Overwhelmed

So it’s Sunday morning and I woke up feeling completely overwhelmed. I felt like there is so much to do but so little time. My list is long: Clean the house, study for the MCAT, get registered for my missing prerequisite courses, find childcare, find a volunteer opportunity that I am truly passionate about, find an opportunity to work in a neuroscience research lab and on top of that as an Administrative Assistant working from home I have several clients who have projects I need to complete for them.

With this overwhelming feeling I decided to do a little meditation and just clear my mind of all of my worries for 10 whole minutes. Which is kind of hard to do when you have a 9 month old using you as their teething toy and an overly active 4 year old “fixing” the house with his hammer.

But I was able to do it and I actually felt much better. I just decided unless my children were in immediate danger I was going to zone the whole world out. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or just overly stressed just a take a few minutes and clear your mind. Don’t think about anything just let your mind go “blank” for a few minutes. Its like resetting your brain.

Tips on how to meditate (clear your mind)

How to study for the MCAT

Hey Future Medical Professionals

So there are two basic ways to study for the MCAT.

• Course: Usually in a Classroom type setting and is highly structured and taught by an instructor.
• Self-Directed: Usually use either an MCAT study book and other supplemental material like old course book. All self-taught and self-paced.

You have to decide what works best for you. There are pros and cons for each. Need help deciding. Well see below:

What having a BAD Professor Taught me?

My time at GSU went pretty smoothly for the most part once I got adjusted. I was able to achieve straight A’s in two semesters straight and didn’t get lower then a B with the exception of one class. Molecular Biology… I got a big fat D!! 😦 I was devastated but it was kind of expected. My professor for that class was just plain AWFUL. He would show up 10-15 mins late for every class and on top of that he spent most of the time talking about his wife, kids, and HIMSELF. He just seem uninterested in teaching the material. Never ever responded to emails, didn’t have scheduled office hours. I mean seriously the only thing good to say about him was that he was obviously highly intelligent, had a beautiful family (yea we got a whole slide show of family pictures lol) and he was pretty good looking himself. I thought to myself “I should have taken heed to those ratings on this guy.” I didn’t want to drop the class because that would only delay my graduation. Well let me tell you guys DROP THE CLASS delaying graduation would have been a better alternative.

Anyway I can’t put all the blame on the Professor… While he was just plain AWFUL in the end it was my responsibility to do whatever I needed to do to learn the material on my own. Which I was perfectly capable of doing but I decided to cop out and blame my bad grade on him.

So after I came to this conclusion I decided that if I ever had another bad Professor I would take learning the material into my own hands

So what should you do if you have a bad Professor?

Huggies, Pampers, or Other???

Hey Moms & Dads

Are you wondering what the best diaper brand is?

So this is my personal opinion and I know some parents will probably disagree with me.

So here it goes it all depends on the age of the child and sometimes even differs between children.

But my preference is From newborn until about 4 months I prefer Pampers. At around 4 months your baby will start moving around more and for what ever reason pampers just doesn’t hold up as well. But Huggies does the job from 4 months on.

THERE IS ONE EXCEPTION!!!!!!!! Huggies Ultra are absolutely AWFUL!!! Do not buy these crap of a diapers they use to come off all the time and hold absolutely nothing.

Now Other brands I guess are ok, except Sam’s Club somehow my youngest seems to piss right through them during his nap and I am constantly having to wash him up and change his sheets… UGH Another negative is that my youngest who has really sensitive skin seems to be getting a lot more rashes when wearing these.

Now when I say it depends on the child, it really can. So I rave about Huggies being the best after 4 months but my sister on the other hand would disagree for her youngest the huggies use to give her rashes and therefore they went to the cheap walmart brand and my sister claims it works great and didn’t give her child any rashes. But that was just for her youngest for her other two children she used huggies all the time (So yea HUGGIES WINS IN MY BOOK!)

Ok so I probably wasn’t much help but really every child is different and even you and I are different so we may have different preferences. I would just say try out different brands and see which ones work for you. There is no right or wrong on this.

 

 

How to Study. (The Basics)

Hey Future Medical Professionals

As you probably know, studying is one of the few things you need to master to be successful in life in general and of course in school.

I will try and stay away from the nerdy stuff but as a Neuroscience major I really love this topic because studying is the art of learning and that is all about the brain.

But answering the question how to study is hard to answer for everyone since there are different types of learners but I will list several tips, techniques, and tricks that you can try to see if any work for you. I will do this over several posts but let us start with the basics that pretty much apply to Everyone.

Something to think about

I found this article earlier today and thought it was a good read. For those of you who are considering research as an alternative path to take instead of medical school, this is something to consider.

“It is hard, and getting harder, to get a foot in the research door”

 

About Me-Your Blogger

Hi Guys and Gals,

My name is Cristina and I am a mother of two young boys and an aspiring physician. I plan on applying to start in 2018 so come next summer I am going to send my applications in. I’m excited but nervous I am currently studying for the MCAT (retaking it since my first try I didn’t have the time to study well for it, although I did get a 500 so not bad considering) and making sure my extracurricular activities look pretty good too.

I am going to document my journey along the way and offer my tips and advice on getting into medical school and juggling all the responsibilities you have. And when I do get into medical school I will continue giving tips and tricks on being a medical school student and resident.

I just want you all to know that you are not alone in this journey and there are a ton of people in your position who are stressed out about the MCAT and applying to medical school in general. I think we are all thinking am I competitive enough?

My current Stats:

• Cumulative GPA: 2.65 😦
• Institutional GPA (I was a transfer student): 3.64 🙂
• MCAT: 500
• Major: Neuroscience
• Estimated Science GPA: 2.78 😦
  • After finishing up some prerequisites and Biochemistry: 2.9 maybe….

New MCAT Score Vs Old MCAT Score

You may be wondering how the New MCAT scores correlate to the old MCAT scores to get an idea of what score is a Good Score and whats a Bad Score. I have made a table for you to reference so you can get an idea of what score you need to strive for.

Before you Comment

I would love for everyone to get engaged and share their own personal stories, advice, inspiration.

While I know you may disagree with what I have to say or others may have to say you can still be respectful when giving your point of view.

So here are a few things I hope you guys keep in mind.

• No Name Calling (No calling some one dumb, stupid, ignorant etc.)
• Do not be discouraging to others.
  • For Instance if someone gives up personal info like their GPA or MCAT score please don’t say things like “You will never get in with that GPA/Score just forget about it”
  • They know their score is low that is probably why they are here no need to tell them they will never get in. That is just not the case.While it may not be easy there are ways to achieve admission to medical school if they are willing to put in the time and work to do so.
  • It’s ok to suggest other options such as PA, nurse etc. Just do so respectfully.
  • Bottom Line:  Don’t Kill Someones Dreams, give them the support they need and the push in the right direction.
• If you do disagree with others or myself don’t be afraid to express yourself just do it respectfully.

BE RESPECTFUL!

Are you a Non-Traditional Medical School Applicant?

I think the definition is subjective. While when most of us think of a Traditional Medical Student we think of that high achieving high school student graduating with high honors, going to college and getting Mostly A’s in all their classes. Unmarried, no kids to support and may or may not hold a job. They apply to medical school at the end of their Junior year and get accepted somewhere in their senior year. Then they matriculate in medical school in the fall right after graduation.  No gap year, no delays, just stayed on a straight path from High School to Medical school.

So how about the rest of us? Does that mean we are Non-Traditional?