Too much free time in MD school??

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007flint

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I know most of you prob study until u feel like your eyes are going to pop out. I used to, but then I started studying less and not going to class (except for small grps) and I actually started doing better on exams. I was wondering how many of you out there have too much free time and what do you do with it? I feel like I should have a 2nd job or something. I'm done studying by 1200, which is when class is out at my school most days. I'm by no means a genius. I barely passed a few classes my M1 year. I also discovered that when I go out to the bars with my non-med-shcool friends the night before an exam I do better as well. Just curious what some of you in the same boat do with your free time.
 
Isn't it great, once you stop going to class you have so much extra time.

So I worked 20 hours a week or so during 1st and 2nd year. But what I spent most of my free time doing was skiing. Out in Utah all the resorts offer student season passes for $400. I have to agree with you, the more I played the better I did on exams. There were weeks that I felt I was 'too busy' to ski, but once I did it was much easier to study and focus on school.

There is so much free time duing the first two years. Take advantage of it.
 
the course load at med schools must be quite variable because i cannot imagine doing would you guys do without getting crushed on exams.
 
Actually the class time at my school is a lot less than the other MD school in town, but we are responsible to teach ourselves most of the material. My school uses the integrated systems and PBL approach, which is a lot easier I think. Although, if you don't do the work on your own you look like a dumb ass in small group! Don't get me wrong I am the minority...the majority of my classmates slave away at the library everyday (just as I did last year B4 I stopped going to class). I don't want to be a neurosurgeon so being at the top of my class isn't worth my dating/social/free time. I'm perfectly happy surfing the bell curve or slightly to the right of it. HighPass and Pass are what I shoot for. Honors just isn't worth it. The difference between honors and high pass is recalling which arm of which chromosome is responsible for a defect in which subunit of some stupid protein that folds wrong which causes some receptor to not work properly blahblahblah. To remeber all that stuff for each disease requires A) photographic memory (which I don't have) or B) Hours of straining my eyes looking over the notes (which I stopped doing last year). If you study for the BIG picture you may not get that extra 6 or 7% on the test, but you'll have a whole lotta extra free time to enjoy.
 
i can understand your reasoning of why you choose to sacrifice going for honors and saving time to have fun,...but what i don't understand is how you are doing so better on these tests when you are studying much less.
 
I think the biggest reason I have done so well in school has been finding balance. I know it sounds cheesy, but when I find time to hang out with my girlfriend, to ski and to see my friends it makes studying for med school not seem so bad. And I find most of the material interesting.

So when I study, I am focused on that and not wishing I was outside or at the bar. Plus, I never went to class. So when you look at my classmates, they have 25 fewer hours in the week to begin with. And during 2nd year, we had exams every 3 weeks or so. The first week, you could take off entirely, the next begin studying and then work very hard the last week
 
Well, if you really do better not going to class... maybe your med school would be better off offering a MD-by-internet distance learning program?

I can't imagine in my PA program not attending class. My instructors are wonderful, and really make the material stick.
 
I got all honors last semester as a second year and haven't attended ONE class (unless it is required).

I don't understand all of the people who are obsessed with going to class and "your school must be easier" and "sacrificing honors" blah blah.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO TO CLASS TO EXCEL IN MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

i've said this from the beginning. I haven't gone since after the first test block after my first year.

Don't people get that if you spend 8-3/4 everyday monday-friday in class that they waste studying from 8-3/4 monday-friday.

Sitting in class for many people is very very very passive process and it is NOT actively studying/learning the material.

WE (like most) have a note-service that has all of the lectures transcribed--usually verbatim.. You don't miss anything by not going......nothing.

again. I do quite well and never go and i study while the rest of class goers are in school all day.

when do you study if you are in class all day every day.

I study during the daytime hours and then I'm done?

why doesn't this make sense to people?

later
 
Right on 12r34,
Just b/c we don't go to school doesn't mean our school is so much easier. Mine is actually pretty cut throat. Maybe it's just the way certain individuals learn. At mine, and most schools, we get handouts prior to each section we start. They contain the objectives each prof wants you to know and thier lecture outline. That's all the stuff you need. Why sit through an hour lecture, struggling to stay awake, when I can go over the material in say 20 minutes on my own. And when I go over it on my own it's active learning...so I remember it better. Just a different learning style I guess. But don't knock it till you try it. Who knows maybe some of you might get more out of not going as well.
 
i rarely if ever go to class. at our school, all of our class notes are given beforehand at the beginning of the semester. so if you do not get much from class besides a good nap, there is no point in going. while my classmates that go to every class, are in class 30 hours per week, i may be in class 5 and the other 25 is spent studying. i do well and have lots of free time. yes, life is good. it is possible to not go to class and do well. i feel much better knowing that i am not wasting my time. however, i must say that some people do benfit from class, so i am not taking away any of its worth. it just sucks for me.
 
