What Others Don’t Understand About the Life of a Medical Student
Many things medical students go through can’t be understood by other people. Only future doctors find joy in sitting in a lab full of cadavers and handling organs. They also enjoy the complex medical terms used in class that only medical professionals understand. This is the life of a medical student.
Here is a list of our Top 10 things only medical students will understand:
1. Med School Students Understand Latin and Greek
Due to all the Greek and Latin words, they have to learn and understand, these future physicians adapt to using these words in their daily lives. A layman may never understand this code, which makes this one of many fun facts about medical students.
2. Only You Know Being a Medical Student Does NOT Make You a Genius
Everyone that hears you are studying medicine automatically assumes you’re a genius. If only they knew how much you struggle when it comes to understanding most of your coursework and rotations.
3. Only a Med School Student Feels Cheated by Doctor TV Shows
Shows like Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Doctor were your inspirations right until you enrolled in med school. One of the things only medical students understand is how most of what happens in these shows is not true. You understand that the life of medicine is not as easy as TV dramas make it seem.
4. Only Med Students Get Being Married Years After Friends Have Kids in Pre-School
Another fact about medical students is that most delay major life events. While your friends are busy getting married and starting families, you still have five years of med school left. This barely leaves room for a romantic relationship, let alone having kids.
Most live more relatively open lives after graduating from medical school. Once you make it through your curriculum, you can unpause your life and begin living again.
5. Only Future Doctors Understand There’s No Right Answer to Why You Chose to Study Medicine
Almost everyone hits you up with the question, ‘why did you choose medicine?’ This question almost never has an answer that people outside of medicine understand. After tackling all the difficult coursework, MCAT, USMLEs, and other US medical exams you face, it’s time to get work. The ‘why’ is not important.
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6. Friends of Medical Students Don’t Understand the Trauma of Self-Diagnosis
One of the most relatable things only medical students understand is having symptoms that match those of some weird disease you recently studied. Nothing beats the trauma and headache you get for the first few moments you actually believe you have it.
In hindsight though, it can be quite humorous to laugh at your wild theories. Only medical students find this funny.
7. Your Friends Don’t Understand the Grind of Doing Rotations on the Night Shift
There is nothing as exhausting as night shift rotations. Being on-call all night can be torture. This leaves you consuming too much caffeine to keep you awake. You also find yourself doing weird things to get by, like taking power naps in the elevator or at a lake. Only a medical student would understand this.
8. Only Students Studying Medicine Understand Being Ignored by Doctors
While still in medical school, you have to deal with not being taken seriously by practicing doctors. It’s annoying when you come up with a great idea that gets ignored just because you’re ‘not a real doctor.’ While this may discourage you, use it as motivation to get through your classes and US medical exams. Prove to them that you have what it takes to be a real physician someday.
9. Only Medical School Students Substitute Sleep with Short Naps
Some fun facts about medical students revolve around their lack of sleep. Most learn to just take short naps and consider them a good sleep. This may sound unreasonable. But it’s a way of life for future practicing physicians. This is the life of a medical student.
Being a medical school student is tough, but isn’t it great to find humor in all the hard work and torture that comes from it? Things only medical students understand probably strike a personal chord with you. When you laugh about these things, they become a little bit more bearable.
10. Only Med Students Stress About US Medical Exams
To become a doctor, you have to jump through many hoops. There are numerous courses you have to take, as well as multiple exams. You must pass the MCAT just to get into med school. Then, there are those USMLEs and BLS and ACLS certifications you have to ace to move on to your residency and clinical rotations.
All of this takes years to complete. The last thing you want to do is slow up your progress by failing any one of these exams or certifications. Make sure you do what it takes to pass each one on the first try.
MedSmarter offers US medical exam prep services in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Our test preparation programs have great track records for helping med and pre-med students pass these tests. Get the one-on-one live tutoring you need, so you can continue your journey toward becoming a doctor in the US.
