AbalaTips 101: Difference of a typical Pre-Med setting and Medical School Setting

 Hello everyone, welcome to AbalaTips, 

Its such been a long time since I wrote a blog, now for pre-medical students, let us write a blog on the difference of between Pre-Medical and Medical students, take note this will also serve as an introductory guide on what to expect on things on how you can cope up to your medical school journey here in the Philippines.

Take note that this there may be personality difference which could make our perception differ, but let us discuss the difference between Pre-medical and Medical School Setting

Parameters	Pre-medical school	Medical School
No. of hours per subject	Usually pre-medical school setting, it usually takes 1 to 2 hours per subject and also may be adjusted meaning the load can be decreased since the professor may decide to either prolong, or simplify the topics	Usually in medical school it is usually 2 hours and can be adjusted also, however the topic must be discussed and must be finished as possible, if not finished the topics will not be discussed again (unless on modular or traditional which the topic will be discussed in the form of another subject)
Topics	May be prolonged to how many days or may shorten to one day	The topic must be compressed on one day, finished or not finished it will not be repeated unless its on another subject that the topic may be repeated. Compressed topics means to discuss it whole since another day is another topic
Notes	Usually professors gives notes, and these notes or book reading but more of notes	Usually professors do not give notes but there are presence of Transes (Transcript made by student according to what the professor presented plus the recordings on the cellphone
Reference or Official Textbook	Usually they focus on what is the official textbook by the department	Many reference or official textbook, others may have an accompanying atlas with them (Atlas- textbook with a lot of pictures)
Reportings	Usually done in the Laboratories or lectures if the professor wanted to do it, usually done by groups or individual	Usually in the form of Small Group Discussion whereas the medical students will have one or more preceptors focusing on a topic
Quizzes	May be long or short quiz which has bearings, usually individual topics	Usually in the form of shifting topics, by experience either individual topics, multiple short topics meaning 2 or more topics in an exam
Long Exam	May be not synchronized and synchronized, mostly focused on discussed topics	Usually synchronized, some undiscussed topics may also be included in the exams

Ok now it seems, its overwhelming, but dont worry let us discuss some on how we can deal with this, don't worry It may be overwhelming from the start, but once you adapt to it, it will become your best weapon in your medical school journey

1. Learn about the different types of approaches to topics 

In the University of St. Augustine of Health Sciences, FL USA, there are 10 Study tips in one of the article they had which may be effective

Link for the article: https://www.usa.edu/blog/study-techniques/

2. Learn about Visual Learning and Active Learning, this is a big game changer, take note I also aware of this since I did this, in pre-medical school we are used to highlighting notes from our textbooks, however it is a form of passive learning please refer it to the blog for active learning

 1. Visual Learning sa Philippine Medical Schools- ni Dok Juan Abalahin  

 2. AbalaTips 101: Active Learning Strategies in Philippine Medical Schools

3. In relation to no.1 learn also on how to schedule carefully, take note you still need a lot of sleep, do not sacrifice quality for quantity 8 hours of sleep is needeed (I could advise you read after the lecture so that you will retain much information)