I would love to to the skipping class routine, but my school instituted a pop quiz policy this year. They don't constitute much of the final grade, but every bit counts.
 
I skipped my entire first year and currently only show up for the required lectures/clinical correlations/small group sessions during second year. 12R34Y hit it right on the head: when you spend 8 hrs/day in class, that's just 8 hrs/day you could spend studying (and sleeping in!!) so you can have the evenings and weekends free.

Second year lectures at my school begin at 8 am and go until 3 or 4 at least four days a week. That one afternoon or morning off per week is usually filled with a clinic or exam, so it's a pretty full load. The university administration also had the bright idea of mandating pop quizzes in all the courses to get people to come to class, which only makes the situation worse. My usual technique is to gamble and try to predict when they're going to give us pop quizzes and show up at the end of those lectures. I for one cannot understand how people can spend so much time sitting in a chair each day and then go home and study some more. Life's too short.

On a personal note, I truly wish I could agree with timerick and say my professors are wonderful..... but they're not even close to it. More than half of our lecturers can barely speak comprehendible English, which makes learning via lecture extremely difficult. If you have great teachers, count your blessings.
 
And I think Biggmann might agree...? :laugh:
 
O.K. Stinger, who are you? From reading my previous posts it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who I am.

As a reformed slacker who is now a gunner I have to get every point possible in the course, thats why I can't miss the pop quizzes.

As of right now I am in the #1 position for the Physiology award, and I could sure use the money!

BTW, I say "gunner" kind of sarcastically, I'm more of a psuedo-gunner right now. If I was a real gunner I wouldn't be on the SDN forums the night before a neuroscience test like I am at this moment.
 
i haven't gone to class my second year, and i have studied roughly the same (relative to an increased work load) as i did last year. i don't see the difference. however, i will admit that i'd probably get a few more questions right on every test because the tests are based on lecture material. however, those questions are usually either low-yield miniscule details or extremely nit-picky answer choices. i'll sacrafice that.
 
it's a sticky point, I think it just depends on your learning style. Personally, I go to class. However, I respect the people who don't go to class *more*, because they have the self-discipline to study on their own.
 
I think I need to try this approach at studying.
 
Originally posted by timerick
Well, if you really do better not going to class... maybe your med school would be better off offering a MD-by-internet distance learning program?

I can't imagine in my PA program not attending class. My instructors are wonderful, and really make the material stick.
Click to expand...

Yeah man, I can tell you are getting a quality education. Maybe if you spent less time flaming people in threads about going to med school youd have more time to learn important things like ....

dependance to xanthines is not like taking heroin.

</flame>
 
wtwei02,

yeah, i go to utah. while i am not part of the informatics group, i will pass along your praise. i am sure they will be happy other schools are usiing their site!

down with class.
 
is this true?
 
All this stuff is like music to my ears. I never went to class during ugrad and I have been informed that all of our notes are online.
 
Okay. During 1st year I went to practically all my classes. To make matters worse, I usually fall asleep, and I'm not a good notetaker. When I study for exams I usually don't read my own class notes becuase I don't trust them. Yeah, I know it sounds weird. Anyway, the reason I kept going to class was because I kept feeling guilty, and that I might be missing something important (we don't have a notetaking service). When I do miss my classes, I have no desire to study. The question is: how do I get over feeling guilty when I don't go to class?
 
I'm not in med school but I have heard of the notetaking services and students not going to class to study instead. Must be nice! =)
Gosh, I'd probably go to class at least some of the time. Are the tests really all from the notes....no surprises on the test? That's cool.
You guys seem to really enjoy yer life right now...but don't u need good grades to get into a good residency??
 
you think this approach could work for everyone? i was a big study nerd in undergrand until my last semester senior year. magically enough, my grades went up, and my class attendance went down. i'd love to continue this pattern. i'm all ears for tips on making this no-class dream come true. 😍 😍 😍
 
12R34Y said:
when do you study if you are in class all day every day.

I study during the daytime hours and then I'm done?

why doesn't this make sense to people?

later
Click to expand...
I'm going to be a first year student next year and it looks like at GW, they have a two 2 hour lectures scheduled MWF but in between the lectures, they have two 2 hour labs (of it may be a 3 hour lab, I can't remember). On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have these small group sessions and shadowing a primary care physician which combined, lasts all day. So that means even if I skip all the lectures, I still have to be at school every day and there's no way of studying a strait 8-4 unless I miss all my labs. Don't you have to go to labs? What about small group stuff? I assume you have to do the shadowing since you're assigned to a preceptor on a 1-1 basis. I just don't see how anyone can actually get to study 8-4 every day or even 1 day a week (unless it's Saturday or Sunday).
 
