Hi efex,
I can’t really tell from you posts - do you like Mayo or not?
Just kidding! 
Glad you’re enjoying it so much. It sounds great. When I started at Baylor, I was also very impressed with how well they treated us. But it must be nice to have a small class where you can really get to know everyone. Best of luck!!
Pam
P.S. You should consider starting a diary on OPM Soap Notes. It would be a great way to keep all this great information in one easily accessible place.
Thanks! I would love to do the diary but how do you do it? can you just start posting?
I second the diary nomination! It will be so much fun to follow.
I am really intrigued to hear about the technology stuff at Mayo! My dad was a resident there when I was born. Last week I came across a box of reel to reel tapes he made of our family and relatives in the 60s and 70s. I started searching through his attic for a player, and came across other boxes from that time, including plenty of Mayo paraphenalia. Wow is it funny to look at! From what you are saying I think they have moved beyond the days of using an A to Z accordion file and a gigantic dictaphone to keep all that information organized.
I’ll look forward to that diary…
OMG the technology at Mayo is unreal! like many hospitals it has moved to a paperless environment and this will mean that everything is at your fingertips from a computer terminal. The whole Mayo campus is wireless and the laptops that Mayo has provided for the first year class all are very well equipped for wireless computing. All of our class syllabi are online along with our power point presentations and now also part of our dissection instructions. We will be dissecting and moving along with a interactive type computer set up at each dissecting table. All four years at MMS have different folders that everyone can access and it is nice for many have created great study guides for all to use. Many quizzes and exams will be done online at designated times and we get immediate feedback for many of them As you can see it is a very techie environment and we are all enjoying this tremendoulsy. I am headed off to my first day of class 
will post tomorrow…
Wow, I did indeed survive the first day of medical school. It was a long day we went to class from 8:00-10:30 although an hour was introductions and then we took a quiz that will not count to see where everyone is at. This class is molecular biology and genetics. Taught by different professors that are expert in their respective fields. This is one of the major perks of being a student here you have world reknown clinicians or scientists teaching you. Teaching here at Mayo is completely voluntary so these folks really want to teach medical students. We then had a break until 1:00 and then it was to gross anatomy until 5:00. I was so honored that someone has graciously donated their body so we can further learn…My dissecting group is amazing and we all learned so much! I then went home to eat dinner with my family and around 7:30 was back at the medical school to study for a couple of hours. I am trying to stay on top of the material so when quiz or test time comes around I will not feel overwhelmed. I think that I really like the idea of separating business from home. This way once I am home it is time to be with my family and relax. I live only maybe 10 minutes from the school tops so going back and forth is no problem at all. I feel that the amount of information can make you feel like there is no way to learn all this…BUT I do hope that by everyday being consistent and on the weekends assuming a regular school day the info will get manageable. I am planning on taking Friday evenings completely off and chilling out.
The second day was pretty intense with molecular biology and genetics, developmental anatomy and histology. The amount of material is very overwhelming but thank goodness we are all in the same boat. It seems that just to stay on top you have to study ala MCAT style non-stop. I hope that I am totally wrong but no matter how much time you put it you CANNOT stay on top of ALL the material. My classmates are just amazing because withing each area we do have one expert that is willing to tutor the rest of us wow! I have to keep reminding myself of how lucky I am and not get to caught up in the madness of studying…yeah easier said than done. For example we easily go through 50 something ppt slides in less than one hour and these are highly complex slides. It seems that my whole semester of cell biology was covered in like one day!
I must say I just love anatomty! yesterday was even more intense (if that is possible) than the previous days but doing anatomy is so much fun that I barely noticed. Expectations are high and the amount of material does not seem to lessen but we are in medical school and it is supposed to be this way. I love learning about each muscle (origin, insertion, action, innervation, blood supply) and the clinical correlation. Here at Mayo each time we learn something the professors give us some clinical relevance. This emphasizes the importance of what we are learning. Although it is hard to get past the “what do I need to really know to pass this exam” we are all type A and possible OCD folks he he, it is nice to start thinking about how you need to know X or Y because one day it will come in handy when treating patients. Yesterday we also broke out into smaller groups and discussed medically relevant news articles. We discussed an ethical issue and it was great to come together with my future colleagues and learn about different points of views. I am still on cloud nine.
