Archive | November, 2010

The Giant Med School Admissions FAQ

Over the past year and a bit, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the medical school admissions process. As you can imagine, a lot of students have the same questions. I figured it would make a lot more sense to just compile these common questions and my answers for everyone to see. Overtime, as we get more questions and write more answers, we will keep adding to the list. Enjoy!

General

Could you give a general timeline of how the med admissions process went for you?

It’s a pretty basic process, but keep in mind that this won’t be the same for everyone, and there’s no “correct” way.

Summer after 1st year – took MCAT prep course during May to July, then MCAT in August

August to Sept of 3rd year – apply to Ontario medical schools through OMSAS (Google this if you want to learn more, this is the online application service)

January to February of 3rd year – hear back about possible interviews (and rejections)

Late Feb. to Early April of 3rd year – interviews

May 15 of 3rd year – first round offers from medical schools (as well as waitlist and rejections)

What courses would best prepare me for medical school?

The best courses to prepare someone for medical school are anatomy and physiology (and maybe a few other ones, like immunology, genetics, biochemistry, etc.). That being said, these are NOT prerequisite courses for med school. I’m just saying that these types of courses are most relevant to the type of information covered in medical school.

Undergrad

Continue Reading →

A List of Med Student Awesome

Recently, I found myself waiting for someone at Mount Sinai Hospital. To my joy, there was a Chapters bookstore on the main floor (a bookstore in a hospital! How awesome is that?) So there I was, in all my frazzled med student glory, with my coat and backpack on, wearing sweatpants and Uggs, as I picked up the closest book to me and started reading it.

I happened to pick up The Book of Awesome. It was truly the most awesome book. It’s essentially a laundry list of all these priceless life pleasures that make you smile and feel great. Examples? Walking into a bakery and deeply inhaling warm bakery air, finding unexpected money in your pocket, and actually fixing electronics by smacking them. Even though I was standing there with my coat and a 20 lb backpack on, with 3 hours of sleep the night before, I just couldn’t stop myself from chuckling out loud. After all, you have to get a dose of happiness once in a while.

Inspired, I decided to put together a list of 5 little life pleasures that make me, as a medical student, smile. So here it is! Enjoy!

1. A Skipped Lecture on the Exam

This one is where you get to finally beat the system- instead of the system beating you. This is the story of that one 1-hr lecture you skipped, with the intention of relistening to it and studying it later.
Continue Reading →

No more glasses! My experience with laser eye surgery


NOTE: Just want to make it clear that I am in no way affiliated with anyone or any company that provides laser eye surgery. I am not endorsing it either. I am simply providing my own experience with it for those who are interested in reading it. If you are considering getting laser eye surgery done, I suggest you do your own research / homework on the topic. I am not an expert on the topic, so please don’t ask me for questions or advice on it as if I am. Please consult an ophthalmologist for your questions. Thanks!

I woke up this morning wearing sunglasses and it’s not even summer. Whoa, that’s a bit strange. I guess I’d better back up a little.

Earlier this year I decided to get laser eye surgery. There were a few reasons that led me to doing this. One was that I had worn glasses for about 15 years thus far and there were a lot of situations where I found glasses kind of bothersome. Second, was that laser eye surgery technology is extremely good now and relatively safe. Third, was that being a medical student with the Canadian Federation of Medical Students lets you get a substantial discount at one of the companies that provide laser eye surgery (laser eye surgery is not covered by the public health insurance system, but at least it’s tax free!).

I ended up getting a laser eye surgery assessment done at the end of summer. There two main types of laser eye surgeries down to correct vision include PRK and LASIK – at the assessment, it was determined I was a good candidate for LASIK.

In LASIK, there are two main parts to the procedure. (1) an ophthalmologist uses a precise instrument to create a thin flap of corneal tissue. He then raises the flap to the side, preparing the rest of the cornea for the actual laser to correct the vision. (2) the ophthalmologist then uses an excimer laser to remove some tissue from the middle layer of the cornea, thus reshaping the cornea. The entire procedure is relatively quick, and takes about 20 minutes to do both eyes.

I decided to get an “All-Laser LASIK” procedure done – meaning that both the reshaping of my corneas and the creation of the corneal flap was both done by a laser.

Pre-Surgery

Continue Reading →

Hey MedHopeful, how do you cram for exams?

