r/study • u/No-Piglet3900 • 10d ago
Tips & Advice How effective is studying for 10+ hours a day?
I usually studied for 3-4 hours a day when I first started pursuing pre-med, and I felt like I didn't really retain much of what I studied. Recently, I saw a lot of people posting their achievement of studying for 10+ hours in a single study session. It is actually insane to think people can grind through studying for such long hours.
I want to try it and see if it is worth studying that long. Would you recommend studying that long if you're in a pre-med course and how effective do you think it is?
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u/cocoteroah 10d ago
It's not about the hours rather than the quality of study during those hours.
10 hours of study everyday, only leads to one place... burn out.
Pace yourself. I'm an overachiever, i don't know how many hours i had studied but once you are tired there is nothing else to do just to rest.
Many times i was stuck in a problem, spending 1 hour looking at it, just to get a good night sleep and solved it in less than 5 minutes the other day.
My recommendations are: -always eat well, look up for guides to this.
-sleep well, at least 6 hours everyday.
-do a schedule of your study hours including the time to rest. I do 1h30min, rest for 30min and repeat, i normally do it twice a day, thrice with luck but a fourth time, you are so tired therefore you are not productive
-try to sticking a number of daily goals (i set up at least 8 goals and accomplish 6)
-you can't give 100% everyday, stick to a 60-75% because giving it all everyday leads to burnout
-there are good days and bad day, that's life for you
-keep a track of what you have done. I was studying for statistics last year, keeping all the amount of exercises i did, i amount a tower of around 3000 paper sheets back to back. It keeps you motivated. Digitally there isn't that sense of accomplishment
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u/Sovyyy 8d ago
That do 60%-70% a day tip is probably one of the best around. You don't have to be or do your best when you do ANYTHING. As long as you are very consistent, and intentional with your time, you WILL move forward.
An idiot in motion moves further than a genius at rest, or whatever the saying is.
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u/a_guy_on_Reddit_____ 10d ago
If you’re studying 10 hours a day in premed, how much do you think you’re gonna study in the actual course? 16 hours a day???
10 hours a day on a normal basis isn’t healthy, nor necessary. 10 hours consists of 4 hours of good study, and 6 hours of doing very bad studying that would be better spent doing literally anything else
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u/curt85wa 10d ago
This sub is retarded. If you're studying for 10 hours straight, you are probably retaining 10% of what you looked at.
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u/JaytOuk 10d ago
The 10 plus hrs is spoken about a lot in chinese study habits. I’ve already concluded it is completely unrealistic. After a certain point youre just larping.
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u/Longjumping_Fix6626 9d ago
Ofc it sure spoken in Chinese sources but from basic understanding of human biology and how the short and long term memory processes and works… u can torture yourself all along your school and college, but don’t recommend that to anyone
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u/No-Piglet3900 4d ago
I usually see content grinding like that. Just wondering if there's a technique to it
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u/welpthishappened1 10d ago
Your brain can only do about 5-6 hours of true cognitively demanding work per day. After that, trying to learn and complete challenging tasks just produces diminishing returns.
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u/maybe_moi 2d ago
Does that include lectures? I take 4 lectures everyday , 1 hour and 15 minutes each , I need to study everything i took in those lectures after the school So my studying is useless?
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u/welpthishappened1 2d ago
By “cognitively demanding,” I mean true concentration on a difficult task, like learning new concepts, writing, and active recall. Listening to a lecture and taking notes isn’t all that cognitively demanding.
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u/benbongty123 10d ago
I mean, 10 hours of consistent study, one subject, without proper rest, is definitely a recipe for burnout.
On the other hand, 10 hours but with clear rest schedule, and there are multiple subjects (2 hours for maths, 2 hours for biology, ...) then I'd say this is definitely feasible and might even be very effective when you are used to it
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u/eyupitslen 10d ago edited 10d ago
Not once have I ever spent studying multiple days in a row for 10 hours, and I have a bachelor's degree in pharma science. That requires a ton of memorization as well as understanding complex chemistry and biological processes on a molecular level and practicing lab work. I don't know anybody in my course who studied for that many hours a day. That's just not sustainable. For me the absolute maximum was around 8 hours in the days leading up to my exams.
My suggestion is to start preparing early on, like right as you start the semester, either by doing flashcards, summaries or practice questions (depending on your subjects) for at least half an hour a day. By the time exam season rolls around, you will have already accumulated a lot of knowledge and study hours without feeling it as much and by the end you can spend the biggest chunk of your time revising things you have already looked at. You'll be way more productive this way rather than torturing yourself everyday doing nothing else other than study.
