Fridays and Weekends

[Pinkswan]

Sorry if this comes across as a trivial post. I just wonder if premeds study on Fridays or use that time to wind down. I'm personally tired by Fridays as I sleep really late on weekdays and get up early to be on time for certain early morning lectures. I don't really study on Fridays as I use that day to rest. I've heard of premeds who do study on Fridays, so I was wondering if there are any like me or if I should start using Fridays to study. Also when do you guys wake up on weekends? I try to wake up at 9 but end up snoozing, only to wake up much later, brunch around noon, and start my work for the day.

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[Mad Jack]

Do whatever works for you. Some semesters I never needed to study, others I needed to study 24/7 when I wasn't working.

 

[Coltuna]

Sorry if this comes across as a trivial post. I just wonder if premeds study on Fridays or use that time to wind down. I'm personally tired by Fridays as I sleep really late on weekdays and get up early to be on time for certain early morning lectures. I don't really study on Fridays as I use that day to rest. I've heard of premeds who do study on Fridays, so I was wondering if there are any like me or if I should start using Fridays to study. Also when do you guys wake up on weekends? I try to wake up at 9 but end up snoozing, only to wake up much later, brunch around noon, and start my work for the day.

I went out Thursday-Saturday religiously during the last 2 years of undergrad. I would usually wake up around 10-11 Friday-Sunday (easy when you don't have class on fridays), study for an hour or 2, relax, go out again, lather, rinse, repeat. Granted my Sundays-Tuesday/Wednesday would've been a lot less stressful had I done some studying at the end of the week, but I valued the college experience more during those years. If you value some time off then you could definitely set aside a day or 2 to take it easy. It all depends on what you value.

 

[Robin-jay]

In undergrad., I had time on weekends to relax. Maybe spend that extra time you have to study for the MCAT?

In chemistry graduate school, I would be awake nearly 24 hours, then go out to the bars with some friends for a few hours because the entirety on my time was almost exclusively school. I'm talking well over 80+ hours a week.

I mean, no one can tell you what you need to do, that's entirely up to you. Some people could do well on 3 hours of sleep a night, while other needed 6. (If you needed 8 hours then you aren't going to graduate or med. school lol).

 

[Coltuna]

If you needed 8 hours then you aren't going to graduate or med. school lol

Ignore this OP. Some of the best advice I got in undergrad was to make 7 hours of sleep a priority. And this same advice was offered by 2 physicians I work with for medical school specifically. I can count on 2 hands the amount of nights I got <7 hours of sleep in undergrad. 3.85 cGPA here fwiw.

 

[Robin-jay]

Ignore this OP. Some of the best advice I got in undergrad was to make 7 hours of sleep a priority. And this same advice was offered by 2 physicians I work with for medical school specifically. I can count on 2 hands the amount of nights I got <7 hours of sleep in undergrad. 3.85 cGPA here fwiw.

Thats undergrad. though, I was talking about graduate or professional school. I guess if you're able to get 7 hours of sleep in those settings, more power to you.

 

[Coltuna]

Thats undergrad. though, I was talking about graduate or professional school. I guess if you're able to get 7 hours of sleep in those settings, more power to you.

Okay I may have misread what you were trying to get across. I read it as needing 7+ hours of sleep = inability to get into grad or med school.

 

[Robin-jay]

Okay I may have misread what you were trying to get across. I read it as needing 7+ hours of sleep = inability to get into grad or med school.

I could have written it much more clearly!

What I mean to elaborate is that its good to have 7 or 8 hours of sleep, but you have to be prepared to do without in certain situations in graduate/professional school.

For example, if you have to have 4 hours of sleep a couple nights in a row to fulfill your responsibilities, then you have to be able to do it!

Getting a good nights sleep is always an excellent thing, as even before my thesis defense everyone recommended a good nights sleep (nerve-wrecking night btw). But its not always realistic.

 

[Shotapp]

Thats undergrad. though, I was talking about graduate or professional school. I guess if you're able to get 7 hours of sleep in those settings, more power to you.

Numerous of times, you have made your graduate chemistry degree sound like the hardest venture known to man. It is simply not that hard to excel in a traditional graduate program (you are supposed to get A's). That was an unnecessary expense if you went that route to simply boost your chances to get into medical school.

 

[Robin-jay]

Numerous of times, you have made your graduate chemistry degree sound like the hardest venture known to man. It is simply not that hard to excel in a traditional graduate program (you are supposed to get A's). That was an unnecessary expense if you went that route to simply boost your chances to get into medical school.

I had a professor in chemistry graduate school during my very first class say "no one is going to get an "A" in this class".

Its hard to earn 4.0 GPA when its impossible. Earning a decent GPA wasn't too bad though. Although, its rare the same person that gets an "A" in advanced analytical chemistry 600 is going to also earn an "A" in advanced quantum chemistry. The reason is because once you take 600+ level coursework, you're often competing against people who are becoming professors of that field (i.e. there were people in my advanced quantum chemistry class that are going to be teaching quantum chemistry as a professor)

Its not the hardest degree to mankind. Its just a typically difficult degree. I bring it up occasionally because thats my experience.

