UABSOM follows a block system, meaning you cover one topic at a time in a condensed period (e.g Biochemistry in 3 weeks). This allows you to put all of your focus on one topic at a time and truly dive deep into the material. During the Fall, you will go through 5 blocks called Fundamentals; these blocks are meant to ensure every student is up-to-speed on the Basic Sciences needed to excel in the Organ Modules, which start in the Spring of your first year and finish up during the Spring of your second year.
For context of how classes/lectures work: Lectures are not mandatory and are recorded each year. This means that you have the option to attend lectures live, watch the recordings once they are posted, or even watch previous years’ recordings to get ahead. Some activities, like labs or small groups, are mandatory and will be specially marked on your calendar so you know when you are absolutely required to be on campus. Lectures usually run Monday-Friday between the hours of 8am-12pm, and labs, small groups, and other activities occur on various afternoons throughout the week (and usually wrap up no later than 5pm).
Fundamentals & the Organ Modules make up your Pre-Clinical years, and are on a Pass/Fail system. This system decreases some of the stressors of grading to further encourage understanding and knowledge retention and not rote memorization. However, forming good study habits is still extremely important to success and can be a source of anxiety as your MS1 year nears. In this issue of Vital Signs, two students who just wrapped up their first year are here to help ease your concerns and give you a glimpse into the variety of study schedules an MS1 may have!
Lydia Yang
What did your typical day/week look like during Fundamentals, and how did it change from Block 1 to Block 5?
I wish I could say I had one regular schedule that I used for all 5 blocks, but it actually changed quite a bit. I would say I mostly did recorded lectures, but I also attended a good number of live/Zoom lectures. Sometimes I would even mix and match during the day (ex: I would watch the 11am and 12pm lecture live, then watch the 8am and 9am lecture recorded). That way I could get my lectures done by early afternoon. Then, I would spend the rest of the day getting my non-school things done (ex: grocery shopping, cooking, working out, etc.) as well as reviewing PowerPoints.
How did your typical day/week and/or study plans/habits change between Fundamentals and Organ systems?
Fundamentals is a good way to ease you into med school - not because the material is easy, but because it lets you figure out how you study best as well as how you like to schedule your days. However, I would say the workload for Organ systems is definitely more, so there is a bit of an adjustment period during those first few weeks of Cardio. For organ systems, I mainly watched recorded lectures later because I found it easier to take notes. Then, I would study that material that night and/or the next morning before the next day lectures were uploaded. You have to be conscious to not get behind on lectures if you don’t watch them live, but it typically works for a lot of people.
Another big change between Fundamentals and Organ Systems is the amount of third party materials you will use. I started regularly watching Boards and Beyonds, Sketchy, Pathoma, and doing the corresponding Anki cards during Organ Modules. For me, this was the easiest/most efficient way to learn and retain both lecture material and Step 1 content.
Overall however, I would say my schedule changes a little bit between every organ module because each module is set up differently. Some have more in-person activities, so you find yourself having to adjust a little bit after the first week or so. As you progress through first year, you learn more about how you study best and it becomes easier to schedule your days.
Do you prefer to attend lectures live or watch them recorded? Or, do you mix it up?
I definitely like to mix it up! During organ modules I would mostly watch them recorded later since it allowed me to pause whenever I wanted to take notes. However, once we had in-person lectures for Renal, I enjoyed going in for lectures and liked that I was done with lectures for the day by noon. I also tend to focus better when I’m in person vs. if I watched live over Zoom. Next year, I think I’ll continue to mix it up depending on what else I have going on that week. There are definitely pros (and cons) for both ways!
How much time do you have to do non-medical school things?
The short and vague answer is - enough time. Sometimes it’ll feel like you don’t have enough time to do anything but school, but don’t worry, there are enough hours in the day! It all comes down to time management. It’s important to make a conscious effort to schedule in other activities, from basic things like grocery shopping to fun things like spending time with friends. I also really value the time I set aside to workout because it’s a great destressor and a great way to give your mind a well-needed break.
If you could redo MS1, is there anything you wish you would have figured out sooner or would have changed re: your study plans/habits?
I wish I had used my time more efficiently during the days so I could “turn off” school at a certain hour every night. That’s something I struggled with a lot during first year, especially since so much of it for us was online. There wasn’t much of a structure to each day, so I found myself studying pretty late because I hadn’t used my time as efficiently earlier in the day when in reality, I could have gotten the same amount of studying done but finished hours earlier. It is so important for your mental and physical wellbeing to take breaks and prevent burnout.
I also wish I had learned to use Anki earlier - it’s not for everyone, but I have found it very useful for retaining information. If you don’t know what Anki is, don’t worry - you’ll definitely hear about it once you start.
Skye Opsteen
What did your typical day/week look like during Fundamentals, and how did it change from Block 1 to Block 5?
When first entering med school, I was extremely anxious about what exams would look like compared to what I was used to during undergrad, so I studied quite a lot. I flipped between live and recorded lectures (detailed below), but essentially my day-to-day in the beginning consisted of watching lectures in the morning from around 8-11, taking an hour or so for a lunch break, studying for a few hours in the afternoon, and then reviewing flashcards when I was winding down for the night. After I took my first exam and realized “hey, this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be!”, I started to adjust back into a study schedule similar to my undergrad one, which was still lectures in the morning, but my afternoons ranged from studying to hiking, watching tv, or reading a book, and my evenings were free unless I wanted to look over a difficult concept. I still find it best for myself if I review a little bit of content each weekday, so I make sure to incorporate that into my schedule, but I definitely give myself a good bit of slack and ample time for myself and my hobbies. I also always give myself at least one full day off on the weekend (crazy I know) to rest and recharge, which I found crucial in helping prevent burnout.
How did your typical day/week and/or study plans/habits change between Fundamentals and Organ systems?
I would say the biggest switch between Fundamentals and Organ systems for me was using outside resources (e.g anything outside of the lectures + powerpoints). All of the Fundamentals exams are “in-house,” meaning that the questions are written by the lecturers and will come straight from their material. In Organ Modules, your finals are NBME-style exams, meaning that the questions come from NBME question banks (these are the people who write the Step exams!), so some questions might not come from content directly covered in lectures. This is when outside resources can be helpful. During Fundamentals, I used my lecture notes as a stand-alone resource until Blocks 3 and 5, where I also used Sketchy Pharm & Micro (Sketchy is an educational tool that uses cartoons to help cover a wide array of medical topics to help make learning easier). As I entered into Organ Modules, I continued to mainly rely on my lecture notes (pro-tip, those lecture objectives are there for a reason!), but I started to use Sketchy more (they have excellent content on Pathology as well), and I started to use the Pathoma textbook and question-book (Pathoma covers all things pathology and is wonderful). I’ve also started to use question banks more (like Kaplan and Amboss), which have been super helpful.
Do you prefer to attend lectures live or watch them recorded? Or, do you mix it up?
I ended up trying a few different variations on live vs recorded lectures, so I’ll try and highlight the main two along with pros/cons for each:
Since I was pretty familiar with Biochemistry, which is Block 1’s topic, I decided to try out watching last year’s recordings to stay ahead each week (I ended up using this strategy for Block 2 as well!). This allowed me more flexibility in my schedule than attending live lectures, which allowed me to keep up with my hobbies, spend time doing research, and more. It also gave me the benefit of being able to review material before a live lecture, so if I did struggle with any concepts, I could attend that lecture live for clarification. One of the biggest cons of this strategy is that, while most lectures stay pretty consistent each year, there can be changes in clinical practice that drastically alter some of the material (which would be reflected in the powerpoint slides), or they may have created a new lecture that wasn’t covered in prior years.
I then tried my hand at live lectures starting with Block 3 (which is pharmacology, a topic I hadn’t been exposed to yet), which I have enjoyed the most and have stuck with throughout Organ Modules so far (with a few caveats). Live lectures force me to stay engaged with the material and prevent me from getting side tracked as easily. You also can’t speed up live lectures, which kept me from glossing over important knowledge-nuggets that the lecturers would emphasize. The one main con to live lectures is that it greatly decreases your schedule flexibility, but this can be (partially) overcome with what I call the hybrid method: attend most lectures live, but supplementing with some recorded lectures (whether that be last year’s recordings or waiting for the current year’s depended on the topic) as needed. This hybrid method has allowed me to continue having a great work-life balance, while also ensuring peak performance and focus for school.
How much time do you have to do non-medical school things?
I make sure to prioritize my mental health and wellbeing, so I have ample time for non-school things. I’ve touched on this in some of my previous answers, but I always give myself at least one full day a week off from med school to recharge. I also very rarely focus my entire day on med school alone. I have research, hobbies, friends, etc that also take up substantial parts of my life, and I make sure to have time for it all. I also find that mixing things up throughout the day helps me stay focused on the task at hand and prevents me from getting too overwhelmed/tired of studying.
If you could redo MS1, is there anything you wish you would have figured out sooner or would have changed re: your study plans/habits?
I think the two things I would at least slightly alter are as follows: 1) don’t feel guilty for taking time off to yourself! It is an extremely important thing to do and will help prevent burnout and feeling overwhelmed; on this same note, it’s okay if you have a bad exam or a bad block. That’s one blip in your 4 years here, and means little in the long-term. 2) attend more of the large group study sessions live! I would always look over the powerpoints after because they had practice questions, but attending live meant that I had not only kept up with the material but could also ask the tutors questions on any difficult concepts, which are all pros in my book. The small and large group tutoring sessions are an AMAZING resource throughout your first year, so I highly recommend attending one or both!