Junior year. A time for photos by water as blue as the sky.
The school year started with a new job; I found a position as a "medical scribe" at with Scribe America, a position which was pretty mysterious considering I hadn't known anyone who worked as a scribe. After hours of research on forums online, I found out that most pre-meds who took this job ended up LOVING it and highly recommended it to all others looking to apply. After sending in my application, I got an interview 2 weeks later at Cincinnati Children's Hospital where the interviewer explained that this is where I would be working. She said that I would be paired with a doctor or nurse practitioner at the urgent care, I would walk into patient rooms with them and on a laptop I would type up the patient's medical file, including why they are presenting to urgent care, what their symptoms are, the findings of their physical exam, any xrays or labs done and their results, and finally their diagnosis and treatment plan. I was pretty excited to start, considering that I had never worked or volunteered at Children's before so this experience would at the least remind me of the times I used to come to the hospital as a child to get a check-up.
My new job would turn out to be the best medical experience I've had in my whole life. I get to see how physicians prepare before going into a room, how they think through a diagnosis, and how they interact with children and their families. After a few months I found my favorite procedure performed in the urgent care: the nursemaid's reduction. One of the most common complaints by parents in the urgent care is that their year old baby refuses to use their arm after being pulled up by that arm earlier in the day. The parents are usually afraid that the child broke their arm, but the doctor reassures them that the arm is okay. The doctor grabs the arm with one hand and feels the elbow with the other, then they supinate the arm, flex it upward and the child bursts into tears. After letting the child calm down with the help of a popsicle, the child starts to extend their arm again! My favorite part of this operation is the reaction of the parents afterward; from calling the doctor "Mr. Miyagi" to hugging and kissing the doctor. This job has allowed me to see the impact that just 10 minutes can have on a patient's well-being, I love going to work to see what new patients we meet and how we can improve their day, whether it be with an antibiotic pill or a sticker.
In order for me to become a physician myself, I'd have to do well in my classes this year. After how last year went with my grades, I told myself I would get a planner so I could be certain when assignments were due and when to study for quizzes and exams based on my work schedule. Although my grades weren't perfect, I got Dean's List both semesters thanks to planning ahead with the help of my letter. With good grades came the opportunity to ask my professors for letters of recommendation for medical school, all of whom said they would gladly write me a letter.
Now, for the MCAT.
A 7 hour exam I would take in the summer that would essentially determine whether or not I had a chance to get into medical school. A lot of other students I knew taking the test were signing up for these ridiculous, $2,000+ review courses for the test. I knew I couldn't afford that price tag and even if I could, I wouldn't pay that amount of money for something I could do myself, so I decided on self-studying for the test. I bought review books from Kaplan in January, but I only sporadically glanced at them since I was busy with schoolwork and scribing, so it wasn't until the last week of April that I buckled down and started reviewing for my June 2nd exam. I started reading chapter by chapter of each subject book until I realized that at this rate, it would take months to study for the exam; I only had one. I dumped the reading and note taking strategy and instead started a scored practice test. I knew before starting the test that I would do horribly, but I had to get an idea of what I needed to focus studying on. After taking the test, I looked what I got wrong, took notes on why I got the question wrong, and saved the notes onto a Word document. I read through the Word document and I took another practice test. Again, I looked at what I got wrong, took notes and reread notes. And I repeated. And I repeated. And I repeated. Soon enough, my scores began to improve more and more as I was learning the information through testing instead of through the review books. If I needed more explanation I would look into the Kaplan book, otherwise I would only use the tests to review information and simultaneously learn test-taking skills.
The June 2nd exam would come faster than I expected, but I felt ready. 7 hours really flies by when you're taking the most important test of your life thus far. I felt really good coming out of the exam, but I wouldn't know for sure until a month later when my score came back. As I'm sitting a month later at the Seven Hills BMW location, waiting for my brother to finish his driving test, I get a tweet notification from the AAMC saying that scores are out. I quickly logged in and found out that I did well! Not as well as I thought I did coming out of the exam honestly, but definitely not bad enough to warrant a retake on the exam. I was relieved. I could finally focus on the rest of my application, get the letters of recommendation in, and finally, finally be done with preparing for med school.
Once I finish a few more secondary application questions from certain schools, I will begin the waiting process. As schools review my application and (hopefully) begin to invite me for interviews, I will continue to take classes that interest me at UC (Intro to Art Therapy?!) and continue to take trips on weekends to Peebles, OH to cliff jump with my friends into turquoise waters.
