Advice for MSAP at SGU
I completed St. George’s University (SGU) Medical Preparedness Assessment Program (MSAP) in the fall of 2019. After submitting my application, I had a remote interview with a graduate of SGU. A couple of days later, I received a conditional acceptance. I was invited to the 5-week MSAP program. If I passed with above 80%, I could go straight into Term 1. If I didn’t pass, then I had to go to the Charter Program (like an extra semester of post-bacc). Being a neurotic pre-med student, I scoured the internet for anything about MSAP. At the time, there was nothing but a couple of paragraphs on forums. That made me pretty anxious, I couldn’t afford another semester. Another ~50K **shudders**.
MSAP was challenging. I’d rate 8.5/11 on average. To give some context, I graduated from university awhile ago, but I was taking 2-3 classes while working to finish pre-requisites and boost my GPA. So if you’re fresh out of school, you might have an easier time adjusting!
MSAP Structure and Schedule
MSAP was 5 weeks for my cohort due to the holidays. When I facilitated MSAP, that cohort only had 4 weeks. It is a self-paced program. Each Sunday they would release 30-40 video lectures ranging from 5 to 20 minutes long with accompanying powerpoints. The topics would be categorized into physiology/anatomy or biochemistry. The topics were detailed, but there were a lot of topics. The staff has told me the point of MSAP is to through a range and a high volume of content and see if we can be successful on tests. Specifically, there was a heavy emphasis on just if we could handle it because we would really learn everything later.
The schedule for the rest of the week was up to me. There were two optional days of peer-facilitated review sessions. When I facilitated MSAP session, I realized I truly didn’t take advantage of those resources! I went to two sessions out of four. I had an amazing facilitator, Chris, who was a third-year student. I was in awe of how he simplified concepts, kept us engaged with questions, and his slides really put into perspective what’s important and how questions are asked. The second facilitator wasn’t as helpful for me. When we were assigned to a random breakout room, they just asked what questions we prepared. As an introvert sitting there in a group of 5 with nothing prepared, I quickly bounced out of that session.
Having A Job & Doing MSAP
While I was in MSAP, I did work full-time as a scribe. However, I started at 5 AM and ended at 2 PM so I had the rest of the day to focus on studying. I do think it’s possible to work and do MSAP, but it does take up a lot of time! I tried to frame it as a temporary sacrifice - a couple of weeks of pain for a better opportunity!
I mapped out every minute of my days and quantified every task I wanted to accomplish. Even though that was stressful, it was helpful to ensure I was keeping up with the process.
MSAP Content
Some of the material was new to me, but overall it wasn’t the most complex compared to what I experienced in undergrad. The hardest part was the volume and trying to understand what I should understand! There were a lot of details and I was constantly asking myself “do I need to really know all of this?” Is this like college where you pick out the big concepts and everything else is icing?” The quizzes were quite short in comparison to the amount of content introduced. Looking back, it’s what you can expect in the preclinical years. We have 10 lectures a week, each ranging around 30-40, but I’ve seen as high as 80-90. That’s maybe 300 slides per week and each module is around 3-4 weeks. So that’s 900-1200 slides per test, but only around 100-200 questions per test. So learning how to cover your bases is a valuable skill.
Outside Resources
It’s actually really challenging to use outside resources in MSAP because there are so many topics going into varying depths. I used some YouTube videos like Ninja Nerds for physiology and biochemistry and Sam Webster for anatomy, but most videos went far out of scope. They do recommend some textbooks for extra practice questions, but they aren’t made for MSAP. So similarly, you have to find the questions which are applicable to you.
I did use Anki. I made Anki cards for most of the slides. Looking back, I probably went too far. There were way too many cards that were helpful. They did mention there are quizlets made from past students for MSAP.
How I studied
I’d break my study system for MSAP into phases.
Phase 1: Knowledge dump into my brain
Phase 2: Make resources (anki + study sheets)
Phase 3: Active learning (anki)
I would set-up my notes and download all my lectures once the lectures were released. I made my study sheets based on the list of learning objectives they released. I turned them into questions and try to answer them before I watched the lectures to see what I don’t know.
Then I would spend Monday and Tuesday watching most of the lectures. Some lectures inevitably would be left for Wednesday, but I’d focus more on getting those anki cards done.
The rest of the week I’d hammer out all those anki cards and if I had time use one of those quizlets. Before you know it, Sunday is here and it’s time to take the quiz! They give you a timeframe on Sunday to take an online proctored exam.
What I would do differently
Geez, well I’d quit my job to make life a little easier but that really wasn’t an option for me haha. Honestly, I wish I spent more time actively learning. Utilizing the learning objectives was helpful, but time-consuming. Maybe I would have swapped that out with using someone else’s quizlet. Quizlet + Anki might have been a powerhouse.
Overall, if you’re going through MSAP I would try to play to your strengths first. Then if you realize it’s not working, don’t be afraid to try something else. Don’t be like me, I love to analyze processes and plan, plan, plan. But it takes me forever to do anything. In MSAP, you really don’t have any time to miss a beat just because of how short it is.
Advice For After MSAP
Relax!! Enjoy and celebrate how far you’ve come! I’m only halfway into my journey and let me tell you it’s a looooong journey. Once you start, there are very few breaks, especially guilt-free breaks. So while you have a chance, please take a breather.
Warmly, Rainee
Can’t wait to see you on the other side! Kalbi can’t wait to sport this on the airplane (: