other day I had the brilliant idea of switching beds from the twin I've slept in for the last 20 years or so to the empty queen that used to be my sister's to see if I could sleep more soundly. It's big, soft, has sheets that probably have a thread count of 12000, and a down comforter--this was a fail-proof plan. It worked pretty well, until I had a dream I was attacked by a bear. Once I finally got my heart rate back down I drifted off again, this time to a dream that I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. At this point I was pretty sure I was not going to have an easier time in class in the morning. Nonetheless, I fell asleep again and had a dream that I had been left somewhere without a car or any way of contacting anyone. Fail. At least it wasn't the night before a test.

If you ever want to be late to something, try to get stuck behind a Buick.

Back

All right, so I've been absent. It took every last bit of energy I had to make it through "brain and behavior". I made it through and now it's on to "circulation, respiration, and regulation," which is a fancy way of saying "heart, lungs, kidneys". Somehow cardiology appeals to me in a way that neurology didn't--I'm really sure why, but I think it might be because it's more directly related to running.

A big part of this block is going to be preventative medicine, especially in preventing obesity and diabetes. Every time they teach us about nutrition stuff the little hippy inside my head gets all riled up and starts noticing things like how unnatural Snickers and Coke are: "man, the government wants you to eat that stuff to lull you into believing that it's actually real food." It's a good thing that I don't own my own house and won't be in charge of purchasing Halloween candy this year--for reasons both philosophical and financial I might end up handing out half-of-a-half-of-a graham cracker to each trick-or-treater.

But, in reality, the timing for Healthy Dave isn't too bad--there are hundreds of tomatoes, peaches, and honey-crisp apples here at the parents' house (I'll never leave) to keep me happy.

Sorry for the long absence. Here's hoping that this block of school treats me better than the last!

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to jump onto a moving train? I've never done it either but I think I have a pretty good idea of what it would be like.

On an unrelated note I started my second year of medical school yesterday.

Mt. Aire