I stumbled across this article from Harvard Medical School called ¨Cultivating a ´Winner´s Brain´¨ which has several applications for pre med students.

When procrastination is a problem, the issue may be that the task at hand seems too big to accomplish. The authors suggest that people first envision or “map” the multiple steps necessary for reaching an ultimate goal, and then concentrate on achieving each step.

How many people have had trouble starting a large task? The key is breaking the project down into steps. Whether it´s a huge lab report or studying for a final, this is how to tackle it.

Multitasking — can take a toll on the brain. In a study of 14 participants who underwent fMRI, researchers at Vanderbilt University found that when people try to juggle two tasks at once, a bottleneck occurs in information processing. The posterior lateral prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is involved in decision making, delayed one task until the other was complete.

This backs up Study Hacks´ idea of hard focus.

The article also notes that sleep, nutrition and exercise are all vital to keeping your brain healthy. Do all of these things! You will be happier, plus you´ll do better in college!

This is the best list of relevant websites, articles and blogs regarding the pre med journey that you will find on the internet. Bookmark this. I’ll be updating the list as I find more useful info.

Pre Med Basics

• Pre-requisites for Medical Schools. These are the undergraduate classes you need to take to apply to most medical schools.
• American Association of Medical Colleges
• American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
• AspiringDocs.org List of Helpful Links
• Top Ten Pieces of Advice for Pre Med Students – A great list from VitumMedicinus, a medical student.
• Student Doctor Network – Want a place to interact with other crazy pre med students? This place is for you. Also useful for reading perspectives of students and residents further along the pre med journey. I prefer to use it for this reason.

MCAT Links

Perhaps the most dreaded part of the pre med journey. Be not afraid.

• The Basic MCAT Overview – A brief guide to what the MCAT is all about.
• MCAT home page
• 2010 MCAT Test Dates
• MCAT Registration
• MCAT Question of the Day

Medical School Application

• American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) – Registration and instructions for applying to MD schools.
• American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS) – Application instructions to apply to DO schools.

Best Books for Pre Meds

These are books that I have either read and used or heard great things about.

• Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
• Planning a Life in Medicine: Discover If a Medical Career is Right for You and Learn How to Make It Happen (Career Guides)
• Med School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Medical School Experience: By Students, for Students
• Essays That Will Get You into Medical School
• Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance
• How Doctors Think

Pre Med and Med Student Blogs

• Medaholic – Medical Student
• A Med school Memoir – Medical Student
• Vitum Medicinus – Medical Student
• The Impossible Pre Med – Pre Med Student

Pre Med Forums

• StudentDoctor.net pre-Allopathic forum (MD)
• StudentDoctor.net pre-Osteopathic forum (DO)
• The Best Pre Med Forums

It’s cold. It’s dark. You have a frustrating group lab project hanging over your head. You hate life right now…it’s winter term.

Trust me, I can relate. While I was in school, this was my least favorite time of year. The lack of daylight and cold weather piled on top of tough coursework made life miserable at times. But I learned a few things to help get me through the hard times. Here’s a few tips:

1. Exercise. If you’re an outdoor exerciser, this can be difficult if you live in a place with cold winters. But if you can join an intramural basketball league- do it. Indoor soccer, running on a treadmill, broomball, yoga. Something to get you moving. Not only is it good for your physical health, but it does wonders for your mental sanity as well. Basketball games gave me something to look forward to, and during the game it was a great way to release the stress pent up inside.

2. Get away from school. Try a mini vacation. Grab some friends and take a weekend where you spend a couple days somewhere, anywhere away from school. When I was in leadership positions at school our staff would often take winter retreats. Some of my best memories are from those retreats, and I always came back refreshed and ready to tackle the stresses of life as a pre med student.

3. Take one longer term project/paper/assignment and finish it within the next few days. This one’s hard. But the benefit is worth it. If you get it done now, it’s one last thing to worry about at the end of the term. When you finish it you may be surprised how much it was weighing on you. That’s one last stressor hanging over your head for the end of the term.

4. Look forward to the future. The work you’re doing now is going to lead to a wonderful future as a physician. Think about the experiences you’ll have in med school, imagine what it would be like to practice as a doctor and talk about these dreams with your friends. Discuss how much fun it would be to practice together. It’s fun and it gives you some hope that the sacrifices you’re making now will pay off in the future.

Yep, winter term sucks. But Spring Break is soon! Take heart fellow pre meds, "The night is always darkest before the dawn."

(Source Pic)

Tests are hard. Studying for tests is hard. Tests suck.

And science courses use tests to determine your grade. Instead of writing papers (with the exception of lab reports), you take tests. And tests suck.

It’s especially troublesome if you don’t take tests well.

So here’s the best test-taking tip I can give you:

Find old tests from the same course and same professor from previous years. This may take some searching, but with a little detective work it’s not that hard to find someone else who took the class. There’s a good chance they may have their old tests from the year before, and using them to help you study can help enormously.

Some professors don’t hand back tests, so obviously this won’t work for those cases.

What are the benefits?

1. An understanding of how the professor asks questions. Professor’s write questions different ways, some more tricky than others. Getting a “feel” for how a test is written is great preparation.
2. An insight into what is going to be asked. This may help you narrow down the material you study.
3. The potential for the exact same question to be asked. I once had two old tests to study from for an upcoming exam. When I took the exam I was pleased to find that about 50% of the questions were exactly the same, word for word. Needless to say, I did pretty well.

This will never replace good ol fashioned studying, but it can definitely provide an edge. Give it a shot!