How much studying after 2nd year

[remo]

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How much hardcore studying is done after 2nd year? Are you still stuck in a library studying for tests or are you basically just working every day like a job?

 

[Ashers]

How much hardcore studying is done after 2nd year? Are you still stuck in a library studying for tests or are you basically just working every day like a job?

Both.

I spent a lot of weekends and days where I got done earlier than expected in the library studying for my exams I've had so far (Psych/neuro and OB/gyn). Now I'm on an elective, and I come home and review anatomy and the musculoskeletal exam. I don't have an exam at the end of this rotation, so it's not too bad.

 

[Kazema]

I study a lot less this year compared to last year. Most of the time I just try to look up stuff related to my patients on UpToDate, then toward the end of the rotation I read through Case Files and do questions.

It's not like 1st or 2nd year when I was reading books or notes nonstop. For the most part, when I leave the hospital, my day is over.

 

[-Goose-]

For the most part, when I leave the hospital, my day is over.

Ahhhh.... This is what I was hoping.

I do see *a lot* of M3s studying in the library. They all look like they are on their surgery rotation.

 

[MrBurns10]

Ahhhh.... This is what I was hoping.

I do see *a lot* of M3s studying in the library. They all look like they are on their surgery rotation.

It really does depend on what rotation you're on. I've done psych, surgery, and am currently on family med...for psych and fam med so far, I'm done when I get home with the exception of some projects and more hardcore studying the week before the shelf. For surgery, there's always some reading to be done when you get home. It's usually about what cases you'll see the next day with the more extraneous, shelf-related studying saved for the weekends. As for the other rotations, only time or other people will tell...

 

[Law2Doc]

Ahhhh.... This is what I was hoping.

I do see *a lot* of M3s studying in the library. They all look like they are on their surgery rotation.

Bear in mind that being totally done when you leave the hospital each day is not as common as that prior poster suggests (at least at other schools). The nights that you aren't reading often will be the ones where you are just too tired. It is a rare day on many rotations that someone doesn't ask you to go read up on XYZ condition, or want you to present to them on ABC topic (that is the drawback of having a half dozen bosses who all are told their job is to teach you). And you can expect to be pimped on conditions your patients have, so you are always supposed to be reading during third year. And there are those nasty shelf exams at the end of each rotation which can take quite a while to study for when you don't have time off to do it. And also note that in some rotations you may be in the hospital from an ungodly early hour eg 4am-6am until say 7+pm on non-call days, so the fact that you don't have to go to the library for the one hour after dinner that you are awake shouldn't get you too excited. So best to plan on a little required reading daily.

 

[Kazema]

I guess I should've added that the rotations I've done so far are fam med, psych, and ob/gyn. I had plenty of down time during the day in those rotations to do the vast majority of whatever reading I needed to do without having much left over when I went home.

So far in peds it's mostly been the same; I do an hour or so (more if I have to present something) of reading when I get home. But then I get home at 4:30 so a couple hours or reading really isn't that bad.

In my (limited) experience, the best thing to do is to look stuff up on uptodate online while you're at the hospital so that you know what's going on at all times with your patients. And since you're more likely to be asked to present something related to one of your patients, already knowing a little about the topic cuts down on the amount of time you need to spend in the evening looking stuff up.

And then studying for the shelf becomes mostly about filling in the blanks, rather than learning the entire topic - you can skim the stuff you already know and focus more on the stuff you haven't seen.

Overall I've just found that studying during 3rd year is much more efficient and less time-consuming than the first two years, especially because the relevance of what you're reading is so obvious.

 

[blz]

I have done surgery and medicine so far. I honored them both only studying for the last two weeks of the rotation. I tried studying earlier in the rotation when I would come back from the hospital but I would be really tired so I just gave up on that altogether. I'm a firm believer if you're not gonna put 100% effort into your studying, dont bother doing it at all. The pressure of the end of the rotation usually gets me off my butt.

 

[Law2Doc]

I guess I should've added that the rotations I've done so far are fam med, psych, and ob/gyn.

Well, the first two of these are probably the easiest schedules at most schools, so I don't know if you will be singing the same tune later in the year.

 

[Kazema]

Don't want to drag this out into an argument, but I think you'd agree that ob/gyn doesn't exactly have an easy schedule - I still found that I didn't need to study as much as I did last year, and that my studying was more efficient. It's not like my life is totally relaxed, but compared to last year it's so much better because I'm not constantly worried about obsessively reviewing things to keep everything fresh for some upcoming exam. I truly believe that the key is to read about your patients' conditions while you're in the hospital, and to use what you read in writing your assessment and plan. And then getting feedback right away about it. Then when you're studying for the shelf, you can pretty much skip over the topics dealing with those conditions, because it all sticks in your head so much better when you can remember a specific patient and what you did for him/her.

I think the main difference between 2nd and 3rd year studying is that in 2nd year you're learning everything for the first time in a kind of fractured way. In 3rd year you use the information you look up right away, so it's reinforced in a very practical way. For me, that makes it much easier to remember things - I don't have to go back and review it over and over again to make sure I memorize it all.

Sure, you can get pimped on obscure facts, but you're pretty much expected to not know it. If you do know it, great - they'll just ask you something you don't know. And when you don't know it, you go look it up, which is pretty logical. Totally different from last year when you did need to know all the obscure facts in order to do well on exams.

 

[Law2Doc]

Sure, you can get pimped on obscure facts, but you're pretty much expected to not know it. If you do know it, great - they'll just ask you something you don't know. And when you don't know it, you go look it up, which is pretty logical.

Give it time -- you will likely come across folks for whom not knowing a pimping answer will be a cardinal sin, and will merit your doing a fairly in depth presentation to the team on the subject the next day. You will also hit rotations where you won't have the free time to read stuff during the day while at the hospital. If not, you will have had a relatively easy third year.

 

[blz]

I think Kazema aka "Mr. 269/99" should be the last person to be lectured on his study habits.