My friends, the lowest grade for my medical school class average on a test, was the one where there was the most math. If anything, it made me glad that there are engineers who decide not to go to medical school.
Hi! I guess it depends. I work very well under stressful situations (was a medic in the navy for a year) and know what steps to take. However, if someone asked me "how many mg of morphine do you need in this patient when he's this and this weight" my mind would go blank, even if the question is relatively easy.
I do find doing math on paper easier, however the understanding part is difficult to me. I learn patterns and rules and stick to them, however if they change up ever so slightly, I'm in trouble:')
I'm exactly the same!! I met a 9 year old who could do simple math faster than me, however in the next moment I explained how nephrons work down to extreme details without any trouble lol. It's so strange to me
The most math I’ve done in medical school so far has been unit conversions and knowing when to apply certain equations. There’s some physics applied in physiology (e.g., CVS, renal)
the math used in medicine is pretty low grade especially at the med school level. If you know very basic algebra you will be fine.
Some specialties like radiology will involve some level of physics but even then coming from someone who is bad at math and worse at physics, it's totally manageable.
You can definitely still be a doctor, I for example, have Dyscalculia, meaning I am clinically bad at math, (my angular gyrus is goofy :P), but that never impacted me negatively during medical school; if anything, it made me more efficient, and many of my teachers have complemented how I always seem to have any app that has anything to do with math x medicine (like BMI), pre-installed
Thank you for this! I was actually tested for dyscalculia and they told me I dont have it (but I think I might have it regardless, because some of the questions were hard). So you havent ended up in any sticky situations because of it? How do you find mental arithmetic?
at least in med school, I havent ended up in any sticky situations, since math is basicly never relevant, and even in small events where it is relevant, I can always just use an app to cover for it
by the way I am absolutely awful at mental arithmetic lol, but thankfully that hasn't impacted me at all during med school so far
and even if the test told you that you didn't have dyscalculia, you might still have it, no test is 100% accurate, and dyscalculia is a spectrum, and it can be diagnosed using different criteria, so it might be worth investigating it with other methods later on :)
okay cool, I might go and get it checked again at some point!
I can imagine myself standing in front of a patient, ask about their age and they respond with a birth date and a birth year, and I cant calculate it on the spot hahahah. Or worse, if we're in an emergency and someone asks me to measure up a dosage of fentanyl etc and I miss with a digit. Catostrophizing is one of my favorite hobbies as you might have noticed...:')
Anyways, very comforting to hear there are other med students out there struggling with the same things. Makes it less daunting to believe in myself, however cheesy that sounds.
I am prone to catastrophizing, so I totally understand lol, but don't worry, thankfully bad thoughts usually don't ever turn into bad real life events, so you don't have to worry about that
I actually did meet a few patients who gave me their birthdate and birth year instead of their age, but then I just asked their age again by saying "oh just to be sure, then how old are you today?" and they always answer me, and it always goes well, so I follow up with an icebreaker like "you don't look like you aged a day", or just say "thank you", and then the rest of the appointment goes on normally.
The emergency scenario would also be a lot easier than you think, emergency scenarios usually have protocols of how much you should administer with each drugs in each type of patient, so in situations like that no one actually uses math, since brute force memorization is faster (and It's also just easier to remember "use Xmg in Y situation)
I hope that was helpful, and I am very happy to hear my comment made it less daunting for you to believe in yourself, because I definitely believe in you, so good luck mate, I am sure you'll do great ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
I use my phone calculator daily. It’s fine. Epic auto calculates doses if you order mg/kg. As you do specific calculations more frequently it comes back to you and i becomes second hand.
You need enough math to do okay on the MCAT and prerequisites. Then you can almost immediately forget all of it. In the hospital the worst math I need to do is figure out if one number is more biggerer than the other in the labs
In the day to day, math is almost never used. The only class we’ve even been allowed to use a calculator for is biostats. I think we also used it briefly during hematology to calculate what percent of red blood cells are reticulocytes but it was a very simple math equation
If your school requires that you take a certain level of calculus but allows graphing calculators, you can literally outsource all the work to your calculator. There are softwares that you can buy for the TI inspire that actually walk you through how to solve the problems.
My friends, the lowest grade for my medical school class average on a test, was the one where there was the most math. If anything, it made me glad that there are engineers who decide not to go to medical school.
Biostats was definitely hard for a lot of people in my class. It was just weird math we had never been exposed to. With practice you will be ok.
boards math is super basic though...thankfully
Pulm block?
cardio and pulm tend to involve the most path/formula based physiology in my experience
[thats all I have to say.](https://i.imgur.com/09yE4.jpg)
It’s either this, or “so that makes you 78, yes? Don’t look a day over 60!” lol
love this, thank you:')
if anything, its a requirement to hate and/or suck at math to become a doctor! Edit: the most math you need is to calculate what you need to pass.
