Studying Smarter

Your best study strategy is going to depend partially on the type of class you are taking. If it’s a powerpoint based class, then you will need to study from the slides. If it’s a visual aid limited class, then you will probably need to study the syllabus and take good lecture notes. And if it’s a writing course, then reading articles and pumping out essays will probably be your focus. Still, some general rules can be established to more efficiently study.

1. Consistently test yourself.

After finishing a test, I often hear something like. “Ugg I totally studied that, but I got it wrong.” Or “I couldn’t remember what ___ was about even though I studied it.” Our memories will never be perfect, but active self testing will at least help you understand what you have forgotten or what you don’t know. Grab a friend and test each other, hide answers with a paper in books or practice tests and compare the answer you make up to the one written, draw out flash cards and work through them often. There are a multitude of strategies for testing yourself. Try a couple and then find one that works for you.

2. Remove studying distractions.
Studies show that 40% of the time a person is distracted from a task, he will never return to it. Just walk into any college library and you will find dozens of students on facebook, checking email, texting, staring outside the window or at the next person who walks into the library, and talking with friends. There is a time for all of these, but I would highly recommend that you don’t make it during your study time and thereby reduce your studying efficiency.

-->Picture a typical student; In efforts to not implicate myself, we will call him James. James studies in the library, but has a habit of incessantly checking his email and facebook. Also from time to time he gets bored and texts people or looks up to glance at the potentially attractive students who walk into the library. His study efficiency is somewhere around 50%. Becoming frustrated with the time he has lost, James decides to turn off his cell phone when studying, get away from a computer when he can, and do his work in a less populated location. His efficiency improves to 75%. He is now able to study in two hours what he was previously only able to study in three. After studying four hours that day, he has saved two hours which can be used for all of his facebook, texting, people watching and friend interacting needs.

Like James, you should find a place where you study best and can remove your distractions. Take a few minutes to think about what it is that distracts you while studying and then how to deal with it. Keep in mind that, in most cases, this means changing with whom or where you are studying to better focus.

3. Actively learn.

There’s nothing worse than sitting at your computer or in front of a book and blankly reading. By the time you realize that you are not registering much of the information and not understanding any of the concepts, you may be pages beyond the part where you first averted your attention. You have essentially performed a brief stent of self-hypnotism and you are forced to backtrack to a point when you understood what was going on. At this point, you’ve lost who knows how much time and created a barrier to further learning by giving up your place in the text.
To avoid this, I’ve found that I need to make myself believe that what I am reading is the most interesting thing in the world at the moment. Then when I read, I try to make connections to past concepts and allow my mind to think of comments or questions to the material in the text. It can also be helpful to keep a notebook and pen or computer (if it isn’t a distraction for you) close by to document your thoughts or important ideas.

Your posture and location matter too. Through timed reading, I have discovered that I can read two to three times faster when I am sitting at a desk undisturbed as opposed to lying down on my bed. Doing work on my bed or a comfy chair gives my body the easy option of sleeping which is always tempting for me.

The last piece of advice I can give is to stick to your study habits. Classes are usually set up so that it is more advantageous to do consistently good than exceptionally great on one test and then sub par on the next. Nearly every person who enters the quarter or semester system goes through peaks and valleys of motivation and interest level in what they are learning. The valleys can often come in the middle of a quarter when the interest level of the topic has worn off for you and school fatigue is setting in. Or these valleys may not be products of timing or the nature of the material itself, but rather something more circumstantial: a new relationship, a difficult family issue, problems with friends, or a new non-academic responsibility. A valley in motivation could also stem from a sense of complacency or entitlement after acing your first midterm. It is often these valleys that overtake students and drown them from achieving in a particular class. Do what you need to do to stay motivated, and push through. Better times and grades will await you.

