In MEDSCHOOL: Go to lecture VS Not go

[MED786]

MED students: What did you benefit from the MOST?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted77919]

…

 

[Simmy]

You can't really base it one those answers... In some classes you benifit from going, other not. It also depends on how YOU learn the best... Personally, I learn best from studying the subject on my own at the library (where I probably spend around 40-50 hours per week). I go to probably a little more than half the lectures though, mostly because its a good way to see what the professors underline as the most important topics, then I can focus extra on these when I study the subject on my owne.

I almost never take notes during lectures though, but I make ALOT (to much actually lol) of notes when I study on my owne.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I traded in all my lecture time for research time.

 

[njbmd]

Worthless poll. What works for one student is not going to work for another. You have to figure out what works best for you and stick with it. It doesn't matter if 99% of your class does not attend lectures and passes if you are in the 1% that doesn't attend and fails. Do what gets the job done for you.

 

[FutureInternist]

"I didn't go and benefited from not going"

 

[alwaysaangel]

I wish I'd gone to lecture more. Not for the sake of my boards but just for the sake of learning. I believed all the upper classmen when they said "boards were all that mattered" and made that my focus. But the boards are really the BARE MINIMUM to become a doctor.

Do you really want to go into 3rd year knowing the bare minimum?

I thought our school's curriculum sucked but in hind sight it was pretty on. Including all the side stuff that I ignored because it wasn't relevant to boards but a lot of it actually was or would make my 3rd year easier had I gone.

I wish I'd put a little more faith in the curriculum and gone to class, even though I'm not much of a lecture person.

 

[SoCuteMD]

I skipped lecture, studied the material (class notes, etc.). Did great in class, even better on the boards, even better on the wards (where a lot of that knowledge came in handy). Best possible way I personally could have approached medical school.

 

[nonny2]

I never went, and I am so glad! I would preread in the morning, then watch the day's lectures double speed in the afternoon. Then, I would review for an hour after my baby went to bed. I never needed to do more than about 7 hours a day, I didn't waste time driving, and I could clean up/work out a bit while I watched lectures at home! If I were a single student, though, I would go to class. How depressing to never see people!

 

[Law2Doc]

Worthless poll. What works for one student is not going to work for another. You have to figure out what works best for you and stick with it. It doesn't matter if 99% of your class does not attend lectures and passes if you are in the 1% that doesn't attend and fails. Do what gets the job done for you.

Truth.

 

[Inuranic]

Lecture...yeah. Haven't been since January.

 

[badasshairday]

I haven't been to a lecture since fall.

 

[Instatewaiter]

I skipped lecture, studied the material (class notes, etc.). Did great in class, even better on the boards, even better on the wards (where a lot of that knowledge came in handy). Best possible way I personally could have approached medical school.

I did the exact same thing.

It was just much more efficient for me to study at home. Instead of wasting time in lecture, i was able to go through the class notes multiple times. So I knew the material better than many who went to class. Did well in class, well on the boards and thus far well on the wards knowing random facts.

I recommend studying for your classes rather than just toward the boards. Strange enough, you'll probably do better on the baords that way

 

[OttawaPremed88]

Worthless poll. What works for one student is not going to work for another. You have to figure out what works best for you and stick with it. It doesn't matter if 99% of your class does not attend lectures and passes if you are in the 1% that doesn't attend and fails. Do what gets the job done for you.

While that may be true, statistics and trends also play a role in understanding contexts. If 90% of Medical School students do not attend lectures, it just might be due to how they all learn, because of the medschool lectures themselves, or a combination of both. Regardless, this poll may provide revealing insight.

 

[JeffLebowski]

Worthless poll. What works for one student is not going to work for another. You have to figure out what works best for you and stick with it. It doesn't matter if 99% of your class does not attend lectures and passes if you are in the 1% that doesn't attend and fails. Do what gets the job done for you.

Agreed.

While that may be true, statistics and trends also play a role in understanding contexts. If 90% of Medical School students do not attend lectures, it just might be due to how they all learn, because of the medschool lectures themselves, or a combination of both. Regardless, this poll may provide revealing insight.

