Conceptualizing the Amount of Content in Med School

[yeetus]

I want to get an idea of how dense the material is in reference to my prior experiences.

In college, I took Organic Chemistry I (3 credits) in the span of 6 weeks during the summer, which was absolute hell. What is med school like compared to this frame of reference? Is each block (9 weeks) like learning 8 credits or something?

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[Octagon]

I’m in a 1.5 year preclinical and I think I’m registered for ~54 credit hours just for spring.

It’s really not comparable to almost any other educational program.

With that in mind
1. Workload doesn’t exactly translate based on the credit hours but rest assured it is probably far more dense than anything you’ve experienced.

2. You will adapt and learn to study the most efficient way.

3. If you have a decent curriculum, topics will come up multiple times. I’m just now understanding things that I didn’t ever learn in the first block as I start to think about step 1.

4. There are many ways to study. Most of them work. The real secret is managing your emotions and energy so you can consistently spend high quality time learning. (Not wasting time answering questions on the internet lol)

A dean once shared with me that people rarely fail out just due to academics. It’s usually something personal that disrupts their ability to keep up

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Pre-clinical years are tough, there is no way around that. The first year of medical school was by far the toughest mostly due to the adapting to the new style of learning. It's hard because it is not like anything you are prepared for. The saying 'it's like drinking from a firehose' is a true statement. They will throw an enormous amount of material at you on a daily basis and present completely different topics the following day. The stress comes from having to understand one thing and move on in a very short period of time. In all other classes you've ever taken you will see the same material day after day and your professor will beat it into you, but in medical school that doesn't happen. You're expected to grasp the concept, master it the day it was presented to you, and get prepared for the next day of new lectures.

I don't want to make the post all doom and gloom. It will be a tough time in your life, but we've all done it and made it to the other side. I will say that as a 4th year student you look back and appreciate all the hard work you put in. When you start realizing what problems a patient has, come up with a diagnosis, and formulate a plan it is a beautiful thing.

 

[Splenda88]

While I was helping my spouse with nursing biostatistics few years ago, I realized I did her whole semester of biostatistics in 6 hrs in med school. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe my 6 hrs class was more in-depth than my spouse's class.

 

[mrbreakfast]

There is no good comparison to college; the best comparison is that med school is like a full-time job. There's simply no other comparison. You may get 45 hours of lecture and 1,000 powerpoint slides a week. Many students spend much of their day studying, every day. I'm not sure how making step 1 pass/fail will change that, as the emphasis on pre-clinicals has certainly lessened since I was in med school. But this isn't undergrad, not even close.

For reference, it took us a few weeks to cover the content of the year of biochemistry I took in college.

 

[Kierkegaard's Bud]

I’m in a 1.5 year preclinical and I think I’m registered for ~54 credit hours just for spring.

It’s really not comparable to almost any other educational program.

With that in mind
1. Workload doesn’t exactly translate based on the credit hours but rest assured it is probably far more dense than anything you’ve experienced.

2. You will adapt and learn to study the most efficient way.

3. If you have a decent curriculum, topics will come up multiple times. I’m just now understanding things that I didn’t ever learn in the first block as I start to think about step 1.

4. There are many ways to study. Most of them work. The real secret is managing your emotions and energy so you can consistently spend high quality time learning. (Not wasting time answering questions on the internet lol)

A dean once shared with me that people rarely fail out just due to academics. It’s usually something personal that disrupts their ability to keep up

Imagine if you had 1yr preclinical

 

[Splenda88]

Imagine if you had 1yr preclinical

I actually think preclinical as well as clinical should be 1.5 yr each. Many things in preclinical are repetitive.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Not that bad

 

[RangerBob]

I took physics/bio/and o chem in the same year.

Also did gen chem over 8 weeks.

Med school is more info at a faster rate than both of those. But you adapt and I actually found it to be less work, less stress. Maybe because I was also volunteering & working on top of those pre-med courses when I was a post-bac. But I felt the academic load while higher, was easier.

I also didn't feel I had to prove myself as much in med school. I was a B+ student in undergrad, and an A student as a post-bac. For med school I decided I was ok being a B/B+ student again, and my life/personal well-being and wife thanked me.

 

[Splenda88]

Med school is more info at a faster rate than both of those. But you adapt and I actually found it to be less work, less stress. Maybe because I was also volunteering & working on top of those pre-med courses when I was a post-bac. But I felt the academic load while higher, was easier.

