I can't take it any longer: I'm going to SKIP CLASS!

[esposo]

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I've had it. I'm a visual learner. I cannot learn by sitting in lecture for 6 hours a day. I don't get anything out of it. I listen for 30 minutes and then daydream the rest of the time. By the time I get home, I'm so exhausted that I feel lucky to get 3-4 hours of studying in.

The problem is that 3-4 hours of studying is not enough for me. I'm a visual learner who has a slow learning process. I have to read over something slowly at first to understand it. then I write notes, flash cards or my own exams to help memorize things. Then I repeat things outloud to cement these facts in my head. This process takes people like myself a lot longer to learn. I wish I could just sit in class and learn through osmosis. Or I wish I could just read something 3 times and learn all there is to know about a subject. Sorry, that doesn't work for me. I need 6-7 hours of studying everyday just to keep up because of this slow learning style.

I have sufferred thus far because I never feel like I have enough time to cover everything. I barely passed my first set of exams. The questions I missed were due to tiny details i had not memorized;it was not information that I didn't conceptually grasp. Our class handouts are verbatim what they cover in class and ask on tests. Yeah, I was worried about missing class before because I was afraid I would miss a couple of the hints or freebies the instructors would throw out. The gunner side of me was coming out and I wanted to nab every little detail. Now I know it's not worth it. Who cares if you miss 2-3 details. I would get so much more out of that time by studying on my own. I could put an extra 6-7 hours of studying a day by missing class and get some more sleep too.

Was there any other people like me who felt this way? Did your grades improve upon skipping class? For the visual and kinesthetic learners, did this move help you? I get absolutely nothing out of lecture and I feel this time could be spent wisely toward covering the material. I just wished I would have skipped class earlier.

 

[Bevo]

i posted something along these lines a few months. ago

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=124120&highlight=class+worth

 

[scootad.]

I skipped ~80% of classes in M1 and M2 and did just fine, but then again my school had a transcript system in which lectures were typed out word for word and slides were available on the web.

Lectures were thus totally a waste of time

 

[esposo]

i posted something along these lines a few months. ago

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=124120&highlight=class+worth

Imbebo

You rock man. Thanks for that thread



Jen 😍

Yeah, I would like to hear some more personal stories. I really think I'm making the right decision. I realizing skipping class isn't right for everyone but for some of us, i think this is a golden secret that has just been unearthed.

 

[novacek88]

Don't listen to anyone who tells you to attend lecture. Those people are auditory learners and they get a lot out of lecture. They don't know they are auditory because they learn visually as well so they think you are just lazy. IGNOREthose people. For people like us, missing class was imperative. Forget about getting an edge, missing class was vital to passing and doing well.

I go to a medical school that is very class intensive. We have classes from 8-5 everyday not including preceptor appointments etc.

I attended lecture in the beginning as well. I was scared to skip class. My friends and classmates would make me guilty if I missed class. They made fun of me for being a slacker. I was terrified that I would miss a few questions because the professor would only reveal details during class.

Okay let me tell you that fear is sooooooo overstated. The biggest illusion of medical school is the fear that you will miss information by skipping class. Don't get me wrong, if a professor begins to see that a certain class is meeting less than 50% in attendance, you can be assured that he will start testing over material that isn't in the notes. But rest assured, most of your big classes will meet 60-80% attendance.

My grades improved drastically. I had around a 79% overall average during my first quarter at AZCOM. After I started skipping class, my grades shot up. I had a 91% average in my second quarter. So yes, skipping class can help if you are like me in that you can't learn by listening to lecture.

Finally, don't listen to those who will try to guilt you into not skipping class. They are not you. They don't know how you learn. If they did, they probably would support your decision to attend class. Ignore the fear that you will miss data by skipping class. 90% of the time, you will find that the material you miss is so insignficant when your overall grade is concerned.

 

[azcomdiddy]

You are doing yourself a disservice by skipping class

Sorry but I have to laugh at the notion of auditory vs. visual learners. Yeah, I think it's an excuse for those who don't want to put effort in paying attention in class. You think I like paying attention to lecture? I don't but it helps because professors especially at AZCOM do test on material they present only in lecture. It's not just a few questions, it's more like 20% of the exam. If you have notice the people in the top 10% of the class attend lecture. The people who skip are the ones who get B's or High pass at best. If you want honors then attend class.

