Did you study in college?

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Yadster101

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r/mildlyinteresting: med students never study in college

So I'm surprised to learn that the majority of med students I have met so far barely studied in undergrad. Is it likely that the reason I'm not a top med student is because I studied my butt off in college as a bio major?

Do you know ANY med students that actually studied consistently (few hrs everyday) in college? I know there may be some engineers but I have met pretty much zero bio majors in med school that actually studied.
 
I don't think I ever studied in college more than the day/weekend before the test until my senior year, which is probably why my GPA was mediocre. I knew plenty of people that put in a regular 10-15 hours per week, nothing like how much people study in med school though.
 
Stagg737 said:
I don't think I ever studied in college more than the day/weekend before the test until my senior year, which is probably why my GPA was mediocre. I knew plenty of people that put in a regular 10-15 hours per week, nothing like how much people study in med school though.
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This is the exact same thing that EVERYONE seems to say. I totally agree with the last statement about college being nothing like med school but still... isn't it kind of surprising that barely anyone put in ~15-25hrs/wk in undergrad?
 
Yadster101 said:
This is the exact same thing that EVERYONE seems to say. I totally agree with the last statement about college being nothing like med school but still... isn't it kind of surprising that barely anyone put in ~15-25hrs/wk in undergrad?
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Not really. If you're in med school, there a 99% chance you are naturally smart and it does not take nearly as much time or effort for you to absorb and understand the same volume of information as an average person. The actual content of medical education is not difficult (mostly); the incredibly fast pace is what makes it very difficult. Undergrad was like drinking from a water fountain, med school is like drinking from a fire hydrant. I'd say about 1 hour of med school lectures covers in more detail the same topic the average professor at my undergrad covered per 3-4 hours of lecture. If my lectures now moved at the same pace as my undergrad classes, I wouldn't have to study nearly as much. But it would also take me 8 years to get through the pre-clinical years (no thank you).
 
Yadster101 said:
This is the exact same thing that EVERYONE seems to say. I totally agree with the last statement about college being nothing like med school but still... isn't it kind of surprising that barely anyone put in ~15-25hrs/wk in undergrad?
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Just because people say it, doesn't mean it was true. Plenty of people studied in undergrad, and most premeds probably put in much more time than their non-premed counterparts--they just put in more time now that they're in med school.
 
I know plenty of people who put in a lot of time. I procrastinated, and pretty much studied a couple days before the exam. But I was not a straight A student and got into DO school, not MD. I should have tried harder, and my 3.6 GPA/3.4 sGPA agree with me.
 
samac said:
I know plenty of people who put in a lot of time. I procrastinated, and pretty much studied a couple days before the exam. But I was not a straight A student and got into DO school, not MD. I should have tried harder, and my 3.6 GPA/3.4 sGPA agree with me.
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J/c but how much time would you estimate that these ppl you know put in? Are any in med school now/doing well in med school?
 
Yadster101 said:
J/c but how much time would you estimate that these ppl you know put in? Are any in med school now/doing well in med school?
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A friend of mine had a 4.98 c/s GPA. Studied a whole lot.
But she failed anatomy in med school.
Another friend of mine who had a 4.0 is doing really well in med school. He studied a heck of a lot more than I did, but maybe not as much as the pervious girl.
Another guy who started off weak in undergrad but really ramped up his studying junior/senior year is kicking med school's ass.

I'm not doing fantastic in my DO school, but I'm holding my own in the middle of the pack.
 
I studied a lot harder in college than med school, mainly because it was grades vs p np
 
Every successful med student I know aced ochem without ever working a single problem outside of the exams. If you can't do this, well, the world needs phlebotomists, too.

In seriousness, I think the "I never studied in undergrad" thing is probably more a matter of perspective. Once you're in med school, I'm sure that whatever amount of studying you did in undergrad feels minuscule by comparison.

For those who do study a lot, it depends on the reason for their efforts. If you're studying your butt off to keep your head above water in undergrad, that doesn't bode well for med school. But some people just study a lot because it's in their nature to put a great deal of effort into whatever they're doing, or because they have competitive personalities and want to set the curve on every exam they take.

Editing to clarify that my first paragraph above is sarcastic. No. No one I know aced ochem without working practice problems. That was an intentionally absurd statement meant to show how ridiculous the idea is that any significant number of people "don't study" in undergrad and end up in med school.
 
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Yadster101 said:
r/mildlyinteresting: med students never study in college

So I'm surprised to learn that the majority of med students I have met so far barely studied in undergrad. Is it likely that the reason I'm not a top med student is because I studied my butt off in college as a bio major?

Do you know ANY med students that actually studied consistently (few hrs everyday) in college? I know there may be some engineers but I have met pretty much zero bio majors in med school that actually studied.
Click to expand...
I studied for 2-3 hours a day in college, more on weekends, much more during finals seasons. (Context: my majors were in the chem and psych departments.) I wasn't studying to keep my head above water, per se, but my general knowledge (and grades) definitely benefited from my consistent driven approach.

