Didn't go to class during MS1 or MS2, killed step 1?

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skiing42

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A lot of people are advocating skipping class and just teaching yourself. For the record, is there anyone on here for whom this worked? I.e. didn't go to class, taught yourself and killed step 1? Just want to make sure this works in reality and not merely in theory, for those of you who (like me) don't get anything from class, and/or who don't have rankings, honors or grades at your school. What was your strategy?
 
Studied for 2mo for step 1, did ~4000qs. Scored 93%ile, should've done better but I can't sit still for the allotted time. All avg grades m1m2. Went to maybe 20 non-mandatory classes. We had a note taking service and course packs (system based curriculum). I used FA for step 1 through the 2yrs and had Kaplan for usmle. All you need.
 
A lot of people who don't go to class still watch the recorded lectures. For me, it's more convenient to watch them on my time, be able to pause whenever I want, and watch them at faster speeds. I may be wrong, but I'm going to guess it's a small minority of people that don't go to class and teach themselves solely from a book without watching or listening to the lectures.
 
I don't think going to class has anything to do with it. It's all about how you spend your time during the study period and how efficient you can be with cramming information to your brain. If going to lecture helps you do that, then go. If it doesn't and you can use that time better on your own, then you should do that.
 
I'm not a great student, but I'm learning to do what works for me. I hate going to class so much that I wouldn't do it even in exchange for a year's worth of tuition.
 
I can't say I did this personally - haven't taken the test yet - but from talking to those ahead of us there were plenty who managed that.

It's all about how your brain works. I have classmates who are more auditory learners and do best if they hear it all once before really digging in, and others who'd never show up to a lecture of their own free will. 90% of med school success, I think, is cutting through all the 'do this' and 'do that', and empirically seeing what gets you the best combo of better grades and deeper understanding of the critical concepts.
 
In my experience, some of the best and some of the worst students do not attend class. If you are studying and watching the lectures from home or the library and working diligently, then you will do well. If all you do is sit at home and watch tv all day or sleep, then you will not do well. Studying --> success; not studying --> failure. Simple as that.
 
I went to the medical school strictly for anatomy lab, small groups, and interest group lunches and made a 239. Not KILLING it for SDN, but everyone I know who scored in this range or higher skipped class. Interestingly, some of the people who were ranked at the top 25%ile of the class for basic sciences did average or less on Step 1, because memorizing finite Powerpoints from PhDs is a different skill than sifting through infinite resources and finding what to learn permanently. (Then, lots of people are good at both). Professor quality between departments at school may vary, but Dr. Sattar and Firecracker/Gunnertraining etc are unwavering. Because of this, these people also tend to "kill" 3rd year, because they learned from standardized, comprehensive resources. Obviously read/listen to school lectures at home at least to some extent to get the minutiae right before the test, but you will be glad if your core of studying during most weeks was comprehensive, nationally-standardized basic science sources. Clicking on answer "L" on that Step 1 screen sure felt a lot better when I had a UWorld answer in my visual recall than when I had a Powerpoint slide with Papyrus animations as the only memory.
 
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It can definitely work. You have to ask yourself if you learn more in an hour of class or an hour by yourself. And, even if you do, if what you learn in class is relevant to the exam. Some people find the explanations provided in class to be crucial for their understanding, but that was certainly not the case for me.
 
You guys are so lucky, 80% attendance is mandatory for all classes and labs at my school and it's a carrib school so the hours are 830-500. Medicine is mostly self-learning.
 
I went to maybe 10% of my lectures during M1/M2, but I watched all lectures at least 3x on 2x speed and busted my ass to do well on exams. Ended up well north of 250 on step 1 and have been living in the 90's on shelf exams in 3rd year. This method worked for me, but I'm very self-motivated also somewhat cynical, so skipping lectures comes natural to me. This strategy is definitely like playing with fire though, because if it backfires, your advisors/dean/whatever will have little sympathy for you. So don't let it backfire.
 
I haven't gone to class since the first few months of school. I also don't watch recorded lectures. I haven't taken step yet but Im consistently towards the top of my class. Honestly I learn best through reading, so having a well explained text is much more useful to me than listening to an hour long lecture. My studying consists solely of reading through books (mostly RR path, FA, and Clinical Micro made easy), then reviewing my notes in Anki. I also read through ppts just to make sure there isn't something school specific that they want me to know for the test but I put little effort into learning these.

