Yeah, I think I spent most of my third year "studying" time reviewing things that I had seen and had questions about. I also spent time studying for the tests, but usually I didn't do much of that until the last week, and I studied almost exclusively for these things with review books and practice questions (completely opposite from how I studied 1-2 years).
But surgery rotation, e.g., not much studying time. Arrive hospital 4:30-5am, leave 5-7pm, eat dinner and go to bed soon thereafter. There are innumerable things to review during third year and fourth year. A lot of it involves treatment algorithms, rationales, etc which you don't get much of the first two years. Making a differential diagnosis and narrowing that down is another key. Which tests to order, how to interpret them, all that.
My days the first two years: Class 8am-1pm, then leave, do nothing the rest of the day. Study a little in the evenings. MUCH more free time. I tend to have a different way of studying though that works for me but not others. I never have used a highlighter, for example. And I actually went to class and paid attention.
Good luck! ENjoy the rest of your preclinical years because 3rd year is quite a grind. Just when you start to get comfortable on a rotation or service, you leave and start another one. And you are in the hospital, as someone else said, a lot. It's like having a job where you don't really have an assigned task and don't get paid either, but you have to be there all the time. You do perform a useful service to many residents and attendings but for the most part you also tend to slow them down. But you get to have experiences that you will never have again. I wouldn't trade my third year experience but I also wouldn't want to do it again, if that makes sense.
4th year, on the other hand, is nice but a lot of it is useless. Some people like having all this free time. For me, I just want to be done with it and move on already. I am glad to be doing some of my 4th year rotations but not all. 4th year should end at the end of december and residency should start sooner. An extra year (4th year) is pretty pointless except for the extra vacations.
And by the way, Dr ***** probably spent 7 years getting that PHD and learning about the p53 metabolism of cimetidine, just so that he could teach it to you ungrateful kids!