The only reason that I wouldn't say I "studied by butt off" in undergrad is because med school has made me reconsider what actually studying your butt off means -I put in a lot of time with fairly active studying strategies, etc. I'm at a P/F program, but I definitely spend more time studying now than I did in college. I enjoy what I'm studying 75% of the time, so I'm not really bothered by the hours.

I would not call myself a top med student at my program, (partially cause it's true, and partially cause that would be tantamount to disrespecting my classmates), but I'm probably not at the bottom either. I haven't failed any exams and I'm doing reasonably well on regular assessments.

#notallmedstudents
 
If you did really well in college, you probably studied a lot since there are other studying a lot and competing with them without studying is difficult unless you are a genius.
 
Merely said:
If you did really well in college, you probably studied a lot since there are other studying a lot and competing with them without studying is difficult unless you are a genius.
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Unless you're not graded on a curve. I got through my first year and a half with around a 3.8 and barely studied. Granted, it bit me later, but I still pulled around a 3.75 my last semester only studying around 5 hours/week.
 
Terry Toma said:
Every successful med student I know aced ochem without ever working a single problem outside of the exams. If you can't do this, well, the world needs phlebotomists, too.
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That actually made me laugh. Your undergrad either only gave you a crash course or all your classmates were somehow born with innate and extensive knowledge of chemistry, which I doubt. As a former organic chemist and undergrad organic chemistry lab supervisor, I speak from experience when I say every student studies for organic and has to do practice problems, to some degree (obviously some more than others, but even the brightest still review and practice). If you didn't have to study at least a little and do some practice problems, your course was a joke then. I also find it funny that you made that comment after starting a thread called "Took O-chem I ten years ago. What do I need to do to get ready for O-chem II?" Clearly it's not your forte if you need to ask for help online, which I guess based on your comment means you won't be a successful med student, right?

And by the way, I prefer the people shoving needles into my veins to not be stupid. Not to mention most people work as phlebotomists because it's decent money for the training and amount of work and/or because they need funds to pursue other educational avenues.

Do everyone a favor and drop the arrogance.
 
tiedyeddog said:
I studied a ton in undergrad. Getting A's in gen Chem, calculus, and physics(while taking all 3 at the same time) was harder than passing a medical school block Imo
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Really? I took all of those classes freshman year and they were cake. I started doing worse when I started taking upper level bio classes.
 
Rumor13 said:
That actually made me laugh. Your undergrad either only gave you a crash course or all your classmates were somehow born with innate and extensive knowledge of chemistry, which I doubt. As a former organic chemist and undergrad organic chemistry lab supervisor, I speak from experience when I say every student studies for organic and has to do practice problems, to some degree (obviously some more than others, but even the brightest still review and practice). If you didn't have to study at least a little and do some practice problems, your course was a joke then. I also find it funny that you made that comment after starting a thread called "Took O-chem I ten years ago. What do I need to do to get ready for O-chem II?" Clearly it's not your forte if you need to ask for help online, which I guess based on your comment means you won't be a successful med student, right?

And by the way, I prefer the people shoving needles into my veins to not be stupid. Not to mention most people work as phlebotomists because it's decent money for the training and amount of work and/or because they need funds to pursue other educational avenues.

Do everyone a favor and drop the arrogance.
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I was being sarcastic. Starting the next sentence with "in seriousness" was meant to communicate that the preceding had been in jest.

I guess I'm glad my joke made you laugh, anyway.
 
I didn't study near as much as everyone else, or as much as I should have. My GPA sucks, and it really shows.

Good thing I have decided to turn things around 🙂
 
tiedyeddog said:
I went to a huge state school. Those classes were strictly on a curve where under 10% of people got a b+ or higher.
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Fellow University of Washington alum? Their grading policy destroyed my GPA...

...and probably the fact that I only studied the night before exams also contributed.
 
tiedyeddog said:
I went to a huge state school. Those classes were strictly on a curve where under 10% of people got a b+ or higher.
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That makes sense then. I went to a smaller school where 100 level classes were mostly easy A's if you showed up and did the work and 300-400 level classes (especially in the science and education departments) were meant to be almost grad-level classes. Probably why I did so mediocre most of my last 3 years.
 
Rumor13 said:
That actually made me laugh. Your undergrad either only gave you a crash course or all your classmates were somehow born with innate and extensive knowledge of chemistry, which I doubt. As a former organic chemist and undergrad organic chemistry lab supervisor, I speak from experience when I say every student studies for organic and has to do practice problems
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This may sound crazy but to get As in Orgo 1 and 2 I studied ~3hrs/day X 7 days/wk.
 
moy505 said:
This may sound crazy but to get As in Orgo 1 and 2 I studied ~3hrs/day X 7 days/wk.
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A lot of my former students had to study more than that just to scrape by. Orgo is a b*tch when you first take it. All that matters is you got the A because you worked for it.
 
