M2's whats your guys daily study schedule look like? Tips for preventing burnout?

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4thtimeretaker

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For me its usually wake up around 9/10.
9-12 ANKI
12-5 Knock out school's new lectures for the day (we have 2 exams per week)
5-6 Take a break to eat and get fresh air
6-11 Review lectures for exams coming up that week
11-12 Break to eat dinner
12-2 Practice Questions + Try to review M1 topics

Recently I've found myself getting kind of burnt out from just staying in and studying all day.

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For me its usually wake up around 9/10.
9-12 ANKI
12-5 Knock out school's new lectures for the day (we have 2 exams per week)
5-6 Take a break to eat and get fresh air
6-11 Review lectures for exams coming up that week
11-12 Break to eat dinner
12-2 Practice Questions + Try to review M1 topics

Recently I've found myself getting kind of burnt out from just staying in and studying all day.

You’re studying from 9am until 2am every day? You’re on the express lane to burnout, my friend. You need to reign that in big time.
 
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Realistically

7-10 Anki
10-11 Chillin on youtube, not doing school stuff
11-1 School Stuff
1-3 Research
3-5 Studying relevant stuff
5-7 Questions
7-11 Chillin, BS'ing
 
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Non-Exam Week:
9-10 Coffee and walk
10-11 Emails/Research
11-12 Lectures
12-1 Lunch
1-3 Lectures
3-7 Anki/Sketchy/Bab/Pathoma
7-8 Dinner
9-11 Anki/Netflix/Reddit

Exam Week:
9-10 Coffee and walk
10-4 Q-banks with breaks for emails/research/eating
4-6 Anki
6-7 Dinner
7-11 Q-banks/Anki/Netflix

Mind you this is all punctuated with Reddit, YouTube watching, laying on my bed, petting my dog and wandering my house. Sometimes I wonder if I ever really study or if I just do q-banks and Anki. I definitely never study before 9am or after 11pm.
 
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2 hours Anki a day max. Decent amount of video games. A few hours of EC stuff. Recently started dabbling in Qbanks.

Exam weeks I ramp it up a bit, but so far so good.
 
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my ideal schedule on a day with little to no mandatories goes something like:

8-9: reviews
9-11:30/12: BnB, sketchy, Pathoma and corresponding new Anki cards for that days lectures
12-1: lunch with netflix/YouTube/reddit
1-2: watch in house lectures for that day that weren't covered well in BnB/pathoma
2-4: research
4-5: review of M1 stuff for step

mandatories will mess that up and delay things. most weekends I only really do my reviews and work on research. if its weekend before a Monday exam ill be doing practice questions and reviews for a couple hours. I adhere to my schedule as close to religiously as possible for wellness etc. I truly can't stand the thought of studying until 9 or 10pm
 
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How the F are you guys like barely studying? I guess you do get a whole lot better at the process as time goes on, huh?
 
Wakeup whenever.
Breakfast and emails.
Anki reviews in intervals (so takes 3 hours with small breaks between bunches if cards)
Lunch
Sketchy Pathoma B&B vids
Anki new cards
Practice questions if I feel like it

Probably 6-8 hours study time every day
 
How the F are you guys like barely studying? I guess you do get a whole lot better at the process as time goes on, huh?

Yeah, something like that. Ignoring lectures helps a lot.
 
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When I do anki depends on if we have anything mando. But up until this last block, generally something like this:

0800-0830: breakfast
0830-1030: anki reviews and new cards
1030-1100: skim lecture slides to make sure I’m not missing something crazy from school
1100-1130: lunch
1130-1500: BnB, questions, research

Now we are in the last block before rotations start and we have a lot of mandatory stuff so my day to day is different basically everyday. I just fit in anki and BnB whenever. I cram research into any opening I can.
 
How the F are you guys like barely studying? I guess you do get a whole lot better at the process as time goes on, huh?

It's also a balance. Your mental and physical health isn't worth sacrificing for good grades, I learned that the hard way.

If you can shave off an hour or two a day to do stuff you like and take care of yourself, then you should consider doing so.

Hey, maybe i'll have time for myself as an MS3/4
Turns into
Hey, maybe i'll have time for myself as an Intern
Turns into
Hey, maybe i'll have time for myself as a Resident
Turns into
Hey, maybe i'll have time for myself as an Attending.

It's good to invest in your future, but don't sacrifice all of your present for it.
 
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Just to add to all the above..

6:30 - Wake up
7:00 - Actually get up; shower, make coffee/breakfast, etc.
8:00-10:00 - Anki reviews
10:00-12:00 - B&B/Pathoma/Sketchy
12:00-1:00 - Lunch
1:00-6:00 - More B&B/Pathoma
6:00-7:00 - Dinner with my wife
7:00-9:00 - New Anki cards from today's B&B/Pathoma/Sketchy videos
9:00-11:00 - Relax with my wife
11:00 - Bed
 
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How the F are you guys like barely studying? I guess you do get a whole lot better at the process as time goes on, huh?

