Necessary Shortcuts

Times have been desperate lately so I have done a couple things I never thought I would: hire a cleaning lady and order from Fresh Direct.  Something I have never been able to shake is my annoyance at people who pay someone to do work they should do themselves.  I was brought up by parents who never hired people to complete their household chores.  Cleaning, laundry, gardening, mowing etc. were not to be pawned off on paid help.  As a child, I have somewhat fond memories of helping my parents with dusting, washing dishes, and vacuuming.  As an adult, I have maintained the ideal that one should, at the very least, be able to keep a clean house.  Doing my own laundry, cleaning my own bathroom, cooking my own food are basic adult tasks that, in my mind, there is absolutely no excuse to not to do myself.  Now perhaps one might think, well surely one of your parents didn't?  No, both my parents worked more than full time jobs, and my mother was constantly traveling for work, leaving my father with 3 kids and a full time job to manage while she was in DC, China, South Africa, Alaska etc.  My grand parents worked full time, raised children, and also raised/butchered their own meat, milked cows, and grew their own vegetables.  My parents and grandparents, somehow, managed just fine without hired help, therefore, I should too, right?

WRONG!  Unfortunately, my graduate school schedule combined with MCAT prep, my boyfriend's insane work schedule, and my springtime flu has left us reduced to a pair of invalids.  Our apartment had gotten to the point where it was unsanitary, our fridge was bare, and my stock pile of emergency food had dwindled.  I could literally see the dust and cat hair floating around and, had I not already been taking large quantities of cold medicine, would have needed some kind of antihistamine intervention in order to exist comfortably in our apartment.  Mike hasn't been home to eat, and I have resorted to eating 2 meals a day ordered from seamless web which means I've been eating nothing but Thai noodles and oatmeal for the past two weeks.  The laundry pile is simply unmentionable.  Luckily, I have a large collection of underwear.  Things could have gone to a whole new level of bad.

The solution?  First, hire a cleaning lady.  Never will I completely rid myself of cleaning lady guilt.  I firmly believe that if you are physically capable of cleaning your own house then you should, and that children should learn how to clean up their own damn mess.  Life is not about avoiding all of the icky parts.  Everyone should get down on their hands and knees and put in a little elbow grease.  However, I decided that my MCAT score is more important than my ideals so out the window they went.  I will pick them up later when the thought of scrubbing my toilet doesn't make me want to cry.  I think the lesson here for any student or busy person is each decision should be viewed as such: if I do (don't do) x and I do poorly on my exam (presentation, report, etc), will I look back and regret my decision?  If the answer is yes, find a way around it.  I don't have a day to lose to cleaning, so the cleaning lady came.  Parents, grandparents, you are made of tougher stuff than me.

Next issue, food.  Somehow, my twisted logic allows me to order prepared food, but not groceries.  This is less am ingrained ideals thing, and more a budgetary thing.  I have never ordered from Fresh Direct because it is more expensive than me dragging my butt to Trader Joe's and maybe ordering out one night a week.  The flaw, of course, is that Fresh Direct IS cheaper than me ordering two meals a day every day.  Next lesson, the next best thing is ok.  Make compromises, you will still save time and money in the long run.  

The point of this whole entry (which I shouldn't even be doing) is that sometimes, you just have to give in.  School, large standardized exams, and jobs with crazy work loads put you into a unique situation where your work follows you everywhere you go.  Days off are dictated by how much work there is to do and how much time you have to do it.  For people who are trying to get into medical school, the process is so competitive, we must put in every thing we have in order to succeed.  If we don't, and then don't get in/do well(my situation this past cycle), we regret not trying harder.  If I had a day off, I would clearly use that time to take care of my business.  The problem is, as a student, when you literally lose track of what day it is because you do nothing but study and work all the time, every day, there is no way to wring out that half-day necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of living.  Every student will reach this level of desperation at one point or another.  That point, when you forget what going out is, when the only difference between Saturday and Wednesday is your class schedule, and when things like makeup, jeans, and nice hair are the time-indulgent luxuries of others.  The key is balance.  Find a way to budget in a few shortcuts so that you can keep your stress at a manageable level.  Finals, theses, MCAT, school applications are all reasonable things to be slightly stressed out about.  Your dirty bathroom is not.  Let someone else take care of it for you.  Use a little of that bought time to go on a walk, take a yoga class, or write something that won't be graded.  Do what you need to do to manage your stress and work load, rather than your laundry pile.  There is plenty of time later to scrub your own toilet.  

I told you so!!!!!

It's funny. I was thinking a lot today about the things I wish I had known the first time around applying to medical school and taking the pre-reqs, except most of the things I came up with I did know at the time but was too lazy or stubborn to follow the advice of some other person writing about what they wish they would have known..... and so the cycle repeats. So here is what I kind of already knew but wish I had known:

1) It's much better to take your time and do well than to rush and do poorly.

