Skipping lectures / Learning how to study

[xvndr]

Hey friends,

I’m matriculating from an SMP into my school’s DO program in just about a week. During my SMP years, I feel like I developed really great study habits, but of course the volume of information was nowhere near what medical school will be. I’ve been considering going to lecture for the first week or two and see how that goes, and then likely studying from home after that.

My main worry is that class 8-5 will leave me with very little study time outside of class once you factor in a break after lectures and cooking/eating dinner.

So, a couple questions for those of you who have developed good study techniques skipping lectures:

1) What does a typical day look like for you?
2) What do you do if the professor doesn’t upload the lecture that evening?
3) Even though you’re studying board-relevant material, do you feel like you may be missing some random/obscure material that will be tested on your school’s exams?
4) Any tips/advice you can provide me?

Thank you all for your time - I appreciate you!

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[Billiam95]

Are you sure you have class 8-5 every day? That'd be more than double the class hours per day than I've ever heard.

The people you need to be asking these questions are upper year medical students at your school, as you need to find out how closely your classes, exams track with 3rd parties. I no longer go to lecture or study lectures, but my curriculum and in-house testing tracks closely enough to let me pass comfortably (plus, my school uses NBME questions for block exams).

If you are able to skip lecture, here's what I do:

I'll grind Anki review in the AM, then start new content (BnB, pathoma, sketchy, FA, etc) and associated new cards. I'll usually do this for about 8 hours a day during the week + 6 hours a day on the weekend. I don't worry about missing small details from lecture - my mindset is, if it isn't anywhere else besides some ppt, my time is probably better spent studying something else.

I'd recommend trying out different methods until you find your groove; if the same way of studying guaranteed a 270, there'd be a lot more 270s. My 2 concrete pieces of advice:
1) invest in a good Q bank (or 2)
2) start a pre-made Anki deck early. I use AnKing, but there are others (Lightyear, etc).

 

[Kardio]

1) What does a typical day look like for you?
2) What do you do if the professor doesn’t upload the lecture that evening?
3) Even though you’re studying board-relevant material, do you feel like you may be missing some random/obscure material that will be tested on your school’s exams?
4) Any tips/advice you can provide me?

1. Look at school curriculum -> figure out corresponding videos in Boards&Beyond, Pathoma, Sketchy, or rarely OME -> watch corresponding videos -> Anki cards for corresponding videos. Mix practice problems in thereafter.
2. It makes no difference to me because I seldom use school material. This isn’t a dig at my school; the premade Anki cards & corresponding videos are just too high-efficiency for me to use school material on the regular
3. I’m certain that I’m missing something - but very often having a firm foundational understanding of the core material (which you get from boards prep) will give you the tools to answer lecture-specific questions. I’m comfortable with getting the hyper-specific “did-you-show-up-to-class?” style questions incorrect.
4. Give the aforementioned study strategy a shot when you can afford to bomb an exam (although you probably won’t do as bad as you think). Many people are too afraid to try it. Once you take the plunge, you probably won’t look back. I have never failed an exam with this strategy.

 

[calvinhobbes]

You have to become a speed reader. Re-read everything at least 3 times so it’s in your memory and then you can recite it to yourself without notes in front of you.

 

[drducky.]

Are you going be re-taking your SMP basic science classes? In that case you might have a light year. I found it unhelpful to ever focus on my class ppts and lectures because they are just bad. There's tried and true resources like BnB and Pathoma that have been vetted and helped students for many years so I'd use at least one of those (skim class lectures before exams). When I started ignoring class ppts, I realized everything clicked better and I was understanding the principles and bigger picture so much more, which helped me retain so much come year 2 (along with Anki). I didn't do any question banks 1st year except Kaplan for cardio, pulm, and renal physiology which I think was very helpful. I have mandatory class from 8-5 and still felt comfortable keeping up with material. OME was golden for everything OMM.

I never thought about it like that but it’s very true that 3rd party resources help you connect things better, which is what you need for boards.

For example in our inhouse lectures, the phd in biochem would tell us to memorize the steps of respiratory burst. The microbiologist would tell us about catalase positive bacteria. The pathologist would talk about chronic granulomatous disease. No one actually puts it all together for you because each professor just focuses on their field.

 

[Goro]

Hey friends,

I’m matriculating from an SMP into my school’s DO program in just about a week. During my SMP years, I feel like I developed really great study habits, but of course the volume of information was nowhere near what medical school will be. I’ve been considering going to lecture for the first week or two and see how that goes, and then likely studying from home after that.

My main worry is that class 8-5 will leave me with very little study time outside of class once you factor in a break after lectures and cooking/eating dinner.

So, a couple questions for those of you who have developed good study techniques skipping lectures:

1) What does a typical day look like for you?
2) What do you do if the professor doesn’t upload the lecture that evening?
3) Even though you’re studying board-relevant material, do you feel like you may be missing some random/obscure material that will be tested on your school’s exams?
4) Any tips/advice you can provide me?

Thank you all for your time - I appreciate you!

Read this.

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2018 edition)

If you did well in the SMP, you do well in med school.

 

[djiboutiman]

I only go to lecture if it’s mandatory. To answer your questions:

1. My daily schedule is something like:

Morning
-Wake Up
-Anki Reviews
-Workout
-Board Material corresponding to the days lectures (BnB, Sketchy, etc.) + Anki

Afternoon
-Finish relevant Board Material
-Watch lectures at 2x speed + do Anki cards from Anki deck made by previous year student, that were not covered by board prep materials

Evening
-Dinner
-Finish any class material
-Chill
-Sleep

2. If the professor doesn’t upload their lecture, then I’ll just watch it the next day or on the weekend. My schools is pretty good about getting lectures up same-day or one day late at worst.

3. You should still hit the class material and not do only board material 100% of the time. I use boards material as my primary resource because a lot of our professors make things overly complex and the outside resources are presented in a simpler way. I have classmates that only use class material and seem knowledgeable as well.

4. Stick with what works. If you did well in your SMP, then keep using that study method for medical school. If you find it doesn’t work, then try to use the board material as a first pass with class lectures as a second pass. My school only does 4 hours of lecture on most days, so I’m not sure how my method and schedule would work for you.

 

[Cornfed101]

It can vary quite widely depending on your professors and even between units. At least that has been the case for me. It’s been much better M2 because the class of 2023 really figured out how to make super comprehensive Anki tags that covered everything in anking as well as supplemental decks that only cover what is missed. I haven’t attended any lectures this year and I’m doing really well and studying less than last year.

Figure out what the class ahead of you did and if they can share resources. That’s going to be the most tailored to your situation, but if you want to skip lecture it should be doable at any med school with correct planning.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Went from being a low 70s student to a high 80s student by switching from anki instead of class —> going to all classes and using the Feynman method. A lot of people like anki but I didn’t find it as enjoyable as what I currently do and that made it harder. We have class an average of 4 hours a day, plus 1 hr OMM and a few hours of Clinical Skills per week. Most days we have either 3 hours or 6 hours so my schedule is not consistent. I go to all my classes then study for as long as I can after that. Usually ends up being 7-9 hours, adding up class and outside study. If I have 3 hours of class I can study for 5 hours outside of class and vice versa. Weekends I study 6-8 hours. I’m able to get two passes over all the material this way, not counting lecture, with the first taking an hour and the second usually taking a less time. I stay engaged during class by answering and asking questions and lightly annotating the ppt so I count it as a semi-pass. I’m not sure if this would work for everyone but I’m fine if I shoot to be busy 8+ hours a day and using active learning strategies for all of that time.

edited for clarity