How much of a time commitment is med school?

[GBP12]

On average, outside of maybe finals weeks, how many hours/week of a commitment is med school? Including time spent in class/lab as well as studying outside of school (which obviously varies but looking for an average).

I'm sure years 1/2 and 3/4 are differrent so if you could give averages for both that would be nice.

Is it like a full time job, or much more than that?

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[dr_kateb]

More. 9-5+ job but 7 days a week due to studying.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Year 1-2 is a low MANDATORY commitment but you’re gonna work yaour Butt off between classes and any extracurricular stuff you do. Personally I was working 10hrs a day weekdays and 5 hrs a day weekends to end up a bit above average in class rank

Year 3 is harder with ~10-12 hours a day at work + 1-2 hours studying in the evening. This varies from clerkship to clerkship, some better some worse.

Year 4 is a joke. I didn’t take any vacation during M3 so will have 16 weeks vacations to do interviews, study for step 2, and chill.

Hope this helps! Remember it’s highly variable by student, program, and goals. If you wanna do a surgical sub don’t plan on sleeping much.

 

[Goro]

While done as a joke, the youtube video eating 5 pancakes as med school presents the main concept: you have to keep up with huge amount of material. One of my recent advisees now in med school compared to every night like having an organic chem test the next day. Even though you have kept up, you still have 2-4 hours an evening. Additionally the students combine curriculum has exam every monday morning so each weekend is mostly study

The analogy I use is an MS degree every semester.

OR, 3-5x whatever you're taking in your SMP

SMPs will be 2-3x more than your UG classes.

 

[j0nsn0w]

shoudnt need to study more than 3 hours a day.

 

[bananafish94]

A large one

 

[stayathomemom]

More than undergrad and maybe less than a newborn baby

 

[kraskadva]

An UG semester's worth of material (of, like, 15 credits hard science) every 6 weeks, approximately. For M1/2.
Plus whatever EC stuff you choose to do. Plus normal life stuff to whatever degree you have that (groceries and laundry at a bare minimum).

M3/4 - it entirely depends on which rotation you're on.

 

[907914]

Let’s say undergrad is 15 hours a week in class plus 10 hours a week outside of class for studying. You also volunteer for 5 hours a week in UG. You also have to work 15 hours a week in undergrad because your parents won’t financially help. Another 15 hours a week of MCAT studying because your classes are only tangentially related to that content.

Now imagine none of the work, volunteering or MCAT studying. Now halve the amount of mandatory classes and double the amount of out of class studying. Still less of a time commitment than you should be doing in undergrad. If you have good time management and studying skills, you should be just fine.

Edit: I am just a premed and know nothing. However, every description I have heard is along the lines of “Its more of a time commitment than undergrad, but it is a lot easier because it is all focused, in context and you aren’t pulled in multiple directions towards different commitments - school is your commitment.”

 

[kraskadva]

Let’s say undergrad is 15 hours a week in class plus 10 hours a week outside of class for studying. You also volunteer for 5 hours a week in UG. You also have to work 15 hours a week in undergrad because your parents won’t financially help. Another 15 hours a week of MCAT studying because your classes are only tangentially related to that content.

Now imagine none of the work, volunteering or MCAT studying. Now halve the amount of mandatory classes and double the amount of out of class studying. Still less of a time commitment than you should be doing in undergrad. If you have good time management and studying skills, you should be just fine.

Edit: I am just a premed and know nothing. However, every description I have heard is along the lines of “Its more of a time commitment than undergrad, but it is a lot easier because it is all focused, in context and you aren’t pulled in multiple directions towards different commitments - school is your commitment.”

Yeah, I thought the same before I started. I'd done full time school + full time work + life stuff before, so how bad could it be...
And continued thinking that for the first couple of months... Then got slapped in the face by all the other things going on (work, life, ECs) on top of the absolutely massive amount that is med school studying and stopped thinking that.

The good news is you adapt and learn to 1) pick up the pace and 2) triage really effectively, so somehow (still not sure exactly) it all gets done anyway. You also learn to be okay with being average*

*average in med school, which is not real life average, because the whole bell curve get a shifted way far to the right.

Edit: it's still immensely more than UG and no, the other commitments do not disappear.
Almost everybody finds their balance sometime during M1. It may come more quickly for those with work/real life experience, but everybody gets there.
And then you have to find it again each year, because what's necessary keeps changing.

 

[stickgirl390]

As you can see from these comments, everyone has a different experience. My advice is don’t underestimate med school, and don’t overestimate your abilities. Med school will humble you.

For me, it’s a 5-9 job during the week. 5-noon on fridays and I study for around 5 hours Sat/Sun each

 

[Lucca]

Watch this high yield video

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Agree, its VERY individual. As I have said in other posts, Wife was an elite student, going to class to be social. Graduated near top 10% with little stress. Mere mortals like the rest of us had to work much harder. For me 2 to 4 hrs in the evening and 8 hrs a day on the weekend. You will find your own pace. For me, M1 was quite an adjustment not being a bio major. Went to small liberal arts college with blue book Orgo exams and med school was large classes with K type questions for exams
Much different way to study. Classmates in med school had easier adjustment IMO as they had micro, histo and embryo prior to med school. It all evens out in the end. You will have your time to shine in M2 as everyone now is learning mostly new material.

 

[Dwight Snoot]

Im an M1 and for me its slightly more than a full-time job. It is nearly impossible to quantify the amount of hours I spend "doing school". Typically, I am done by around 830 every night but this includes going to the gym, hour for lunch, and some other breaks as well. I do about 3 hours of work per day (typically) on the weekends. I'd say I study significantly less than a lot of my classmates though for what its worth.
TLDR: I feel less stressed, more well rested, and happier than when I was working full time.

 

[Gurby]

Really depends on how smart/efficient you are, and what your goals are:

20 hours/week would probably be adequate for me to stumble through M1-M2, pass all classes by the skin of my teeth, and get like a 215 on Step 1.

50-70 hours/week is what I realistically end up putting in, because I'm aiming for >260 on Step 1 and trying to have some meaningful research productivity before 4th year rolls around.

 

[Medic741]

On average, outside of maybe finals weeks, how many hours/week of a commitment is med school? Including time spent in class/lab as well as studying outside of school (which obviously varies but looking for an average).

I'm sure years 1/2 and 3/4 are differrent so if you could give averages for both that would be nice.

Is it like a full time job, or much more than that?

6 days a week *at least* 12 hours a day since August. Research + aiming high on Step

 

[907914]

i would study 10-12 hours a day in 2nd year, no days off. not even after exams (usmle study time)

Is dedicated not enough for USMLE? I mean, Obviously studying lightly past material so that it remains fresh until dedicated. But is that 4 to 12 weeks really not enough?

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Is dedicated not enough for USMLE? I mean, Obviously studying lightly past material so that it remains fresh until dedicated. But is that 4 to 12 weeks really not enough?

it’s enough if you learned during ms1 and ms2