It works for me, not sure if it will work for others but its honestly made med school really chill so far because I have so much extra time by not going to class or listening to lectures.
 
I know you don't like hearing this but it depends on person to person. There are many people in my class who never went to class and killed it. There are also many people in my class who attended almost every class and killed it as well. I personally went to about half my classes, the ones that were taught well and had utility for the boards and I did well on the boards.

Some of the classes also helped with clinical rotations and gave me the edge in terms of knowledge. That may also be of use in the future.
 
Not going to class is not the same thing as "teaching yourself." I never went to class but always listened to lecture recordings. Most importantly, I kept up with them and never got behind. It was very nice basically going to med school from my couch and waking up over an hour later (since recordings didn't post til the end of the 1 hour lecture), however I can see how it would be super easy to get distracted all the time if you're the type of person who isn't regimented. It also hurts your social life a little but if you make plans in your free time (which you should have plenty of, don't let anyone tell you you shouldn't), you will be fine. Bottom line = learn things extremely well the first time during M1/2 and you will be golden for Step 1.
 
Most people who skip class are still listening to the recorded lectures. So in the end, it really doesnt matter
 
skiing42 said:
A lot of people are advocating skipping class and just teaching yourself. For the record, is there anyone on here for whom this worked? I.e. didn't go to class, taught yourself and killed step 1? Just want to make sure this works in reality and not merely in theory, for those of you who (like me) don't get anything from class, and/or who don't have rankings, honors or grades at your school. What was your strategy?
Click to expand...

I rarely went to class because we had everything video recorded. I wouldn't call this teaching myself but I did tailor my schedule and watch certain lectures at double speed. I also avoided certain instructors entirely. This approach takes discipline to be successful, though, and will not work for everyone.
 
skiing42 said:
A lot of people are advocating skipping class and just teaching yourself. For the record, is there anyone on here for whom this worked? I.e. didn't go to class, taught yourself and killed step 1? Just want to make sure this works in reality and not merely in theory, for those of you who (like me) don't get anything from class, and/or who don't have rankings, honors or grades at your school. What was your strategy?
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It worked for me. Aside from various required stuff, I think I went to class once my second year of medical school. And yeah, did well in my classes and scored in the 250s on Step 1. I suspect I would have done worse had I gone to class because that time was unproductive for me.

Editing to say that I also did not listen to recorded lectures either. I read the provided material, posted notes and periodically looked to other sources like textbooks.
 
ChEMD said:
A lot of people who don't go to class still watch the recorded lectures. For me, it's more convenient to watch them on my time, be able to pause whenever I want, and watch them at faster speeds. I may be wrong, but I'm going to guess it's a small minority of people that don't go to class and teach themselves solely from a book without watching or listening to the lectures.
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I had the notes for the lectures, therefore there wasn't really a need to watch them,which was good since I found them to be SUCH A BORE. The notes were the guidelines, with review book for supplements = never listening to an ounce of lectures for groups of classes!
 
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Didn't go to class, didn't listen to lectures. Taught myself via ppts and review books. I did extremely well on step 1.

It all depends on how you learn.
 
1st off-did well class rank wise and step 1 257 so take my post for what it is. Went to class the 1st month of M1 and realized going to class was a huge waste of time. Stayed home from then on. General idea for me was to spend 5-10 min looking at the powerpoint the professor posted to get an idea of what you needed to know, then use review books/firecracker/pathoma/kaplan vids/goljian/qbanks/wiki to actually tell you what you needed to know on the subject. This is beneficial for 2 reasons. 1. It lets you get a much better idea of what actually is important for boards. 2. The way in which the material is presented is practically guaranteed to be better put together/easier to understand than how your professor lectured simply because its a standardized review text/video. A few days before the exam I would watch the lectures and write down all the BS trivial details that were harped on during class (that just happened to not be in any other source I used) just so you don't miss any stupid-easy questions on the exam.

