Students who don't go to class, what is your daily routine like?

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You can watch a 50 min lecture in 35 minutes or less. Saving 15 minutes every hour is awesome. Plus you're on your own schedule and can hit pause/rewind. No more missing stuff if you have to pee. And you can start/stop whenever you want. Search on here for plenty more
 
There's a bunch of stuff in the lectures you really don't need to know, and don't need it read to you. You also don't have to wake up at 7 am or whenever. I found I wasn't retaining anything from the first lecture of the day (8a-10a)

I liked to cross-reference the lecture PPTs with FA and Goljan, so I knew what was high-yield, what I could add from the texts, and what was extraneous. I also was a flashcard-maker. Doing this at home, with both texts open, would take me about an hour or two longer/day than the scheduled lectures, but I would be left with much higher-quality study materials (in my opinion). My schedule was something like this (assuming a day of four 2-hour lectures)
9a: wake up, chill
10a-1p: do first lecture and eat lunch
1p-3p: second lecture
3p-5p: gym
5p-8p: eat, do third lecture, and run though completed cards
8p-midnight: 4th lecture, or if there wasn't one, chill/socialize/work on research/work ahead

If you like to watch lectures, you can probably watch an entire 9 hour day (including lunch) of class in 6 hours, or less.
 
Varies based on how many required sessions we have. If none, fold clothes/do chores while watching lectures. Watch B&B video afterwards (with FA notes), anki in the afternoon. Profit.

I don't sit in lectures due to my poor attention span and the even poorer retention of the information that lectures allow. Honestly, I would stop watching our lectures if they didn't sneak in snippets that are directly on the exam.

What did you do in UG?
 
Breakfast. BB/Pathoma & follow along in FA in the AM. Lunch. Organize all the Anki cards, then do them with also going along in FA/Pathoma if I didn't know one. Dinner. Practice Qs from previous topics I should know. Gym. Tv. Bed.
 
I like the freedom I get in my schedule by skipping class. Our school is having unrecorded lectures this week so I forgot what that freedom is like. I tend to sleep from 4 am - 11 am, hit the school for lunch meetings and mandatory afternoon activities, watch lectures from whenever afternoon activities are done until 7/8 ish, anki until 10 ish, then whatever else I need to do until 2:30/3, go home, shower, prep meals for next day, and sleep. I found that when I went to lectures I got incredibly distracted in them, and I have never been a morning person so I enjoy skipping mornings and waking up later.
 
I recommend not lounging around in the morning otherwise it’s easy to waste the day. I would get up and treat the day like a 8-4 job and start doing schoolwork right after I got ready in the morning.
 
wanderingorion said:
Varies based on how many required sessions we have. If none, fold clothes/do chores while watching lectures. Watch B&B video afterwards (with FA notes), anki in the afternoon. Profit.

I don't sit in lectures due to my poor attention span and the even poorer retention of the information that lectures allow. Honestly, I would stop watching our lectures if they didn't sneak in snippets that are directly on the exam.

What did you do in UG?
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I have gone to lecture for every undergrad class since there's no streams and they usually have some form of attendance policy 🙁. I just study better and retain more when I read through the topic, write out notes and annotate into anki. Thank you to everyone that has responded. I've noticed a theme of using third-parties like FA or B&B for high-yield supplementation.
 
I don't go because I'm most productive in the morning and at night. If I went I'd waste my morning and slug around the afternoom, only to have the night. So...

Slightly altered if there's more lectures or mandatory sessions.

7 days a week
7 -8:30am: Get up and eat
8:30/9:30am -11:30: Most recent Anki cards
11:30 am to 12:30 Break and Lunch
12:30 to 2:30: BnB and Zanki
2:30 to 3: Break
3-5: Watch lectures
5-630: Break
6:30 to 8:30: Watch remaining lectures and do remaining cards and do practice questions
8:30 to 9:30 Lift weights in my apartment
9:30 onward: Chill
 
DoctorSnow said:
they usually have some form of attendance policy
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this is actually becoming more common in medical school. Similar to the fight against Step 2 CS, administrators have reacted to complaints that lecture isn't as useful/efficient as sitting at home reading books by making attendance mandatory.

To underline a point in my first post/reflected by others: exercise is important, and during blocks like anatomy, will be difficult to fit in if you go to every lecture. I'd plan out an exercise routine as a break and split your studying around it.
 
