Oh Podiatry-Student Guru's...Lend me your wisdom!

[Arwana]

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I've done some SDN searches and still am not finding suggestions for keeping organized which are specific to podiatry students. What would you guys (in your infinite wisdom) suggest for keeping organized as a first and second year student? (Must have equipment, little tricks of the trade, etc.)
I'm Scholl 2011 and would like very badly to remove the stress-factor associated with chaos and ruine that results after a short time in my study-area.
((Also if you can "prescribe" one of the high end ipods so I can sell the idea to my wife with the authority that comes from the voices of them who have survived the first year(s) of podiatry school...that would be great! 😀))
Ben

 

[Dr_Feelgood]

I've done some SDN searches and still am not finding suggestions for keeping organized which are specific to podiatry students. What would you guys (in your infinite wisdom) suggest for keeping organized as a first and second year student? (Must have equipment, little tricks of the trade, etc.)
I'm Scholl 2011 and would like very badly to remove the stress-factor associated with chaos and ruine that results after a short time in my study-area.
((Also if you can "prescribe" one of the high end ipods so I can sell the idea to my wife with the authority that comes from the voices of them who have survived the first year(s) of podiatry school...that would be great! 😀))
Ben

As the magic eight ball says "Things look cloudy" on the IPod.

Suggestions for saying organized might vary from school to school b/c of the number of classes taken at one time. For example DMU students take all of the basic science courses in the 1st year except lower limb. That being said good organizational skills are universal. We get PDAs at DMU but I cannot say that I used it much. I did however use my laptop. I love Outlook. I used that to organize my life.

As for study suggestions, I always tell students to look at school as your job. You should be there from 7:30 until 5:00. I also like to study in the mornings on Saturday until noon. If you keep this level of commitment you should have most of your nights and Sunday's open for your family. This does vary from person to person. Some people need more time to study, but I think the majority of students will do well with this set-up. Also, I always suggest not to leave town the week/weekend before a test. I think that it throws off your schedule and I have seen it consistently cause poor outcomes (this is more for those who have boy/girlfriends in another city).

 

[crhoody12]

When you said you got a PDA, did the school give it to you as some additional cost in part of your tuition so that everyone has the same one or they sugggest you get one (being you have to) but you just didn't use it a lot? Also, do schools have suggested laptops or is it more or less whatever you want? windows vs mac? vista? (I know some dent schools didn't want vista due to software incompatibility)

 

[txlioness]

As the magic eight ball says "Things look cloudy" on the IPod.

Suggestions for saying organized might vary from school to school b/c of the number of classes taken at one time. For example DMU students take all of the basic science courses in the 1st year except lower limb. That being said good organizational skills are universal. We get PDAs at DMU but I cannot say that I used it much. I did however use my laptop. I love Outlook. I used that to organize my life.

As for study suggestions, I always tell students to look at school as your job. You should be there from 7:30 until 5:00. I also like to study in the mornings on Saturday until noon. If you keep this level of commitment you should have most of your nights and Sunday's open for your family. This does vary from person to person. Some people need more time to study, but I think the majority of students will do well with this set-up. Also, I always suggest not to leave town the week/weekend before a test. I think that it throws off your schedule and I have seen it consistently cause poor outcomes (this is more for those who have boy/girlfriends in another city).

Very good advice 👍

I love Outlook as well. I use it now to put all of my assignments, due dates, personal appts, etc. It definitely is great when you have kids and other activities you are into.

Be organized from the start or it's gonna be h$ll. I have an IPAC and sync it up with my laptop so I can have all my info with me. I have to have that info so that I can call my kids' schools, doctor's office, etc. if necessary.

Arwana, once you get your schedule/syllabus make sure you read them. Put all of your assignments, test dates, etc in Outlook on your calendar, set up reminders, etc. You may want to color code your classes to know what you're looking at.

My calendar was pretty full when I was taking 18 hours, working full time, and dealing with my kids' activities and appts. But it's doable. But then again, I'm an organization freak 😉

 

[Dr_Feelgood]

When you said you got a PDA, did the school give it to you as some additional cost in part of your tuition so that everyone has the same one or they sugggest you get one (being you have to) but you just didn't use it a lot? Also, do schools have suggested laptops or is it more or less whatever you want? windows vs mac? vista? (I know some dent schools didn't want vista due to software incompatibility)

It is part of the DMU tuition, you get a PDA and a laptop. The PDA is replaced with a newer version in your third year. The program includes various software components such as Apocrates, medical spell checking, and various medical studying programs.

