Hello Med Hatters!
This post is going to be about all of the things I found helpful for me as a student as part of the KCU-COB’s program. Although this information could be applied generally to other master’s programs (and likely undergrad as well). I attended this program from August 2017-June 2018. KCU is very student oriented and takes what student feedback is given to heart. With that said, it usually takes about a year later for them to implement the feedback given for one particular class. Because of this, there are things that are constantly changing. But with this, the professors do truly care about you passing and doing well. And most of them are very willing to try to help you succeed in any way that they can, as long as you ask for help.
Some of these are about tackling the information given to you, and some more are just about the program in general.
Without further ado, here is my list:
1. Attend Class.
I mentioned this in a previous post under “Attending a Master’s” series. You can find this post here. If you are able to attend class or get the recording, do it. It’ll make knowing what get’s heavily tested on easier as the professors will spend additional time on it or will hint at it during lecture. Some professors I had were much more blatant about knowing the hinted material over others. It will also help make reviewing your notes easier as you aren’t looking at it for the first time while reviewing the information.
The good news is, if you do have some difficulty with attending classes regularly, you have 5 full weeks to get your shit together before they test you. That’s a fair amount of time to goof off for the first 2-3 weeks and then buckle down.
2. Review the information more than once.
Now, this is very hard to do. I will attempt to try to be more diligent with this for medical school as my time is much more limited. But, if you are able to at least look through, not study, your notes the night before, do it. It’ll make the connections in your brain easier once you go to class. You are about to be thrown basically the same information or very similar amounts of information you will in medical school in this master’s program, so you will need to continually expose yourself.
Here is the formula that I know works, it is just hard to implement when you start to get tired:
- Review the information the night before. Again just look, don’t study it. If your brain happens to make some connections, jot down your notes right then and there. I had an iPad to review my information on, but if you are one of those people that would prefer to straight up type your notes the night before, now is the time to do it. Others also prefer to do their assigned reading the night before. But honestly, I don’t have time for that.
- Show up to class to see the information, start to learn it, and you get the context your professor wants you to see it in.
- THAT SAME DAY, review your notes. You can choose to make your flash cards, re-write your notes, do your reading, make silly mnemonics, or just keep reviewing your notes. Whatever style works for you. I don’t find notecards helpful much for me anymore, only for things that I need to straight memorize. But again, the key is to keep exposing yourself to the material.
- Optional: If you have stayed caught up during the week, reviewing your notes again that weekend is another way to keep things fresh. If you made note cards, now is another good time to review them. If you were always behind like me, you spent the weekend trying to play catch-up or cram all of it in ya face.
3. Test yourself.
Make questions for yourself while reviewing the material that day, it’ll be easier to write questions and you will make more of those neuronal connections in your brain. Or make questions with your study group and swap to test each other. Try to make a diagram and do fill in the blanks for your diagram. Testing yourself in different ways will also help your brain adhere to the information.
Hell, maybe have a friend ask you to explain some process to them. Any which way your brain can wrap around a concept will help.
4. Visit your learning specialist.
That’s right! I said visit your learning specialist. You are probably thinking, Joyce, I’ve been a straight A student, I don’t need no damn learning specialist. Listen up know-it-all, they will help you in areas you didn’t even think about. I thought the same damn thing to, and boy, was I wrong when I first started.
At KCU the COB program has only one learning specialist, whereas the medical school has many. But this is proportional to the amount of students in the program you are attending. Janelle was the specialist for the COB program while I was attending, and she is pretty freaking great. She will help you make a schedule that will help suit you, give you tips or different types of studying methods, help you with additional resources for a certain class, help you obtain a tutor, literally the list goes on.
Each class will be different and will likely require a slightly different learning style from you. The earlier in the course you figure this out (usually with her help), the better you will start to learn the information. The same shit is going to happen in medical school, so accept it now.
5. Go to the tutoring offered.
KCU offers large group tutoring. These are taught by first year medical students who did the KCU-COB program the year before and were top of their class. They work closely with your professor, and have a range of ways to help you learn the material.
Also, they have a plethora of practice questions. You will not only get to hear the information again while attending, you will also get to constantly practice your knowledge. They tend to hand down questions from their year or similar questions that you may see on your exams.
*There is one-on-one tutoring, and during my time there this was free, but very hard to come by. I believe they will now have one-on-one as something you will have to pay for out of pocket, but if you need it, take advantage of it.
Too many of my friends struggled because they couldn’t get smaller group or one-on-one tutoring until it was too late, if at all. If you feel you need it, be stern and hold your ground. Janelle will help advocate for you if you express enough of a need for it.
6. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to your professors.
Sure, asking questions during class will help, but emailing them, showing up at their office, staying after class are all other ways. Do it. If you don’t have questions, just visiting to get to know them will help you. Why? Well first off, they can greatly help you if you do need help learning a topic. Seeing them outside of the classroom or emailing them will give them additional time with you to help you figure it out. Also, the more professors you are friendly with, the better chance you will get a letter of recommendation offered to you and they are likely to speak favorably of you when you are trying to get into the medical school.
7. Get to know your advisor.
Your advisor is appointed to you at the start of the year. They are one of your COB professors that are tasked to help you with getting through the program, helping you up your medical school application, talk you through any issues or concerns you have, mock interviews, you name it. That is what they are there for. I usually bullshitted with mine, and I now have a wonderful relationship with a professor who I know I can always go back to.
8. For the love of God, act professional AT ALL TIMES.
Professors know who each and every one of you are in this program. They all have access to your profiles, your grades, and all of the same information the admissions board has access to. MCAT scores, board scores, previous GPA, current GPA’s, the list goes on forever. Hell, your picture is even on there.
Even if you don’t directly talk to them, they know. They know if you show up to class or not, who you hang out with or speak to/sit next to during class or in-between classes. How you act to others. I’m pretty sure one kid in my class didn’t get a seat just because of the lack of professionalism they exhibited during the year. It takes one professor to speak to someone in admissions that can hurt your chances (or so I’ve been told).
Now, I’m not saying you need to show up in a suit to class. But your attitude and the way you address people should be professional. Emails written to all staff members and professors should be in a professional manner. Don’t do anything to shoot yourself in the foot, but really as long as you aren’t being an awful or disrespectful person, you should be fine.
9. Textbooks aren’t necessary.
KCU library offers a chunk of the required textbooks for COB online. All you have to do is login using your credentials on KCU’s website, go to the library page, and click the “required textbooks” link for the COB program. They do the same thing for the first and second year med students and for the psyD program.
Not all of the required textbooks are available, but most are. I also found that some of my courses I didn’t need to use the textbook at all as it wasn’t helpful or I found better resources for myself elsewhere. But that is something you have to decide on for yourself.
10. Exercise & take part in either a hobby or a club.
This is going to be applicable for medical school as well. Your brain will need a break. You may think you don’t have time to spend an hour at the gym that day or an hour doing something you enjoy/taking part in social activities.
Just do it.
Your brain will be thankful later. You’ll need the time away to reset and give your brain a chance to do a different task besides reading, critical thinking, and studying. Exercising will also help you burn off all your anxious-ass energy and help you calm down.
Let me know in the comments below what you would like to see me write about next!
