Hi all. I am new to OPM - stumbled upon it and thought, hey, that sounds like me. This is going to be long.
About me: I am 25 year old new RN (licensed Jan 2011). I worked at a hospital on a cardiac floor for 7 months before quitting (looks great, I know). BLS, ACLS certified. Thinking about ATLS. I have a BSN degree with a cum GPA of 3.5 (Dec 2010).
I have secured an MD who is willing to let me shadow but Im not sure if that is even necessary (working at the hospital, you inadvertently, cumulatively shadow hospitalists and specialists for dozens of hours). I know what they do. I see them work. I work with them. But in case I need to shadow, I have a surgeon who will let me shadow. I also know at least one MD who has pledged a recc letter when the time comes to apply.
Always and forever my desire has been to be an MD/DO. I thirst for the knowledge I cannot get in any other way but med school. My experience (what little I have) as an RN has been incredibly valuable. I have learned a lot. Taking care of human beings medically is the only thing that I can imagine doing forever. It fascinates, intrigues, and humbles me. The first patient I lost (the morning after my shift when I was not there) and the circumstances surrounding his passing are forever burned into my heart. I have dealt with crisis, had my patients sent to ICU. A nurse has a unique perspective, I think.
I hold no illusions about the load that a med student undertakes. Although nursing school is nothing like med school, I have had at least a taste of what its like for school to consume your life: to do academic classes, hours upon hours of clinicals, and then to go home and do study or do a write up all night without having time for sleep. I feel that I can handle the academic load.
I did apply to DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) because I did not have faith that I would actually be admitted to Med School (I have a friend with a BS in Bio, 4.0 GPA, high MCAT and has not gotten in anywhere after 2 rounds of applications). I was accepted into the DNP program which begins Aug 2012.
I am using it as my fallback. Meanwhile I am taking pre-med classes. My plan right now is that I will defer my enrollment to 2013 in the nurse practitioner program, and meanwhile I am taking all my pre-med classes to see how I do. If I do well (as in mostly A’s except for one B, at worst) then I will apply to med schools around the country and cross my fingers. If I dont do well enough to apply, then I will go to NP school.
I started this semester taking bio, chem, and precalc (the most I have taken prior was intermediate alegbra). I realized a couple of weeks into gen chem that it had been too long since fundamental chem (4 years) to be successful, so I dropped. I also dropped pre-calc because it had been even more years since my last math class. I needed a refresher on the basics before I undertook the serious classes.
Bio, I knew I could handle. The class average right now is a D but I have an A. I signed up for an intro algebra class online which I am barreling through and have an A. Im planning on finishing that up ASAP, taking intermediate algebra online accelerated, so that I can be ready for college alg next semester, and precalc the following semester.
I feel kind of stupid for needing to brush up on math and chem. The pre-health advisor I spoke to at my university also advised that I take the introductory physics course before delving into the general physics. She looked at my transcripts (long) and she told me that I needed to stop dropping and withdrawing from classes (I did that a lot in the years before nursing school) and that I should try hard in the pre-med classes, and take the grade that I earn. Alright - so:
Although I am doing well in Bio, I am trying like hell for that A. I am studying my brains out, and getting tutored weekly. In high school, I excelled, no sweat. In nursing school I never got less than a B (an A was minimum 93% in nursing school). I am not used to struggling in school. At all. But the advisor tells me, (while trying not to insult me) that pre-med classes are harder than nursing classes. Well duh. She also told me if Im not working that I need to be taking at least 3 science classes a semester to show the adcoms that I can handle the load. Fine - but - I cant take 3 science classes a semester because one is a pre-req for the other and I can only take 2 at a time for the most part, because I havent yet completed the pre-reqs to take the others (ochem and physics). Ah.
But I am just wondering if any of you truly struggled in your pre-med classes? The lady that tutors me is a med student. She is extremely bright. She seems to know everything about everything…she doesnt forget anything. I feel like I am nothing like her. I remember things well until I have been tested on them, and then they fade. Once a class is over, how do you remember the material forevermore?
I keep thinking about MCAT and how long it’s going to take me to complete these pre-med classes and Im wondering if Im going to remember anything at all by the time I take it.
What Im looking to know from you all is, are these classes just EASY for people that are smart enough for med school? If youre good enough to get into med school, is pre-med SUPPOSED to be easy for you? Was it a piece of cake for you? Should I NOT be struggling? I consider myself to have above average intelligence, but pre med classes make me feel STUPID. Im wondering if this is everyone’s experience or if Im just having an extraordinarily hard time with something that is not supposed to be that difficult.
I think a lot of whether you find the pre-med courses difficult or not depends on your background. You say it’s been a long time since you had chem, for example, so it’s understandable that chem might be hard for you. Before embarking on gen chem again, you might want to spend some time with a review book, going over general concepts. That might help.
Personally, I had an extremely strong foundation in chemistry and bio, so for me, those classes were not bad. Physics was another story. While I did get A’s both semesters (I took it last year, along with gen chem and gen bio), I had to work my tail off for those A’s, while my A’s in bio and chem were much less difficult to earn. I am taking organic chemistry this year, and finding it much like physics. I have to do TONS of practice problems to do well. But I look at it this way: I have never been exposed to this material before. So it’s understandable that it would require a lot of work.
Bottom line: don’t be too discouraged. These classes DO require a lot of work, especially if it’s been a long time since you have seen the material, or if you have never seen it before.
I hope that helps! 
P.S. Welcome to OPM!
For me, Biology-focused classes were easy and math-based ones were tough. But nothing is easy for everyone.
Also, as a tutor, I only tutor the subjects I’m super great at, so I seem insanely smart to my students, but I’m not trying to teach them physics. 
For math, use Khan Academy. The videos and practice problems are amazing, and will help you to truly comprehend all the fundamentals, making physics easier to handle down the line.
Other than that, welcome to OPM and remember that this is not a race. Take things as slow as you need at first, so you can be sure to get the grades you need. The only rush you may feel is self-imposed.
Good luck!
Same with me. Bio is easy (well easy enough) and math is incredibly hard for me. And to me, chem and physics are basically math. I am definitely going to look into Khan Academy. I am willing to try anything! I think I sort of freaked out at the beginning of Gen Chem and probably could have survived it if I had done some review, but I dropped it in haste.
Thanks for the welcome and all the info and encouragement. Im gonna keep on keeping on. I had a bio exam this morning and I feel like I did great, so my head is screwed back on straight.
Welcome!
Two things. One - you do NOT need to take three science prerequisites at once to “show you can do it” --although that is helpful, you can hold off till your last semester of prereqs for that. You should take what you can succeed well in --which might mean testing the waters (as you have done this semester) with only one.
As to retention - you need to study differently. You need to NOT study just for the test (ie, cram). Think that you want to understand and remember this information long term. That means doing the reading, working with the material, studying “in depth” well before the test. Review every lecture (within 1-2 days), answer any objectives they give, make a summary (1-2 or 3 pages) for each hour of lecture. Then review again. If you have “pre-studyed” , studying for the test should be easy.
You can’t commit it ALL to memory, but try to have the “oh, that’s interesting!” mentality (particularly in bio with genetics and molecular biology)…because it will come back on MCAT’s and in 1st year med school.
Sheer dogged studying will get you pretty far!!
Best of luck!
Kate