I think that everyone learns by different methods and you have to choose what works the best for you. Some lecturers are not good at teaching and people find it more advantageous to study on their own rather than waste two hours listening to a lecture that they got nothing out of. I know of people who did really well by going to class and others that did equally well by only showing up on test days.

To the above poster, at my school, we had Histology lab right after Histo lecture in the a.m. Most people did not go to Histo lab (or lecture) in favor of studying the material on their own by utilizing a computer program in the library.The lecture handouts were very complete and there was little need to take notes. They did as well on the Practicals as those who went to the actual lab. I went to the labs because hardly anyone was there and I could get individual one on one attention from certain faculty members when I needed help. I liked Histo and actually enjoyed the labs. Anatomy lab was a little harder to skip. Most people attended all of the Anatomy classes. We had a Practice of Medicine course that was poorly attended unless we had to attend some sort of mandatory class. There are ways to avoid going to class and studying on your own. It just depends on what you are comfortable with skipping.
 
Medical123, I pm'd you 🙂
 
just curious for those of you who attend/have attended classes that give you the notes before-hand, how do you take notes? I know it will differ from school to school, but are some of them powerpoint slides that you can add notes to the margins, or are some of them just general topics? I start in 1.5 weeks, and I have a feeling that my undergrad-notetaking-stylee will have to be altered incredibly (i used to write down ****-loads of crap) :horns:
 
I am experiencing the same problem, now that I hardly ever go to class, I have way too much free time on my hands. I have literally run out of things to do to keep me busy (besides studying more... 😱 )

I can't find a job as I am a night person and night-shift employment is notoriously difficult to find around here. Ditto for volunteering. I'm not dating as it involves too much crap I don't want to deal with in addition to medical studies.

I wish I could find a productive outlet for my boredom... 😳

Any suggestions I haven't considered already?

(I am scoring "A's" in all my classes currently but out basic sciences is all P/F, so I slack more than I should 😳 )
 
Going to class and hearing terms that I don't understand motivates me(actually freaks me out) to study...Otherwise I will waste my time and leave everything for the night before. If you are disciplined enough to set up a study schedule and follow it, then go ahead and skip class, but if you're a slacker, going to class is essential. 😛
 
gschl1234 said:
I just don't see how anyone can actually get to study 8-4 every day or even 1 day a week (unless it's Saturday or Sunday).
Click to expand...

Different curriculums leave a lot of room for variation of schedule. Some anatomy courses may last the entire semester, while others may only last 7-8 weeks, etc.
 
The thing is, if I don't go to class, I don't study either. I just sleep in. And then I'd goof off for the rest of the day. At least if I go, I get something done. I hate being required to go, though. That usually means that whatever's being talked about is too boring to get any kind of decent attendance otherwise.
 
12R34Y said:
I got all honors last semester as a second year and haven't attended ONE class (unless it is required).

I don't understand all of the people who are obsessed with going to class and "your school must be easier" and "sacrificing honors" blah blah.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO GO TO CLASS TO EXCEL IN MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

i've said this from the beginning. I haven't gone since after the first test block after my first year.

Don't people get that if you spend 8-3/4 everyday monday-friday in class that they waste studying from 8-3/4 monday-friday.

Sitting in class for many people is very very very passive process and it is NOT actively studying/learning the material.

WE (like most) have a note-service that has all of the lectures transcribed--usually verbatim.. You don't miss anything by not going......nothing.

again. I do quite well and never go and i study while the rest of class goers are in school all day.

when do you study if you are in class all day every day.

I study during the daytime hours and then I'm done?

why doesn't this make sense to people?

later
Click to expand...

well, it all depends on how you absorb material. For some people showing up to class isn't benificial...and so for those people skipping class isn't a problem.

Personally, I find I understand and retain information best when I hear it and see it at the same time, so i've found that lectures are actually extremly benificial.

By the time you're in med school, you should know what your learning style is....so if you don't learn anything in lectures, don't go. If you do learn things in lecture, go...simple as that.
 
I pay attention in class, but absorb very little. I plan to skip......
 
I did fine my first year, only going to class on the first day for syllabus, and then for tests (with the exception of small groups that required attendance and clinic). plus I was already exempt from a number of my first year classes. I had way to much free time on my hands, partied most nights with my slacker law school roommates and probably drank more than I did in college..... It was a great schedule.

But I think next year I will attend more lectures or at least hang around school more often, maybe study in the library, since most of my class has no idea who I am and the people I do know think I dropped out.
 
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