What do Medical Students Do on Weekends?

[ElegantWeapon]

What does a typical weekend look like for you current med students out there?

[greatnt249]

Originally Posted by ElegantWeapon

What does a typical weekend look like for you current med students out there?

We're not freaks of nature (for the most part), if that's what you mean. Normal weekends usually consist of normal weekend things (football, going to the bar, etc.), except maybe more in moderation than in undergrad.

Once exam time rolls around, however, weekends are spent studying (at least that's what I do).

[Typical Premed]

This is what we did this weekend....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB8XinV-2cc

[gaccboom]

Originally Posted by greatnt249

We're not freaks of nature (for the most part), if that's what you mean. Normal weekends usually consist of normal weekend things (football, going to the bar, etc.), except maybe more in moderation than in undergrad.

Once exam time rolls around, however, weekends are spent studying (at least that's what I do).

And sleep.

Especially during the clinical years.

[Stratego]

Laundry, studying, cleaning, errands, studying, exercise, social get-together with classmates, sleeping, studying, SDN.

[MilkmanAl]

Fridays and Saturdays are for going out, but I usually only do anything interesting on one of those nights. If a test is coming up, I might not go out at all. No matter what, though, Saturdays and Sundays are currently for football. I am useless while football games are on. That doesn't help my studying very much, unfortunately.

[Depakote]

I try to do stuff with friends one or two of the weekend nights.

I also use that time to catch up on laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping etc. The rest is generally devoted to studying.

[skinMD]

study and have sex (with LovelyBRass)

[J DUB]

study!!!

[ChiDO]

Study

[Bacchus]

Spend $100 at the bar, woops.

[greatnt249]

Originally Posted by MilkmanAl

Fridays and Saturdays are for going out, but I usually only do anything interesting on one of those nights. If a test is coming up, I might not go out at all. No matter what, though, Saturdays and Sundays are currently for football. I am useless while football games are on. That doesn't help my studying very much, unfortunately.

Guilty...even though we have a biochem final on Wednesday, I've been watching football all afternoon.

[coldweatherblue]

my weekends are normal except when it's exam-time. normal for me is: beach, trip someplace (vegas, mountains, SD? camping?), football (important right now), friends, laziness, fun-time with my girl, sleep in, play music, etc. If I don't have much going on I will often study.. but I usually don't "have to" unless exams are coming up soon.

My weekend activities really haven't changed compared to undergrad, except I'm chilling with a different crowd (my hometown friends are back east, I go to med school on the west-coast).

[Bacchus]

Originally Posted by greatnt249

Guilty...even though we have a biochem final on Wednesday, I've been watching football all afternoon.

My friend has a biochem final on Weds. I have my first biochem exam on Tuesday. I've hardly studied today. Oh well.

[J DUB]

"What do med students DO on the weekend"?.......hmmmm.....

Each other!!

[econdr]

drink.

med school is like college all over again, exams are every two to three weeks, so you can definitely find time to enjoy yourself

[J DUB]

sex, drugs, and rock and roll!!!

[mybubbles14]

Originally Posted by econdr

drink.

med school is like college all over again, exams are every two to three weeks, so you can definitely find time to enjoy yourself

some unlucky people have weekly exams

[J DUB]

Originally Posted by mybubbles14

some unlucky people have weekly exams

Less materials....over more tests!! So, it might be a little easier....

[jturkel]

go to bars, drink, and play beerpong lol

[mybubbles14]

Originally Posted by J DUB

Less materials....over more tests!! So, it might be a little easier....

true, but there's ALWAYS an immediate exam you need to be studying for which sucks. My grad program is like this and I always feel like I am playing catch-up...getting behind really screws you! Note to self for next year...

[J DUB]

Originally Posted by mybubbles14

true, but there's ALWAYS an immediate exam you need to be studying for which sucks. My grad program is like this and I always feel like I am playing catch-up...getting behind really screws you! Note to self for next year...

We had a different exam almost every week I was in pharm school, so I have gotten used to it...

I would prefer all my exams spread out so I can focus on that one and really learn the material and not have to just memorize to pass and hope something sticks for rotations.

[ButImLETired]

If your school goes on the block system, it also REALLY depends on the block.