I also didn't feel I had to prove myself as much in med school. I was a B+ student in undergrad, and an A student as a post-bac. For med school I decided I was ok being a B/B+ student again, and my life/personal well-being and wife thanked me.

Lol. That was me in med school. I was an A-/B+ student in undergrad. I made the decision after a 2-3 months into med school it ain't worth to be A student.

I don't know about other folks. I was able get mostly B in med school studying 5 hrs/day, but in order for me to get A/A-, I had to study ~9 hrs consistently. I quickly realized getting As was not worth it for my mental health.

 

[Kierkegaard's Bud]

Lol. That was me in med school. I was an A-/B+ student in undergrad. I made the decision after a 2-3 months in med school ain't worth to be A student.

I don't know about other folks. I was able get mostly B in med school studying 5 hrs/day, but in order for me to get A/A-, I had to study ~9 hrs consistently. I quickly realized getting As was not worth it for my mental health.

Welcome to the age of P/F

 

[TheRealBatmanMD]

Meh, I found medical school easier than undergrad.

 

[Splenda88]

Meh, I found medical school easier than undergrad.

There was no pressure to get As in classes like physics etc...

 

[yeetus]

There was no pressure to get As in classes like physics etc...

Coursework wise, is the pressure dependent on what specialty you’re interested in?

 

[wysdoc]

Coursework wise, is the pressure dependent on what specialty you’re interested in?

Everyone takes all the same courses in the first 2 years so there is not a difference

 

[yeetus]

Everyone takes all the same courses in the first 2 years so there is not a difference

Oh yeah I understand that, just wondering if the stress of shooting for an A grade (like in high school and college) is noticeably different for those with different specialty pursuits

 

[Splenda88]

Coursework wise, is the pressure dependent on what specialty you’re interested in?

Agree. I knew I wanted to do IM or Psych or Neurology in that order, so I just had to pass and go thru the motion.

 

[cj_cregg]

Oh yeah I understand that, just wondering if the stress of shooting for an A grade (like in high school and college) is noticeably different for those with different specialty pursuits

I would certainly hope that people who are interested in uncompetitive specialties are still concerned about learning as much as they can, as well as they can for the sake of their future patients.

 

[Splenda88]

I would certainly hope that people who are interested in uncompetitive specialties are still concerned about learning as much as they can, as well as they can for the sake of their future patients.

I would hope it's not at the expense of their mental health.

 

[cj_cregg]

I would hope it's not at the expense of their mental health.

I am certainly not advocating for medical students to do anything at the expense of their health. To me learning as much as you can, as well as you can has to be sustainable and healthy, or else you're not learning as much as you can, as well as you can. I have dealt with anxiety and got therapy in medical school and also some significant physical health issues (all thankfully much improved now!), so I am all too familiar with the fine line between working hard and working too hard lol. I responded that way because the post I responded to seemed to infer that people interested in less competitive specialties don't "need" to work as hard to learn the material just because the grade itself is less important.

 

[Splenda88]

I am certainly not advocating for medical students to do anything at the expense of their health. To me learning as much as you can, as well as you can has to be sustainable and healthy, or else you're not learning as much as you can, as well as you can. I have dealt with anxiety and got therapy in medical school and also some significant physical health issues (all thankfully much improved now!), so I am all too familiar with the fine line between working hard and working too hard lol. I responded that way because the post I responded to seemed to infer that people interested in less competitive specialties don't "need" to work as hard to learn the material just because the grade itself is less important.

Some people choose to be practical about things while others don't. I believe I graduated med school with 3.0--3.1 GPA and I have no idea if graduating with a 3.5 GPA would have translated in me being a better physician.

I attended a school that ranked every single exam (I mean every single exam). (Example: Grade: 85.... Rank: 34) to the point that some people care more where they ranked as opposed to what grade they got.

I realized early on that I did not want to jeopardize my mental health because of some BS ranking on exams.

I guess to each its own.

Do you think trying to learn as much as you can in med school was the trigger of your issues?

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Some people choose to be practical about things while others don't. I believe I graduated med school with 3.0--3.1 GPA and I have no idea if graduating with a 3.5 GPA would have translated in me being a better physician.

