Pankeys

I am long overdue for an update.

So here’s a short and sweet summary of how Block 2 went.

MCB: I got 100%. When does that even happen? I’m less amazed that I knew everything, and more amazed that I didn’t make a dumb mistake. I don’t think I’ve gotten a 100% on a test since high school. For MCB I think Berkeley gave me a great solid foundation to work from so it wasn’t too bad.

Anatomy: Since last time I didn’t do so well on practical, I was more focused and active in lab. And my lab score increased! Yay. However, my practical score decreased. All the TAs were telling us that for this section of Anatomy the test would be very straightforward because head and neck is confusing in and of itself without the teachers confusing us. However, this semester, I don’t know if the teachers got that memo because the written portion of the test was pretty tricky. I wish I had known my cranial nerves better. I felt like I knew them pretty well but there were definitely branches that I wasn’t too clear on.

Histology: Histology was a monster. I guess that’s what happens when the people who write the test are not the people who teach the course. Because of this there were definitely things tested that were not emphasized in class. Although the test itself was a beast, I probably should have prepared for it better too. I didn’t start studying for histo until the weak before blocks. I also didn’t know my stuff down cold. It was more of a “yeah I think I’ve heard that word in association with these other words”

Since I’ve been negligent about this blog, block 3 has also passed. With block 3 came the last histology final EVER. Thank goodness.

Histology: While I realize being able to read slides is a good skill to have, I am so happy to be done with this class. Unfortunately, I did not get my 94% to honor the class. But I passed with a 87.5% overall in the class. Which is a feat in itself. A number of my classmates unfortunately lost their scholarships because of this class (you need at least 80% in every class to keep the scholarship) and a good portion of people even dropped or failed the class. The last block exam was probably the hardest test we’ve had in histology. I felt that the test was tricky and difficult. Unlike block 2 I felt like I knew this material down pretty well. I don’t think the test accurately assessed how much I knew. For our histo test we also have a practical section where we need to identify slides. Some of those slides came out of nowhere. I know they were in the lecture notes, but they were definitely no the slides that were emphasized. The professor also gave us a practice during class the week before with a mix of easy and hard questions. The actual exam was supposed to vary in difficulty between those easy and hard questions however I think the harder questions on the test were harder than the “hardest” questions he gave in the practice. The slides he gave us during the practice were also way way easier. I guess I may be slightly bitter about not honoring since I actually tried.

Anatomy: My anatomy went back to really good in written and not so good in practical.  I think a lot of that was my fault. I skipped 3 labs this block just because I was feeling burned out or because I fell asleep and didn’t wake up in time for lab.

MCB: There were so many things to memorize for MCB this time. So many proteins and diseases. The weekend before I made a giant chart of all the proteins which I think was pretty helpful. I also did flashcards that my friends made about all the diseases.

A big change this block was more group studying. Normally I’ve always been pretty against group studying. But this time, group studying SAVED me. Usually I’m not a big fan of group studying because I feel like my time isn’t used as efficiently as when I study by myself. Also when I study with girls I tend to get easily distracted by girl talk. However, this block I was having trouble concentrating by myself and histo was not sticking at all. My friends were studying together and asked me to join them so I figured, why not give it a chance. I am SO glad that I did. They basically explained the eye and ear to me, the two sections I was having a ridiculously hard time understanding. Histo test was on Friday. So after that was done we continued with our group studying. A lot of it was individually going through the lectures on our own, then asking each other questions. I think a big part of making group studying work is finding the right group. I think that my groupies and I complemented each other very well. They understood things that I didn’t and vise versa. But not only that, they also asked questions on the things I thought I knew very well that made me think. Sometimes I tend to just memorize things and not consider why something is a certain way, and they definitely forced me to really understand the material.

So lessons learned from this block.

Don’t skip lab so much

Group studying is fantastic as long as you find the right people.

As we gear up for our second round of blocks, I am once again avoiding studying by updating. Actually, to be exact, I’m writing this DURING lecture. I’ve come to realize that when I listen to lecture, as I’m listening, everything makes sense, but I don’t remember any of it. Therefore, it’s much more efficient for me to learn things on my own and then talk and review it with other students.

Block 1 went rather well. MCB was tricky, but luckily I was able to see most of the tricks and avoid them. I think for MCB a very strong foundation of the basic principles allows you to deal with any kind of trap they try to throw at you.

Anatomy was bipolar. I did very well on written and not as well on the lab practical. I didn’t review the arteries and nerves in the hand as much as I should of. I focused too much on the muscles and overlooked arteries and nerves. I also decided to follow the general advice of “trust your gut instinct.” What I learned was that my gut lies…. every… single… time.

Histology wasn’t too bad. When I was taking it, I thought I did pretty poorly, but I guess I’m good at guessing.

So armed with my knowledge from first blocks I’ve been refining my study methods.

