Hard Work & Studying

[Belyzel4]

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Hey guys! The answer to my question is probably obvious, but I just need to hear it from other people. Does studying really involve hard work and lots of repetition over a long period of time?

I have been a habitual crammer all my life and I am finally trying to dig myself out of this hole. I always enjoyed the efficiency of cramming because it left so much time for other things. I even mastered the art of cramming well enough to get great grades, but I have little to none long-term memory. Which also leads to the problem of why am I in school if all I am accomplishing for myself is a diploma and a transcript with no true knowledge. I am finally starting to take school seriously and feel like I should be acting as if it is a full-time job rather than a means to an end (job). I am interested in my studies... it's just cramming efficiency has fogged my brain!

 

[Valadi]

How much time you put in each day is person dependent. But one thing is true enough in medicine: Repetition makes the student.

 

[Rollo]

Don't memorize. Understand the big picture, the concepts. If you do that first and foremost, you can "cram" for the little details/minutiae at the end by memorizing them.

Learning medicine can also be thought of as climbing a ladder. Take it one step at a time. Understand the big picture and the concepts first. Then second time around, fill in the little details and again understand how those little details fit into the bigger picture. Then third time around, start memorizing the little details or fill in more details if need be, and again understand how it all connects.

I'm finding its easier to pick up and learn stuff on the hospital floor now simply because I took the time to understand the whys and hows. Yeah my memory is not the greatest when it comes to little things but I can usually reason my way through and beyond most clinical situations/management algorithms. Why? Simply because I took the time to understand how x can lead to y and give you z.

 

[MossPoh]

It has been shown repeatedly that cramming may get you the grade on a test, but you don't retain the information like you should. I've seen it with my classmates. There are ones who crammed and did great on exams, but did less than desirable on step 1 and are struggling with rotations now.

 

[duress]

I crammed for things like anatomy, but I think with c-pulm and beyond not I should get into the habit of learning a little each day

 

[officedepot]

.

 

[Jack is Back]

Hrs studying per day doesn't mean much if you don't know if a person attends class or not.

 

[Daedra22]

I found that during first year I put in a lot more hours of studying, but it was a lot less efficient. I've been getting better grades this year with about 50-75% of the studying (depending on the class) through a combination of better focus and more interesting material. I wish I had figured this out in first year, but oh well. I've never crammed in med school... used to do that in undergrad all the time, but there's just way too much material to make that feasible. Also, as others have said, long term memory is better if you try to study a little bit every day.

 

[OneTyme]

With no exam on the horizon, I spend about 3ish hours of intense study time a day during the week and maybe 5-8 on the weekend days. If an exam is coming up, I spend an EXTRA 2-3 hours a day 4-7 days before the exam working specifically for that exam(on top of keeping up with the other classes).

You will find that there is a certain tipping point though. Your brain is a machine, just like your musculoskeletal system, and once it has been taxed... it needs rest. After a certain point I just can't study anymore. The important balance comes in finding your person tipping point and figuring out how to maximize the study time that you can muster.

Personally I take a ten minute break every hour on the hour, no matter what. And, I try to not go more than ~4 hour sessions at a time. On weekends this means I usually take a workout break or two and see my wife for dinner.

 

[Jack is Back]

With no exam on the horizon, I spend about 3ish hours of intense study time a day during the week and maybe 5-8 on the weekend days. If an exam is coming up, I spend an EXTRA 2-3 hours a day 4-7 days before the exam working specifically for that exam(on top of keeping up with the other classes).

You will find that there is a certain tipping point though. Your brain is a machine, just like your musculoskeletal system, and once it has been taxed... it needs rest. After a certain point I just can't study anymore. The important balance comes in finding your person tipping point and figuring out how to maximize the study time that you can muster.

Personally I take a ten minute break every hour on the hour, no matter what. And, I try to not go more than ~4 hour sessions at a time. On weekends this means I usually take a workout break or two and see my wife for dinner.

Running with that analogy, I've found that endurance can increase with practice.

 

[Narmerguy]

Hrs studying per day doesn't mean much if you don't know if a person attends class or not.

Strong point. 👍

 

[DrUKDO]

Repetition really is the key. It does get better when you are out in the clinical years. You will have to study for the rest of your life, doing a little per day is the least stressful.