I attended a school that ranked every single exam (I mean every single exam). (Example: Grade: 85.... Rank: 34) to the point that some people care more where they ranked as opposed to what grade they got.

I realized early on that I did not want to jeopardize my mental health because of some BS ranking on exams.

I guess to each its own.

Do you think trying to learn as much as you can in med school was the trigger of your issues?

The best and the brightest don't slack.

 

[Splenda88]

The best and the brightest don't slack.

I have learned already that I am not the best doctor in the world. Lol

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Yes, and you are not alone. It's a challenge to be at your best, charging full steam ahead, every hour of every day. And not necessarily healthy either as noted by CJ above.

 

[cj_cregg]

Some people choose to be practical about things while others don't. I believe I graduated med school with 3.0--3.1 GPA and I have no idea if graduating with a 3.5 GPA would have translated in me being a better physician.

I attended a school that ranked every single exam (I mean every single exam). (Example: Grade: 85.... Rank: 34) to the point that some people care more where they ranked as opposed to what grade they got.

I realized early on that I did not want to jeopardize my mental health because of some BS ranking on exams.

I guess to each its own.

Do you think trying to learn as much as you can in med school was the trigger of your issues?

Again...I don't think "learn as much as you can, as well as you can" does, or should, equal working yourself into the ground/compromising your mental health. That is not what I suggest that ANYBODY does - you're arguing against a point I did not make and do not agree with. My comment was directed at the idea that people have the physical, mental, and emotional capacity to work harder/learn more, and choose not to just because they want to do a noncompetitive specialty and don't need a 250 on step 1. I also think that while our health is intrinsically valuable, compromising your health also compromises your learning and your patient care if you are not self-aware and responsive. The question I was responding to was not "should you study so hard you compromise your mental health?" to which my answer is unequivocally no. The question was "do people who do noncompetitive specialties have any less stress because grades are less important," and I think the answer to that is also usually no.

No, I don't think trying to learn as much as I reasonably could in medical school was the trigger of my issues. While I wanted to learn as much as possible for my patients, I never was too worried about grades as long as I was comfortably passing. I wasn't super hard on myself about my below average grades, because I know grades don't always reflect clinical acumen or performance. I'm not a great test taker, but I think today I am a pretty good doctor. Everybody is going to have a different threshold for what they can manage in terms of time, volume, etc. of studying. That is okay, and most of us will turn out to be great doctors, including folks at the bottom of the class academically - they're at the bottom of a group of incredibly hardworking and intelligent people.

Not to get too into the weeds, but I think my anxiety mostly stemmed from social interactions (particularly on clinical rotations) and being a people pleaser. The big issue for me with my physical health was a lack of appropriate help-seeking behavior, but that was mostly related to some specific worries I had about my diseases and treatment options (e.g., I knew if I kept going in with flare ups, the next step was a few months of steroids and escalating to injectable immunosuppressants, and that was terrifying to me at the time).

Edit - several typos, clarity lol

 

[IlDestriero]

Gunners gonna gun, slackers gonna slack.

 

[Kierkegaard's Bud]

Again...I don't think "learn as much as you can, as well as you can" does, or should, equal working yourself into the ground/compromising your mental health. That is not what I suggest that ANYBODY does - you're arguing against a point I did not make and do not agree with. My comment was directed at the idea that people have the physical, mental, and emotional capacity to work harder/learn more, and choose not to just because they want to do a noncompetitive specialty and don't need a 250 on step 1. I also think that while our health is intrinsically valuable, compromising your health also compromises your learning and your patient care if you are not self-aware and responsive. The question I was responding to was not "should you study so hard you compromise your mental health?" to which my answer is unequivocally no. The question was "do people who do noncompetitive specialties have any less stress because grades are less important," and I think the answer to that is also usually no.

No, I don't think trying to learn as much as I reasonably could in medical school was the trigger of my issues. While I wanted to learn as much as possible for my patients, I never was too worried about grades as long as I was comfortably passing. I wasn't super hard on myself about my below average grades, because I know grades don't always reflect clinical acumen or performance. I'm not a great test taker, but I think today I am a pretty good doctor. Everybody is going to have a different threshold for what they can manage in terms of time, volume, etc. of studying. That is okay, and most of us will turn out to be great doctors, including folks at the bottom of the class academically - they're at the bottom of a group of incredibly hardworking and intelligent people.

