I want to study medicine. Where do I start?” Check this post!
After going through the difficult task of choosing what you want to study, many questions continue to concern those who will enter graduation. Therefore, it is common for students to find themselves thinking: “I want to study medicine. Where do I start?”.
One of the most competitive and complex courses, Medicine really requires special preparation on the part of the student, both with regard to the entrance exam and in relation to the main aspects of the graduation itself. This way, it is easier to guarantee a place at the university and start the journey in higher education calmly.
With that in mind, in this post we will bring some information that will help you understand what you need to do to achieve the goal of studying Medicine, in addition to getting to know this very interesting course better. So, read on and stay on top of all the details!
Learn about the course structure
Each course has particularities that make a big difference in the day-to-day of the university. In the case of graduation in Medicine, one of these characteristics is the fact that it is a full-time course, that is, it can have classes in any of the shifts – morning, afternoon and evening. Thus, it is necessary to have a good availability of time.
Furthermore, the duration of the course is at least 6 years, which are divided into 3 cycles, as you will better understand below.
Basic cycle
The 1st cycle of the Medicine course, which takes place over the first 2 years of graduation, introduces the student to this new world, presenting the basic contents of the area. Although it has a more theoretical bias, this step is essential in preparing the student for the next cycles.
Clinical cycle:
The 3rd and 4th years of the Medicine course are dedicated to the clinical cycle, in which the student begins to have a practical view of the area. At this stage, studies focus on diseases and their respective treatments, which allows learning to perform clinical examinations on patients and understand laboratory and imaging tests.
In the last 2 years of graduation, it’s time to carry out the internships and put the knowledge into practice. During this experience, known as internship, the student will really consolidate the skills needed to become a doctor.
Whether in the university teaching hospital or in public hospitals, the undergraduate must go through several areas of Medicine, such as those listed:
- Surgical Clinic;
- Medical clinic;
- Gynecology and Obstetrics;
- Family Medicine;
- Pediatrics;
- Mental health;
- Urgency and emergency.
Upon completion of the course, the new doctor must register with the Regional Council of Medicine, which is essential for him to practice the profession. After that, it is already possible to act as a general practitioner in hospitals, clinics and other health agencies. for nursing course click here
Prepare for the entrance Exam:
As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, the Medicine course is very competitive. Therefore, if you are one of the many students who are thinking “I want to study medicine. Where do I start?”, keep in mind that, before worrying about the challenges of the course, it is better to focus on passing the entrance exam.
Therefore, we have prepared some valuable tips thinking about helping you to reach this very important goal to walk your journey in the medical career. Follow up on the next topics!
Have a study Routine:
Since there are not a few contents that you need to focus on for the entrance exam, it is not recommended to study in a disorganized way. If you do, you probably won’t have time to assimilate the whole matter. So, set study schedules, provide a suitable environment in which to concentrate, and follow the planning with a lot of discipline.
Set goals:
In order to help keep the study routine organized and make sure you’re able to absorb all the contents, it’s a good idea to set goals for each subject. So, set up a schedule in which you specify what needs to be studied each day or week, and strive to stay on schedule.
Solve exercises:
A great way to prepare for the entrance exam is to practice the type of exam you will be taking. If you are going to take the Enem, for example, the ideal is to try to answer the tests from previous years, both as a way to test your knowledge and to become familiar with the style of the questions. The same strategy applies to the other entrance exams.
Check the topics that fall the most:
The entrance exam can demand any of the subjects covered throughout the basic cycle: Elementary School and High School. Thus, there are several years of studies to be reviewed. However, there are some themes that drop frequently, and you should turn your attention to them.
Whether in Enem, or in a university entrance exam for the desired university, it is important to research which subjects in each discipline fall most frequently in the tests. For example, in Mathematics, themes such as Plane Geometry, Spatial Geometry, Probability, Statistics, Functions, Ratio and Proportion, Progressions and Financial Mathematics are very recurrent. CIC CANADA
Learn to manage your time:
The biggest danger of taking entrance exams is facing time as a villain. In fact, this is the tool that can be used to your advantage to organize your studies. However, learning to manage it is not that intuitive.
First, it’s important to analyze your daily life. If he is very busy, he will certainly need to faithfully stick to his schedule. This tip is also valid for those who have a lot of free time, as it will allow them to get used to the routine, although in this case it is possible to have a little more flexibility.
