<p>Hi, I’m a high school senior. I aspire to be in a Pre-Med program at college and I aspire to go to medical school to become a doctor. Right now, I’m taking AP Biology. . . and I am just really hot headed and hot tempered sometimes about it. I’m studying for my upcoming final and 300 pages of little font and crappy text just blows my mind sometimes. It seems straightforward when I’m not procrastinating for that half hour, but then I just lose focus again. Whatever, aside from that, I do relatively well in that course, around 90’s and 95’s sometimes 80’s but he makes the tests especially hard-- he always curves your final grade. </p>
<p>Anyway, I do well in that class, but definitely not the best. I know becoming a doctor is extremely competitive. I look at it like this-- I really want to become one most of the time. I look at it from an organismal level and I see trillions and trillions of cells and how fascinating it is. The fact that doctors have the ability to attend to people in their weakest state and repair, or attempt to do so is really a fascinating and accomplished feat.</p>
<p>Basically, I like it most of the time, and I praise it a lot. When I’m studying Biology sometimes-- a vast amount, that is-- i get FURIOUS and get extremely mad when I seem to forget the most simplest things (such as the freaking Griffith Model of Genetics) and I just feel like, wow, if i can’t handle this, maybe I can’t handle beyond. What I want to know is, is this normal for students? Will there be points in which they will not want to do their work and just get so furious, or even hate what they are learning – BUT still aspire to become something in that field?</p>
<p>I just wanna know if its the right path for me-- before its too late.</p>
<p>Getting into medical school is one thing. Being a great doctor is another. Don’t conflate the two. There are many people who probably would be good doctors but don’t make it into medical school. There are some people who make it into medical school and probably will be crappy doctors.</p>
<p>From your grades, it seems like you’re doing well, grade-wise, which is the first step towards getting into medical school. Keep up the good work and you’ll have a fighting chance.</p>
<p>If you want to know if medicine is the right career for you, go volunteer in hospitals and shadow doctors. If you like what you see, then that might be a good sign that you could be a great doctor.</p>
<p>I think the big thing to recognize is that you don’t have to be great at everything to become a physician. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and just because you don’t understand one genetics experiment performed in the 1920’s (I had to look that up by the way), doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t make it. </p>
<p>But even moreso, you can be a great physician and not fully “get” everything. I’m going to graduate medical school in 130 days, and I suck at understanding renal physiology, I’m horrible at recognizing rashes or other dermatology issues, and I can’t ever keep track of what rheumatologic diseases have what associated antibodies, or what the 6 types of low-complement nephropathies are…But despite those shortcomings I passed my boards and got scores that are pretty close to the national averages. The key is to know yourself and not let your frustrations get in the way of you performing well on the things you DO KNOW well.</p>
You’re perfectly normal. It’s not always possible to like every aspect of a field. I’m sure that many successful premeds at some point hated some of the science courses they were taking.</p>
<p>I guess it makes sense. And i’ve volunteered over 200 hours helping patients with basic needs and shadowed many doctors. I’ve also done internships (SHIP) and the works. I really want to be a doctor - but at times the work just seems boring and I don’t like it a lot of the time. Once i get it down and start talking about it, it does seem pretty great.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice Shades_Children.
Bigredmed- good luck man!!! I’m sure you’ll do fine
ysk1- thanks for confirming my issues lol</p>
<p>Alright, well i guess i’m fine. I mean, if i dislike some topics when studying but like it as a whole, i guess its not bad.
Thanks!</p>