Sketchy Spotlight: A "Diehard Sketchy Fan"

This week, meet Rachana: MS3 student at Indira Gandhi Government Medical College. A self-proclaimed “diehard Sketchy fan,” Rachana talks about her experience attending medical school in India, her unexpected love of Microbiology, and how visual learning has helped her feel confident in the classroom and on rotations. 

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Q: What sparked your interest in medicine?

Rachana: I decided I wanted to be a doctor when I was very young. I think that’s all I’ve wanted to do. I never actually wanted to be anything else. I never had a doubt in my mind. 

I am finally a medical student, currently studying at IGGMC in Nagpur, India. Medicine is a graduation course in India. You don’t have to do something else for pre-med and then go ahead to medicine. So, after high school I joined med school, and I am in my final year currently. In India, med school is four and a half years of education, and another year of internship where we learn the practical aspects of medicine. 

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Q: How did you learn about Sketchy? 

Rachana: This is a pretty interesting story. I found medicine extremely difficult in first year, and I wasn’t scoring very well. In second year, we had Microbiology, and after my first exam at school, I did not do well. I was extremely frustrated because I hated Microbiology. There’s a lot to remember. People around me hated it. It gave me a lot of anxiety and stress to even think about that subject. Which is when I went online and I googled how to study the subject, because when I asked my seniors about it, all they said was, “You have to read it again and again.” I’m not someone that is good at memorizing—I hate it! So after searching a lot, I came across Sketchy. ‍

I found the idea pretty interesting because I hadn’t thought about a visual learning platform before. That’s when I went on YouTube and saw the free videos, and I loved it! I was blown away that it was possible. I was able to remember catalase positive and everything else with so much ease. Watching Sketchy is like watching a cartoon, you’re studying, you remember everything, it’s effortless. I fell in love with Microbiology. I was waiting for Sketchy to launch Clinical courses, and when you did, I immediately subscribed to Sketchy, and I have been a diehard fan of Sketchy since then. Honestly it’s made medicine so much easier for me. I think a big part of my interest in Internal Medicine is because of Sketchy. 

There’s enough inferiority complex in med school as it is, without others making you feel bad about it. I think it’s very important to go out of your way and look for new, better resources. I have convinced almost 50% of my classmates to use Sketchy. Apart from that, I have convinced almost three batches of my juniors to also start using Sketchy. 

Rachana’s favorite Sketchy lessons: Hematology & Oncology (Internal Medicine) and Antimicrobials (Pharm)

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Q: Has Sketchy shaped the way you feel about yourself in med school? 

Rachana: Definitely, definitely. And also, the way others look at me now. Because I know everything in my rotations, my wards. My teachers are highly impressed by me. That’s not something that was happening in first year. As I said, I found it very difficult to keep up with it. I wasn’t very good at memorizing stuff. Because of Sketchy, I have no doubts about whether I’m confused. For example, which organism is catalase positive. Any other normal person has to think, and then reassess whether it’s correct. I don’t. That’s obviously because of Sketchy. 

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Check out Rachana’s wall of Sketchy characters!

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Watch the full interview. 

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