Selling yourself in the Medical School Interview (Part 2)

One question that you should have a solid answer to before your interview is "why do you want to go this school, specifically?" If you do not have a reasonable answer to this, then it will be sure to leave a bad impression in the mind of the interviewer. In fact, I've heard that this is the question that interviewers pay the most attention to because it shows how much you care about going to their school. Your interviewer will not offer a candidate admission to their school if he thinks you will reject it or worse--drop out later on. So make sure you have some reasons lined up. In thinking up reasons, consider anything that stood out to you in researching the school. They could be reasons of locational preference, unique opportunities the school offers, or proximity to loved ones.

Afterward, don't forget to send thank you cards to your interviewers stating your continued interest in the school. And try to mention an inside joke or a unique way you connected with your interviewewer. For example, if you talked about how you both played on a Rugby team, then mention that it was a pleasure sharing stories of hard tackles and injuries during our interview. “I'll look forward to future conversations with you” and so on.

Another tip is to try to stay with a student host the night before. In addition to crashing at a person's house for free, you can gain some valuable insight into the school. Your student interviewer will often ask about who you stayed with the night before, and then you can talk about the experiences you had with this person. It's always a good ice-breaker.

Some undergrads have asked me how much they should be informed on healthcare and ethical questions. I was asked about our healthcare system about 3 times in my 15 interviews and only once on an ethical dilemma. You should know generally how our system is set up and be able to compare it to a few other industrialized nations. It is a good idea to know some of the weaknesses of our system (cost, lack of insurance) and have some idea of how we might work on those problems. To be safe, you should be able to lay out the reasons for your position on Abortion, Euthanasia, and Stem Cell Research. Your goal should be to support your view, but still remain open-minded to other ideas. Be aware that your interviewer may be on either side of each issue and try to test you by citing counter-arguments. In that case, consider each objection carefully, but don't back down from your original stance.

A lot of people ask me what kind of questions they asked. Each interview varies greatly in the types of questions. Mainly, because they are 30-45 minute conversations with little guiding framework. The number one most asked question was "why do you want to be a doctor?" Not surprising. In fact, this was asked by every interviewer I talked to. There are two ways to answer this question. One is to list reasons for why you want to be a doctor or why you would be good at it. The other is to essentially tell a story of how you were inspired to pursue medicine and what experiences reaffirmed your desire for medical school. Although, it should sound a lot like your personal statement, I would choose the latter. Stories are simply more interesting than reasons and they allow you to name reaffirming experiences that you want to have a conversation about. This gives you some level of control during your interview.

Remember, in the interview, YOU are in control. YOU set the pace. And YOU are a rockstar that THEY wanted to check out.

Selling Yourself in the Medical School Interview (Part 1)

Interviewing is all about self-promotion. If you were selling a car, you would want the customer to walk away with an idea of the car being, for example, 1. Safe. 2. Stylish. 3. Efficient. etc.


This time, you are selling your application and yourself. The unique abilities and intelligence that got you this far need to be emphasized so you can stand out.

For me, I wanted to make sure that the interviewer knew a few things..
1. That I REALLY want to be a doctor.
2. I'm a confident and relaxed, and humble person who can have a conversation about many topics.
3. I have some unique experiences and skills that make me an ideal medical school candidate.
4. I value what you (the interviewer) has to say, and I am interested in your experiences and opinions.

There were many applicants who told me how "easy" their interview was because they barely even talked about medicine and were never asked difficult questions. Instead they talked about a shared hobby like golf. Unfortunately, that disregards goal number one and three and gives the interviewer little to talk about when they present you to the committee. There were other applicants who only talked about medically related things, and that also can be a disservice to the applicant because it neglects an opportunity to show you are a well-rounded person with other interests. Now, let me explain why each of these four goals is important....

I REALLY want to be a doctor.

This is probably the most critical point to get across. You don't want to sound desperate, but you should express that you would be highly disappointed if you could not be a doctor. For instance, if they were to ask you "what would you do if you didn't get into medical school?" and you immediately said "I'd probably become a teacher because bla bla bla" while the next guy said "hmmm....that's tough because I've had my sights on medical school for years and medicine is my passion, but if I had to choose I would probably become a teacher..." The interviewer has reason to believe that the second guy just wants it more. And something inside of us all interviewers would say that the person who wants it more should get the spot.