In order to help you better manage your available time for studying, it is worth using an agenda or planner. Also, make weekly schedules with all the appointments you need to make in that 7-day period. It is also interesting to make a list with all the daily tasks, in order not to leave any aside or forget anything important.
Avoid spending too many hours studying:
Managing your time and setting up a study schedule is a way to avoid spending too many hours doing the same activity. When dedicating yourself for a long period to the same task, it is possible to notice that productivity drops and fatigue comes very quickly.
As it is necessary to absorb a lot of content, both to pass the entrance exam for Medicine and during graduation, taking this rule seriously is essential if you do not want to lose performance at any time.
A tool that avoids spending a long period of time doing the same activity is the Pomodoro technique. It consists of concentrating fully for 25 minutes and taking 5 minutes of rest. After 4 blocks, the pause is even longer to regain energy. In this way, it is possible to alternate between hours of concentration and relaxation.
Anyway, it is essential to find out what is your limit of hours to study and which techniques favor your performance. Also, remember to organize the schedule, setting aside time to take care of yourself and rest, watch a series, practice a hobby, go out with friends, among other pleasant activities.
Diversify forms of study:
How do you usually study in your daily life? Have you ever thought about it? Many people find it difficult to answer this question, as they have never really paid attention to what they do to learn content.
Does reading content and highlighting it help to absorb the material? Or is watching a video class what really makes you understand a subject? Perhaps, you prefer to take notes to better remember the studied content.
All these forms of study and many others can be done together. In each article, you can bet on one or more techniques that help to better absorb the content. So, don’t be afraid to try out various strategies and diversify when studying.
Take care of your Health:
Often, when we are focused on a goal, we end up forgetting to pay attention to ourselves. However, remember that your dream is to become a professional who takes care of other people’s health, so you can’t leave your own well-being behind, right?
So, take good care of your diet, drink plenty of water during the day, exercise, go to the doctor at least once a year, have routine checkups and treat yourself.
It is important to emphasize that it is not just your physical health that deserves attention. Mental well-being also needs to be prioritized. So, take it easy on yourself, know how to recognize the time to rest, ask for help when necessary and, if necessary, seek a psychologist for therapeutic follow-up.
Sleep well:
Sleeping well, that is, for about 8 uninterrupted hours, is essential for several actions in your body, such as:
- Physical and mental rest;
- Mood regulation;
- Improved learning and concentration;
- Increased mood the next day.
The amount of hours needed per night is, on average, 8 hours. However, it depends on the needs of each body. The student may need some more or less sleep time to fully rest and wake up with the will to endure another day of study. Use of technology in MEDICAL
Learn to Speed-read:
Have you ever heard of speed reading? This is another form of study that can greatly benefit your learning and help you read very quickly. It’s about extracting the most important information from a text and using it to your advantage.
First, it is important to keep in mind that it is not always possible to understand the entire text. With this, avoiding going back to the sentences you didn’t understand is a way to keep your reading dynamic. On the contrary, return to the confused snippets only when you have finished the entire article or page. This saves time and energy.
Also try to use skimming and scanning techniques. Despite being widely used in learning English, these methods can help in reading texts on any subject.
In this way, look for the basic information of an article (skimming), such as title, author, publication date, publisher, among others, in order to know what it is in general – make good use of this tip when answering interpretation questions of text. Then, scan the lines to identify the most relevant terms in the content (scanning).
Choose the right educational institution:
Something that makes a big difference in the quality of training is the educational institution where you will study. Therefore, it is important to take some factors into account when choosing your university. Next, know the main ones.
MEC Note:
The Ministry of Education regularly assesses Higher Education Institutions throughout India. As a result, they each receive a grade that can range from 1 to 5, so only grades equal to or above 3 are satisfactory. Therefore, one way to know if an institution is prepared to receive students is to check the MEC grade assigned to it.
curriculum grid:
Although medical courses have similar curricula, this structure can still vary from one institution to another. For this reason, it is worth comparing the grades in order to know which university offers a more complete education.
Infrastructure:
Health care courses include many laboratory classes that require an adequate infrastructure. Thus, it is essential to observe the physical conditions of the educational institution, not only in the laboratories, but in the classrooms and library.
After seeing all this information, the question “I want to do Medicine. Where do I start?” It shouldn’t be a problem anymore—and choosing one of the best colleges isn’t either, right? Unipar, for example, is a reference in the area and meets all the requirements you are looking for. So, start your journey and accomplish your goal of studying Medicine.
