Hours per week for each year of school?

[SchroedingrsCat]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So we all know residency is full of 80 hour work weeks, what is med school like in terms of time commitment per week. Obviously there will be more time put in right before exams but I'm looking for averages. This is for all med school activities (studying & optional classes) for a non-gunner - does this seem accurate:

1st - 30 hrs/wk
2nd - 30 hrs/wk
3rd - 60 hrs/week
4th 40 hrs/week

 

[dr seuss]

Depends if you go to class.

For me:
MS1 - ~20
MS2 - ~25 then 80 for boards

 

[JP2740]

I would listen to lectures, review the lectures that same day, and then review the entire week's information on the weekend. Whatever amount of time that took was variable, but I studied my ass off.

 

[VisionaryTics]

Lotta pre-meds posting in allopathic, lately.

 

[CassieBagley]

M1: 70-80 hours.

I'm just finishing up year 1. In the beginning I studied 8 hours per day, now I'm up to 10-12 hours per day. I do this every day without break. I would estimate around 70-80 hours per week of studying (I don't go to class). When you think about it, you're awake each day for about 16 hours or so, assuming you sleep 8 hours per night. If you treat med school like a job, say from 9 am to 9 pm, then you can fit in exercise, food and an episode of breaking bad each day.


EDIT: Let me also add that my butt is in a chair for 10-12 hours, but I probably am only 80% efficient with my time. The remaining 20% is on SDN, reddit, etc.

 

[username456789]

M1: 70-80 hours.

I'm just finishing up year 1. In the beginning I studied 8 hours per day, now I'm up to 10-12 hours per day. I do this every day without break. I would estimate around 70-80 hours per week of studying (I don't go to class). When you think about it, you're awake each day for about 16 hours or so, assuming you sleep 8 hours per night. If you treat med school like a job, say from 9 am to 9 pm, then you can fit in exercise, food and an episode of breaking bad each day.


EDIT: Let me also add that my butt is in a chair for 10-12 hours, but I probably am only 80% efficient with my time. The remaining 20% is on SDN, reddit, etc.

This almost perfectly describes my amount of studying during M1 (probably even a little more than M2). I will qualify that by saying I am in general a rather slow reader, and I also handwrote my notes.

But, FWIW Cassie, my grades reflected my hard work for sure.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

M1: 70-80 hours.

I'm just finishing up year 1. In the beginning I studied 8 hours per day, now I'm up to 10-12 hours per day. I do this every day without break. I would estimate around 70-80 hours per week of studying (I don't go to class). When you think about it, you're awake each day for about 16 hours or so, assuming you sleep 8 hours per night. If you treat med school like a job, say from 9 am to 9 pm, then you can fit in exercise, food and an episode of breaking bad each day.


EDIT: Let me also add that my butt is in a chair for 10-12 hours, but I probably am only 80% efficient with my time. The remaining 20% is on SDN, reddit, etc.

Are you joking? Holy crap.

The last few days I've been studying basically every waking moment but I also have 3 finals this week. I tend to go in cycles...after exams I do nothing for a week. The next few weeks I'll spend maybe 3 hours a day on school and catch up a little more on the weekend. Week before tests I'll start pulling 8ish hour days and a few days ahead of time it'll be more like 12 hours. I also never go to class so there's no class time on top of that.

 

[bucks2010]

M1: 70-80 hours.

I'm just finishing up year 1. In the beginning I studied 8 hours per day, now I'm up to 10-12 hours per day. I do this every day without break. I would estimate around 70-80 hours per week of studying (I don't go to class). When you think about it, you're awake each day for about 16 hours or so, assuming you sleep 8 hours per night. If you treat med school like a job, say from 9 am to 9 pm, then you can fit in exercise, food and an episode of breaking bad each day.


EDIT: Let me also add that my butt is in a chair for 10-12 hours, but I probably am only 80% efficient with my time. The remaining 20% is on SDN, reddit, etc.

This almost perfectly describes my amount of studying during M1 (probably even a little more than M2). I will qualify that by saying I am in general a rather slow reader, and I also handwrote my notes.

But, FWIW Cassie, my grades reflected my hard work for sure.

that's pretty beastly. did you guys ever do any research or shadowing on top of that?

 

[CassieBagley]

that's pretty beastly. did you guys ever do any research or shadowing on top of that?

No research or shadowing for me

 

[sylvanthus]

MS1 70-80/week
MS2 70-80/week
MS3 5/week the first 1/2 then around 25ish the other 1/2 of the year.

