I started as a C student doing 16-20 hours of studying per day at the beginning of MS1, to an A student doing 4-6 per day in second semester MS1. The following are some of my thoughts about how I made this transition.
Many of the details might be completely different, person-to-person, but I believe the following two basic ideas to efficient studying are central:
1. Artificially restrict your study time, so that you squeeze the most, hour-for-hour, out of your study time.
2. Find a study strategy that works.
First, I artificially limit the amount of time that I study. I do a lot of cooking, exercise, listening to audiobooks, and talking to the wife--and I don't allow myself to study all day.
So when it gets to study time, I am in berserk mode. As a result, I know that the most is made of my time, so I am happier and more efficient in all areas.
I didn't cut back study time until I was doing well in my classes and felt that I could experiment. Before I was doing well in my classes, I studied all day, pretty inefficiently, until things stuck and I "figured med school out". During this time, I played a fair amount of videogames to make up for constant burnout, and I complained a great deal to my wife.
But after I started doing well enough, I started to cut back on studying intentionally and do other things, and then focus on making more of my time in all areas. Now, I don't play any videogames at all, and I have plenty of distraction in meaningful life activities so that I don't need them.
I think what the set the stage for me was finding an efficient study strategy and following it; this step sets the foundation for being more efficient with study time; without it, you are not asking the right question. Once you find success with a way that gets you the results that you want, you can cut back the study time--and execute the study strategy more efficiently.
So the key thing, before trying to solve any other problem, is putting together a solid study strategy. Therefore, I will tell you my own.
The study strategy that works for me, being a little bit inattentive (okay, very inattentive), is making sure I am always covering new material and seeing new things and being excited. So, rather than follow the lecture schedule, one by one, making sure I understand each lecture before I move on, I cover the entire two weeks of material going up to the exam, rapidly, several times, in phases:
1. I will read and study all lecture slides, within a relatively short period of time (1-3 days).
2. Then, I will watch all or most of the lectures (1-3 days).
3. Then, ideally, I will read the book, again, for the entire period covered by the exam.
4. Finally, during the last few days leading up to the exam, I will do practice problems and review the slides and consolidate and synthesize all of the information. The day leading up to the exam, I will do this with a buddy to fill in gaps in my knowledge.
There are two basic concepts behind this study strategy.
First, avoiding monotony and panic. Going over the same concept over and over again until you understand it thoroughly is monotonous, and if you are not understanding it quickly, given the quantity of other material that you know you must master, it is panic-inducing and demoralizing. You want to avoid monotony and its partner panic at all costs. It will shred your study efficiency.
Avoiding these things means going over material, trying to understand concepts, but allowing yourself to move on if you don't. You will have another chance to understand it. Once you go over it once, even if you don't understand it, you are familiar with it. This familiarity will aid in your second attempt at understanding--not to mention, your second attempt at understanding will be assisted with, likely, a better source and/or way of explaining things.
In essence, medical school is not rocket science. If you aren't understanding something, it is not your fault. Move on and have faith that things will click. Most things will. Once you embrace this basic idea, you will be happier and more effective, and distractability will play a much smaller role in your struggles.
The second principle. Getting ahead. I think one of the big ways that my study strategy seems to work is that I am always feeling like I am setting my own pace, and I am frequently feeling ahead--and as a result, not "trapped" or "compelled" by the material or curriculum. I set my own pace, which means that I can embrace what I am doing, and when I embrace what I am doing, I do it better. Setting your own pace, you feel like you are dominating, going faster than the material itself, rather than being crushed by its onslaught. The psychological advantage here can be enormous. As nerdy as it sounds, this makes studying exciting for me. This psychological sense of excitement is crucial to making my study sessions efficient, and I manipulate the presentation of the material to myself in whatever way I can to elicit this feeling.
As a related side-note, which demonstrates this principle a bit more clearly. If I get behind, I leap frog. Again, the last thing you want to feel is that you are in a terrifying state of catchup--and you might not make it. Instead, leap ahead, skip some of the earlier lectures to pull ahead, and once you have pulled ahead, go back through older stuff. This will change your psychological frame dramatically and make studying more effective and again, less prone to demoralization and distraction.
Although admittedly, the details about study strategy may be quite different person-to-person, I believe that the following two basic points, to repeat, and the above reasoning behind them, should apply to virtually everyone:
1. Artificially restrict your study time, so that you squeeze the most, hour-for-hour, out of your study time.
2. Find a study strategy that works.
If I were to add a third point, it would be that you should find a way to study that makes the material exciting, fresh, and not demoralizing. I have presented my own method here, and I hope at least some of what I have written will be of use to somebody.