MCB: for MCB, we still have the same professor, so I’ve been employing the same methods as last block. Prereading lectures, taking notes on pdfs in preview during class, and rewriting notes after class everyday.

Anatomy: This block in anatomy we are doing head and neck. For this block, I think the wall of flashcards is not as helpful. Origins and insertions of muscles are not as emphasized (also they’re usually present in the name of the muscle). This block is very cranial nerves heavy. For cranial nerves, I think it’s important to get everything straight. So instead of flashcards, which is more discrete packets of information, I made a flow chart. Basically you start with the origin of the nerve, and then follow it’s path through the foramen of the brain and the renaming it undergoes as it branches. I plan on making a similar chart for external carotid arteries and the jugular veins. Also, as mentioned before, I’ve been teaching myself anatomy. I find lecture too overwhelming to be able to learn and remember anything, therefore I teach myself the lecture. Then to review, I use BRS which provides a nice summary. I like to do BRS on the beach. Why not? Also I can’t bring my computer for the beach so I don’t get distracted. Also added this block is the use of Netter’s flashcards. I think this will be helpful for identifying things in lab. If you don’t have the flashcards, you can just go through Netter’s and name everything on the relevant plates.

Histology: oh my. Histology. So this block, lectures go like this. The teacher gives us a couple word pages summarizing everything we need to know. Then he just talks about slides… babbles really. Hence, I haven’t paid attention in class at all. I basically wait for the tutor session every Friday to  present the information. Then I do my normal steps of rewriting the lecture notes. Eventually I will also make my own powerpoint that has all the slides, that way I can recognize them.

In conclusion: I spend an inordinate amount of time on anatomy. And I am always changing how I study to fit the content.

So here at AUC, we have a series of 4 blocks then finals. They are basically like midterms but there are 4 of them, which would make the quatraterms?

Since blocks are on Monday, this entire week has been about trying to absorb all the information presented thus far and retaining it. Therefore, this week has been all about doing what I know works for me in terms of studying.

Every person studies differently, but in my experience, the people in class who you think are geniuses are usually the ones who seem the most calm around test time, and they seem to study less than everyone else. And I want to be one of them. So before school started, I researched study methods online and I found this great site.

http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/howtostudy.html

It basically gives methods on how to study smart, not study hard. I don’t use all the techniques, but I did apply a good number of them.

Most important is to do an evaluation of your own study quirks. Here’s mine

1. I can’t study late at night (Well, technically I can, but I don’t get as much done as if I study in the morning. And I usually get confused and frustrated when I study at night. Then I drink caffeine to clear my head, then I’m jittery, then I’m tired and grouchy the next day. It’s all bad)
2. I can’t remember acronyms. For me it’s easier just to memorize what I’m supposed to memorize. Because I will mostly likely mess the acronym.
3. I retain information better if I see a picture (or a dissection).
4. I like to make connections between all my classes so I’m not memorizing the same thing in different classes. (For example: We can see that heterochromatin and euchromatin stain differently in histo, in mcb, we heterochromatin is inactive, and eu is active)
5. I don’t study well in the library. (The people there stress me out, and make me not like school. When I study at home, or in a cafe, or just outside, I’m much more chill and remember things better)

So here’s a general overview of how I’m studying for MCB/histology/Anatomy.

MCB

Luckily for me, I’ve taken both genetics and biochemistry. So for me MCB is mostly a review of things I’ve already learned. However, the trap in that, is I feel like I know everything already. In class, I tend to space out, and I don’t want to study since I don’t feel like I need to. However, although I understand the basic concepts quite well, I also know that there are some areas where I am lacking. For example, I get confused with equilibrium constants, I don’t remember the exact proteins in DNA replication.

For situations like this, I find it VERY helpful to take practice exams. They help pinpoint the areas where you need to study while reinforcing what you already know. This way, you can efficiently study what you need to without wasting time going through everything.

I’ve also been going to review sessions for MCB. I don’t bring anything because that will just distract me. I just sit there and listen. The tutors highlight the key points and help remind me of things that I’ve forgotten. Therefore, the majority of my studying for MCB has been done just by listening to tutors. However, I don’t want people to think that you can just go to tutoring sessions and that’s enough. Because it’s not. Don’t do it, you’ll regret it. The reason why I can just go to tutoring and not do any other studying for block is because while the class was going on, I previewed all my lectures, took notes (usually) in lecture, and after lecture, I always went through my notes and reorganized them, and rewrote them an a notebook. Therefore, I have a collection of notes that are very organized and concise that I can look at and review from.

