How do you study at ward (during rotations)?

[scoopy]

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hi all

I though it would be good idea to have a thread about studying habits in 3rd and 4th year ,so Lets share our experience and methods.

 

[scoopy]

oops sorry i don't know what happened that 3 thread was posted 🙁
i don't know how can i delete the other 2

 

[TexasPhysician]

Always have a book with you.....

 

[Depakote]

I've found that books like the recall series and case files tend to lend themselves best to short bursts of studying on the wards.

Question style studying would be best, but I just haven't found a book series that does it well enough to be worth the time/money.

 

[clement]

hi all

I though it would be good idea to have a thread about studying habits in 3rd and 4th year ,so Lets share our experience and methods.

honestly, it makes me nauseous when the "just read, read, read" mantra crops up on sdn. i'm owned by my rotations from 7 AM to 7 PM and have to be in bed by 10 PM in order not to feel sleep-deprived the next day. When I get home, I have to take care of things like feeding myself and squeezing in an hour or two of reading. I like to read really slowly so I'll get through like 10 pages of Step Up per night and feel guilty about it too. At the hospital, I try to read up on patients via Pocket Medicine but then I have to be weary of residents not thinking I'm slacking either.

 

[scoopy]

honestly, it makes me nauseous when the "just read, read, read" mantra crops up on sdn. i'm owned by my rotations from 7 AM to 7 PM and have to be in bed by 10 PM in order not to feel sleep-deprived the next day. When I get home, I have to take care of things like feeding myself and squeezing in an hour or two of reading. I like to read really slowly so I'll get through like 10 pages of Step Up per night and feel guilty about it too. At the hospital, I try to read up on patients via Pocket Medicine but then I have to be weary of residents not thinking I'm slacking either.

exactly same here + whatever i read from step up is out of my head the next week!
case file is better for me! at least i remember some of it's pearls.

 

[swtiepie711]

exactly same here + whatever i read from step up is out of my head the next week!.

I second this!!! I decided since i start w/ ambulatory & then have medicine to try and read step up, just for the sake of getting thru it once - it's practically pointless! I read a few pages, walk away and it's out of my head (not even a day, let alone a week!) demoralizing... especially when a fair amount of Stepup is stuff from Step 1 that I ought know already.... 🙁

 

[45408]

honestly, it makes me nauseous when the "just read, read, read" mantra crops up on sdn.

No kidding. It's simply not necessary for everyone. For me, I learn really well by doing, so the vast majority of my learning was with attendings/residents, directly dealing with patients. I did pretty well on all of my shelf exams too (honored medicine, surgery, OB/gyn, and psych, high pass on peds; all other exams were non-shelf exams). If I read 5-8 hours in a week, that was probably the most I did in all of M3. Most of it was all at once too - a weekend day or an early afternoon - when I would sit down and study for several hours.

I rarely kept articles in my pocket, rarely read in between cases.

However, I do recommend practice questions for the shelf exams. I got UWorld for medicine, and if I were to do it all over again, I'd get one year's worth of UWorld for Step 2 and just pick the questions for each rotation.

 

[swtiepie711]

If I read 5-8 hours in a week, that was probably the most I did in all of M3. Most of it was all at once too - a weekend day or an early afternoon - when I would sit down and study for several hours.

I rarely kept articles in my pocket, rarely read in between cases.

See I hear this and I wonder how it can possibly be true! I don't doubt you really, but I spend so much time outside of the hospital studying - reviewing stuff I should remember already, learning new stuff, questions, etc. Maybe I'm not proactive enough or something at the hospital, or maybe teaching is lackluster at my institution, either way - I spend a lot of time at the hospital, a lot of time studying on my own and not enough time taking care of myself (exercise, relaxing, time with family/friends). If I could lay off the stuyding outside, I'd be a much happier camper! Albeit, wouldn't learn as much... rambling...again....

 

[clement]

If I read 5-8 hours in a week, that was probably the most I did in all of M3. Most of it was all at once too - a weekend day or an early afternoon - when I would sit down and study for several hours.

I rarely kept articles in my pocket, rarely read in between cases.

See I hear this and I wonder how it can possibly be true! I don't doubt you really, but I spend so much time outside of the hospital studying - reviewing stuff I should remember already, learning new stuff, questions, etc. Maybe I'm not proactive enough or something at the hospital, or maybe teaching is lackluster at my institution, either way - I spend a lot of time at the hospital, a lot of time studying on my own and not enough time taking care of myself (exercise, relaxing, time with family/friends). If I could lay off the stuyding outside, I'd be a much happier camper! Albeit, wouldn't learn as much... rambling...again....

My original plan of reading Step-Up at a rate of 17 pages per night, exercising, cooking + washing dishes, AND being in bed by 10 went to hell a long time ago. The modified version is more along the lines of 10 pages of Step-Up per night (getting through it once instead of twice), plus starting some MKSAP and UWorld during the second month of the rotation (unless I can guilt myself into reading 17 pages/night of Step-Up beforehand). The thing is, I neutralize the guilt by convincing myself that I actually do retain more when I read fewer pages.

