/sci/ - Science & Math

Is an intellectual goal ever worth the bodily harm that results being almost entirely sedentary in order to pursue it?

Medfag brainlet here. I am studying for the USMLE Step 1 exam a.k.a. "the boards," which will essentially decide my entire career. If you score high enough, you can match into any specialty at big-name research hospitals. If you fuck up, you end up as a family medicine doctor in bumfuck North Dakota. Unlike other standardized tests, this one is based almost entirely on content knowledge, not critical thinking , so your score is more or less directly dependant on your memory and how much time you put in. Unlike my naive classmates who still attend lecture and cling on to the idea that medicine requires critical thinking, I have been spending 12 hour days in the library for the past 5 months memorizing as much as I possibly can. I have 10 more months until the big exam. I know this is the only way to get to the big dick score score of my dreams, but I am worried about the toll it's taking on my body. They say sitting is the new smoking. What keeps me going is the idea that it's just temporary.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

>not becoming a physician

It's like you want to be poor.

Enjoy teaching high school algebra classes for $60K/year with your math PhD.