possible to work 10 hrs / week during SMP and get 4.0?

[common man]

this is more of a thread about time management. i'm thinking about doing Drexel IMS and teaching an evening biology class once a week Sept - Dec. the class is 3 hrs but i'll add 7 hrs time for prep, grading, extra help, etc.

reasons against: i'm probably going to have 3x more workload than i ever did in my life. this is do or die. i can't half ass it. i need As. i'm aiming for a 4.0 in the program (and hoping to land a 3.7 instead). reasons for: is my schedule so bad that i can't spare 10 hrs / week? won't some outside activity refresh me?

60 hrs = studying 6 days
55 hrs = 8 hrs sleep each day
15 hrs = class every week
8 hrs = commuting
10 hrs = part time teaching job
15 = 2 hrs / day of exercise
15 = waste such as eating, bathroom, checking e-mail etc. that you KNOW has to happen.

total: 178. there's only 168 hrs in a week. i'm over by 10 hrs! aaaargh. what am i doing wrong here? do i really need to study 60 hrs / week to get a 4.0 SMP GPA? i am average intelligence wanting way above average grades :/

med students have more workload but they aren't gunning for 4.0 in preclinical so they can get away with less work. some of the other SMP students who do a lot of volunteering / shadowing are probably very smart (38 MCAT etc.)

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[plasmamorris]

This is a fundamentally flawed way of thinking that a lot of students who are about to enter SMPs get into. The idea that 60+hrs a week = 4.0 is absolutely false.

The secret to a 4.0 is not only studying hard, but studying efficiently and intelligently. You'll find that you may not need as much time if you're studying intelligently. This encompasses constantly reviewing material little by little everyday, exposing weaknesses and working on those weaknesses, and studying with true focus (this is huge for SMP students). Focus is really important because if you're studying 60+ hrs but you're checking facebook every 10 minutes, you're not really studying for 60+ hrs.

As for time management - having a routine really helps during an SMP year. I did generally the same thing everyday for a year and got grades that I hadn't achieved over four years of undergrad. If you work certain items into your routine (ie. teaching a class, going to the gym) - they don't seem to be as huge of a hurdle/distraction as you may think. The key is simply building a schedule with these items in mind.

Finally, schedules and routine are great - but you ultimately have to be really flexible during an SMP year. Unexpected things come up, studying may take longer for certain concepts, exam weeks are really going to mess with your schedule. It's tough - but being flexible goes a long way towards stabilizing everything.

Best of luck in your SMP.

 

[common man]

i'm guessing that for my SMP there will be a lot of volume AND i'll be responsible for the little details (to get that 4.0). that's a lot of stuff to memorize. just going through the notes, making up mnemonic stories and flashcards will take up time. then i'll keep forgetting some little details and need to repeat looking at the notes a million times to hope that during the exam I don't mix it up. I assume the latter part - repeating and constantly reviewing is why i'll have to spend a lot of time. if it was just conceptual learning then it would take a lot less time because once you got the concept, you got it.

 

[Adnap]

Quite frankly, if you need a SMP to begin with, you shouldn't be chancing anything and you especially shouldn't be doing anything else besides studying that year. Working will tire you out for more than the 10 hours/week. My recommendation is to just focus on school and don't take it for granted. 60 hours/week is probably the bare minimum that you need to study to survive the program...depending on which one you're enrolling in.

I do agree with the previous poster, it's not only how much you study, but also how effectively you study.

 

[common man]

60 hours/week is probably the bare minimum that you need to study to survive the program...depending on which one you're enrolling in.

that's a pretty bold statement. i'm enrolling in the Drexel IMS program where I take 6 medical school classes.

thank you. I appreciate your honesty.

 

[chayo234]

Those numbers are considering flawless transitions, which is never the case. You'll always bump into a friend to chat, you'll always stay after class sometimes to talk to professors, and thousands of other small nuances will chip away at that perfect schedule you make at the beginning of the year. 15 hrs/week wasting? It's probably 15 hrs/week just eating.

I had to study 10+ hrs minimum per day including class times during my time at the SMP and I literally was a hermit the first semester. Things became easier once I adjusted to the medical school load the second semester but it wouldn't have happened if I didn't prepare myself for the insane volume load before. The method of studying has to be fundamentally different than undergrad.

I wouldn't risk teaching the bio class if you have never been on such a tight schedule before. Would also be against it if this is your first time teaching the class, which makes preparation time monumentally higher. However, this schedule would be doable if you lived at home and you had your parents do all the meanial labor while living as a hermit but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm having an amazing time learning in my SMP and being surrounded by people with similar goals.

 

[Niurb]

.

 

[survivordo]

Others make good points above. My thought is this: why risk it?? Yes, teaching this bio course will add to your application BUT the downside is if you do poorly in your SMP you have SHOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT. This is your chance to show you can succeed in medical school! Don't risk it.

Survivor DO

 

[Adnap]

that's a pretty bold statement. i'm enrolling in the Drexel IMS program where I take 6 medical school classes.

thank you. I appreciate your honesty.