People who skip class don't get honors. Notice that trend. It's always the slackers who don't want to get up in the morning that feel they need to miss class. The people who skip class aren't the top people in the class. They never are. So if you want to settle for average then skip class and be the person who barely makes 80's. My advice is to develop some self discipline and better study habits. You don't have time to make notecards. No one in medical school makes note cards to study from. You are just wasting your time. Go to class, come home and force yourself to study till midnight. Go to bed and repeat.

It's that simple.

 

[daisygirl]

People who skip class don't get honors. Notice that trend. It's always the slackers who don't want to get up in the morning that feel they need to miss class. My advice is to develop some self discipline and better study habits.

You seem to be quite sure of yourself. 🙄

I've posted my way of dealing with the first two years too many times in the past to rehash it here. So, my cliffnotes version is: When I went to class, I never honored anything. When I skipped class, I had lots of time to read from all sorts of sources and I ALWAYS honored.

Your advice is a very narrow-minded view on what it takes to succeed in medical school. Going to class does not help everyone, and there truly is a difference between auditory learners and visual learners.

 

[esposo]

You seem to be quite sure of yourself. 🙄

I've posted my way of dealing with the first two years too many times in the past to rehash it here. So, my cliffnotes version is: When I went to class, I never honored anything. When I skipped class, I had lots of time to read from all sorts of sources and I ALWAYS honored.

Your advice is a very narrow-minded view on what it takes to succeed in medical school. Going to class does not help everyone, and there truly is a difference between auditory learners and visual learners.

Thanks Daisy. I appreciate the Cliffs note version. I did a search and didn't find the answers to be as complete as I received thus far so thank you for responding.

Any cliff note anecdotes are fine by me. Keep it coming everyone. 🙂

 

[Bevo]

i ended up skipping most classes at te end of MS 2. I attended my micro lectures because i found that I did better when I attended those lectures. It turned out to be best grade last term, 100.

I found pharm and path to be helpful when I attended, but in the interest of time and volume were not beneficial to my grades. A negative correlation I guess between grades and class attendance. I would have liked to attend more path lectures, but I ended up having to do all of it on my own again.

Intro to clinical med - waist of time in and out of class. Im still trying to learn the physical exam and stuff like that.

 

[DW]

I don't but it helps because professors especially at AZCOM do test on material they present only in lecture. It's not just a few questions, it's more like 20% of the exam. .

well, thankfully not everyone goes to your medical school. I actually skipped every lecture in an entire block of medical school last year and it was the best grade I've gotten so far in med school.

 

[novacek88]

If you are a visual learner then you probably wouldn't pick up those hints the professor gives during lecture because you probably were not even awake to begin with.

I really think skipping class is advantageous if you are a visual learner and you have a tough time paying attention in class. You could spend that time reading the lecture packet at home and memorizing those details.

My grades improved. If you are a visual learned, class attendance is worthless in some classes. Of course, you should attend slide presentations such as histology but aside from those classes, attendance is worthless.

 

[Sage880]

Skipping class means you're paying all that tuition money to get an outline. It also gives you the chance to take tests to become a doctor which you would have not been able to take otherwise.

I go to class on the princible that each one is costing a very large amount of money. Sometimes I just ignore the lecture and study myself while they're rambling on but at least I got my ass out of bed to do it. If I don't go to class I slack too much.

 

[SaltySqueegee]

You seem to be quite sure of yourself. 🙄

I've posted my way of dealing with the first two years too many times in the past to rehash it here. So, my cliffnotes version is: When I went to class, I never honored anything. When I skipped class, I had lots of time to read from all sorts of sources and I ALWAYS honored.

Your advice is a very narrow-minded view on what it takes to succeed in medical school. Going to class does not help everyone, and there truly is a difference between auditory learners and visual learners.

Ditto.

Once I started skipping class, I went from Honors to High Honors. 😀 😉

No, but really, I was able to spend my time more efficiently on my own. Also, I still do attend lecture occassionally, just selectively.

 

[novacek88]

Let's put it this way: if you are behind and you are a visual learner, you NEED to skip class. But I'm sure you first years are never behind and all caught up. 🙂

 

[azcomdiddy]

The problem is that I don't have other gunners to back me up on this because they don't waste their time on this site or they don't want to get involved.

The truth is the best students in your medical school attend class and very few if any honor by missing class. even most of the people who have responded have vaguely mentioned they "did better" whatever that means.

You won't honor by skpping class

 

[scootad.]