As far as going to class, the main reason I absolutely hated it was due to the fact it was incredibly inefficient. Think about this. Every morning you wake up, get a shower/dress decently, pack your lunch and get all your books/etc together, drive to school (I only lived 3 minutes away from my school but it still adds up), set up all your stuff in the lecture hall, talk to classmates before/after/during breaks (it happens to even the least social of us eventually), listen to a professor during a lecture go off on a 10 minute tangent about some personal experience with xyz disease...it just sounds awful even thinking about it. Vs wake up (whenever you want mind you, 5 am or 1 pm, it makes no difference) make a pot of coffee (or preferably have it preset), go to your study area, sip your coffee and begin perusing through the lectures for the day. If you wanted/needed, you could easily be studying within 10 minutes of waking up=efficient.

Finally, I find it unlikely most of our brains were wired to being able to focus for exactly 50 minutes followed by 10 minutes of rest through out the entire day. Sure you can study right through that 10 minute break at which point you now must wait another 50 min. regardless of when your brain starts losing focus. Studying at home gives you the option to take breaks when you need them (be it every 20 minutes or every 4 hours), not simply whenever your professor is done talking. You aren't forced to take an hour lunch break at noon (yeah you can "study" during lunch in the lecture hall but again, eventually a conversation is started and before you know it you just wasted 30 min. hearing/talking about a show you've never even seen before). I'm sure there are student who are able to get some serious studying done during their lunch break but I just don't see it as being common. Ever randomly start thinking about what your plans are on Friday night and realize everyone around you is typing frantically b/c whatever you just missed was promised to be on the test. Wish you could have hit the pause/rewind button yet? Guess you'll have to go back and re-watch this part of the recording...

Anyways, I'm sure there is point after point to be made about why going to lecture is (in general) bad for your education. In the end, I think there are only 2 legitimate reasons one could argue that going to class could actually be beneficial to you. 1. You're just not the type of person who gets things done on their own/you need someone there to guide/prod you to spend the time necessary to learn medicine. Like a poster above me said, if you don't actually spend time studying at home and do begin to start struggling, its very unlikely your deans will be sympathetic to your case. 2. You need the social aspect of class to remain sane during years 1 and 2. Both of those are more than satisfactory reasons for someone to go to class but if you don't necessarily fall into either one of those categories, do yourself a favor and study at home instead. When you realize you easily have at least an hour of extra free time every single day, you'll be glad you did.

And like everything else in life, where there's a will, there's a way. 1st and 2nd year at my school had "mandatory" lectures fairly often (sometimes a few hours a day). Find someone who does go to class and give them your id badge/number/filled out scantron/whatever in case someone takes attendance (and be sure to thank them with a few beers every semester). Obviously this is a little more school specific and you shouldn't do anything that could get you in serious trouble (I always figured if I was ever found out I would just get a slap on the wrist the 1st time and then I'd have to start going to mandatory lectures-never did thankfully though).
 
MilkIsGood said:
Most people who skip class are still listening to the recorded lectures. So in the end, it really doesnt matter
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Exactly. You're still watching lectures, just more efficiently (2x speed plus fast forward through useless background info and research data).
 
Melkor said:
Went to class the 1st month of M1 and realized going to class was a huge waste of time. Stayed home from then on. General idea for me was to spend 5-10 min looking at the powerpoint the professor posted to get an idea of what you needed to know, then use review books/firecracker/pathoma/kaplan vids/goljian/qbanks/wiki to actually tell you what you needed to know on the subject. This is beneficial for 2 reasons. 1. It lets you get a much better idea of what actually is important for boards. 2. The way in which the material is presented is practically guaranteed to be better put together/easier to understand than how your professor lectured simply because its a standardized review text/video. A few days before the exam I would watch the lectures and write down all the BS trivial details that were harped on during class (that just happened to not be in any other source I used) just so you don't miss any stupid-easy questions on the exam.
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Basically what I did except I went through all of last year's lectures in the 1st week of each block then hit the review books and qbanks.

I also got up early and made it to the library or coffee shop by 7am so I could be done by 5pm.
Grades went way up during M1 after I made the switch.
 
alpinism said:
Exactly. You're still watching lectures, just more efficiently (2x speed plus fast forward through useless background info and research data).
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This is my experience as well. I still used the ppts distributed to the class rather than review books on my first pass through the information.
 
alpinism said:
Basically what I did except I went through all of last year's lectures in the 1st week of each block then hit the review books and qbanks.

