Medicine- a Piece of Cake!

Whooopppps! Don't get me wrong- Medicine is hard. Very hard. Imagine years of your life barely having enough sleep, or even in your sleep you dream about school, giving up your precious lunch time for a much needed cram session, and saying no to your family and friends when they all want to go out. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the so-called 'Medlife.'

...but of course it could be easy. 

First and foremost, ask yourself why you want to become a doctor. Some may pursue medicine due to their parents' wishes and some are lucky enough because that's what they have always wanted to be. Whatever your reason, you MUST learn to love it and dream it. No matter how smart you are, if you're heart is not with it, you'll be a fool.

Now that you've set your big goal, set your mini goals- A friend once told me reach for the stars so that when you fall, you're still amongst the clouds; aim high, soar high. . Learn how to compute your grades, set a target grade, and do something to achieve it.

How to achieve it? Here are some of the tips I can share with you based on my own personal experience.

1. Find your studying habits. What works for me may not work for you. If my class ends at 4pm, I sleep til 6pm, eat my dinner then study 'til 1230am then sleep again. My best weapon against a hard exam is a good night's rest.

2. Books will be your best friend (You'll survive Medschool without reading your books, but reading will make you understand more. Plus, most exams are book based!)

3. You'll have to work hard with your classmates (and no, not cheating! I join with my friends and divide the workload- for example the exam is chapters 1-5, assign one chapter per person then share your notes)

4. After reading, use your samplex (sample exams). Samplexes are everywhere, use it! Not to memorize but to simply test you're understanding and have a grasp on how the questions are asked, so when you re-read your notes- you know where to focus.). Using another pen color, I underline the answers in the samplex in my notes. So that, when long exam comes (you'll be bombarded with lengthy readings) you won't need to re-read your samplexes.

5. With that being said, use different colors of highlighter. My friend who is the top of the class usually have his handouts clean. I,on the other hand, uses green for the header/topic, orange for the must knows, and yellow for the supporting data..

6. When taking the exam, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY and RELAX. Chances are things you know will flow instantaneously!  Don't think about question 2, when you're still at question 1. If you can't answer it, move on to the next. If you really can not answer, close your eyes and pray. 

          I just want to share that one time during my Pedia exam (I need 7 mistakes only to get exempted- I had 22 unsure answers) so I prayed "Lord, how can I shrink my 22 unsure to 7 unsure only? Please shine your light down upon me" Right after praying, I opened my eyes, and literally sun rays struck my paper. I swear, I had goosebumps all over. God really has ways to answer your prayers. So believe in Him, more than you believe in yourself.

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I hope this post works well for you, too! Goodluck, my future colleague!