Skipping lectures= wise or unwise?

[gerrardsgirl]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Is it worth going to every med lecture? Especially the anatomy ones?

Am I being a naive 1st year student or is this true? Can you REALLY teach yourself using Moore's or Netter's without attending lectures and still get A's?

 

[Catalystik]

I'm sure you'll hear variable opinions based on different study styles. I feel you should go to every lecture. You are paying a lot of money to hear them. I always brought additional study materials with me to peruse in case the lecture was boring or repetitive. Multitasking in this way can be very efficient.

 

[sendwich]

M1 here so take it w/ a grain of salt. so far, I'm finding that each person just needs to know themselves well enough to know what work and what doesn't. most M1's spend 1st year trying different things to become the most efficient studiers. if you find that going to lectures are a waste of time, dont go!! stream it (if your school does this) or study on your own or do study group. i'm an auditory learning with some visual so going to lecture works for me.

know thyself! 🙂 good luck

 

[Doctor Bagel]

As mentioned above, it depends on you and how you learn. I'm not an auditory learner, so I've decided going to lecture is a waste of time for me. I haven't regularly gone to lecture since fall semester of last year (MS1 year), and it's worked out fine for me so far. I don't have the focus to really pay attention during the full lecture, so I miss all sorts of critical information anyway. Then after spending half a day in lecture, I'm too drained to study effectively on my own. Yes, sad, I know, but it's how I am.

I'll also say that anatomy is about the least conducive to lecture of any medical school subject. Our lectures consisted largely of the professor pointing at structures and naming them. Unfortunately, attendance at those was essentially required. 🙄

 

[45408]

You are paying a lot of money to hear them. I always brought additional study materials with me to peruse in case the lecture was boring or repetitive.

Focus on the lecture! You're paying a lot of money to hear it!



I skip a lot of lectures, because it's more efficient for me to sleep at home than in the lecture hall.

 

[MSKalltheway]

I skip pretty much all my lectures and review the video of them later on a faster speed, and study other stuff while the lecture is going on. If I dont, then I sit in class, bored and staring at my email for those couple of hours. Thats just me though, im more productive when I dont go.

Wise or unwise to skip? That depends on you. Its unwise for me to go given that I know i get more done by not going. Some may feel like they are wasting money they pay if they dont go. That is valid as they get a lot out of lecture. I feel like I waste money by going, since they only really can give us a skeleton of the most important things and a good portion of the studying is self-guided anyway. Plus, those couple hours could be spent studying for those 1-2 precious questions I could be getting right. Doesn't mean my way is the way, many of my classmates save time by going to lecture. It just so happens that I dont.

Its all a matter of who you talk to. Know thyself...

 

[TRAMD]

Focus on the lecture! You're paying a lot of money to hear it!



I skip a lot of lectures, because it's more efficient for me to sleep at home than in the lecture hall.

Too true for me, HAHA!

 

[lord_jeebus]

It depends on how your school's tests are written.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Do cut lectures, they are an excellent waste of time.

 

[medtrial82]

x

 

[nightowl]

at my school, if you skip lecture it's worth it to utilize the note service to "fill in the blanks". You can get everything done and have a lot more free time if you skip. If you're an auditory learner and actually pay attention during the lecture, then going makes sense. if you think you're accomplishing something because you're sitting in the same room as the lecture, but you're surfing the internet, sleeping, or your brain is on auto-pilot, it's not. If you get more done reading than listening to some person talking, it's not. I used to go and people made me feel guilty for not going, until I realized that as far as grades, there's not really a correlation at all.

 

[Femme Fatale]

*

 

[angel80]

You just have to figure out how you learn best. In med schools, my lectures consisted primarily of the professor reading his or her powerpoint slides. In first year, I attended most lectures. In second year, I stopped going. I used that 6-7 hours a day that I would have spent in class/commuting, etc to study. I realized something at that point: I could actually have a life and enjoy my evenings off because I would be done studying at 3-4pm, instead of getting home at 4 and studying util I went to bed. If there was a great lecturer that was worth watching, I would watch the stream online at a faster speed. I actually did much better in second year than first because the studying that I did was of much higher quality, since I wasn't exhausted from a whole day of lecture.

