Over the years, I’ve had colleagues who swore by study plans and schedules. They spent ridiculous amounts of time constructing detailed outlines of chapters/lectures to cover each day. These study schedules were very static and often did not account for varying levels of time commitment to other activities.
Additionally, they quickly fell apart after a particularly long lab session or unforeseen obligations to an extracurricular activity. With the plan in shambles, students would either jump ship in frustration or spend even more time reconstructing a new schedule. 😯
I tell med students and residents who ask me for “study advice” to just do something. Read a chapter. Work on practice questions. Teach someone else. In my opinion, these are all better uses of time! Instead of planning to study, how about actually studying? 🙂
Drop me a comment below with your thoughts on study plans! Do you use them? If so, how do you structure them?
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