Any advice for someone starting medic school?

Lunar

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Pretty strait forward . Just got accepted to my local community college paramedic program (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO). Super excited yet kinda nervous . Any advice is welcome
 

NomadicMedic

I know a guy who knows a guy.
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Use flashcards. Use a test prep service. Don't slack off on reading. If you have questions, ask early.

The material itself isn't particularly difficult, most students struggle with time management between didactic, clinicals and home life. If you add a job in the mix, it'll be four times as difficult.

I'd say good luck, but luck really has nothing to do with it.
 
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mgr22

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What DEmedic said. Just don't get overly ambitious about doing other things while you're in medic school. Friends and family need to understand you're going to be much less available for a while.
 

aquabear

World's Okayest Paramedic
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Buy stock in a coffee company. You'll need it.

During my orientation for paramedic school our lead instructor told us to keep your foot on the gas and don't let up. You have to keep the momentum going, don't let up and don't slack off. Stay ahead of your readings and assignment and if you have free time, you should probably be studying.
 
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Lunar

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Appreciate the advice gents. Time management has never been my strong suit . Unfortunately now I will have to get good at that fast.. school, work, baby, clinicals... ugh my excitement is turning to panic
 

StCEMT

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Everything they just said? Yes, yes, and yes. This is my schedule for the rest of the month starting 6/4. Work, study day, work, class, study day, clinical, study day, clinical, clinical, study day, class/exam day, clinical, clinical, work, clinical, study day, clinical, class, clinical, 4 day trip admittedly for fun (think tough mudder ****), clinical, class/exam, clinical, class, off, work, potential work, Merica!, class, potential clinical, clinical, clinical and from there my scheduling fades out until I finalize plans. And those days off I have are me going to my schools library and sitting in a small, quiet room all day to get ready for an upcoming test. The above is my life until August.

It doesn't start off that bad, but it gets there. Some days are amazing and others you hate life, but its worth it. Have fun and learn some time management skills soon. ;)
 

Carlos Danger

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Paramedic school isn't that bad at all. Though, as the others have said, depending on the way your program is structured and whether you have to fit work in, it can be pretty busy. So get all your affairs in order well before you start, save up as much money as you can, and do whatever you can to simplify your life and reduce responsibilities. Then when school starts, make a schedule each week and force yourself to stick to it. There's all kinds of resources out there on time management.
 

Never2Old

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Just finished up medic school May 31st. Everyone is right on in their comments. Time management is the most important aspect. Medic class to me was like graduate school. Requires you to manage your own learning, do lots of reading, studying, research and followup on your own time all in addition to classroom / clinical / field time.

Start getting used to using flash cards as much as you can. I have cards on most topics and had a handful with me at all times. Pick a card of the day ... at a stop light, pull out your pharmacology card of the day, waiting in line to pay for lunch, pull out a cardiology card ... you get the idea.

But the one thing I will say is you have to decide between class and a life. With medic school there is NO time for friends, family, boyfriend/girlfriend, pets, etc., all will have to take a back seat to medic school. When I went through the interview selection for school they told me that statement word for word. I of course said I understood and was ready to make that commitment. Looking back it was one of the hardest things I had to do. It had a much larger impact that I had anticipated, and literally feel like I missed an entire year of my life. Birthdays, dinners, social events, nights out, anniversaries, sporting championships, etc .. all missed or a blur this past year.

My wife saw a saying once and used it for a while. "Yes, my husbands in medic school. No, I don't know where he is right now. No, I have no idea when he is coming home. Yes, we're still married ... I think".

Good luck!
 

joshrunkle35

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I agree with what's been said. The material isn't hard. The time management is hard. It's hard when you have a week to learn 300 pages of material and you know you have a 3 hour test that's as hard as a final on the material one week later.

Make good habits with your time. Do you check Facebook on your phone in your downtime? Delete Facebook for a year. Use that downtime to take quizzes on your phone. Do you listen to the radio driving back and forth to school, clinicals and ride alongs? Spend the time listening to podcasts, recorded notes or lectures.

Avoid harmful reactions to stress like junk food and alcohol. Instead, spend time going for a run while you listen to a recording you made on pharmacology notes.

Get as much sleep as you can, whenever you can, because you will surely end up with less than you planned for.

Keep a rigid, extremely detailed calendar. There is so much to balance that forgetting to study for just one quiz can ruin the whole thing. Fail a quiz and you're either kicked out of school, or you're trying to retake that section the next week, while you were supposed to have learned a new week's worth of material at the same time.

Whoever said "keep your pedal on the gas until you're done"...that's exactly right. If you have two weeks off for Christmas and New Years...spend two weeks getting ahead on your material, and going over any problem areas you had before break.

Find a study partner who is not your best friend. You want someone who is committed to passing the class with you, not someone who is committed to hanging out. I had some Saturday study sessions during school where we went through 300-500 quiz-type questions from JB Learning/FISDAP/whatever and we would spend 8 hours straight looking up why we were wrong when we missed something. If it was a buddy, it would have been 8 hours of hanging out, with 2-3 hours of studying and 5 hours of beer and shooting the breeze about life.

Lastly, if you're married, make sure your spouse understands the time commitments involved. It doesn't mean you have to miss every family event, it just means you won't be staying long, and there won't be romantic weekend getaways for a year. When I finished my last test (I took my cognitive before my skills test), it was about 11am on a Saturday, and I was free! I called my wife and told her I passed the last test and was a paramedic. She said we were going out to celebrate, and I was like, "Nope. I'm going home to sleep, and we can celebrate tonight or tomorrow." I hadn't slept in about 4 days, I had just taken a FISDAP final (which my school required), took my school's final the next day, took my cognitive NR test the next day and then my NR skills test the next day. It was one of the few fights my wife and I have ever had. She said, "...but you promised that we'd finally spend time together after the last year of medic school when you finished." And I was like, "Yeah...but I didn't mean the exact second we finished." I went out for lunch with her and her parents and literally fell asleep at the table before the food came. Anyhow: if you're not single, make sure your spouse/SO knows what you're getting in to.
 
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Lunar

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Quit all bad habits alcohol/tobacco a few months ago. Starting a morning workout routine with my girl and focusing on dividing my time properly . This is mostly because I'm getting older and I need to start incorporating healthy habits in my life if I plan on getting even older and I don't want to be the chubby emt anymore but also to give me a good running start for when medic school starts. I have access to some old edition medic books my program used to use. Do you guys think it would be worth it to start reading n ow?

And as always thank you for the advice
 

HypOthymesia

Forum Probie
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Quit all bad habits alcohol/tobacco a few months ago. Starting a morning workout routine with my girl and focusing on dividing my time properly . This is mostly because I'm getting older and I need to start incorporating healthy habits in my life if I plan on getting even older and I don't want to be the chubby emt anymore but also to give me a good running start for when medic school starts. I have access to some old edition medic books my program used to use. Do you guys think it would be worth it to start reading n ow?

And as always thank you for the advice
Not starting Medic school for at least a year but I got a couple books on pharmacology and a current Mosby's. Better to start cramming terms and dosages now than doing it all later. I did this for EMT school and sailed right through.
 
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