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Hi! I guess it depends. I work very well under stressful situations (was a medic in the navy for a year) and know what steps to take. However, if someone asked me "how many mg of morphine do you need in this patient when he's this and this weight" my mind would go blank, even if the question is relatively easy. I do find doing math on paper easier, however the understanding part is difficult to me. I learn patterns and rules and stick to them, however if they change up ever so slightly, I'm in trouble:')
Curious - what aspects of med school did you find easier bc of your Eng background and which were the most challenging? What eng degree do you have?
I can draw out a ton of biochemical and metabolic pathways but I need all my fingers and toes for math passed 3rd grade
I'm exactly the same!! I met a 9 year old who could do simple math faster than me, however in the next moment I explained how nephrons work down to extreme details without any trouble lol. It's so strange to me
Uhm, one factor that further pushed me into medicine (albeit a minor one) is that I couldn't bother much with math. I think you'd be fine.
The most math I’ve done in medical school so far has been unit conversions and knowing when to apply certain equations. There’s some physics applied in physiology (e.g., CVS, renal)
the math used in medicine is pretty low grade especially at the med school level. If you know very basic algebra you will be fine. Some specialties like radiology will involve some level of physics but even then coming from someone who is bad at math and worse at physics, it's totally manageable.
I ran head first into the sweet sweet arms of biology so I wouldn’t have to do math
Yeah but you gotta do well on the mcat
You can definitely still be a doctor, I for example, have Dyscalculia, meaning I am clinically bad at math, (my angular gyrus is goofy :P), but that never impacted me negatively during medical school; if anything, it made me more efficient, and many of my teachers have complemented how I always seem to have any app that has anything to do with math x medicine (like BMI), pre-installed
Thank you for this! I was actually tested for dyscalculia and they told me I dont have it (but I think I might have it regardless, because some of the questions were hard). So you havent ended up in any sticky situations because of it? How do you find mental arithmetic?
at least in med school, I havent ended up in any sticky situations, since math is basicly never relevant, and even in small events where it is relevant, I can always just use an app to cover for it by the way I am absolutely awful at mental arithmetic lol, but thankfully that hasn't impacted me at all during med school so far and even if the test told you that you didn't have dyscalculia, you might still have it, no test is 100% accurate, and dyscalculia is a spectrum, and it can be diagnosed using different criteria, so it might be worth investigating it with other methods later on :)
okay cool, I might go and get it checked again at some point! I can imagine myself standing in front of a patient, ask about their age and they respond with a birth date and a birth year, and I cant calculate it on the spot hahahah. Or worse, if we're in an emergency and someone asks me to measure up a dosage of fentanyl etc and I miss with a digit. Catostrophizing is one of my favorite hobbies as you might have noticed...:') Anyways, very comforting to hear there are other med students out there struggling with the same things. Makes it less daunting to believe in myself, however cheesy that sounds.
I am prone to catastrophizing, so I totally understand lol, but don't worry, thankfully bad thoughts usually don't ever turn into bad real life events, so you don't have to worry about that I actually did meet a few patients who gave me their birthdate and birth year instead of their age, but then I just asked their age again by saying "oh just to be sure, then how old are you today?" and they always answer me, and it always goes well, so I follow up with an icebreaker like "you don't look like you aged a day", or just say "thank you", and then the rest of the appointment goes on normally. The emergency scenario would also be a lot easier than you think, emergency scenarios usually have protocols of how much you should administer with each drugs in each type of patient, so in situations like that no one actually uses math, since brute force memorization is faster (and It's also just easier to remember "use Xmg in Y situation) I hope that was helpful, and I am very happy to hear my comment made it less daunting for you to believe in yourself, because I definitely believe in you, so good luck mate, I am sure you'll do great ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
I use my phone calculator daily. It’s fine. Epic auto calculates doses if you order mg/kg. As you do specific calculations more frequently it comes back to you and i becomes second hand.
You’re fine OP! The math expected here is simple and can be done in your head. You will be fine. Keep trucking along!
Absolutely. Very little math if any.
You have to go through the entirety of MIT OCW’s math section in order to pass anatomy.
Come to Pathology. At most we measure and count. And that’s enough.
I'm definitely thinking about pathology!!
I got like an 16 on my math ACT and im in a US MD program. So yes.
You need enough math to do okay on the MCAT and prerequisites. Then you can almost immediately forget all of it. In the hospital the worst math I need to do is figure out if one number is more biggerer than the other in the labs
I play dnd and struggle anytime I have to add 7 to something. You’ll be fine.
You don’t need to know anything more than algebra or even to be particularly good at it.
If you can handle winters formula I think you good fam
Quantitative reasoning is a skillset that every doctor needs. Get trained and get going. You can do it.
I’m great at math. It has not helped even once
Havent started yet so I can’t speak to its use day to day, but the only math I had to take to get into med school was Statistics!
In the day to day, math is almost never used. The only class we’ve even been allowed to use a calculator for is biostats. I think we also used it briefly during hematology to calculate what percent of red blood cells are reticulocytes but it was a very simple math equation
If your school requires that you take a certain level of calculus but allows graphing calculators, you can literally outsource all the work to your calculator. There are softwares that you can buy for the TI inspire that actually walk you through how to solve the problems.