 

[SeventhSon]

Medical schools are obsessed with the convenience that Powerpoint lectures offer and forget that an incredibly important part of learning is eliminated in which the student hears, processes, writes, and then re-reads what was written by him/herself. Note services, audio recordings, and seminar-style lectures circumvent this process.

I'd rather just waste my money than waste both my money and time. Whatever is going on in the lecture hall may be interesting to some, but I've got boards to prepare for. If I stink up the place on step I because I was wasting my time in class, that would be an even greater waste of 2 years' tuition. My school agrees. That's why attendance is not required.

 

[MSKalltheway]

Just as an interesting note, I went to go see Dr. Ben Carson speak once. He actually said that he did far better in medical school once he stopped going to class and just read the textbook during that time anyway. He's a much more visual learner than auditory (that should be blatantly obvious if you know about him or read his book "Gifted Hands"), so he benefited much more from just doing his own thing. Something to think about...

 

[Femme Fatale]

*

 

[Cirrus83]

Depends...I think some lectures are unskippable, while some you can kinda get away with skipping. That said, I think if you wanna study on your own you can do it then go to lecture anyway and check your own understanding.

That's not to say that I haven't skipped lectures where I knew I could learn it on my own anyway.

I'd decide on a case by case basis...I mean only you know how you learn lol.

 

[bubbachuck]

for anatomy, i find once i draw something (say the branches of the IMA), i will retain the knowledge much longer. i basically redraw key diagrams from netter's or gray's for students from memory. i'm a visual learner. but i still feel like i should go to lecture. this will prob change soon.

 

[Gut Shot]

Is it worth going to every med lecture? Especially the anatomy ones?

Am I being a naive 1st year student or is this true? Can you REALLY teach yourself using Moore's or Netter's without attending lectures and still get A's?

Anatomy lab is worth it, but otherwise the best decision I made in medical school was to quit class. My school is syllabus-based, so rather than sit through four hours of worthless, mind numbing lectures from 8-12, I'd hit the library by 9 and study until 4 or 5 (later before exams). Both my grades and quality of life increased dramatically.

 

[Slide]

As one of the admins said in another post, you have to learn the material for the pertinent lecture, one way or the other. If you feel your anatomy lectures are worthless and there is no incentive for you to go, then use the time to study on your own. If the anatomy lecturer is pointing out stuff that you could learn in an atlas and isn't demonstrating concepts - like origins/insertions and relations to movement, exceptions in innervations and function, clearing up motions for limbs and digits (like flexing/adducting the thumb), you get the drift - then there's really no point going if you can do the same in less time and with greater yield.

That said, knowing what lectures to go to is a trial-and-error approach. Right now I'm cutting a Histo lecture because I know I can learn the material on my own and I have other subjects that take higher priority right now.

 

[nicko18]

well, for me uni is 90 minutes by public transport in and 90 minutes back.

If it's just powerpoint lectures, then i'm better saving 180mins travel time and reading them on the web. An extra hour reading peripheral material is far more productive than the extre 3 hours wasted in transit.

Anatomy class is completely different, as you can't get hands on experience at home.

 

[achybrachy]

The strategy that really worked the best for me was to drag myself to lecture, sleep through it, then study all the harder that night because I felt stressed out about snoozing through all the material.

 

[sprinkibrio]

I've notice my school likes to test on examples included in lecture but not in the syllabus. Sometimes the question supplies a lot of the information needed to answer it, but I always do better if I've seen the example before, and if I know why it's being asked by putting it in the context of what the lecture was about.