My school has required attendance at lecture the first year, so alot of that time was spent in lecture. 2nd year was nearly entirely independent study.

Paid off though I think. Did well on both boards and have a high class rank.

 

[Bancrofti]

No research or shadowing for me- doing both of those this summer

Did you do research in undergrad as well or are you taking it up for the first time this summer?

 

[JackShephard MD]

Did you do research in undergrad as well or are you taking it up for the first time this summer?

Relax pre-meds. Everything in due time.

 

[Bancrofti]

Relax pre-meds. Everything in due time.

I guess the thingy that says medical student doesn't mean anything anymore. I was just wondering, because of the friends I have that are doing research between years, they all had research experience beforehand. I did not on the other hand 🙁

 

[sylvanthus]

It doesn't when so many pre-meds prematurely put down "medical student" right after getting accepted and before they actually start medical school. I know people are excited, but this kind of thing is ridiculous IMO, way too common, and quite frankly misleading.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

I guess the thingy that says medical student doesn't mean anything anymore. I was just wondering, because of the friends I have that are doing research between years, they all had research experience beforehand. I did not on the other hand 🙁

You're a medical student? Cause it looks like you took an MCAT on 7/16/2011.

 

[ronaldo23]

You're a medical student? Cause it looks like you took an MCAT on 7/16/2011.

 

[Bojack Horseman]

It doesn't when so many pre-meds prematurely put down "medical student" right after getting accepted and before they actually start medical school. I know people are excited, but this kind of thing is ridiculous IMO, way too common, and quite frankly misleading.

You seriously care about this? If a medical student gets into a residency program and changes their status to resident a month before they start does that bother you too? God forbid you change your sdn status over the summer when you actually have time to mess with such trivial things....

 

[jcu]

You're a medical student? Cause it looks like you took an MCAT on 7/16/2011.

 

[loveoforganic]

80ish productive hours a week MS1 (second semester, probably more like 60 first semester). Class average (on my very rough estimate) was probably more like 60. I honestly don't comprehend how people make it through on like 20 hours a week. It just doesn't seem humanly possible, unless you read something once and you're set til test time

that's pretty beastly. did you guys ever do any research or shadowing on top of that?

Homeless clinic, intramurals, some other free clinics. Think that's about it. Negligible amount of work toward a research project of my own

 

[drizzt3117]

~50 hours a week m1
~60 hours a week m2 (more closer to the step)
~60 hours a week m3
~40 hours a week m4

All of those include 10-20 hours of research a week.

 

[Law2Doc]

When I did med school it was something like 65-70 hours during the first two years, something like 80 hours during 3rd year -- during surgery you routinely hit 80 hours but still had to study for the shelf, other rotations were significantly less but the average ended up high due to pre rounding inefficiency and needing to study and prepare for presentations during "spare time". Fourth year you have sub-I's and away electives, and interviews and studying for step 2, so it adds up before the match, even though it's less "rotation" time. After the match it's kind of a coast.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Haha you guys are making me sound like a creeper...its on the first page of the post history.

 

[Valadi]

You should plan on at least working what you would at a full-time job.

MS1 = Spending 40 hours/wk on normal (not right before test weeks) is fine MS1
MS2 = Much more than MS1. titrate as needed
MS3 = 60+hrs/wk on most rotations, not including home studying time
MS4 = varies depending on how many audition rotations you do and what you're applying

 

[Bancrofti]

You're a medical student? Cause it looks like you took an MCAT on 7/16/2011.

It always surprises me how lame SDN members are that you'll take time to search through a person's post history to try and find dirt on them. Yes I took the MCAT last summer... I also applied to a carib school afterwards to start January 2012. Maybe an asterisk should be next to my medical student label for that reason, but that's another story.

Further, even if pre-meds may have been pre-maturely changing their status title, how simpleminded do you have to be to actually get upset over message board matters. If you feel a thread topic has been rehashed x infinity... there's this magic option you have to ignore it or not post in it. Certainly it will drop to the bottom of the list and we'll all be free to comment on the other current threads discussing original topics 🙄

 

[FSU2013]

First year I think I spent a lot more time studying than I needed to.....Every person is different (and a beautiful unique snowflake), so it's important to not gauge your studying by other students.