About half of our class continued going to lecture in M2.
But then, we only have 6-10hrs of it per week, and only 6hrs of required PBL.
 
1. I’m a night person
2. I don’t learn well in class—I’m a read/write learner; I want to be able to pause/rewind, think, and write.

A typical day for me is: go to bed around 6am, wake up around 1 pm. Go to my dining room table and study. Take a stretch/bathroom/SDN break for a few after every hour and a half. Back to dining room table to study. Eventually cook while watching something unrelated (like Netflix). If it requires significant attention/utensils to eat, then I continue the Netflix while eating. If not, back to studying while eating. Cycle continues until it’s time for my husband to go to bed. Then I tuck him in and lay with him until he falls asleep (he’s fast). Then back to the dining room table to study. Study until about 6am and then go to sleep.

Around 3 times per week I/we go to the movies.
Around 1 time per week we go out to eat.
I have mandatory labs Tuesday afternoons.
I have semi-mandatory (you can miss a certain amount) lecture Friday mornings.
 
sunshinefl said:
1. I’m a night person
2. I don’t learn well in class—I’m a read/write learner; I want to be able to pause/rewind, think, and write.

A typical day for me is: go to bed around 6am, wake up around 1 pm. Go to my dining room table and study. Take a stretch/bathroom/SDN break for a few after every hour and a half. Back to dining room table to study. Eventually cook while watching something unrelated (like Netflix). If it requires significant attention/utensils to eat, then I continue the Netflix while eating. If not, back to studying while eating. Cycle continues until it’s time for my husband to go to bed. Then I tuck him in and lay with him until he falls asleep (he’s fast). Then back to the dining room table to study. Study until about 6am and then go to sleep.

Around 3 times per week I/we go to the movies.
Around 1 time per week we go out to eat.
I have mandatory labs Tuesday afternoons.
I have semi-mandatory (you can miss a certain amount) lecture Friday mornings.
Click to expand...

How do you handle being nocturnal and taking the in-class exams in the mornings? I feel like that would be hard to adjust to being in class for an exam at like 10AM.
 
DoctorSnow said:
How do you handle being nocturnal and taking the in-class exams in the mornings? I feel like that would be hard to adjust to being in class for an exam at like 10AM.
Click to expand...

In 2nd year we only have integrated midterm exam on one day per each block (4 blocks over year) and then finals week at the end of the block. So exams aren’t that often.

To answer your question, I would definitely score better in evening exams. That’s just when my neural circuitry lights up, as I explain it. It wouldn’t change no matter if I tried to sleep a normal schedule. I would just be foggy all the time I was awake. Adhering to external schedules as far as sleep/wake cycle is the bane of my existence.

On a practical level, what I do for finals is: map out a sleep schedule a week in advance where I keep extending the day a couple hours until my wake cycle is so late it’s early again.

So for an exam week starting on Monday:

Sleep 6am(M)-1pm(M). Wake 1pm(M)-7am(Tu).
Sleep 7am(Tu)-3pm(Tu). Wake 3pm(Tu)-9am(W).
Sleep 9am(W)-5pm(W). Wake 5pm(W)-Noon(Th).
Sleep Noon(Th)-8pm(Th). Wake 8pm(Th)-3pm(F).
Sleep 3pm(F)-11pm(F). Wake 11pm(F)-6pm(Sa).
Sleep 6pm(Sa)-2am(Su). Wake 2am(Su)-9pm(Su).
Sleep 9pm(Su)-5am(M). Wake 5am(M) Review for Exam at 9am.


If it’s only one isolated exam, like integrated midterm, I do one of two things:

Option 1: day before—extend day as long as possible and go to sleep as late as possible (ex:1pm), wake up as late as possible (ex: 11pm), study until exam at 9am. Then go to sleep again as desired after exam.

Option 2: day before—try to get up earlier, around 10am-noon. Whether successful or not, try to go to bed by 1am-3am. Sleep until 8am for exam at 9am. Then go to sleep again as desired after exam.

Option 1 works out better than option 2. Through personal experience, and confirmed by a Uworld circadian rhythm question yesterday, it is easier to extend your wake cycle then to shorten it.
 