No problem. Go into your SMP program expecting the worse. If you find that you can handle it well and get a 4.0, more power to you. You don't want to go in expecting to be able to handle it and then finding that you can't.

You'll be compared to your classmates who are not going to do anything else except study. It doesn't matter if you get a 3.7 in the program 20 other people got a 4.0 and they're only taking 20 from the program.

Good luck.

 

[loltopsy]

I did the Drexel IMS program. First semester, do not do anything but study. I promise you, you will regret it. It doesn't come down to just hours invested. If you're tired from working and classes, you're going to get raped when it's time to study. Efficient and effective studying > 23 hours a day of studying. You will be inefficient early in the program.

Once you figure things out, work in the second semester. Grades matter less then anyway. First semester grades are far too important to let anything mess with it.

I worked and studied way less than you are apparently planning on doing. It's not as easy as it sounds on paper. When you go from having studied relatively little to studying even 4 hours a day up to 10 hours a day prior to exams, you get headaches. My brain needed to be broken in before I could invest those sorts of hours and not get headaches that prevented studying.

You're talking like a typical overexcited student who is going to bite off more than they can chew and drown horrible in classes. A 4.0 in IMS is very difficult. You have to go full gunner for every single point.

 

[elusiveCHILD]

This is a fundamentally flawed way of thinking that a lot of students who are about to enter SMPs get into. The idea that 60+hrs a week = 4.0 is absolutely false.

The secret to a 4.0 is not only studying hard, but studying efficiently and intelligently. You'll find that you may not need as much time if you're studying intelligently. This encompasses constantly reviewing material little by little everyday, exposing weaknesses and working on those weaknesses, and studying with true focus (this is huge for SMP students). Focus is really important because if you're studying 60+ hrs but you're checking facebook every 10 minutes, you're not really studying for 60+ hrs.

As for time management - having a routine really helps during an SMP year. I did generally the same thing everyday for a year and got grades that I hadn't achieved over four years of undergrad. If you work certain items into your routine (ie. teaching a class, going to the gym) - they don't seem to be as huge of a hurdle/distraction as you may think. The key is simply building a schedule with these items in mind.

Finally, schedules and routine are great - but you ultimately have to be really flexible during an SMP year. Unexpected things come up, studying may take longer for certain concepts, exam weeks are really going to mess with your schedule. It's tough - but being flexible goes a long way towards stabilizing everything.

Best of luck in your SMP.

I agree 100%, I wish I can " Thank" this comment lol.

 

[plasmamorris]

Haha I'm glad you appreciated my comments.

I'll add that I agree with what was stated by many above in that I would not risk teaching a bio course during an SMP year.

We're all anonymous people here on the internet so I have no idea what you're capable of handling or not handling. I'd like to think you're an intelligent person with something going for you because you got into an SMP. Regardless, its too important of a year to think about anything besides getting into med school. Your every effort should be towards achieving a 4.0, getting good recommendations from your faculty, and developing relationships in the community of the institution (ie. joining clubs, helping students, community service in the area). These things take quite a bit of time outside of getting a 4.0. My entire point is this - don't sweat the memorizing, you'll get it once you develop a good method for doing it. Your first priority should be to do well (getting a 4.0), but your second priority is to look good doing it (the intangibles). A hermit could get a 4.0, but if faculty/admin have never seen your face (when they probably should have) - I'm not sure that 4.0 is going to help. The bar for SMP students is astronomically high - rise to the challenge and meet it. Good time management, introspection, and a healthy lifestyle go a long way towards making that challenge easier. That's my $0.02.

 

[tomz1385]

I would not even consider it. You can cut down on a lot of things. The 10 hours of teaching, 8 hour of commuting and 15 hours of lecture - in class time can be cut down a bit.

If you don't do the teaching, you'll have less commute time. For studying, you should do focused study groups if you are able to study on your own. Commuting for me took a lot out of my day, made me tired and I took more naps because I was just lazy after driving for 1-2 hours a day.

For lecture time, you can cut it down quite a bit by watching it on 1.7-2.0x speed depending on the lecturer. On days where there is only 1-2 lectures, watch it at home and study at home to save the commute time. Have discipline. If you can't study at home, I really recommend learning to. Start now if you can, so that way when the year begins you can work through distractions. This way if your study group doesn't want to meet up, you can still study at home if you prefer study groups.

Depending on your study skills - some people study much better alone, while others study better in groups. I preferred studying alone and just meeting up once a week or less to go over anything with others. But honestly the Drexel curriculum is very well put together and everything you will need for the exam will be in the notes and lectures for most courses. You might have to wikipedia some stuff if you don't have a strong background in that specific class though.

This is true when you first start out - you will spend a lot of extra time figuring out what will work for you, especially if you haven't figured out a great system in undergrad (it was why I was in this program). It took me a little bit to get into my groove, so any extra time you spend doing something else will just hurt you more.

