Whoa....FREE TWO DAY SHIPPING FROM AMAZON?! FOR A YEAR?!

So apparently Amazon decided to be super nice to students this year (or it's just part of their grand scheme to topple Google and take over the world). If you haven't heard, Amazon is offering a free year of Amazon Prime (their usually $79/year service that gives you "free" 2-day shipping on most items) for students with a .edu email address. I signed up for it immediately and it works great!

You're probably thinking, "wait, what's the catch? Nothing is ever free!" Well, you're more or less right. Amazon says they'll be sending you some promotional emails and such. Unfortunately, you can't opt out of the emails, because by doing so, you'll be cancelling your free Amazon Prime. You might be able to get around it by adding their email to your spam folder, but be careful of sending ALL of Amazon's emails to the Spam folder (unless you don't care about confirmations and shipping notifications).

Also of note, I haven't confirmed this, but this offer probably extends to ANYONE with a .edu email address. Faculty, professors, employees of universities, let us know if it works for you too! And for you soon to be freshman, if you haven't been assigned a .edu email yet, hold tight! You'll probably get it by August, and with any luck, the promotion will still be in effect.

Happy shopping, with your FREE 2-day shipping all year! Thanks to our friends at Hackcollege for the tip!

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Guest Post: Skating On Without Support

This is a guest post by Erin Breedlove who blogs at Healthy, Unwealthy, and Becoming Wise.

Chances are that you’re here reading the wealth of information and advice here at Pre-Med Hell because, well, you want to become a doctor, and you’re a pre-medical student.

Typically, there are two categories in which pre-med students find themselves. The first category contains the students who want to be doctors because that’s all they’ve ever thought about becoming, and they’re usually pretty academically conscious. In addition to that, they’re the people that the average students consider the “nerds”. Also in this category, we find students who have parents with exceedingly high expectations for their student, and being a doctor, as stated by much of the general public, is one of society’s highest regarded status symbols and professions.

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In the Interest of Full Disclosure

I'm sure some of you have noticed advertisements for various test preparation agencies on the site over the past few months. We were paid for these through the affiliate programs for the respective agency, on a commission basis. Since, I have accepted a position working for one of the agencies I have removed the advertisements voluntarily. I feel that my employment with a specific agency should have no bearing on this site, its advertising, and its content. If the time ever arrives to review any products of this specific agency, I assure all my readers that, I will have one of the other writers take the assignment, for the sake of fairness.  

We have also signed our first advertiser BookRenter and you may notice the link on the side of the page "Rent Textbooks". Also in partnership with them we have started a branded version of their service at books.premedhell.com we will receive a small commission with each purchase made through our store front, which will be used to keep our site alive. 

Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinions or contact us using the contact form. As always follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Kill as Few Patients as Possible: The Review

Mohammad introduced me to this book with, by far, one of the most interesting titles for a novel I’ve seen yet called, “Kill as Few Patients as Possible” by Dr. Oscar London (Arlan Cohn). Once I picked up the book I couldn’t concentrate on my Human Sexuality class until I read all fifty-seven essays. Dr. London provides an informative and witty account of understanding the doctor’s point of view in a patient’s room, private practice, and hospital. He cleverly refers to himself as the World’s Best Doctor as anyone else in the field would as they help their patient’s through troubling times. With forty years of knowledge, he gives fifty-seven chances for you to not make the same mistakes that he has made throughout his career.

 I’ve been in and out of doctor’s offices all my life, especially in the last three or four years. I’ve worked in a hospital for three years (next week); I’ve seen tons of doctors. I’ve heard what patients, staff, and nurses think of what a great doctor should be and what a not so great doctor should be. While the book may be written by a doctor, it provides insights and guidelines that are invaluable to any healthcare professional specifically the medical directors.

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Can't Sleep, Grade Needed

I like to think that you aren't a real pre-med until you pull a legendary all-nighter (though, ironically, I've only had to pull all-nighters for my non pre-med classes). Lots of people probably have different definitions of what qualifies as an "all-nighter". For me, it has two qualifications: a) staying up until at least 3 am and b) getting less than 4 hours of sleep. Either way, it sucks, it makes you feel like crap the next day (and possibly the day after that), and you always end up wishing you didn't procrastinate so much. Nevertheless, you're there, and you gotta do it.

I decided to compile a list of "No-Sleep" aids to help get you through your next all-nighter. Different things work for different people, but these are generally what work well for me.

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Motivation and Focus

I’ve received a decent number of requests about writing a post with study tips that I have found helpful. I’ve thought long and hard about what to write as the subject is so large, and there are various tips that help with different subjects. I’ve decided that instead of writing this post about studying tips, I’ll begin by writing a post about two things that you need to succeed in any subject. I’m sitting here in my regular coffee shop, trying to study for the MCAT, realizing that these are two things that most people forget about when complaining about how they aren’t doing well in a subject.

What are these two crucial elements you ask? They are motivation and focus, without both you are like a boat lost in the ocean without any power. You are fighting an uphill battle, if you are trying to master a subject without plenty of both. The best analogy I’ve ever heard about this is any subject is like an ocean, there are many ways you can cross it and many places you can end up at; focus gives you a target and a place to land, motivation is what keeps you going forward instead of going out a couple hundred feet and giving up.

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Better Sleep, Better Grades

This is a guest post from Steve who writes about how to be an outstanding pre med student at PreMedJourney.com

Could the quality of your sleep keep you from getting into medical school? The latest research suggests that how well you're sleeping could be just as important as how much sleep you get when considering academic success.

Unfortunately the demanding schedule of pre-med classes and activities often means pre-meds are worse off than other college students when it comes to sleep. We get less and lower quality sleep often due to the added stress of difficult classes and balancing activities.

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