Hours per week spent studying

[midweststudent1]

I'm an incoming first year medical student--starting orientation next week. How many hours (on average) do you spend studying outside of class activities?

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[SBR249]

MS1: 2-3hrs of reading per day on a normal weekday, every exam requires 10hrs extra minimum
MS2: 3-4hrs of reading per day on a normal weekday up to 6hrs on bad days, every exam requires 15-20hrs extra minimum

 

[coffeesnob]

MS1: 2-3hrs of reading per day on a normal weekday, every exam requires 10hrs extra minimum
MS2: 3-4hrs of reading per day on a normal weekday up to 6hrs on bad days, every exam requires 15-20hrs extra minimum

what... do you have written out "syllabi"? what are you guys "reading?"

 

[SBR249]

Yes, written out syllabi, about 10-15 pages per lecture. You sound so shocked that there are still medical schools out there with a somewhat traditional curriculum and teaching style.

 

[dr.sartorius]

Theres 4-8 hours of lect/day at my school. Each lecture takes more than an hour to analyze/understand so it kind of depends. Weekends before exams I spend about 10-14 hours each day, starting about 3-5 days before the exam. Our exams are usually on anywhere from 30-60 lecture hours worth of materials. The only free time I really find is the few days after we have taken the exam. Then it's back to the grind. This is on top of the other non-science classes we take at my school. They like to fill our schedules up.

 

[coffeesnob]

Yes, written out syllabi, about 10-15 pages per lecture. You sound so shocked that there are still medical schools out there with a somewhat traditional curriculum and teaching style.

I'm just a little jealous. i think at my school, people put in 6-8 hours of studying everyday including weekends. I study more than the average med student in my class (~10 hours a day). Most of the time we are memorizing random details from lectures and trying to make sense of really terrible lectures that didn't teach us ****. I wish we had syllabi.

Theres 4-8 hours of lect/day at my school. Each lecture takes more than an hour to analyze/understand so it kind of depends. Weekends before exams I spend about 10-14 hours each day, starting about 3-5 days before the exam. Our exams are usually on anywhere from 30-60 lecture hours worth of materials. The only free time I really find is the few days after we have taken the exam. Then it's back to the grind. This is on top of the other non-science classes we take at my school. They like to fill our schedules up.

^this sounds normal to me. now i don't feel that bad.

 

[Lya]

Yes, written out syllabi, about 10-15 pages per lecture. You sound so shocked that there are still medical schools out there with a somewhat traditional curriculum and teaching style.

Just to ensure I understood correctly:

Syllabi as in 10-15 page condensed notes with each lecture's objectives?

 

[SBR249]

Just to ensure I understood correctly:

Syllabi as in 10-15 page condensed notes with each lecture's objectives?

Yes, basically, but not always, a lecturer's slides and notes in a written-out paragraph format with more details or diagrams.

I'm just a little jealous. i think at my school, people put in 6-8 hours of studying everyday including weekends. I study more than the average med student in my class (~10 hours a day). Most of the time we are memorizing random details from lectures and trying to make sense of really terrible lectures that didn't teach us ****. I wish we had syllabi.

That does sound worse than at our school. I think the biggest complaint with the written syllabi is that since each lecture is written by the lecturer or his/her predecessor, you get a hodge podge of writing styles, spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and formatting. So you might have a wall of text for one lecture followed by an outline followed by 20 pages of just printouts of lecture slides. Another problem is that the coordination and integration between lectures may be hit and miss. The course directors try to mitigate that by revising syllabi and stuff, but you still get a lot of repetition of the same info or worse, repetition with slight contradictions etc.

But yeah, overall the syllabi were really nice in that we had a (almost) definitive source of all info that can be tested.

 

[dadaddadaBATMAN]

I'm an incoming first year medical student--starting orientation next week. How many hours (on average) do you spend studying outside of class activities?

When you get into a pool, you put a toe into the water first, so you know what to expect.

My first few weeks at medical school were the worst. Before the first exams, I had no idea what the hell to expect. I didn't feel like I was doing enough. Everyone seemed smarter, and everyone seemed to be working harder.

This is not a unique problem. It's actually so stereotypical it's cliche.

The problem was that every time I talked to someone, I thought I was dipping a toe into the pool. I was actually dipping my toe into specific pot in a field of hot plates, each with their own separate pot of boiling-neurotic freak out.

Things will cool down after the first exams are over. Some people will keep boiling, some people will go lukewarm, and some people will go cold. You'll have a much better idea what temperature you are, and whether or not you need to crank up the heat. What's more, you'll start to get more heat for the amount of time you run the burner (as you adapt).

Running around looking at other fields of boiler plates, where there are entirely separate rules and expectations, is NOT going to help you. It may give you a false sense of what's "proper."

So relax, work as hard as you can, and you'll be fine.
Sorry if this was nothing like what you were looking for.