Our first block was biochem/genetics/cell bio, and for that class we had an exam every other monday, so on the weeks when we didn't have a test we all went out and had a great time, and the off-weekends we usually studied with the occasional low-key stress-relieving activity.

Now that we're in anatomy/physiology/embryology/histology, we have an exam a month, so the first weekend everyone goes out, the second weekend people are like "oh $()@ I haven't done anything all last week, I'm behind, time to catch up" so no one goes out, the third weekend some go out, some are still super behind and playing catch-up, and the last weekend before the exam, well....let's just say we're all up at 3 am, generally in the same spot, surrounded by books and sweating bullets.

[ar2388]

that sounds about right...
weekends really are about studying usually. the few weekends i didn't study because it was a post exam week, i really kicked myself in the butt when the exam come up the following week...(we tend to have exams every 2 weeks, every toher monday or tues or wed or something

[ApoK]

I wonder how many people are really bookish and don't go out at all in med school

[Contrarian]

Originally Posted by ApoK

I wonder how many people are really bookish and don't go out at all in med school

I think it probably depends a bit on what type of specialty people are going for. At least that's what I've heard from a couple med students.

[Ion1776]

Ive shadowed a bunch of doctors, and know a bunch of my dad's colleagues. They all said after every exam they had huge parties and got completely trashed.

[DrYoda]

Drink beer and watch football. WTF did you think we did?

[doxycycline]

Originally Posted by Ion1776

Ive shadowed a bunch of doctors, and know a bunch of my dad's colleagues. They all said after every exam they had huge parties and got completely trashed.

I have heard the same from every doctor I've spoken to regarding social life in med school.

[Brent8927]

We all turn to werwolves come Friday evening...

Like many others here, my weekends are more or less the exact same as when I was an undergrad. Well, not quite actually. I'm from CA and am in Chicago now, so I can't go hiking in shorts and short-sleaves in the middle of winter. It's kind of a bummer really...

Definitely lots of studying the weekends before tests. But it's very easy to have a life in medical school.

[FrickenhugeMD]

Originally Posted by Ion1776

Ive shadowed a bunch of doctors, and know a bunch of my dad's colleagues. They all said after every exam they had huge parties and got completely trashed.

This sounds about right, at least from my experiences. Some people are party poopers though and dont come out.

Seeing as we have exams every other monday for the most part, not every weekend is treated the same. We had tests yesterday and have another tomorrow, so this was a busy weekend. The weekend before this I drove 4 hours home to go deer hunting and hang out with old friends. Not much studying got done, alot of beer was drank, and an 8 point I shot that weekend rode back on the roof of my car. Having a life is very much a reality for me and most of my friends in school. Don't ever let the books get the best of you.

[halekulani]

get drunk and super hammered

what else is there to do?

[J DUB]

Originally Posted by ApoK

I wonder how many people are really bookish and don't go out at all in med school

more than you think.....closest studying is huge!!

[sleepy425]

yeah it really does depend on curriculum and how often you have exams. I'm pretty glad I go to a place that basically has monthly exams. Every month, we have 3 exams within 2 days of each other. That might sound bad, but it's amazing, because usually we blow off two of the exams and the other one we study pretty hard for, or else we have group exams, in which case it's not bad. So for 3 weeks, we can basically do whatever we want whenever we want, and then for the last week and a half before the exams, we study harder.

So most weekends are free, and people find lots of different things to do, from volunteering to cultural events to parties to potlucks to hiking, etc. Since we're so close to new york, people go there all the time too, as well as to Boston, Baltimore, and D.C.

There's nothing wrong with more frequent exams or quizzes, but it gives you slightly less control over your free time and over the pace of your studying.

[ButImLETired]

Originally Posted by sleepy425

yeah it really does depend on curriculum and how often you have exams. I'm pretty glad I go to a place that basically has monthly exams. Every month, we have 3 exams within 2 days of each other. That might sound bad, but it's amazing, because usually we blow off two of the exams and the other one we study pretty hard for, or else we have group exams, in which case it's not bad. So for 3 weeks, we can basically do whatever we want whenever we want, and then for the last week and a half before the exams, we study harder.

So most weekends are free, and people find lots of different things to do, from volunteering to cultural events to parties to potlucks to hiking, etc. Since we're so close to new york, people go there all the time too, as well as to Boston, Baltimore, and D.C.

