title: Why is medical school difficult? Or, if it isn't difficult, why it should be.
abstract: Given the intellect and motivation of the idealized contemporary medical student and the structure of contemporary medical education, one might not expect medical school to be difficult; experience dictates otherwise. Since medical school prepares one to become a physician, the inherent difficulty of medical school is expected to lie in the areas of the physician's attitudes, skills, and knowledge. This expectation is not supported; instead it is suggested that the difficulty may actually reside in the fact that the student must negotiate three different learning styles in the course of only two years.
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D001290:Attitude; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009042:Motivation; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States