LOL obviously you cant read because there have been several people saying they started to honor classes only after skipping them

 

[kmnfive]

I skipped ~80% of classes in M1 and M2 and did just fine, but then again my school had a transcript system in which lectures were typed out word for word and slides were available on the web.

Lectures were thus totally a waste of time

do allot of med schools do this? that sounds great.

 

[daisygirl]

The problem is that I don't have other gunners to back me up on this because they don't waste their time on this site or they don't want to get involved.

The truth is the best students in your medical school attend class and very few if any honor by missing class. even most of the people who have responded have vaguely mentioned they "did better" whatever that means.

You won't honor by skpping class

The only reason why I'm even bothering to reply to this post is because I don't want people who are like me to screw themselves because of posts like this. You seem to be completely incapable of thinking 'outside the box'. Your posts on this thread reek of arrogance.

Not everyone is capable of osmotically absorbing the mountains of minutae thrown at them during lecture. I sure wasn't, however, some students are able to do very well by going to lectures. I performed horribly on exams when I attended every lecture. I honored classes consistently once I realized that I was NOT getting the most out of my educational experience by sittting in class.

So for the OP and all others out there that are like me, here is what I did:

I only went to classes that were important in terms of visualization. Classes such as path (not all path lectures though, particularly those that were heavy in molecular bio) and histo are good to attend if you are a visual learner since so much of this stuff is visual. I would attend small group sessions, and I found these useful since they were interactive. I also attended classes that incorporated live patients (these were mandatory, but they were worth it). I'll never forget disease entities such as ankylosing spondylitis, lupus, scleroderma, etc... due to the visual aspect (there's nothing like being able to put a human face on a disease).

The following outlines my approach to classes that were heavy on memorization (which is mostly what med school is about, but some classes are worse than others- i.e. pharm, micro, etc...):

I sat my ass in a chair for hours upon hours so that I would have the time to get through the lecture notes at least four times. I would also use good quality syllabi if they were provided, other pertinent texts (robbins, micro made ridiculously simple, etc....), and I would always use old exams. Old exams are great since they give you an idea as to whether you are truly learning what you are studying. Old exams also give you an idea as to what particular lecturers tend to stress.

 

[DW]

I used to be a prof. I won three awards for excellent teaching. Here is my perspective...

While it is dangerous to generalize, I think many med school classes are a waste of time. I did very well by skipping class -- as did many of my classmates. The key is to the time effectively. Some classes are useful others are not. The best advice I ever got was to avoid the useless classes. I used the time productively and got much more from using the time to ACTIVELY study rather than to passively sit in lecture.

Medical school does is not really challenging in the sense that it requires you to think in new ways. Rather, it simply requires you to absorb vast amounts of information. I attend classes that expose me to new ways of thinking or that provide insight into complicated problems. Because med school largely requires the absorption of simple facts, lectures do not add much value. I have yet to encounter a concept in medicine that was difficult. The volume is overwhelming, but the concepts are simple. I don't need a prof to explain simple concepts or to repeat facts that are available in books. Besides, most of the standard texts are now in their nth edition and are very well written -- and certainly better than most profs' lectures.

I also think there is often a disconnect between what is IMPORTANT and what is TESTED. If a prof wants to be a child and start feeding obscure information to class attenders in order to protect his ego -- so be it. I would rather accept a lower grade than waste time sitting in a useless class. Time is your most important resource.

Some people use the argument that you have paid the money you should attend because, otherwise, you would be wasting all that money. As anyone who has studied finance will tell you, the cost of the class is sunk and irrelevant to the decision. The only relevant factor is whether the class is helpful.

By the way, I never used to pay any attention to attendance when I was teaching -- and I generally had good attendance. I think attendance is a good barometer that tells a prof whether they are doing a good job. A prof loses that info if they start boosting attendance by feeding students with testable material. In my opinion, if you can't find it in one of the standard texts, it is probably not worth knowing.

maybe the most well articulated post in SDN history 👍

 

[mattorama]

must be nice to have the option of not going to class... 🙁 🙁

 

[SarahGM]

You won't honor by skpping class

LOL- gracious no!

In the words of the great Will Hunting: That may be true. But at least I won't be unoriginal.

 

[esposo]

To answer some people's question, no we do not have a transcription service. However, our lecture handouts are basically the same thing. They are comprehensive and the power point slides that are shown in lecture are photocopied on the handouts. So for all intensive purposes, our lecture handouts are our transcription notes.

