do med students study on weekends too?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
S

shreypete

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
856
Reaction score
13
hey i was just wondering if most of the medical students spend their time studying on weekends. I usually take a break on friday (after college is over) and then study for 2-3 hrs. on sat. and finally i spend most of study studying (usually in the afternoon and evening).........do you think this is advisable? the only problem is that i'm not doing so well in tests (may be coz i'm just a high school graduate in med school) despite speding a lot of hrs. during the week studying.....

i have one more question for you. how can you guys concentrate for such long periods of time....how often do you take a break (as in after 50 min or an hr.?) I've tried studying at a stretch for 2 hrs. but struggle to get by with that (without a break of 20 min.)...what motivates you to study for so long for 5-6 days in a row...
Members don't see this ad.
 
How much you study really depends on how well you do and how well you want to do.

If you're happy with how you're doing, you don't need to study more on weekends.

If you're not happy with how you're doing, you need to study more on weekends.

I usually didn't study a ton (around 3-5 hours/day, more during the tougher modules) during the week and used the weekend to catch up. The weekend before an exam I'd do 10-12 hours a day on saturday and sunday. Two weekends before an exam, I'd do 6-8 hours a day on saturday and sunday. If there wasn't an exam coming up, I'd usually do 6-8 hours on either Saturday or Sunday, and take the other day off completely. If the exam were really really remote, I'd probably take the whole weekend off.

I think the most I ever studied on a weekend was 9 hours on Friday, 15 hours on Saturday, and then 14 on Sunday. That was for our cardio final. That was a pretty miserable weekend.
 
Then 2nd half of M1 year, and M2 year (when I wasn't procrastinating), I spent every evening at school until about 9pm in the library. I'd also get to the library as soon as it opened on Saturdays and Sundays and study until the evening, when I'd take a few hour break (church stuff each evening). M2 year, I started getting to school before class, when the library opened (7:30), and studying then.

I found my grades dramatically improved. I studied a lot, though, and knew my stuff. However, I'd also get bored of studying some nights during the week and hang out with friends.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I do pretty well and I generally don't study on the weekends (I don't count Sunday evening as the weekend however). I believe that if you learn how you learn then you can study more efficiently and take enough free time to still enjoy life to some extent. Things like sleep, exercise, and eating shouldn't be given up due to medical school. People who are balanced are doing just as good as the people who study all the time.

However, we have a practical and an exam on Tue and Wed so I'm studying right now (the first Saturday since I started that I have done real studying).
 
shreypete said:
hey i was just wondering if most of the medical students spend their time studying on weekends. I usually take a break on friday (after college is over) and then study for 2-3 hrs. on sat. and finally i spend most of study studying (usually in the afternoon and evening).........do you think this is advisable? the only problem is that i'm not doing so well in tests (may be coz i'm just a high school graduate in med school) despite speding a lot of hrs. during the week studying.....
Click to expand...

The majority of med students I know (but not all) spend pretty substantial time studying each weekend (far more than 2-3 hours). But everyone is different and the worst thing you can do in med school is assume that you can get by doing what someone else is doing -- it is a very personal endeavor and what works for some is disasterous for others. If you aren't doing well you need to revise your study methods, try different gameplans, use different resources, don't just blindly up the hours-- try to make each hour more effective.

What a lot of people who do well do is some variation on this theme, (1) preread for classes each day, (2) attend lecture or watch it remotely, (3) review the lecture material the same evening, and (4) spend each weekend reviewing the whole week's worth of material, and (5) Review that same material again in advance of the test. In 5 passes through the material, a lot will stick. Cramming doesn't work so well in med school. And you want some of this stuff to get to longterm memory because you will want to try and tap into it later when you study for boards or get pimped on rotations.
 
Even on a weekend with an exam over a week away, I probably study 10 hours or more. On a weekend with an exam in a few days (like Monday, cough cough), I'll have my wife drop me off on her way to work and pick me up when she's done, so I'll be here from 6:30am to 8:30pm, on Saturday and Sunday. Of course, it's not 100% studying, but it still ends up being almost 30 hours in two days...
 
