Yesterday was a horrible, horrible day in terms of studying. I didn't get anywhere near how much I wanted to get done. I went into lab with a couple friends in the morning. Lab just opened Sunday so I haven't been able to see pelvis/perineum yet. It was a horrible waste of time. And there were no professors or tutors in the lab to help out either. Whatever.
My roommate and I have this tactic where we both leave our rooms at approx 8am to study in one of the study spaces. We don't really study together, but we kinda sit together. It's been great except, I think I'm becoming more efficient at night - which results to late nights -> harder to wake up in the morning -> really inefficient all morning until evening time. And the cycle continues. I don't know if I should just try to get a good night's sleep or continue on this viscous cycle.
Anyways, here are my stats from yesterday:
Lectures: Only watched 1
Hours studying: 2.5 (which includes my lab prep, attending one review session, and half the time for my time in the lab).
Hoping for better studying tonight!
Showing posts with label Studying Log. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Studying Log. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Studying for the Future
Ever since I've entered medical school, my definition of "future" has changed from dreaming about 10 years, 5 years, or even a couple years down the road to my plan for the week or even just tomorrow. I've also been tackling how to study. I think I've got a good rhythm for biochemistry and histology, but my biggest fear is with anatomy. I don't think I really understand exactly how to study with that.
Anyways, while I do agree that studying should be done smartly, that is quality over quantity, I think there really is a minimum number of hours that a student should put in each day until things start making sense, clicking, or just sticking to long-term/short-term memory. Around midterms time, I spent an entire day going over the nucleic acids in biochemistry. I also kept a stopwatch going of how long I'm actually studying. If I got up, went to the bathroom, drank water, printed notes, etc I would stop the stopwatch. So the time on that truly indicated how much I was sitting, actively studying the material. At the end of the day (around dinner time) I looked to see what it read. I don't quite remember exactly what it said it but it was somewhere between 4 - 5 hours. THAT's IT?!? I just spent the ENTIRE day when there's 8 hours that I thought I was studying! I only really studied for half that time!
That's when I realized that I am NOT putting in the time that I think I am. So ever since midterms completed, I've been timing myself while studying. For attending review groups - I give myself credit for half the time spent. I.e. if a review group is an hour long, I'll add 30 minutes to my studying time. The past couple of weeks have been a little embarrassing in regards to how much time I'm putting into studying.
Yesterday, I decided to do the timer tactic instead of the stopwatch. It worked SO much better! Maybe because it gave me something to look forward to..? Right now, I've been doing reps of 30 minute time intervals and then giving myself a 5-10 minute break between reps. I didn't exactly start doing this earlier in the day, but it ended up going okay. As I increase my stamina, I really want to increase my rep interval to 45 minutes. Hopefully soon, but that's not on my immediate goal list. In addition, I will be logging my studying hours here - so I feel ashamed if I wasn't productive. You guys will keep me accountable, right?! :)
Yesterday:
Plan for Today:
We randomly have a day off today, so my plan is to visit the anatomy lab for an hour or two and orient myself with the pelvis/perineum. We started lower limb on Friday and finish it on Thursday of this week. That's a total of 6 lectures! I really want to watch all 6 lectures online today. I know I'm being really ambitious, but I just want to finish them so I can start questions (which is where I actually learn the most). Oh by the way, watching/attending lectures does NOT count on my hours of studying. So here are my goals for the day:
Anyways, while I do agree that studying should be done smartly, that is quality over quantity, I think there really is a minimum number of hours that a student should put in each day until things start making sense, clicking, or just sticking to long-term/short-term memory. Around midterms time, I spent an entire day going over the nucleic acids in biochemistry. I also kept a stopwatch going of how long I'm actually studying. If I got up, went to the bathroom, drank water, printed notes, etc I would stop the stopwatch. So the time on that truly indicated how much I was sitting, actively studying the material. At the end of the day (around dinner time) I looked to see what it read. I don't quite remember exactly what it said it but it was somewhere between 4 - 5 hours. THAT's IT?!? I just spent the ENTIRE day when there's 8 hours that I thought I was studying! I only really studied for half that time!
That's when I realized that I am NOT putting in the time that I think I am. So ever since midterms completed, I've been timing myself while studying. For attending review groups - I give myself credit for half the time spent. I.e. if a review group is an hour long, I'll add 30 minutes to my studying time. The past couple of weeks have been a little embarrassing in regards to how much time I'm putting into studying.
Yesterday, I decided to do the timer tactic instead of the stopwatch. It worked SO much better! Maybe because it gave me something to look forward to..? Right now, I've been doing reps of 30 minute time intervals and then giving myself a 5-10 minute break between reps. I didn't exactly start doing this earlier in the day, but it ended up going okay. As I increase my stamina, I really want to increase my rep interval to 45 minutes. Hopefully soon, but that's not on my immediate goal list. In addition, I will be logging my studying hours here - so I feel ashamed if I wasn't productive. You guys will keep me accountable, right?! :)
Yesterday:
- Attended 2, 1-hour review groups (total 1 hour studying)
- Studied for 5 hours
- Total studying: 6 hours!
Plan for Today:
We randomly have a day off today, so my plan is to visit the anatomy lab for an hour or two and orient myself with the pelvis/perineum. We started lower limb on Friday and finish it on Thursday of this week. That's a total of 6 lectures! I really want to watch all 6 lectures online today. I know I'm being really ambitious, but I just want to finish them so I can start questions (which is where I actually learn the most). Oh by the way, watching/attending lectures does NOT count on my hours of studying. So here are my goals for the day:
- Watch 6 lectures of Lower Limb (being really ambitious)
- Make a general overview of the pathways thus completed in biochemistry
- Finish pelvis/perineum questions
- Finish lab cases for tomorrow
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