Many of you are starting medical school soon! What is that, 17th grade? As a kid, I was always so excited to shop for a new backpack and school supplies before starting school. But for medical school, I was more nervous than excited. But all will be okay my friends!
I wanted to briefly share with you some tips to make your life easier as well as a list of items you should buy before starting.
Tips
- Go to FedEx and get your books spiral-bound
- I did this for First-Aid, Pathoma, & BRS
- More space to write notes in the margins and easier to handle in your bag
- If you are using Anki, start learning how to use it now!
- I HIGHLY recommend the Anking’s videos, starting with How to Use Anki for Med School. You can thank me later 🙂
- Download Anki app
- Buy a steamer for clothes (instead of an iron)
- I cannot use an iron to save my life. I recently bought a steamer and it is so much easier and faster!
- You will be seeing many standardized patients, which require professional dress code.
- As an early birthday/Christmas gift, ask your family to buy you a robot vacuum!
- Roomba is the popular brand, but I have a Eufy (it was on sale at the time)
- Saves you so much time on the days you are too busy to clean!
- Learn how to use the dish-washer (lol, I can explain)
- This might sound insane to my non-Asian friends, but most Asian households do not use the dishwasher! My house didn’t even HAVE a dishwasher!
- I’m not exaggerating when I say I didn’t know how to use one until medical school. But after using it, I can tell you that it does save so much time!
- Learn how to use Siri. Here are some things she can do:
- Read you your schedule/calendar
- Find photos (“show me photos in Paris”)
- Teach Siri who’s who (add relationships to your contacts, then tell Siri to “call my sister”)
- Keep up with sports
- Add reminders on-the-go
- Streamline your routines with shortcuts (e.g. order your usual from Starbucks, schedule your morning “briefing”)
- Alexa! Some things I ask her to do for me:
- Read me the news and sports update
- Set a timer when I’m cooking (I don’t like to touch my phone if I’m preparing food)
- Add items to shopping list
- Play music
- Turn on/off the lights, the TV (with smart plug available on Amazon here)
- You can even ask Alexa to turn on robot vacuum and start cleaning for you!
Shopping List
- First Aid ➝ Spiral-bound
- Non-bleeding Highlighters & Pens ➝ Walmart has some cheap ones!
- Quality Laptop ➝ Mac > Windows
- Anki App
- Monitor
- Tablet ➝ iPad >>
- Noise Cancelling Earphones ➝ Bose/Air Pods Pro
- Multiple charging cords/port ➝ Amazon
- Stethoscope ➝ Littmann (check with your school to see if they have a class deal/package!)
- Business Casual Clothes
- Professional Clothes
- Coffee maker ➝ KEURIG is my recommendation!
- Clothes steamer ➝ Amazon
- Alexa/Google Home ➝ Look for sales! I bought my Alexa for $20
Hope that helps!
With lobe,
Kelly
