D
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0-1 I think
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Not enough
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How many hours a night should residents study? Also wondering this as an MS3 interested in Rads
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In my opinion, kinda depends on your phase of residency.
In the first six months you should be reading at least 1 hour per night and a couple hours on the weekends. Maybe as a tangible goal try to complete one pass through Mandell Core Radiology during this period.
In the back half of first year you could probably lighten your reading to focused subjects regarding questions/topics that came up throughout your work day. If you read a study working up a choledocal cyst but you've never heard of them, read about the classification system and management.
In my residency my second year was the most call heavy. For this reason I didn't plod through a textbook. Rather I focused on topic-based reading as above based on interesting call cases. I heavily relied upon Radiopaedia and Radiographics articles.
During third year you'll be preparing for the Core exam. This is going to be the heaviest workload in terms of reading. Very likely you'll get an exhaustive list of materials and a pep talk by your seniors regarding their specific recommendations.
Fourth year (and beyond) is what you make it. Depends how good of a radiologist you want to be.
In the first six months you should be reading at least 1 hour per night and a couple hours on the weekends. Maybe as a tangible goal try to complete one pass through Mandell Core Radiology during this period.
In the back half of first year you could probably lighten your reading to focused subjects regarding questions/topics that came up throughout your work day. If you read a study working up a choledocal cyst but you've never heard of them, read about the classification system and management.
In my residency my second year was the most call heavy. For this reason I didn't plod through a textbook. Rather I focused on topic-based reading as above based on interesting call cases. I heavily relied upon Radiopaedia and Radiographics articles.
During third year you'll be preparing for the Core exam. This is going to be the heaviest workload in terms of reading. Very likely you'll get an exhaustive list of materials and a pep talk by your seniors regarding their specific recommendations.
Fourth year (and beyond) is what you make it. Depends how good of a radiologist you want to be.
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generally 2, which turns into occasional weekend runs of 3-4 or more hours, and then next day none and falling asleep early.
What books/resources are you guys reading? How are you guys studying exactly (just reading, taking notes, watching videos, questions)?
I have never learned well from just reading. I need it to be active in some way for it to stick so it worries me that people just read a couple hours and boom they know a topic.
I have never learned well from just reading. I need it to be active in some way for it to stick so it worries me that people just read a couple hours and boom they know a topic.
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I don't have the patience to read a textbook in an undirected fashion. I'm an R3 and have yet to finish any textbook in residency, yet I scored in the top percentile on past in-service exams. Rather, I read in a directed manner when I have a question or curiosity about a disease that comes up in the workday, case conference or didactic lecture series, educational sessions at conferences like RSNA or your Roetgen Ray Society, and cases from various accounts on Twitter and Facebook. When I have questions come up, I open up a search and try to clear my queue of new browser tabs on my account at some point. I sample from all types of sources depending on the information, such as Radiopaedia, review articles in journals like RadioGraphics, UpToDate, and even textbooks (electronic versions).
To keep the process active, I read with a goal in mind: I will formulate my newly acquired knowledge as a flashcard. I use Anki and find the process of writing a clear and specific question is uniquely educational. I have been bad about reviewing Anki cards but having a database of knowledge is nevertheless useful to search through as a quick reference on my phone or workstation.
I also often update or write the relevant Radiopaedia article. Radiopaedia is typically my first stop but often not my last if I am unsatisfied with the content, so I try to pay it forward by improving the content. I also often tweet educational content.
Moving towards boards preparation, I do hope to take a comprehensive pass through review texts (specifically Core Radiology and then Crack the Core) and question banks (RadPrimer, Qevlar, and/or Board Vitals) to fill in gaps not covered by the above scattershot approach.