So I guess the lessons is “If you do all the preparation work while the class is going on, studying should just be reviewing, it shouldn’t be learning any new material”

Histology:

Histology is a hard subject for me to study for. Not because the material is hard, but I just don’t want to study for it. For histology, I’ve been rewriting notes after every lecture, just as in MCB. However, outside of learning the information, histology also requires being able to recognize slides of different tissues. So, to review the pictures, I’m using a program called IFlash to make flashcards. On one side will be the slide of the tissue and maybe arrows pointing to what I’m supposed to identify and on the other side will be the answer. By using IFlash, I don’t have to print any slides, and I can drag and drop images directly from the powerpoint lectures.

Histology is a class that I have to constantly connect to Anatomy and MCB or else it feels like rote memorization.

Anatomy (everyone’s favorite class

Anatomy is a class I find most of my peers worried about. There is a lot to learn in anatomy. A lot of memorization, but I find that memorizing is easier when you link it to concepts. This especially became true in the forearm.

For example, you can memorize these distinct facts:

• ulnar nerve is a brach of the brachial plexus
• Injury of the ulnar nerve causes claw hand
• Guyon’s canal is between hook of hamate and pisiform carpal bones
• ulnar nerve passes behind the elbow
• Ulnar nerve innervates 5th and part of 4th finger

Tags: Studying

It’s Saturday, and I’ve officially finished my first week of medical school. WOOHOO!!

And being the good student that I’m trying to become, instead of partying, I decided to stay in and study more. I realize, even if I did go out, I’d feel guilty about it later. Besides I prefer other ways to relax.

So for the beginning of the week, we were supposed to have orientation and a bunch of lectures on study skills, ethics, professionalism etc. Instead…. we had Hurricane Earl!!! It was pretty exciting! My first hurricane ever. I knew I was safe since the dorms are supposed to be able to withstand up to Cat. 5 and Earl was only a Cat.3. Then the side wall started to leak water. So we spent pretty much every half hour mopping up water with towels. The lasting effect of Earl was that it broke the A/C in the dorms  Hopefully they’ll be fixed soon, but parts take a while to ship to the island. Maybe after this experience, the school will keep some spare parts in storage?

For the first semester, our classes at AUC consist of MCB, Histology, and Anatomy/Embryology. For the first 2 days, all the classes seemed pretty basic. Genetics in MCB, microscopes in Histology and basic terminology in Anatomy. Then on Friday, everything ramped up. In Anatomy, we moved onto the muscles of the back, in Histology we went over epithelium, and in MCB we did chromosomal abnormalities.

In MCB, I thank my lucky stars I took genetics, so a majority of the material is review, or at least comes pretty easily. For Histology, I never really liked epithelium, but memorizing it should be simple enough. Anatomy, on the other hand, has had be working all day today(Saturday).

Lots of memorization to be sure. After rewriting and organizing my notes, I spent about 3 hours memorizing all the origins, insertions, innervations, blood supply, and actions of the extrinsic back muscles. To help memorize, I’ve made flash cards, little stickies on my desk top, and spent a good 2 hours writing everything out on a white board, erasing and repeating. I find that writing and speaking while writing helped me a lot when I was memorizing metabolic pathways for Biochem, so I’m employing the same techniques here.

Memorizing a lot of information can be daunting at first. But just take everything step by step. For example, the Trapezius. It’s origin is at the superior nuchal line, external occipital protuberance, nuchal ligament, and spinous processes at C7-T12. On my little white board I write all this down, then I’ll erase one line at a time and fill them in. Then two lines. Then three, until I can fill it all out from memory. Then repeat with all the other things and all the other muscles. And after each new muscle is memorized, test yourself on the past ones to make sure you don’t forget.

All that work, and I still haven’t done intrinsic muscles, but we don’t have to know as much about those, so I figure I’d do them tomorrow, and give my brain some time to rest.

We haven’t had anatomy lab yet. And, I am pretty apprehensive about that. It’s probably the one part of medical school where I feel totally at loss: I have no idea how I’ll react and I have no idea how to handle whatever my reaction is. :/

On a brighter note, the school is a 5 min walk to the white sand beach! So gorgeous. I could be there all day if I didn’t have to go to class/study, and I wasn’t going to get crazy mutations and cancer.

The gym at the school is nice, albeit a bit small. Also, the A/C works in the gym!!! So when it’s gotten too hot in the dorms, I just head on over to the gym of some A/C and a workout. The only complaint I have is when people don’t wear enough deodorant. It’s small enough that if your on a machine next to them, you can definitely get a whiff. Peeyou! Other than that, I love the gym, and how close it is to the dorms, maybe 100 feet. It’s closer than the school.

Today there was makeup lectures for the study skills and wellness counseling that we missed due to the hurricane. Although, I think I’ve developed many of the things that they described, I still thought they were really helpful.