I also got up early and made it to the library or coffee shop by 7am so I could be done by 5pm.
Grades went way up during M1 after I made the switch.
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Wow that's actually a terrific idea, idk why I never thought of that. I think I'm going to try it at the start of my next block, thanks!
 
docterjew said:
Wow that's actually a terrific idea, idk why I never thought of that. I think I'm going to try it at the start of my next block, thanks!
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Be careful with that though. For example, they just came up with the DSM5 in psychiatry and there some pretty significant differences from last year.
 
I agree. Going to class is mostly a waste of time for me as well. If I do go, I just end up goofing around on the internet during the lecture. With that said, there are some classes/teachers that do make it worth your while, so keep an eye out for those.

When I don't go to class, I usually just read the notes, and skim through the ppts quickly. I only listen to the lectures if I found something to be unclear but other than that I rarely do. I do pretty well on exams, and with this approach I am studying less than I was when I attended all the lectures in the beginning of MS1. I do sometimes miss questions related to minutiae, but who cares?

But, as I have been hearing lately, it seems to be a good idea to start incorporating standardized review books. I am going to start using FA, RR Path, and also ANKI for the upcoming classes. I am still a MS1, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but this approach of just using lectures to clarify material as needed works for me.
 
Misopogon said:
I agree. Going to class is mostly a waste of time for me as well. If I do go, I just end up goofing around on the internet during the lecture. With that said, there are some classes/teachers that do make it worth your while, so keep an eye out for those.

When I don't go to class, I usually just read the notes, and skim through the ppts quickly. I only listen to the lectures if I found something to be unclear but other than that I rarely do. I do pretty well on exams, and with this approach I am studying less than I was when I attended all the lectures in the beginning of MS1. I do sometimes miss questions related to minutiae, but who cares?

But, as I have been hearing lately, it seems to be a good idea to start incorporating standardized review books. I am going to start using FA, RR Path, and also ANKI for the upcoming classes. I am still a MS1, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but this approach of just using lectures to clarify material as needed works for me.
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AOA cares. And that's the only reason I look at class notes more than once. Sadly.
 
chondroblast said:
Everyone on here seems to hate textbooks, but they have helped me tremendously.
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Is this coming from someone who has done a lot of studying already in med school? If it works for you, then don't change it. Do what works for you.

Kill that Step 1 bro.
 
I don't knwo anyone that straight up skips lecture + recorded lectures.
 
chondroblast said:
Yep and I actually do really well on my shelf exams compared to my classmates.
~260 Step 1
Top 5% of class.
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I'm not surprised. I just can't see myself using textbooks for more than a quick reference. Good for you!
 
Trogghunter said:
Studied for 2mo for step 1, did ~4000qs. Scored 93%ile, should've done better but I can't sit still for the allotted time. All avg grades m1m2. Went to maybe 20 non-mandatory classes. We had a note taking service and course packs (system based curriculum). I used FA for step 1 through the 2yrs and had Kaplan for usmle. All you need.
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Why do people keep referring to the two digit score? IT IS NOT A PERCENTILE! You really think you did better than 93% of test takers? Everyone who performs decently gets a 99 two digit score.
 
notbobtrustme said:
I don't knwo anyone that straight up skips lecture + recorded lectures.
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I did, but they give out the notes to us. If they didn't give us notes or the powerpoints(which is silly IMO), then i'd be screwed. Since there is literally NOTHING I would gain from listening to a recording, whatsoever.

Besides, if I went to class or listened to lectures, I would feel bored since I can read faster and efficiently vs. passively listening to some person. What's worse is the students who ask questions....if only those recorded lectures can cut that crap out.
 
ValentinNarcisse said:
Why do people keep referring to the two digit score? IT IS NOT A PERCENTILE! You really think you did better than 93% of test takers? Everyone who performs decently gets a 99 two digit score.
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Maybe he means he got a >93% 3 digit score
 
KnuxNole said:
I did, but they give out the notes to us. If they didn't give us notes or the powerpoints(which is silly IMO), then i'd be screwed. Since there is literally NOTHING I would gain from listening to a recording, whatsoever.

Besides, if I went to class or listened to lectures, I would feel bored since I can read faster and efficiently vs. passively listening to some person. What's worse is the students who ask questions....if only those recorded lectures can cut that crap out.
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Questions that are COMPLETELY irrelevant to what would be tested on an exam.
 