I think biochemistry and anatomy lecture are a waste of time. They just put pictures out of Netter, Grants and Clemente on the power point and identify the structures for us. I can do that at home. Biochemistry is word for word out of the lecture handout. You can skip that as well. Histology probably requires attendance because those slides are not on powerpoint. You have to pay attention in class. Skipping Anatomy and Biochemistry frees up half my week which is time that I could use.

 

[lattimer13]

to the OP, pick and choose your battles in terms of which classes to attend. try reading the material (if you get your syllabi) the night before class and then if you feel you need additional explanation, head to class the next day. for the most part i skipped most lectures 1st year. biochem and molecular genetics i only ended up going to about a dozen times combined total. i too was worried that i'd be missing something by not attending, but luckily our school for the most part sticks to testing from our objectives which comes directly from our syllabi. i ended up honoring most (5 of 7) of my classes...would have in physiology too had it not been for the damn kidney. 👎

sorry to burst your bubble azcomdiddy.🙄

i wouldn't say my scores went up dramatically but i did perform at the level or above of what i did at the beginning of first year. like others have said, the most important thing is your time. who wants to be in class all day then have to go study and then repeat for weeks at a time? try skipping class and going to the library to study the material on your own. it'll free up a ton of time. i needed to make time to spend with my girl, friends, working out, etc.

med school is just like everything else in life...you get used to it and you'll learn what works best for you. best of luck.

 

[Runtita]

To answer some people's question, no we do not have a transcription service. However, our lecture handouts are basically the same thing. They are comprehensive and the power point slides that are shown in lecture are photocopied on the handouts. So for all intensive purposes, our lecture handouts are our transcription notes.

I think biochemistry and anatomy lecture are a waste of time. They just put pictures out of Netter, Grants and Clemente on the power point and identify the structures for us. I can do that at home. Biochemistry is word for word out of the lecture handout. You can skip that as well. Histology probably requires attendance because those slides are not on powerpoint. You have to pay attention in class. Skipping Anatomy and Biochemistry frees up half my week which is time that I could use.

Do you go to my school? 😉

 

[Runtita]

You won't honor by skpping class

Some people just want to PASS. Why inefficiently waste time in class if you could be at home/the library/whatever, actually LEARNING something?

To the OP, have you tried concept mapping? If you are an active learner, you may need to be DOING something besides just sitting there rereading (or hearing) the same stuff over and over again. Try drawing your notes out. Connect topics with lines. I did this for histo and it worked great. (I wish I had learned this before Biochem and Anatomy, but now I know!)

 

[lotanna]

I'm a visual learner just like urself and it takes me a while to get stuff, cause I cant cram to save my life. I'm only a 1st yr, so no experience, but I've already skipped some classes, because of exams. The record our lectures online, and so we can download them as mp3, so I usually go thru them, to see and check what the profs says is important, plus even if I'm not there, i'm sure one of my friends will be in class, and I'll just get theirs.

 

[novacek88]

I think we should remember that people are speaking in relative terms. i doubt anyone skips all of their classes. I certainly didn't but yes, I skipped at least 50% of my lectures and improved my grades.

 

[novacek88]

Once, in a previous degree, I organized a group of 4 guys to rotate attendance. The job of the attendee was to get notes, announcements, etc. That way, you were never left out and you at least kept a bit in touch -- if only to reassure yourself that it was nice to be able to miss 3/4 of the classes.

I said I skipped at least 50% of my class so on occassion I skipped as much as 75% of my classes. I'm not disagreeing with you. I just don't think people need to keep reminding the OP to be selective about what classes she should miss. I think that is fairly obvious and someone with enough common sense can figure out that certain classes simply can't be skipped but an overwhelming majority can.

 

[DireWolf]

The problem is that I don't have other gunners to back me up on this because they don't waste their time on this site or they don't want to get involved.

The truth is the best students in your medical school attend class and very few if any honor by missing class. even most of the people who have responded have vaguely mentioned they "did better" whatever that means.

You won't honor by skpping class

you are a *****. honored every class 2nd year. skipped 70-80% of them. sorry you had to endure worthless hours of lecture. you will never get those days of your life back. so long sucker.

 

[fatsal]

I started skipping class and I improved on my second exam from a C to an A. I can see the benefits already.