The two main topics of the wellness lecture that stuck out to me were: “Be Your Own Coach” and “Being vs. Doing”

“Be your own coach” : This mostly stuck out because I know that as medical/ pre-med/ambitious students we tend to be really hard on ourselves. The lecturer said “think about how you would coach an 8 year old, then think about how you coach yourself” I realized that we are very harsh on ourselves. I know a lot of times when I don’t do so well on a test I will think “I shouldn’t have gone out that night or I should have studied harder” but then even when I do well I think “Oh, well I was lucky and guessed right” That is definitely NOT how we would coach an 8 year old. We’d say things like ” that’s ok you’ll do better next time, you can learn from your mistakes” and if they did good we’d say “Good Job, keep it up” We are very harsh on ourselves and expect perfection. So my goal for myself, that I started implementing with the MCAT, is that I should aim for perfection, but when I fall short, that’s OK because I tried my hardest. For example, on the MCAT I shot for a 45. I didn’t reach it, but a 40 is good too. I find this method to work best for me, because if I had shot for a 40, I probably would have got a 35 and if I shot for a 35, I would have gotten a 30. So prepare for the best, but when you don’t get it, accept it and don’t beat yourself up.

Another point that I liked was “Being vs. Doing”. As a society, we are always doing doing doing, especially in big cities like NY etc. When we’re walking to school, we’re thinking about all the things we need to do, we have a hard time to be in the moment. However, if we are always doing and never take a break to just be, we risk burnout. Burn out is BAD. It’s hard to recover quickly so it takes up valuable time. So to avoid burn out we should take some time to relax. I like to do crosswords to relax… also because it makes me feel smart, which medical school doesn’t always do. Always good to have an esteem booster.

The lecturer also mentioned the “Imposter Phenomenom” which I KNOW almost everyone has gone through. It’s where people constantly question their own abilities and are afraid that others will discover they are imposters. For example, when you think, “Maybe I’m not smart enough for medical school” “Maybe I’m not cut out for this career” etc. I’ve definitely had a freakout like this when I first looked at the anatomy notes for the back. I was SCARED. But you take a step back and think, I’ve tackled other things that I thought I couldn’t do (physics with calculus anyone?) and I’ve survived it. I should just stop worrying and start working.

Our academic skills lecture was also very informative. We started by holding hands and reading a poem that I’d like to share

The Journey is long, so let us walk together.

The journey is difficult, so let us desire to help each other.

The journey is joyful, so let us share it.

The journey is ours alone, so let us go in love.

The journey has started, so let us begin.

It reminded me of the poem that my yoga teacher used to have us say at the end of practice. It’s a nice reminder that we are together and medical school is a journey not a destination. She also had us write our strengths/weaknesses and write our own personal mission statement. My strength I think is that I have the capacity to be organized, efficient, smart and relaxed about studying. My weakness is I have an All or nothing mentality which sometimes leads to procrastination and inefficiency because if I mess up once (skip a lecture) it’s hard for me to get back on track. So my personal mission statement is to keep on task and learn every day/week/month/year so that I know I put my best effort into what I’ve done and that I’m proud of all that I’ve accomplished.

I think the most important thing to take away from both lectures was to balance time. Find time to work, find time to play. Plan things ahead of time so you’re prepared when the stress starts to pile up. Also be aware of the community you’re in. Are you around people who are just trying to pass, or trying to excel. Are they positive or negative. The friends you make have a big impact on the person you become.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I should probably get to bed so my short term memory of the back muscles can become long term memories (or something like that, haven’t studied it in class yet :/ ) As always, leave comments and questions, I’ll be happy to answer.

Such a short walk from school.

I decided to go through the comments and answer some questions. Really, I’m procrastinating writing a paper for a summer class, but that will get done.

Bruce asks: what M.D. schools did you apply to?

So before I list all of them, unless it says otherwise, I either didn’t hear from them after turning in a secondary or I got a rejection letter after turning in my secondary.

• Drexel
• Tulane
• Keck
• Georgetown
• Dartmouth
• Temple
• Albert Einstein
• U of Iowa
• Meharry
• George Washington (I don’t think they let me submit a secondary.. don’t quite remember)
• Albany
• Columbia
• David Geffen UCLA (no secondary)
• U Penn
• Weill Cornell
• Boston
• U of Arkansas
• U of Hawaii (No Secondary)
• Michigan State
• Tufts
• Mt. Sinai
• Duke (Ended up not completing the secondary. They have a very accelerated basic science program, only 1 year. They also have lots of essays as part of the secondary, so I never turned in a secondary)
• Harvard
• John Hopkins
• Yale
• UCSF (No secondary)
• Stanford (Didn’t do this secondary in the end. Lots of essays, plus I’m a Golden Bear through and through)
• UCSD (No Secondary)
• UCD
• UCI (No Secondary)
• Wash U in St. Louis (My one and only interview! Then placed on waitlist. I think technically I’m still on the waitlist)
• Vanderbilt

I’ve decided to attend American University of the Caribbean for Fall 2010. I know people have lots to say against going to Caribbean schools and initially I did too, but here’s how I arrived at my decision to go.

