Thank you for the detailed response! There's lots of good information here.
My last question was definitely a bit ambiguous, but I am happy with your response. I would consider the simulation center and standardized patients to be resources. I must have missed the detail about the standardized patients. You also said you were spending time with your professor's patients listening to lung sounds. So, to follow up:
- Do you take trips to the hospital to learn from patients often?
- Can you give us a breakdown of a day/week? How much time do you estimate you spend in the sim center, with patients/standardized patients, in lectures (or watching recordings), studying, relaxing, etc.?
- What is your favorite restaurant in Richmond (so far), and what do you order there when you go?
Thanks again!
No, we don't go to the hospital very often during M1. That being said there's plenty of opportunities for shadowing and stuff, its just a matter of how much you want/need to study and what you have time for. The example was more to illustrate how people are in general very interested in us learning, especially clinically. As another example, we have a small group of 8-10 people that meets once every couple months to talk more about stress and med school life type stuff. For our last meeting our professor had us over to his house and served us dinner and drinks which was great. All that to say in my experience profs are very friendly and "cool" in general.
Typical day is 4 hours of class time from about 8-12, attendance not mandatory. About once or twice a week there is a mandatory class meeting with more team based learning and a quiz. About 2-3 afternoons per week there will be another class/obligation for 2-3 hours. In general I feel like there is a good amount of time to study. Lots of people get A's on our tests (which are not easy...), probably because there is enough time to actually learn all the material. Every 2-3 weeks we have a test on one subject. Some schools have you doing anatomy, biochem, genetics, etc etc all the same time which would stress me out. I much prefer to focus on one topic at a time. The first semester is basic sciences and starting second semester its organ systems. We also get 3 or so months for step 1 board studying which is nice.
I would say once a week we are doing something with standardized patients, sim center, or practicing/learning physical exam. Some weeks its more but generally once a week. Its nice because it helps remind me why I'm studying so hard, and it often helps me drive home what we're learning in lecture. One of my favorites is during each block/unit, we have a standardized patient with some disease related to what we're learning. We take a history and then use a computer program to order labs and other tests and try to figure out what they have. Its really fun and great application to what we learn.
My typical day (your answers will vary greatly depending on who you ask):
Weekdays: wake up 530-6 AM. Study off and on with intermittent breaks (approx. 50 min of active studying for 10-15 minutes of goofing off) for a total of 8-10 hours of productive studying per day (some days I keep a timer just to make sure I'm being honest with myself), depending on other classes and stuff. This includes either going to class or listening to lecture online, whichever I choose to do for a given day. I try to exercise every day for about 30 minutes during the week. I never study much past 9pm to prevent burning out, and because I'm not that productive at night compared to morning. My wife and I watch an episode of our show on Netflix before bed pretty much every night just to wind down. Some days I choose to go to class. In general I switch it up just to keep things fresh, but stick to a bare minimum of 8 hours of studying (including class time) every weekday (except maybe Friday which is more like 6 hours).
Friday: Usually more clinical stuff on Fridays, except when we have a Monday test (then its usually a review session and one or two short lectures). I usually quit studying by 2-3pm on Friday and go fishing, hunting, watch movies, have a few drinks, etc. Friday afternoon and night is reward time.
Saturday/Sunday: Sleep in (8am for me cause I usually wake up early). Review the weeks material and try to do practice problems. Usually I'm in study mode until 8pm or so. My wife and I usually go out to eat a late dinner on Saturday night and watch at least two episodes of our favorite show.
Favorite restaurant right now is Edo's Squid which is walking distance from my apartment. We usually get a glass of the house red wine, whatever seafood special they are having, and a pasta dish. Its rarely more than $35 bucks with a tip for that meal and the food is amazing, which is great cause we can afford to go almost every week. Its just really tough to get a seat/reservation which is why we go super late.
In general I keep the mindset of med school being a marathon. Consistent sleep, exercise, and mental breaks are crucial for avoiding burnout. I try to be ultra-efficient with my time, including random things like not drinking so much so that I can't wake up at 8am to study the next morning. I also try to push myself just enough so that I'm improving in my efficiency and study skills, but not so much that I crash. Overall I would say my level of stress is lower than undergrad, I put in about the same number of "working" hours as undergrad, but I am much less involved with extracurriculars at this point so more time is spent actually studying. Again, my experience may not be typical but this is how its been working out for me so far! Hope that answers some of your questions
