Is lecture helpful in medical school?
There’s the age-old debate among medical students, whether lecture is useful or a waste of time. Below, I present the major points of both schools of thought, after which I provide my personal experience with the matter.
“Lecture is useful” – People who religiously go to lecture do so, because they either find some benefit of attending, or they want to get the most out of their tuition fees. Others like the tradition of having a professor teach the material to the student, while giving the student a chance to directly interact with the professor.
“Lecture is a waste of time” – These people prefer to learn on their own; they don’t require formal instruction from professors to be able to master the material. They rely primarily on the lecture notes and slides posted online, using textbooks and boards-review books to supplement their understanding.
My experience with lecture – I have ventured out to both sides of the spectrum. I started off by going to lecture, but decided that I was so drained by the end of the day, that I had no motivation to study in the evenings. So, I came to the realization that I could squeeze more study-time during each day if I skipped lectures entirely, and study on my own. This strategy worked for me until the material started getting harder toward the end of first year. By that time, the amount of material we were responsible for increased, and the lecture notes and slides began to show much more detail than before. As you can probably imagine, I was having a hard time memorizing all the tiny details, and more importantly, I was having problems recalling all that information. I decided to start attending lectures again.
I found that professors would use very detailed slides during the lectures, but they would pinpoint on the screen, which material was high-yield and which was not. I started marking things that professors would refer to as “important” or “key” or if they use the blackboard to manually illustrate a topic on the powerpoint slide. I pleasantly found that this helped tremendously during my studying after lecture. I was able to focus my studies onto the major concepts and then fill in details if necessary. Further, I was able to mentally recall pictures, words, and descriptions that professors used while presenting the material – this gives your memory a boost while trying to remember some boring pieces of information.
You’re probably wondering how I am now able to study after lecture, but before I wasn’t able to. There are a few reasons for this. After taking a few exams, and understanding the level of detail we need to know for exams, along with the workload involved, I’m able to structure my studying along these lines, after lecture. This is much easier than trying to memorize everything thrown at you. Memorizing key points and facts, and understanding major concepts is more useful than memorizing everything on the lecture slides. Also, going to lecture helps draw a larger-picture for the day’s material, so when I sit down to actually study, I already have a framework to add onto.
For some classes though, I do not find it helpful to go to lecture. For example, I did not find attending Anatomy lectures useful all the time. The same with embryology lectures and histology lectures. I did go to a few, but I mostly studied on my own. You will find a balance between going to lecture and not, once you start medical school. Some classes will be very helpful, while others you can study for on your own. My advice is that you start by going to all of your lectures, and slowly cut out the ones you don’t have to go. Another word of advice: if you do go to lecture, make sure you’re not sleeping; be alert and awake because you don’t have even one hour of precious time to lose.
