By:  Brigitte T

We've all heard this before: there aren’t enough hours in the day. 

That adage is just too true for surgery residents.  So how do you balance being on call long hours and studying?  Balancing work and life obligations?

Making a schedule and sticking to it

Scheduling sleep, study, meals, social activities and study time has a number of benefits.  Or make a schedule by task if you work by task bound vs time bound...whichever works best for you.   You don’t need every minute of every day scheduled.  But structure is good, and how strict is on you.  I've found that sticking to a schedule makes my day less stressful.  As a busy resident, anything that helps with less stress is plus!

You Gotta Eat 

Eating is an important part of our daily lives.  Meal prepping and eating leftovers will save you time and money as a surgery resident.  A couple hours of cooking one day a week can feed you for days--possibly even for an entire week.  Meal prepping will also help you eat more healthy. 

Plus you won’t forget to eat or be stuck grabbing something that is unhealthy on those busy on call days.  For me, eating healthier and having a meal ready to heat and eat helps me focus on more important things in my day.  And as a busy surgery resident that will help create time to review for the ABSITE.

Find Your Study Method 

One thing as you study for the ABSITE is finding the most efficient study method for you.  Learning what study method works best for you so you can make the most of your time is an important key to success.

Lisa Rebecca Medoff, PhD, a learning specialist at Stanford University School of Medicine has some thoughts:  "If you learn best from lecture, spend the bulk of your time learning from lecture and use the readings to make sure you’ve understood everything.  Or do you learn mostly from reading and spend most of your time reading?”

Wish I had learned earlier on what study method worked best for me. My study method is lecture with reading material to go along with it.  Wish I would have had a review book that followed a video lecture series for my exams!

So that's what ABSITE Smackdown! is exactly.  It's an entire ABSITE video review course with book included.  ABSITE Smackdown!  is the only review course and book together. You can review for the ABSITE from any place and at any time.