And the first semester is the most important one at the Drexel IMS program - I'm guessing 60% of the credits are condensed into about 3.5 months (compared to the 40% in the next 5 months). Don't do it... I've seen lots of people that have things that come up and ultimately they've had to drop or do a little bit worse than they wanted to because of things that kept adding up. Don't put more on your plate. Give that extra time for yourself to relax a bit to do your hobby (watch a little TV, sports, etc).

What I always tell incoming students is that you really only need to sacrifice about 5 months. The first semester and the 1st module of the 2nd semester have nearly the full med school workload. You aren't taking gross anatomy and genetics, but those are split up throughout the year, and I think it is more heavy towards the end anyways. You still have a bunch of random required stuff that will take your time (med and society + those large/small groups that are required + the papers you have to write). When you finish those 5 months, you can relax a bit and do the other stuff to buffer up your application. But you only get one shot at academic redemption.

 

[doctorold]

I would not even consider it. You can cut down on a lot of things. The 10 hours of teaching, 8 hour of commuting and 15 hours of lecture - in class time can be cut down a bit.

If you don't do the teaching, you'll have less commute time. For studying, you should do focused study groups if you are able to study on your own. Commuting for me took a lot out of my day, made me tired and I took more naps because I was just lazy after driving for 1-2 hours a day.

For lecture time, you can cut it down quite a bit by watching it on 1.7-2.0x speed depending on the lecturer. On days where there is only 1-2 lectures, watch it at home and study at home to save the commute time. Have discipline. If you can't study at home, I really recommend learning to. Start now if you can, so that way when the year begins you can work through distractions. This way if your study group doesn't want to meet up, you can still study at home if you prefer study groups.

Depending on your study skills - some people study much better alone, while others study better in groups. I preferred studying alone and just meeting up once a week or less to go over anything with others. But honestly the Drexel curriculum is very well put together and everything you will need for the exam will be in the notes and lectures for most courses. You might have to wikipedia some stuff if you don't have a strong background in that specific class though.

This is true when you first start out - you will spend a lot of extra time figuring out what will work for you, especially if you haven't figured out a great system in undergrad (it was why I was in this program). It took me a little bit to get into my groove, so any extra time you spend doing something else will just hurt you more.

And the first semester is the most important one at the Drexel IMS program - I'm guessing 60% of the credits are condensed into about 3.5 months (compared to the 40% in the next 5 months). Don't do it... I've seen lots of people that have things that come up and ultimately they've had to drop or do a little bit worse than they wanted to because of things that kept adding up. Don't put more on your plate. Give that extra time for yourself to relax a bit to do your hobby (watch a little TV, sports, etc).

What I always tell incoming students is that you really only need to sacrifice about 5 months. The first semester and the 1st module of the 2nd semester have nearly the full med school workload. You aren't taking gross anatomy and genetics, but those are split up throughout the year, and I think it is more heavy towards the end anyways. You still have a bunch of random required stuff that will take your time (med and society + those large/small groups that are required + the papers you have to write). When you finish those 5 months, you can relax a bit and do the other stuff to buffer up your application. But you only get one shot at academic redemption.

Very well put.

 

[common man]

OK, if I do an SMP, I will do NOTHING else. It's either the SMP or a job but not both.

However, this thread is now making me ask...just how stressful is this SMP year going to be? I don't want to rehash the same questions because IMS students have generously answered a million of mine. We've talked about grading, success rate, and the environment of the program. Now the question is, how bad is the workload? Let's look at Deuces' answer.

Though the course load is definitely worse than undergrad, it's not terrible. If you pre-read all of the lecture notes, go to class (or watch at home), and spend maybe an hour a day reviewing things, that's more than enough to keep up. I spent my train rides (~40min each way) doing my prereading and reviewing, so I rarely had to waste time reading at home. The most important thing is just making sure that EVERY bit of the module guide/syllabus gets read at least 2-3 times before your real studying starts before an exam, so that the concepts can start to gel. As for the "real" studying (making yourself a high-yield study guide, doing practice questions & back-exams, and doing last-minute memorization), I generally started looking at things about 1 day before quizzes, and 2.5 days before exams -- they say you should study for quizzes like they are exams, and study for exams like they're finals, which seemed pretty accurate to me relative to undergrad.

OK - typical day between exam blocks - 1 hr to review stuff, 2 hrs to pre-read the module notes, 3 hrs of class on average per day. Let's give me an extra 2 hrs because I didn't have a 38 MCAT like Deuces. That's 8 hrs / day of work including classes.

8 hrs / day x 7 days = 56 hours. Repeating the module is an extra 10 hours. So 70 hrs / week and this is not even including exam period. 70 hrs / 7 = 10 hours / day. DAMN! This is especially stressful because I am in the middle of the application process.

Nevertheless, 10 hrs means if I wake at 6AM I should be done everything by dinner time. I guess I'll go the gym after dinner, chill with other students for a little while, go to sleep, rinse and repeat the daily grind.