MS1 - 40-65 depending on the week.
MS2 - 70-80 on a bad week, 30 on a good week
MS3 - 6h saturday, 6h sunday and 1-2h every night (obvious varies based on service and call schedule)

I always front-loaded my studying. I would study the most the week immediately after the test then slowly wind down to take the day or two before a test almost completely off. Plus I would always take Sunday mornings off for church, Sunday late afternoon off for ultimate frisbee and friday night for a date with my wife (then girlfriend/fiancee).

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

It always surprises me how lame SDN members are that you'll take time to search through a person's post history to try and find dirt on them. Yes I took the MCAT last summer... I also applied to a carib school afterwards to start January 2012. Maybe an asterisk should be next to my medical student label for that reason, but that's another story.

Further, even if pre-meds may have been pre-maturely changing their status title, how simpleminded do you have to be to actually get upset over message board matters. If you feel a thread topic has been rehashed x infinity... there's this magic option you have to ignore it or not post in it. Certainly it will drop to the bottom of the list and we'll all be free to comment on the other current threads discussing original topics 🙄 ]

Calm down there bud. The info is two clicks away from your post and I would have never said anything if you hadn't commented about the "medical student thingy not meaning anything anymore". I'd refrain from the "lame" and "simpleminded" comments.

 

[Bancrofti]

Calm down there bud. The info is two clicks away from your post and I would have never said anything if you hadn't commented about the "medical student thingy not meaning anything anymore". I'd refrain from the "lame" and "simpleminded" comments.

I'm not sure what was wrong with the post you're referencing. I also wasn't aware lame and simpleminded are now considered profanity 😕 I apologize for asking a question, clarifying my status as a student, and then expressing slight disdain for people who attempt to "expose" people on a message board. Sorry to derail your thread OP.

 

[username456789]

that's pretty beastly. did you guys ever do any research or shadowing on top of that?

Did research during M1 summer and continued into M2. Didn't bother with any shadowing because I never really found it particularly useful at that stage I guess.

Still went to the gym regularly (I'm a big dumb jock bodybuilder type) and went out on the weekends (except weekends before exams and sometimes not even the weekend prior to that if I felt "behind" . . . although I didn't go out as much during M2 and hardly at all from March until I took Step I).

As I said, I'm a pretty slow reader so that was probably part of it, but I also really had high hopes/standards that I wanted to live up to. It did pay off, as I honored all preclinical courses, scored >250 Step I and >260 Step II, and graduated magna cum laude last month.

 

[armybound]

As I said, I'm a pretty slow reader so that was probably part of it, but I also really had high hopes/standards that I wanted to live up to. It did pay off, as I honored all preclinical courses, scored >250 Step I and >260 Step II, and graduated magna cum laude last month.

I think this is important for the incoming med students to realize when they see things like 60-80 hour weeks in preclinicals. I worked a lot less than this the first 2 years (maybe 20-40 most typical weeks, bumped up to 50-60 toward exams) but my grades were a lot less impressive (about 1/3 honors, 1/2 high pass, a few of passes). Still managed the >250 Step 1 score, but I will not be graduating with any kind of honors, and I'll be fighting to match a competitive specialty which I'm sure GWDS didn't really have an issue doing.

Just wanted to demonstrate that you don't have to put in excessive hours, but doing so can really make you a much more competitive student. It depends what kind of grades you're comfortable with getting.

 

[drizzt3117]

Different people require different amounts of time to get thru the material. I honored every class in med school except fam med (haha) with the hours mentioned and managed 255+ step 1 and 280+ step 2 while doing a lot of research. Not going to any classes helped though 🙂

 

[drizzt3117]

Dup

 

[ijn]

"280+" on your STEP2? DAYUM SON.

Where are you going? UCSF? St. Louis?

 

[tiedyeddog]

It always surprises me how lame SDN members are that you'll take time to search through a person's post history to try and find dirt on them. Yes I took the MCAT last summer... I also applied to a carib school afterwards to start January 2012. Maybe an asterisk should be next to my medical student label for that reason, but that's another story.

Further, even if pre-meds may have been pre-maturely changing their status title, how simpleminded do you have to be to actually get upset over message board matters. If you feel a thread topic has been rehashed x infinity... there's this magic option you have to ignore it or not post in it. Certainly it will drop to the bottom of the list and we'll all be free to comment on the other current threads discussing original topics 🙄

Chill, just like in all places in life, people don't like misrepresentation. Can't you just wait until you start to change your title? I mean, I personally don't care if you change it to fellow but what kind of boost do you get out of prematurely changing your status? It doesn't help us give you advice, that's for sure.

