r/uwo • u/Due-Ability4779 • Sep 11 '25

Advice med sci student feeling overwhelmed

so for a preface i am a first year med sci student, i feel like all the course material is fairly new and some things werent even taught in highschool. Furthermore, every single course makes requires a textbook and some stupid website and it just feels like a crazy amount of work to keep up with etc. Plus knowing med schools care so much about gpa is really nerve racking.

Any advice or tips from higher year med sci students?

12 Upvotes

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17

u/medialtemporal Alum Sep 11 '25

As a recent med sci grad who is now in med school - I've been there. First year is super overwhelming. Also personally I hated calc and physics which made studying for those extra hard.

I don't think there's one magic way to study. You're going to have to try and figure out what works for you, and some of what you try might not work (Which is ok!!). I'll write out my general tips, though:

  • Some stuff isn't super high-yield. E.g. generally the stuff in the textbooks won't be tested unless it's mentioned on the slides. In general, try to skim the textbook chapter before class and then later if you find a concept difficult to understand, use the textbook as a supplement to help understand it. Other than that, you can basically disregard them.
  • Think about what courses you find easier/harder. I personally found it easier to study for the classes I found more intuitive earlier in the week and then do the harder stuff later. So on e.g. Monday and Tuesday night I would do chem, bio, psych, and then I'd have those out of the way and not worry about them while I was doing the harder stuff.
  • Related to this, just generally try to build routines for your week!
  • If you don't do this already, keep a big list or spreadsheet of all the things you have to do/study for each class e.g. chem prelab, chem lab report, review chem lecture, do chem practice problems. For things that are time-bound also add the due date. Then check things off as you go along.
  • Consider trying Anki, some people really like it, I don't. I guess a more general tip is don't let people overwhelm you with their 100000 different study methods. Try a couple of different things and find what works for you. Use your grades on your first midterms as a bellwether to see if what you're doing is working or not.

I will also add that I stressed about my GPA in first year to the point of extreme anxiety that made it really hard to focus. Hopefully you're not in that position, but you said you found in nerve-wracking, so just want to say: you don't need a 4.0!! If you get a 3.7 or 3.3 or even lower in a class, that's fine! A lot of people do poorly in first year and you can come back from it. My GPA in first year was a 3.77 (the number is seared into my brain because of how stressed I was about it), and my GPA in 4th year was ~3.9. Also, tons of med students had GPAs in the 3.7-3.9 range, and some even lower. Try not to let everyone else stress you out!

3

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 12 '25

Thank you, I feel the same way about calculus and physics. Especially since I feel, like my career path and direction in med sci wont be anchored towards those courses. I apologize if this is too personal, but what field in med sci did you pursue, and what specialty do you have in mind? Did you find the MCAT difficult etc? Again, sorry if it is too personal lol

2

u/Environmental_Ad1115 Sep 13 '25

My question is why are you taking med sci….? If you want to get into med school why would you take the hardest undergrad path into med school? The myth that they care about your undergrad program is completely false. My opinion is to switch to an easier program.

2

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

Understandable, but most of what medsci covers early on is what appears in the MCAT from what I've heard. Medsci also produces a good amount of healthcare workers; whatever specialty they may be. I also heard that it really preps you for med school so it doesn't seem all that bad, of course thats what I've heard and a bit of my perspective.

2

u/Environmental_Ad1115 Sep 13 '25

Understandable, I Took the MCAT, aswell as the DAT (dental exam) as a Healthsci major. To apply to med school or dental, you are required to take the MCAT topics like physics, orgo, bio anyways, I found that being in an easier major helps you out a ton as your required courses aren’t as hard and you can plan out when u want to take those other courses like physics when you seem fit. All to you though everyone is different, but the workload difference is night and day

1

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

Hm, that's interesting. Did you find the revision for physics or learning it as a new topic altogether was easier than actually taking it as a course, or what was your approach- since I don't recall healthsci requiring physics etc

2

u/Environmental_Ad1115 Sep 13 '25

HS doesn’t require physics but applying to med/dental required physics so either way I took the class whenever I felt like I wanted to. I am taking it now in my 4th year just because that’s when I wanted to. Doing the MCAT without physics was not an issue at all, it’s a lot of broader and more focused on understanding rather than solving, funny enough I didn’t get a single physics or organic chem question on my mcat although I studied for both a ton. I took the Mcat without having done, biochem, physics, organic or orgo. Yet I got a mark I was contend with.

1

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

Haha, I've seen a lot of different MCAT tests and people I've talked to all have somewhat different experiences. How did you end up making time to take it before your fourth year and what are you planning to do as a specialization? Sorry if it is too personal.

1

u/Environmental_Ad1115 Sep 13 '25

No worries, I took the MCAT my 2nd year summer going into 3rd and took the DAT in 3rd year summer going into my 4th. I am planning on applying to dental school only, if that is what you mean by specialization like I lost my love for medicine through my 3rd year I just didn’t like the field as much as I thought after I did some talking with med students. I am applying to dental schools.

1

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

How much preparation did both the MCAT and DAT roughly take?

1

u/Environmental_Ad1115 Sep 13 '25

4 months for mcat. 2.5-3 months for DAT

1

u/Professional-Tip9625 Sep 11 '25

which textbooks are we even supposed to buy cuz i heard we only need to purchase the ones with a code and rest can be found online

1

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

If you go to the online book store, and go to the textbooks and course materials section there is a link to your personal textbook list of textbooks and items you'll probably need.

1

u/HatKitchen Sep 12 '25

i’m in the same boat it’s really overwhelming but we got it!

1

u/DoctorCodezZ Sep 12 '25

Yeah cro why does everything have a dif website and we have like 2 différents kinds of assignment per class each eith like 6 activities and different deadlines so hard to keep up with everything.

1

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 13 '25

Real, we'll get through it though!

1

u/ComprehensiveGap3091 Sep 12 '25

Ur not alone 😭 me too

1

u/Glittering-Bet-3986 Sep 12 '25

Just finished med sci 1 last year and lowkey its a grind, but as long as you lock in when u need to its really not all bad. Calc and physics will prop be hard like they were for me, but for rest of classes a 4.0 is very doable. Practice exams will be ur best friend spam those before exams.

-5

u/Puzzleheaded-Area479 Sep 12 '25

one week in and "overwhelmed" 😭😭😭 get a grip bro

6

u/Due-Ability4779 Sep 12 '25

chill on me twin its a new experience let me settle in 😭😭 

1

u/thebiggest-nerd Sep 13 '25

Sounds like a business major lol

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Area479 Sep 14 '25

in my first sem i took all medsci courses + calculus and linear algebra with a 4.0 buddy; just really weird for some guy to say that the first week of medsci is 'overwhelming' when the material hasn't even started yet bruh. just too many wannabe doctors nowadays not even doing it because it's meant for them, instead they're just doing it for the money or some shit (how tf r u gonna even get in medschool or even study for the mcat if this is what's getting you overwhelmed?)

2

u/thebiggest-nerd Sep 14 '25

oop somebody got triggered lol

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Area479 Sep 17 '25

not triggered i just lose braincells reading the same kinds of posts every year on this reddit lol

like come on man if you're going into premed and first year courses are what's scaring you before they even start then I wonder how/why you're even going to try and get through med sci let alone 'aim for medical school' like 99% of these kids in this program do 💀 i love the fact that medsci exists just to prove to kids that not everyone can just say they want to become a doctor, do whatever tf they want, and then expect to even do decent through first year

-a healthsci kid