I'm a confident and relaxed, and humble person who can have a conversation about many topics.

Do whatever you need to do to be relaxed and confident. If listening to motivational music or taking deep breaths helps you get in the interviewing zone, then go for it. Also, listen to other celebrities and people of authority. President Obama is a good example of someone who is relaxed and articulate during interviews. Interviewing doesn't have to be super stressful; it can be a fun experience if you allow yourself to enjoy it.

Being confident, relaxed and genuine at the same time can only come with practice conversing with strangers and other people especially of importance. This is why you should always take advantage of your opportunities to converse with others. Remember to smile when appropriate and find places to insert your humor. Telling jokes is one of the best ways to stand out as an applicant because interviewers rarely hear it, and it shows you are comfortable and having a good time. In one of my interviews, I walked in the door to a doctor's office and saw my interviewer with his dog. "Is he going to be interviewing me too?" I said. My interviewer started laughing and it was a great start to our conversation.

Also, even if the circumstances are not ideal, remain confident, relaxed and sincere. At my UCSD interview, I was misdirected and had to run around Thornton Hospital asking if anyone knew my interviewer. Finally, after 30 minutes, I met up with him. I remember it was temping to lose my cool and begin apologizing and blaming the school for their poor directions. I chose not to and and instead expressed excitement in having the chance to interview with him. He definitely appreciated my positivity, and I ended up being accepted and am now a UCSD medical student.

I have some unique experiences and skills that make me an ideal medical school candidate.

My third goal should be for everyone as well. Always make sure you have experiences to back up your personal thoughts. For instance, if you are a self-driven person you should be able to point to specific experiences that show you are self-motivated. You should also look through typical medical school interview questions online and see if you can support each answer you have with an personal example (some examples should be used more than once because some are stronger and more impressive than others) For instance, if my interviewer was to ask me if I was creative, innovation, or able to apply my knowledge do different settings, I would tell them about how I taught 9th graders at Pruess about nucleotides and transcription with different pairs of shoes because molecular structures and scientific terminology were over their heads. This example worked for many types of questions.

I value what you (the interviewer) has to say, and I am interested in your experiences and opinions.

The idea behind the fourth goal is to show that you are a curious and engaging person. I also believe it's important to personally connect with the interviewer. The faculty or student are going to be more inclined to endorse you if they developed a relationship with you through conversation instead of being talked to by you. Although you are the interviewee, you can still ask your own questions. Throughout the interview, it's better if you can ask some questions to them. For example, if they ask you about your opinion of the new health care bill, answer their question, but you could also add "but I don't have the angle that you have as an Anesthesiologist. How would the bill affect your work?" This shows humility, curiosity and a value of the other person's opinion. The more 50/50 your interview is, the more likely your interviewer is to look back on it as an enjoyable conversation as opposed to a standard interview. Lastly, you should have several questions ready at the end about the school and the interviewer's opinion on aspects of it. Again I think it's better to ask something like "I'm interested in global health. What do YOU think are some of the best programs or opportunities this school offers in Global Health" Compare this with "Does this school have any global health programs?" Most people would rather give their opinion than tell you about something and again you will connect better this way. Keep in mind that you don't make ALL of your questions personal as this takes away from the variety of your question types.

Can I get into medical school?

You’ve probably heard the numbers before and been appalled: 3.6 GPA and 30.5 MCAT. These are the rough averages for getting into a MD program in the USA. But do you NEED to hit those numbers to get in?

