Reddit reviews How to Study in Medical School

Try a few different techniques to see what works best for you. Everybody is a little different. Some people learn very well by teaching - even if it's to an inanimate object like a television or the wall. I think it's more effective teaching it to a human, because to make them understand, you need teach them the basics needed to understand that subject matter. (You may be tempted to skip that step if your "student" is a wall.)


The teaching process forces you to rethink the concept in your head, and to imagine different ways of explaining it, like thinking up analogies.


I read this book. His method involves making notes - that is, handwriting or typing all the information he needs to know. This not only condenses notes to make future review easier, but in the process of paraphrasing and summarizing the material, you are actively thinking about it - describing it in your own words, or drawing diagrams to summarize mechanisms, etc. THAT is the main reason you want to make notes - to force yourself to think about the material. Getting condensed notes from someone greatly diminishes the learning process. Yes, you have condensed notes, but you skipped the most important part, which was forcing yourself to think of the material in a way other than passively staring at the textbook or handouts given to you in class.


Making notes is very time consuming, but the advantage is that you know the material better, and reviewing later on is much faster. If you have to study from those notes years down the line, you will understand it easier since you wrote it, and since you made it concise.

For me, being flexible on the hour-to-hour schedule and instead focusing on my daily task list worked best, especially for research life. The American Physician Scientist Association website has a series called "Day in the Life" which you might find interesting. For medical school, this book "How to Study in Medical School" offers some tips on how to structure your day and might give you insight into what the medical school schedule might look like.

Here is how my schedule has been year-by-year (we do MS1-3, grad school, MS4).

During MS1 and MS2: M-F classes 8-12n (either in class or streaming videos), lunch, mandatory activities like labs, standardized patient activities, other special sessions in the afternoon 1-5p, studying all evening. Variably working out, hanging out, or playing video games for breaks. I'd study all weekend for as long as I had motivation (~6-7hrs), and socialized for breaks. I did not participate in any research during these years.

MS3 schedule depends completely upon what rotation you are on. Outpatient is 5 days a week, inpatient is 6. You can assume at least 8-12 hours of your day (usually within a 6a-6p window) are spent on clinical duties, and another 2-3 on studying for the rotation and shelves. I prioritized working out as soon as I got home before studying as it provided a lot of stress relief. I got involved in a clinical research project which worked on during the weekends.

Summer lab rotations between MS0-MS1, MS1-MS2, and GS1 (where I am currently): I go to lab at 8a, work on experiments until seminars/classes/meetings happen around 12n, and then stay in lab until the tasks I set for myself are done (normally 6-7p). I write, work out, and hang out in the evenings.

Hope that helps!