Yesterday was also a fun day and it did not seem as hectic as prior days. I think that having one hour of molecular biology in the morning versus three is key. Although or mol bio is schedule for three hours on m,w,f we actually do not have lecture the whole time. It is split into small group discussion so it makes the time fly. We do have time in btw classes, on m,w,f we have two hours and on tu,thu, we have four. This can be used productively but often I procrastinate half the time away. I do need to maximize the use of that time. Our first quiz is on Monday thank goodnes! this will help to determine if we are going about our studies in the right way or we need to change. It will cover all the gross anatomy and developmental anatomy that we covered this week. It will entail all of the back muscles to include origin, insertion, innervation, and blood supply as well as the vertebral column and spinal chord. Developmental will be mostly from bilaminar to trilaminar and then the formation of the vertebral column. So it is quite a chunk. I have been trying to stay on top of it but I could not stay on top of all the classes…this weekend I will have to review mol bio and microscopic anatomy, and hit it hard with develop and gross anatomy. There will be no weekends “off” in medical school from what I see. You can take some time off but now whole days IMHO. There is way to much material to try to cover and understand it not just memorize it. Most of our questions here at Mayo are case based scenarios ala USMLE style. We start like this from the getgo which is good. Everything is about applying it and it gets us into thinking versus regurgitating. This has a huge benefit and it seems to work for we score well above the national average.
This was the last day of the week! woohoooo! our classes on Friday are from 8:00-11:00 and then on most Fridays the rest of the day is for us. Yesterday we did all meet and had a workshop on how to pick specialties, we did some personality tests (prior to starting medical school) and went over those. I am so thankful to have folks in my class that can explain things from lecture that maybe some of us did not understand fully. One of my classmates yesterday spent over an hour with me during our lunch break going over all the embryology that we covered last week. I now understand everything much better. This is the atmosphere that we create and nurture within all of the medicals students. We have a huge server where everyone posts notes, study guides, photos, etc. So at any point anyone of us can access prior years notes/study guides/anything. It is really helpful. Some of my classmates have taken the time to even make note cards with pictures and all and posted them. Another classmate went through one of our books and picked relevant information and made a word document and also posted it. This is a truly non-competitive environment where we are all here to get through it together. It does make for a much more relaxed and cooperative atmosphere. We have a quiz on Monday so one of our anatomy TA’s will be available this morning for us and we had another TA offer to stay and help folks last night on a Friday evening. I will be studying this weekend and hopefully pass my quiz on Monday.
We had our first gross anatomy quiz and I did very well so I guess so far I am studying the correct way. BTW it is the same way I used in undergrad so many times I hear folks saying you “must” change the way you study well not in my case. It was a super long day with molecular biology for three hours and then lunch to then take our quiz and into gross anatomy. All of our quizes are online and we all have our laptops so we meet in class and take our quizz. I love it because you get immediate feedback and know you did. It was a great day in gross but the information was even more than last week combined! I can see how they start off easy with the back muscles and then start picking up the speed. It is truly an act of God if you can stay on top of all your classes…I seem to play catch up on the weekend but thtat is okay. I am learning this to become a physician and all this IS meaningful to one day be able to give excellent patient care. Today will be a more relaxed day with molecular biology for one hour then a huge break until 1:00 for microanatomy. It is awesome to be taught by leaders in their field. Although the pace is overwhelming I am having a great time!
Yesterday we had a guest lecturer for microsocopic anatomy that is an expert in his field of microtubules. This is one huge benefit of attending this school and learning about this from someone that is dedicating their life to it is priceless. We also broke out into smaller groups and discussed some current papers regarding microtubules that our guest speaker had published. The day was pretty nice with a large chunk of time in btw to either study or do other things. Some folks in my class go for runs, go to the gym, etc. It is very important that you still do those things that gave you enjoyment and do not put ALL your energy into medical school. I had my physical so my time was spent with my PCP. One of our of professors has finished his lecture series on molecular biology and had a study session for us from 6-8 to ask any questions we may have. Here at Mayo in some classes like molecular biology you may have two or three experts (in their particular fields) team teaching. So far I have enjoyed all the classes and I do plan to go to most of my classes. The only event that would keep me from going is when I shadow a physician. Monday in gross we had a neurosurgeon that specializes in nerves come to our lab as well as a orthopedic surgeon. These folks spent two hours with us in lab helping us out and explaining things. This happens about once a week it seems and it is very helpful. We have two quizzes next week, on Tuesday we have microanatomy and on Wed we have gross anatomy. The quizzes are very helpful and I am thankful that they have some almost every week. It does help me to stay focused and not fall too behind which is very easy to do. For this upcoming quiz for gross we have to know double the material of what we needed to know for the last quiz! the material is growing exponentially and so far I think I can manage it.
efex,
Glad to hear its all going well for you. I’m enjoying reading your posts from Mayo. Keep them coming!
