So I think I know why my marks have dropped…
So I’m happy to say that I passed my Brain and Behaviour midterm – barely, with a 70.96 (a 70 is a clear pass). It was a pretty difficult midterm, with a bell ringer for neuroanatomy in the morning and then a written exam in the afternoon.
It’s funny how easily I went from not only wanting and getting 80′s and 90′s in undergrad to hoping I get a 70 in medical school. For the most part, I don’t think the material is any harder, and often times it’s actually easier. As I’ve stressed before, there’s just a lot more material.
I was talking to one of my best friend’s tonight (who is also in first year of medical school, but at McMaster). I was telling him about how I couldn’t remember details on the multiple choice exams here, and he said he was surprised because he remembered me knowing all these random details during undergrad and doing well on multiple choice exams.
I started thinking about the differences between the two, and it sort of hit me. In undergrad, I would spend usually just the day before studying for a test, so all of the information would be fresh in my head.
However, because there is so much more information in medical school, I have to start studying say four days before the test just to get through the material once. So while say 1/4 of the material I learned the day before is fresh, the other 3/4 of material I learned over the first three days start slowly fading away. Unless I spend more time reviewing the material, I’m going to keep forgetting a lot of the details by test day.
Of course, I doubt this is the only reason. It’s quite possible that it might just be the psychological effect of only needing to pass – in fact, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the case. Once medical school applications were sent in, marks dropped a bit, and once acceptances came, final exams weren’t taken very seriously. I’m sure this is normal for a lot of people (in fact, I see this more often in medical school than I expected to see it).
I have my Brain and Behaviour final exam in two weeks (yay, not cumulative!) and I told myself I would study yesterday and today – I think you can guess what happened (lol).
In other news, I’m heading to the TD Scholars Alumni Conference tomorrow night until Sunday. If anyone who reads this is going, definitely drop by and say hi if you see me =)
Related Posts:
- So This is What It’s Like to be “Below Average”
- Clarification of My Last Post
- Why GPA Should Matter and Learning the Way You Learn Best
- What’s up with premed altruism and nobility?
- So I had my clinical skills exam today…
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
MedHopeful @ Premed101
Joshua,
Where did you get all your cool pictures from ?
I remember that you posted the website somewhere, but I cant find it.
thanks !