 

[twinklz]

Do your professors expect you to attend classes? I've had a couple profs tell us on their first day of lecture that if hearing the lecture doesn't work, then don't come. Spend the time studying in a manner that would benefit you personally.

Granted, we don't really have textbooks for classes outside anatomy and embryo, the profs write up their "syllabus." So you know exactly what they're talking about.

Starting my 7th week of medical school, I've determined that I just get confused in biochem lectures and that embryo lectures are a necessary evil. Everything in between just depends on who is doing the talking....

 

[azcomdiddy]

you are a *****. honored every class 2nd year. skipped 70-80% of them. sorry you had to endure worthless hours of lecture. you will never get those days of your life back. so long sucker.

What about your first year?

I just think you should ask a LOT of people before you decide to skip class. The risks are enormous. Imagine missing relevant material that could be asked in an exam that are not on your notes. Remember that SDN always has its fair share of unique individuals who go against the grain. Look at the Step I forum. Some person will say they only studied two weeks and got a 250 + on Step I. Or someone will claim they can earn 500K in family practice. I don't think it is typical for students to skip class and make honors. Despite the number of views, there are not that many students who can honestly reply and say they skipped and earned honors. Don't believe it.

 

[DireWolf]

What about your first year?

I just think you should ask a LOT of people before you decide to skip class. The risks are enormous. Imagine missing relevant material that could be asked in an exam that are not on your notes. Remember that SDN always has its fair share of unique individuals who go against the grain. Look at the Step I forum. Some person will say they only studied two weeks and got a 250 + on Step I. Or someone will claim they can earn 500K in family practice. I don't think it is typical for students to skip class and make honors. Despite the number of views, there are not that many students who can honestly reply and say they skipped and earned honors. Don't believe it.

believe me.

 

[Gut Shot]

missing relevant material that could be asked in an exam that are not on your notes.

Pehaps, but how much of a typical exam consists of such items? In my experience (I'm an M4) the vast majority of material on exams is relatively basic to each subject. I'd personally rather know the material for 98% of the exam cold then fret about the 2% that is secretly handed out by the prof. Virtually all professors are not out there to trick us, but to try and shovel the most important concepts into all of our heads.

As for me, I was a faithful class attender for the first 6 months of M1 year. I even got grumpy at the folks who would skip anatomy lecture. Some of this might have been due to the fact that they were consistently killing me on the exams.

In retrospect my attempts to go to class now seem silly. I have figured out that after 4 hours of lecture I am virtually braindead. My typical daily schedule was to get to class at 8 AM, sit there until noon, get lunch and head to the library for hours of tiresome, ineffective studying. I can't stress this enough: four hours of lecture made me feel like someone had poured maple syrup into my braincase. Factoring in dinner, exercise, etc. there wasn't much left of each day. I don't know how I survived the daily grind of misery, which is really what it felt like.

The solution came when I joined a cadre of classmates who had decided to follow their own schedules. My new approach was to hit the gym at 7 AM, then shower and head to the library (usually by 8:30-9:00). We'd meet up and study all morning, then grab lunch and continue into the afternoon/evening, depending on the proximity to the next exam. I found that 2-3 hours of studying in the morning left me feeling downright refreshed and ready to seize the day compared to 4 hours of mind-numbing lecture. I also suddenly had bags of time in the evenings to enjoy. My quality of life shot up, my grades went up considerably, and I was a happy camper.

Among my cadre, one just missed AOA by a hair, and one is going into urology after rocking his grades/clincials and the USMLE. I was somewhere in the second quartile after M2 year, did well on my Step 1 and now I've got interviews pending from Yale, Emory and UNC. Granted, I have a PhD and I'm going into pathology, but I certainly didn't hurt myself by not sitting in the lecture hall for hundreds of useless hours.

I realize that people who skip lecture may be seen as slackers, and perhaps that is where the disconnect comes from on this topic. I certainly would have been a slacker and done poorly had I not used my time wisely, but I was faithfully at the library almost every day learning according to what works for me.

Just my two cents...

 

[OrthoFixation]

Thanks for the input, all of you non-class attending slackers. I don't know where I'll land, but next year as MS1 may put me in your shoes. At least experimentation is an option. I don't understand why some schools have mandatory attendance policies.

 

[azzarah]

sometimes (usually a few days before exams) I go to class with earplugs and sit in the back of the lecture hall and do my own studying. That way whenever they're giving out hints, I can look up, take my ear plugs out and put a big "star" on my notes. Best of both worlds....

