When do you study during 3rd year?

[carn311]

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This is probably a really stupid question. But when do you guys study? Is there enough downtime when you're at the hospital that you can read a review book? Or do you have to go home and read on your own time?



Also, did your study methods change from 1st and second year? During my preclinical years I made a lot of notes and studied from those. I'm guessing that this will take way too much time. So should I study exclusively from books? Is there anyone who take notes throughout the day and reviews them later?

 

[pincheeric]

You study whenever you can. That usually means having a review book on you at the hospital so you can read when nothing is going on. You should also study hard on days when you leave the hospital early since you will find it difficult to study on days when you leave late. Do some studying on days off, but also use days off to do something fun to relax. I usually recommend reading at least 1 review book for each rotation, 2 if you read quickly, then just doing practice questions for the the rest of time.

 

[Law2Doc]

You study whenever you can. ...

Agreed. Some rotations you will have down time, in others you will have to squeeze it in in the evening or your few weekends off (Along with reading up on your patients and the various presentations you also have to do at these times). It's part of the reason 3rd year is a bear.

 

[Law2Doc]

...

Also, did your study methods change from 1st and second year? During my preclinical years I made a lot of notes and studied from those. I'm guessing that this will take way too much time. So should I study exclusively from books? Is there anyone who take notes throughout the day and reviews them later?

No study approach works equally well for two people. If you found something that works, use it until it doesn't, and then adjust it accordingly.

 

[DaveinDallas]

Absolutely agree with L2D ---

I'm one of those people that used to do ALL of the assigned reading...and I do mean ALL of it......I just vapor locked when I tried to read a review book with an OPCD-ish feeling that I was missing something if I didn't do ALL the reading.....

In 3rd year I quickly modified that to what has worked thus far....Case Files for each rotation and practice Q's out the wazoo.....I don't study really well when there's a boatload of activity going on around me so I use flashcards I've made from Step2CK for quick memory type of stuff.....

Adapability is key....I try to get in 2 to 3 hours qday unless I'm exhausted....but then all I do is study, work, eat and sleep.....workout, fun, movies, relaxing went out the window with the first class of first year.....

 

[JStub]

I try to read 1 to 3 cases out of casefiles each day

 

[nlax30]

1 week into my first rotation and so far it's just been read whenever I have down time. The hospital I'm at now has a few rooms just for medical education so I bring a few IM books (though we do have a wall of books in pretty much anything you'd want to read up on) to read when we have some down time... usually in the afternoon.