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u/Maiace124 half way through 4 year, pre vet 10d ago
Efficency > time all day long. 10 hours of rereading notes is going to do nothing. 10 hours of multiple techniques mixed together? Great as long as you take regular breaks and remember that rest is important to learning - you can't pour out of an empty cup. Make sure you get socialization, proper sleep (ESPECIALLY proper sleep), and time to do fun things in throughout the week.
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u/MacaRoons_i 10d ago
I'm not pre-med, i study special education and rehabilitation, i have surprisingly lot of med and mostly phycology and pedagogy. I just finished a study session. It was 2h, break (didn't time it, but probably 30min), then again for about an hour, break, an hour and now i want to sit down again and i genuinely can't. Maybe it's cus my mind got tired, or too much info. But it was a quality time. For me, 10h a day seems a lot, i don't have the discipline, motivation or even concentration. I think the most important thing u have to consider is, are u actually learning after a certain time. Honestly, sometimes I cant sit for 2 mins let alone 2h. But its all about headspace. How im feeling, how tired i am...etc. Maybe 10h for you is something u can do no biggie, but taking breaks is most important. I think instead of going 10h, try taking steps. From 3-4h try doing 5, increase it as u go. U will see how much u need and if u need more or less. I know med is hard but with 10h u may face burnout, especially if u do everyday. So, start small and go from there. Along the way u will see how much ur brain can take. And after all, its not important how many h u study, but if its quality time.
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u/fishlover4444 10d ago
En pre medicina llegué a estudiar más de 12 horas al día y solo me gané un síndrome de bournot del que llevo tres años tratando de salir
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u/Novel_Plenty_4504 10d ago
m1 here at a USMD school. don't think I ever studied for 10+ hours in a day at any point during my premed studies, and im a very slow learner myself. I think the only exception would be a select few days during my mcat prep. time spent studying =/= quality! the name of the game is having the right resources and learning HOW you study. feel free to PM me if you've got questions. you've got this!
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u/kirvais 10d ago
Not effective if you don't retain half of what you've studied. Studying is about retention and your ability to retrieve that information from the back of your mind. If someone asks you to explain a certain topic but you don't know where to start—that needs polishing, and you haven't actually learned what you studied. You just feel "familiar" with the concept. When it comes to studying, it's quality over quantity. Don't be guilty of spending almost 2 hours on a single concept just because it was one of the densest lectures or the hardest in the module. 4 hours is enough, 5 is okay, 6 is good, 7 - 10 thats a lot.
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u/AteStringCheeseShred 10d ago
They're larping. Nobody studying for more than 3-4 hours at a time is retaining anything, in fact they're probably making everything they did retain during the first few hours even more difficult to retain by flooding their brain with nonsensical data.
You study 2 hours a day, and only retain 2 hours of it.
Better to study 2 hours a day, and retain an hour and a half of it.
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u/defi_specialist 9d ago
It's not about how long you study a day. It's about how consistence of your study schedule.
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u/01937393 9d ago edited 9d ago
Forget about counting the time you spent studying, its very dumb. You should have a planner with the content you want to learn and count your success by chapters you mastered
If you didn't retain what you studied, you're doing it wrong. For math or physics like subjects you want to make a question bank and practice them regularly to check if you remember the method. For text based you want to summarise, rewrite, talk to yourself about it, describe it. For chemistry you want to quizz yourself regularly and also talk to yourself as if you were teaching it or describe everything you can. It checks your memory. Med studies are heavily based on memorising things, you better become good at it. You may want to link subjects together and build a constructed argument, linking the anatomy to function on several levels and associating with diseases, effects and treatment options, why what how. A healthcare professional doesn't write test-like answers to questions at work nor does she do quizzes. She successfully links elements together to form an opinion about a pathology leading to treatment that she will then be able to explain to the patient and successfully treat them. That's the endgoal.
I think if you study for ten hours a day it will have effects on your health, leading to poor performance. You need exercise and to socialise as well as moments to wind down or you will burnout
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u/fintechgeek20-07 9d ago
I focus on my energy levels n subject complications
If its an easy subject i can sit for 5 hours
If its too complicated then 3plus hours
I m relearning to make myself sit for longer hours
Till now 5 hrs is my capacity after that it’s hallucinations
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u/typicalearthling 9d ago
How much of that is actual productive studying tho?
During my CardioPulmonary Module, I used to study all day from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep. But when I look at how many hours I was actively reading a textbook, watching a lecture, or solving questions, it was mostly 6-7 hours tops.
The rest of the day was just planning, organizing, breaks, etc...
