Study at hospital or home?

[darice]

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Hey guys, for the MS-IVs, did you do your studying for the shelf exams mainly at the hospital during down time or when you got home at night? I would think it's gonna be pretty hard to be motivated to study at night after being at the hospital all day, so I'm curious what others did. Thanks...

 

[pillowhead]

Hey guys, for the MS-IVs, did you do your studying for the shelf exams mainly at the hospital during down time or when you got home at night? I would think it's gonna be pretty hard to be motivated to study at night after being at the hospital all day, so I'm curious what others did. Thanks...

I did both. It really just depends on the rotation. for rotations that are lighter (e.g. psych), you'll probably study more at home. But for heavy duty rotations (e.g. medicine, ob/gyn) when you're on call a lot, you can get a surprising amount of studying done at the hospital if you're disciplines (thats the hard part.)

 

[loveumms]

Both - I know at the beginning of third year you feel very overwhelmed and it seems like the whole educational world has changed. Of course I had surgery first so it was pretty hard to find time to study (getting up at 4:30 and getting home at 5 or later). I found that keeping photo copies of important pages from my books or up to date articles in my coat pocket that you can learn quite a lot in 5 minutes here or there.

 

[M. Platini]

Wow, that sounds like it could really take me a while to get used to. Usually I hate studying here and there like while waiting at bus stops or in between lectures. I like just chilling at school during breaks and then getting home and comfortable and then get to work. It always seemed like way more hassle and fatigue that it was worth in terms of what you actually get done when trying to do tid bits during breaks.

 

[Anka]

Being able to study in ten minute blocks is a big help in the clinics. If you're finding you have a hard time studying when you get home, you can wake up an hour early to study. While it will seem psychotic if you're already prerounding at 4:30 a.m., it worked well for me.

Best,
Anka

 

[pillowhead]

Wow, that sounds like it could really take me a while to get used to. Usually I hate studying here and there like while waiting at bus stops or in between lectures. I like just chilling at school during breaks and then getting home and comfortable and then get to work. It always seemed like way more hassle and fatigue that it was worth in terms of what you actually get done when trying to do tid bits during breaks.

I think a lot of med students are like this during the first two years and most manage to learn how to study here and there during the clinical years. It's really more effective than you might think because unlike in preclinical years when you're just trying to memorize each and every detail from a powerpoint presentation, in 3rd year, you're acutally trying to see the bigger picture. You don't have to retain every little thing you read but rather know how to pick up the important things and basis of treatment for your patient's problems.

 

[Baby Einstein]

Wow, that sounds like it could really take me a while to get used to. Usually I hate studying here and there like while waiting at bus stops or in between lectures. I like just chilling at school during breaks and then getting home and comfortable and then get to work. It always seemed like way more hassle and fatigue that it was worth in terms of what you actually get done when trying to do tid bits during breaks.

Michel, c'est toi??? Allez les bleus! Zizou en finale!!!

I just had to say that. You guys can now go back to your discussion. Sorry for the disruption.

 

[66Lenses]

Do what works for you. If you can, study on your downtime at the hospital. That way when you get home you can crash instead of worrying about how many hours you'll need to try to stay awake.

During on-call rotations do what you can, if you can concentrate even for 10 minutes at a time you'll be surprised what you can get done.

If studying at the hospital just doesn't allow you to retain what you've studied, you'll need to wait and study later.

It's most important to remember what you're studying rather than when you study it. Try a few different things then stick with what works best for you.

 

[sflynn]

I find it very difficult to study at the hospital....too many distractions. But what did work for me is that I focused on "studying" whatever was wrong with my patient. I spent more time on the internet looking things up which for some reason was less distracting and less time with the books. Two benefits....I worked hard to "know my patient" and I also learned something relavant for the exam. I was big on studying 2 hours or so every night.

Stephanie UC-IV UCCOM

 

[oompaloompa]

I find it very difficult to study at the hospital....too many distractions. But what did work for me is that I focused on "studying" whatever was wrong with my patient. I spent more time on the internet looking things up which for some reason was less distracting and less time with the books. Two benefits....I worked hard to "know my patient" and I also learned something relavant for the exam. I was big on studying 2 hours or so every night.

Stephanie UC-IV UCCOM

I ditto this, I wish I could be one of those people who carry around textbooks in their coat and pull them out for 3 minute intervals- but I'm way too ADD. I would also add that for us attention-impaired, even if you're just learning practical things, it's still a valuable part of your education. You can read about the obscure pathophysiology of Menetrier's disease anytime, and if you're fuzzy on the details, uptodate is just a few keystrokes away.
Learning simple things like how to draw up neb treatments or work the damn IV machine could prove infinitely more valuble in a pinch.

 

[omarsaleh66]

I would not study at all during the week, and just study on weekends. If I had time during the week, I would try but most of my serious studying would be on off days.

In retrospect that's not really enough. If u are trying to honor the shelf exams then it would be a good idea to carry a small, easy readable book in your white coat and knock it out whenever there is downtime. I think a good book to carry around it the casefiles series for whatever rotation. It's small enough to fit into your coat and they are short easy to follow cases that u can read in 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there..

Then do your practice questions or whatever on your off day or when u get home.

Later

 

[4424]

i rarely studied too much at home. you learn a lot more than you think along the way and i always carried either b&w (in the beginning of the rotation), case files (middle), or pre-test (end) and got a lot done that way. all 3 of those books don't need a lot of time to get through.

 

[mdphd2b]

I'm in the same boat as Darice, Sflynn, and Oompaloompa!

I can never REALLY study until I get all comfortable at home, where there's peace and quite, and no pagers going off (Hmmm....another unDx ADD???).

So I do put in 1-2 hr/night reading, and some weekends. What I try to do in the hosp is look up pertinent topics on my pt, like on Up-to-Date, that will be immediately useful in Rounds and pt care. I also try to carry some "cases" or Platinum vignettes (either pda or small book), b/c these can be reviewed in a short time, plus I think I remember things better when presented as a "case".

Hope this helps 🙂