Study Habits

It's a bit fascinating looking at study habits of medical students. Though at UCSF, there are far fewer ultra-competitive cutthroat students, they do exist. I'm not being critical. If it works for them, that's fine by me. A pass-fail grading system smooths out the extremes of Type A personalities. There are students who pre-empt lectures far in advance, who consult books upon books, who orient themselves to exam questions. They do fine in medical school, and I assume they do fine as doctors too.

On the other hand, some students fall in my camp. We don't pick up our syllabus (course reader) until an exam is imminent. I don't worry about preparing for anything other than small groups. I don't worry about reviewing lectures. I attend all my classes, and that seems to be pretty good for me. I can read through the syllabus in the week or so prior to an exam and do fine. Despite this, I don't neglect medicine. I love medical school. I just spend a lot of my time reading journal articles, pursuing projects, thinking about issues that make this discipline so dynamic and exhilarating. The curriculum is great, but thinking outside the box is what interests me.

Most people fall somewhere between the two extremes. It's nice to be in an environment where not everyone is focused solely on exams, school, and career. I suppose it's also nice to be in an environment where not everyone is as lazy as I am.