Sorry bud, but njbmd is right. Not only does this poll have profound selection bias, it also has a tiny sample size, and not clearly defined wording, such that it makes the results worthless. What is "well"? To me doing well is straight A's. Another person may think "doing well" is B's. Or it may mean keeping sane to someone else. Or holding up their family life. The point is, this poll could be helpful in the context you describe if it were a real study and carefully done, but this is an impromptu thrown-together poll on SDN (no offense, OP).

The best approach is to consider all of your options for approaching the material, then try them out until you find the right mix that works for you.

 

[sunshinedoc]

I didn't go to lecture near the end of my second year and did far better on boards than people that dutifully went everyday. If your school teaches more towards the boards, it may be worth it to go to lecture. But if your school is like mine and teaches a bunch of extraneous information that isn't going to be on STEP 1, you will probably be better off skipping and doing UWORLD and FirstAid.

 

[link2swim06]

I haven't been to a lecture since fall.

 

[Law2Doc]

... The point is, this poll could be helpful in the context you describe if it were a real study and carefully done, but this is an impromptu thrown-together poll on SDN (no offense, OP)....

No, for the reasons njbmd suggested, the poll can NEVER be helpful. Med school study habits are like snowflakes - they are unique to the person for whom they work. Many many many people have done lousy in med school because they worried about what worked for someone else and not for them. I know people whose test grades went up when they started skipping lectures and studying on their own. I know AT LEAST AS MANY folks whose test grades plummetted when they stopped going to lecture. Why? Because they are very different people. If you are the type who is going to swap 10 hours in lecture for 10 hours in the library, then sure you will probably be more productive. If, instead, you are going to be prone to distraction, sleeping in, etc, it can be a disaster.

As an example, the dude that is going to get up early and hit the books and work all day probably doesn't need a lecturer slowing him down. But for the dude who will sleep in until 10, screw around on the net for an hour, work out, have lunch, and start studying at about the same time everyone else is getting out of lecture has cheated himself out of one pass through the material (however low yield it is -- it's not zero). So the folks who use the lecture as a means of getting out of bed and getting a pass through the material before they normally would are advantaged going to lecture. The folks who are study machines probably don't need this. But many many many people kid themselves about which mindset they really have. Many med students are too lazy to be left to their own devices and will do poorly if they do this. Sad but true. And some people do learn better in a lecture setting -- they get more when a prof tells them the info in a classroom setting rather than trying to self teach. But not everybody. You have to make an honest assessment of what kind of a student/learner/slacker you are and then make the decision that is right for you, after trial and error. Taking a poll to see what OTHERS can get away with gives you the wrong answer - you aren't these people. The ones who screw up worst in med school usually have their eyes in someone else's plate. This is an individual ordeal. You need to figure out what works for you and in general what works for someone else very often is the worst possible idea for you.

And yes, SDN is a bad self selecting group -- the folks who spend a ton of time on SDN are very often not sitting in lecture. I'm just saying.
So do what works best for you, and IGNORE any form of others opinion on this. There are superstars who get that way because they hit the books on their own, and there are superstars who get that way because they never miss a lecture. And there are many many more people who try to emulate these folks rather than actually figure out what works for them. We call these folks lemmings. And lemmings run to their death.

 

[JeffLebowski]

No, for the reasons njbmd suggested, the poll can NEVER be helpful. Med school study habits are like snowflakes - they are unique to the person for whom they work. Many many many people have done lousy in med school because they worried about what worked for someone else and not for them. I know people whose test grades went up when they started skipping lectures and studying on their own. I know AT LEAST AS MANY folks whose test grades plummetted when they stopped going to lecture. Why? Because they are very different people. If you are the type who is going to swap 10 hours in lecture for 10 hours in the library, then sure you will probably be more productive. If, instead, you are going to be prone to distraction, sleeping in, etc, it can be a disaster.