I try to take Saturday's off completely until two weekends before test block. In general, I try to study most of Sunday. Saturday is the only day in the week that my SO and I have both have off, so we like to spend it together. 2 weeks before test block, I will study as much of every day that I can. I haven't managed to get back into studying since our last TB ~ 2 weeks ago... 😱 About time to pick it back up.
 
Who likes 9-5 anyway?

I think it really depends on the individual as most have mentioned. If you memorize everything with little effort - by all means, have a life. If you need to study to do well on tests - study more.

I think that a lot of us harness the inner gunner because we'd really like to be a rock-star on the wards and spank the boards. We'll see if long hours pay off 3rd year 😉

Oh yeah, I HATE being wrong, so I avoid that at all costs.
 
I did bad in undergrad, and really well in med school. In med school, I did study on the weekends....
I set a routine for myself, and it included 40 hours of studying per week.... about 4 hours on each weeknight, and ten hours on Saturday and Sunday. It wasnt bad at all.
 
I studied 8a-noon today, and will probably study more like 8a-5p tomorrow. This is a no-test week. If I had a test, I would have studied more like 8a-7p today, and 8a-3pm on Sunday. I usually try to give myself one afternoon off on a weekend, but if I have a test I'll study until I'm too burnt out to continue. It all depends on how I'm feeling about the information, though. If I'm really spaced out and not concentrating well anymore, it's usually because I know the information, oddly. So if I study until that point, I typically perform very well on the test.
 
For the last 5 weekends in a row.........all weekend
 
wow y'all study a LOT. puts my own study habits to shame. 😳
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I am at a Uk med school but I guess we all need to know the same info but you lot seem to work a lot more than we do here and I have never really understood why! Yeah there are some people that work constantly but I know a lot that don't. My course is problem based and during term time I only really make my notes, I don't learn them in any way until revision time, I barely even pay attention to what I am typing and a lot is copied and pasted. I am pretty hardcore for about a month before exams but I literally learn nothing before that. I am in the minority with this strategy but it works for me, I'm in the top couple of % in my year. I would say most of the people I know do a few hours a day, 2-4, but never more than that except the super keenos, or around exams. Every term I always say I am going to learn things during the year but it never happens and I am a bit scared to change now in case I don't do as well.
 
On a weekend without a test coming up that upcoming week, I generally study 4-6 hours per day, maybe more if I'm reading Grey's and I get too immersed in the reading. I try to treat each day as a normal school day and spend the same amount of time from class towards studying, generally 6-7 hours a day, but I always end up short.

On a weekend where a test or two is coming up (which seems to be every week nowadays), I'll spend 10-12 hours studying on Sat/Sun and 3-4 hours on Friday. Yep, sometimes I wonder if I put in as much time as a resident in terms of time commitment these days.
 
I don't usually study a ton on the weekends. I study for maybe 3-4 hours on Saturday. On Sunday, I am almost never productive. It's nap time. So far, I have been pleased with my grades. It may change next semester though. It's all up to you and how well you memorize and retain information. I seem to be able to do it faster than others. Everyone is different though.
 
During the week I study about 5 hours a day outside of class. Most weekends I study 3-4 hours on Saturday and 5-6 hours on Sunday. If it's the weekend before a test, I'll do 8 hours a day; the weekend after a test block (week of exams) I don't study at all.
 
thanks a lot for the feedback guys...but i have one question for you? how can you guys concentrate for such long periods of time....how often do you take a break (as in after 50 min or an hr.?) I've tried studying at a stretch for 2 hrs. but struggle to (without a break of 20 min.)...
 
lol ever since I have started medical school, my weekends do not exist any longer.
 
It depends on how much studying I need. I have to study on weekends if I am not caught up with my studying during the week. I also use weekends for a review of the material covered during the week. I'm a M1.
 
