How much studying do medical students actually do?

[Roflcopterrr]

I've been wondering how much med students normally study.. I'm going into my junior hear of HS - I've never studied for a test, and I was absent VERY frequently my sophomore year (anxiety and sleep issues blow dick), yet I still passed most classes - why? I got high 90s on every test. My teachers hate me for it because they think I cheat. Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school? The reason I call this a "talent" is because I see most people study their hearts out, and it sort of makes me feel bad when I get my quizzes / tests back.

also, I assume good memory has something to do with it

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[docB]

I've been wondering how much med students normally study.. I'm going into my junior hear of HS - I've never studied for a test, and I was absent VERY frequently my sophomore year (anxiety and sleep issues blow dick), yet I still passed most classes - why? I got high 90s on every test. My teachers hate me for it because they think I cheat. Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school? The reason I call this a "talent" is because I see most people study their hearts out, and it sort of makes me feel bad when I get my quizzes / tests back.

also, I assume good memory has something to do with it

I'm not sure what memory would have to do with it if you're passing tests on material you've never studied or attended classes on. That sounds as if you're just good at taking tests and the material involved is pretty intuitive.

Good test taking is a valuable skill but it will not get you through college and certainly not through med school. As you encounter tougher subjects you will have to study the material to get through. You can't just fake your way through organic chemistry or physics without ever going to class or cracking a book.

As for med school I found that it required a lot of study. Some of the togher subjects (for me that was pathology) took huge amounts. For that class I was at the lab or library for ~18 hours a day 5 or 6 days a week. Most semesters were more reasonable at class time (~5 hours a day) plus 2 to 5 hours of study.

The 3rd and 4th years of med school are clinical so you're just working in the hospital but that's usually 8 to 12 hours a day plus call days plus studying for the shelf exams (which are like the finals). You also have to study for the licensing board exams during all of this.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I was the same way in high school. I breezed through everything at a very difficult school without even trying most of the time, and the standardized tests were my bitches. With that in mind, I'd say that your "talent" almost certainly won't carry over into med school, and there's a high probability it won't be good for more than the first semester or two of college.

I'm approaching med school with the "C=MD" mindset. Throughout my life, I've always - and still do - study less than just about everyone around me to achieve similar results. For my mix of B's and C's last year, I put in about 2 hours of solid studying per day. On weekends, I'd do 3-4 or so. Starting about a week before tests, that would increase to 3-5 on weekdays and 6-7 on weekends. I also went to class. In other words, the bare minimum you can expect to put in is about 20 hours outside of class per week. Pretty much everyone else studies for probably 30-40 hours per week outside of class. That's just for first year. This year, second year, I've been putting in a good 5-6 hours per day but not going to class. The information volume increases quite a lot.

One thing to remember is that quite a few people in med school enjoyed similar success in high school, but they're still closing down the library every night. You won't be special any more when you're a med student.

 

[45408]

Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school?

Probably not. There's about a hundred times as much material on a med school exam than a high school exam. The only people I knew that didn't study much in med school were the people who went to every class (or listened to every recorded lecture) and took good notes every day.

High school is a joke.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I never studied for anything during high school, and graduated valedictorian. I was not particularly well-liked by most of my teachers.

In college this strategy was not the best, and I ended up using a cram-the-night-before strategy. This did not work for organic chemistry but otherwise got me through everything else very well.

The volume of knowledge you have to learn in medical school is quite overwhelming, but I suspect you will need to study less than many students. Initially I went to every lecture and studied at home about 2 hours daily. I later stopped going to lecture and studied about 4-5 hours a day, with one day off per week. This worked very well for me. Some people studied much more - one friend's roommate studied 8 hrs/day on weekdays after class, and more on weekends - but this is extreme and I doubt you will be in that category.

Your strong memory will be a huge asset, but you can't memorize something until you hear or read it - and there's a lot to learn!

 

[MilkmanAl]

So there you have it: 4 nearly identical responses from current or recent med students. If that doesn't tell you what to need to know, I'm not sure what will.

 

[Roflcopterrr]

Thank you all for the quick responses. It's nice to have actual residents and attendings to get advice from. I'll be lurking this forum a lot

 

[greatnt249]

I've been wondering how much med students normally study.. I'm going into my junior hear of HS - I've never studied for a test, and I was absent VERY frequently my sophomore year (anxiety and sleep issues blow dick), yet I still passed most classes - why? I got high 90s on every test. My teachers hate me for it because they think I cheat. Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school? The reason I call this a "talent" is because I see most people study their hearts out, and it sort of makes me feel bad when I get my quizzes / tests back.

also, I assume good memory has something to do with it

3-4 hours every night for anatomy (moreso the week before an exam); it's not a class you can really skip out on.