Not to get too into the weeds, but I think my anxiety mostly stemmed from social interactions (particularly on clinical rotations) and being a people pleaser. The big issue for me with my physical health was a lack of appropriate help-seeking behavior, but that was mostly related to some specific worries I had about my diseases and treatment options (e.g., I knew if I kept going in with flare ups, the next step was a few months of steroids and escalating to injectable immunosuppressants, and that was terrifying to me at the time).

Edit - several typos, clarity lol

Non competitive specialties are the ones that require breadth of knowledge, a great PCP isn’t a product of slacking.

 

[Splenda88]

Non competitive specialties are the ones that require breadth of knowledge, a great PCP isn’t a product of slacking.

Yet they are the ones with lowest USMLE scores. Our healthcare system is doomed.

 

[TheRealBatmanMD]

Yet they are the ones with lowest USMLE scores. Our healthcare system is doomed.

Not necessarily. A lot of those specialties are highly dependent on consults. This is institution specific, but at my school (which has a top ranking IM residency), the IM residents would defer to their consults for many issues. That being said, I still have a lot of respect for outpatient FM/IM physicians. It's pretty difficult not knowing what type of pathology you're going to expect on a given day. You can have 6 patients with derm issues on one day followed by a whole other set of problems the next day. At least if you're an outpatient neurologist/ rheumatologist/etc, there's a narrower set of pathologies to expect.

Also, some FM physicians are way more skilled than others. I rotated with one FM doc who only deferred to consults if she really had to. The other FM doc I rotated with would consult for just about everything. lol

 

[TheRealBatmanMD]

There was no pressure to get As in classes like physics etc...

If you mess up in undergrad, you won't be a doctor at all. If you mess up in medical school, you would simply be eliminated from competitive specialties. However, even uncompetitive fields are great and you can redeem yourself by working towards a fellowship.

As an undergrad, I hated the disrespect/stigma of being a "pre-med." Other students were toxic such as competing for shadowing, getting into the best undergrad organizations, competing for a spot in a lab, etc. I always felt like I had something to prove. Granted, things were easier during the 3rd and 4th years of undergrad, when my GPA was somewhat fixed and I had all my ECs established. The first 2 years, however, were a blood bath. You could get a single A- in a class and your GPA would take a hit. Also, all the kids in the introductory gen chem classes were straight up obnoxious. We had one of the largest pre-med populations in the country at my school. If there's one thing I learned, it's not how your start, it's how you finish. A lot of those other students were frontrunners in the first quarter of undergrad, and then dropped off slowly and slowly after that like a Kaplan-Meier curve.

 

[EngineerPreMD]

I want to get an idea of how dense the material is in reference to my prior experiences.

In college, I took Organic Chemistry I (3 credits) in the span of 6 weeks during the summer, which was absolute hell. What is med school like compared to this frame of reference? Is each block (9 weeks) like learning 8 credits or something?

Med school will be more dense than anything you covered in undergrad. It's probably 2x even a tough college semester. The difference is that you will have fewer distractions and a different lifestyle. In undergrad you balance research, ECs, 4-5 classes, and a college social life. In med school you have probably 2x the academic commitment, but ECs are less important, pubs are BS and easy to get, and socializing with other med students means you normalize things like studying all Saturday.

Overall, it's just a change in lifestyle. Temper your expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised. The firehose analogy holds true, but eventually you'll feel comfortable learning what's possible and living with being imperfect.

Meh, I found medical school easier than undergrad.

This is totally possible if you're not gunning for a top specialty or top residency. Really depends on your self-perception/ego. In my experience the people breaking their backs in med school are often deeply invested in prestige as an identity. I'm at a T50ish school and I'd say at least 25% of my class went to Ivy+ undergrads, and another 50% were on prestigious scholarships elsewhere, and a very high percentage are hellbent on getting back to a "top-tier" environment.

I'll admit, there's a pretty big difference in energy at a "brand name" place vs. a mid-tier. At the brand names they fluff your ego and train you to be a leader. It creates a positive feedback loop which leads to a really exciting and hopeful training environment (peers see peers doing super ambitious things and go after more ambitious accomplishments). At the mid-tiers it's more of a "we'll see which of you don't end up as replaceable cogs" energy. Med school sort of robs you of the ability to enjoy your life in ways that aren't based on professional success, so it's easy to see why people get wrapped up in this. It's not until they are attendings that they realize how much more they just wanted disposable income and the ability to develop their personal/family life.

