Saturday, July 7, 2007

Attendance

Some mornings you wake up and just don't want to go to class. Many mornings were like this for me during my first year of medical school. I would have Jill Scott's "Gotta Get Up" playing in my head:
I don't want to go to work today
I'd rather stay home and play video games
I'd rather chill for real / I don't know how you feel

But sometimes I feel like I'm
Workin' for nuthin' / tryin' to get sumthin'

Everywhere I turn there's a bill standing out
Swim the river climb the hill
Complacency you ain't gone get me
no no no no . . .
I want to say that most days I made myself go to lecture, but there were plenty of days when I felt I needed a break from the lecture hall and remained in the quiet comfort of my apartment.

You may ask, "Don't you have to attend every lecture to do well in medical school?" My experience so far tells me, No. In fact, my exam grades improved in some units when I did NOT attend lecture. It all depends on the subject being taught, your learning style, and the
teaching style of the professor(s). Besides, you could always watch the recorded video lectures or listen to the recorded audio lectures for the days you missed if the guilt (or, perhaps, fear of missing something important) was really getting to you.

If you are not getting anything from a series of lectures, that time can be better spent on any number of things. My top ten alternatives (in no particular order) are listed below. Please feel free to add your own favorites in the comments.

  1. Catching up on sleep
  2. Catching up on grooming
  3. Catching up on sleep
  4. Catching up on laundry
  5. Catching up on sleep
  6. Catching up on "Grey's Anatomy"
  7. Catching up on sleep
  8. Catching up on "Ugly Betty"
  9. Catching up on sleep
  10. Catching up on life outside of medical school

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Attendance is not important to do well. In fact, I wish I had learned that earlier. Success in med school is based on time management and if you can cut out those 4-5 hours of lecture a day, you should do well, if you have the discipline. Sadly our professors don't seem to realize how counter-productive their lectures are. I had a professor tell me that my class will probably do poorly on the USMLEs because so many of my classmates skipped lecture.