PL198 said:
people romanticize the past.
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This.

I think it's pretty difficult to tease out how much studying someone did vs how much they say they did because of hindsight bias.
When posed this question my gut is to say, 'No, I didn't study in undergrad because my GPA could have been better' or 'I could have tried harder.' Also it's not like I graduated with a feeling of never wanting to attend school again. In fact, I had instant rose-colored glasses on when I walked across the stage and packed up to leave town.

But after trying to remember details about my day-to-day life in undergrad or life events that occurred during those years, I remember sitting on this certain chair a lot. All I ever did was study in that chair, so I'm sure I did more studying than I would initially let on if put on the spot.

When a tornado was about to hit my house, guess what I was doing? Studying, at 2 pm after just getting home from class. I only remember that day because I briefly looked up at the TV and saw a huge red spiral coming at my county with flashing headlines and way too many ellipses dots saying, 'SEEK COVER...TORNADO TOUCHDOWN IMMINENT......' It kind of blew my mind how distracted I was with studying that I didn't notice that a tornado was in the forecast until the last minute. I also remember many school-related freakouts and walking around campus in a daze before certain final exams.

In retrospect, none of it seems too bad. However, at the time, I just wanted whatever it was to be over. Human memory is pretty faulty.
 
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I studied quite a bit in undergrad. I would not want to re-do some of those semesters. Organic lab...I shudder at the thought.
 
I would say I put in about 4 hours a day, for 5 days a week. Although not all of it was "studying", I also include writing papers, doing assignments, etc.,
 
Eh, students (especially medical students) have a habit of telling everyone how little they studied to get x.xx GPA--after all, if you can "study a few hours before the test" and get an A, you must be a genius, right?. I didn't mind studying since the material was actually interesting (same goes for med school). If I wasn't at the research lab, tutoring, volunteering, etc. I was usually studying.
 
Rumor13 said:
A lot of my former students had to study more than that just to scrape by. Orgo is a b*tch when you first take it. All that matters is you got the A because you worked for it.
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so that means i'm not totally screwed in med school, even though i worked hard in college!?!?
 
I feel that if a lot of students don't have to study much to achieve A's in a given program, the program wasn't challenging enough for that set of students.

My professors made everyone sweat.
 
Studied maybe 5-10 hours per 1 - 2 weeks, depending on when exams were. However, had a lot of AP credits so could test out of a number of courses in UG. Relatively easy undergrad with pretty prevalent grade inflation though, so not the same as other people's experiences.
 
One of the best parts of med school is everyone is different. You will meet plenty of people that do very little work for top grades, and people who study every day for middle-tier grades. Do what you do, and it will work out.

As for myself, I didn't study much in college because my high school was absurdly difficult.
 
Terry Toma said:
Every successful med student I know aced ochem without ever working a single problem outside of the exams. If you can't do this, well, the world needs phlebotomists, too.
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Screw you man. I failed O chem II and am now working as a phlebotomist 🙁 It is upsetting tho, cuz I always considered myself a naturally gifted student, but whereas my roommate was able to look over notes for an hour every night I was hitting the books hard and struggled immensely with that class.

Some people are able to just get it, but the "I never studied" statement is just pure bogus. All the kids that say that are in the library day and night and just like to say it is pure genius or divine intervention or whatever external force to boost their ego.
 
I studied a lot in undergrad and did very well. I studied a lot in med school and did very well. A friend who graduated Harvard med studied hard in undergrad as well. A lot of med people like to say they don't study. Some of them aren't lying, some are. Just worry about yourself and do what you have to do to perform how you want to perform
 
I had to study a lot in college since I slacked off in high school.
 
Your med student peers probably don't remember studying too much in undergrad because:

1) They are comparing it to medical school, in which they study a lot more

2) They are trying to sound smart and one up you...its always been cool to say you got A's without studying, even in high school

3) They honestly don't remember, as a human brain always tends to remember the good times and leave out the hard times


Anyway...the library and computer lab at my undergrad was ALWAYS packed. I remember always having to wait at least a few minutes to get a seat at my undergrad's computer lab. And there was like 500 seats in it. It was huge. So, it appears that many people were indeed studying...unless they went to the library and computer lab to mess around on facebook
 
Mostly the same level of studying (most likely since I was a ChE/Biochem double major and my school deflated grades)
 
Does doing HW assignments and required reading count as studying? Because I did that 1-3 hours a day during undergrad. But if we're talking extra studying that is simply for the sake of understanding material better I would only do that for maybe 3-4 hours before each test.

Edit: And let's be honest, there's a good chance I'm remembering my pre-test study hours as shorter than they actually were...
 
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