You probably wouldn't be asking these kinds of questions if you were a medical student. We get tired in pre-allo of seeing these super-OCD questions when you haven't even attended a medical school lecture yet. You'll figure out what is right for you, there is no one size fits all. Your perspective will totally change once you are actually in the trenches.

Yes, we could ignore premed posts/threads in allo. But if let every single premed post whatever inane thought they had in allo it would get clogged with crap that doesn't pertain to medical students. Kind of like most of this thread.

 

[drizzt3117]

"280+" on your STEP2? DAYUM SON.

Where are you going? UCSF? St. Louis?

Will be enjoying the warmth of CA.

 

[username456789]

I think this is important for the incoming med students to realize when they see things like 60-80 hour weeks in preclinicals. I worked a lot less than this the first 2 years (maybe 20-40 most typical weeks, bumped up to 50-60 toward exams) but my grades were a lot less impressive (about 1/3 honors, 1/2 high pass, a few of passes). Still managed the >250 Step 1 score, but I will not be graduating with any kind of honors, and I'll be fighting to match a competitive specialty which I'm sure GWDS didn't really have an issue doing.

Just wanted to demonstrate that you don't have to put in excessive hours, but doing so can really make you a much more competitive student. It depends what kind of grades you're comfortable with getting.

Oh definitely. As drizzt shows below, some people can accomplish great things with less time invested. That's obviously the exception to the rule, so it's best to realize (as early on as possible) what kind of effort you're willing to put in, and what kind of results that gets you.

I never took any sort of biochemistry or genetics or microbio courses, which made me feel like a stranger in a strange land during much of M1. We actually started M1 with anatomy (like most schools), and I fortunately had taken a human anatomy course in undergrad, so at least that wasn't foreign to me, and although I got the highest score in my class for the course, I probably put in less time than about half of them. The rest of the year, however, was filled with transient feelings of inadequacy as we dealt with plenty of topics in cell/molecular bio or physiology that I had either never seen/heard of, or had completely forgotten because it had been so long since I was exposed (I'm a non-trad student). Anyway, the success I found during Anatomy (for which I am grateful) sort of lit the fire under my ass and made me realize that it was possible to "ace" courses in med school; however, at the time my thinking was that the only reason I did so in Anatomy was because I had seen a lot of it before, which led to a "fear" that drove me to working those crazy hours referenced above in order to try to stay on top.

As many will probably agree, the law of diminishing returns comes into play here quite a bit. I am sure that I (and most) students could've passed the classes just fine with noticeably fewer hours of studying per week. But I guess I figured those extra couple points on each test were worth it to me. I will also conceded that M1/M2 were not the most thrilling/exciting/joyful years of my life as a result of all the work I put in, but now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I'm glad I did it.

 

[JackShephard MD]

I think this is important for the incoming med students to realize when they see things like 60-80 hour weeks in preclinicals. I worked a lot less than this the first 2 years (maybe 20-40 most typical weeks, bumped up to 50-60 toward exams) but my grades were a lot less impressive (about 1/3 honors, 1/2 high pass, a few of passes). Still managed the >250 Step 1 score, but I will not be graduating with any kind of honors, and I'll be fighting to match a competitive specialty which I'm sure GWDS didn't really have an issue doing.

Just wanted to demonstrate that you don't have to put in excessive hours, but doing so can really make you a much more competitive student. It depends what kind of grades you're comfortable with getting.

Yeah, but you'll likely be just fine.

Also, today's competitive specialties may be tomorrow's sloppy seconds.

 

[korsian]

Oh definitely. As drizzt shows below, some people can accomplish great things with less time invested. That's obviously the exception to the rule, so it's best to realize (as early on as possible) what kind of effort you're willing to put in, and what kind of results that gets you.

I never took any sort of biochemistry or genetics or microbio courses, which made me feel like a stranger in a strange land during much of M1. We actually started M1 with anatomy (like most schools), and I fortunately had taken a human anatomy course in undergrad, so at least that wasn't foreign to me, and although I got the highest score in my class for the course, I probably put in less time than about half of them. The rest of the year, however, was filled with transient feelings of inadequacy as we dealt with plenty of topics in cell/molecular bio or physiology that I had either never seen/heard of, or had completely forgotten because it had been so long since I was exposed (I'm a non-trad student). Anyway, the success I found during Anatomy (for which I am grateful) sort of lit the fire under my ass and made me realize that it was possible to "ace" courses in med school; however, at the time my thinking was that the only reason I did so in Anatomy was because I had seen a lot of it before, which led to a "fear" that drove me to working those crazy hours referenced above in order to try to stay on top.

