How much time did you devote to medical school per day during M1?

[DrDre2001]

*whoops, the thread title should say per weekday instead of just per day






How much time did you spend every weekday in class + studying during M1? Answer this in the poll.

Now, every single weekday of yours during M1 probably was not exactly the same. Your days right before an exam were likely much different than your days when your next exam was three weeks away. Just try to average it out.

(FYI...The poll answers will be anonymous)

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[willen101383]

Less than 3 hours....totally serious m1 didnt really require much "studying" outside of listening to lectures online.

 

[DrDre2001]

Less than 3 hours....totally serious m1 didnt really require much "studying" outside of listening to lectures online.

Well how long did your lectures or online lectures last? Add that in and total it all up and then vote.

 

[mcp5016]

Class was required for us from 8:00 to about 3-4 and i would study anywhere from 4 hours a night to 1 or even none. It really all depended on how I felt and how I grasped the material. Besides, weekends are when you make up a lot of the study time. Saturday and Sunday I put in 8hrs minimum, usually up to 12 at least one day.

 

[TeamZissou]

Class was required for us from 8:00 to about 3-4 and i would study anywhere from 4 hours a night to 1 or even none. It really all depended on how I felt and how I grasped the material. Besides, weekends are when you make up a lot of the study time. Saturday and Sunday I put in 8hrs minimum, usually up to 12 at least one day.

Very similar my first year.

 

[willen101383]

We had about 4 hours of lecture a day. I almost never studied after listening to my lectures unless we had an exam on the horizon. The max I ever spent on lecture+ studying in a day was about 6-7 hours

 

[shaggy alfresco]

Class was required for us from 8:00 to about 3-4 and i would study anywhere from 4 hours a night to 1 or even none. It really all depended on how I felt and how I grasped the material. Besides, weekends are when you make up a lot of the study time. Saturday and Sunday I put in 8hrs minimum, usually up to 12 at least one day.

Haha required lecture. That's crazy.

 

[Daedra22]

I studied at least 8 hrs/day plus longer on the weekends (tried to take 1 day per week off, but sometimes we had tests every week). Never went to class unless it was required, though.

 

[Rollo]

See, the thing you gotta understand is how much of these 8-12 hours per day studying these people are actually studying?? Are they really studying straight with bathroom breaks and 30 min lunch break for 8-12 hours STRAIGHT?

A better question to ask would be how much time do you ACTUALLY spend studying? I used to "study" for 6 hours or less but my actual studying time was roughly 2-4 hours.

 

[DarkHorizon]

anywhere between 2-4 hours a day with a couple of days off if no exams that week. Exam week would be 8-12 hours a day, no days off

 

[Everglide]

We have Monday tests so....Double speed 3-4 lectures/day and ~2 hour labs a few days a week. So about 4-5 hours a day... maybe a little more when tests are coming up. Weekends were about 10-12 hours of studying Friday-Sunday. I never took a day "off" but I rarely had intense weekdays.

That worked out well for me, ended up in the upper part of the class and feel like I've retained a fair amount.

 

[deleted245139]

just to correlate this to the inevitable thread that follows ("what should I do to crush/kill/destroy the boards")... the harder you work in your first yr to get the basics down, and to link information in your head, the better prepared you will be for boards, which really is the end goal of the first two yrs. People say your GPA doesn't matter in the first two yrs (which is absolutely true), but it is also proven to be the biggest predictor of the step 1 score. Put the leg work in, get the results you want.

that said, I studied 10-12h a day, most days.

 

[DrDre2001]

So, apparently, 25 percent of you guys put in less than 6 hours a weekday on medical school? Really? I guess those of you who voted for under 6 hours are skipping lecture?

What are your grades like?

 

[Rollo]

So, apparently, 25 percent of you guys put in less than 6 hours a weekday on medical school? Really? I guess those of you who voted for under 6 hours are skipping lecture?

What are your grades like?

I don't know about the rest but I included the hours I watched the lectures online from the comfort of my couch. My grades were above average (probably top 1/3 of class) and my board scores were in 75th percentiles.

Just keep in mind that amount of TOTAL hours spent studying has no correlation with grades. As I mentioned earlier, it's the amount of ACTUAL hours spent reading, understanding, memorizing, etc.

Efficiency is key. That means, if it's time to study, then buckle down and study. Forget tv, internet, phone, etc. Take a bathroom break and snack break every now and then but FOCUS on studying when you're supposed to be studying.

 

[r90t]

Went to daily labs/lectures from 8-3 daily with an hour for lunch.
Home to work out.
Study about 5 hours in the evening.
Minimum of 8 hours/day on weekends.
High class ranking.

My social group that did this matched:
Allopathic radiation oncology, radiology, OB/GYN, anesthesia, prelim surgery then did path, combined IM/Peds. DO's did ENT, peds, FP.

We were gunners? No, we didn't share our grades with each other and we helped each other out to make sure we all did the best of our ability.

 

[drctother]

Went to daily labs/lectures from 8-3 daily with an hour for lunch.
Home to work out.
Study about 5 hours in the evening.
Minimum of 8 hours/day on weekends.
High class ranking.

My social group that did this matched:
Allopathic radiation oncology, radiology, OB/GYN, anesthesia, prelim surgery then did path, combined IM/Peds. DO's did ENT, peds, FP.

We were gunners? No, we didn't share our grades with each other and we helped each other out to make sure we all did the best of our ability.

👍

 

[Everglide]

So, apparently, 25 percent of you guys put in less than 6 hours a weekday on medical school? Really? I guess those of you who voted for under 6 hours are skipping lecture?

What are your grades like?

75-85th percentile. I echo what everyone else said... it's all about efficiency, not quantity. Having good friends who help is also key imo.

I think people get in trouble when they either fall behind or "regularly study 12 hours/day" but really only get a few hours of work done.

 

[r90t]

75-85th percentile. I echo what everyone else said... it's all about efficiency, not quantity. Having good friends who help is also key imo.

I think people get in trouble when they either fall behind or "regularly study 12 hours/day" but really only get a few hours of work done.

I'll agree that the inefficient students are the one's that get into trouble as a student/intern/resident or staff. With that said, sometimes you have to clamp down and put in the time to do well by your own standards. Some guys were happy with 75s on tests, while others were upset with 95s. It was their own internal standards that they had to meet.

IMO, you have to do the best that you can be, because at some point, you can literally kill someone due a decision that you have to make, and you want to make the most educated decision that you can.

Not to poke fun at any specialties, but the guys who played volleyball at lunch, didn't go to lectures, etc...were the one's that generally matched into less competitive residencies, which they were happy with.