KINETICS OF ELIMINATION

KINETICS OF ELIMINATION

Estudiar medicina no es difícil.

Ya me ha tocado escuchar a chicos de la facultad quejarse de lo “pesado” que es la carrera, por lo general son los de nuevo ingreso, aunque también me ha tocado la pregunta del millón: ¿Y está muy difícil la carrera?.

Lo cierto es que no. Medicina no es difícil, todo es cuestión de prioridades y organización. En estos últimos dos años he aprendido algunas cosas que hoy les comparto..

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How to Study Like a Harvard Student

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps 1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24. General Principles 3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done. Plan of Attack Phase I: Class 8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something. Phase II: Study Time 10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t. Phase III: Assignments 14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything. Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week) 20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point. Phase V: Exam Day 26. Crush exam. Get A.

Molecule of the Day: Methylphenidate

Methylphenidate (C14H19NO2), also known as Ritalin, is a white powder that is slightly soluble in water. It is commonly used to treat ADD, ADHD, and narcolepsy.

Methylphenidate inhibits dopamine and norepinephrine transporter proteins, thus preventing dopamine and norepinephrine in the synaptic cleft from being reuptaken into the presynaptic knob. The resultant higher concentration of these substances in the synapse causes the receptors on the postsynaptic knob to be stimulated at a greater frequency, thus achieving greater synaptic transmission. This produces a psychostimulant effect, allowing it to be used in the treatment of ADHD.

In small amounts, methylphenidate has also been shown to enhance memory and control, caused by the activation of dopamine and adrenergic receptors. However, in large doses, it can have the opposite effect.

It has few side effects, which include loss of appetite, nausea, and insomnia. However, like many strong dopamine reuptake inhibitors, it can result in dependence, and is often seen as a gateway drug. 

Methylphenidate is industrially synthesised through a multi-step pathway from 2-bromopyridine and benzyl cyanide.

Requested by @zenbra

For yourself, medicine student.

Remember that you are not defined by a number. You are defined by what you have overcome and what you are enduring. A grade is not important, if you have not learned for your patients. You will treat people, not exams. Learn for them and study for them. They need the best out of you.

When and if you are tired, you are allowed to take a break, whether it be at 10 pm when you dont want to open that cardiology book, at 2 pm when class was difficult to understand or at 4 am when you are running tests on a patient. Take a moment to breathe, and go back to giving your all.

Do not compare yourself to other people or students, you are you and you are amazing. Do not diminish all that you do and all that you have done, because I have seen you work hard. Your only competition is yourself, you are working hard to become a better you.

Remember the reasons why you chose this path and why you started in the first place. I risk to say that beyond choosing this carreer because of the great challenge that it implied, you chose Medicine because of your desire to help another in need and your neverending fascination. with the human body and its art.

Continue working slowly but steadily. Love what you do. Give your best always.