Congratulations on your milestone! You’ve put in countless amounts of hours taking exams, writing applications, and going through numerous interview processes, all while juggling your regular classes. It’s no small feat, and inshaAllah it’s a beginning of greater things to come.
It goes without saying, please enjoy the time you have now until medical school begins. Spend time with family, travel, and pursue your hobbies! But of course, it’s always helpful to feel prepared with what’s to come.
With that being said, how do we smoothly transition into another four years of full time schooling?
Preparation/Awareness
Understand and process that these next four years will be demanding of your time and energy. The bitter reality is that your studies will be a full-time endeavor. A constant challenge within medical school is that unlike previous stages of schooling, you have to constantly learn more material in a shorter span of time. This easily leads to studies creeping into late evenings, weekends, and holidays. If time management and discipline is not actively prioritized, you will fall behind. So start off strong.Be prepared to say no to family and friends for gatherings and hangouts. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’ll be all worth it someday. I promise if you stay consistent with your studies, and respect the time they need, you will be able to have a life outside of them.
Curriculum
Do not study before med school. Enjoy your life before then. You have plenty of time to study and be an excellent doctor. However it doesn’t hurt to understand the curriculum of your school as well as that of the dreaded board exams. Get a broad sense of the purpose for each year of medical school (ie what are the expectations of a first year student vs. a fourth year student?). Then understand the specifics of your own school. Is it a pass fail system ? Semester or trimester? What topics are covered? What materials are provided for you?
Finally make yourselves aware of the board examinations- how the exam is structured, when you’re supposed to take it, and when you should start preparing for it. The boards are a source of tension for students all around, and you will many different but valid opinions as to how to prepare for them. Many folks will tell you to not worry about boards at all at such an early timepoint, and to not rush into studying for it. My take is this: the reality is that the boards play an important part of your progression as a medical student, and can significantly impact what residencies are feasible for you to apply to. This is why students from all over prioritize boards in the later part of their preclinical years – to the point of sidelining their own school coursework, and why test prep companies spend millions to offer the best products for you to study with. Therefore, I firmly believe you should not only make yourselves aware of the boards, but have a gameplan to incorporate board studying alongside your school coursework. But of course keep it reasonable. Slow and steady wins the race. You don’t have to know everything in one day.
Resources
There’s many! Being aware of all the resources for coursework and boards can be very overwhelming. But you don’t have to use all of them at the same time, nor do you have to use them exhaustively. Explore and experiment. See what works for you, and use it as much as you feel like you need it. What I would heavily advise though is to find a particular set of resources, and stick with them throughout medical school. Don’t fall into the trap of using too many resources, as your time will be limited and you will risk burning yourself out. Be balanced and maximize a healthy number of resources, and inshaAllah they will be excellent references for you to draw upon for coursework and board studies. Here are a few popular resources:
First Aid – considered by many to be the “bible” of medical school and the boards. Pretty much covers or touches upon every essential topic for boards and coursework. Helps you remember concepts using mnemonics, diagrams, and various illustrations
Pathoma – A detailed yet somehow concise literature on pathologies from every major organ system. Helps you understand why pathologies occur at a biologically fundamental level.
Sketchy – A visual learning platform that helps you easily memorize microbiology and pharm concepts using images as a recall tool.
UWorld – revered by many as THE qbank to study for boards. It is highly regarded for its ability to accurately capture what topics will be tested on the real exam, and what score range you’ll likely fall into based on practice assessments. This tool does a great job of helping you test your knowledge and offers excellent practice for board style questions.
Honorable mentions: Boards and Beyond, Osmosis, Physeo, Amboss, USMLE Rx
Cushion time + Commitments
There will be loads of paperwork to fill out for entry into medical school – insurance, background check, medical + vaccinations, car registration, financial aid etc. Have them done immediately. Paperwork can easily take weeks to months to process even when everything’s done correctly and on time. Otherwise you will potentially have issues with ID access, participation in school activities, or even school enrollment, which can eat up precious time sorting out once the semester begins.
If you have to move to be closer to school, I recommend to start house hunting latest a month before classes begin, and perhaps even earlier. You want to give yourself ample time to look around for living spaces at reasonable rates and convenient distances from school. More time will also help you find roommates who you can comfortably live with. If you start this process too late, all the best living spaces will be taken up, and you will be left with places that are undesirable based on cost, distance, and/or quality of space. Start Early!
Once you find a place, I would recommend moving in a week prior to the start of classes. It can be an unsettling feeling living in a new place and away from the people you love. Here’s what moving in a week prior can offer you:
Acclimate to your surroundings. Get used to your new surroundings, your new neighbors, and be aware of shopping options for food and essentials
Establish your routine. Practice waking up early, prepping your food, doing errands during the day, and winding down in the evening. Get a sense of how much time your tasks for the day take up as well as their nature of commitment. How often do you need to shop for groceries, how far is the local gym, how long does it take to prep food+eat+then clean up?
Address urgent matters. If you realized you left behind something at home with family, forgot to buy essentials, or failed to realize a housing issue, now’s a good time to take care of it!
Outside Commitments – If you have an existing part time job, volunteering position, or hobby, be prepared to drop them. Begin med school with a clean slate as much as possible. Coming into school with too much baggage can mentally drain you and hamper your ability to start off strong. You want to give yourself all the time you need to fully adjust yourself to med school and its demands. Take time to understand how lectures, labs, and study sessions will shape your typical days and only then can you think about reintroducing outside commitments to your schedule.
Find a system, Find a friend, Love your Family
Find and maintain a system that works for you in regards to your studies and well-being. When should I wake up? Should I attend lectures in person or online? Should I rely on flashcards or pen and paper? When should I work out? When should I eat?
This will require much trial and error. But inshaAllah if you put effort into it, you will find a rhythm that works for you.
Outside of coursework, find your friend circles as soon as you can. A great place to start would be the local Muslim student club! It’s important to forge bonds with people who share the same values as you, have the same goals in life, but also share the same struggles as you do. There are no shortage of days where you will feel overwhelmed and helpless, but your friends will remind you that you’re not alone. So study with them, pray with them, live with them!
Most of all, don’t forget your family and don’t forget Allah. Be in touch with your family as much as possible, and make every effort you can to visit them. All success comes from Allah. He won’t decrease you in your success because you maintain ties to your family, but rather there will be more barakah in what you do.
Anas ibn Malik reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever is pleased to have his provision expanded and his life span extended, let him keep good relations with his family.” Source: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2067, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2557
