I realize that everyone has his or her own study methods and quirks, requiring different amounts of time to assimilate the material. BUT I would like to get a sense of how much time a broad cross section of students devote to studying on a daily basis (let's use the first and second semesters as examples).

Questions:
How much time is spent on avg. per day with each of the classes listed below?
What time do classes begin, end? How much time in between classes?
Do a lot people spend class time studying on their own versus going to class?
The one class that scares me the most is Biochem. How much detail is required to do well on USMLE part.....do you have to memorize every detail of every pathway. In one of my undergrad classes, I had to recall the entire Kreb's cycle from beginning to end with every single little detail. How deep do we have to know the actual chemistry versus basic concepts and clinical applications?

First:
Gross Anatomy (10)
Embryology (2)
Biochemistry (7)
History of Medicine (1)
Biostatistics (1)

Second:
Cell Biology & Histology (7)
Genetics (4)
Phsyiology I (5)
Immunology (4)

Don't sweat it. It's ok.

Biochem is all about learning the pathways, but you don't need to know structures or anything like that for most of them. Regulated steps are important, as are mutations in a normal pathway that cause disease. It's a lot of work, but it is doable.

Anatomy is just a ton of time you need to put in. Ditto for Histo.

The rest aren't that bad for the most part. Lots of people manage, and I would say for your first couple of weeks, put in 4-5 hours a night studying and see how you feel. You can add or subtract from there.

Classes for 1st sem begin at 8AM. You have:
Biochem 8-9:20 (10 minute break about 8:40 or so)
Embryo and Biostats alternate (M/W and T/Th) - 9:30-10:20
Anatomy - 10:30-11:20 (more like 11:35-11:45 when I was there)
Lunch 11:20(ish) - 12:30(ish)
Anatomy Lab 12:30(ish) - 3:00

Then you go home, wash up, maybe nap, hit the books by five, break for dinner, prolly finish up by 10PM or 11. That's a full day, and if you stick to something like that, I would think most people would do very well. Just my opinion. I study less, some study more. But it's do-able, don't worry. Adjust your schedule for more or less time, but never shortchange yourself. Study every subject every day. Keep up, don't fall behind, but if you do fall behind, don't get discouraged, keep plugging away at it, and use your weekends to get caught up. My wife studies usually at least 8 hours on Saturdays, sometimes 12. It can be done, it just matters how much you want it.

Good luck!

***** already stated, it depends on the student. Some ppl study diligently 5-6 hours per day. All depends on the exam schedule I think. If there is no immediate threat of an exam, most ppl slack for a bit then hit it really hard 3-4 days before an exam. Some weekends I study alot then other weekends are spent relaxing. Like I said, just depends on what is going on.