 So you got into med school, congrats. Now, do you actually need to study the summer before it all begins? We're gonna get to those questions after the intro. All right guys, what is going on? Lux here for an empty journey, helping you succeed on your medical journey with less stress. Today's video is inspired by a comment that I got. I know a lot of you guys have had an instant summers approaching, I thought it was a perfect time to make this video. The question is, should you study the summer before your first year of medical school? And in this video, I'm gonna break it down, I'm gonna tell you yes or no, and I'm also gonna tell you what you should be doing or what you shouldn't be doing to basically help anyone on either side of the fence. So let's get to the short and simple answer. Should you study before medical school starts? And the answer is absolutely not. And I know, you know, there's some of you guys who are like, awesome, cool, go on a vacation later. You can click off this video and just hit subscribe. I'm cool with that. But there's some of you guys where, you know, you would say the same things that I said when I was about to start medical school, which is I just wanna get ahead or I wanna not feel behind when I start. And there's a lot of like tough classes that come during your first year of medical school where it's appropriate to feel that way. You have biochem, you have anatomy, you know, a bunch of other classes you've probably never heard of, just a bunch of apologies. I get it, but the main reason of why it's not appropriate to study the summer before medical school begins is because your intensity to study is just different when you're preparing for a test versus when you just have a summer to like skim over things. You know, when you have an anatomy test this coming Friday, you tend to remember very complicated words really quickly. But when you're just kind of going through the motion of trying to freshen up on anatomy or learn it for the first time your summer before, just doesn't stick that same. So honestly, the amount of rewards you would get from that review just doesn't pan out. And you know, if you don't believe me, ask any fourth year medical student and ask them, should you or would you have studied before medical school started? And if they were a successful med student, if they did well, you know, that's who you should go to. Not the person who looked like they struggled because that person is going to tell you stressed out answers and make you stressed out. But you want to go to the person that you want to emulate, the person that did well and ask them, would you have studied the summer before? And almost 99% of them will say, do not study. Instead, let's talk about a few things that you should do instead. So one of the things that I do recommend doing the summer before medical school that does deal with studying is perfecting your studying system. Where college, you know, often the phrase is what worked in college is not gonna work in medical school. That's because often a lot of us rely on techniques that are just inefficient. You know, we do a lot of rereading. We write our notes out loud. We do a lot of highlighting. Some of us cram, you know, all-nighters. That just doesn't work in medical school. And rather than learning that your first two weeks in medical school, it's important for you to reflect back on your college experience and realize what worked and what didn't and what you can take with you and what you should probably leave in your college days, among many other things. And to help you guys out, I'm gonna link down below to a free worksheet. It's called my Fluff to Impact ratio. Basically what it is, it's gonna have you fill out all the studying techniques you did, you know, estimate how many hours you did per day, per week, and then give it a score. And you're gonna be able to see visually which techniques actually led you to your high grades and which ones you're probably doing just because. And so you can take the ones that really worked and try them out your first few weeks in medical school and then you can feel like you're already ahead because you're not trying to figure out a study system. You're coming with a good game plan. And so, you know, perfect your study system first with what you've already done and then you can go online, look at my website, look at other people, you know, try to figure out what study methods they use and try to kind of mix and match and create one that's perfect for you. So creating your perfect study system is something I'm totally down for. It doesn't require you wasting long hours during your summer, it can be pretty quick done in about a day, but it's gonna help you not necessarily prep for anatomy now, but at least when it's time to do it during your first semester in medical school, you'll know how to essentially begin. Now then the second thing that you could probably do during your summer before is just look at the resources for the classes that you're gonna have at the start of, you know, when medical school begins in your first semester. So includes anatomy, biochem, cell bio, just look at what other people have used for them. And this doesn't mean go read them or go buy them, this is just made to help you avoid being overwhelmed when that class starts and you're not sure what to do because the internet is gonna look like it's gonna give you 101 different options. So if you read about the different resources you use for biochem and you see flashcards and you see a book and you see video cores and you know, et cetera, you can then look into reviews of each and every one of those and figure out which one would be the most appropriate to you. So again, check out my website, check out other YouTubers who've done great jobs explaining different resources you can use, just kind of have a running list for your first couple of classes because then you'll avoid doing resource overload and buy everything under the sun because you see your classmates also doing it. So check out your resources again, you don't have to buy them, definitely don't read them, but it's important to just kind of be aware of what your options are. Now the last three things, guys, is really about just enjoying your summer and making sure it's used optimally. So item number three is to go on vacation or just spend time with your loved ones. You're not gonna have very many summers after this one. In fact, you know, if you're in the US, you're probably just gonna have one more and that's the summer between your first year and your second year. I'll make a video about what to do during that time and a total different video, but you just wanna make sure you're using the time optimally. So find the people you care about, find the hobbies you wanna be participating in and make sure you dedicate time to. So take a vacation, find time, you make sure you do that. Item number four is make sure you're optimizing your health. One of the best things that I did coincidentally is I really got into working out that summer before medical school started. I had just quit my job that I had during my gap year and then I had like three months that I didn't know what to do with. You know, I had moved in, it was nice. And so I went on runs a lot, you know, learned about lifting, improved my health and my nutrition and I was able to take that when medical school got crazy and make sure that my body didn't take a hit. So make sure you're optimizing your health now so don't become a couch potato. You know, Netflix and watching a lot of movies and TV shows is okay. Make sure you're just kind of doing a little thing active here and there to help you because you're gonna be in a chair a lot when medical school starts. So make sure you're optimizing your health. And the last thing guys that I recommend doing this summer before is just reading and learning about things outside of medicine. One of kind of my biggest strengths that I think I had is I learned about almost everything under the sun aside from medicine my summer before, I learned about personal finance because I knew I'd be either broke or be making money as a doctor. I'm broke right now, be making money eventually. But it's important to understand kind of how to deal with that. Self development, you know, I learned how to kind of fix my car because I was gonna be alone for the first time. All these kinds of things, read about them, find books that are interesting because then you can develop those life skills, those hobbies outside of medicine so you can enjoy yourself outside of medicine. So all of these things guys combined, you know, obviously it's gonna prep you for a great medical school start but it's also gonna give you lifelong habit because medical school and medicine is going to take chunks and time from your life and attention. That's gonna require you to be able to prioritize yourself for free time and just understand how to be efficient. So all these tips, if you combine them guys, I promise you medical school is gonna start off on a good note. You're still gonna have your rough patches but do not study. That goes back to the start of this video. You think you're gonna get ahead but I promise you if you ask anybody including your future self in about a year from now, was it worth it, you know, to study for this class, you'll probably say no. So if that's the case, enjoy those three months, enjoy those two months. And that's gonna be the end of this video guys. If you have more questions, you know what, reach me, comment down below. If you haven't and you're about to click off this video, first I said, stop, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. And also thank you guys so much for watching. I will see you guys in the next one. Take care guys.