Question about hours spent studying per day

[Knicks]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm reading a lot how approx. 10 hours/day is a "solid" amount of time per day to study.

1st of all, how do people [physically] do this? How do you include breaks w/in this 10-hour period?

2ndly, and most importantly, does it really matter how many hours? Shouldn't the quality of the hours be more important than quantity? Or when you say "10 hours per day", you DO mean "quality"?


Any input would be appreciated. (Just leave the useless sarcastic remarks out of it).


Thanks.

 

[peter90036]

i have seen this done, with high-quality learning alongside, maybe total 1 hour break

some people have that ability to stay focused... unlike me... 10-15 minutes i move my eyes away from the book... like i'm doing now 😛

 

[mohhaider]

i have seen this done, with high-quality learning alongside, maybe total 1 hour break

some people have that ability to stay focused... unlike me... 10-15 minutes i move my eyes away from the book... like i'm doing now 😛

I was reading +13 hours per day starting from 7am to 12 am
*6 hours night sleep
*1 hour after waking up plus tea
*2 hours break and lunch
*2 hours break

The 2 hours break including time when you lose focus
GL

 

[ZonaRidicularis]

z

 

[tfom08]

If you don't have a job or class to attend, what is difficult about studying 10+ hours a day. If you sleep 7 hours, that leaves you 17 hours awake, so you have plenty of breaks if you are only studying for 10 hours. If concentration is a problem then you might schedule your breaks in a way that optimizes your studying efficacy.

 

[PenguinHead]

10 hrs isn't that bad.

8:00 - 11:00 study 3hrs
11:30 - 6:30 study 7hrs

= 10hrs

10 hrs was actually a light day though.

I tried not to take too many breaks cause it's hard for me to start and stop a lot. That still leaves 3-4 hours worth of breaks to add in somewhere.

 

[2cr8tive]

i definately have a big problem with concentration during this last week. i feel like i only study for like 15-20 min before my brain starts wondering ... as u can see im here posting instead of studying during these last few days 🙂

 

[mudphudwannabe]

10 hours of studying would have been too much for me - I studied 8 hours each day (including short breaks), and I probably could have held on for another couple of hours, but I wouldn't have been as focused and efficient. I took 3 weeks to study, and here's my approximate schedule:

8am-10am: 2 blocks of USMLE World, including short ~5 minute breaks between blocks and after blocks
10am-noon: review questions from USMLE World (some days I only did 1 block, then I would start reviewing from books in the morning)
noon-1pm: lunch - no studying at all!
1pm-5pm: reviewing from BRS Path, Phys and FA on the system/subject of the day, with short breaks (5-10 minutes or less) every hour or so
No studying after 5pm!

For me, getting into a good routine was really important. I would get up at the same time every day, start at the same time, finish at the same time. I just don't have a lot of stamina for studying, so I was pretty happy I was able to stick with this schedule and be efficient with the time I had.

Oh, also, about break time - I tried not to use my computer or watch TV during breaks. I would just stand up and stretch, get a snack, take a quick walk, whatever. TV and the internet just kind of suck you in and make it difficult to get back to work, at least in my experience. 😉

 

[lord_jeebus]

I studied about 12 hrs/day, not including breaks. I took 10 min breaks about every 2 hrs, longer breaks for food.

I only did this for 2 weeks though - I would have burned out if I went a day longer. It was also essential to switch frequently between different types of studying.

 

[lilnoelle]

I studied on average about 10-16 hours a day. I think I was about 16 hours a day for two and a half weeks and 10 hours a day for the other two weeks (my kids were around in the evenings for the two weeks that I studied 12 hours a day - I had to feed them, spend some time with them, put them to bed, etc).

I'm not sure how I managed it - but I did.... and I really did study hard for nearly the entire time - maybe taking a ten minute break to fix a meal and then get back to it.