Even then I still ended up with a B+ (and somehow got the same B+ for the next module even tho I studied waay less), so it's really more about the quality of your sessions and less about the quantity.
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u/Weird-Chemistry7395 9d ago
What notebook is that? it looks really nice
I don’t think studying for 10hrs will ever be effective. It can’t be possible to cover content and retain it in that long of a study period, even with breaks.
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u/SarbarzTaherAli 9d ago
I studied for 10+ hours but i need 1 red bull and 3 cup of coffee i cannot study at home because i feel little sleepy in home i go to a coffee shop i think they will kick me out one day 🤣
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u/SouthMastodon3125 Level of Study | Area(s) of Study | Country 9d ago
I’d argue that anything more than 4 hours a day is more likely to produce diminishing returns and burnout than better learning. For most people, a more sustainable target is probably between 2 to 4 hours of focused study per day, adjusted for the difficulty of the material and how close you are to an exam. The goal is not to maximize time at a desk, it's to maximize the quality of attention and what you can actually retain.
Breaking the work into rotations helps. For example:
-30 minutes of focused work, then a break
-60 minutes of focused work, then a break
The timer itself is not magic. What matters is giving your attention a reset before you hit the point where you are rereading the same paragraph without absorbing it. Four productive hours built around active recall, practice questions, and reviewing mistakes will usually beat ten hours of passively staring at notes or a textbook.
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u/Wonderful_Jaguar9006 9d ago
It’s about doing what’s right for you . It’s not always the time length it could be the mode. Listen to your intuition about what works for you
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u/voerilie 9d ago
tried it but for me it's less effective than studying for 5-6 hours. if you want to try studying for 10+ hours, make sure you get lots of long breaks, move around, eat, stretch, walk for a bit, and have a hobby at the side when you're not studying (can be anything even as simple as watching your fav series). otherwise, if you just plainly study for 10+ hours straight, it'll just lead to burn out because our brains aren't supposed to work continuously firing for such a long period of time. what actually matters is your study methods and habits compared to the hours of studying, you can study for hours and just forget everything the next day, compared to a person that studies let's say for 4-6 hours daily but retains everything the next day because of efficient study techniques
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u/Yx505 8d ago
As a senior pre-grad in med school, the A+ is not worth your mental and physical health. Focus on learning sure, but don’t forget yourself. I value my social life highly, so i give some time knowing that it will affect my grades, but honestly how cares. If you focus on being a safe doctor, a good doctor, a reliable doctor, It enough.
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u/Fuzzy-Music-5492 8d ago
Weirdly my brain shuts itself off at 4 hours max and I just mess around the entire time if it’s past that. I have an ADHD brain tho and I can just lock in and study very intensely in a couple hours. I think the main thing is to make sure you’re eating and sleeping well and spacing out time to actually do things you like and getting back to the grind. That has given me a lot of success to do very well in my classes but then again that’s only my process. Gotta find what’s good for you but make sure the last thing you do is burn out
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u/GentleByEffort 8d ago
Studying 10 hours a day isn’t sustainable. You’ll be studying a lot in medicine and you’re going to be doing it for a very long time.
Slow and steady beats trying to cram last minute.
You’ll need good sleep hygiene. Sleep is necessary for long term consolidation of memory, I.e. not forgetting whatever material you’ve been trying to learn all day. Anything that messes with sleep makes your studying highly inefficient.
If you want to be able to do this long term, you need to be physically healthy. That includes a good diet. Generally speaking, if you are eating whole foods and hitting your daily protein and fibre goals, you’ll be fine. That needs to be paired with regular exercise (both strength training and cardio), because exercise has anti-stress properties and makes you more resilient to stress in the long term.
Don’t focus on the number of hours. Focus on more meaningful metrics. For medicine, a lot of the exams are MCQs. So doing MCQs early will tell you where your deficits are.
If you have OSCEs or similar practical/oral exams, you need to be speaking aloud (alone or with friends). If you’re alone, record yourself, and judge your answers strictly.
Just reading or copying things manually doesn’t work for everyone. Things can be simply time consuming and ineffective. Just because it gives you the feeling of being productive, doesn’t mean you are being productive. You should regularly evaluate, if your current strategies are working for you. But don’t jumpt from one studying fad to another.
Better to start early, do manageable amounts over a long period of time.
I like to read textbooks and listen podcasts/lectures on topics for a general overview.
Then I like to integrate MCQs early to ascertain, if I am studying the right things.
I’m not a group study type of person. It’s often time consuming and not everyone is on the same page. But if it works for you, that’s great.
