So, you got into med school – first, congratulations! You are probably chomping at the bit to get started and might be thinking about what you can do to get a head start. First off all, don’t worry too much. Your life is about to be put on hold for the next several years. Spend some time with friends and family, spend some time with yourself, clear any projects or other things that will end up serving as a distraction (better hurry up and finish off your second round of Skyrim!) That all being said, here are four skills to get develop before med school:

Typing
You are going to take a lot of notes – like, a lot of notes. Most students chose to keep their notes on their laptop, so obviously typing is a critical skill. Even if you don’t, you will end up typing lots and lots of patient notes, and will even be tested on this skill. If your typing skills on a standard QWERTY keyboard are subpar, time to brush up. There are many free online games that can make this more fun than boring.

Reading Comprehension
The amount of reading that you’re going to do cannot be overstated. It’s an absolute ridiculous amount. Solid reading comprehension will help you study faster and more efficiently. Beyond that, it will allow you to test faster. The Step 1 averages about 1 minute 30 seconds per question. If you can comprehend the question 10 to 15 seconds faster, that speeds up your testing 11 – 16%. These moments count! Again, there are lots of reading comprehension games and apps that are available. My reading speed and comprehension was already pretty decent, but I chose to keep enhancing this skill. During qbank sessions with my study group, I would routinely have my answer selected before other students were done reading the question.

Interpersonal Communication
Aside from the fact that you are going to be thrust into a roomful of a wide variety of personalities and expected to get along for the next 4 years, you need to be comfortable interacting with patients on a regular basis. Start conversations with strangers, regularly. Try to have a chat with someone on the bus. If this is daunting for you, start just by making sure you say hi to everyone you pass on the street. Practice makes habit!

Language
If English is not your first language, now is a great time to work on developing your proficiency. As I’ve said, I absolutely applaud you for going to med school in a language that is not your mother tongue. It will take you longer to do the readings, harder to understand the lectures and more time on the questions. You got this, but do what you can now to make it easier.

On the other hand, if English is your first language, consider adding a second (or third) one. Having more than one language is a great thing to add to your CV and, depending on the language that you pick, you may have a native speaker for a fellow student! This is a great thing to start early on and just put in a few extra minutes each day.

For a runner up, depending on where your strengths lie, algebra! The vast majority of math that you need for med school is very easy – memorizing the formulas and knowing when to use them is a bit harder. If you are not comfortable understanding the relationships of ratios, percentages and doing some algebra I level formulas, I would strongly recommend you spend some time on this. Oddly enough, it was stoichiometry in gen chem II that made me fall in love with math. If you can do that comfortably, you have basically all the biostats you’ll need. Be able to rearrange formulas for finding a variety of different variables and you’ll have physiology covered, too!

Those are some really solid options to focus all of that excited and nervous energy you have now that you know you’ll be going to med school. Again, you are about to resign from pretty much everything social, so make sure you enjoy your current freedom. Spend some intentional time with friends and family. Jen and I made a three state tour to see everyone we possibly could and it was absolutely wonderful.