The numbers above are only averages and therefore there is a broad range of scores and GPAs that are accepted to medical school every year. Although balanced numbers are preferred, some students rock a 35 MCAT and a 3.2 GPA and get accepted. Others get in with a 3.9 GPA, and a 27 MCAT. Each school also takes into account letters of rec, your personal statement, your extra-curricular activities, and research experience. But keep in mind that if you don’t have a GPA and MCAT that are within some realistic range of the averages of the schools you want to apply, no number of hospital volunteer hours, leadership experiences or letters of recommendation from Obama himself will get you an acceptance. (Well, maybe ;-p)

Like the subsections in the MCAT, it’s better to get have more balanced numbers. Therefore, it’s probably better to have the 3.6 and 30 than a 4.0 GPA and a 23 MCAT or a 37 MCAT and a 2.8 GPA. Low numbers make it easy to weed applicants out with a simple statistical elimination.

So what if you can’t get in ‘the range.”

If you are not within the range, but your dream is to be a doctor, there are still options. Osteopathic medical schools have slightly lower standard for admittance (around a 3.3 and 27 MCAT depending on the school). Osteopathic medicine is based upon the principle that the body is an integrated whole. It has all of the same elements of medical school plus the additional benefits of osteopathic manipulative techniques to diagnose and treat patients. ‘DOs’, or Osteopathic Doctors, are still licensed doctors in the US and can practice in a variety of specialties. I’ve heard it can be more difficult to enter into certain specific specialties later on in residency. That said, there are orthapedic surgion DOs and a range of specialties, it just takes a bit more red tape crossing to enter into an MD residency program.

Caribbean medical schools also offer admittances with lower averages as well. Schools in the Caribbean are generally cheaper, but it is more difficult to later practice in the States. If you are able to study and get competitive board scores throughout medical school, then your chances of practicing in the states or transferring to a US medical school are high.

Don’t forget that you can work in the healthcare field and not be a doctor!

If patient care and being a health care professional is definitely your thing, consider being a nurse, nurse practitioner or a physician assistant. You could also work in policy or health administration by being a master of public health. Nurses and PAs still work directly with patients and administer drugs, put in IVs and are vital to an efficient medical delivery system. You also might find it better than being a doctor! Nurses don’t have to deal with nearly as much blame for medical errors, malpractice lawsuits, years of schooling, debt, and get to spend more time with patients than doctors. Plus, with a few more years of schooling, nurses can become Nurse Practitioners and gain a higher salary, more skills and responsibility.

Breaking Down the MCAT

Most premeds, myself included, have a dreadful fear of the MCAT. Some push it aside refuse to take it on time, others give it a shot, but don’t allow for enough studying time. Still, in the hated minority, are the test taking geniuses who study for only a few weeks and then ace it as if it was nothing more than a basic science final. In any case, the MCAT is not your average study and regurgitate test. It’s nature lies somewhere between the SATs and your college science exams.

The Basics—Sections and Scoring

The MCAT is judged on a 45 point scale with a final letter score from J-T that determines writing ability. The number is what really matters though. The 45 points are broken down into three sections, Verbal, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences. Each section has a total of 15 points. Average test takers get around an 8 on each section for a total of 24. Although schools vary widely on average scores of admitted applicants, a general rule is that a 10-10-10 or a 30 or higher is considered good enough to get in. Now more about the sections:

The Physical Sciences Section:

This section has 9 passages and 60 multiple choice questions with 90 minutes to finish them. Each passage concerns topics related to either Chemistry or Physics. It may be a practical problem or an obscure situation, but either way it will test your ability to apply the concepts of Chemistry and Physics to a the written passage in order to answer a series of questions. For this section, you will need to know how to work with numbers in equations and even have some memorized from Physics.
A common question on this could involve something like the following: Given that the equation for Beridaris Law is B=((r2))/((A^3)) When r is increased by a factor of three and A is increased by this same factor, what effect does this have on B? A. An increase by two. B. Decrease by three C. An increase by three. D A decrease by nine.

The answer is B.

On test day, it probably won’t be quite that easy. The question will probably require that you interpret it in a way clues you in to finding the equation in the passage or just knowing it by heart if it isn’t given.