If you mess up in undergrad, you won't be a doctor at all. If you mess up in medical school, you would simply be eliminated from competitive specialties. However, even uncompetitive fields are great and you can redeem yourself by working towards a fellowship.

As an undergrad, I hated the disrespect/stigma of being a "pre-med." Other students were toxic such as competing for shadowing, getting into the best undergrad organizations, competing for a spot in a lab, etc. I always felt like I had something to prove. Granted, things were easier during the 3rd and 4th years of undergrad, when my GPA was somewhat fixed and I had all my ECs established. The first 2 years, however, were a blood bath. You could get a single A- in a class and your GPA would take a hit. Also, all the kids in the introductory gen chem classes were straight up obnoxious. We had one of the largest pre-med populations in the country at my school. If there's one thing I learned, it's not how your start, it's how you finish. A lot of those other students were frontrunners in the first quarter of undergrad, and then dropped off slowly and slowly after that like a Kaplan-Meier curve.

I think this again goes back to the ego. Studies show that people basically reset their baseline happiness and expectations after 2-3 years of a new status quo. It's a big part of why billionaires who come from poverty and at one point dreamed of just owning a small house might find themselves committing human rights violations at scale or massively polluting the environment just to consolidate their power even more. Once you're in med school, your expectations reset and that same toxicity comes back among students, except instead of becoming a doctor the new goal is becoming a dermatologist or matching at Harvard.

 

[LucidSplash]

I majored in biochemistry/molecular biology. It’s been awhile but I have a distinct memory on day 2 of the biochem block, thinking “we just covered my entire major in 4 hours of class.” In undergrad there’s a lot of hand-waving about some processes, where you’re told some basic manner about how a process occurs. And then you find out it is infinitely more complicated and now you’re expected to know a much more of the complexities.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

I believe our Dean told me our 1st semester MS1 was something like 34 credits to give some comparison to undergrad

 

[la flame]

med school in 2023 = use Anking (along w/ BnB, Sketchy and FA) + Amboss/Uworld = Enough to get above average grades without stressing too bad and slacking off occasionally.

I don't think it's nothing like Undergrad courses like Ochem, physics, etc. It feels like preclerkship was 95% memorization. I personally only opened like 10 powerpoints at most in my first two years of med school due to 3rd party resources and did just fine. Still went out on the weekends, had time for my significant other, play intramural sports weekly, watched the Dallas Cowboys play every Sunday (lol). It helps so much going to a med school without any required attendance and NBME exams.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

med school in 2023 = use Anking (along w/ BnB, Sketchy and FA) + Amboss/Uworld = Enough to get above average grades without stressing too bad and slacking off occasionally.

I don't think it's nothing like Undergrad courses like Ochem, physics, etc. It feels like preclerkship was 95% memorization. I personally only opened like 10 powerpoints at most in my first two years of med school due to 3rd party resources and did just fine. Still went out on the weekends, had time for my significant other, play intramural sports weekly, watched the Dallas Cowboys play every Sunday (lol). It helps so much going to a med school without any required attendance and NBME exams.

How was M3 year ?

 

[esob]

Everyone takes all the same courses in the first 2 years so there is not a difference

This is true, but I would say the amount of effort required still differs based on the specialties one is considering. If you are interested in a highly competitive specialty, then you have to work harder in preclinical, in my mind. Even with step 1 going P/F, a substantial amount of that content carriers forward to step 2 + 3. Also, even in a true P/F system with no quartile rankings like we had at my school, they still used preclinical grades for AOA.

 

[cj_cregg]

This is true, but I would say the amount of effort required still differs based on the specialties one is considering. If you are interested in a highly competitive specialty, then you have to work harder in preclinical, in my mind. Even with step 1 going P/F, a substantial amount of that content carriers forward to step 2 + 3. Also, even in a true P/F system with no quartile rankings like we had at my school, they still used preclinical grades for AOA.

I think this still rests on the assumption that grades/residency match opportunities are the only thing that could motivate a student to work hard in medical school

 

[esob]

I think this still rests on the assumption that grades/residency match opportunities are the only thing that could motivate a student to work hard in medical school

I think everybody works hard in medical school just to get by. I'm talking about what motivates a person to forego entire segments of Maslow's hierarchy in order to be ranked at the top of their cohort.

