medical school Journey

1. Get into the habit of challenging your thinking – especially when it falls into the same old repeated, negative patterns.

2. Keep a thankfulness journal – and deliberately look for the good things in your life.

3. Spend time with people who can see your strengths, and who make you feel good about yourself.

4. Keep some photos or mementos that remind you of your passions – so theses can help inspire you to love your life again.

5. Leave positive notes and quotes around your room, or inside your wallet, or on your desk, or phone.

6. See failure as a stepping stone that leads to further growth – and as something that is common, and experienced by us all.

Whew, okay! So, I’m naturally way too wordy, and this is the short version of my story (sorry!). If you want details and specific examples, feel free to ask!

Turning Point #1: Realizing my grades didn’t reflect my intelligence.Grades are basically a translation of how well you know/understand material, and consequently work ethic.

I had no work ethic and therefore my grades basically sucked once I got to classes that required doing actual work.But when I realized that when I did put in the effort (on very rare and specific instances) I got the same results as my brainy friends, I knew that I was at least capable of getting the good results they got. With effort.

Turning Point #2: Realizing that there were no (unreasonable) limits on my success.Success is based upon how well you do something, how hard you try, and your willingness to get back up when you fail.

I had a professor who took everything I said with nothing more than a “yes, you should do that” and an excited smile. I had another professor say, “You have to be the best in order to do this. So it’s really simple: just be the best at it.”Once I accepted that I could do things, I decided that I might as well give it my all.

Turning Point #3: Being told I could do better.Having the study habits of a slacker doesn’t make studying effective.

I was barely passing a class despite all of the effort I put in. I felt run down and defeated, and most importantly, I felt really, really stupid for not getting the material. But the professor would give me meditation techniques to help with my anxiety before tests, he would say he can see the effort I was putting in, and when I decided to withdraw, he told me that he was certain I would excel the next time I took the class.

Turning Point #4: Making the effort to be better.It’s one thing to say you’ll do something, it is another to actually do the thing.

Sounds ridiculous, but Gilmore Girls basically shaped who I wanted to be as a child. I wanted to go to an ivy league like Rory, but that desire fizzled out after elementary school. Then, I watched the show again one weekend and I felt that drive again. I decided to take my “no limits” and my “capability” and I made a studyblr. I researched study techniques. I learned about study breaks and how to read a textbook for maximum retention. I learned about time management, planners, and sticking to a study schedule (ie, when I found out that studying 40 hours a week was necessary this semester).Now that I have all of that information continually being modified and shaped by the other things I learn, I apply it.

Moral of the Story:

Don’t get discouraged by bad results. Learn from mistakes and strive to do better.

Don’t talk the talk. Walk the walk.

It’s okay to fail. Don’t let it define you, and get back up so you can try again.

In most cases, you set your own limits. Never find yourself saying “I can’t,” because once you start saying “I can,” the world opens up and work becomes bearable.

Be flexible. Nothing is ever linear: if you want to sail across the ocean, you’re going to need to adjust the sails at some point. And you might realize that the sails were adjusted in the wrong direction–it’s okay, just correct it.

—

Georges St. Pierre

4.00- the golden number. Every student wants it, but how to get there? In this post, I’ll be giving you my best advice as to how I got my 4.00 GPA, and how you can get one as well. The post will be split into 4 sections- before school, during school, after school, and overall. Hope you enjoy! 

BEFORE SCHOOL:

MAKE SURE YOU’RE COMING TO SCHOOL PREPARED. I can not stress this enough. Your school day begins before you even step inside a classroom. If you use a device to take notes, make sure you charge it overnight. If you use notebooks, make sure you’re bringing them all with you. Be prepared for the day that’s about to come. 

EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST. Eating poorly literally diminishes your ability to think well. Have a balanced breakfast- keep yourself well fed throughout the day as well. 

BE ON TIME. Starting your day late can sometimes put the whole day out of whack. Teachers can also take points away from you if you have poor attendance and punctuality, so make sure you’re always on time!

DURING SCHOOL:

ACTUALLY PAY ATTENTION IN CLASS. Make sure you take advantage of the lesson time you have. The teacher is there to teach you, so try your best to learn. 

GET THE IDEA INTO YOUR HEAD THAT CLASS TIME IS WORK TIME. I know it can be tiring to always be working. But, associating class time with play time is dangerous (and a hard habit to snap out of). You will have time to rest later- now it’s time to work. 

PRACTICE SMART NOTE TAKING. Don’t copy everything the teacher says- that’s not effective. Be succinct, try your best to assimilate the information before you write it down. 

