What to do when you're really BEHIND at medical school

I feel behind. I am behind. I am overwhelmed. I am unable of forming sophisticated sentences.

I've just started brainstorming what to do in my situation and thought I'd share it in a post. I tried Googling what to do without success so maybe this will help some...



CJ's Damage Assessment and Strategy Tool for Medical Students that are Behind


1. Assess the damage

• take a long, hard look at yourself
• find an objective way to measure where you are and where you should be
• try to analyse why this happened. How can you prevent further damage?
• what is the gap? How long will it take to rememdy?

What I did: Used the MedBullet.com self-assessment exams to see how far behind I am and in which areas.

2. Forgive yourself so you can put the past behind you and move on

• whatever the cause of your situation, forgive yourself. In my situation, I spent too much time being a "mum" and not enough time being a "med student". I am not a bad person for doing this. It is ok. If you saw how cute my child is you'd understand. I made an error, likely becasue I want to be a good mum, and I have learned from it and am moving forward. This does not make me a bad person
• I also overestimated my knowledge and underestimated how much study I need to do. It happens. I have reassessed that my strategy is not working. I am making a new strategy
• accept this is life
• you are not a bad person
• you can still be a good doctor
• you are forgiven

Meditated. Had a wine. Doodled in my BuJo. Put the past behind me.

3. Create a new strategy

• be realsistic
• detail your strategy in as many steps as possible
• talk to others about their strategies and their advice (and take it with a grain of salt)
• what is your end-goal? Maybe its just to graduate, maybe it's to pass the AMC. Maybe you need a Leave of Absence.
• consider a tutor
• consider a new resource

Used the MedBullets study guide and tailoered it to my own schedule. Committed to reaing a chapter of Kumar's Clinical Medicine a night. Committed to watching a clinical YouTube video per day. Every day.

4. Prioritise strategy

• mistake are learning opportunities ONLY if you LEARN from them

Studying every day has become a non-negotiable now. 

Planning and bullet journaling

If you want to multi-task, maximise efficiency, and generally succeed in life: I reckon it is a lot easier if you're good at managing your time, and managing time is easier if you plan ahead. I like to use my planner (I've been using the ManifestationPlanner.com this year) for planning.

I have recently discovered a system of planning called Bullet Journalling. This morning I spend a few hours planning out the coming weeks and months to juggle placements and work (and running a household, paying tuition fees, and looking after a toddler, etc).

This morning, I also listened to the first half of the Audible book "The Miracle Morning". I have actually already read it before but it was so good that I have decided to listen to it again.