Wikipedia Usage/ Day Poll

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How often do you use Wikipedia per day as a medical student for your classes?

  • 1-3 times per day

    Votes: 27 42.9%
  • 4-6 times per day

    Votes: 16 25.4%
  • 7+ times per day

    Votes: 11 17.5%
  • Not at all. I use books and my class notes only.

    Votes: 9 14.3%

  • Total voters
    63

DoctaJay

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I realize that a lot of quick knowledge I've gained has been from a wholly non-peer reviewed source, Wikipedia. But I can't be the only student who uses it couple times a day. How about you all?

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I voted none at all but realistically use it maybe twice a week.
 
I use it quite often

You'll be surprised, wikipedia is more recently reviewed by top people in their fields. And honestly, sometimes their explanations are more straightforward than most books.
 
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I use it quite frequently...it simplifies explanations for me, and it's a great resource to look up unfamiliar words that i come across.
 
warning: the following tip may just double the frequency you look things up on wikipedia.

using firefox, right click on the search engine textbox and click "add a keyword for this search."

add anything you want in the name and put "w" for keyword.

now instead of going to wikipedia.org and typing in your search, just type w *string* and it will search automatically. for instance, "w medicine" goes directly to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine

edit: you can do the same for google.
 
I voted none at all but realistically use it maybe twice a week.
Same here. I don't usually study near a computer, and there isn't a whole lot of stuff that our lecturers/Robbins doesn't explain pretty thoroughly. I usually use Wikipedia for non-medical stuff. I did use it a fair amount more in my first year though.
 
I realize that a lot of quick knowledge I've gained has been from a wholly non-peer reviewed source, Wikipedia. But I can't be the only student who uses it couple times a day. How about you all?

I have to admit it adds a new twist to the old defn of peer reviewed. So you could argue it is reviewed, just in a somewhat different way.
 
I don't study near a computer, so I only use it a couple of times a week for school-related material. I look at it quite often though when I am just wasting my time, about once a day. I enjoy reading the articles on random topics.
 
Wikipedia is getting me through medical school.
 
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