As far as exercise, I had promised myself 5 days/week to shed the Step 1 girth, but looks like my only hope now is an indoor exercise bike- since going to the gym will cut into 2 of 3 hours I have before going to bed once I get home from the hospital 😡

 

[braluk]

I have a small netbook that I can fit in my white coat that I am able to install USMLEWorld and watnot on so I can usually whip it out during slower days and do questions on those. Qbooks work as well, and if you're truly intent on it, find a classmate and just go over some of your cases, pathophy's treatments, etc..

 

[45408]

I have a small netbook that I can fit in my white coat

do you actually carry it around?

 

[braluk]

do you actually carry it around?

It's light enough that I can (around 2-3 lbs). I'll leave it at home or in my locker on the busy ward days.

 

[DOctorJay]

start multitasking guys,

change your text files(pdf, word, copy paste) into mp3 and listen while doing chores or working out (www.spokentext.net), photocopy a chapter of your book and carry that with you on wards - read during those 15 minute chunks you have throughout the day, load qbanks onto your iphone/itouch/other pda and plod through the questions, or get up an hour earlier than you need to and use that prime time for reading.

work smarter, not harder!

 

[scoopy]

start multitasking guys,
photocopy a chapter of your book and carry that with you on wards - read during those 15 minute chunks you have throughout the day

for me it's impossible. in our hospital there are lots of patients and every round takes at least 3 hours so whenever i find 20 min free times i just want to SIT and REST (my poor legs) and close my eyes.

 

[alle]

honestly, it makes me nauseous when the "just read, read, read" mantra crops up on sdn. i'm owned by my rotations from 7 AM to 7 PM and have to be in bed by 10 PM in order not to feel sleep-deprived the next day. When I get home, I have to take care of things like feeding myself and squeezing in an hour or two of reading. I like to read really slowly so I'll get through like 10 pages of Step Up per night and feel guilty about it too. At the hospital, I try to read up on patients via Pocket Medicine but then I have to be weary of residents not thinking I'm slacking either.

man same here my schedule is packed but the worst thing is we are not allowed to reference books when were on ward and if we cant answer a question...were screwed....

 

[psipsina]

I have uptodate on my phone and I usually have something to read on there for downtime. I've kept pre-tests in my pocket too but usually can only get through a few questions at a time which I find too frustrating.

 

[clement]

for me it's impossible. in our hospital there are lots of patients and every round takes at least 3 hours so whenever i find 20 min free times i just want to SIT and REST (my poor legs) and close my eyes.

yea, all i do is fantastize about sitting down during rounds. damn those rolling desk + laptop concoctions that are height-adjustable.

 

[MossPoh]

See I hear this and I wonder how it can possibly be true! I don't doubt you really, but I spend so much time outside of the hospital studying - reviewing stuff I should remember already, learning new stuff, questions, etc. Maybe I'm not proactive enough or something at the hospital, or maybe teaching is lackluster at my institution, either way - I spend a lot of time at the hospital, a lot of time studying on my own and not enough time taking care of myself (exercise, relaxing, time with family/friends). If I could lay off the stuyding outside, I'd be a much happier camper! Albeit, wouldn't learn as much... rambling...again....

Different types of learners. 😉 Some people just have to learn in that traditional sit down and study format and then perfect it later on. Others have some kind of base knowledge and then pick it up when they see things and talk about it. I've always been a learn by doing person and could never understand your type. 😛

 

[swtiepie711]

Different types of learners. 😉 Some people just have to learn in that traditional sit down and study format and then perfect it later on. Others have some kind of base knowledge and then pick it up when they see things and talk about it. I've always been a learn by doing person and could never understand your type. 😛

It's not that I need to learn by sit and studying - just to date, I've found information in the clinic leaves faster than it comes. To put it another way, what I learn in a given day, I forget more. It's annoying the crap out of me.
I'm frutrated with the basic information I've forgotten, and I don't know how to get it back fast enough. Like I once knew so much more than I do now - I honestly feel like 3rd year has made me dumber thus far than I was in 2nd year. Maybe it'll be different on inpatient medicine....

 

[scoopy]

It's not that I need to learn by sit and studying - just to date, I've found information in the clinic leaves faster than it comes. To put it another way, what I learn in a given day, I forget more. It's annoying the crap out of me.
I'm frustrated with the basic information I've forgotten, and I don't know how to get it back fast enough. Like I once knew so much more than I do now - I honestly feel like 3rd year has made me dumber thus far than I was in 2nd year. Maybe it'll be different on inpatient medicine....

Don't be frustrated we are all in the same boat. Once one of my chief residents told me they feel the same too. It's medicine's nature, nothing will stick to your mind as you wish, the best thing is review and review. It doesn't matter if you study 2 paragraph a night as long as you keep revising that 2 paragraph.

and of course 3rd year is a complete different WORLD compare to 1st and 2nd

 

[Deferoxamine]

Feeling the heat over here as many of you MS3's are - frustration over how much I once knew and now don't. Frustration over poorly worded pimp questions that I know the answer to but am too tired to unscramble the shiesty word syntax to figure out what the hell they are asking me.

Not to mention all that down-time in between things when I really could study or eat, if only I'd be let known that I actually COULD do that.

Home now after getting absolutely PWNED today during pimping, to study between now and bedtime, and asked a bunch of new questions tomorrow that are completely unrelated to everything I expect to get asked and study right now.

Awesome. 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