I will say that I find that 77 hour figure to be full of baloney. One aspect of medical school curriculums that has changed drastically over the years is the amount of time spent in class. Students used to spend the traditional 40-hours in class for didactic lecture. Now, many schools have split schedules with students attending class from 8-12 on M, W, F and then 8-2 on T, TH--or some variation thereon.
Dental schools, however, have been slow to grasp the fact that a greater number of lecture hours doesn't directly equate with students knowing more or doing better on exams.
Sure, not all medical schools have curriculums like that, but many do.
The 1st year med students that I know average 20 hours of lecture a week and study for another 20 on top of that. I'm not saying that there aren't students who do 77 hours, but I think it's pretty unlikely. Especially since the good Dr. lists this as an average. I think it's probably very much so on the high end of hours put in during the first year.
I chose 60 hours for the poll simply becuase I'm at school M-F from 8-5 (which is 40 hours), and then I study an additional 2-3 each night on top of that. Because dental school curriculums are very traditional when compared with our medical counterparts, the winner of the poll should be somewhere between 40-60 hours. Most of us are spending 40 hours in class each week, and additional studying is thrown on top of that.
