DO Students, what's your school-life balance like?

[Eren.Yeager]

Especially since most are graded and not P/F with the addition of OMM labs (and needing to study for STEP?).

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[DOVinciRobot]

Med school is med school. If you don’t have time to have a life outside of school you’re doing it wrong.

 

[EthylMethylMan]

I'm not a DO, but from talking to my DO colleagues, our experiences seem very similar. The days can be long. Each day is full of hours of new material to learn. You will work hard during those hours, and they often will account for most of your day. But during school my roommate and I hit the gym everyday, and our friend group got together almost every weekend. There's definitely time for a healthy balance, but you have to be deliberate with your free time. It's very easy to goof off and burn all your free time that way.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Totally fine. Most students can get by treating medical school like a full time job. The people who study 10+ hours per day are either aiming to be top in the class, not good at memorizing or just plain exaggerating. I think most people study about 5-6 hours a day.

 

[Whysoez]

Not possible to tell you since it is vastly different from one student to another. However right around the time the first exam/quiz results come out you should know how much of a life you will have vs studying time.

 

[Med_girl27]

It was hard for the first 2 years, like drinking from a water hydrant. 3rd year will definitely be better since you are actually applying what you learn. You can do it! Just gotta get through it.

 

[PapaGuava]

The first two years totally depends on you as a student. I personally kept Sunday-Thursday for studying and whatever needed to be done school-wise. Then I took advantage of my Friday evening and most of Saturday. If it was a weekend before an exam, then I’d dedicate the weekend too. I studied using old school methods so it required more time than my peers but paid off in the end and I was happy with my performances on exams, rank, boards, etc before third year.

Third year is when things really opened up and there was more dedicated free time because rotations only took so much time and as long as you kept up with review throughout the month, your shelf exams weren’t too difficult.

Fourth year has been amazing so far. Residency interviews and just finishing up rotations. No more shelf exams.

Granted, this all depends on what you value, what your academic goals are, and interests. Always remember to filter advice and determine what is your best way of studying.

Good luck my friend, you will make it through just fine!

 

[drthedude]

The first two years totally depends on you as a student. I personally kept Sunday-Thursday for studying and whatever needed to be done school-wise. Then I took advantage of my Friday evening and most of Saturday. If it was a weekend before an exam, then I’d dedicate the weekend too. I studied using old school methods so it required more time than my peers but paid off in the end and I was happy with my performances on exams, rank, boards, etc before third year.

Third year is when things really opened up and there was more dedicated free time because rotations only took so much time and as long as you kept up with review throughout the month, your shelf exams weren’t too difficult.

Fourth year has been amazing so far. Residency interviews and just finishing up rotations. No more shelf exams.

Granted, this all depends on what you value, what your academic goals are, and interests. Always remember to filter advice and determine what is your best way of studying.

Good luck my friend, you will make it through just fine!

I can't be the only one that didn't know PG was a med student