Balancing med school and research? I feel like I'm never done studying. Like I'm never "done" with studying. Maybe I just started and need to adjust

[CuriousMDStudent]

Title sums up my question. How do you balance med school and research?

I did research in undergrad but I felt it was so much more manageable because the material in undergrad had a finite amount of stuff to study. Like I feel I would study an entire day and I felt I was generally satisfied with how much I finished?

However, with med school, it seems like there's always something you can study. LikeI'll finish studying a day of lectures and then I'm like "Do I do some of my research tasks or should I study for tomorrow's lectures. And then I ask myself if I should study for the day after tomorrow's lectures and etc etc?" Do you just make hard cutoffs like "1 hour a day dedicated to research?".

Any advice thanks?

Tl;dr. I feel

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Frogger27]

So you’ve learned a valuable part of medicine already, congrats! That is there is always more you could be studying. HOWEVER, as the year goes on you will learn how much YOU need to study. There is a point of diminishing returns for the amount of studying you put in vs time that could be used on other stuff (research, working out, time with friends/family, etc). I find most students realize the amount they need to study to get the scores they want after the first semester or so

 

[slowthai]

What helped majorly for me was making my workload finite for each day. That way, I was able to do my work and be completely done without having to worry about studying more. You just compartmentalize.

Example weekday schedule towards the end of M1:

1. Zanki
2. BnB for today's topics (or whatever number needed to finish by the end of the block; was usually about 2)
3. Watch the day's lectures
4. Skim two ppts from the week before
5. Research

This allowed me to get a lot done on a consistent basis

 

[drducky.]

However, with med school, it seems like there's always something you can study. LikeI'll finish studying a day of lectures and then I'm like "Do I do some of my research tasks or should I study for tomorrow's lectures.

You'll get used to it. In my case I'm more like, "should i do more ankis or should I study for last week's lectures"

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

What helped majorly for me was making my workload finite for each day. That way, I was able to do my work and be completely done without having to worry about studying more. You just compartmentalize.

Example weekday schedule towards the end of M1:

1. Zanki
2. BnB for today's topics (or whatever number needed to finish by the end of the block; was usually about 2)
3. Watch the day's lectures
4. Skim two ppts from the week before
5. Research

This allowed me to get a lot done on a consistent basis

This. I set a goal for myself. Do my anki. Watch these BnB videos. Do this many qbank questions (if I’m doing them—I usually don’t start those until the week before the exam).

Then in my planner I look at the data I have less to do (like no mandatory labs or whatever) and will say okay on these days I will work on my research or textbook chapter or whatever. My work day is until 3:30 or 4. After that I go hang out with my family.

 

[Detailsmatter]

I agree with everyone above. I always just set a goal for what I wanna get done. typically it'll be: do my reviews, watch corresponding BnB for that day, do my new cards, whatever practice questions if any for that day, and then I do some research. I try to keep everything from 8-5 but I adjust as necessary and try not to beat myself up if I dont finish everything that day

 

[Goro]

Title sums up my question. How do you balance med school and research?

I did research in undergrad but I felt it was so much more manageable because the material in undergrad had a finite amount of stuff to study. Like I feel I would study an entire day and I felt I was generally satisfied with how much I finished?

However, with med school, it seems like there's always something you can study. LikeI'll finish studying a day of lectures and then I'm like "Do I do some of my research tasks or should I study for tomorrow's lectures. And then I ask myself if I should study for the day after tomorrow's lectures and etc etc?" Do you just make hard cutoffs like "1 hour a day dedicated to research?".

Any advice thanks?

Tl;dr. I feel

If you're an M1, knock off the research and focus on mastering med school.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I have no advice for you, but someone on here had a really great quote awhile back.

“Studying in med school is like having sex when you’re drunk. You never really finish, you just keep going until it’s not worth it anymore.”

 

[longhaul3]

If you're doing research mainly to strengthen your residency application, it's meaningless if you don't do well in school. Titrate your studying to the goal of excelling in your classes, then wean as tolerated and fill the rest of the time with research and personal time.

 

[dienekes88]

Title sums up my question. How do you balance med school and research?

I did research in undergrad but I felt it was so much more manageable because the material in undergrad had a finite amount of stuff to study. Like I feel I would study an entire day and I felt I was generally satisfied with how much I finished?

However, with med school, it seems like there's always something you can study. LikeI'll finish studying a day of lectures and then I'm like "Do I do some of my research tasks or should I study for tomorrow's lectures. And then I ask myself if I should study for the day after tomorrow's lectures and etc etc?" Do you just make hard cutoffs like "1 hour a day dedicated to research?".

Any advice thanks?

Tl;dr. I feel

I'm a bit out from medical school, but my best advice is to treat it like a job. Read from 7-9. Go to class from 9-3, study from 3 to 7p. Don't screw around. 7p eat dinner. After that, its your time. Work on research. Do some extracurricular activity, etc.

There's no end to the amount of studying you can do. Your job is to maximize your study time and maximize your durability.