How to Study as a Premed
/Proven study tips to help you succeed as a premed and become a competitive medical school applicant
learning effective study habits as a premed will help you get into medical school
Introduction
Although many college freshmen arrive on campus as premed students, a much smaller number stay on track and are qualified for the med school admissions process several years down the road.
If you want to remain in the latter camp, one thing is for certain: you’ll need to learn how to study as a premed.
Medical school prerequisite courses have a reputation of “weeding out” students who fail to grasp difficult and laborious material. However, your goal isn’t simply to pass these tough classes. You need to excel in them—in addition to sustaining a high overall GPA, achieving a stellar MCAT score, and pursuing research, clinical and volunteer opportunities—to be competitive as a med school applicant.
With all this work cut out for you, one of your top priorities needs to be developing and nurturing effective study habits as a premed.
To provide some guidance, we’ve compiled premed study tips to help you succeed as an undergraduate student. We’ll start by discussing how to cultivate healthy study habits and then dive deeper into best practices for studying specific material.
Devise your plan for taking prerequisites
Most undergraduate colleges and universities advertise the med school prerequisite courses offered by their academic departments on campus. Although you can receive guidance from premed advisors (read on for more details), it’s your responsibility to decide when to enroll in these classes.
This premed study tip is important for several reasons. For starters, medical schools require coursework (complete with labs) across several different subjects, so you need to remain aware of the classes necessary for future applications. Your undergraduate college or university might also have universally required courses that all undergraduate students must take to graduate, which can be a burden on your overall academic timeline.
Furthermore, you don’t want to make the mistake of overwhelming yourself during any step of the process by taking too many courses, or too many difficult courses, during a single semester or academic quarter. You can fall into this trap as a freshman or even as an upperclassmen if you’re not careful.
For these reasons, be strategic about when you take medical school prerequisites to ensure you’ll excel in these classes. Ultimately, completing this backend will help you achieve a high GPA for medical school applications.
Choose your major and extracurriculars wisely
Similar to developing a plan for taking medical school prerequisites, choosing an academic major and extracurriculars that align with your long-term academic goals is essential as a premed student.
Remember, medical school admissions committees don’t care about your academic major as long as you meet their admissions requirements and sustain a high GPA.
However, their flexibility isn’t a reason for you to bite off more than you can chew. While it may sound attractive to major in comparative literature or join several club sports, where you focus your attention as an undergraduate shouldn’t be considered on a whim. The sheer amount of time and energy it takes to study as a premed student should be taken seriously (we’ll discuss this more below), and you’ll need to effectively manage your time in and outside the classroom.
Develop your study routine
With dorm parties, chatty roommates, football games, and student clubs, life on a college campus can deliver a menu of distractions to even the most dedicated student. When you add research positions, shadowing, internships and jobs to the mix, being a premed student can take on all the responsibilities of a full-time job.
To make sure you’re not thrown off-kilter, you need to develop a study routine to help you balance your premed coursework with your other obligations. Your routine should incorporate study habits that work for you to learn and retain a significant amount of information and material. This premed study tip is important for the following reasons:
Premed courses are notorious for requiring many midterms and final exams, which constitute a major portion of your final grade. Each of these exams will require you to review material on a consistent basis.
Premed courses also have a reputation for moving through material quickly. On a weekly basis, you’ll need to stay on top of your coursework and syllabus to make sure you don’t fall behind the pace of learning.
As a premed student, you’ll be invested in professional development opportunities (research posts, internships, applications for summer programs) outside the scope of your schoolwork, though not necessarily removed from medically-related subject matter. These additional pursuits can negatively affect your ability to study.
When it comes to developing a study routine, our advice is to keep it simple with the following strategies:
Identify the time of day you study best. Some students are attentive in the morning while others are night owls, productive only when the day’s activities are complete. During each semester or academic quarter, your schedule might change, but try to develop a study routine that accounts for your personal body clock.
Sustain a year-long calendar of important dates. As a premed student, graded coursework, exams, and deadlines for research, clinical, and internship opportunities will always be coming down your pipeline. By having a calendar that keeps track of important dates, you’ll never be caught off guard by the amount of work that’s constantly on the horizon.
Set deliverables. By knowing how much of X material you need to learn or review by Y date, you can easily keep track of your progress. Having set deliverables is also a surefire way to alert yourself if you’re falling behind in one of your classes.
Have a dedicated study location. Do you study better in your dorm room, the library, the student lounge, or a coffee shop? Understanding what location or environment is best for you can help you maximize the moments you study throughout the day.
Remember, finding your rhythm as a student is a constantly evolving process, and your lifestyle on campus may change at a moment’s notice. As a freshman, your dorm might be right next to the library and as a sophomore your sorority house or apartment might be several miles away. Remaining aware of these changes and prioritizing the conditions you need to study effectively is key to getting the job done.
Rely on your individual learning style
What type of learner are you? Few college students ask themselves this question, but identifying how you learn can significantly help you study as a premed. Here is a simplified list of common learning styles that may apply to you: auditory, social or interpersonal, verbal, and visual.
If you’re an auditory learner, in-person lectures and/or web content that features presenters discussing material should be your primary pathway to learning new information.
If you’re a social or interpersonal learner, try forming a study group with friends to review new material and quiz one another.
If you’re a verbal learner, reading textbooks and taking notes is going to be your go-to study habit.
And if you’re a visual learner, images, infographics, tables, and charts will all come in handy for you in particular.
Keep in mind that you may gravitate toward more than one learning style. Furthermore, your response to different types of coursework can fluctuate. For instance, you might be more of an auditory learner while studying for an organic chemistry course and more of a social and interpersonal learner while studying for a biology course.
Aside from simply making these determinations, commit to what learning style works for you. For instance, if learning with others isn’t really your thing and you consider yourself to be a verbal learner, then there’s no need for you to meet up with friends every Tuesday night for a study group session. It’s highly important to be honest with yourself when studying for your future career.
Tap into your support system
As a premed student, you’ll have support on campus. Most colleges and universities have premed or pre-health advisors or advising departments to help you navigate the process of enrolling in classes and preparing for medical school. Tapping into these resources can ease your anxieties about the medical school admissions process and provide you with tools to study more effectively.
Think about it this way: if you’re a dedicated student on the premed track, your undergraduate institution wants you to get into medical school, because your future attendance will reflect the strength of that college or university.
Depending on how premed students are supported at your school, these departments might be tasked with generating your pre-health committee letters for your future medical school applications. Your advisor may also have the inside track on whether your undergraduate institution has a good relationship with select medical schools, and whether former alumni have fared well in various admissions processes. Some undergraduate institutions also have outright early assurance programs with medical schools.
It’s a good idea to remain aware of these resources and opportunities on your specific campus.
Final thoughts
Studying as a premed isn’t easy, but relying on these premed study tips can help you weather any storm on the road toward medical school. Believe in yourself and keep that final goal of becoming a doctor in mind!
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
