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[SunsFun]

Preclinical: class, gym, protein shake, study, meal, study, +/- research
Clinical: clerkship, gym, protein shake, study, meal, +/- research

GF or going out with friends on weekends.

I eat late.

 

[sholamd]

I did my very first podcast about this! A topic dear to my heart, especially because med students ask me this all the time: "How Much Should I Be Studying?"

Here's an excerpt:
My answer to this question depends on who is asking. If you are an incoming M1 asking this question, you really want to know what to expect. The rule of thumb is that for every hour of lecture, you have to spend two hours studying. At my med school we had 4 hours of lecture 8am to noon Monday through Friday. I spent 4 hours pre-reading, and 4 hours after lecture reinforcing concepts. So yes, you did the math right, that’s about 12 hours a day. On Saturday, I would study another 3-4 hours, and I also had a study group that met once or twice a week. I always took Sunday off to spend time with my family. So that meant a total of about 70 hours a week. I know, crazy right?!?!? ...

Now, if you are a current M1/M2 and you ask me this question, “How much should I be studying,” I know you are actually trying to tell me “I’m not getting the results I want.” Usually, it means you’re studying 70+ hours a week but not doing that great grades-wise. Then it becomes an issue of troubleshooting.

And one other thing I said in that podcast is that the answer to how much you should study depends on some other variables:

1. Your goals, especially choice of specialty. It does help to figure this out early. A less competitive specialty means you can study less, whereas for specialties like orthopedics or dermatology (which is my specialty), you will need to study more if you want to match.

2. Your school. If your school is high-ranking and grades on a curve, then you’ll have to study more to stay at the top tier of students.

3. Your personal speed. If you are a slow reader, you will take more time. If you can process information faster, like lecture capturing at double speed, you will take less time.

My point here is that you have to recognize these variables, come to terms with them, and make sure you are holding yourself to appropriate standards. At the same time, give yourself permission to stop comparing yourself to other students and study the amount that makes you feel confident with the material.

OP, I hope this got at some of the things you were asking about!

 

[Lannister]

I wake up at 10, get to school around 11, then study from ~11-7 (that includes time spent watching lectures, mandatory activities, etc.). After that I go to the gym, eat dinner, and relax, then go to sleep at midnight and do it all over again the next day.

 

[Willfrye027]

I like to think about it in terms of when I'm NOT studying. I take a 10 minute or so break for every hour of studying. I get 8 hours of sleep a night. Friday nights/evenings are sacred- NO STUDYING. If my brain is too tired to keep studying, I take a break and come back to it. My goal is to be mentally tired at the end of every day and know that I did my best. So I don't exactly have a set study routine, but my default is to be studying. Some days, 9 hours is just too much and will burn me out for the next day...other days, you need to push through and study for 14 hours. It all depends, which is why I don't like a set schedule.

 

[sholamd]

For pre-reading for those 4 hours, would you read out of a textbook, slides, or a combination of the two?

Also, with class starting at 8am how would you get all that pre-reading done in time? Were lectures recorded and you just watched them later in the day? Sorry for my confusion, just trying to understand everything better

Yes I always did lecture capture because I could watch lecture at 1.5 to 2.0x which just made sense to me. I had classmates who were really motivated by sitting in a live lecture though, and that worked for them. I would wake up and do the reading for that day's lectures (my school had modules and I used those exclusively for pre-reading), then watch the lectures when they were released on video that afternoon, then do my studying/making memory palaces/flash card reviews at night. I wasn't always perfect and had to be a little flexible sometimes, but this was my usual routine.

One other thing I tell people in my course is that the lecture (and associated slides) is a checkpoint. Lecture should be used to reinforce material, and to make sure you didn't miss anything important. I avoided looking at slides ahead of time because then I couldn't use them as a checkpoint.