If I gave you 5 hours to study...

[Yadster101]

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What would you consider to be an exceptional, an average, and a poor use of that time? For me it'd be:

Exceptional: Stay focused for 95% of the time (15 min break total) and learn 3 biochem lectures from scratch.

Average: Stay focused for 80% of the time (45 min break total) and learn 2 biochem lectures from scratch.

Poor: Stay focused for less than 80% of the time and cover the contents of 1 biochem lecture.

My example is for biochem which is covered in ~3 months.

Could you guys give an example of different classes and how much content you'd need to cover to be exceptional, average, or poor?

 

[JamaicanHerb]

i would masturbate for 4 and watch tv with 42 minutes and study for 13.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I don't think I'm quite understanding what you're asking. Is this all the studying you're doing for biochem?

 

[Redpancreas]

What would you consider to be an exceptional, an average, and a poor use of that time? For me it'd be:

Exceptional: Stay focused for 95% of the time (15 min break total) and learn 3 biochem lectures from scratch.

Average: Stay focused for 80% of the time (45 min break total) and learn 2 biochem lectures from scratch.

Poor: Stay focused for less than 80% of the time and cover the contents of 1 biochem lecture.

My example is for biochem which is covered in ~3 months.

Could you guys give an example of different classes and how much content you'd need to cover to be exceptional, average, or poor?

Jeez, much closer to JamaicanHerb than what you're suggesting and I'm neither smart nor am I quick at studying and I get along ok.


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[sliceofbread136]

5 hours for 3 biochem lectures???? That's ridiculous

 

[Mr. Beefy Lion]

5 hours for 3 biochem lectures???? That's ridiculous

As in too much or too little time?

 

[Yadster101]

5 hours for 3 biochem lectures???? That's ridiculous

I assume you mean its too much? If I've never seen the lecture before it takes me: 1.5 hrs to slowly go through my first pass and learn everything and then 30 minutes to do practice questions + an additional 15 min to add in more details. So thats 2 hrs 15 mins per lecture. How long does it take you? Would your answer be any different if the class was anatomy or physio?

 

[Elessar]

1. Watch 1 hr lecture at 2x speed, while pausing to make Anki cards. Ends up taking slightly less time than watching the lecture at normal speed. ~ 2 hours total for 3 lectures
2. Go through those Anki cards. ~1 hour total (20 minutes/lecture)
3. Review due Anki cards. ~ 1 hr total (3.7 cards/minute)
4. Don't need a 5th hour...

 

[Furan]

5 hours for 3 lectures seems like a lot, especially for one day. I definitely spend at least 2 hours per lecture, but I think spacing it out works better.

Sticking with the scenario, I'd spend the first hour scanning all the slides and getting a general big picture overview. Then I'd watch each lecture at 2x, stopping for unclear points -- roughly 40 minutes per lecture (2 hours total). I'd spend at least 50 minutes of break time (10 minutes every hour), and the remaining ~hour reviewing material from the previous day.

I've found that trying to memorize details the first time you see the material ends up being a massive waste of time. Focus on understanding it first, then the minutiae when it's time to study for the exam.

 

[Yadster101]

1. Watch 1 hr lecture at 2x speed, while pausing to make Anki cards. Ends up taking slightly less time than watching the lecture at normal speed. ~ 2 hours total for 3 lectures
2. Go through those Anki cards. ~1 hour total (20 minutes/lecture)
3. Review due Anki cards. ~ 1 hr total (3.7 cards/minute)
4. Don't need a 5th hour...
View attachment 209418

The thing I don't get about this is doesn't it also take you sometime to actually understand a biochem rxn, physiology concept, cellular process, etc.? Even though I don't use anki my process is pretty similar to yours except that I have an additional step to actually understand what I'm looking at. So for me its:

1. Watch 1 hr lecture at 2x, while pausing to take notes. 2.5 hrs for 3 lectures
2. Go through the lecture and actually try to understand concepts which takes >1 hr/lecture
3. Review notes ~1.5 hrs total.

Can you teach me how to go straight from listening to the lecture/making cards to Step #2 (going through anki cards)? How can I skip the intermediate step (understanding stuff) which takes the greatest amount of time?

 

[Redpancreas]

@Yadster101

I wasted a huge amount of time trying to make Anki work for me during second year. If it doesn't click for you within a week, my advice would be to just use Brosephelon for Step 1 (it's no longer on Reddit, just search for USMLE Step 1 and it's the largest one on shared anki decks). if you're interested.... and JUST READ the course pack note continually. Try to recall more each time you read the notes and quiz yourself. For biochem and anatomy insertions/etc. just make manual flashcards and throw them away later. Unless ANKI is a system that you've found consistently works for you I wouldn't try to waste more than a week trying to force it to work for you. This isn't said enough on these forums but doing well whether it's in class, on steps, on shelves, or future exams isn't a CLEAN/simple/organized process. The simplicity of converting all the material into ANKI and reviewing may seem appealing until you have to do it. Also, each day of lectures is usually different. Some days may work for ANKI (if all you're doing is learning vocab or Pharm), but others don't. Just wanted to say that.

For those of you who somehow just use ANKI and get along fine, fair enough, but I definitely suspect that you would have done well by reading the course notes as well and ANKI may be causing you to use more time.

 

[Elessar]

The thing I don't get about this is doesn't it also take you sometime to actually understand a biochem rxn, physiology concept, cellular process, etc.?

Can you teach me how to go straight from listening to the lecture/making cards to Step #2 (going through anki cards)? How can I skip the intermediate step (understanding stuff) which takes the greatest amount of time?

Two things:

1. You have to realize that knowledge/understanding is made up of a collection of facts. At least for me personally, it doesn't take nearly as long to understand the big picture concepts.

2. The "extra" section in Anki is perfect for seeing how some discrete fact fits into the bigger picture. I almost exclusively use cloze/image occlusion, then put a lecture slide or screenshot of a figure into that "extra" section. That way I can test myself on some fact, then look at the bigger picture to help synthesize everything in my head.

 

[njtrimed]

Three months? We had five weeks!

 

[sliceofbread136]

I assume you mean its too much? If I've never seen the lecture before it takes me: 1.5 hrs to slowly go through my first pass and learn everything and then 30 minutes to do practice questions + an additional 15 min to add in more details. So thats 2 hrs 15 mins per lecture. How long does it take you? Would your answer be any different if the class was anatomy or physio?

Yes that is too much time per lecture. Answer would not be any different for any medical school class.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Jesus you guys are fast...a 1 hour anatomy lecture takes me ~3 hours to get through on double speed if I stop to take notes

Maybe biochem is a different beast though

 

[Azete]

Jesus you guys are fast...a 1 hour anatomy lecture takes me ~3 hours to get through on double speed if I stop to take notes

Maybe biochem is a different beast though

Anatomy is a different animal, I probably spent 3 hours per anatomy lecture to memorize everything I needed to. More than that if you include review periods. Everything else you should not be spending anywhere close to that per lecture, it's just not an efficient use of your time.

 

[Redpancreas]

i would masturbate for 4 and watch tv with 42 minutes and study for 13.

Bro, what about those last 5 minutes tho?

 

[JamaicanHerb]

Bro, what about those last 5 minutes tho?

a man needs a break.

 

[niko327]

1 hour lecture = 3 hours of review for mastery. Alternative is to watch the Great Dr. Najeeb once for any discrete topic (though a two hour med school lecture is a 6 hour seminar by Dr. Najeeb, so the amount of time invested is the same) Personally, I'd spend my free 5 hours watching Dr. N so that I could master the material with a single pass.