As an example, the dude that is going to get up early and hit the books and work all day probably doesn't need a lecturer slowing him down. But for the dude who will sleep in until 10, screw around on the net for an hour, work out, have lunch, and start studying at about the same time everyone else is getting out of lecture has cheated himself out of one pass through the material (however low yield it is -- it's not zero). So the folks who use the lecture as a means of getting out of bed and getting a pass through the material before they normally would are advantaged going to lecture. The folks who are study machines probably don't need this. But many many many people kid themselves about which mindset they really have. Many med students are too lazy to be left to their own devices and will do poorly if they do this. Sad but true. And some people do learn better in a lecture setting -- they get more when a prof tells them the info in a classroom setting rather than trying to self teach. But not everybody. You have to make an honest assessment of what kind of a student/learner/slacker you are and then make the decision that is right for you, after trial and error. Taking a poll to see what OTHERS can get away with gives you the wrong answer - you aren't these people. The ones who screw up worst in med school usually have their eyes in someone else's plate. This is an individual ordeal. You need to figure out what works for you and in general what works for someone else very often is the worst possible idea for you.

And yes, SDN is a bad self selecting group -- the folks who spend a ton of time on SDN are very often not sitting in lecture. I'm just saying.
So do what works best for you, and IGNORE any form of others opinion on this. There are superstars who get that way because they hit the books on their own, and there are superstars who get that way because they never miss a lecture. And there are many many more people who try to emulate these folks rather than actually figure out what works for them. We call these folks lemmings. And lemmings run to their death.

And I agree with all those things.

I don't see why it's necessary, however, to take issue with my hypothetical suggestion that though this poll is worthless, a well-designed and carefully conducted study could be helpful. Never? In no way whatsoever? At all? Ever? Come on. That's not true. A good study examining study habits of medical students could indeed be helpful, if only as a basis for comparison. An online poll is not.

Ideally, you could try all study techniques and optimize your learning and retention and performance and all that without ever listening to another student's perspective. But the truth is, you need to be able to ascertain what techniques sound good in the first place before you can try them. And you need to continually reassess your options. Every class is a little different, every study technique doesn't work for every class and there's definitely strategy to studying. It DOES help to talk to fellow students about what they've done to succeed.

 

[medking]

And I agree with all those things.

I don't see why it's necessary, however, to take issue with my hypothetical suggestion that though this poll is worthless, a well-designed and carefully conducted study could be helpful. Never? In no way whatsoever? At all? Ever? Come on. That's not true. A good study examining study habits of medical students could indeed be helpful, if only as a basis for comparison. An online poll is not.

Ideally, you could try all study techniques and optimize your learning and retention and performance and all that without ever listening to another student's perspective. But the truth is, you need to be able to ascertain what techniques sound good in the first place before you can try them. And you need to continually reassess your options. Every class is a little different, every study technique doesn't work for every class and there's definitely strategy to studying. It DOES help to talk to fellow students about what they've done to succeed.

Right on

 

[SweetDoc13]

My modus Operandi:

Go to class
Go directly to class
Do not pas go
Do not collect $200

For me I remembered alot of stuff on exams by just being in class, but to each his own. At the end of the day I say do what works for U no matter what

 

[Law2Doc]

And I agree with all those things.

I don't see why it's necessary, however, to take issue with my hypothetical suggestion that though this poll is worthless, a well-designed and carefully conducted study could be helpful. Never? In no way whatsoever? At all? Ever? Come on. That's not true. A good study examining study habits of medical students could indeed be helpful, if only as a basis for comparison. An online poll is not.

Ideally, you could try all study techniques and optimize your learning and retention and performance and all that without ever listening to another student's perspective. But the truth is, you need to be able to ascertain what techniques sound good in the first place before you can try them. And you need to continually reassess your options. Every class is a little different, every study technique doesn't work for every class and there's definitely strategy to studying. It DOES help to talk to fellow students about what they've done to succeed.

It actually does not help to talk to other people. You MUST find your own way. The people who succeed tend to be the ones who realize this and keep their eyes in their own plate. And thus polls like this are worthless. Maybe even harmful.

 

[Law2Doc]

Right on

A premed isn't at an adequate vantage point to agree r disagree as to what works in med school.

 

[MediumDef]

It actually does not help to talk to other people. You MUST find your own way. The people who succeed tend to be the ones who realize this and keep their eyes in their own plate. And thus polls like this are worthless. Maybe even harmful.

Ok this is just untrue. No one expects you to walk through the door first year knowing exactly how to succeed in medical school and one of your greatest resource in terms of what may or may not work is *gasp* other people, especially rising second years (and yes to a much more limited extent random strangers on an internet messaging board). You just have to be willing to stick with what works for you even if other people think it's crazy and you have to be equally willing to jettison something that doesn't work for you even if everyone else accepts it as the one true path.