 

[DrYoda]

I've been wondering how much med students normally study.. I'm going into my junior hear of HS - I've never studied for a test, and I was absent VERY frequently my sophomore year (anxiety and sleep issues blow dick), yet I still passed most classes - why? I got high 90s on every test. My teachers hate me for it because they think I cheat. Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school? The reason I call this a "talent" is because I see most people study their hearts out, and it sort of makes me feel bad when I get my quizzes / tests back.

also, I assume good memory has something to do with it

Here is a recent thread in the Osteopathic forum that will give you a good idea of many med students study time.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=8582439#post8582439

How much you study depends on multiple things. It is partially dependent of study efficiency and brainpower. But there are also considerations like personal goals. Someone aiming to match into a competative speciality will have to get high grades. Those not gunning for such competative slots may not feel compelled to go the extra mile for an honors grade.

I'm not going to say you don't have a talent. But realize highschool is not very detail oriented and the pace is rather slow. Also, the frequency of very good memories goes up as you move from HS to college and college to med school. There are people in my class who study crazy amounts of time, but there are also quite a few who have very good memories. Each group adjusts their study time to what is appropriate for them.

Personally, I have a very good memory (got through college with a 3.97 by committing powerpoint slides to memory the night before exams). But there is so much material in medschool and it comes at you so fast that I still have to study most days of the week to stay on top of it.

 

[lord_jeebus]

Another thing is that you may have trouble in the future figuring out "how" to study, and you may benefit from starting now when the stakes are low. Set a very high goal (eg. 98% in a class where you could get a 93% without studying), make up a system, and tweak it as you go.

 

[URHere]

I spent very little time studying in high school and college (aside from time-consuming papers and assignments), and I spend far less time studying in medical school than many of my classmates.

On non test weeks, I frequently do not study at all (although I do usually attend lecture). The 2-4 days before the exam, I study heavily...between 8 and 12 hours at a time. I would estimate that I study about 20 hours for each exam. It's far less than the 8 hours/day some students put in, but still more studying than I have ever been used to.

 

[Bacchus]

I've been studying about 2-3 hours a day. Our exam is next Friday. The pressure is now on. My study time is probably going to double. We took a mock exam today of 15 questions and I did horribly. All the more incentive for me to study. For our anatomy-super-course we need to get a 65 to pass. Its going to be difficult, but attainable.

 

[nlax30]

I guess my experience is/was similar to some others here.... high school was pretty much a joke. Don't really remember studying a whole lot but ended up top 5%.

Being "naturally" good at taking standardized tests is I guess a nice skill to have, but not something that's necessarily going to help you a whole lot in med school. Personally I think it has more to do with being a little more gifted at reading into a question or analyzing what exactly a question is asking and then being able to definitely rule out a few of the answer choices to give you a better shot at choosing the correct one for those times when you just have to make an educated guess.

I'm a fairly slow reader so I definitely have to spend a good amount of time studying, and I may not be able to get through a lot of material multiple times like other students may be able to, but I've always been fairly good at the typical standardized test and good at understanding and applying concepts when asked in a question.

But yea, I'm with most of the others above.... high school was basically a joke as far as academics were concerned.

 

[psipsina]

Another thing is that you may have trouble in the future figuring out "how" to study, and you may benefit from starting now when the stakes are low. Set a very high goal (eg. 98% in a class where you could get a 93% without studying), make up a system, and tweak it as you go.

Agree! I did virtually nothing (include attend) during high school and rocked it hard enough grade-wise to get a full ride to a private uni. I took all honors and blah blah blah. My first year of college was hard because I had no idea how I learned and had to invent the wheel when it came to studying. Once I figured out my own learning strategy it was relatively smooth sailing with a little hard work for a few days before and exam or when an essay was due. In medschool I have to hit it hard and sometimes I just pass.

Figure out how you learn now and it will pay off in college and medschool. There is a slim chance that you'll breeze thru medschool but you have to assume that you will have to work your tail of and be willing to do that going in.

 

[yanorglu]

On the couple days a month I actually showed up to class during high school, I was on several different benzos and slept through most of my classes. On the off chance I was awake and semi-coherent, I'd mostly just make paper airplanes and feel up girls and wander around in the hallway smoking a joint.

