The second trimester of chiropractic school is no joke! If you just looked at your new schedule and felt a wave of panic, you are not alone. Juggling 26.5 credit hours means your days are planned down to the minute with lectures, study plans, meal prepping and everything else in between.
It is easy to feel overwhelmed, but this trimester is entirely survivable. I learned the hard way, so you don’t have to! Here are three essential strategies to help protect your mental health and your grades!
1) Staying Active
As future health care providers, we know how important it is to stay physically active. Yet, when school gets busy, and it’s always busy, physical health is often the first thing students sacrifice. Keeping on top of your physical health is just as important as taking care of your mental health—and staying active improves both.
Aiming for 10,000 steps a day is a great baseline. Hit this goal by taking a lap around campus during lunch, walking during phone calls, or pacing the hallway between lectures. A few of my classmates even invested in a walking pad so they could get their steps in while studying!
Getting your steps in provides proven physiological benefits, but more importantly, it gives you a much-needed mental break from the heavy workload.
2) Reviewing Daily
When you finally get home after a full day of back-to-back classes, the absolute last thing you want to do is open your laptop. It feels like extra punishment. However, waiting to cram weeks of material right before an exam is a recipe for a meltdown. Speaking from experience.
I will be honest: I didn’t truly get the hang of daily review until the very end of the trimester, and I regretted waiting so long. Spending just 30 to 45 minutes every evening reviewing that day’s notes makes an enormous difference. Transitioning some of the information from short term to long-term memory. When exam week arrives, you won’t be learning the material for the first time; you will just be refreshing it. Future you will thank you.
3) Making Non-negotiable Time for Things You Love to do
It’s easy to fall into the trap of studying, studying and more studying. But burning yourself out by week four will not help you become a better chiropractor. You must intentionally make time for the things that bring you joy outside of school.
Whether your outlet is playing sports, sitting by the pool, doing crafts, or losing yourself in a fiction book: schedule it. Treat these hobbies like mandatory appointments. I’ve found that giving my brain a break from chiropractic adjustments, neurophysiology and anatomy, I was able to focus better when I returned to studying.
The second trimester is a marathon, not a sprint. It demands a lot, but by implementing daily reviews, protecting your hobbies and keeping your body moving, you can do more than just survive, you can thrive. Take it one day, one step, and one adjustment at a time!
