Ask an M1 anything

[Mad Jack]

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Emotionally I am doing well. Academically I am doing well.

Med school is lots of fun.

I'll agree with this- med school is way better than most premeds think it will be. I've enjoyed myself a great deal.

 

[Mad Jack]

how many hours a day/week do you study?

do you think it's possible for a med student to have fridays and saturdays "off"

20-30 on average weeks, 60-80 on block weeks.

Yes you could take two days off.

 

[TheBiologist]

20-30 on average weeks, 60-80 on block weeks.

Yes you could take two days off.

what are blcok weeks lol

 

[Mad Jack]

what are blcok weeks lol

Not every school has them- we had exams every six weeks, spread out over five days. That week was block week. Every day or so, we'd have a horrific exam.

 

[Lannister]

how many hours a day/week do you study?

do you think it's possible for a med student to have fridays and saturdays "off"

To offer another opinion on your second question: it depends on the school. At my school we have weekly Monday exams, so unless you are some kind of genius it would not be possible to take two days off every weekend.


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[Allergic to Toradol]

20-30 on average weeks, 60-80 on block weeks.

Yes you could take two days off.

This is actually comforting to hear and exciting as well. During my toughest semester of undergrad, I was easily putting in 20-30 hours a week of studying or assignments. Maybe it won't be as bad as I thought after all!

 

[Mad Jack]

This is actually comforting to hear and exciting as well. During my toughest semester of undergrad, I was easily putting in 20-30 hours a week of studying or assignments. Maybe it won't be as bad as I thought after all!

Medical school isn't that bad, really. Third year can suck at times because of the hours, but overall it just isn't as awful as people make it out to be.

 

[tessellations]

What do you do outside of studying/medical school? Do you still have time for your hobbies?

 

[Pepe18]

.

 

[mistafab]

I probably withdrew from a class or two. I lived on campus for 2 years, and 2 years off.

For MCAT prep I'd talk to some people who just took it since it changes every year. I remember putting in an hour or two every day during my prep months. I took a practice exam every other week. For books, I went on amazon and looked at the best reviewed book per subject, then bought it.

How many withdrawals did you have during undergrad? Do you live on campus or off campus apartment? Best way to prepare for mcat? Specific books?

 

[mistafab]

Honestly I've been in a relationship for 3-4 years so I can't really say. I'm sure you'll hear all kinds of strange stuff, but from the outside looking in it looks just like any other dating scene. When you are in it i'm sure it feels different because of the stress, but it really just looks like any other dating scene from what I can tell.

It looks like dating at work, if you know what I mean.

How is the dating scene like ??

 

[mistafab]

I pretty much study from 9/10 until 4-5 M-F, then I study a half day on saturday. I usually would average 40-50 hours of a week total, maybe 35 hours of efficient studying.

I heard before starting school that "if you treat it like a 9-5, you can probably take one day off a week." I gotta say that this was pretty spot on for me. I can take one day completely off most weeks + a chill half day usually on Saturday. I'm sure if you really wanted Fridays & Saturdays off completely you could make it work.

how many hours a day/week do you study?

do you think it's possible for a med student to have fridays and saturdays "off"

 

[mistafab]

I find myself having plenty of time for my hobbies. I work out, go to festivals, make music, play video games and what not. The city we are at has so much to do that we usually do something every weekend on top of the daily unwinders.

What do you do outside of studying/medical school? Do you still have time for your hobbies?

 

[Chelsea FC]

I find myself having plenty of time for my hobbies. I work out, go to festivals, make music, play video games and what not. The city we are at has so much to do that we usually do something every weekend on top of the daily unwinders.

Do u feel this is influenced by the Pass /fail curriculum? ? Or just your own drive to study effectively and finding time to enjoy life

 

[mistafab]

I'd say it is definitely influenced by pass/fail curriculum.

You'd be surprised though how much you still want to push yourself without the A/B/whatever system. It makes school more relaxing when you don't have to reach X grade to succeed. I have found myself pushing myself to do better by X% every test, and I have done so despite there being no "A+" reward at the end of the tunnel. I've passed every exam without question, but being able to push yourself to succeed and not have an external label on it takes tons of pressure off.

Besides that, however, me being able to go out and do stuff a lot is heavily influenced by how I manage my time and priorities. I make it a priority to have free time, so I don't mess around during study time or waste my time with inefficient studying modalities. I don't sit there and do some passive studying lying to myself that i'm actually learning something. That is just a waste of time, which should be free time to enjoy.

Some people in my class seem to have a guilt/stress complex where they feel guilty about having free time, so they in turn do passive "half-fun" studying methods. This type of stuff just cuts out your free time, which in turn increases your stress and produces more guilt when you aren't studying, so you study less and less efficiently and feel more and more stressed. Don't get caught in this loop and you'll be fine in school.

Do u feel this is influenced by the Pass /fail curriculum? ? Or just your own drive to study effectively and finding time to enjoy life

 

[mcloaf]

That's one way to look at it. Having only one test score and luck of the draw with evaluators determine the rest of your professional life is another.


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I feel fairly certain that the whatever small advantage I might have gained from a transcript that showed good preclinical grades would have been much more heavily outweighed by the added stress. Not to mention I've no doubt my step 1 score would have suffered since I'd have to be focused more on class material.

 

[SunsFun]

I feel fairly certain that the whatever small advantage I might have gained from a transcript that showed good preclinical grades would have been much more heavily outweighed by the added stress. Not to mention I've no doubt my step 1 score would have suffered since I'd have to be focused more on class material.

Oh I don't doubt it worked out well for you and many others. While we can't know for sure one way or another, I do think that some of my peers needed a constant kick in the butt to study hard for 2 years and build test taking confidence for to take step 1 and not lose it.


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[libertyyne]

I feel fairly certain that the whatever small advantage I might have gained from a transcript that showed good preclinical grades would have been much more heavily outweighed by the added stress. Not to mention I've no doubt my step 1 score would have suffered since I'd have to be focused more on class material.

I feel like opinion i have heard is split on this. People say do well on your first two years and the step score will come. compared to what you just said.

 

[mcloaf]

Oh I don't doubt it worked out well for you and many others. While we can't know for sure one way or another, I do think that some of my peers needed a constant kick in the butt to study hard for 2 years and build test taking confidence for to take step 1 and not lose it.


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I can definitely think of some people in my class who might've benefited from a graded system, thankfully I wasn't one of them!

I feel like opinion i have heard is split on this. People say do well on your first two years and the step score will come. compared to what you just said.

I don't think the two are entirely mutually exclusive. I didn't spend two years bombing my classes. I was towards the top of the curve for the first year and gradually moved downwards through M2 year as I shifted my focus to boards resources. There's also an unmeasured variable here which is the degree to which any particular school's class material reflects what you'll find on step 1. Not that it's the job of preclinical lecturers to teach towards the exam, but students at schools that for whatever reason mirror step 1 more closely will be better advantaged by doing well in class compared to others. My school was probably somewhere in the middle of the pack in this respect, but if I'd just used class material I would not have been able to do as well on the exam.

I think it also bears repeating that people score outrageously high all the time using a huge range of study methods. Mine's not necessarily the "right" way--it worked well for me but probably would've been a bad choice for others.