Assuming I found my way home that night without passing out at the bus station, I'd just collapse in front of the computer and play counter-strike or watch porn or go sleep with one of my seven hundred girlfriends. I never studied, in fact, I'd lose all my books during the first week of the school year and did my homework in mongolian written in highlighter.

While taking the SAT, I was on cocaine and heroin and salvia and I think I might've written my essay on justifying the conduct of Stalin and his cronies. Naturally, I got a 2400. I graduated with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, too, and I took all AP classes and got 5s on all those exams while on LSD and vicodin. Halfway through my APUSH exam, I started wanking off just to pass the time. Still finished before anyone else did (double entendre).

Graduated as valedictorian and made my speech while high off skunk piss. High school was sooooo easy.

 

[hrandani]

Top of your high school class means you *might* make it into medical school.

Like others have pointed out, brilliant in medical school is average. If anything, your poor study habits now are just setting you up for failure. I know it's cool when you're 15 to never study, but in ten years it's just more immature bragging.

I never studied in college (B.S. top ten university, neurobiology) . I'm MS1, I just put in a month of 4 hour days and I still feel like I'm hopelessly behind.

The post ahead of me is golden.

 

[ILikeFood]

Look at it this way. A star high school quarterback isn't necessarily going to become a star college quarterback.

The main point to take away from this is that you cannot rely on intelligence alone in medical school. You have to know the material one way or another.

I wasn't a natural talent in hs. I studied hard and only then did I tear it to shreds. I just finished my first month of med school and have put in ~5 hours a day every day to keep up with the material. You might have to do less. But first you have to make it there to know.

 

[RySerr21]

I've been wondering how much med students normally study.. I'm going into my junior hear of HS - I've never studied for a test, and I was absent VERY frequently my sophomore year (anxiety and sleep issues blow dick), yet I still passed most classes - why? I got high 90s on every test. My teachers hate me for it because they think I cheat. Do you guys think that this "talent" will cross over to medical school? The reason I call this a "talent" is because I see most people study their hearts out, and it sort of makes me feel bad when I get my quizzes / tests back.

also, I assume good memory has something to do with it

i havent read anybodies response so im probably going to repeat whats been said....but if you dont study in med school, you will fail. period. people that say they dont study are bull****ting you. I study a good majority of the time. Ill usually go to school by 8am, study or be in class til noon, eat some lunch, study til about 4 or 5 depending on what i have planned that day (whether it be a club, a practice for a sport, an elective, or whatever)....do that, go home and eat, and then study til about 1130 and go to bed. That being said, i love it!

 

[MossPoh]

The most valuable thing you can do now is learn how to study even though you don't need to.

I'd be surprised if many people currently in medical school had to study much, if at all during high school. I barely did anything for 4 years of college and then amped it up when I decided I wanted to go to medical school. Good study habits are a great thing to develop. It takes practice and time to refine those skills and get maximum yield out of your investment. Starting while it is easy is pretty damn valuable.

 

[coffeebythelake]

high school is a joke.

qft

 

[Depakote]

you'll learn to study in college... there will be classes that require varying degrees of effort, including some that require significant amounts of studying and time for papers and projects. You will also find yourself putting in a fair amount of effort for the MCAT. Once you get to med school, you will be putting in even more effort but this will not be a new experience, just a significant increase from the amount you had been doing previously.

 

[J ROD]

On the couple days a month I actually showed up to class during high school, I was on several different benzos and slept through most of my classes. On the off chance I was awake and semi-coherent, I'd mostly just make paper airplanes and feel up girls and wander around in the hallway smoking a joint.

Assuming I found my way home that night without passing out at the bus station, I'd just collapse in front of the computer and play counter-strike or watch porn or go sleep with one of my seven hundred girlfriends. I never studied, in fact, I'd lose all my books during the first week of the school year and did my homework in mongolian written in highlighter.

While taking the SAT, I was on cocaine and heroin and salvia and I think I might've written my essay on justifying the conduct of Stalin and his cronies. Naturally, I got a 2400. I graduated with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, too, and I took all AP classes and got 5s on all those exams while on LSD and vicodin. Halfway through my APUSH exam, I started wanking off just to pass the time. Still finished before anyone else did (double entendre).

Graduated as valedictorian and made my speech while high off skunk piss. High school was sooooo easy.

Sounds about the same for me! The good ole days, lol!!