There's nothing wrong with more frequent exams or quizzes, but it gives you slightly less control over your free time and over the pace of your studying.

I agree. As I mentioned, with the last block we had an exam every other week, and now we have one once a month. While those exams had significantly less material, they also made having a life pretty difficult, since it was a constant struggle to keep up. They did it on purpose of course, to teach us to stay on top of things, but it was a schedule that didn't really work for me cause I constantly felt like I was cramming.

Now they give us a full weekend and 2 weekdays to review, which is nice, cause the exams are long. Due to the integrated curriculum, we only have one exam, but it's 8 hours long (2 practicals, one written) so there's a lot of stuff on it. And they're worth more each time, so we get the hang of things- first one's worth 20%, second is worth 30%, etc. All in all not a bad system.

[psipsina]

As a third year many of my weekends are spent in the hospital. When not in the hospital I'm usually studying, doing household stuff that desperately needs to be done or sleeping. When I'm not too close to an exam and I get a day off that coincides with my husbands I try to spend it with him (there's been a few months where this has been a once a month event), usually we spend half the day out with friends and half the day just the two of us. After an exam I try to make my rounds amongst all my non medschool friends before I'm too beat up by the next rotation. Mostly its just trying to balance health with work, I go out when my sanity depends on it, I sleep when my body screams for it and I study every other spare minute and hope its enough (usually its not). Third year is rough on the social life, but man when you get out you make the best of your moment and go all out

[EMS5]

My understanding is:
Friday: Excessive partying including but not limited to getting smashed, smoking weed, snorting/shooting/pills
Saturday: Frequent unprotected sex with the hopes of producing study samples within the student population or, in the event of the less attractive person, frequent impulsive masturbation.
Sunday: Go to church in the morning and ask for forgiveness for your sins. Sunday night, reaffirm that you already know everything there is to know about gross anatomy, and sleep off the weekend.

[ApoK]

Originally Posted by sleepy425

yeah it really does depend on curriculum and how often you have exams. I'm pretty glad I go to a place that basically has monthly exams. Every month, we have 3 exams within 2 days of each other. That might sound bad, but it's amazing, because usually we blow off two of the exams and the other one we study pretty hard for, or else we have group exams, in which case it's not bad. So for 3 weeks, we can basically do whatever we want whenever we want, and then for the last week and a half before the exams, we study harder.

So most weekends are free, and people find lots of different things to do, from volunteering to cultural events to parties to potlucks to hiking, etc. Since we're so close to new york, people go there all the time too, as well as to Boston, Baltimore, and D.C.

There's nothing wrong with more frequent exams or quizzes, but it gives you slightly less control over your free time and over the pace of your studying.

Penn Med FTW!

[Law2Doc]

Originally Posted by Ion1776

Ive shadowed a bunch of doctors, and know a bunch of my dad's colleagues. They all said after every exam they had huge parties and got completely trashed.

Sure -- you study hard and then party hard. But bear in mind that a big party after every exam might end up being 10 parties a year, and a LOT of time in between exams where you do minimal partying. When you compare that to the 4 days a week of partying that some of us did in undergrad, it's really not that much. The truth of the matter is that the material is very voluminous in med school, and coming at you very fast, and weekends are the only real time to square things away because those are the only two days a week where you get no new info assigned/lectured at you. So most people will spend most of those two days studying, but many will carve out a little time on Friday or Saturday night to unwind, when there isn't an exam looming. And will reserve the out of control partying for the infrequent after exam blow-outs.

There will be a range of folks in each med school, ranging from folks who rarely go out, to those who probably go out too much. Unlike college, where the percentages were skewed toward the latter group, in med school the percentages are skewed heavily toward the former. And for good reason -- trying to get into the specialty of your dreams often requires you to perform at peak levels throughout your med school training, and the amount of work far exceeds anything you've seen prior to that point. Face it, you don't go to med school for the partying, or the social life. You do it because you are a creature accepting of delayed gratification. Life won't be fun and games through school or residency, it hopefully will be interesting, but it will be difficult. Depending on the specialty, things may get better later.

[Disinence2]

Call, Post-Call, and/or sleeping

[angeladav]

I go to raves when I get a chance

[phonyreal98]

Play Dance Dance Revolution.

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