Before I enrolled into medical school, I definitely knew I was in for a very difficult four years. While I Knew being a medical student would be hard, I still do not think there is much else I could have done to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead. In this article I will be discussing the four things that make Medical School hard.

#1: Medical School highlights your Deficiencies

To put it quite frankly, yes medical school is hard. However it is not hard in the way you think. Something I find particularly hard about medical school is that it humbles you in ways no one can imagine and it directly shines a light on all of your deficiencies and shortcomings. 

For example, before my first year of medical school, I was diagnosed with ADHD, in undergrad. At the time  I never made a huge deal out of it. I simply modified my study techniques, and tried my best to navigate it, and this was good enough to get me accepted into medical school. However, once medical school actually began I quickly found out that having ADHD and being a medical student is a huge uphill battle. I would always look around at many of the other medical students and how quickly they would absorb information. In medical school, this quality is not the exception, it is the norm.

#2: There is a Large amount of information in Medical School

The other more tangible things that make medical school hard is how it is set up in general. For instance in your first two years you are tasked with learning a very large amount of information in a very small amount of time. 

The old saying goes that It is like drinking water from a fire hydrant, however I think a more accurate saying is that it is like you are a machine whose software is beginning to crash because the maximum GB of storage space has been reached .

#3: There are Poor/limited quality learning resources in Medical School

Another aspect that makes medical School hard is that there is a limited number of quality learning resources. Most of the resources that are provided by professors are very sub par and are not necessarily adequate to ensure student success. 

What ends up happening as a result of this is that students end up having to scramble around asking their friends and scouring the internet for better quality resources.

For me personally, I learned the hard way that question based learning is the most effective way that I learn. This meant taking out extra loans to buy high quality resources such as StatPearls and the True Learn Question Banks as well as the other question banks such Amboss.

Particularly for courses such as Anatomy, I struggled early on because I was so used to trying to read and memorize everything little detail that I came across. I eventually began exploring new study techniques and resources to help me with this course. I eventually incorporated more Group study for this course, and also started using the gold mine that is Anatomy Bootcamp, which really helped me put the pieces together for Anatomy.

#4: Lack of an Income as a Medical Student

I have always said that in life people either fall into two categories: Time rich and money poor, or time poor and money rich. However medical School is the rare instance in which you are both time poor and Money poor. While student loans prevent you from starving or becoming homeless, it is definitely not an ideal situation to have to go into 1000s of dollars of debt that cannot be paid off until you are well into  your 3-s, 40s, and even 50s in some cases.

honestly wish that there was a way in which the pursuit of higher education in arguably the most rigorous post graduate degree in the United States did not have to be so expensive.