PLEASE do not be afraid to ask other people about what's working for them because you think they have nothing to offer you or that their advice is actually hurting you. (Again though, their advice may-in fact- be hurting you, so.....my point as usual is that I have no point)

 

[JeffLebowski]

It actually does not help to talk to other people. You MUST find your own way. The people who succeed tend to be the ones who realize this and keep their eyes in their own plate. And thus polls like this are worthless. Maybe even harmful.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I say it is helpful to respectfully assess strategies other students use to be successful, and then tailor those and ones you came up with on your own to find your own success. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the advice of upperclassmen and students in my class who found effective study techniques that I tried myself or modified and was able to study more effectively because of it. Likewise, I feel comfortable sharing effective study strategies I have used in the past with fellow students who are interested, and have been thanked time and again for helping out in that regard. And I think the number of "I benefited from this thread so I thought I'd share my experience" posts in the Step I and Step II Experiences/Scores threads are a testament to how helpful fellow students can be.

OBVIOUSLY we should each tailor our own study strategies to our unique set of skills. OBVIOUSLY we all learn differently. And yes, you should absolutely ignore people who are stressors or distractions from what study techniques you have established to be effective for yourself.

But there's no way talking to other students about study strategies can be generalized so obstusely as "harmful".

 

[medking]

A premed isn't at an adequate vantage point to agree r disagree as to what works in med school.

Haha, you're a funny one, Law2Doc. I like, I like.

I'm pretty sure med school is just like the million other things in life. It's usually a good idea to listen to people that have been down the road ahead of you, regardless of whether you take their advice or not. It does not guarantee success, but it gives you more things to test out when youre trying to figure out what works best for you.

 

[Law2Doc]

...No one expects you to walk through the door first year knowing exactly how to succeed in medical school and one of your greatest resource in terms of what may or may not work is *gasp* other people, especially rising second years (and yes to a much more limited extent random strangers on an internet messaging board). ...

I think it's fine to ask questions, but for things like determining what study techniques you should use it's foolish to put any weight on what other people do. You learn by trial and error. Plain and simple. You try studying alone or in groups. You try going to lecture or studying from home. Using flash cards or not. Using board review books or not. And so on. You should constantly be adjusting and tweaking until you find what works for YOU and only you. You will not get the answer from getting a consensus. And definitely won't get the answer if you ask a dozen people what they do, because you may get a dozen responses, or even if they agree, the right response for you might be the thirteenth. Even if it worked for EVERY other med student, it may be the absolute wrong approach for you. The sooner you learn this, the better off you are in med school. Med school requires you to learn a lot about yourself. So sure you can get advice from other people, but in the end it only matters what works for you. To paraphrase Bruce Lee, use only that which works, take it from any place you can find it, and discard the rest. Med school works this way -- you need to continually be trying, failing and tweaking. Do not expect to get the right answer from any source. What works perfectly for one person won't work as well for you -- everyone is unique and learns best in a slightly different way. And each year is going to be a different challenge to boot. So no, it doesn't matter that the majority of folks on here don't attend lecture. If it works for you, it's the best route. And until you realize this, you are hosed. You will forever be expecting to see the right answer on someone else's plate. And that's not where you'll find it.

 

[Law2Doc]

...
I'm pretty sure med school is just like the million other things in life. It's usually a good idea to listen to people that have been down the road ahead of you, regardless of whether you take their advice or not. ...

Dude -- you have no basis to know if med school is "like the million other things in life" until you get there. Seriously, you don't. And this is coming from someone who had a career before this.

And as for your next sentence, the key word is "listen". You are weighing in, not listening. If you aren't in med school yet, you definitely should listen to the discussion, but it's best that you save your agreement/disagreement as to what works in med school until you get there. That should be obvious.

One can respect the other folks opinions on here who have walked the walk -- even if one doesn't agree with them. But until you walk the walk, not so much.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Ideally, you could try all study techniques and optimize your learning and retention and performance and all that without ever listening to another student's perspective. But the truth is, you need to be able to ascertain what techniques sound good in the first place before you can try them. And you need to continually reassess your options. Every class is a little different, every study technique doesn't work for every class and there's definitely strategy to studying. It DOES help to talk to fellow students about what they've done to succeed.