I respectfully disagree that it wasn't a hard degree to earn. The dropout rate for PhD chemists is insane.

50% or so of PhD chemists don't finish their degree (Chemjobber: How many 1st year grad students will get their Ph.D. in chemistry?).

"62% chance of graduation x 19.2% chance of becoming a research chemist = 12% chance of continuing a research career after entering graduate school.

And yes I realize that 19.2% is a narrow pick, but the number does not become much better even if we took the broader career choices into account!

Graduation rate for medical students 94.1% x 95% residency placement = 89% chance of continuing a career in medicine after entering medical school.

A big mystery is why are graduate schools still able to recruit any American students who will work 6-7 days/week for nearly seven years and then do it again in a post-doc, all while vying for something that has little chance of happening at all. Not to mention the pay is probably not too great these days even for that 12% that still works directly in research! Maybe medical school is actually worth the debt when considering the odds and opportunity costs."

2-5% of medical students don't finish their degree.

Its comparing apples to oranges here. But I do disagree with you on the difficulty of chemistry graduate school.

 

[Shotapp]

I had a professor in chemistry graduate school during my very first class say "no one is going to get an "A" in this class".

Its hard to earn 4.0 GPA when its impossible. Earning a decent GPA wasn't too bad though. Although, its rare the same person that gets an "A" in advanced analytical chemistry 600 is going to also earn an "A" in advanced quantum chemistry. The reason is because once you take 600+ level coursework, you're often competing against people who are becoming professors of that field (i.e. there were people in my advanced quantum chemistry class that are going to be teaching quantum chemistry as a professor)

Its not the hardest degree to mankind. Its just a typically difficult degree. I bring it up occasionally because thats my experience.

I respectfully disagree that it wasn't a hard degree to earn. The dropout rate for PhD chemists is insane.

50% or so of PhD chemists don't finish their degree (Chemjobber: How many 1st year grad students will get their Ph.D. in chemistry?).

"62% chance of graduation x 19.2% chance of becoming a research chemist = 12% chance of continuing a research career after entering graduate school.

And yes I realize that 19.2% is a narrow pick, but the number does not become much better even if we took the broader career choices into account!

Graduation rate for medical students 94.1% x 95% residency placement = 89% chance of continuing a career in medicine after entering medical school.

A big mystery is why are graduate schools still able to recruit any American students who will work 6-7 days/week for nearly seven years and then do it again in a post-doc, all while vying for something that has little chance of happening at all. Not to mention the pay is probably not too great these days even for that 12% that still works directly in research! Maybe medical school is actually worth the debt when considering the odds and opportunity costs."

2-5% of medical students don't finish their degree.

Its comparing apples to oranges here. But I do disagree with you on the difficulty of chemistry graduate school.

Okay. I apologize for being incorrect. What was your reasoning in doing a graduate degree in chemistry?

 

[Robin-jay]

Okay. I apologize for being incorrect. What was your reasoning in doing a graduate degree in chemistry?

its definitely something I loved, science and advancing the field. However, I feel as though I'm making much more of a difference in medicine.

For example, one could work for a research group at a great company and NEVER actually get the groups project (usually a certain prescription drug) to be commercially available. You can literally spend 40 years and almost have nothing to show for it.

But, when you are in medicine, you are already making a drastic difference with just one day of seeing patients.

If that makes sense.

 

[Xavieous]

Hey OP,

Just do what works for you and don't try to compare yourself to much to those around you. The only comparison you really need to put any stock into is your GPA, but if that is low go to some study counsilors, not your bar buddies for help with that.

As to my own person undergrad experience, I worked ever weekend for 24 hours (2 sets of 12s) so I didn't have much time except Friday to study. In graduate school and now medical school, that changed depending on demand. For example, we just had a respiratory quiz this Friday so NOONE is studying anymore this Friday. It is now sunday and I am gearing up the study machine once again.

...and as for sleep....you guys sound like my girlfriend who watches too much TV soap operas that talk about the suffering medical students go through to get things done. I have told her time and again that it is HIGHLY frowned upon here if you are sacrificing sleep for studying. It just doesn't do you any good and puts you in a defeciet that hurts you for a longer period of time. We get so much information thrown at us every day that you need to be on your A game all the time and be 100% effective at studying and absorbing this waterfall of information. If you lose sleep, you are tired next day, won't grasp concepts as quickly and risk really putting yourself into a hole because now you either have to study MORE to compensate for the lack of efficient studying, or go to sleep, and catch up the next day after you've had good rest. It just doesn't make sense.

I have about 20-30 friends here at my medical program and only 1 of them stays up late and doesn't get enough sleep consistently. And that is partly because he has diagnosed insomina. Really, people usually average 7-8 a night. Just part of the job.