Study tips for medical students & How to study in medical school
8 Guaranteed Steps To Study For Long Hours In Medical School
Keyword: Study Long hours without losing concentration
If you can study for long hours without losing concentration, you’ll be a genius in medical school. What other folks read in 2 weeks, might take you a week, because you’re able to stay longer, and achieve more in a short time.
But, It’s Not Easy!
Planning study schedules can be one interesting aspect for a medical student. Since there’s a whole lot to cover in medical school, you make plans to read for long hours every day.
But when it comes to the main deal, as in getting it going, problems sets in. You can’t study for long hours without losing concentration. There are messages to reply to, quick reminders, or maybe a phone call to distract you.
You planned to read for six hours, but you ended up reading for two. Time passes by, and you noticed you hadn’t covered much. But this has to stop.
In this post, I’ll be dropping down 8 Sure steps to study for long hours without losing concentration. I’ll also give tips to take to ensure you are successful in this venture.
Ready? Let’s go!
Study tips for medical students & How to study in medical school
Here are some of the Guaranteed Steps to Study For Long Hours Without Losing Concentration.
1. Decide to Create the Habit
Have you ever seen students who read for extended periods? You might come to check on them and find that they’re still in it, grinding, doing the stuff.
They can even go as far as 5 hours at a go. They take reading as an obligation, a do or die affair and a responsibility. Then you begin to wonder, how do they do it?
The thing is studying for long hours without losing concentration is a habit that you can develop. You can also be like that, but first, you’ve got to decide that you want to create this habit.
Surely yes, it’s not going to be a smooth ride, but if you follow the right steps continually, you’ll also become resilient, and able to read for extended periods without losing attention.
So the first step is to affirm that it’s a habit that can be developed, and that, you’re willing to commit whatever it takes to develop it.
2. Get A Convenient Reading Environment
Studying in medical school shouldn’t be a chore. Medical courses are so interesting to learn that you naturally want to spend more time. However, where you study can affect whether you’ll be able to study for long hours without losing concentration.
If you want to make you reading enjoyable, then get a convenient environment that you’ll always head to when you want to be read. It can be a favourite spot in the library or an area in your room, or just anywhere you want. But ensure it’s convenient for you, and stick to it!
READ ALSO: Tips on how to be self disciplined
3. Take A Nap
Research has shown that stress decreases productivity, and productivity levels increase after rest, and that’s true!
Have you ever read after a short nap? Be honest, don’t you feel refreshed, and able to take down more topics as compared to when you didn’t sleep? Obviously, yes, you become more productive and can last longer.
Not only does taking a nap help you to study for long hours without losing concentration, but it also assists you to understand more. You’ll begin to notice that those concepts which were once difficult will now be like a breeze!
On the other side, if you don’t rest before you read, you’ll become sleepy, and tired amidst your study session.
If you want to make the most of your study hours, that is, making sure what you’re reading sticks, then you should relax before your study.
4. Refuel Yourself
You’re not a robot. You feed, exhaust energy, get tired, and feel hungry. That’s okay. But if you want to study for long periods, ensure that you’re not hungry. Hunger can be a major distraction to a successful study in medical school.
“While in medical school, I do notice that in days when I didn’t take breakfast before leaving for classes, I usually get tired and lose focus. But as soon as I ensured to eat each morning, everything changed. My productivity levels increased, and I could concentrate better in classes.”
So before you go in that long reading streak, ensure you get a healthy meal or snack. Fuel yourself, and make sure you don’t go in hungry. You can also take in snacks to refuel amidst your reading session. This act will be super helpful in reducing the need to leave the reading table.
5. Eliminate Distractions As Best As You Can
Textbooks set, study plan made, now you’re reading to study as everything is now perfect. But then that notification sounds, a message from your friend asking you a question.
And as expected, if you reply, you might lose focus, and then begin to get into twitter, WhatsApp or any other interesting thing to do. But this has to stop.
If you’re in on how to study for long hours without losing concentration, you’ll need to let go of social media, turn off the internet, and focus. No matter how self-disciplined you are, if you keep your phone connected to the internet, the chances are that you’ll get distracted.
Research has proven that 57% of A students who are extremely successful in school, don’t make use of the internet or any internet resource while studying. Not that those things are wrong, but they might distract you rather than helping you.
Asides that, you should also reduce distractions in your environment to the barest. Here are some tips on that:
💠Turn off all notifications.
💠Put only the texts you need in front of you.
💠Use headphones to listen to music.
6. Break your Study Session Into Tiny Bits
Like any goal, breaking your study session into tiny bits is a good way to achieve success in the long run. Whether you want to read for 5 hours or more, you can split the session into short parts of 30 minutes or 1 hour.
A tip here: make use of a timer. Start the timer once you’ve begun reading and having a part, stop reading and take a break. Access what you’ve read so far, and continue!
7. Read With Quizzes or Past Questions
Studying at a stretch can sometimes get boring, but with challenging quizzes, you’ll be up with sharp attention, and able to study for long hours without losing concentration.
Asides that, reading with quizzes help to challenge you and give you a clue it key areas to concentrate on while reading a text. It can also give you a clue of how the exams will look like.
8. Reward Your Self
Motivation is real. If you consider a topic stressful to read, chances are that you’re not motivated to do it. You can start to read for long hours without losing attention if you set a reward system that’ll motivate you to read.
It can be a short term reward like; watching a movie, playing a sport, or even hanging out with friends. All you need to do is to discipline yourself not to get something until your goal of reading is achieved.
In the same vein, the reward system can be long term. You can create this system by looking at the big picture, considering what the benefits will be if you steadily have a productive reading plan each day. Examples can be to get a distinction or to become an expert in a field.
Whatever sounds good to you, ensure you create a reward system that’ll motivate you to do the job!
Final Thoughts
In this post, we’ve discussed how to study for long hours without losing concentration. We’ve looked at practical steps to take to ensure you achieve this feat.
Do you agree with the 8-steps I talked about? Have you tried them out? Was it helpful? Let us know using the comment box below!
Anaso Emmanuel is the founder of medicsdomain.com, a website aimed at driving excellence in medical school. He wrote this article on Study Tips for Medical Students.