With regards to how you study for hours on end without getting bored (without some type of prescription), I think there are two ways. Both of these seem to light a fire under people's butt. One, start doing poorly, and then realize you had better change or find somewhere else to be, or start to get really into the material. Once I got over my MS1 year, and realized that just getting by probably wasn't going to make me a very good doctor, and that maybe I should learn this stuff instead of cramming it, I found myself much more able to concentrate. In fact, the library opens in an hour, and that's where I'm headed, bugs n' drugs. Bottom line, I started liking medical school instead of just going through.
 
is this a joke? I study every weekend, absolutely (most of the weekend in fact.)
I do have to admit that I'm not very good at studying during the week, though--and I have a pretty weak science background. Either way, MSI is time-consuming so far.
 
On the topic of how I keep my attention for hours on end:

I'll read for a while, then when I get antsy, instead of taking a break, I do some practice questions (which, if nothing else, motivates me to study so I dont do so badly next time), then I review the answers, then I can do some more reading... then I might take a short break...

By switching between reading, questions, review, etc. I can keep my attention for a longer period of time. Besides, time flies for me when im answering practice questions.

hope that helps
 
Sunday is a great day to study. I do a lot of it on Sundays. Saturdays it depends how close to the test it is but I do generally study every day. Some nights I don't get a lot of sleep during the week I just can't study for more than an hour or two and I just go to sleep.
 
hey thanks a lot guys...a lot of meaningful advice. i've read another post talking about sleeping hrs. some sleep late in the night while others get up early in the morning, do you think this might affect the concentration span? (coz the traditional saying is that sleep early, get up early).....also what if you've had a very inconsistent sleeping pattern (which i face constantly)? some days i sleep early while the others i stay up until 2 (but i have a tough time waking up the next morning)......
 
I think the main thing is to get a consistent sleep schedule. However ridiculous that may sound to some people in med school. My whole thing with staying up late to study, or getting up early to study, was that at those times, my brain was off, so what's the point?

For taking breaks: my roomate was able to sit in the same chair for a 9 hour period. I, on the other hand, had to get up and at least stretch and pretend like I had to use the bathroom every hour or so. Depended on the material: path, I could go for two or more hours, genetics, every 15 seconds seemed like weeks.

I say that in terms of weekends, I didn't really study until 2nd semester of 2nd year, with the boards coming up. People would make fun of me for only studying a few hours a day, but my point was "will I really feel better about myself after 9 hours of studying, if I forget whatever I read the last 3 hours?' When I found myself re-reading the same sentence 3 or four times, time to take a break or call it quits. And it all ended up happily. Namely doing well on boards, and rotating, not studying all day.
 
I think the main thing is to get a consistent sleep schedule. However ridiculous that may sound to some people in med school. My whole thing with staying up late to study, or getting up early to study, was that at those times, my brain was off, so what's the point?

For taking breaks: my roomate was able to sit in the same chair for a 9 hour period. I, on the other hand, had to get up and at least stretch and pretend like I had to use the bathroom every hour or so. Depended on the material: path, I could go for two or more hours, genetics, every 15 seconds seemed like weeks.

I say that in terms of weekends, I didn't really study until 2nd semester of 2nd year, with the boards coming up. People would make fun of me for only studying a few hours a day, but my point was "will I really feel better about myself after 9 hours of studying, if I forget whatever I read the last 3 hours?' When I found myself re-reading the same sentence 3 or four times, time to take a break or call it quits. And it all ended up happily. Namely doing well on boards, and rotating, not studying all day.
 
bambi said:
I am at a Uk med school but I guess we all need to know the same info but you lot seem to work a lot more than we do here and I have never really understood why! Yeah there are some people that work constantly but I know a lot that don't. My course is problem based and during term time I only really make my notes, I don't learn them in any way until revision time, I barely even pay attention to what I am typing and a lot is copied and pasted. I am pretty hardcore for about a month before exams but I literally learn nothing before that. I am in the minority with this strategy but it works for me, I'm in the top couple of % in my year. I would say most of the people I know do a few hours a day, 2-4, but never more than that except the super keenos, or around exams. Every term I always say I am going to learn things during the year but it never happens and I am a bit scared to change now in case I don't do as well.
Click to expand...
I am at Faculty of medicine at Ain Shams University (Egypt) and I think If I work the way u do I'll not pass the simplest quizzes which are permanent at our faculty.
In perfect days I may study 7-8 hours which rarely happens:laugh:
but usually I spend part of my weekend in revising and studying what I dropped the whole week when I finish I dont have 2 study anymore during the weekend
 