 

[azzarah]

Some people just want to PASS. Why inefficiently waste time in class if you could be at home/the library/whatever, actually LEARNING something?

To the OP, have you tried concept mapping? If you are an active learner, you may need to be DOING something besides just sitting there rereading (or hearing) the same stuff over and over again. Try drawing your notes out. Connect topics with lines. I did this for histo and it worked great. (I wish I had learned this before Biochem and Anatomy, but now I know!)

Can you tell me a little more about concept mapping? I am a visual learner also and this seems to be a useful technique....Thanks! 🙂

 

[SaltySqueegee]

sometimes (usually a few days before exams) I go to class with earplugs and sit in the back of the lecture hall and do my own studying. That way whenever they're giving out hints, I can look up, take my ear plugs out and put a big "star" on my notes. Best of both worlds....

Replace earplugs with headphones and you have me. And yes, the big "star" method works well.

-Salty

 

[omarsaleh66]

I skipped class my first year and I was able to honor classes but it was alot harder and time consuming to honor classes when skipping class. When I started going to class, i was able to go out alot more and still honor by studying less.

I think its only worth skipping class if u have a note service and the powerpoints, if u decide to do it. AND i would try not to skip some of the more important classes like phys, pharm or path. BUt i just wanted to say, that I;ve done both, its alot easier to make A's by going to class for me. Whne I home school, I get alot lazier. Going to class atleast gives u a schedule so u dont slack off. Atleast if u go to class u know u will get up by 8AM instead of 2 PM hahah!!!

If u are not getting anything out of class, i would try some things if u arent doing it already.

Like sit in the front (this will help u focus and not be distracted)

Dont take notes, - just sit and listen. When u take notes for 5-6 hours everyday, it sucks; just sit back, get some popcorn and watch the dude talk like its a movie

Going to class, and just learning the lecture notes, and powerpoints, old tests and filling in the holes with review books ( NO TEXTBOOKS!!!) should help u get the A's !!!

 

[SaltySqueegee]

Like sit in the front (this will help u focus and not be distracted)

Hahaha.... oh you're serious...

sorry... I'm still distracted, and can fall asleep if I'm in the front. It makes for more of an embarrassing experience, than if you were at the library or the back of the class.

 

[Blake]

Hahaha.... oh you're serious...

sorry... I'm still distracted, and can fall asleep if I'm in the front. It makes for more of an embarrassing experience, than if you were at the library or the back of the class.

The front is for gunners. The back is for self-proclaimed geniuses. I'm in the middle 😛

 

[MeowMix]

I skip a lot of lectures and study at home using the online powerpoints and the MP3 lecture recordings (only after I have worked through the material once).

I am not honoring anything, but I am passing my classes, and I am quite proud of that since I have near-zero background in bio of any kind.

Besides, most of the standard texts are now in their nth edition and are very well written -- and certainly better than most profs' lectures.

this is a brilliant post and I agree - especially with this sentence.

Your faculty member has spent a few hours (on average) putting together his/her powerpoints. If you are lucky, he/she has some idea of the most effective way to teach a particular concept, rather than just presenting it the way he/she thinks about it. If you want bad teaching, try human embryology taught by an expert on drosophila development.

A good textbook has clear, logical explanations accompanied by good illustrations and (if you are very lucky) great CD-ROM activities. The wording and figures have been carefully chosen for clarity and usefulness. For example, the Campbell and Reece Biology text is a gem, and I go back to it when we start a confusing new subject. Then I go on to Alberts for cell/molecular type stuff (much, much better than Lodish, which more closely resembles your average faculty member's teaching).

We have a few very good faculty members, and their lectures are worth attending. Not because they say something that might be on the exam, but because they explain the material more clearly and logically than the textbook does, and you leave class feeling that you understood the topic.

 

[Bad Mojo]

Ultimately, it comes down to whatever works best for the individual. Some get more out of class than others, but you've got to choose for yourself. It took all of 4 weeks of first year to make me realize that class attendance wasn't the most helpful thing for me. I feel more productive hitting the library all morning as opposed to sitting in class. It was hard, though, abandoning my spot in the 'self-proclaimed genius' section...

 

[novacek88]

Pehaps, but how much of a typical exam consists of such items? In my experience (I'm an M4) the vast majority of material on exams is relatively basic to each subject. I'd personally rather know the material for 98% of the exam cold then fret about the 2% that is secretly handed out by the prof. Virtually all professors are not out there to trick us, but to try and shovel the most important concepts into all of our heads.