I am still exhausted after my 3 hour med school exam yesterday morning which covered topics ranging from cancer to pregnancy.

I’m exhausted not so much by the exam (it was only 3 hours after all), but mostly because of all the work leading up to the exam. For this exam, we covered 6 weeks worth of lecture material – Shelly calculated this to be ~3200 slides. I learned 80% of this material for the first time over the last three days. Yes, you read that right.

My cramming session culminated with me waking up at 5:30am in the morning on less than 5 hours of sleep, where I proceeded to do more cramming right until the exam started at 9am.

I admit this isn’t the first time, and it is unlikely to be the last.

Now, I’m not here to preach cramming to you. I wish I didn’t do it, because it is so damn stressful. 12 hour+ studying days? It’s crazy and exhausting. And there’s no worse feeling than not wanting to fall asleep because you know waking up will only lead to another 15 hour study session.

That being said, cramming is efficient. The less time I spend studying, the more time I can spend doing other things I like. Like writing blog posts! 😉

In any case, whatever your reasons are for wanting to learn how I cram (curiosity, out of time and need tips, lazy by nature), I’m going to tell you straight up what I do. It isn’t pretty and I wouldn’t wish 3200 slide procrastination on anyone. But hey, if you have to do it, then this might help.

Wait Long Enough to Start

Continue Reading →

5 Reasons Why a Med Student Should Have a Smart Phone

After being on the same old crappy Nokia cell phone for more than five years, I finally stopped being lazy and got myself a new phone this past June. But not just any phone, no – I went ahead and spoiled myself with a Blackberry Bold 9700.

Probably more than any purchase I have ever made, having a smart phone has really “changed my life”. I’m sure some people will think that’s a pretty exaggerated (or maybe even stupid) thing to say, but believe me when I say it’s not. Having a smart phone makes me feel constantly connected to my social network but also to the rest of the world. No matter where I am I have access to a ton of people and a ton of information. And all I need to do is whip this small device out of my pocket.

A smart phone is especially useful for people with busy lives, including med students. Are you a med student and still not convinced? In that case, I present to you, my top 5 reasons why med students should have a smart phone:

5. Passing time in lecture

Continue Reading →

Blog Update

For over two years here at MedHopeful, we have shared information and advice on university admissions, scholarship applications, medical school admissions, success, personal development, and sometimes just random things about our lives. It has been a very enjoyable experience, and there are no plans to stop doing what we are doing. We hope you guys are finding the content we produce helpful.

As you can probably tell from looking around the blog, we decided to try and generate a bit of revenue by putting up some Google ads.

Why? There are a few reasons:

1. Sustainability
This blog costs ~$100/year for the domain and web hosting. It’s not too much of a cost, but if the blog could help pay for itself, why not let it?

2. Timing
We have a reasonable enough amount of traffic where it makes sense to generate some revenue.

3. Getting paid for doing something you really enjoy
We love this blog and it brings us a lot of joy and pride to work on it and hear about the ways it has benefited people. Like many students, we have bills to pay and loans to pay back. If we can make a bit of money doing something that we love, why not?

4. This doesn’t change the fact that the content we produce is still freely available
We’re not selling content or anything like that. Everything we write or make for you guys is still free and here for your benefit. All we’ve done is add a few Google ads.

Anyways, just wanted to provided a bit of an explanation in case anyone was wondering about the additions. I think online advertisements are pretty common nowadays (if you read this blog, you probably also use Google and Facebook, and are used to ads).

I should probably get back to studying for next week’s exam. Hope everyone is doing well!

What Makes a Good Lecture?

I have been attending university lectures for almost four and a half years now, and while sitting through a lecture this morning, it hit me – why haven’t I written an article on what makes a good lecture?

Sure, I have technically never lectured before. What the heck do I know? Well, as someone who has to watch these lectures, I know there are lectures that I have loved and lectures that I have absolutely hated. I know what aspects made me enjoy the lecture and what I didn’t.

The more enjoyable the lecture experience is for students, the more they are likely to listen, and thus, the more they are likely to learn – and isn’t that what we want?

Simply spewing the facts and content isn’t the whole thing, although sometimes it feels that way with some lecturers – your approach to the lecture is going to significantly affect not just what students absorb today from your lecture, but also their attitudes to future lectures and future learning.

So, what makes a good lecture?

1. Attitude

Continue Reading →