What type of daily schedules do people maintain while studying?

[nope80]

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So when school is out and people go into full blown studying for a few weeks, what types of schedules are typical? How many hours? What time do people typically wake/go to bed? How about breaks and exercising?

Just trying to get a sense of what is "normal" and what to expect. 🙂

 

[rock_climber]

i don't know about others, but I have 6.5 weeks or so to prep starting next monday. My plan is wake up ~7, quick workout at home, shower, breakfast and study 4 hours till lunch. have lunch with the wife (a teacher and a probable distraction while she's on summer break) and dog and then do 4 more hours in the afternoon. I think 8 hours a day x 5 day/wk will be my upper limit. we'll see how this goes - i dont think i've ever studied for 4 hours straight so this may be tricky. i'm curious to hear others plans.

 

[nope80]

You're so lucky to have 6.5 weeks! We only have 4🙁

 

[penguin24]

I really didn't follow a set 'schedule', but I just studied as much as I could in the amt of weeks that I set aside. You'll be surprised at how much energy you will have, this is Step 1 we're talking about! I wouldn't worry about burning out, this is what these first 2 years have been all about, how exciting.

 

[Optimator]

.

 

[BoneNibbler]

on the days I have school I only study ~10 hours
on the days off i study ~14 hours

I am trying to do ~100-150 questions a day (takes most of time about 6-8 hours......to do q's read explanations and annotate)
I want to finsh kaplan qbank in two weeks so I can start world

 

[brownshuga22]

on the days I have school I only study ~10 hours
on the days off i study ~14 hours

I am trying to do ~100-150 questions a day (takes most of time about 6-8 hours......to do q's read explanations and annotate)
I want to finsh kaplan qbank in two weeks so I can start world

OMG.. 10 hrs on a school day??? i think that is alot.. i would love to study this much though.. can u tell me the details of your schedule.. what time do u wake up/ go to sleep?? and so on?

 

[Knicks]

on the days i have school i only study ~10 hours
on the days off i study ~14 hours......................

' '

 

[ENThopeful]

on the days I have school I only study ~10 hours
on the days off i study ~14 hours

I am trying to do ~100-150 questions a day (takes most of time about 6-8 hours......to do q's read explanations and annotate)
I want to finsh kaplan qbank in two weeks so I can start world

I do the same. its really not that hard if you are focused and enjoy the material. I get home at about 12 from school, and sleep at 12. thats 12 hours, 2 of which I set aside to mess around...


I can still get 7-8 hours depending on how late to class I want to be.

 

[brownshuga22]

I do the same. its really not that hard if you are focused and enjoy the material. I get home at about 12 from school, and sleep at 12. thats 12 hours, 2 of which I set aside to mess around...


I can still get 7-8 hours depending on how late to class I want to be.

well i think u r lucky .. coz first of all i dont get from school untill 4pm or some times afterwards. so by simply doing the math ,, by the time i get back i am dead tired so after a bath and just couple of hrs to sleep and rest ... i have about 6 hrs maximum if i want to sleep by 12 and considering that i wake up about 6 am (( and i need my 8hrs ))) this is a bad idea 🙁 so generally i have about 4 hrs to study and i dont think thats enough...

 

[brownshuga22]

I do the same. its really not that hard if you are focused and enjoy the material. I get home at about 12 from school, and sleep at 12. thats 12 hours, 2 of which I set aside to mess around...


I can still get 7-8 hours depending on how late to class I want to be.

well i think u r lucky .. coz first of all i dont get from school untill 4pm or some times afterwards. so by simply doing the math ,, by the time i get back i am dead tired so after a bath and just couple of hrs to sleep and rest ... i have about 6 hrs maximum if i want to sleep by 12 and considering that i wake up about 6 am (( and i need my 8hrs ))) this is a bad idea 🙁 so generally i have about 4 hrs to study and i dont think thats enough...

 

[psammomabody]

I have ~5 weeks to study.

Monday-Friday
7-11:30 study, maybe 1 hour of questions
11:30-12:30 lunch/break
12:30-4:00 study
4:00-7:00 do questions
7:00 work out, eat dinner, relax for a couple hours

Sat:
Do 3-4 blocks of questions in the morning or NBME, go over in the afternoon, evening off

Sun:
Catch up if I'm behind from the week, reassess schedule and change if needed, then relax

 

[ENThopeful]

well i think u r lucky .. coz first of all i dont get from school untill 4pm or some times afterwards. so by simply doing the math ,, by the time i get back i am dead tired so after a bath and just couple of hrs to sleep and rest ... i have about 6 hrs maximum if i want to sleep by 12 and considering that i wake up about 6 am (( and i need my 8hrs ))) this is a bad idea 🙁 so generally i have about 4 hrs to study and i dont think thats enough...

its step1, you have to make sacrifices. sleep 6 and a half rather than 8. listen to goljan while taking a bath, and use flashcards on your way to school, boom 2 hours.

 

[BoneNibbler]

its step1, you have to make sacrifices. sleep 6 and a half rather than 8. listen to goljan while taking a bath, and use flashcards on your way to school, boom 2 hours.

nice ben. Yeah thats exactly it. Suffer for 2 months to have a great REST of Your LIfe (in the specialty you want..hehe)👍

ps. If your wife divorces you...that is on you!

 

[brownshuga22]

its step1, you have to make sacrifices. sleep 6 and a half rather than 8. listen to goljan while taking a bath, and use flashcards on your way to school, boom 2 hours.

thanks alot for the gr8 advice🙂.. i truly think that my schedule isnt working for me right now and i really need to make some changes..

 

[Captopril]

' '

I second that motion.

 

[lantus99]

Good advice! I agree that interest definitely is a factor to keep the focus going. That and on sacrifices with going through short-term hell for a long-term rewards but how do you break up and study even 12-14 hours/day? What's the secret? 🙄 I'm not pointing fingers but I could not imagine how much retention happens after 8-10 hours! I get brain fried! Just curious! Coffee?

 

[ENThopeful]

I drink at least 2-3 caffine drinks a day, but I am used to caffine so I wouldn't recommend that to everyone. I actually study more like 16 hours a day, but if you count in the time I take breaks and mess around, its more like 12-14..

 

[BoneNibbler]

I drink at least 2-3 caffine drinks a day, but I am used to caffine so I wouldn't recommend that to everyone. I actually study more like 16 hours a day, but if you count in the time I take breaks and mess around, its more like 12-14..

Yeah. I study like 17 hours a day in essence but watch tv for 1 hour before bed so its more like 16 straight hours. I actually only drink 16 ounces of tea per day, ~4 ounces every hour. It works because I never drank caffeine until I started studing for the boards.😱

 

[labwork]

I was planning on studying 4 weeks and study 8 hours a day. 4 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. My only problem is keeping focused. Studying First Aid wears me out then I hit up questions, but than I get bored of that too. We'll see what happens.

 

[Dr Angel]

I take the exam on June 5. Right now I am in my last week of school (Pharm and Behavioral Science finals on Friday). My schedule is attached in a excel file b/c I'm too lazy to type it all out. I plan on covering topics in FA, then RR, do questions on UW (random, unused, tutor) and then at night go back over the topics in FA and do FA cases.

And yes, my wife is making me go to two weddings. No way out. You better believe I'll be studying the whole time though.