Agree with this. Never hurts to hear from others. In particular I've found class specific information to be very helpful, i.e. this professor tests this way so prepare for that. Or later in medical school, this attending likes his/her presentations this particular way.

 

[OttawaPremed88]

Agreed.



Sorry bud, but njbmd is right. Not only does this poll have profound selection bias, it also has a tiny sample size, and not clearly defined wording, such that it makes the results worthless. What is "well"? To me doing well is straight A's. Another person may think "doing well" is B's. Or it may mean keeping sane to someone else. Or holding up their family life. The point is, this poll could be helpful in the context you describe if it were a real study and carefully done, but this is an impromptu thrown-together poll on SDN (no offense, OP).

You're right on all those fronts, but my point still stands, were this a carefully constructed poll using a larger sample size that was randomized to not be bias, then yes, I could see something like this being useful for future medical students and their expectations.

But, it might prove to be a double edged sword. In the case that the poll seems to point in the direction that the majority of medical school students don't really benefit from the lectures, yes, it will make those who find lectures useless and are worried, more secure, but it might make those who feel they do benefit from lectures doubt themselves. This pushes them towards indecisiveness or a negativity that might not have occurred otherwise.


(Paragraph I wrote because I think too much incoming
Yet, statistically speaking, the majority will define the results of the poll, so we can assume these same trends to occur in future medical students, naturally. As such, it would seem that the poll would then benefit this incoming majority with insight of this trend, calming their fears, while at the same time worrying the minority who might feel they do or do not benefit. So yeah, rewards>costs...I guess.

 

[Law2Doc]

You're right on all those fronts, but my point still stands, were this a carefully constructed poll using a larger sample size that was randomized to not be bias, then yes, I could see something like this being useful for future medical students and their expectations.

But, it might prove to be a double edged sword. In the case that the poll seems to point in the direction that the majority of medical school students don't really benefit from the lectures, yes, it will make those who find lectures useless and are worried, more secure, but it might make those who feel they do benefit from lectures doubt themselves. This pushes them towards indecisiveness or a negativity that might not have occurred otherwise.


(Paragraph I wrote because I think too much incoming
Yet, statistically speaking, the majority will define the results of the poll, so we can assume these same trends to occur in future medical students, naturally. As such, it would seem that the poll would then benefit this incoming majority with insight of this trend, calming their fears, while at the same time worrying the minority who might feel they do or do not benefit. So yeah, rewards>costs...I guess.

I still think you need to approach med school as an individual, not part of a majority. So a poll does not help you. Knowing your options is important, but knowing what works for X percent of people doesn't. You should take no solace in knowing this data because you still have to do the whole trial and error thing and tweak until you find your own optimum approach.

 

[medking]

Dude -- you have no basis to know if med school is "like the million other things in life" until you get there. Seriously, you don't. And this is coming from someone who had a career before this.

And as for your next sentence, the key word is "listen". You are weighing in, not listening. If you aren't in med school yet, you definitely should listen to the discussion, but it's best that you save your agreement/disagreement as to what works in med school until you get there. That should be obvious.

One can respect the other folks opinions on here who have walked the walk -- even if one doesn't agree with them. But until you walk the walk, not so much.

Bold 1:

Oh please. If a high school kid was asking me about college and my study strategy/techniques, first I would make sure that they understand that everyone needs to ultimately find their own way and that just because something worked for me doesn't necessarily translate to it working for them (which we all agree on), and then tell them my "secrets". But I would not say that gathering/asking people's experience is useless or harmful (what you seem to be saying). I would say quite the contrary, go out and ask other people. Of course bigger n doesn't make anything more concrete in this case, but I think it's good to ask a couple of people to get a feel for what's to come.

Btw, I really don't know what the career thing has to do with anything.

Bold 2:

Yes, that is obvious. And, nowhere did I mention anything about any specific study strategy/technique that would work in medical school.

 

[OttawaPremed88]

I still think you need to approach med school as an individual, not part of a majority. So a poll does not help you. Knowing your options is important, but knowing what works for X percent of people doesn't. You should take no solace in knowing this data because you still have to do the whole trial and error thing and tweak until you find your own optimum approach.