shreypete said:
i agree with A7madeus, i would fail then too....
Click to expand...
We don't really have tests or anything during term time though so I can get away with it. We just have 2 big sets of exams each year.
 
Let's just say, that as an M2, I'll be studying pretty much daily, between 6-12 hours a day, for the next month. I have four cumulative finals.
 
Let me remind you that you're on SDN, where the hardest of the hardcore reside. These people (us people? haha) study, freak out, and obsess more than your average medical student. Most med students do a lot of that, but this is the cream of the crop to be certain.
 
The secret to great studying is aderol. I am a very strong advocate. If you have trouble focusing on the weekend, just pop one or two on sat and sunday and you can easily go 8 hours straight without even looking up from your book
 
uppi said:
The secret to great studying is aderol. I am a very strong advocate. If you have trouble focusing on the weekend, just pop one or two on sat and sunday and you can easily go 8 hours straight without even looking up from your book
Click to expand...

It's spelled Adderall and it is a prescription drug for ADHD. It can also lead to dependence.

Maybe you should disclose the facts before giving potentially harmful medical advice.
 
goodoldalky said:
Let me remind you that you're on SDN, where the hardest of the hardcore reside. These people (us people? haha) study, freak out, and obsess more than your average medical student. Most med students do a lot of that, but this is the cream of the crop to be certain.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's probably true.

I don't study on ANY weekend, except for the weekend before the test. For Chrissakes, how do you type A nervous twitchy people live with yourselves? Your GPA is .3 higher than mine, but I enjoy my life a hell of a lot more. 30 hour weekends? For what? What's the point? All the freakin minutiae you memorize now isn't going to help you be a better clinician.
 
Rogue Synapse said:
Yeah, that's probably true.

I don't study on ANY weekend, except for the weekend before the test. For Chrissakes, how do you type A nervous twitchy people live with yourselves? Your GPA is .3 higher than mine, but I enjoy my life a hell of a lot more. 30 hour weekends? For what? What's the point? All the freakin minutiae you memorize now isn't going to help you be a better clinician.
Click to expand...

Well, fantastic for you.

Some of us studied on weekends, not because we were "nervous twitchy people," but because we needed the extra study time to consolidate the information in our heads. Because studying something just once wasn't enough. And because Step 1 loomed like a big ugly brick wall over our heads.

Nowadays, I study on weekends because it's the only time when I can stay awake long enough to focus. 🙁

And studying on weekends was good practice for surgery. At least now I don't complain when I have trauma call on a Saturday night.
 
uppi said:
The secret to great studying is aderol. I am a very strong advocate. If you have trouble focusing on the weekend, just pop one or two on sat and sunday and you can easily go 8 hours straight without even looking up from your book
Click to expand...

Yeah, good luck with retaining 1/8th of what you learned after your adderall high. I smell a troll.
 
Rogue Synapse said:
Yeah, that's probably true.

I don't study on ANY weekend, except for the weekend before the test. For Chrissakes, how do you type A nervous twitchy people live with yourselves? Your GPA is .3 higher than mine, but I enjoy my life a hell of a lot more. 30 hour weekends? For what? What's the point? All the freakin minutiae you memorize now isn't going to help you be a better clinician.
Click to expand...

Yeah? Im not as smart as you are. I had to study every weekend just to get the basics.
 
Rogue Synapse said:
Yeah, that's probably true.

I don't study on ANY weekend, except for the weekend before the test. For Chrissakes, how do you type A nervous twitchy people live with yourselves? Your GPA is .3 higher than mine, but I enjoy my life a hell of a lot more. 30 hour weekends? For what? What's the point? All the freakin minutiae you memorize now isn't going to help you be a better clinician.
Click to expand...

