Obviously Maryland's curriculum allows for more "free time" than a lot of schools, but how much "free time" in a day do you guys/girls usually find yourself with? Class/small group stuff is 8-12, and then do most of you end up studying in the afternoon until 5 or 6 and then sort of take it easy in the evening? Or do you find that even with that studying you're still hitting the books all night?
I know that everyone learns differently, and has different study habits they find successful, I'm just sort of looking to survey the current students to see what you've found is reasonable. It's tough to tell whether I'll feel like I can breathe easy during most evenings (I kinda doubt it) or whether I'll be lucky to find 1 hour in a week's time to work out (I really hope that's not the case).
I tend to be an active person, so I'd like to keep that up of course. I know med school isn't a death sentence, but I always hear people talking about studying 10-14 hours (including lecture time) per day and crazy stuff like that.
Most of us 2nd years are studying for Step 1 right now, and I'm one of them. I'd love to spend a significant amount of time writing a response to this, but alas, I don't have the brainpower anymore after spending the past 10 hours on USMLEWorld. But I would like to say something about this (and I need a study break for a bit). You are right to say that everyone learns in their own way. My own personal study routine probably wouldn't appeal to/work for many other people, just as some of my classmates have routines that I could never adhere to.
I love the fact that we only have class a few hours out of the day. However, this atmosphere is not for everyone. In retrospect, I probably would have felt a bit more "sane" in a more structured, traditional curriculum. Because we have block exams every 3 weeks, I find myself falling into the routine of:
Week 1: Not really doing much of anything classwork-related. Catching up on email, home-related stuff, student council/other EC matters, going out/catching up with non-med school friends, other projects, etc. I do a minimum amount of schoolwork during this time, although I ALWAYS tell myself the night before an exam that I will STAY ON TASK NEXT TIME. Haha. Whatever.
Week 2: Start getting focused. I generally start slowly. I tend to spend a lot of time going over the lectures we have already had, doing background reading, trying to catch up. By the end of this week, I feel very confident about the material that I have gone over, but that's usually only about 1 week worth of lecture material (note that, by this point, I am usually about 1-1.5 weeks behind).
Week 3: Absoulte misery. Sometimes averaging 6-8 lectures a day. Somehow, I manage to get them all in, but I'm cursing myself when, the day before the test, I still have 4+ lectures to go, and I haven't even started reviewing yet. And, of course, I am swearing up and down that THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN NEXT TIME. NEXT TIME, I WILL STAY ON TASK, GET MY WORK DONE EARLY, AND NOT STAY UP ALL NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM. (Yeah, right.)
Somehow, I managed to make it out alive. It's easy to tell other people not to fall into that routine. God knows it made me abolutely miserable for the first 2 years of medical school, and I have nobody to blame for it other than myself. But I think there's also another message in there somewhere, which is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If this kind of system works for you, great. As I said, I managed to get through my first two years. It was rough as hell, but it worked.
So, as far as "free time" goes, I had a whole lot of it - except for the week before exams. During weeks 1 and 2, I rarely spent "all night" studying. There's plenty of time to work out. There's lots of "breathing easy" and going out with friends. The downside to my approach is that 7-10 days of absoulte, nightmarish hell. I'm not just talking about stress. I'm talking about stress on top of AVIs on top of self-flagellation on top of OMG I DIDN'T READ THIS PAPER on top of I ONLY HAVE 3 DAYS TO LEARN 36 LECTURES WORTH OF MATERIAL on top of I SWEAR I WILL NEVER LET MYSELF GET THIS BEHIND AGAIN on top of OMG I WANT TO DIE on top of OMG I'M GOING TO FAIL AND THEN DIE on top of "I should have never gone to medical school" on top of "No, I can't take a dinner break and go with everyone else for sushi because I'm too far behind" on top of...well, I think you get the point. I think most of my classmates can relate, in some capacity.
So, "success" is relative. Did I get through years 1 and 2? Sure. Did I keep my sanity intact? Debatable. Did I learn something? Even more debatable. I guess my point is that everyone takes a different approach. While I'm sure there's some correlation between time spent studying and academic success, there are still those who study a lot and still struggle, while others who hardly study at all manage to pass with flying colors. There's not always a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it. And there's no way you will know where you stand until you are actually in our shoes. You may be one of the lucky, one of the unlucky, or manage to fit comfortably in the middle of the pack.
Bottom line: Plenty of time to work out. (Lots of fun weight-lifting classes at the gym, right, LS?
😉 ) Plenty of time to goof off, have fun, do non-school stuff. You're going to have to find your own groove, though. No need to study 10-14 hours a day! For God sakes, you are a human being, and there's no need to put yourself through that. (The only exception is a pre-exam week, where you will feel like pond scum.)
OK, I hope that this wasn't too incoherent. It's late, I've been up since 5am, and I've spent entirely too long on UW today.
If I can replicate this mornings score or do slightly better, I'll be BALLIN'.