Last edited:
sunshinefl said:
In 2nd year we only have integrated midterm exam on one day per each block (4 blocks over year) and then finals week at the end of the block. So exams aren’t that often.

To answer your question, I would definitely score better in evening exams. That’s just when my neural circuitry lights up, as I explain it. It wouldn’t change no matter if I tried to sleep a normal schedule. I would just be foggy all the time I was awake. Adhering to external schedules as far as sleep/wake cycle is the bane of my existence.

On a practical level, what I do for finals is: map out a sleep schedule a week in advance where I keep extending the day a couple hours until my wake cycle is so late it’s early again.

So for an exam week starting on Monday:

Sleep 6am(M)-1pm(M). Wake 1pm(M)-7am(Tu).
Sleep 7am(Tu)-3pm(Tu). Wake 3pm(Tu)-9am(W).
Sleep 9am(W)-5pm(W). Wake 5pm(W)-Noon(Th).
Sleep Noon(Th)-8pm(Th). Wake 8pm(Th)-3pm(F).
Sleep 3pm(F)-11pm(F). Wake 11pm(F)-6pm(Sa).
Sleep 6pm(Sa)-2am(Su). Wake 2am(Su)-9pm(Su).
Sleep 9pm(Su)-5am(M). Wake 5am(M) Review for Exam at 9am.


If it’s only one isolated exam, like integrated midterm, I do one of two things:

Option 1: day before—extend day as long as possible and go to sleep as late as possible (ex:1pm), wake up as late as possible (ex: 11pm), study until exam at 9am. Then go to sleep again as desired after exam.

Option 2: day before—try to get up earlier, around 10am-noon. Whether successful or not, try to go to bed by 1am-3am. Sleep until 8am for exam at 9am. Then go to sleep again as desired after exam.

Option 1 works out better than option 2. Through personal experience, and confirmed by a Uworld circadian rhythm question yesterday, it is easier to extend your wake cycle then to shorten it.
Click to expand...

Gotcha. My school has weekly quizzes every monday morning so that's why I asked. Well kudos to you for realizing how to make it work. That's awesome! I've noticed that if I don't care about when I fall asleep, it's usually around 2-3AM. I've never been a morning person but I have had to be up early since my school days are always 8AM to noon.
 
I'm a M2 with Step coming up, so on days I don't go to class-
6:30 AM: Wake up
7 AM to 12 PM: Study
12-1: Lunch, break, etc
1-6: Study
6-7: Break, dinner, work on things for student orgs
7-1 AM: Study

But in semesters when Step wasn't a concern there would be more free time built in
It's surprising how much time is saved playing lectures at 1.5 speed, not commuting to/from school, etc. I also find it easy to get distracted by others in school which isn't an issue at home
 
honey0102 said:
I'm a M2 with Step coming up, so on days I don't go to class-
6:30 AM: Wake up
7 AM to 12 PM: Study
12-1: Lunch, break, etc
1-6: Study
6-7: Break, dinner, work on things for student orgs
7-1 AM: Study

But in semesters when Step wasn't a concern there would be more free time built in
It's surprising how much time is saved playing lectures at 1.5 speed, not commuting to/from school, etc. I also find it easy to get distracted by others in school which isn't an issue at home
Click to expand...
You only sleep 5 1/2 hours per day? That’s impressive.
 
The important thing about scheduling if you’re not gonna go to class is you’ve gotta be cognizant of your schedule and your pace. You don’t want to fall behind. One day of “eh I don’t feel like it, I’m gonna sleep in and play video games” and your schedule is all kinds of jacked up.

Alternatively you also need to set clear limits to help create a mental divide between school and not school. This is big for mental health. For me it was no work before 8am, after 8pm, or on any Sunday, ever. This allows you to have at least some uncoupling of school from home

For me:
7-8 wake up, shower, breakfast, maybe quick run

8-12 watch lecture. 4 hours was usually enough to cover 4 lectures, double speeding through the boring parts and repeating the tough parts.

12-1 lunch, run if I didn’t in the AM.

1-5 flex time. Usually used this to catch up lecture, make outlines or drawings, review first aid, resources like sketchy or pathoma, or maybe get some extra stuff done.

6-8 winding down. Time to review old notes, hit some Anki cards, maybe have a study group with friends

8-10 dinner, a glass of wine, and some TV
 
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