That's true, but it might help you do better on Step 1. Particularly the minutiae from 2nd year.

Not to mention the pimping that you get during 3rd year, which seems to focus on useless minutiae that you swore would never be important.
 
As of today, our exams are 3 weeks away, and cover an entire term of material (from August).

I've spent most evenings studying throughout the year for varying amounts of time, and weekends (again, quite variable). But ever since the beginning of November, it's been every day, all day, for as long as I can physically manage. Otherwise, things will be very very ugly in the next little while.

Even so, despite this amount of work, I'm still quite fearful as to the outcome...

Oh boy, how I hate this time of year. I find myself making plans, constantly being followed by "...after exams." Seems like the entire world is on hold until "...after exams." sigh.

Good luck ya'll.
 
Unless it was the weekend before a test, I tended to do only as much over the weekend as I had to so I wouldn't look like a complete idiot on Monday (i.e., directly assigned learning issues, preparation for quizzes/lab discussions, assignments/papers due, etc). Otherwise I generally found I could work in everything else over the first part of the following week.
 
goodoldalky said:
Let me remind you that you're on SDN, where the hardest of the hardcore reside. These people (us people? haha) study, freak out, and obsess more than your average medical student. Most med students do a lot of that, but this is the cream of the crop to be certain.
Click to expand...

Yeah, also a lot of people exaggerate. When you ask your classmates or people on this forum (or anyone else) they'll tell you what they would like their schedule to be like in a perfect world. Having said that, people on this forum are evidently shooting for the stars and I've heard when you aim high you hit high, or something like that. So, be like me, study 12 hours a day 😉.
 
The best way to study less and learn more is to study ahead first, then pay attention in class. It'll cut down on how much time you spend on reviewing and give you more time to learn other stuff on top of that.
 
i'm weird i guess. i do all my studying on the weekend...apart from maybe 1.5 hours a day during our break. i just can't function when i get home at 5 pm. so i take naps and watch tv or just lazy around. but on saturday day and sunday day i get about at least 6 solid hours in each day. and i still get to go out on the weekends so it works out. granted my school is completely pass fail with no records of grades or anything, so i guess it takes a load off. i am definitely suffering from end of the day burn out.
 
Trindelinberg said:
Yeah, also a lot of people exaggerate. When you ask your classmates or people on this forum (or anyone else) they'll tell you what they would like their schedule to be like in a perfect world. Having said that, people on this forum are evidently shooting for the stars and I've heard when you aim high you hit high, or something like that. So, be like me, study 12 hours a day 😉.
Click to expand...

Exaggeration aside, if you are in med school and think you don't have any classmates who are studying a decent number of hours every weekend you probably are hanging out with a nonrepresentative segment of your class.
 
Law2Doc said:
Exaggeration aside, if you are in med school and think you don't have any classmates who are studying a decent number of hours every weekend you probably are hanging out with a nonrepresentative segment of your class.
Click to expand...

I agree.
We like to show off, and say that we can know all of this medical science without studying. "This is easy!, I dont go to class and just read High Yield, and I pass."
Some people need to read once, and they remember everything, and some need to read 10 times before they retain it. But you have to get the information from somewhere.
And guess what, there are some people that hide, and study when you arent looking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

AJS59
Any resources on how to deal with breakups as a med student?
Replies
8
Views
842
Rachapkis
Rachapkis
symphony1o1
Medical Student Survey [URGENT] Participants Needed for Research on Medical Students' Performance in Asynchronous Environment
Replies
1
Views
218
symphony1o1
symphony1o1
V
Why do attendings at community hospitals hate med students?
2
Replies
70
Views
5K
Nontrad_FL_LGBT
N
T
AI Study Resources During Med School?
Replies
16
Views
2K
turtleai
T
MrBigglesworth
How to study from a dermatologist: for struggling students
Replies
0
Views
977
MrBigglesworth
MrBigglesworth
Top