I've learned that I like learning slowly and only going over the information a few times above reading the syllabus over and over. Pausing lectures can be very helpful for someone like me. Also, my school only supplies the powerpoints after the lecture. If the lecture happens to be very different than the syllabus, it's MUCH easier for me to just wait and take notes on the slides.

 

[osli]

I guess this all depends on the quality of the lecturer. IMO, a good lecturer should make you absolutely not want to miss. A good physiologist, for example, can teach physiology to a two year old. One time being in lecture with such a professor, and you essentially know the material. Just a quick glance for review before exams to make sure you have the minor details correct... was glutamate or glycine in this instance, for example. A good pathologist should make disease states tie in to every other subject in a logical and memorable way, and give you "eureka" moments that you won't find in Big Robbins. Hence, pathology should be easy with a good lecturer. Anatomy names/structures/locations you really have to teach yourself... no school (I hope) is going to let the professor stand in front of the class and point to structure and drill the class on their names for hour after hour. That's what netter and anatomy lab is for. Anatomy lecture should be for function, key clinical correlations, important innervations, and nuggets of insight into how to approach the memorizing aspect (as well as insight into what boards consider relevant). No sense learning whether the transverse cervical artery comes off the thyrocervical trunk, ascending cervical, or inferior thyroid most often if boards are just going to ask you FOOSH three times.

So, again, IMO, it depends on the quality of lecturers. Obviously not every school is going to have the above star professor for every single subject, so figure out which ones are and are not and schedule your attendance accordingly. With a great professor, sitting in class should be nearly sufficient to learn all the relevant information.

 

[45408]

I've notice my school likes to test on examples included in lecture but not in the syllabus.

That's why I'm in the note-taking service. Skip lecture and get the info anyways.

 

[njbmd]

I skipped lectures if the lecture was not worth my time. I would either study the material sitting quietly in the back of the room or not even come to campus if I could get more done at home. The key thing is to do what is most useful to your study style and method.

I would never had attended a medical school that had mandatory lecture attendance. My school treated us like adults who could make our own decisions. If you are not attending lecture and doing poorly, it would make sense to attend lecture. If you are doing better not attending lecture, then stay home, go to the library or do what ever is most efficient for you.

The thing about working at home is that you can have plenty of distractions. I would often work at Starbucks or the medical library of another medical school where no one knew me (there were four medical schools within a 10 mile radius in my city). I would study at any of those libraries for a change of pace and not to be distracted at home.

In short, do what works for you.

 

[osli]

While I understand and agree with what you are saying, part of the problem is that at many med schools there is not one lecturer but many lecturers in one class. In one day you could have 2 different lecturers due to the fact that different professors come to teach about their area of expertise. How, then do you determine and figure out whether it will be worth it to go if they are there only for one lecture and each lecture period there are new people lecturing with different styles of lecturing? That's a huge problem at our school. However, school has video streamlining of lectures so people who don't want to waste the time will have what they need to get through it withut wasting their time

On lecture days we have a minimum of 2 different lecturers, average 3 , and often have 4 or more. But we also have a schedule well in advance of the lecturers and topics. Most students that don't want to sit through a particular lecture walk 30 seconds to the library or two minutes to the student study rooms in an adjacent building, study for an hour (or two) and come back for lectures they feel they benefit from.

Few of our students routinely miss the whole day and stay home to study. At most I'd say 1 or 2% of the class. Perhaps 50% selectively miss a lecture or two a week, at most, and the remaining half attend except for rare occasions.

 

[OncoCaP]

I'm a class-goer. I make sure I pre-read and then summarize the lectures afterward. Going to class forces me to make it through the material at least once. I think otherwise I would spend too much time going through the material and I don't think I would retain as much. However, everyone is different and many of my classmates are happy about not being required to go to most classes. If a lecture gets slow, I just start studying other classes during that time. I suppose it comes down to the quality of your lectures and how you learn.

