I wanted to ask you guys about your course load

With the amount of information thrown at you during medical school, and the number of tests…does it almost feel like you’re cramming for every test?
What I worry about is learning things “for the time being” instead of having things locked in my brain for a while and through the remainder of med school, residency, and practice.
Or, do clinicals help solidify things?
Thanks

Quote:

With the amount of information thrown at you during medical school, and the number of tests…does it almost feel like you’re cramming for every test?
What I worry about is learning things “for the time being” instead of having things locked in my brain for a while and through the remainder of med school, residency, and practice.
Or, do clinicals help solidify things?
Thanks


Hi there,
During first and second year, I studied almost every day. After the first week, I devised a plan that enabled me not to cram. It was along the lines of preview, listen to lecture, study lecture, review and then start the process over again the next day. On the weekends, I reviewed the previous weeks work.
I also studied like the exam was two weeks before the actual exam. By doing this, I was usually more than prepared by the time the actual test came along. Again, I reviewed often and kept up. In medical school, if you get behind, you can wind up in dire straits.
Most people fail out of medical school because they do not put in the time required to master the material. While you can’t learn everything and while you can drive yourself crazy trying to learn everything, you reach a compromise where you know what each chunk of material demands and you give it.
While I never felt totally prepared for any exam, I always felt like I gave it my best shot. I didn’t pull allnighters and I was never a person who crammed. Cramming only puts things in your short-term memory and can bite you on USMLE.
During the clinical years, your are usually “pimped” on basic science questions so again, the cramming isn’t going to help you much. Learning to function clinically and learn clinically takes good powers of observation and the ability to listen. This is lost on many medical students and is far more difficult than doing the basic science stuff. It is actually the clinical learning that you will do for the rest of your life and so many people have difficulty getting the “hang” of getting a good history which is 90% of making an accurate diagnosis.
Natalie

Alright

I just wondered since I hear about all of the information thrown at students. It sounded like you don’t have enough time to go over the material and actually learn it.
I guess you do. If you do it real quickly. But not cram.

Quote:

With the amount of information thrown at you during medical school, and the number of tests…does it almost feel like you’re cramming for every test?





What I worry about is learning things “for the time being” instead of having things locked in my brain for a while and through the remainder of med school, residency, and practice.


Or, do clinicals help solidify things?





Thanks







What NJBMD said, I study everday, read lecture notes read chapters and then repeat the studying. I spend most weekends going over as much as I can. Yea it’s a lot but cramming will not work for this, too much to know.

Great words of wisdom all - thank you for this post.

jeffc

For me, being in class from 9-4 each day means I need to spend much of every evening studying. I find that if you even let up for one day, you get behind. Since I am offshore and in the trimester program, that has been the case every term except my third, which was a breeze for some reason. Now, with two weeks left in my final term of basic sciences, I am starting to think Step 1 (though I will have a term of intro to clinical medicine and test prep) and will have to freshen up on the first year courses.

The first month or so I went to all my classes and labs, then came home (exhausted) and studied more. I ended up finding out that this was sort of a low yield strategy for me.
Now, I pretty much skip all my classes and self-teach the material at home from texts and handouts.
OMM continues to be the bane of my existence and makes me wish I had applied exclusively to MD schools. The stupid stuff you do when you’re engaged…

I have always been a lecture person, and thought this was going to continue at med school. However, my school has an amazing resource in that they videotape every lecture, which are posted about an hour after the actual lecture is given. The audio is very good, and you can even use a program that speeds up the video in increments up to 2.5x.
I find the lecture videos very helpful. At first, I just used them to study (re-watched at 2 or 2.5x speed). I was utterly amazed at how much I picked up the second time through. Now, with a new baby at home, I pretty much rely on just the lecture videos. You can watch them from anywhere.
I am a convert, and I would never even think of going to a school without this service.

My school also has the online lecture video service. It is an incredible resource. I’m in a PBL track with access to all the lecture based stuff from both first and second year curriculums. The value of it is tremendous. My work load is heavy… its med school no matter what your resources are but studying at home or really anywhere with internet access is fantastic. I don’t know how everyone does it without this option.