Initially when I was applying via AMCAS I had vaguely heard about Caribbean schools just like I had vaguely heard about DO programs, but I didn’t want to apply to either and I was pretty sure that I was going to get into at least one US MD program. That didn’t quite work out. My parents were pretty worried. I wasn’t really. I figured I’d find a job, work for two years doing research, then reapply again summer of 2011 before my MCAT expired. My parents, on the other hand, were extremely worried. One of my mom’s friends who is an anesthesiologist talked with some of his colleagues and they suggested that I apply to Caribbean medical schools. So right before dead week, I get a call from my mom about how I should apply to Caribbean medical schools as my back up back up plan. Now by this time I had applied to probably 100 jobs, some internships as well as volunteer work. So Caribbean schools was supposed to be my super back up.

So instead of studying from my finals, I did research on Caribbean schools. And here’s what I found:

There are 4 schools in the Caribbean that allow you to practice in all 50 states. They are Ross, American University of the Caribbean, St. George, and Saba. Saba is fairly new ( wasn’t accredited in CA until recently).

I figured, I probably want to come back to CA when I’m done with medical school, or at least have the option to come back, so I only did research on these 4 schools. Here is a short summary of each school.

Ross

• located on the island of Dominica (from blogs, standard of living not as high as US)
• 90% of their students are from the US
• 10 semesters total with tuition between $15,000-$16,500 per semester
• 16 months of basic sciences on Dominica, 1 semester to study for USMLE Step 1, then 5 semesters of clinical rotations at affiliated hospitals in the US
• USMLE step 2 is taken after 48 weeks of required clerkships
• Based on wiki, there are a lot of different religions on the island
• Hurricane risk in early fall
• Rainforest! and second largest boiling lake
• Cricket!! (my roommate was really excited about this… not sure why
• Very nice application system that automatically updates so you can see what you’re missing, and what status you application is
• Class size is 400-500

American University of the Caribbean

• located on the dual nation island of St. Maarten ( part French/ part Dutch) 37 sq miles
• it’s a tourist island/ cruise ship port so high standard of living
• 9.5 semesters total
• 5 semesters (20 months) on St. Maarten for basic sciences
• 4.5 semesters doing rotations in US and UK
• 88% are from the US
• Tuition is between $14,500-$16,100 per semester)
• island has discos, bars, movie theaters, duty free shopping, night clubs, lots of beaches
• most professors are from US or UK
• has IVIMEDS: international medical school program (can watch lectures from other schools? not sure about this, and they admissions people didn’t do a great job answering my questions about it)
• Access to Kaplan materials to prepare for USMLE Step 1
• You get assigned an admissions counselor who tells you what your missing and guides you through the application
• AUC (from the seminars I went to ) are very proud of their low attrition, family like atmosphere, and that they let you have geographic preference to chose clerkships
• Brand new campus because they had to relocate from Monteserrat due to volcanic activity
• September class size: 200, May and Jan. is around 100

St. George

• by far the largest and most well known (because they’re big or because of aggressive advertising?) school in the Caribbean
• located on the island of Greneda
• 500 people per class
• 5 academic years during 4 calender years
• 20 months of basic science on the island and the rest doing clinicals in US or UK
• Tuition is $39,000 per academic year
• According to wiki, the island is very religious (probably not good for me, because I’m not religious and don’t want to be converted.)

Saba

• Located on the island of Saba (5 sq miles! TINY! with really good dive sites and hiking)
• 5 semesters (20 months) on the island for basic sciences
• Clinical rotations in US and Canada
• They also offer a MS in hyperbaric medicine
• Class size is 90-95 people
• They had about 50% professors from US and probably 40% from India.
• A lot of professors with MBBS (Bachelor of medicine, Bachelor of surgery)
• Tuition is only $8,750-$9,950 per semester

So after reading all the schools websites and taking notes, I decided to read some blogs of people who went to the different schools. Here’s my general impression of each school after reading some blogs

Ross: very high attrition (lots of people drop out), but a very good program if you make it through. Living their sucks and there are a lot of gunners and sharks.

AUC: very family like structure, but there’s a lot of visiting professors so sometimes lectures/tests are a hit or miss

St. George: very large but has good student support, really expensive…

Saba: Very safe island, but nothing much to do on the island beside study. Very cheap tuition compared to the other schools.

I believe that Ross, St. George, and AUC are the only ones that offer federal loans (not a very big deal since my parents are loaning me money)

US Schools vs Caribbean Schools

If you can get into a US school you should probably go. However there is a phrase in Chinese that translates roughly to “It is better to be a chicken head than a phoenix tail” A chicken head refers to being the best of the not so good, and a phoenix tail is being the worst of the pretty good. Because if you come out of a really good US school but are at the bottom of your class an admissions committee may think “you had lots of opportunities but were unable to take them etc.” And if you come from a Caribbean school but you were at the top of you class, had great USMLE scores admissions committees may say “Hey this person probably didn’t make it into a US school, but look they really improved and now their much more committed and shown they have the potential to be a great doctor by making the best of their circumstances” Granted there are probably people who will write you off immediately just because you went to a Caribbean school, but really do you want people like that to be your mentors/bosses?

