Are medical students super-intelligent or studious?

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To answer your question, while you won't spend all your life studying, getting into med school is committing a very substantial portion of your life to studying. It's much easier to use intelligence to answer A Levels questions, and I say this from experience as I found it easy to do well in A level exams without putting in much studying, since you could always work out the answer logically. Medicine is not so straightforward, it doesn't matter how intelligent you are, you still will need to put in the hours to pass the exams. I struggled a lot during the first few years of med school since I'm not a studious person, but now that I'm in the clinical years, studying consistently has become easier to do.
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I'm not sure about the "not much studying" (then again my idea of a lot of studying is 3-4 weeks). What A levels did you do?

Reply 81

MyselfEtAl

Both. They're also really good at focusing/concentrating - something I envy my friends for -_-

Reply 82

Miracle Day

Original post by Lansaaaa

Yes, I don't mean to sound rude but I have class-mates and peers who spend their lives revising and end up scraping 70% in exams.

How can you "scrape" 70%?

iI thought you were intelligent?

Reply 83

Muddy_Hands

A girl I went to school with is studying medicine now but get C's in her first attempts at her AS exams. Thank God for resits right? :smile:

So I'd say intellegence is a contributing factor but at lot of hard work is more important!

Reply 84

RollerBall

Neither, most of us are wasters. I spend most of my time in bed, getting drunk or playing video games. I've only managed to pass each exam (barely) through pure luck and I cruise through presentations on charm that would give lawyers a run for their money.

Original post by HeatherM

I'm saying they can't all be defined as one or the other. I'm sure some are super-intelligent, some are studious. I don't reckon i'm either, so medical students as a whole can't be said to be one or the other.

Based on your signature you're not a medical student either?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 85

saim101

If you compare medical students to people who are doing civil engineering/mechanical engineering/ Electrical engineering/ any decent engineering at Imperial/Cambridge/UCL. You will see that in the grand scheme of things they aren't very smart :biggrin:

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I'm just saying :wink:

Combination of both!

Original post by saim101

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I'm just saying :wink:

I dunno about that.

Reply 88

saim101

Original post by Davidragon

I dunno about that.

When you start comparing them to GOOD engineers they aren't

Reply 89

iLikeCarrots

Obviously you need a certain degree of intelligence to get into med school... I think standards are way higher these days than they used to be to get in. I was talking to my osteopath and he got into a top med school in the '60s or '70s with 3 C's at A level. And as far as I know they didn't have any entry exams back in the day.

Having said that a lot of doctors/med students lack common sense. Just watching Junior Doctors proves this point.

Reply 90

Davidragon

Original post by iLikeCarrots

That doesn't say anything about doctors specifically, a lot of my smart friends lack common sense.

Reply 91

username424118

Original post by SnoochToTheBooch

there is no such thing as intelligence when it comes to education, just different speeds at which people understand stuff. Real intelligence in a subject comes when making an original contribution, figuring out something that no one has figured out before. This isn't done by students, students just go over things that have already been laid out well in advance by other people. It's painting by numbers. Grades are just a question of the amount of time someone is willing to put in, it's not like there's anyone studying, say, sociology, that couldn't do medicine if they wanted.

I'm studying medicine and this guy is 100% right. Plus it is not more work than in other subjects at uni.

Reply 92

username424118

Original post by handsome7654

Obv lol.
Maths/natural sciences/chemistry at any uni is harder than medicine not just Cambridge. Cuz medicine has a lot to learn, it doesn't have extremely complicated concepts such as in theoretical physics/chemistry/maths etc...

That's true. Medicine actually is ridiculously easy when you study a bit. In fact I think Medicine is easier than most other subjects as you rarely have to understand complex theories. Of course you need to memorize a lot, but please, I think a biochemistry student has to memorize much more...

Reply 93

Elwyn

Original post by RollerBall

Neither, most of us are wasters. I spend most of my time in bed, getting drunk or playing video games. I've only managed to pass each exam (barely) through pure luck

This seems to be the strategy I have unfortunately adopted.
Fingers crossed it works for me too :cool:

Reply 94

Ronove

Original post by iLikeCarrots

Out of interest, why is he working as an osteopath? Or did he turn down the offer?

Reply 95

RollerBall

Original post by HeatherM

Yeah, not yet. This thread is asking more about the type of folk who get into medicine, right? I got into Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Aberdeen's an Unconditional, Edinburgh requires a B. I didn't think it was the act of going to lectures that makes you magically super-intelligent or studious, but rather that the OP was asking about the type of folk to apply & get in.

Wait, did i hit a nerve? If i did, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to.

Congratulations, you got into medicine.

All sarcasm/patronising aside your study skills are going to be changing drastically regardless of whether you're an A level or grad student. The OP wasn't asking about the type of people who get in, but med students themselves. You have no idea if you're going to be able to deal with the course just off your brains or if you're going to have to work at it, thus you can't answer his question.

Original post by Elwyn

This seems to be the strategy I have unfortunately adopted.
Fingers crossed it works for me too :cool:

Apparently exams were supposed to be harder this year but my avg % has remained pretty much unchanged. End of years are going to be interesting!

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 96

iLikeCarrots

Original post by Ronove

Out of interest, why is he working as an osteopath? Or did he turn down the offer?

He studied medicine but then went into osteopathy after a few years of working as a GP I believe.

Reply 97

Goku101

NO not really. They are more studios (hard working) than intelligent because let's be honest medicine is really all about memorisation, trial and error. It's not like doctors are designing new cures for diseases, that's the job of the researcher who then tells the doctor what it does and how to use it.

Reply 98

Lansaaaa

Original post by Miracle Day

How can you "scrape" 70%?

iI thought you were intelligent?

In Scotland, generally 70% is the bare minimum for an A. That's what I meant. My point was you'd expect someone with any innate ability that studies that much to be pushing for full marks.

Reply 99

handsome7654

Original post by jaklargerne

I think a biochemistry student has to memorize much more...

Loll at ur comment! You are out of your mind and makes you seem stupid when you say that!!
Content wise, medicine has the most content to memorise and learn than any other degree. Obv you don't understand what you learn in medicine!