As for me, I was a faithful class attender for the first 6 months of M1 year. I even got grumpy at the folks who would skip anatomy lecture. Some of this might have been due to the fact that they were consistently killing me on the exams.

In retrospect my attempts to go to class now seem silly. I have figured out that after 4 hours of lecture I am virtually braindead. My typical daily schedule was to get to class at 8 AM, sit there until noon, get lunch and head to the library for hours of tiresome, ineffective studying. I can't stress this enough: four hours of lecture made me feel like someone had poured maple syrup into my braincase. Factoring in dinner, exercise, etc. there wasn't much left of each day. I don't know how I survived the daily grind of misery, which is really what it felt like.

The solution came when I joined a cadre of classmates who had decided to follow their own schedules. My new approach was to hit the gym at 7 AM, then shower and head to the library (usually by 8:30-9:00). We'd meet up and study all morning, then grab lunch and continue into the afternoon/evening, depending on the proximity to the next exam. I found that 2-3 hours of studying in the morning left me feeling downright refreshed and ready to seize the day compared to 4 hours of mind-numbing lecture. I also suddenly had bags of time in the evenings to enjoy. My quality of life shot up, my grades went up considerably, and I was a happy camper.

Among my cadre, one just missed AOA by a hair, and one is going into urology after rocking his grades/clincials and the USMLE. I was somewhere in the second quartile after M2 year, did well on my Step 1 and now I've got interviews pending from Yale, Emory and UNC. Granted, I have a PhD and I'm going into pathology, but I certainly didn't hurt myself by not sitting in the lecture hall for hundreds of useless hours.

I realize that people who skip lecture may be seen as slackers, and perhaps that is where the disconnect comes from on this topic. I certainly would have been a slacker and done poorly had I not used my time wisely, but I was faithfully at the library almost every day learning according to what works for me.

Just my two cents...

This was my story exactly. I was scared of missing that 2% the profs shell out. But then reality and common sense struck me. I was getting C's and D's because I couldn't study when I got home. I was braindead after sitting in class from 8-5. So I said it fruck it and decided to use that valuable 8-5 time to study on my own in the library. I was diligent and active. My grades shot up to the low 90's range. Sure, I probably missed some of the gems the profs decided to give but so what. I was getting C's before. Who cares if you miss 2% of the lecture if it means that you are wasting 7 hours out of your day that you could better apply toward studying. Not only that, I wasn't as tired and much happier. I had a lot more freedom but you have to be self disciplined when you are away from class.

 

[supercut]

I'm a visual learner, with a strong kinesthetic component. I learn best by acutally making drawings, concept maps and that sort of thing. I found that, for example, for anatomy, I'd have to draw a schematic over and over until I could draw it without even thinking about it. For me, it was the ACT of DRAWING that made me learn, not the physical drawing I produced. ONly once I could get to the point where it almost seemed like my hand drew it all by itself did I know the material. Then I would simply draw that on my exam scrap paper, and I'd have all the answers right in front of my. Got C on my first anataomy exam before I figured that out. Shot up to a very high A on my second exam

Active learning is much more effective than passive learning. Being lectured at isn't very active.

Going to lecture isn't for everybody. I wish I has spent less time in lecture during med school. I think the key is selective skipping. Go to the lectures for the first week or so of each new class. Some may be worth it. But don't feel bad if you ditch classes that don't make use of your time. In fact, you may be better off in the long run because both your clinical years and residency require you to be much more independent in your learning and there aren't many lectures.

what you are paying for in med school is the opportunity to earn your MD. How you choose to use the resources made available to you via your tuition is up to you.

There's a great resource available for students who are struggling. Do a google search for "success types for medical students" it's web site that give study tips, and a bood is availabe from that site that gives more tips (including concept mapping). A professor at Texas Tech writes the book.

Hang in there y'all...soon you'll be residents and this will all be behind you

 

[Long Dong]

I think it also depends on what kind of curiculum you have. At my school we only have 2 hours of lecture a day from 10-12. They've cut out alot of minutia and give us the essientals, and on top of that I refuse to buy or read any of the required text. So going to lecture is very important to me, and I fill in any holes with a good review book. There is a girl who types up lecture notes for our class and a guy who records them on mp3 and post them on our class website, but I just use these as a back up for the times I do fall asleep in class.