Caribbean schools offer their professors the chance to be teachers only. They don’t have to worry about publishing papers etc.  They can focus solely on teaching.

I think that the USMLE, like the MCAT, is a standardized way to approach all applicants and if you can ace the USMLE and show that you know your stuff they can’t really argue. I mean if you come to them with say a 260+ step 1, they can’t really say you had an inferior basic science education in the Caribbean. Now granted, you have get that really good step score. In my case, I think I can do it because I don’t have a lot of the anxiety that most people have when it comes to test taking and I know if I put in the time, my scores will reflect that.

DO programs versus Caribbean schools

For me this was a decision based on personal bias. What it boils down to is that I want a MD behind my name rather than a DO. Yes I know it’s probably easier to get residency from a DO program than a Caribbean MD, but that’s only one step of the entire medical school career, but I’d have the DO forever. My patients would see the DO but might not know I went to a Caribbean school. You know? It’ sticks forever. Also DO programs, I think, put an emphasis on OMT (Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment) and to be frank, I’m not interested. :/

Merits of a Caribbean School Program

I think Caribbean schools offer a great second chance for those that screwed up during undergrad like me or those who changed their minds part way through their career. However, going to a Caribbean school requires A LOT of self discipline to get through the program. You have to remember that you have to be outstanding enough to overcome the stigma that is associated with Caribbean programs ( a pretty big battle but I’m not scared :D)

Now why not wait 2 years and apply to US programs again?

Well, one of the specialties I’m considering is surgery. Surgery residencies take a long time and I don’t want to be old when I finish my residency. Yes, it’s only 2 years, but I’m a rather impatient person.. lol. Other things I’m considering Derm (super hard to get into I know, but hey, shoot for the stars right?) and Ob/Gyn, Pediatrics.

Also, I think the things keeping me back this round of applying were my lack of research, clinical exposure, and GPA. Working in a lab would give me more research, I could probably volunteer on weekends/nights to get more clinical exposure. However, even with a full time post-bacc program I would only be able to bring my GPA up a couple tenths to a 3.5/3.6 ish. Much better than a 3.3 but not great.

So in the end, I think I realize the difficulties  getting my MD at a Caribbean school presents, but I think that with hard work and good planning I will be able to overcome these challenges and still be able to do what I want to do.

Choosing AUC: at this moment I’ve been accepted to Saba and AUC, St. George and Ross are still pending.

A lot of factors played into my choice of AUC.

1. I want small classes. Berkeley has made me sick of big classes. All through school most of my classes were 500-700 people. There’s 3 professors and a handful of TA’s. Then my last semester I had immuno lab with 20 people and 1 professor and 3 TA’s. It was HEAVEN. I feel like I learned so much more and knew what I was doing so much better. Also when classes are really big I tend to sleep, eat, not pay attention, or just not go to class.
2. Cost is definitely an issue. Saba<AUC=Ross<St. George.  Saba doesn’t offer any scholarships, but you can get them after you get in. AUC offered me a 40% off basic science tuition scholarship which makes the first 2 years of tuition equal Saba’s tuition. I have yet to hear from Ross. St. George said I might qualify for a scholarship but they haven’t gotten back to me yet. So if AUC and Saba are around the same cost I would pick AUC since they are better established.
3. Parents: my parents are loaning me money. My dad didn’t really express an opinion about where I went to school. My mom was very vocal. She didn’t want me to go to Saba because she felt there were too many professors from India, therefore they would not have the same connections to the US as the professors from the US.
4. Living conditions: this isn’t too high on the list. When I was little, I lived with my aunts, and we pooped in a pot that was emptied into a bigger vat and that was emptied once a month or something. But it’s nice to live where the conditions are nice. It’s one less thing to worry about. Greneda and Dominica aren’t as nice of islands as St. Maarten. Saba is TINY!!! No distractions, but nothing to do either…. haha. AUC has the best living conditions, hands down, because it’s a tourist destination.

So that basically covers how I decided to go to AUC.

In summary: Caribbean schools are a good second chance to consider. But you need to be very self-disciplined and approach everything knowing you are at a slight disadvantage (this way you push harder). All of the big 4 offer good educations as long as you finish. You need to make your own decision based on what you want from your school. Shoot for the stars, but always have a backup plan.

Tags: American University of the Caribbean, Caribbean Medical Schools, Ross, Saba, St. George

So I applied to US medical schools in the summer of 2009 via AMCAS.
I applied to 37 schools  but in the end I didn’t do the secondary for Duke or Stanford. Being a Cal bear I have an aversion to Stanford. Go Bears! In terms of Duke, I didn’t like that they did all their basic sciences in 1 year. I felt that was too rushed for me.