Mainly efficiency, and my goal was to be 1SD above the mean not shooting for a perfect score.
 
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7-11/12 ANKI
12-5 b/beyond, sketchy, pathoma, practice questions, etc.

Chill the rest of the day.
 
Yeah, something like that. Ignoring lectures helps a lot.
I gotcha. I’m only like 10-ish weeks in, so I’m still paranoid and watch lectures (at 2x). But anki is literally the only reason I’m doing okay, so I need to just drop lectures...
 
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Wake up 7
get out of bed 7:15-7:30
Chill / random stuff 7:30-8
Anki reviews 8-10:30
Break / breakfast 10:30-11
11-12/1 new Anki
12-2 study new material
2-3 lunch
3-5/6 more study
6-10 chill / eat / workout
11 sleep
 
I gotcha. I’m only like 10-ish weeks in, so I’m still paranoid and watch lectures (at 2x). But anki is literally the only reason I’m doing okay, so I need to just drop lectures...

If you're afraid to do it all at once, you can stop watching and just read the slides. Then you can eventually skip the slides all together. For insurance, you can look for some high yield notes from a classmate or something.
 
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Come to the dark side.
If you're afraid to do it all at once, you can stop watching and just read the slides. Then you can eventually skip the slides all together. For insurance, you can look for some high yield notes from a classmate or something.
Thanks guys! Hope you’re both doing well :) (also sorry for hijacking)
 
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If you're afraid to do it all at once, you can stop watching and just read the slides. Then you can eventually skip the slides all together. For insurance, you can look for some high yield notes from a classmate or something.

If I skipped the slides at my school I would have failed several exams.
 
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Thanks guys! Hope you’re both doing well :) (also sorry for hijacking)

No worries. Yeah, I'm doing okay, thanks for asking. Hope M1 hasn't been too crazy for you
 
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If I skipped the slides at my school I would have failed several exams.

Man, that sucks donkey legs. Like I've said previously, success with skipping lectures can vary based on school, year, and even block, so be careful, lol
 
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If you're afraid to do it all at once, you can stop watching and just read the slides. Then you can eventually skip the slides all together. For insurance, you can look for some high yield notes from a classmate or something.
Exactly this. I realized I wasn't gaining anything from listening to lectures because I was just doing Anki cards I made from the slides. Stopped watching lectures. Test performance was identical. 2nd year I made the leap to just doing Anki and skimming lectures. Same thing. Just see what works for you
 
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Man, that sucks donkey legs. Like I've said previously, success with skipping lectures can vary based on school, year, and even block, so be careful, lol

Yeah, I don’t watch lecture at all. I just skim the slides. But we focus on a unique patient population that has a much higher prevalence for certain things that are not very high yield for step lol. A full like 15-20% of our faculty neuro midterm was TBI lol. Gotta make sure I’m not missing stuff like that.

It doesn’t take too long to skim the slides to make sure they aren’t foot stomping certain things. But yeah. Skip the lectures. 1000%.
 
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I gotcha. I’m only like 10-ish weeks in, so I’m still paranoid and watch lectures (at 2x). But anki is literally the only reason I’m doing okay, so I need to just drop lectures...

Also an M1 and I took the plunge recently. I’d recommend getting comfortable with the idea of doing poorly on one exam or quiz for the sake of seeing how you do with just Anki + skimming your school lectures.

Once you’ve gotten a background in the material through Anki (or whatever other resources you’re using), the school lectures will almost certainly be a breeze to read through. Anything the school emphasizes, that you’re missing, will be obvious.
 
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Yeah, I don’t watch lecture at all. I just skim the slides. But we focus on a unique patient population that has a much higher prevalence for certain things that are not very high yield for step lol. A full like 15-20% of our faculty neuro midterm was TBI lol. Gotta make sure I’m not missing stuff like that.

It doesn’t take too long to skim the slides to make sure they aren’t foot stomping certain things. But yeah. Skip the lectures. 1000%.

Yeah, I remember you saying that you don't watch lectures at all. When I said skip lectures, I really meant completely ignoring all school material.
 
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Yeah, I remember you saying that you don't watch lectures at all. When I said skip lectures, I really meant completely ignoring all school material.

Yeah I spend maybe like 2 hours total before each exam looking at school lecture slides. So I think I do like almost the absolute minimum use of school stuff haha.
 
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with this newest block I am, sadly, mostly stuck watching in house lectures since exams are full of tiny details. my days vary a lot but most of the time, when there’s no mandatory afternoon stuff:


9am: wake up, coffee, breakfast
9:30-11am: anki review
11-1pm: review lectures
1-2pm: lunch and netflix
2-4pm: more lecture
4-5pm: work out
5-6pm: shower
6-7:30pm: finish lecture and new anki cards

then dinner and spend time with my bf who gets off work around that time. lots of phone time sprinkled in there too lol.
 
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