YOUR TEACHERS ARE RESOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE- USE THEM AS SUCH. Ask them questions. If there’s a concept you didn’t quite understand during class, try to ask them about it later. This will show you are dedicated and have the desire to learn. 

ACKNOWLEDGE DISTRACTIONS, AND AVOID THEM. If your friends are distracting you during class, don’t sit near them. You’ll have time to hang out later. If your phone is distracting you, turn it off or don’t bring it with you. Know what your distractions are and make an effort to avoid them. 

AFTER SCHOOL: 

REVIEW WHAT YOU LEARNED THROUGHOUT THE DAY. You’re more likely to remember what you learned that day if you look at it more than once. Reinforce your new knowledge. 

REST. It won’t do you good to just study your way into exhaustion. It’s not good for your mind or your body. Take care of yourself too. 

STUDY REGULARLY AND EFFECTIVELY, NOT DAILY. You don’t have to study every day. I repeat- YOU DON’T HAVE TO STUDY EVERY DAY! That is not the best way to learn. 3 hours of productive studying are way better than 8 hours of ineffective studying. 

GET YOUR HOMEWORK DONE WITH. I know, homework sucks for the most part. But teachers can discount points from you if you don’t hand in assignments on time, so just get it over with. 

OVERALL:

GET GOOD SLEEP. Only about 15% of teenagers get enough sleep on a school night. Try your best to be in that 15%. Sleep deprivation can decrease your ability to concentrate and solve problems, so sleep well!

UNDERSTAND THAT SOME DAYS WILL SIMPLY BE BETTER THAN OTHERS. It’s ok if you’re not doing too well on one day- don’t beat yourself up because of that. Vow to come back stronger tomorrow. Stay motivated and don’t lose hope because of some bad days. 

KEEP TRACK OF YOUR STUDY SESSIONS. Keeping track of my study sessions is my favourite way to organise my studying. Since I struggle with hyperfocus, I time myself while doing a certain task so that I don’t lose track of time. I strongly recommend the app Focus Keeper for this!

WORK ON YOUR WEAKNESSES. You don’t have to just accept not being good at something. For example, I struggled with History for the longest time, and it was always my lowest grade. But after months of working and working, I now do well in all of my exams because I dedicated myself to it.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, REMEMBER THIS AT ALL COSTS: NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, IS UNLEARNABLE. As much as some things are harder to learn than others, this does not make it impossible. Keep in mind that you can do anything by working hard and being dedicated. 

An experiment showed that the amount of nurturing a mother rat provides its newborn baby plays a part in determining how that baby responds to stress later in life.

The pups of nurturing moms turned out less sensitive to stress because their brains developed more cortisol receptors, which stick to cortisol and dampen the stress response.

The pups of negligent moms had the opposite outcome, and so became more sensitive to stress throughout life. These are considered epigenetic changes, meaning that they effect which genes are expressed without directly changing the genetic code. And these changes can be reversed if the moms are swapped.

But there’s a surprising result. The epigenetic changes caused by one single mother rat were passed down to many generations of rats after her. In other words, the results of these actions were inheritable.

From the TED-Ed Lesson How stress affects your brain - Madhumita Murgia

If you have a bacterial infection, a doctor will probably give you a prescription for antibiotics, which are medications designed to target bacteria.

There are two types of antibiotics: wide-spectrum antibiotics and narrow-spectrum antibiotics.

Wide-spectrum antibiotics kill most bacteria they come in contact with. This is not the sort of medicine you want, because while it will kill any infectious bacteria, it will also destroy the good bacteria elsewhere in your body. Nausea is very common in wide-spectrum antibiotics because of its effects on the digestive tract bacteria, which help you digest food.

Narrow-spectrum antibiotics are made to target specific types, or a specific type, of bacteria. For example, there is an antibiotic for streptococcus aureas, called methicillin.

When you take an antibiotic, you may start to feel better halfway through the prescription, just like you did before you got the prescription. Do not stop taking the antibiotic. All this means is enough of the bacteria have died off that you no longer are as effected.

But why? Surely if most of them are gone, that’s good enough.

No no no. It’s really really really bad if you stop taking the antibiotic.

Let’s say you have streptococcus aureas and take an antibiotic for it, but stop taking if after you feel better. Eventually you will feel sick again and this time, the antibiotic probably won’t work, and it also won’t work on whoever you’ve now spread the bacteria to. A. strep has now become MRSA – methicillin-resistant streptococcus aureas. The bacteria that survived have become immune to the antibiotic that treats it.

The reason doctors prescribe that many pills in an antibiotic medication is because you want to be damn sure the bacteria is gone and does not develop a resistant strain.