Most of these places automatically send you a secondary (except UC’s I think). With that secondary they accept another fee  If I remember correctly WashU in St. Louis had one of the easiest secondaries ( a form and a picture) while most of the other schools required additional essays.

In the end, I got an interview at WashU in November and rejected everywhere else. UC’s didn’t even give me a secondary  Now, it wasn’t like I applied to all top tier schools; I think I applied to a pretty wide range. Currently I am waitlisted at WashU and applying to Caribbean medical schools (More about that decision in another post)

Even with my 40Q MCAT, almost all the places didn’t want to interview me. Maybe the computers that screen applicants cut me out, maybe I didn’t do enough research/volunteering (probably), or perhaps they didn’t like my personal statement. Anywho, didn’t feel much love from the US schools.

Although I didn’t get into a US medical school, I think I learned a lot from the process.

• I learned that a great MCAT score won’t get you into a medical school.
• Although living in CA is great, applying to medical schools sucks b/c you can’t use a state school as your backup
• Applying to medical schools is REALLY expensive, especially when you apply to as many as I did
• You learn to be really patient, because the process takes a LONG LONG time

My tips for people applying this summer or in the future are:

• Start your personal statement early (like April) that way you have a lot of time to reflect on it
• Ask people to give their opinion on your personal statement, but in the end make sure it says what you want to say
• Try to do as much research as you can before you apply to schools (got the MSAR, go to their website, ask around, read forums such as studentdoc)
• Don’t lose hope. Even if you don’t get into any schools, it’s not the end of the world. There are many paths you can take to becoming a doctor and just because you get into medical school doesn’t mean your set. There are still a ton of places along the way where people can fall off the path. The battle isn’t over yet.

Anyways, I’ll leave you with my stats so you can see what didn’t quite make the cut for US medical schools. MCAT: 40Q
uGPA: 3.33 (strong upward trend 3.0 in the first couple semesters to a 3.7)
sGPA: 3.15
Undergrad at UC Berkeley (applied summer between jr and sr year)
Research: One summer in immunology lab at USDA
Clinical research at Children’s Hospital Oakland (started april before application summer)
Volunteer work: 8 months teaching flower arranging at an old folks home
Personal statement: I really had a turning point in my life gave me focus about what I wanted to do. A family tragedy during my sophomore year really changed me.
As always good luck on your applications!
Much love,
Q

Tags: AMCAS, application, Medical, School, tips

So recently one of my youtube subscribers asked me my thought process when doing chemistry passages. The person emailed me an example problem, so I figured I would share with all of you and post it here. I don’t think I can post the passage because of copyright issues but essentially it’s a chemistry passage that has two experiments and describes each experiment. If you have the Examkracker’s books it’s from the Chemistry book, chapter 4, 30 min. exam at the end of the book.

To do this problem I would read the passage and make notes along the sides. For example:

For example:

Exp 1: acid nitrate +HNH2SO3 gives N2 gas
Barium Sulfate: insoluble
Barium Sulfamate: soluble
BaCL2 + unknown = no precipitate +Sulfanic Acid= no reaction

Basically taking out all the important information and making it easier to read

Exp 2: Active Metals/nitrite ion + nitrate = ammonia gas
unknown + NaOH + alloy (cotton plug, heat) = litmus paper turns blue

After you’ve done that for both experiments and figure out what each experiment tells you.

For this passage Experiment 1 tells you that that there were no sulfates since the unknown solution didn’t precipitate when mixed with BaCl2. We also know that there are no nitrites becuase no reaction occured after sulfamic acid was added.

Experiment 2 tells us that there were nitrate ions. Because the litmus paper changed colors, and that could only occur if ammonia gas were created to get past the cotton plug. Basically the cotton plug prevents liquids from escaping, but gases can get through no problem.

After you do these two steps, then look at the questions.

70. From what we know we know that the answer is C, nitrate but not nitrite

71. at first read, i have no idea what the answer is, so i look at the choices. C doesn’t make sense, because you wouldn’t add something you don’t want to react. D doesn’t apply since no precipitate was formed. So then you’re left with A and B. I think the answer is B because Barium sulfate is insoluble so it would remove sulfate ions from solution. If you left these ions in solution then they would shift the equilibrium of the reaction shown in Exp 1 towards the reactants and then we wouldn’t be able to draw any conclusions. A is also possible but B makes more sense experimentally. (not too sure on this one. I don’t remember a lot of my basic chem so I don’t remember if BaCl2 even makes a solution acidic. I don’t think it does though… )

72. So exp 1 tells us that if there are nitrites present we would get what’s on the left of the equation. We would be able to see the formation of N2 gas as bubbles, also and sulfate generated should react with the BaCl2 in solution and precipitate out. So that would be B.