I cannot answer for the other schools, I would imagine that there are no requirements of certain systems. I also cannot comment on the newer operating systems, I would contact the admissions department for more specific questions like that.

 

[whiskers]

Well Ben, I'm not sure how they do it where you come from or are going, but I will tell you from my experience that the most important factor I've personally seen with regard to doing well at a yokel p*d school has been upper class contacts. I've seen way too many hard working students get booted because they weren't plugged into the high voltage A/C p*d generator.

Similarly, I've seen many of what I consider 'lazy ones' grazing on wild oats chewing the cud with their high-voltage pin pals charging their batteries while relishing in academic honors and even working full time jobs!

This may not be your case. I respect many of the school's academic programs and honestly think they're top notch but mine eyes are clouded and my sentiments are displaced from years of unspeakable academic horrors. I've turned into a virtual
Nikko Toshogo Shrine.


But, to be safe, instead of getting an IPOD, maybe get a IPAL who's plugged in?

 

[PODonny]

As the magic eight ball says "Things look cloudy" on the IPod.

Suggestions for saying organized might vary from school to school b/c of the number of classes taken at one time. For example DMU students take all of the basic science courses in the 1st year except lower limb. That being said good organizational skills are universal. We get PDAs at DMU but I cannot say that I used it much. I did however use my laptop. I love Outlook. I used that to organize my life.

As for study suggestions, I always tell students to look at school as your job. You should be there from 7:30 until 5:00. I also like to study in the mornings on Saturday until noon. If you keep this level of commitment you should have most of your nights and Sunday's open for your family. This does vary from person to person. Some people need more time to study, but I think the majority of students will do well with this set-up. Also, I always suggest not to leave town the week/weekend before a test. I think that it throws off your schedule and I have seen it consistently cause poor outcomes (this is more for those who have boy/girlfriends in another city).

This is exactly what I did last year. I felt very comfortable with the time commitment I made toward school. Treating the professional education like a job is a great way to keep plugging along when studying becomes difficult. When studying started to get monotonous, at least for me, it was important to keep thinking about my obligation to study, rather than if I wanted to or not. The "school as a job" philosophy helped me stay focused for most of the day, then allowed me to relax a bit at night.

 

[Dmayor22]

Viewing your studies as a job seems like a great idea. But when I listen to the incoming Scholl students discuss their schedule, they are talking about being done most days around 4ish..and one day a week at 5:30. If that is the case it seems very hard to treat studying as a job if you are in class all day. Are schedules that much different time wise at other schools? Or am I completing misunderstanding what yall are saying?

 

[cool_vkb]

Viewing your studies as a job seems like a great idea. But when I listen to the incoming Scholl students discuss their schedule, they are talking about being done most days around 4ish..and one day a week at 5:30. If that is the case it seems very hard to treat studying as a job if you are in class all day. Are schedules that much different time wise at other schools? Or am I completing misunderstanding what yall are saying?

A normal job is no more than 8 hrs. 8am to 4pm is 8hrs in school. So think like this, regular days we will be working 8hrs and once a week the supervisor is giving us chance to make us some extra money by working overtime till 5:30pm.🙂

 

[Dr_Feelgood]

DMU is usually done around noon. When you have labs, you are done around 3 to 4, but these are not everyday or for every class.

 

[jonwill]

Viewing your studies as a job seems like a great idea. But when I listen to the incoming Scholl students discuss their schedule, they are talking about being done most days around 4ish..and one day a week at 5:30. If that is the case it seems very hard to treat studying as a job if you are in class all day. Are schedules that much different time wise at other schools? Or am I completing misunderstanding what yall are saying?

The bottom line is that you have to do what it takes. I think that is a little different for everyone. My first and second year, I would study to 5-6PM each day and then go home for dinner with the family. After dinner, it was back to studying until 10PM or so. Saturdays, I would spend most of the day studying and sometimes into the night (depending on whether there was a test on Monday). I always took Sundays off. This worked for me.

Some will study less than you and do better while others may study more than you and do worse. That is the nature of the beast.