How many credits/classes do you have to take while in medical school per semester?

Question

If I am a college student taking heavy science classes at 15 credits per semester, how many credits do you predict I will take once I get into medical school?

Someone told me (who did not go to medical school) it is much more than 15 credits and you basically have to have no social life to keep up with it all. I hear you can take many classes pass/fail so you don't have to perfect all of those classes though in certain medical schools.

Answer 1

Well Im not sure how many, but I do know you have no life.  When you become a resident then thats when you really have no life.  Medical school is very hard, they want people who dont mind not having a life and not people who want to party.  And you really cant fail when your in medical school.  No one wants a doctor who has failed classes over and over because they were too busy being social.

Answer 2

There is great variability in how schools determine the credits for each class.  I have seen some schools allot 10 semester hours for Gross Anatomy, some only give it 8 and others 12.  But on average, you can expect to carry somewhere between the mid-20's to mid-30's.  Once you get out of the first two years of medical school (the Basic Sciences) and begin Clinical Rotations, the "load" is determined by the number of weeks of training.  For example, the Core rotations are between 6 and 12 weeks.  Elective rotations can be as few as 2-4 weeks.

It's true that schools do vary in the way they record your grade, but the reality is that is only an internal policy.  The National Board of Medical Examiners quality assures medical education in the US through the use of "Shelf Exams".  These are standardized tests administered by every US medical school at the end of each course.  The exams are scored by the NBME on the basis of percentage of correct answers (and there is no sliding scale!)  The NBME reports the results back to each school and how the school chooses to record it is their decision.

The allegation that medical students have no social life is a scare tactic.  Most medical schools provide class for about 6 hours a day.  The average medical student studies between 4 and 6 hours a day, depending on the subject material and their ability to grasp and retain the information.  That leaves plenty of time for taking care of personal business and/or socializing.  Of course, that changes pretty much around test dates!

Some schools are very "kind" to their students and grade on sliding scales, allow students to take make-up tests, etc.  That's fine and good as far as taking it easy on the students' psyche, but the medical school is not the final arbitrator in a medical student's "standing".  Everybody, regardless if they are educated in a US school or a foreign school, must take and pass the US Medical License Examinations.  For most students that involves Step 1 ( a killer of an exam that is all about the Basic Sciences) and then the two-part Step 2 exams which test Clinical Skills and Clinical Knowledge.  Foreign trained students (non-English speaking) also have to take exams to test their English abilities.  Most medical schools will not allow a student to proceed to Clinical Rotations unless they have achieved a passing score on the Step 1 exam.   Some schools will limit your ability to retake the Step 1 (usually to two or three times).  If you continue to fail, you're washed out of medical school.  But then there are some schools that only require that you take the exam and whether you pass or not does not impede your progress through school.

But the big kicker is this--your residency program will accept you based on your USMLE scores.  Which means that even if you graduate medical school, yet score low on the USMLE, you may not get into ANY residency program.  And I don't know of any state that will issue a permanent medical license to somebody who has not completed residency training.