Because the Physical Sciences section is so math based and, in my opinion, the least passage based, I think it is the most likely candidate to improve upon amongst the sections. I improved the most in this section from any other through being able to quickly interpret graphs, work with numbers and equations, and better understand basic concepts in Physics and Chem.

Biological Sciences Section:

The Biological sciences section, like the Physical sciences, is comprised of 9 passages and 60 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. This has about 60-90% Biology and 10-40% Organic Chemistry in it. While many Biology sections involve interpreting graphs, this section is far less math based. Unlike regular Biology tests you may be used to, the questions from this section are heavily passage based. In other words, you could come into the test with the Biological knowledge of a PhD and still fail. But don’t worry. With a good ability to sort through the complex biological information of the passages, you can do very well.

Often times, the passages concern a hypothetical Biological experiment with data. A normal MCAT question bank involves a few questions about what the passage is saying in terms of the Biology of the organism or cell and a few questions about the data itself and what might be wrong with it or missing. Occasionally, a stand-alone question will appear that solely tests your knowledge of Biology.

Your one year of O-chem gets vaporized down to one to three passages on the MCAT. Here you could be tested on Steriochemistry, reactions or more experiments. These passages tend to have less words and more problems which is more similar to an actual university test.

The Verbal Section:

If you do not hate the verbal section, you were probably either a non-science major or an avid reader. The rest of us moan and deplore the confusing, medically irrelevant passages that need to be answered in mini-pockets of time. I started out doing horrendously on the Verbal section. After doing dozens of passages, I was still just praying for an average score. If you are like me, it will be the most frustrating, pesky obstacle in your quest for gaining admittance to medical school. Many schools look to the verbal score as a measure of how well a medical student will be able to keep up with the reading load in the future. What makes it a difficult section by far is the time constraint. 40 multiple choice questions from 7 passages in 60 minutes. This gives you eight to nine minutes to read a 600-900 word article and answer questions on it. Adjust your reading glasses before you begin and put your brain acuity and concentration to 110% before beginning.

Princeton Review suggests its students read 5-6 passages, do well on them, and then hurriedly guess on the last one or two. They say there’s probably not enough time to do good on all of them so why not do great on most and guess on the others. (Note: Do not implement this technique in medicine!) I did not believe that was the best approach for me. I started doing better when I paced myself quickly through all seven and answered questions more based upon my gut feeling than making sure to reference the article for my answers. Your best approach could go either way. More on this in my Princeton Review article.

The best way I found to prepare for the Verbal is to READ, READ and READ articles from sources that pump out intelligent literature and news. Mix in some reading of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, and practice passages from books like exam crackers into your verbal studying. Because this section has zero outside knowledge required, to do better you will have to get faster at making sense of complicated information in the form of articles on the arts, politics, psychology, business, history and whatever other topics an MCAT test writer can find. Progress will come slowly so if you have the time, start reading a year or six months in advance. The earlier you can rewire your brain into an efficient, meaning-deriving reading machine, the better off you will be.

The Writing Section:

In this section, you will be given two thirty minute essays to write. A statement that is fairly controversial will come up on the screen and you will have to write first an argument for it, then an argument against it, and lastly a paragraph that brings together both perspectives to see the validity of both arguments. Usually this means laying down a criteria for when one argument is true and when the other is as well. I’ll give you an example of one of the controversial sentences I got on the real MCAT.

“Aid in developing countries ultimately hurts them.”

It was then my task to argue both sides of the aid in developing countries conundrum and then reason how it might ultimately do both damage and good in countries depending on how it was done.

While it is important to show to medical schools that you can do ok on this section, don’t sweat it too much. Schools care much more about the other three sections which make up your overall score.

However you study, remember to pace your studying well so that you cover all of the basics in O-chem, Bio, Chem, and Physics. Also, make sure to take plenty of diagnostic Practice Exams as they will gear your studying more toward the real goal. Good luck!

How to take names and kick classes (Aka up your GPA)

I’m convinced that any student can get a high Grade Point Average in college given the right study strategies, self-motivation, and a little luck. Most students realize this later in college, in their third or fourth year when they finally figure the system and know how to study well. I've seen people (including myself) who are not the creme of the crop memorizers, writers, note takers or analyzers of information get very high GPAs. These people have simply found study strategies that worked and executed them consistently for every class. Here are some that I've found helpful. Skip the paragraph below if you are already in a university.

For high school students transitioning to college:

College work is far more independent than high school work. There’s less homework. There are less tests. And far more freedom. Yay! But this comes at a two-fold cost. 1. REALLY important midterms and finals. 2. Responsibility to know information that will not be tested for a while.
The best advice I can give to you is don’t ever get behind. Stay up with your reading, papers, and problem sets. Although you don’t need to learn and memorize everything in detail the first time, you should process everything as it comes so that when you review before a test, you are not seeing it for the first time. Not doing this will lead to hair pulling, all-nighter freak out moments that will make you a less efficient studier and possibly miss entire sections of information before the test.

One of the greatest difficulties in transitioning to college is setting your own schedule. You’ve just had 8 hours of class a day and been able to do most of your work and learning in class. Now all of a sudden you are going to class for only three hours a day and teachers expect you to learn three times more information outside of class. Therefore you have to figure out when you are going to study and then do it. It may help to use a calendar like “Google Calendar” or a daily planner to pencil in a few hours a day to studying.

General Tips for Dominating Classes

Determine what you do not understand:

Once you are able to consistently study and not get behind. You then need to figure out what it is that is keeping you from being a better studier. Many students hit a mental block before writing a paper, give up for the time being, and succumb to procrastination. Others (including myself at times) put off studying for a class for a few days because they don’t understand certain concepts and therefore find the subsequent information boring.

In order to resolve these difficulties, you need to figure out what it is that you do not understand and put that misunderstanding into a question for other classmates, professors, or TAs. Realizing what you don’t understand and then putting that into a question might be the most valuable study skill you learn. It’s certainly an underrated one. Next, don’t be shy about asking. Classes are set up so that you can email TAs. Professors have office hours, and classmates can often be an excellent source of information.

Utilize office hours far before tests:

As a Teaching Assistant for Metabolic Biochemistry and BILD 3, I received about 60% of my questions 24 hours before a test. There were certainly times when not a single student showed up to office hours because the test was not scheduled for two or three weeks from then. Occasionally, a student would come by with questions and we would work through them for an hour one on one. Because these hours were personalized and one-on-one, they were probably the most helpful learning tool for each student possible. Then, every office hour right before the test, around ten students would show up flustered and ready for quick answers. Unfortunately, I had to split my time 10 ways and their learning experiences were far inferior to that of students who had pinpointed their confusions weeks earlier and talked to me about them.

I’ve had this same experience being a student in classes. I received an A+ in Metabolic Biochemistry not because I got the information came easily to me, but because I worked out what questions I had as the information came. I attended office hours consistently with two TAs in different times in the week to resolve questions that arose, hone in on test important information, and to have them challenge me on my understanding of the material. In nearly all of these meetings, I received one-on-one attention except for the week before tests. Given the masses of students at these times, I decided it wasn’t worth attending right before lectures and I emailed TAs instead for those weeks.

-If you are writing a paper or working on a project that is more subjectively graded, office hours and TA/Professor communication is even more crucial. What you think is a good project idea or essay topic may not be in the eyes of your teacher. This is why clarification of what it is that your Professor specifically wants is key. Write up an early draft or project design and ask if your teacher can give you her opinion on it. They will often have critiques that you will need to respond to even if it’s against your opinion. When you eventually turn in your final assignment, the teacher will grade it knowing you worked hard and didn’t procrastinate. Plus, you are almost guaranteed that your final content will more in line with what he wanted.