Of course you approach med school as an individual, that's probably the most important thing. If you follow everyone else, you will do not better than average, because the majority define the normal distributive curve.

My point is that you do not learn to follow others, you learn from the experience of others, and you use that knowledge to further yourself through the methods that benefit YOU. For example, let's take a race car driver. Let's say Michael Schumacher. Schumacher is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest Formula One driver in history. Yet, how did he learn? Did he jump into a race car and become great the moment he stepped on the peddle as a young lad? Probably not. He was taught. Others had experience, and they used this experience to teach Schumacher. Now what did Schumacher do? He used this experience to help build himself, and he then advanced his skills far beyond what any of his teachers could then probably teach him.

My point is that you have to start somewhere when you begin medical school, and taking advantage of others' experiences would be a good place to start.

 

[JeffLebowski]

This has turned into such a dumb thread.

You ruined my birthday, Law2Doc. Can't we all just agree that pre-meds give the best advice and data is stupid and move on?

 

[bodonid]

seriously, from these threads you'd think nobody went to class.

I go to class and keep an ear out for anything that sounds interesting, while spending 90% of my energy reading the lecture. I usually get through it twice if I'm really motivated. The only reason I do this is because if I didn't I would sleep until 11.

 

[bodonid]

My point is that you have to start somewhere when you begin medical school, and taking advantage of others' experiences would be a good place to start.

Admirable, but from experience I'd say it is a waste of time. If you have any specific questions, ask someone. But for the general stuff, you might as well ask who the current US president is. You're bound to any number of responses, none of which is correct.

 

[badasshairday]

Here are my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

I'm a few days shy of finishing M1 year, but basically I never ever ever go to lecture. I hate going to lecture, too many distractions, too slow, waste time going to and coming from school. Waste time during breaks during/between class.

In 1st semester I only went to anatomy lecture, only because it was held right before anatomy lab. Always went to lab stuff. Then second semester, I have not gone to a day of lecture at all.

My strategy is to listen to the audio recordings and follow the powerpoints at a 1.5-2x speed. Saves time of commuting, distracting people, and missing what the lecturer said is no problem since I can always rewind and pause. In a time it takes my class going collegues to finish 1 lecture, I can be done with 2. Also, the best thing is that I get to set my own schedule. I wake up whenever I want, do lectures in whatever order I went, ect. It is convienient studying at home too, because I can eat when I'm hungry, take a nap when I'm sleepy, ect.

 

[medking]

Here are my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

I'm a few days shy of finishing M1 year, but basically I never ever ever go to lecture. I hate going to lecture, too many distractions, too slow, waste time going to and coming from school. Waste time during breaks during/between class.

In 1st semester I only went to anatomy lecture, only because it was held right before anatomy lab. Always went to lab stuff. Then second semester, I have not gone to a day of lecture at all.

My strategy is to listen to the audio recordings and follow the powerpoints at a 1.5-2x speed. Saves time of commuting, distracting people, and missing what the lecturer said is no problem since I can always rewind and pause. In a time it takes my class going collegues to finish 1 lecture, I can be done with 2. Also, the best thing is that I get to set my own schedule. I wake up whenever I want, do lectures in whatever order I went, ect. It is convienient studying at home too, because I can eat when I'm hungry, take a nap when I'm sleepy, ect.

Thanks for the input.

Just out of curiosity, how have you been performing? H, HP, P?

 

[badasshairday]

Thanks for the input.

Just out of curiosity, how have you been performing? H, HP, P?

H.

Also, I feel like I have more free time than my class going H friends... because, like I said earlier, having your own schedule rocks.

Just realized, medking, that you are coming to MCW. Awesome, then you too can skip on lecture. Don't hesitate to drop me a PM if you have any questions about M1 year.

 

[medking]

H.

Also, I feel like I have more free time than my class going H friends... because, like I said earlier, having your own schedule rocks.

Just realized, medking, that you are coming to MCW. Awesome, then you too can skip on lecture. Don't hesitate to drop me a PM if you have any questions about M1 year.

Yups, thus why I asked you a little more specific question. Thanks for answering, and thanks for the offer!

