The Interview: An Appeasing Thought for Nervousness

I was at the NAMME pre-health conference hosted by UCLA a few weekends ago. Is it just me or dot these conferences revitalize you? Since there weren’t many pre-healths there and there weren’t many schools, we all had a lot of time at the booths compared to the other conferences I’ve been too. No one else was at this table so I took the time to ask one of the admissions officers at an Illinois university about interviewing. I was just real with him, “I know I need to work on it and I’m going too but I’m not the greatest speaker when it comes to interviewing… It’s just that formal situation and…” He laughed like it was one of those questions he always gets and he said:

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Productivity: What do you care about in this world?

Mohammad and I were shooting some ideas back and forth for some posts to do and we came across productivity as something to talk about. It’s never too late and never too early to have a post about keeping your efficiency. So, I thought to myself, what’s the most important thing I can tell other premeds about being productive?

We all have our own ways of studying and our own efficiency, some can super concentrate and others need to spread it out. We also all have different priorities in our lives and they change by the year, by the month, and even by the day. Many would agree that family, partners, and children come first, and others come in sequentially.

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Lessons Learned From Steve Jobs

In Memoriam

Steve Jobs

1955-2011

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Using Psychology to Rock your Medical School Applications – Part I

Deciding what you want to portray

There was a recent series of articles on PsyBlog about the psychology of work recently. I decided to take some of their tips, along with some of my own experience and research; and apply it to medical school applications. In the next 4-5 posts I’ll discuss this concept. (For reference these are the main two articles I suggest you read from the series. [1,2]) I’ve mentioned the concept of medical school applications being a game, many times before. At the end of the day it’s a process, and those that can play it just right will win.  

I received an email a few days ago linking to an article by Scott Adams the creator of the Dilbert comic series; in this he said something that I found very interesting. “My philosophy is that losers have goals and winners have systems.” I want you guys to hold on to that quote, as I’ll return to it towards the end of this series.

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What kind of learner are you?

Do you color-code all your notes? Do you record lectures to listen to as you fall asleep? Do you re-write everything the professor says, then never look at your notes again? 

Figuring out your learning style is probably one of the most important things to do if you're a student (be it high school, undergrad, or med school). Especially in fast-paced, high-stakes situations (cough MEDSCHOOL cough), you don't have much time to experiment with different styles, or take a lot of time to internalize and regurgitate information.

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The Whiteboard vs. the Notecard

Hey everyone, over the years I’ve found that premeds are always looking for a way to get ahead in studying or looking for a better way in general. Some are willing to go far to get the grades and others are willing to go even farther to get the grades they want.

What happens: a few students around me find out I’m doing well in a course or on an exam and they’re trying their hardest to figure out “what they’re doing wrong.” And when they ask me what to do, I do the best I can to tell them what they need to do to get the A. I’ve seen a lot of posts explaining you need to do this or that, but I’m gonna take a different approach. There are two types of studying styles that I’ve seen, the notecard and the whiteboard.

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Return of the Med Student

I'm baaaaaaack!

First, I want to apologize for my incredibly long hiatus. Instead of writing for PMH, I spent my time finishing my undergraduate senior honors thesis, graduating college, moving home, moving to another state by myself (for the first time in my life), and starting medical school….I'd like to think those are legit reasons for not posting.

But let's focus on the positive, I'm back and ready for action! Mo and Brian are well on their way to med school, but I have the privilege of already dealing with the hellish doom of experiencing  med school. Because of that, I'm starting a new category here at PMH: "Med School Secrets". I'll be keeping it real, sharing raw, no BS views of medical school. I'll also tell you guys about tips, tricks, and personal mistakes that maybe you can learn from (believe me, I'm bound to make a TON of mistakes)

Things I won't be sharing:

My personal grades (…probably)

Specifics about my school (I'd rather not be tracked down and get kicked out of school)

…..ya, that's about it.

So, keep your eyes peeled for these posts, and if there's anything you want to see my write about, please feel free to email us, or tweet at PMH or me directly.