Moral of the story go to a school that is Pass/Fail and has only 2 hours of lecuter a day so you won't stress out about attending every lecture. If you do miss a lecture the enviroment is so cooperative that you can get lecture notes for free or listen to them on mp3 while following along with the power points. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about Honors or As in the first 2 years.

If I had to sit in lecuter 7-8 hours a day, believe you me, I would just skip them too. 😀

 

[Raidergate]

I go to school at Texas Tech, and the book Dr. Pelley wrote is great. I had no idea how to organize all the material in our notes, especially anatomy and histo, especially conisidering anatomy has no notes just "objectives" for the day (basically a list of structures that isn't complete). Histo is just page after page of listed facts, and if I didn't use Dr. Pelley's bubble diagramming method, there's no way I'd be able to keep it organized. He's a great teacher, too. In fact, he's the only biochem or histo teacher that I'll go listen to in lecture. Plus, during orientation, we had about 4 two hour seminars on how to use his concept mapping style of learning.

Get his book. It will help you figure out which style of learning best suits you, and allow you to cut down on the amount of time you have to study. Instead of passively reading the same line of material over and over, you can organize it to fit your personal learning style.

His methods work so well, he's gone at least once a week or two to visit other medical schools around the country to teach their professors his methods. If all the bigwigs from up in the northeast are willing to listen to some "redneck" from out in West Texas, something must be working.

 

[franklinthedog]

Just like Twinklz (sad to say I'm not sure who they are) I go to UNC, and I HATE HATE HATE going to class. It is stressful skipping because you feel like you may miss something, but every damn time it comes around to test time I don't even look at my notes. We have everything online, a general powerpoint slide with accompanying Adobe text. Class is such a waste of time UNLESS you learn by listening. I don't, I need to sit down by myself and study. So I'm with most of you, skip class, sleep 8 hours, and you'll do fine.

I wrestled with this internal debate for weeks, but I'm becoming more and more of a skipper and happier in the process. Plus, at UNC, we often don't get done with class tikl 5 in the afternoon, and your brain is fried plus your body is fat and slothlike from sitting all day.

Just my .02$

 

[care bear]

Just like Twinklz (sad to say I'm not sure who they are) I go to UNC, and I HATE HATE HATE going to class. It is stressful skipping because you feel like you may miss something, but every damn time it comes around to test time I don't even look at my notes. We have everything online, a general powerpoint slide with accompanying Adobe text. Class is such a waste of time UNLESS you learn by listening. I don't, I need to sit down by myself and study. So I'm with most of you, skip class, sleep 8 hours, and you'll do fine.

I wrestled with this internal debate for weeks, but I'm becoming more and more of a skipper and happier in the process. Plus, at UNC, we often don't get done with class tikl 5 in the afternoon, and your brain is fried plus your body is fat and slothlike from sitting all day.

Just my .02$

i am sooo excited and mad about the 'new proposal' to reduce class time and do the block thing. excited b/c i think it'll be great! mad b/c i wish our class could go through 1st year that way. 🙂

 

[esposo]

I go to school at Texas Tech, and the book Dr. Pelley wrote is great. I had no idea how to organize all the material in our notes, especially anatomy and histo, especially conisidering anatomy has no notes just "objectives" for the day (basically a list of structures that isn't complete). Histo is just page after page of listed facts, and if I didn't use Dr. Pelley's bubble diagramming method, there's no way I'd be able to keep it organized. He's a great teacher, too. In fact, he's the only biochem or histo teacher that I'll go listen to in lecture. Plus, during orientation, we had about 4 two hour seminars on how to use his concept mapping style of learning.

Get his book. It will help you figure out which style of learning best suits you, and allow you to cut down on the amount of time you have to study. Instead of passively reading the same line of material over and over, you can organize it to fit your personal learning style.

His methods work so well, he's gone at least once a week or two to visit other medical schools around the country to teach their professors his methods. If all the bigwigs from up in the northeast are willing to listen to some "redneck" from out in West Texas, something must be working.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt but I can't say that I'm doubtful of his methods. Bubbling sounds like too much extra work. It reminds me of all those "cute" study techniques in the early 90's that made you use colored pencils and the like. But I have found these type of study techniques to be a gimic for the most part. They tend to be highly impractical. I mean who has time to bubble and make tons of drawings for anatomy? It doesn't sound practical at all. But I'm willing to check out the book anyway.