How much do you study?

[Dr Serendipity]

I was looking at other med discussion forums and i found an interesting topic. Now i know this not a new or original topic, but i couldn't help but comment on the posts i found at this site concerning study time during the preclinical years:
http://www.medschool.com

Most of the postersm, med students at highly regarded schools like Harvard, Yale, and Columbia were saying that if you put in 1 SOLID hour of studying each night (big picture stuff relevent to board material) then you will be set for boards. I know many top ranked schools don't have grades or are P/F, but 1 hour/day????? Does that seem ridiculously low to anyone else? I probably average 6 hours a day, and that's not including lecture! After lecture I reread the lecture notes because the lecturers don't cover all the details and minutae in the notes that we will be tested on. That's around 50 pages of DENSE material. Now i'm a decent reader, but to read and digest that much material still takes a lot of time. I know that these students at top are exceptional, but how in the world can you learn ALL that material in 1 hour a day??

So it seems that i'm 1/6 as efficient as those students if they're correct(then again i'm on a grading system). Any thoughts?

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[turtleboard]

Different strokes for different folks.

Your studying habits may also depend on the way your school tests the material. Some schools have essay exams in conjunction with more traditional, multiple-choice exams. Other institutions use Step 1-type questions (e.g., NY Med College), so students there may more often use things like First Aid for the Step 1 to study for exams.

But it sounds more like these posters were talking about studying for the Step 1 during the first and second years.


Tim of New York City.

 

[Lt. Ub]

I'm not sure about that hour of study per night. I go to Penn, but that doesn't make me a pseudo-Superman - inefficient people like you and me are everywhere. Remember, we're not studying for the boards, we're studying to make ourselves better doctors. Nail down the basics no matter how long it takes and forget memorizing the minutia you know you'll forget immediately after your exam (that is, unless you prefer the life of the gunner). It may be possible for the boards, but I don't think any self-respecting med school would allow you to get away with an hour of study per day (could be wrong though).

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"They do certainly give very strange and newfangled names to diseases."
- Plato