As many will probably agree, the law of diminishing returns comes into play here quite a bit. I am sure that I (and most) students could've passed the classes just fine with noticeably fewer hours of studying per week. But I guess I figured those extra couple points on each test were worth it to me. I will also conceded that M1/M2 were not the most thrilling/exciting/joyful years of my life as a result of all the work I put in, but now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I'm glad I did it.

I felt compelled to provide another perspective - I too come from a non-traditional background and all the M1 courses were new to me (gross, histo, biochem, immuno, physio, neuro, etc). I did put in the same amount of work M1 - I would say I was most certainly averaging 70-80 hours a week if you include classes. I have passed all my classes, but not well enough to be bumped up to the honors level. That said, do I regret putting in the hours I did? Not really, because this year most certainly has given me the broad foundation that I will need for M2. Hopefully my hard work pays off next year, but at the same time, the idealistic/naive "this is learning for the patients" has really kept me going this year even though I was discouraged and felt inadequate many times. I just want to let people who are in my situation to not be discouraged! 🙂

 

[Slack3r]

Different people require different amounts of time to get thru the material. I honored every class in med school except fam med (haha) with the hours mentioned and managed 255+ step 1 and 280+ step 2 while doing a lot of research. Not going to any classes helped though 🙂

Like a boss.

 

[winkleweizen]

Like a boss.

He likes to bring it up every moment he can too 😉

 

[drizzt3117]

He likes to bring it up every moment he can too 😉

Jelly? Or just mirin?

 

[FIREitUP]

Jelly? Or just mirin?

>50% of your posts consist of your grades or research or the fact that you could get awesome grades and do research while working out while also teaching Step 1 courses where the average score was >240.

 

[Frazier]

>50% of your posts consist of your grades or research or the fact that you could get awesome grades and do research while working out while also teaching Step 1 courses where the average score was >240.

lol

 

[Freakfarm0]

I just finished MS1 in May, so I can't really say anything about the latter 3 years.

However, I probably studied about 20 hours a week (maybe less) leading up to the final weekend-week-weekend before the test (our tests were usually on Monday). In those periods of time I'd probably study 9-10 hours a day. So I guess that probably puts me around 30ish averaged hours a week?

I never studied on weekends (aside from those final two) and had boat loads of free time to spend with my girlfriend/Internet/video games/working out/etc.

I'm probably just inside the top third of my class. If I studied 80 hours a week, I would most definitely be a top 10 student, but I am totally happy with where I am.

 

[drizzt3117]

>50% of your posts consist of your grades or research or the fact that you could get awesome grades and do research while working out while also teaching Step 1 courses where the average score was >240.

You forgot going out, women, clothes, watches, and traveling, also MD vs DO and school reputation.

 

[Rothbard]

nm

 

[cubsrule4e]

Im not sure where all you people go to school, but MS4 is more like 0-5 hours/week.

 

[tiedyeddog]

Im not sure where all you people go to school, but MS4 is more like 0-5 hours/week.

....how? I must know so I can do it.

 

[JackShephard MD]

I'm going to create a thread titled:

"Hours per week spent obsessing about what other people are doing?"

 

[Spock]

I'm going to create a thread titled:

"Hours per week spent obsessing about what other people are doing?"

Well-played.

Honestly, hours in 3rd year varies wildly based on your rotation. I just wrapped up a rotation where I was there easy 80-90 hours/wk, but other rotations were much closer to 40-60. It doesn't really matter--everyone winds up having to deal with the same things at some point.

 

[tco]

I just finished MS1 in May, so I can't really say anything about the latter 3 years.

However, I probably studied about 20 hours a week (maybe less) leading up to the final weekend-week-weekend before the test (our tests were usually on Monday). In those periods of time I'd probably study 9-10 hours a day. So I guess that probably puts me around 30ish averaged hours a week?

I never studied on weekends (aside from those final two) and had boat loads of free time to spend with my girlfriend/Internet/video games/working out/etc.

I'm probably just inside the top third of my class. If I studied 80 hours a week, I would most definitely be a top 10 student, but I am totally happy with where I am.

You'd think that "if I more than doubled my study time, I'd definitely be a top 10 student," but it's not a linear climb. That's why people strike a balance that they're content with. You might, and you might not, but since you're not willing to put the effort forward, I guess you'll never know.