 

[cj_cregg]

I think everybody works hard in medical school just to get by. I'm talking about what motivates a person to forego entire segments of Maslow's hierarchy in order to be ranked at the top of their cohort.

I agree that even people who barely pass are still working incredibly hard and are still super smart. But I still think there are things other than grades/match outcomes that motivate people to work harder than they would if their goal was just to pass. I am in FM, knew I would be early on, but still studied as hard as a reasonably could because I wanted to be a good doctor regardless of my step score. Many others do the same, and I don't think they are any less stressed than someone who is shooting for ortho.

 

[Cornfed101]

So here’s the thing. Medical school is just a lot. You will be studying all the time and will never learn everything you need to learn. I’m in an elective right now and studying for step 2. I wake up at 4:30am and study for an hour and a half. I get to the hospital at 6:45 and thankfully they let me leave at 3ish (anesthesia FTW). I then come home and study until 8pm and repeat 7 days a week. I never did anything like that in undergrad. I even worked part time during a rigorous post bac and still didn’t feel as burnt out as I do now.

On a positive note I don’t feel like medical school is overly challenging conceptually. My BS is in mechanical engineering and it was much more taxing mentally. Calc 3 and differential equations are just really difficult to understand. I think even undergrad chemistry and organic chemistry are more challenging. It is simply the volume that makes med school difficult. It never lets up and never sleeps

 

[pazzer2]

Ballpark estimates (based on my experience)

High school to College courses: roughly 2x the pace (and material)
College to Med School: roughly 2x again
Graduate school classes: about 1.5x college level

 

[Kierkegaard's Bud]

Ballpark estimates (based on my experience)

High school to College courses: roughly 2x the pace (and material)
College to Med School: roughly 2x again
Graduate school classes: about 1.5x college level

I think you are lowballing the med school escalation. I had a lecture when the med school prof taught an entire undergrad course on metabolism in one lecture; I am still amazed by how much material she got through in 2 hrs.

 

[esob]

I agree that even people who barely pass are still working incredibly hard and are still super smart. But I still think there are things other than grades/match outcomes that motivate people to work harder than they would if their goal was just to pass. I am in FM, knew I would be early on, but still studied as hard as a reasonably could because I wanted to be a good doctor regardless of my step score. Many others do the same, and I don't think they are any less stressed than someone who is shooting for ortho.

I think that position presupposes that studying more will make you a good doctor. I was recently reading the 1854 seminal text of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride that became the blueprint for more than half the psychiatric facilities in the country at one point. Kirkbride was the founder of the organization that eventually became the APA and is considered one of the founders of modern psychiatry.

In reference to the superintendent (ie, the chief of the facility), Kirkbride wrote, "The character of his pursuits, if zealously and faithfully performed, makes some kind of change of scene and occupation more necessary than in almost any other vocation. Variety of thought and labor are rest to him, refreshing his mind, and enabling him to return to his post, with fresh energy and renewed strength."

I connect way more with my patients over stuff that I did in an hr with family than anything I'm going to learn about the machinations of copper in Wilsons. In fact, much of the goings-on about changing step 1 to P/F was born out of the Oslerian idea of students not spending time with the patients and the related lack of equanimity.

 

[cj_cregg]

I think that position presupposes that studying more will make you a good doctor. I was recently reading the 1854 seminal text of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride that became the blueprint for more than half the psychiatric facilities in the country at one point. Kirkbride was the founder of the organization that eventually became the APA and is considered one of the founders of modern psychiatry.

In reference to the superintendent (ie, the chief of the facility), Kirkbride wrote, "The character of his pursuits, if zealously and faithfully performed, makes some kind of change of scene and occupation more necessary than in almost any other vocation. Variety of thought and labor are rest to him, refreshing his mind, and enabling him to return to his post, with fresh energy and renewed strength."

I connect way more with my patients over stuff that I did in an hr with family than anything I'm going to learn about the machinations of copper in Wilsons. In fact, much of the goings-on about changing step 1 to P/F was born out of the Oslerian idea of students not spending time with the patients and the related lack of equanimity.

I agree to an extent - more knowledge will make you a better doctor. There are many ways to gain knowledge, one of which is studying, and it's not just about hard science knowledge either.