 

[musiclink213]

My school has mandatory attendance, so we have to go. But I have left a couple times after attendance was taken if we had a boring lecturer or an anatomy lecture where all they do is point at structures and say what they are. Those times when I was able to leave were great, I got home earlier, wasn't as tired, and got more work done. So now I've taken to bringing headphones to some lectures and either streaming past lectures or studying on my own, especially in the classes where all tehy do is read straight off the notes. I actually prefer streaming because some people talk so fast, you can't keep up, so with the streaming, you can pause it if you need to write something down, play it back a couple times, etc.

 

[CampUnity]

Here I am up at almost 5am in the morning struggling. Why? because I feel exhausted after school every day so I don't feel like studying after school. I thought about just sleeping right after school and then wake up around 11pm or 10pm to study till 8am and then head to class. But then I thought about skipping class to get more hours to study. I am a combo of auditory and visual, but predominantly visual. I think that this should work well for me. I'll see after the second set of test.

 

[LifetimeDoc]

I can't bring myself to not attend lecture, but I see many people simply watching recordings of lectures (at 2x speed of course) and getting just as much out of them as me experiencing them live at 8am. I feel I'd probably be more efficient in my studies if I just skipped class and did it all myself, but I'm chicken.

 

[baylormed]

I can't bring myself to not attend lecture, but I see many people simply watching recordings of lectures (at 2x speed of course) and getting just as much out of them as me experiencing them live at 8am. I feel I'd probably be more efficient in my studies if I just skipped class and did it all myself, but I'm chicken.

I have exactly the same problem, but in reverse.

I decided that the 2-5 extra pieces of info that I could get from lecture that are not on the syllabus aren't worth it in exchange for having to sit in lecture 3 hours a day (and that's only 1 class). I can always listen to the MP3s from home.

Sitting in class all day drains me, even though sitting there shouldn't be that exhausting, right? I get home after class and I don't want to study. Not going is best for me, I get more done in the morning. Many of my classmates (still) go to lecture everyday, though I hear the number diminishes with time.

 

[virellia]

Is it worth going to every med lecture? Especially the anatomy ones?

Am I being a naive 1st year student or is this true? Can you REALLY teach yourself using Moore's or Netter's without attending lectures and still get A's?

i dont like to go to the lecture either but it just can't help it..😴😴 need to go just to guide me how much i need to know.. dont wanna end up memorizing the whole small muscle that wont be tested anyway

 

[rickthetwinkie]

If I prepare for lecture, I actually find that I get a lot out of lecture. Its just another way to be exposed to the information (instead of just reading books and notes).

Maybe I'm just wierd.

 

[Caesar]

Just as an interesting note, I went to go see Dr. Ben Carson speak once. He actually said that he did far better in medical school once he stopped going to class and just read the textbook during that time anyway. He's a much more visual learner than auditory (that should be blatantly obvious if you know about him or read his book "Gifted Hands"), so he benefited much more from just doing his own thing. Something to think about...

I've read that book! good stuff.

 

[Flaxmoore]

If people learn through writing better they should rewrite all their notes on their free time as I do for class.

I do the same. Works like a charm.

 

[45408]

I hate writing anything more than necessary for a point of clarification. I'd go crazy if I re-wrote all my notes. For me, it's all about reading, re-reading, and reading it again.

 

[DoctaJay]

Skipping lectures saved my medical school career. I record the lectures using my PDA (send it with my wife) and I stay home and study. Most times I don't really need clarification so I don't listen to the audio, but every now and then its good to go (like for Patient Diagnosis class).

I get alot done, and if I don't get distracted on SDN then I can be done with all of the material by 2 p.m. Then I can go back and annotate with BRS books or I can play basketball, or I can sleep, etc.

 

[SeventhSon]

at a certain point you will realize that your education is more important than your grades on tests. I never go to lecture and usually don't even look at the lecture slides, and I will always see about 3 questions on my tests where i am like WTF i never saw that.

Do what makes you learn the most. If you are one of those strange creatures that can go to lecture and actually absorb what is being said, by all means go. Realize, however, that you are not paying to be lectured to.