Good luck finishing off this week!

 

[MED786]

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself. Eleanor Roosevelt

 

[Law2Doc]

This has turned into such a dumb thread.

You ruined my birthday, Law2Doc. Can't we all just agree that pre-meds give the best advice and data is stupid and move on?

My bad. Clearly the person who has never set foot in a med school classroom is best suited to weigh in here, as he's not biased by actual experience. I should have gotten to that point quicker.
Happy Birthday.

 

[Law2Doc]

Bold 1:

Oh please. If a high school kid was asking me about college and my study strategy/techniques, first I would make sure that they understand that everyone needs to ultimately find their own way and that just because something worked for me doesn't necessarily translate to it working for them (which we all agree on), and then tell them my "secrets". But I would not say that gathering/asking people's experience is useless or harmful (what you seem to be saying). I would say quite the contrary, go out and ask other people. Of course bigger n doesn't make anything more concrete in this case, but I think it's good to ask a couple of people to get a feel for what's to come.

Btw, I really don't know what the career thing has to do with anything.

Bold 2:

Yes, that is obvious. And, nowhere did I mention anything about any specific study strategy/technique that would work in medical school.

Dude, you weren't "asking" people stuff here -- your post that I objected to was an agreement with someone else's post, saying "right on" . You have no basis to know if this is right or not yet. That's where you were "weighing in". If you were actually asking a question about something you didn't know rather than agreeing with something you didn't know, I would agree with your post here. But you weren't. The "career thing" was to let you know that I am someone who actually has done the "million other things" you described. Read more. Ask questions. But don't weigh in until you have a basis for your agreement or disagreement.

Good luck in med school.

 

[JeffLebowski]

My bad. Clearly the person who has never set foot in a med school classroom is best suited to weigh in here, as he's not biased by actual experience. I should have gotten to that point quicker.
Happy Birthday.

It's not really my birthday. But it was sweet of you to remember.

 

[medking]

Dude, you weren't "asking" people stuff here -- your post that I objected to was an agreement with someone else's post, saying "right on" . You have no basis to know if this is right or not yet. That's where you were "weighing in". If you were actually asking a question about something you didn't know rather than agreeing with something you didn't know, I would agree with your post here. But you weren't. The "career thing" was to let you know that I am someone who actually has done the "million other things" you described. Read more. Ask questions. But don't weigh in until you have a basis for your agreement or disagreement.

Good luck in med school.

Well, you better be right then, haha. Cause I am more inclined than not to think that med school is just like other things in life. Asking around for advice never hurts in my opinion. But I guess you're the master of all things since you've attended 2 years of med school

And for the bolded part, oh please. Unless you're like in your 50's. Maybe you're COACH from the most recent survivor series (You probably don't have time to watch it so you probably won't know who it is, but whatever)

And lastly, thanks for the good , if you really meant it

 

[stewarzi]

MED students: What did you benefit from the MOST?

I started M1 year going to every lecture. I struggled to make C's. I got pretty discouraged. I started skipping some lectures. I started doing a little better. Eventually, I started skipping more lectures and learning on my own terms. Then I just started skipping everything out of principle. AND, I MEAN EVERYTHING. From January to May, I might have gone to five lectures. In that time, I placed in the top 10 percent of my class on several exams and made upper half on all of them. Also, I OWNED the anatomy NBME.

I know what I did probably won't work for everyone, but I don't think anyone should be afraid to try skipping. Furthermore, I really don't don't think people who learn well from books/non-lecture sources should feel guilty for not going to lecture. Med students NEED to learn this stuff, and the lives of other people will, one day, depend on how well we know our stuff. Therefore, we should try to find the method by which we learn most efficiently. If that method is skipping lecture, then what's the big deal?

 

[RySerr21]

It actually does not help to talk to other people. You MUST find your own way. The people who succeed tend to be the ones who realize this and keep their eyes in their own plate. And thus polls like this are worthless. Maybe even harmful.

Maybe by talking to other people it can help you find your own way. You talk to other people, think about how they approached it, and most importantly, think if it might work for you. You may even try it out and find that you dont like it, or morph it somehow so that it is your own. It sounds ridiculous for you to declare what is and is not helpful for other people since you cant possibly konw what will help me.