balancing life

[whoaaitzkyle]

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hey everyone, it's my first year in dschool and noticed I spend almost all my free time studying. A typical day is 8-5pm class followed with a short hour break for dinner/watch tv to unwind and then a few hours study time in the library to either learn or preview for the next days lectures and sleep by 12am...then repeat....everyday.

In undergrad I never felt like I had any balancing problems. I'd be able to fit in time with my friends, family, and relationship all while being able to study for my classes and do well in them. I expected dschool to take a toll to my other priorities to some extent, but feel like in order to do well in school I need to study all the time. At the end of the day I don't have a family to come home to remind me that it's worth all the sacrifice so I really rely heavily on my social connections (friends, family, and girlfriend) to do that for me. On top of that, since we're all studying all the time I feel like I haven't really built the solid relationships with people as I had done with people in undegrad. I feel like the people are more like my colleagues (or classmates) that I just go out with to celebrate after a midterm rather than friends going out to enjoy themselves. With that being said, I don't consider studying with friends in the library as an outlet to keep me sane from my imbalanced life. I could definitely keep the study marathon up, but I just feel like my level of happiness could be better. How have you balanced your life? What keeps your motivated? What makes you laugh and keeps you from feeling all you do is study? If you came from a social environment in undergrad, how have you adjusted to the increased demand for professional school? Any advice would be really appreciated from anyone! thx 🙂

 

[Plopper]

i haven't, i'm incredibly stressed. I feel like i'm failing all the time, i feel like i won't be able to get through this, and i feel like if i'm not studying i'm falling behind. I'm more stressed than i've ever been in my entire life.
I'm waking up at 8am tomorrow to study until 9pm

 

[dentstd]

Are classes required there? Cuz I recommend skipping classes if they're not required. Learn the material during class, instead of having professors talk at you.

 

[whoaaitzkyle]

oh, I guess it'd also be important to mention that the dental curriculum is with the med school...

 

[jay47]

hey everyone, it's my first year in dschool and noticed I spend almost all my free time studying. A typical day is 8-5pm class followed with a short hour break for dinner/watch tv to unwind and then a few hours study time in the library to either learn or preview for the next days lectures and sleep by 12am...then repeat....everyday.

In undergrad I never felt like I had any balancing problems. I'd be able to fit in time with my friends, family, and relationship all while being able to study for my classes and do well in them. I expected dschool to take a toll to my other priorities to some extent, but feel like in order to do well in school I need to study all the time. At the end of the day I don't have a family to come home to remind me that it's worth all the sacrifice so I really rely heavily on my social connections (friends, family, and girlfriend) to do that for me. On top of that, since we're all studying all the time I feel like I haven't really built the solid relationships with people as I had done with people in undegrad. I feel like the people are more like my colleagues (or classmates) that I just go out with to celebrate after a midterm rather than friends going out to enjoy themselves. With that being said, I don't consider studying with friends in the library as an outlet to keep me sane from my imbalanced life. I could definitely keep the study marathon up, but I just feel like my level of happiness could be better. How have you balanced your life? What keeps your motivated? What makes you laugh and keeps you from feeling all you do is study? If you came from a social environment in undergrad, how have you adjusted to the increased demand for professional school? Any advice would be really appreciated from anyone! thx 🙂

I feel you man, almost exact same situation here. To do WELL, you pretty much have to study all the time. I usually only get (or rather give myself) one day a week, and that's Saturday. Don't stress out too much about grades. Study hard, do your best, and don't give up.

One of the most important things I can do to keep myself motivated is ALWAYS try to make this apply to a real life situation, say when you are talking with a patient. For example, on Friday, when we were discussing hormones and the hypothalamus, I tried to imagine a situation where I would have to take into consideration drugs that a patient my be taking which would effect my treatment plans. Of course, I don't know how to treatment plan yet, but when I do, if I know how their drugs work (which would also require that I know how the body works) then I can more effectively work for them. Of course I have worked in a dental office, so I know how things are in the real world, but we must aspire to do that best we can all the time, no matter what the real world situations might be like.

 

[jay47]

Are classes required there? Cuz I recommend skipping classes if they're not required. Learn the material during class, instead of having professors talk at you.

I like the unmentioned option: learn the material in class while they are talking to you. Of course some people can't do this, but if you can, it will save you a lot of time and stress when you are "freaking out" about what you need to know.

 

[dentstd]

oh, I guess it'd also be important to mention that the dental curriculum is with the med school...

Then go and pick up some Step I books and study from that. It's better organized and makes learning a cinch. Less wasted time. More efficient studying. And skip class....

 

[Streetwolf]

Yeah seriously, skip if you can. At my school the med students would take notes and upload them to a note service. The dental students were not required to do this so we had to pay $60 to get access to the website. Totally worth it. Got so many nights of sleep.