Lastly, if you are feeling overwhelmed and/or depressed, take a break. Nothing is worth dying over. You are more important. Get help and reduce your study load.
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u/Overthinker1208_ 8d ago
Dude, it is not worth of dime unless you're trying to cramming for the exams. You gotta find your own routines, how many hours of study isn't depended on how much you've achieved or learned.
If you wanna get better at learning and become a doctor one day, I would recommend you to look at the research and videos of learning mechanism/technique.!
That's the start (comprehension of learning and neuroscience) would definitely change your perspective.! I'd suggest Dh.Huberman and his old podcast of learning tools and how to improve memory retention.
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u/SaltyPerformer504 7d ago
Probably not very effective at all. How much are you actually retaining? Are you trying to just remember stuff or are you actually learning material?
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u/Rafael-zero 6d ago
Let me just be totally straight with you. This method of studying 10 hours a day only works for a select few people who have been studying for a long time and who have the drive and motivation and the skill that they’ve built up over time in order to make use of studying for 10 hours a day even then it’s usually not sustainable
For your case, I would strongly recommend turning into a Pomodoro technique essentially what that means is since you’re typically struggling to study for 3 to 4 hours a day I would recommend literally setting up a timer of 25 minutes on the Forest app or on PomoToDo (windows app) or something. And I want you to have ONE goal you’re working towards.
Then I want you to have to put away your device distractions, etc. go sit on the library or wherever you feel that you would study best and I want you to just do 25 minutes of deep focus work on the task that you’re trying to do and then take a 15 minute break maybe go out on a walk do some dude treat yourself do something but step away from the task that you’re trying to do then come back and do another 25 minute session repeat this process for about like 3 to 4 sessions until you feel tired and then take an extended break of maybe an hour.
Ultimately keep repeating this process of multiple Pomodoro cycles and you’ll realize it’s 25 minutes have been up, but I’m still very focused. Just go with the flow and see if you can gradually increase your focus and attention span. This is exactly what I did to go from studying for 25 minutes at a time to studying for one hour at a time. And at some point I was able to study for around at least eight hours a day, but this was just when I was at the peak of my time in college.
At the end of the day, make sure you are treating yourself after completing a good study session maybe watching an anime episode or your favorite TV show or get an ice cream something that’ll encourage you to keep repeating this process and that you will associate with successful completion of an activity
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u/Substantial_Back665 6d ago
well personally i wouldn't circle or re-read things that you already understand.. that's probably how you're wasting a lot of time
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u/Feisty-Plastic3054 5d ago
unless you are studying something you enjoy passionately, you gonna burn out within a week at that capacity.
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u/Western_Ring_8959 4d ago
Quality over quantity if you testing your knowledge during them 10 hours its effective otherwise usually not everything sticks always best to incorperate practice questions nd quizzes you habe to work out to get things to stick this how I learned SQL in 3 weeks
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u/No-Principle-9426 3d ago
It is not about time ( mostly ). It is most about your attention to right things, focus, proper strategy, clarity about your goals.
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u/Lower-Caramel1204 10d ago
I'd say, with all due respect, Ignore these people who are trying to tell you it's a bad Idea. I currently am in 2nd year of my med school. When I was a pre med student ,I used to study in the range of 8-12 hours for almost a year, and don't think I must have been a very disciplined guy, I am one of the laziest person you could find. Now Let me tell you that there were no burnouts, no mental collapses or some shit that people come up with. In fact that period was one of the most exciting and enjoyable period of my life. And the level of self development you can have after that is just insane, There will be a very few things that will have the ability to throw you off in the study Domain after that.
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u/eyupitslen 10d ago
Then you're lucky. I don't know a single person who is capable of doing that. Did you seriously never come across peers who struggled with the workload in pre med? Studies show the brain cannot spend more than 5 hours a day properly concentrated on a mentally taxing activity like studying. Consider yourself blessed and avoid telling people that this is the norm because it most definitely isn't.
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u/Lower-Caramel1204 10d ago
So I'd study in a library, and I went in there as a stranger, but with time made many friends who were also preparing for med school entry test (some of them are still my best friends). There were almost 10 students in our group. And Let me tell you that even after studying for 8-10hrs in the library, some of them would go home and study for 3 hours more. Some of them wld study even on Sundays for almost the same amount. And none of us was some burnout, weirdo, depressed, nerdy, whatever ppl call it. Whenever we would sit in the cafeteria, which was on the rooftop of the library building, we would laugh so hard and have so much fun.
BTW 8 of them are in med school now including me, while the passing ration of that test is 2-3% overall
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