Question for you dental students - how much free time do you have?

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hs2013

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I mean the first 2 years are just a bunch of classes and labs right? Like 8-5 class/lab and then come home and do what? Is it studying 5-10 every night? I mean can one still get 8-10 hours a sleep a night regularly?

Considering how many credits 1st and 2nd years have to take, is it even possible to have much free time? I feel like you would have to study so much and just have no life in dental school?

I'm just worried the amount of time needed to study in dental school will be too much for me to handle and I will go insane....
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You will have some time for yourself. It might not be consistent-some exam weeks are constant studying and getting up early to finish studying...but in my experience, it is all in how well you want to do. And your previous experience. Simply put, it is achievable and many people get through just fine, and so will you. Just keep up with the material and don't wait until the week of the exam.
 
It depends. I usually have class from 8:30-4:30 daily, but usually at least once a week we have a day where we are off by 2 or 3. I personally don't spend too much time out of class studying or doing homework, maybe a max of 1 or 2 hours at night. I still get my 8-9 hours of sleep at night without any issues and am able to keep up on all my many TV shows.

It depends on how inherent things come to you and what your goals are - I am a first year and have been getting A's on most of my exams (physiology, biochem, etc), but I'm in the mindset that as long as I pass I'm okay, hence why I don't spend too much time stressing out and studying.

However, I'm not as inherently good at waxing, so some days, like yesterday, I spent 5 hours waxing - based on my competency today I'm not so sure it paid off - we shall see in a few days time!
 
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I'll quote a comment I made on another similar thread just a minute ago.

THS said:
I'm a D1. I'm at school from 8-5, 5 days a week. Except when there's a gross exam coming up, then I'll spend some time in the lab after hours (it's open 24/7). We get an hour for lunch. I don't study as much as I probably should. I'm by no means a gunner, but I don't like Cs. I take A's where I can get them, and I'm fine with B's in other classes. I probably study an hour a day, maybe a total of 6 hours over the weekend. I usually play online chess and browse reddit during class, and it hasn't caught up with me yet. I have taken all of the didactic classes before, the only "new" material I am learning is in anatomy and dental morphology. And speaking of morphology, I never really practiced waxing, most of the practicals I took were the first time waxing up that tooth. Turned out fine for me.

I never lose sleep to studying, and I only stress the day before an big exam. Other than that, everything is pretty easy.
I guess my philosophy is this: if you want to specialize, by all means do whatever is necessary to get those A's and participate in extracurriculars. I know that I want to do general dentistry, so I know that learning the material is more important than memorizing the facts necessary to ace the tests.

If my future patients are reading this, I'm not a slacker! I just like having a life!
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Well .... seems like there are many genius individuals in this forum so far because all of my friends and myself during our first semester so far, you study almost 24/7 a day. We have class from 8am to 5pm and then after school is all studying either at the library or at the gross anatomy lab until 11 or midnight. I've been getting A's and B's but it's a constant struggle of getting some kind of sleep and time to relax. But then again, this is the experience that I and my friends are having. Yours or other individuals' might be totally different. Anyways, good luck; dental school is great place to challenge yourself and your intelligence along with diligence.
 
CleverThought said:
It depends. I usually have class from 8:30-4:30 daily, but usually at least once a week we have a day where we are off by 2 or 3. I personally don't spend too much time out of class studying or doing homework, maybe a max of 1 or 2 hours at night. I still get my 8-9 hours of sleep at night without any issues and am able to keep up on all my many TV shows.

It depends on how inherent things come to you and what your goals are - I am a first year and have been getting A's on most of my exams (physiology, biochem, etc), but I'm in the mindset that as long as I pass I'm okay, hence why I don't spend too much time stressing out and studying.

However, I'm not as inherently good at waxing, so some days, like yesterday, I spent 5 hours waxing - based on my competency today I'm not so sure it paid off - we shall see in a few days time!
Click to expand...

What tooth was your competency over? Distal half of 9
 
this all depends on your school and what year you are in.

from my experiences, yes maybe in the spring semester of my D1 year i had more free time. But in D2...not so much..any free time is dedicated towards doing lab work, mostly. it's difficult to have your work approved when you're off by .02-.03 mm....yes, i am serious..i've been turned away because i've been .02-.03mm off from obtaining a ''clinically excellent' preparation. but this is just my school.
 
^^^ teeth exist in the mandible too
 
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