The school year started with a new job; I found a position as a "medical scribe" at with Scribe America, a position which was pretty mysterious considering I hadn't known anyone who worked as a scribe. After hours of research on forums online, I found out that most pre-meds who took this job ended up LOVING it and highly recommended it to all others looking to apply. After sending in my application, I got an interview 2 weeks later at Cincinnati Children's Hospital where the interviewer explained that this is where I would be working. She said that I would be paired with a doctor or nurse practitioner at the urgent care, I would walk into patient rooms with them and on a laptop I would type up the patient's medical file, including why they are presenting to urgent care, what their symptoms are, the findings of their physical exam, any xrays or labs done and their results, and finally their diagnosis and treatment plan. I was pretty excited to start, considering that I had never worked or volunteered at Children's before so this experience would at the least remind me of the times I used to come to the hospital as a child to get a check-up.
My new job would turn out to be the best medical experience I've had in my whole life. I get to see how physicians prepare before going into a room, how they think through a diagnosis, and how they interact with children and their families. After a few months I found my favorite procedure performed in the urgent care: the nursemaid's reduction. One of the most common complaints by parents in the urgent care is that their year old baby refuses to use their arm after being pulled up by that arm earlier in the day. The parents are usually afraid that the child broke their arm, but the doctor reassures them that the arm is okay. The doctor grabs the arm with one hand and feels the elbow with the other, then they supinate the arm, flex it upward and the child bursts into tears. After letting the child calm down with the help of a popsicle, the child starts to extend their arm again! My favorite part of this operation is the reaction of the parents afterward; from calling the doctor "Mr. Miyagi" to hugging and kissing the doctor. This job has allowed me to see the impact that just 10 minutes can have on a patient's well-being, I love going to work to see what new patients we meet and how we can improve their day, whether it be with an antibiotic pill or a sticker.
In order for me to become a physician myself, I'd have to do well in my classes this year. After how last year went with my grades, I told myself I would get a planner so I could be certain when assignments were due and when to study for quizzes and exams based on my work schedule. Although my grades weren't perfect, I got Dean's List both semesters thanks to planning ahead with the help of my letter. With good grades came the opportunity to ask my professors for letters of recommendation for medical school, all of whom said they would gladly write me a letter.
Now, for the MCAT.
A 7 hour exam I would take in the summer that would essentially determine whether or not I had a chance to get into medical school. A lot of other students I knew taking the test were signing up for these ridiculous, $2,000+ review courses for the test. I knew I couldn't afford that price tag and even if I could, I wouldn't pay that amount of money for something I could do myself, so I decided on self-studying for the test. I bought review books from Kaplan in January, but I only sporadically glanced at them since I was busy with schoolwork and scribing, so it wasn't until the last week of April that I buckled down and started reviewing for my June 2nd exam. I started reading chapter by chapter of each subject book until I realized that at this rate, it would take months to study for the exam; I only had one. I dumped the reading and note taking strategy and instead started a scored practice test. I knew before starting the test that I would do horribly, but I had to get an idea of what I needed to focus studying on. After taking the test, I looked what I got wrong, took notes on why I got the question wrong, and saved the notes onto a Word document. I read through the Word document and I took another practice test. Again, I looked at what I got wrong, took notes and reread notes. And I repeated. And I repeated. And I repeated. Soon enough, my scores began to improve more and more as I was learning the information through testing instead of through the review books. If I needed more explanation I would look into the Kaplan book, otherwise I would only use the tests to review information and simultaneously learn test-taking skills.
The June 2nd exam would come faster than I expected, but I felt ready. 7 hours really flies by when you're taking the most important test of your life thus far. I felt really good coming out of the exam, but I wouldn't know for sure until a month later when my score came back. As I'm sitting a month later at the Seven Hills BMW location, waiting for my brother to finish his driving test, I get a tweet notification from the AAMC saying that scores are out. I quickly logged in and found out that I did well! Not as well as I thought I did coming out of the exam honestly, but definitely not bad enough to warrant a retake on the exam. I was relieved. I could finally focus on the rest of my application, get the letters of recommendation in, and finally, finally be done with preparing for med school.
Once I finish a few more secondary application questions from certain schools, I will begin the waiting process. As schools review my application and (hopefully) begin to invite me for interviews, I will continue to take classes that interest me at UC (Intro to Art Therapy?!) and continue to take trips on weekends to Peebles, OH to cliff jump with my friends into turquoise waters.