Uhhhh I actually got in trouble for not showing up to class. I scored >2 standard deviations above the mean.
 
There are plenty of people who skip class and also ignore the lectures entirely regardless of the format and succeed on Step (assuming that it how you believe you will learn most efficiently). If your teachers tend to ask random questions that they only cover during lecture, then it's important to at least have access to the notes of someone who will dutifully write that crap down for your tests. But that's not because you need a professor's mystical wisdom, only because you need to succeed on their tests.

Otherwise, you certainly can teach yourself everything you need for Step 1.
 
very little class, no video reviews of lectures, no audio reviews, almost no textbooks.. scored ~250 on Step 1 back in 2010.

used review books, self study of class notes for classes (was ~70th%-tile for in class at a true P/F school) and goljan/firstaid/UWorld for Step 1 study. probably ended up reading FA 3x and doing ~4k UWorld questions.
 
As a 4th year who just matched into ophtho, I just want to stress that doing well on Step 1 will get you into any competitive field but there's a lot more to it than board scores. A high Step 1 score by itself will not get you into a top program in a competitive field. AOA helps immensely. Someone with a 240s Step 1 and AOA will probably be chosen over someone with 260 and no AOA. Research is also HUGE. Ridiculous research seems to trump even Step 1. Even with a low Step 1, you can still match into anything with a ton of research. Dedication to the field is also big. And of course, recommendations are huge. Sadly, if you have 250+ Step 1 and AOA but are from a no-name med school, it will still be very difficult to get into a top program in a competitive field. I just wanted to shed some light on things I ignored when I was in my preclinical years.

At the end of the day, it really only matters that you match at any program in that competitive field. Most ppl go into private practice so the name of your program doesn't really matter. The top programs are only ranked high because of their research. The rankings/"top tier" have nothing to do with the actual quality of the resident education. If you want to work in academics, though, it helps to come from a bigger name program. And since this is SDN which is full of pride, a lot of you are probably obsessed with going to the top name programs just out of pride even if it won't matter longterm for most. Good luck.

And to answer the OP's question, it is much more efficient to podcast lectures at home. You still want to do as well as possible in your classes because they generally make up the majority of your GPA that is used for AOA eligibility. And like I said, AOA is not necessary to match but opens many doors. And even if you can't make AOA, your class rank still matters and programs still put weight on it. It still looks better being in the top quarttile than the 2nd or 3rd quartile.
 
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If you think about it, why even watch the lectures at all? What do you really learn from most lectures in M1? Usually the professors just regurgitate rubbish from the textbook (if their ppt wasn't copied from the textbook itself). If not, then there's 2 other options - you have a teacher who writes their own lecture notes (usually awful in my experience, they should just stick to a pre-made script since they can't teach themselves, don't try to wing it) or you might have one who writes their own notes and is pretty good. But those are very, very rare in my experience. What I'm trying to say is, at the end of the day you will have to teach yourself no matter what, so why not skip the pretense of their spoonfeeding and get on with it.
 
cbrons said:
If you think about it, why even watch the lectures at all? What do you really learn from most lectures in M1? Usually the professors just regurgitate rubbish from the textbook (if their ppt wasn't copied from the textbook itself). If not, then there's 2 other options - you have a teacher who writes their own lecture notes (usually awful in my experience, they should just stick to a pre-made script since they can't teach themselves, don't try to wing it) or you might have one who writes their own notes and is pretty good. But those are very, very rare in my experience. What I'm trying to say is, at the end of the day you will have to teach yourself no matter what, so why not skip the pretense of their spoonfeeding and get on with it.
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Because the lecture tests are usually full of minutiae from the lectures that are not important longterm and are not in textbooks but are important if you want AOA. You generally can't get AOA unless you do real well in your pre-clinical years. Even some schools with P/F are still secretly ranking you among your peers from what I hear and use that as part of AOA. My school has real grades though so I always knew we were being ranked against each other.
 
If I found out that lecture attendance was mandatory at a medical school, that school dropped completely off my application list. I would always go to school during lecture hours, but study on my own in the library or a study room, using textbooks and the printed notes we were given. It got to the point that, if I DID show up for a lecture, a classmate or two would panic thinking we had a quiz or something.

255 Step 1.
 
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