 

[Cephalic]

.Firstly, the amount of information in medical school is not insurmountable no matter what anyone says. Second, you'd be foolish to think that cramming doesn't exist in medical school, furthermore in my experience it is a very useful skill to have. HOWEVER, you must have solid foundation.
.
.In the weeks leading up to tests I will try to understand, put the big picture together, and make condensed high yield study guides, mnemonics; NOT trying to "learn" every single enzyme, drug, name, etc. This helps my "gut feeling" and my ability to maneuver through secondary and tertiary test questions. When not pressured to learn for the test my long-term understanding, which undoubtedly is the most important, is maximized. .

.In the 12-24 hours before a test it's Cram Time! This is the time to hammer out all the minutiae. As much as understanding the material, word association can be a great ally. This is this period to let your cram skills shine. Everyone is medical school is smart, if professors only asked big picture questions then everyone would A's. Therefore they are forced to pick out small details that will normally get overlooked in a general-understanding study format. These questions are critical points and separate many people. Since you put in the effort to understand the material your mind is open to these details.
.
.While I said long-term understanding is the most important, it's useless without the scores to put you in the position to use it. Let's face it; nothing in this day and age is ever more then a google search away. .

 

[NickNaylor]

Don't memorize. Understand the big picture, the concepts. If you do that first and foremost, you can "cram" for the little details/minutiae at the end by memorizing them.

Learning medicine can also be thought of as climbing a ladder. Take it one step at a time. Understand the big picture and the concepts first. Then second time around, fill in the little details and again understand how those little details fit into the bigger picture. Then third time around, start memorizing the little details or fill in more details if need be, and again understand how it all connects.

I'm finding its easier to pick up and learn stuff on the hospital floor now simply because I took the time to understand the whys and hows. Yeah my memory is not the greatest when it comes to little things but I can usually reason my way through and beyond most clinical situations/management algorithms. Why? Simply because I took the time to understand how x can lead to y and give you z.

This is my approach - I spend very little time memorizing what I consider to be worthless minutia. I really hope that doesn't come back to bite me in the ass for step 1.

I don't do all that well on our exams (I pass, but usually just slightly over passing) because they seem to mostly test random details and nitty gritty facts. Knowing basic concepts and general ideas is just enough to pass, it seems.

 

[Kevin Baker]

I'm just a lowly MS-1 still developing my style so take my advice with a grain of salt. Also, one's study methods should probably change a bit as the classes and even lecturers change.

I go through three phases: big picture phase, narrow lecture objectives phase, and cramming phase.

(Phase 1) I start broad and focus on big picture stuff. I won't pre-study for a lecture, then I view it at 1.5x-2x speed and make a list of lecture objectives. Afterwards I'll even *gasp* read from textbook chapters during the week, if I own the book, otherwise I follow along with whatever resource the prof made available (usually a powerpoint or a PDF file). This takes up the most amount of time and really sucks when there are 6 or 7 hr lecture days. Afterwards I'll scroll through some medical mnemonics and see if anything applies. The goal of this phase is developing a framework for the big picture., but it takes me a good 6-8 hrs of studying. Not all of this is super intense studying but those damn lectures take up a ton of time and I'm too afraid to skip them in case the prof leaves something major out of the powerpoint.

(Phase 2) During the weekend, I narrow things down and go to the powerpoint/PDF while filling out one big word doc with the lecture objectives and I answer the objectives. By the end of the week, all of the big picture stuff I have to know is on the one doc and I just review that from here on out. I also have been studying from these USMLE Road Map subject books to make sure the prof isn't leaving anything required out. This sort of serves as a good bare bones outline as well. The weekend before a test I try to just review the word document. The goal of this phase is to get all the required info into a format I can easily study from. I probably take anywhere from 2-3 hrs of intense studying a day, but I spread it out with less intense studying for a lot longer.

(Phase 3) For minutiae and stuff easy to cram, like drugs, diseases, etc. I put everything in an excel file and review it periodically and really cram only this file the day before the test. This doesn't take long to do and I'd say 5 hours with this file and I get all of the minutiae down.

This system breaks down entirely if I have a daily quiz or have to pre-study more than an hour or so for lectures. Also, very rarely do I remember the mechanism of these drugs I end up cramming more than a week later however I feel comfortable with the big picture info. We'll see well it holds up.

 

[ErgoSum]

The big-picture plus details works well for me. I pre-study for a couple of hours the night before and then make about 50 short practice Qs for each lecture. This hits the big picture, captures the details and lets me review all the material in about 5-10 minutes.