What's it like in med school? how was the MCAT?

Question

I am a senior at high school. My dreams are to become a future doctor. I am currently taking AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP Physics, and took AP Biology. I feel that I am prepared to pre-med. My question is after all the hard work how did you approach the MCAT. If you passed, whats it like in med school. How hard is it? homework and hours wise? I am a very independent person and work till 1am to get my work done. Tell me about life in med school.

Answer 1

Okay, this is long winded, but I hope you find it helpful.


As far as the undergrad stuff, expect to spend about 20 hours a week studying, depending on how many hours you take and what year you're in. I generally took 18 or more, so if you take a normal classload (about 15 hrs or so) you will be able to study less. Freshman and soph year should be way easy for you. The AP classes will help you to do better in your college studies, and you'll find that a lot of what you learn in your first years of college will be a repeat of these classes. I didn't study for my MCAT and did well, but I also retained much of what I learned from my classes. I wouldn't suggest buying the expensive prep courses, but instead when you're ready to take the MCAT review your physics equations, biology (stuff like cell cycles, and the basics), chemistry, and maybe refresh your writing skills by reviewing grammar, etc. The writing sample is generally something that requires you to analyze a situation or dilemma in which both sides could be right. Be sure to be objective, and identify the things that you don't know that would affect the outcome of the issue. The life sciences part was what I scored lowest in because most of the material I hadn't seen since high school (I clepped out of biology). I'm not in med school yet, but I do have a friend/mentor that is. She said she generally studies about 10-15 hours per week, and about 30-40 hours a week during test block weeks. Test blocks are your big sets of comprehensive exams, similar to finals week during your undergrad work. From her accounts, it's about the same amount of effort that you have to put into your undergrad work to make As. The first two years of med school are mostly bookwork/classes, and the second two are clinicals. You do rotations in several different specialties, and she said you will have to do some overnight shifts once in a while (mainly ER). She said not many people work thru med school, and they do have scholarships/loans to help you live off of if you don't have the money (or rich parents!). If you stick with your hard work, you should have no problem! Be sure to start shadowing different kinds of doctors (and some PAs) if you havent' already, and keep a log of the hours, place, times, dates, and a physician's signature. You'll have to calculate all these hours on your med school app. Volunteer work (post high school) also looks good, and they also like to see that you are well rounded and have hobbies. Join a college group for something you're interested in, and log all of your activities for this as well. The more you have to put on your app, the better. keep your high school grades up, as they will help you get scholarships for your undergrad degree. As for your major, you can major in anything and be pre-med as well. As long as you have the classes the med school requires, your bachelor's degree can be in anything. I majored in biomedical sciences because most of the pre-med classes contributed to the degree, but I also know dance, business, and even journalism majors that got in. It's nice to have an idea about what you're going to do if you don't get in, even if you're confident you will (this will almost for sure be one of your interview questions.) Stick with it, stay focused, and good luck! Maybe we'll be colleagues someday!


P.S. Another thing I did was take concurrent classes my senior year. Our school didn't allow AP classes to transfer as college credits like the other answerer's did, so I didn't take AP classes at all. I just took all of the basic requirements to graduate and left one high school class for my senior year. I went to college full time during my senior year, took all of the intersession classes they offered (classes over winter break, fall break, weekends, etc. ) and ended up with about 60 hours of credit by the end of that year. Any way you can get college credit looks good!

Answer 2

Ok, the following is from personal experience. I'm currently in my first year of med schol in Canada. I too, like you took a bunch of AP credits in highschool. This is a very smart idea. It allowed me to enter univeristy with 18 bredit hours before stepping onto campus. Plus being an AP scholar aids in scholarship applications. You probably won't have much trouble with undergrad as you seem to be a dedicated student already. Don't lose this dedication or drive when you get to university. Trust me, the nightlife is tempting. I'm not saying don't have any fun, just pace yourself and plan out your study time accordingly. In undergrad I probably only studied about 5-10 hrs per week (full course load) except during exam time when it doubled or tripled. To prepare for the MCAT, I would suggest getting prep texts. I tried both Kaplan (crap) and Examkrackers (amazing). I studied all summer and it paid off. In terms of your application, make sure you are a WELL ROUNDED student. Don't be a book worm. Become involved in many activities: sports, volunteering, arts whatever. Med school itself isn't bad so far, but the first 2 blocks are to ease us in. After xmas it is suppost to get alot heavier. I think so far, I have studied about the same as when I was in undergrad, only now I'm alot more efficient with my time. And make sure you get some sleep. When you're overtired is when you make careless errors. Med school life is great. Class 9-5 (is hard, never done that before), student line of credit is easy to get from ANY bank (they will give you 150 thousand dollars with only your acceptance letter, and you now have the reassurance that you will have a nice career that will always be in demand. Besides, once you're in, they want to keep you in. it looks bad for the school if people drop out.
Good luck, if you have any other, more specific questions, drop me a line.

Answer 3

It's fine if you do it in the summer. They don't care when you take it, just what your score is. Most people from my school take it in the summer and half the people in my program alone get into medical school. You don't want to squander your entire summer on the MCAT though. Almost all of us do some research on the side while studying.