Blog Post Focus: Choosing Resources as a Resource Overloaded Student
In this post I shall discuss resources to use and thoughts to consider when preparing for medical school.
As a prospective medical student you are used to studying and feeling overwhelmed. When it comes to figuring out which resources to rely on for figuring out the process for navigating undergraduate education, applying to medical school, and gaining acceptance into medical school you likely will find it is more studying and more being overwhelmed. There are seemingly endless blogs discussing the journey and resources targeted to students in your place.
While the abundance of resources can be mind-numbing, the process is more straightforward than it may appear at first. The following are my thoughts on the matter of selecting resources to use and what you should focus on during this time.
Choosing Resources and Areas of Focus
Resource Overload
First, remember the following: there are more resources than you could hope to utilize altogether. And realize that you do not need to use every resource. That may be clear but let that sink in for the next point.
Second, it is better to focus on as few resources as needed than to try to get a little bit from many resources. Your time is limited. Your attention is limited. Your energy is limited. Your money is likely limited. Any of the resources you find will likely feel like an unending slog, let alone multiple resources. If you get several resources you will probably use only parts of each and will not get the full value of any. So, you should be selective when choosing resources.
Choosing Resources: Criteria
Now that we have established that you need to select a few resources rather than many we can talk about how to select resources.
What is Already Available?
Number one, discern what is already available. Your institution should already have advisors who have helped many prospective medical students through the same process. Someone should be knowledgeable on the path and resources available through your institution and which resources have been utilized with most success by the past students. Using what is already available to you should decrease the demand of time and energy and finances that this journey imposes upon you.
What is Ideal?
Number two, prioritize a resource that is all-encompassing. Ideally this resource describes how to navigate through undergraduate education effectively and efficiently, while also being an excellent education resource. More likely, you can find one all-encompassing resource for preparing for the medical school admissions test and a few resources covering the rest: how to use time in undergraduate education well and navigating through undergraduate education into medical education.
If your main resources don’t answer your questions, branch out. If you have a specific question, some advisor or peer or blog should have the answer quickly with a search engine request. Otherwise, you should be able to find the majority of your questions through your main resources.
Conclusion: Be Selective When Choosing Resources
There we go—the main takeaways for choosing resources for the pre-med journey are the following:
- Navigating the journey through undergraduate education into medical education is confusing. Use the resources available to you through your institution. Find a good, knowledgeable advisor. Find a main resource that can guide you in this journey.
- Navigating the educational component of the undergraduate journey for aspiring medical students is overwhelming. There are too many resources. Try to find an all-encompassing resource that can be your foundation as you take classes, prepare for the medical school admissions test, and prepare for medical school. It is better to have a reliable main resource to work through than several resources that take too much time to get through any one of them.