3: The Constant Struggle of Comparing Myself to Others

Session 03

When you’re struggling with anything in life, premed related or not, it’s very easy to look at them and think they have it easy. We need to stop comparing.

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[01:12] Poster of the Week:

"I'm studying for the MCAT... it's a very humbling experience, I could say that for sure. But it seems that I'm struggling with comparing myself to the ones around me. Well, I work so hard and I'm trying my best to get a really good MCAT score. People around me seems to easily get a 510+. And what I need to tell myself is I need to stop comparing myself to people around me and that other people's success is not my failure. I'm not hating on them. I wish everybody the best. But it seems that the past few days, I've just been struggling with this concept of... in looking at others, I keep feeling like there's something wrong with me or I'm not doing enough or I'm not giving it enough, which I am. I'm really working a lot.

I'm fully dedicated to MCAT studying. It's like a 9-5 job for me every single day. I have to figure out how I can not compare myself because everybody does differently and it's okay if I failed. And it's okay for me to take it again. I just have to accept that. If someone else is going through this too, know that you're not in this alone. Well, I'm assuming I'm not in this alone so that helps me get through this and realize that it's okay to not score as well on your full-lengths in the beginning. So I still have a way to go. But it's okay.

One of my greatest weaknesses right now is accepting. And it's okay to mess up and make mistakes because right now I can learn from them. And I need to stop comparing myself to premeds around me who are getting 510s and 518s. I need to enjoy this journey. I feel I'm just stressing out and the anxiety is causing me to not do well. So I need to learn how to enjoy this journey. So that's another thing I'm working on. I hope that this helps someone out there too. I'm not alone."

[04:22] A Humbling and Frustrating Experience

Studying for the MCAT as both humbling and frustrating are very common among premeds, as well as the difficulty in not comparing yourself to other people. MCAT is a very hated exam and it can be very humbling for many people. You can study and study and still not get the score that you feel you need.

"The MCAT is probably the most hated exam out there among premed students and among people studying science."

If you listened to Dr. Ryan Gray's The Premed Years Podcast, he'd tell you that you don't need a specific score to get into medical school. And he has so much great information to people about the MCAT as well as The MCAT Podcast.

Getting frustrated about the MCAT is a common feeling so don't beat yourself up about that. You know what you're doing since you're working really hard. And that's exactly what you need to do to get through it. So just stick with it.

[05:50] Comparing Yourself to Other People

Comparing yourself to other people is a common thing humans do, whether you're a premed or not. We do it as children and even as adults. We just don't show it or being as obvious as when we were children.

"It's a very human characteristic to compare yourself to other people."

It's also human to almost want other people to be having a hard time as well and to not be doing well on the MCAT because there's that saying, misery loves company. And that's a human thing. Humans don't want to