I think this applies to pretty much every freshman pre-med, post-bac, and person who decided half way through college they wanted to be a doctor. For me, this applied less to courses, and more to my extra curricular activities. I was so focused on having an amazing resume, that I didn't leave time for the studying, and ended up crazy and with less than a 4.0. For freshman, bio and chem together are HARD, even after you have been in college for a while. I don't know what nut job thought it would be a good idea to make a bunch of 18 year olds who are living in a new place, adjusting to washing their own clothes, discovering the joys of fake IDs and no curfews, and have no nagging parent for the first time ever take two classes that can essentially decide their fate in the medical school application process in three or more years. Chill out freshmen! Drink beer, sleep in on a tuesday, and learn that febreeze does not equal clean laundry before you put this burden on yourselves! Post-bacs, school is an adjustment. If you haven't been in school for a while, it doesn't hurt to ease back in with a math class or something before diving in head first with no arm floaties after not having seen water for years.

2) Use your MCAT books to study for your pre-reqs.

Many people get into their pre-req classes and get super confused about something at some point. The MCAT prep books are nice because they break things down and simplify them. I cannot tell you how many times, while studying for the MCAT, I thought to myself, "oooohhhhhhhhh that's what they meant!!! Well why didn't someone just say so!." Looking at the simplified content in the MCAT book then learning the more complex information in the text book would have made my life so so so much easier. Also, looking at MCAT questions while you are taking the courses gets you ahead of the game with your MCAT prep.

3) Do not take the MCAT unless you are ready to take the MCAT

I actually did follow this advice last year and am glad I did. As I got closer to the test date I paid AAMC $70 to move the date one month back, worth every penny. This year I thought ahead and didn't register until after I had mentally pushed back my date. Trust me, you most likely will not stick to your study plan and you should secretly plan at least two weeks of flex time (sort of like when you set your alarm clock to be five minutes fast so that when you wake up dazed and confused, you trick yourself into getting up ten minutes earlier).

4) Studying for the MCAT is like training for a marathon (I think, I've never actually trained for a marathon, but from what I understand about training for marathons, the MCAT is like training for a marathon) you mustn't peak too early

This is EXACTLY what happened last year. I peaked too early then watched my scores slip in my practice tests. The last two practice exams I took actually predicted my score perfectly, I just wish I could have hung with the scores 2-4 tests prior. I think what happens is you lose steam and focus. This is just a theory, but it makes total sense. I'll let you know what happens this time around.

5) Don't waste your money on Kaplan

Kaplan is great if you have absolutely no discipline, but if you have no self discipline, maybe medical school isn't the wisest choice. The forums on sites like student doctor network and mom md have great information. Use them. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a course, spend 500 on several different books, test them out, and find a book that works with your learning style. I personally, like ExamKrackers. Focus more on the content and your basic test taking skills and less on the super strategies that the prep companies sell. Strategy is good, but not if it is so complicated, you have to spend extra time learning the strategy.

6) You have enough time to exercise. The half hour once a day won't kill you.

This is super super important. If you need to save time, save it in ways like not watching as much tv, going home an hour earlier than you normally would from a party, not drinking too much at parties so you don't lose a day to a hangover, ordering food, studying on the train..... Exercise is not the area to cut. First, you don't want to be one of those people who gets fat during their MCAT prep (and then can't fit into your post-college graduation suit when you have your first med school interview then almost cry when you are at JCrew and can't figure out if the skirt the next size up fits you properly...). Also, the MCAT is 5+ hours long. It takes a certain amount of body strength to not fall over after sitting in a hard chair for many many hours.

7) Turn your AMCAS in JUNE FIRST!!!!

Most medical schools have some form of rolling admission, so you want them to see your application first. Enough said.

8) Treat your time completing your secondary applications the same way you treat studying: with high high priority.

If you are on family vacation, pretend like the MCAT or a big final is in one week (Yes, the beach is nice but you'll be back. Cape Cod is ideal for this practice. Remember, you're better off inside than on the bay side. The water is too cold and there are no waves. Really, you are saving yourself great disappointment by staying indoors and slaving away on your computer. Use your sacrifice to guilt your fellow travelers into bringing you lobster, and drink heavily in the evenings. Hangovers may prevent you from retaining information while studying, but they don't prevent you from laying on the couch and writing awkward essays over and over again. In fact, a hangover might be further motivation to stay indoors as the sun will make you feel like a vampire, not the sexy kind that sparkles, but the kind that feels like a knife in being jammed into his eye when the sun comes out.). If you are on vacation some place super awesome, too bad, you should still work on those secondaries. Remember statement 7.

8) Never give up hope

Just when you think you are doomed to failure, you may be surprised. Don't stop sending update letters, and making sure your application is complete just because you haven't heard anything. You never know. I almost peed my pants when I saw my interview invite in January. Clearly, surprises are no good, especially when your apartment (and a change of clothes)is 45 minutes away by subway. Always be a hoping.

9) Have a backup plan

Not everyone gets in their first time and that's ok. Have a plan for what you will do if you don't get in. If that is grad school, go ahead and apply (even if you've had a thousand med school interviews), if it's getting a job, start networking and honing your resume. You don't want to panic when May comes around and you have no idea what you are going to do with yourself for the next year. Have a backup plan that you love, then waiting another year for application success won't seem so bad, and if you do get into med school then who cares about that ole back up plan. Toss it!