73. for this look at what appears in the reactants for each choice.
A. you get bubbles if there is H+
B. you get a solid precipitate if there is Ba
C. You can’t see any change… everything remains aqueous
D. you get gas from H2CO3

So just from this C wouldn’t do anything.
A. you would get no reaction when you add BaCl2 but bubbles when you add sulfamic acid
B. you get precipitate when you add BaCl2 but no bubbles when you add sulfamic acid
C. nothing
D. you get bubbles randomly.

I think B would affect the reaction most because if all the Ba is precipitated out before you add sulfamic acid, when you do add it, you only get bubbles and no precipitate. Whereas the other ones still allow you to get a clear picture. You could also look at it like of the reactions happening in Exp 1, B is the only one that involves one of the reactants or products of Exp 1

74. This question is testing basic chemistry knowledge as opposed to anything specific about the problem.
A. this changes with temp
B. this also changes with temp
C/D. If you heat a reaction, the reaction rate increases since you are giving it energy to get over the activiation energy so the correct answer should be C. Remember the question asked EXCEPT.

75. I don’t remember exactly how litmus paper works, but I do remember that it tests pH. So in order to test pH we need either H+ or OH- in the products. So the only two choices with that is A and D. We also know that it’s ammonia gas that should be reacting, and that is only present in D. So the correct answer is D.

Hope this helps! Q

So I’ve already posted a few posts about MCATs and how to study for them but I feel that I haven’t yet properly introduced myself. So here goes:

Hi! *waves* I figure many of you found this site through my youtube channel. If you haven’t seen it check it out! youtube.com/qtbeautybyq

I just finished up undergrad at Cal. I went through the while med school application process last year (more posts on that whole thing later).

Plans are still settling in place for next year. (more posts on that when it all settles down)

I give MCAT advice because I think I can help. I got a 40Q on my MCAT with a breakdown of PS: 14 VS:14 BS:12 W:Q

If only my gpa were as good. Unfortunately I didn’t really put much effort into my gpa. But considering how little effort I put in, I think I did pretty well. I will do a post later about the details of my app, and where I applied and how I chose etc.

Anyways, outside of school stuff. I used to do marching band and guard in high school but didn’t want to join Cal’s band so I joined the ballroom team. I was a competitive ballroom dancer for 4 years. And now I boulder every other day. (For those who don’t know, bouldering is rock climbing with out ropes)

I like to watch TV. Currently I watch Dancing with the Stars, How I met Your Mother, Glee, Castle, So You Think You Can Dance, and Naruto.

So that’s a little about me. I am planning on morphing this blog into something that follows my premed-med-onwards journey interspersed with life and maybe some posts about ballroom stuff when I feel nostalgic. Leave a comment if there is something specific you’d like me to talk about.

Much love,

Q

I know that most people have trouble with the verbal section of the MCAT.  So hopefully this post will help all of you out.

Now, I got a 14 on my reading section. I attribute this to 3 things: lots of reading prior to studying for the MCAT, lots of verbal passages and sheer dumb luck.

I’ve always been an avid reader. I think it started in 5th grade when I moved to a new school with an accelerated reader program and you could read books, take tests on the computer, and get points. Because of that I read A LOT of books. Like hundreds, granted they weren’t all classics, most were little kid chapter books, but it was still a lot of reading. I think in high school I also had great teachers, and I read the majority of the books assigned instead of sparknotes like most people.

Now to prepare for the MCAT reading section in particular I used the Examcrackers Verbal book from their 5 book set and their 101 passages book. I think there are two major techniques to increase your skill on the MCAT reading section.

#1) make sure you’re paying attention when you’re reading. I’m currently teaching high school students ACT and SAT prep, and this is a VERY VERY VERY important concept. How many times have we been reading something, you get to the end of the paragraph, or the end of the sentence even and you go “wtf?! I have no idea what I just read, and I just read the same thing maybe 5 times and I still don’t know what it says” So to prevent that you have to really really pay attention, no matter how boring it is. The way to help you pay attention ties into the next big technique

#2) Summarize like crazy. I usually summarized the main point after every paragraph and wrote a little not to myself about it in on the test. For the computer-based test I would write a little note on my scratch paper. Then at the end of the passage, before you look at any questions, think of a main idea for the passage. It should include what the author was trying to convey and whether they had a strong opinion or not.

These two techniques should save you a lot of time. If you actively read and pay attention you should be able to finish the reading section with time to spare even if you read really really slow.

I think some other things to keep in mind are:

1) sometimes it’s helpful to anticipate what the answer will be, so come up with your own answer before looking at the choices

2) sometimes the question stems will help you answer each other (as an exercise you can try doing an entire passage without actually reading the passage and just use the questions)

3) TAKE BREAKS!!!! your brain WILL get tired, so take a little 5 second break before each new passage to clear your mind.