Looking back - I could've probably been a bit more efficient by not annoting First AID (since I didn't have time to go back through it) but I probably learned a lot more by writing stuff down than by just reading it.

 

[Blesbok]

7:30 - wake up and eat breakfast, etc
8:00 - at my desk studying first aid then goljan or whatever other books i used for the day
1:00 - lunch
2:00 - UW questions (100 per day + ~2hrs to review each set of 50 and look up some info to supplement it)
*Somewhere around 6 to 7 I would take an hour to have dinner with my SO and take a walk around the block with her and the dog.
9:00 - Bugs and drugs (more drugs than bugs up until the last week or so)
10:00 - quit
11:30 - sleep

I did this 5 days per week, then I would spend saturday reviewing the cumulative notes that I had taken. In the last two weeks this extended half way into sunday too.


It takes a lot of dedication, but once you are done with it, you are done with it. And personally I would rather look back and say I did everything I could to get the residency I want rather than look back and with I had done more.

 

[peter90036]

i tried to review 50 UW Qs at a time but i cant,
i do 25 ... from back to front.

 

[schistocyte]

i definately have a big problem with concentration during this last week. i feel like i only study for like 15-20 min before my brain starts wondering ... as u can see im here posting instead of studying during these last few days 🙂

I'm with you 2cr8tive. I feel like my brain is shutting down. The plan is to be efficient on these days leading up to the test (it's on July 30th), but it has been anything but productive. I think it's that I have so much left to cover so I end up not knowing where to spend my time, and consequently I end up taking mostly breaks and studying for a shorter time than I would've liked.

I gotta hand it to the people who can really stay focused and study efficiently for 8 or 10+ hours a day. It's tough to stick to the schedule but in the end, that's really what it takes to prepared or at least to be feeling confident about taking the exam.

Having a good study regimen is crucial.

 

[2cr8tive]

mine is on the 30th too. good luck 🙂 u know i finally decided to also go over the kaplan q bank as well, im almost half way ... its a good practice to remember the little details ive done long ago and also do some calculations that were missing from usmle world

but back to the topic, it's so very hard to concentrate as i hear most of my classmates have taken the exam and passed and though i was one of the honors students, im still very much scared of failing this thing. ok back to study 🙂

 

[schistocyte]

2cr8tive...You won't fail..You WILL do well [say that with conviction]...have to remain positive...that is the only thing that will allow us to be able to concentrate and be confident for the day. But we both have to probably stop visiting this forum (however tempting) quite so frequently for the next 5 days and buckle down. Although interacting with great people on this forum is calming, informative, reassuring, and a way to kinda take our minds off the physical act of studying...we may be wasting valuable study time 🙂 And if you feel like me right now...jumping around trying to squeeze in information (cause it's hard to stick to doing just one thing right now), we definitely need every bit of time left.

Doing some Kaplan qBank for those sections may be a good idea actually (I've only done 1 block of questions on Kaplan qBank, then skipped to UWorld(~55% done but I have only read over ~100 or less explanations)). Also, maybe doing some of those UWorld questions for the smaller subjects(b/c they really don't have too many questions to do on these subjects) may not be such a bad idea for reviewing some important HY concepts/facts. For instance, there are only like 16 questions for Histo and 44 questions for Embryo, so doing a quick 16 question block of Histo may hit some points that UWorld may consider HY, which may relate also to what the USMLE may consider HY.

But I don't want to throw you off your plan so stick to what you feel best/comfortable doing.

All the best on your exam too!! How good will it feel when this is over...huge mental burden lifted!

 

[UditNarayan]

i would wake up at 9-10am -ish and work until about 1PM, eat a quick lunch, then work hard till 12am with a dinner tucked away somewhere in between, then try to hit the sack with my FA open. i would take off a half day every couple weeks to chill, watch HBO. personally, i dont work as well while trying to schedule in too many activities during my days so i tried to keep my schedule as open as possible. figure out what has worked for you, and stick with it. good luck!