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Test Taking Anxiety
Performance anxiety is very common. It involves a nervousness, shortness of breath, palpitations or a combination of any of these. Below is my advice regarding how to master testing anxiety, and thus maximize your test scores. 1. Become connected to your body. You are about to take the test, and just as you are ready to click, or open [...]
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Test Taking Inspiration
We Fall Down… There I was lying on my bedroom floor in tears. I had been crying for nearly an hour and the only point of joy I had during that time was the pride I had in choosing an apartment with such great carpet. I was down and out in both the literal [...]
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Tips for the MCAT
The MCAT is one of the most feared exams as an undergraduate medical student. Your score on this exam can ultimately decide your chances of being accepted into medical school. Unfortunately minority students tend to underperform on this exam. I personally took the MCAT once. I had paid for a course to take over the [...]
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Bridging the gap between the worlds of Medicine and Law
As a third year medical student, I was excited to finally be seeing patients. I was out of the lecture hall and into the hospital and clinic, ready and willing to take on the world. I quickly realized however my lack of familiarity with many of the social ills that were impacting my patients’ health [...]
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Diversity and its effects on the Physician – Patient relationship
Diversity in the healthcare field is important simply because our patient population is not composed of only one ethnicity. If the healthcare system mirrored the patient population, there would be more providers available to educate their colleagues on cultural competency. I have only been in medical school for less than a year and already some [...]
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Disparities in the Physician Workforce
On the tour, I’ve been personally been amazed by the number of students that comment that the Tour For Diversity is the first time that they have met a physician from a under-represented minority background. But truthfully, I shouldn’t be surprised, the data is there to back-up what students are saying..there is a great disparity in the [...]
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Ground Zero: The Disparity of Health Insurance
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, 15.7% of the U.S. population does not have health insurance. To put this number in perspective, 15.7% of the U.S. population is equal to the entire population of California and half the population of Texas combined. The difficulty in acquiring health insurance further increases this [...]
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The importance of reading and writing English
Medical education in the United States, compared to that of other countries, is lengthier for various reasons. Like so many of you, throughout high school I struggled with English courses. My sentence construction was mediocre, in due part to lack of exposure to diverse texts and reading materials. The following tips of knowledge are exercises [...]
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Community-based research, bench work, or health services research: Where do I look for research opportunities?
I am frequently asked – “How did you decide the type of research to become involved with? Where did you find research opportunities?” Early on I developed a strong interest in HIV-research. This was triggered by losing a family member to AIDS and viewing news announcements of the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS in the Latino [...]
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Fluid Dynamics and Physiology
Part of the wonder of medical and dental training is learning how complex the body is. Physiology was one of my favorite courses as a medical student. You’ll find that learning the “how” behind the “what” of the body’s operations is rewarding. It was also in Physiology course that I saw the clearest association between [...]
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