 

[coffeesnob]

@dadaddadaBATMAN, i like pool parties + hot pot too.

 

[Girly X]

We have detailed syllabi/handouts too with about 2-4 hours of lecture daily (M1). But M2 schedule looks like we'll definitely be hitting at least 4 hours of lecture daily. After the first couple of months in M1, life got so much better when I started doing lectures online and at 2.5+ speed.

Time spent on a weekday ran about 4-6hrs (included listening to lecture plus reading handouts and making questions---anki flashcards or outlines). On weekends I would pull 6-8hrs per day reviewing that week's material and doing practice questions or my flashcards.

Being a creature of habit, this schedule was thrown off track once or twice a week when I found myself playing catch up because I had to be on campus for something required (small group/pbl type stuff) so I missed some study hours that day...and then came back home sort of mentally tired and didn't really feel like studying much.

Before exams, all bets are off and the fear of failure will make 12hr days easily happen weekdays and weekends haha. And it's still not enough to thoroughly cover everything and feel as prepared as I felt for undergrad exams lol. Med school volume is a beast. But everyone gets through it.

 

[cs24]

So if I ignore the time spent streaming lectures at home (which I'm assuming is what you mean by outside of class activities), 2-3 hours a day during the week, and 3-4 hours total on an average weekend.

 

[PL198]

I feel like everyone's first exam is always a **** show. Either you do bad because you had no idea what to expect, or you do good because you go hyper-neurotic and don't sleep until the first exam is over. Either way, a **** show.

 

[Girly X]

So if I ignore the time spent streaming lectures at home (which I'm assuming is what you mean by outside of class activities), 2-3 hours a day during the week, and 3-4 hours total on an average weekend.

Everyone will be different. Someone (probably with a photographic memory) can thoroughly memorize a days worth of up to 40 pages of lecture material in a couple of hours or less. These people often exist, especially in a place like Med school. But for mere mortals, memorization requires tons of repetition and this will require much more than 2-3 hours per day outside of class.

Just go in planning to work at your max, see how the first exam goes, then maintain or adjust up or down accordingly. As stated above, your first exam performance will be quite informative for this purpose.

 

[Lya]

I'm just curious. What happens to the students when they studied max but didn't perform well on their first exam? Is it common, or just a small group of the student population?

 

[PL198]

I'm just curious. What happens to the students when they studied max but didn't perform well on their first exam? Is it common, or just a small group of the student population?

What does perform well mean? Like pass? If so, they score high enough on the subsequent exams to pass the course, or they fail. If not performing well means getting an 80, a tiny violin plays for them, and then they decide if they're actually ok with an 80 or how they are going to change their plan so they do better.

Studying to the max doesn't really define whether you're a top student or not. In fact most of the people that study the most are the people that do the worst because their studying is really "studying" as in, checking facebook while doing it, or having their phone vibrate constantly and checking it. Almost all of the people that do well(let's say honors and higher) study a reasonable amount, it doesn't dominate their whole life, they just are very efficient and don't get distracted when they study.

 

[dadaddadaBATMAN]

I'm just curious. What happens to the students when they studied max but didn't perform well on their first exam? Is it common, or just a small group of the student population?

Then you adjust. I won't say no one fails out, but it's pretty uncommon (maybe a person/two each year).

I don't feel like digging up the reference, but most people who leave medical school don't do it because they failed. They do it because they realize it's not for them.

 

[Girly X]

I'm just curious. What happens to the students when they studied max but didn't perform well on their first exam? Is it common, or just a small group of the student population?

Yeah, at this level, if someone is studying "to their max" and still perfoms poorly (by that, I mean actually fails an exam), then their method is usually the culprit. Most adjust their methods (including dialing down distractions) well enough that after all exams in that block or course are averaged out, they still pass the course. Almost no one completely fails out of med school for academic reasons.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that most (all?) med schools offer tons of resources to get you through such as tutors, test taking strategy sessions, free psychologists/psychiatrists, open door policy for faculty, study guides/tips from upperclassmen, great review sessions before exams etc. The support and people reaching out will be quite unlike anything you've ever experienced. It will be hard to fall through the cracks.

 

[cs24]

Everyone will be different. Someone (probably with a photographic memory) can thoroughly memorize a days worth of up to 40 pages of lecture material in a couple of hours or less. These people often exist, especially in a place like Med school. But for mere mortals, memorization requires tons of repetition and this will require much more than 2-3 hours per day outside of class.

Just go in planning to work at your max, see how the first exam goes, then maintain or adjust up or down accordingly. As stated above, your first exam performance will be quite informative for this purpose.

Oh sorry I didn't mean to be confusing, I'm an M2 and was putting my studying schedule that I used last year. Other than that you give good advice, particularly the bolded.

 

[gasknight]

Don't go to class.

Wake up, start reading by 8 & finish by 5-6; I go till 9-10 if it's the week before exams.