Kathy
Thanks Kathy! well yesterday we had our first PBL session and it went good. We discussed a genetic disorder and now each member of the group will go find more details regarding different issues and we will discuss this again next week. I do like PBL but I also enjoy a stright up lecture as well. I think that mixing both is the best option for me. We began to learn the brachial plexus which is a huge network of nerves that start as roots and end up as spinal nerves all over the upper limb. It is somewhat dreaded by medical students but so far it does not seem too bad. You just must start studying from the getgo. I truly love gross anatomy and thank God for that because by far it does take the most time. I am beginning to find (if this is even possible) that even though we are getting much more material it is actually becoming a little bit faster to learn it. For example for our first quiz we had the back (superficial and intrinsic muscles) and that seemed so overwhelming…and it took a ton of time. Well for this upcoming quiz we have like triple the stuff and it is taking time but it is not taking as long as expected.
Congrats on doing so well on your first med school quiz! Thank you for taking the time to post about your wonderful experience at Mayo. As I have said before these kinds of posts keep those of us still in undergrad land both energized and well informed on the true experience of medical school.
I share in your love for anatomy. I took a gross course at my university, and although we didn’t get to do the actual dissection, we worked with great prosection specimens. It was truly fascinating.
It’s obvious you will be very busy this term, I’ll look forward to reading about your continued success at Mayo.
Thanks again for posting,
Stephanie
Stephanie you are very welcome. Hopefully more non-trad folks will apply to this great school. Yesterday we covered a lot of material in microscopic anatomy. Mostly we went over the different types of epithelial tissue, basement membranes in great detail, and cell to cell junctions. First we get a 2.5 hour lecture and then we look at slides for another 2.5 hours or so. We also have to know how it looks with a scanning and transmission electron microscope. I am not feeling too good, meaning I caught some bug and I am sneezing and feeling pretty bad. Hopefully a good sleep tonight will do it for me. I have to study a lot this weekend to be prepared for my two quizzes next week. Today I am looking forward to starting a new class called continuity of care. It is only one hour long and then we will head to the learning resource center to learn how to do searches for articles. They really want to make sure that everyone here is knowledgeable and comfortable in searching databases and looking for relevant information.
Yesterday I was so sick ugh. Anyways, we had a morning full of mitosis and meiosis with some clinical correlation. I really love genetics…hmmm maybe a geneticist? who knows. Aftwerwards I went to eat lunch at the cafeteria conveniently located across the street from the medical school. I needed something nice and hot like beef noodle soup! ahhhh. We started our first class of continuity of care. We are required to shadow for six afternoons (to be completed during our first year) a primary care physician for at least three and the other three are up to us. I picked a geriatrician to follow first. I enjoy seniors and thought that this would give me some good insight into what it entails to be taking care of this population. After this class we had our online searching class which was very helpful. I then met with my group to prepare a presentation on Huntington disease for our molecular biology course. This is a presentation that three of us will present to clas on Wed to include the molecular aspects of the disease. I am still feeling under the weather but not as bad as yesterday. This weekend will be a studying marathon for me.
hey efex
so sorry to hear that you are sick - you would probably much rather lie on the couch moaning, with your husband and kids sensitively attending to your every need, than do a study marathon
thanks for your updates on life at Mayo!
Yesterday was a loooong day with mol bio from about 8:00-10:30 then I studied for the quiz at 12:30 and glad to say that I survived and went beyond my expectations. Thank goodness because the weekend was a total waste without being able to study much due to being sick. After the quiz we had gross with even more muscles and the brachial plexus to learn for tomorrow’s quiz! I am still working on that. After the quiz tomorrow I am officially chilling out all night…ahhh…
Draw out the BP like 10 times and you will never forget it.
Classic Board questions in anatomy come from here a lot.
All right I am done with quizzes for this week yipeee! it went really well and now more studying (but not today) and doign the brachial plexus until I have down cold. We are learning the arm and forearm muscles and soon the hand. We have a big exam on Monday for molecular biology and then a mid-term on Thursday for microscopic anatomy…this weekend again will be spent studying. Today I was sooo tired…In mol bio we all presented our specific disease (my group had Huntington) and that went really well. Our quiz started at 12:30 and we get 30 minutes to complete it online. Tonight we are all hanging out at a local medical student hangout and just relaxing with some brew.