Quote:
Originally Posted by Dsmoody23
I'm guessing there's a certain aspect of it you can't prepare for.
I'd be curious if any of you current students could confirm or deny, but I'm preparing for it like boot camp. Before I headed to boot camp, I spent a lot of time doing push ups, pull ups and running. And that was all well and good, but there's really no amount of preparation that gets you ready to do those push ups with 4 huge guys screaming at you and 1 standing on your back. Preparation helps, but there's a certain aspect of it all that you can't wrap your mind around until you actually get there and do it.
Hopefully that's not too much of a comparative leap, but it makes sense in my mind.
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Nope, I think you're pretty spot-on with the analogy. There are so many other factors that play into it that you just can't forsee.
Unfortunately, there isn't a right way to study that applies to everyone. One of our first classes had us figuring out what kind of learner we are so that we could tailor our methods in that direction. I'm pretty strongly visual but also auditory and I found that I retain things well when I can go over them outloud, or have someone quiz me. It's hard to work that into regular studying but it really helped for stuff like anatomy lab. As for the visual aspect, I use a lot of flashcards (awesome app on my iPad!), highlighting, color coding, drawing/flow charts, etc. I feel like I
still haven't gotten down a strategy that will apply to every class and sometimes I realize what I was doing isn't working anymore so it can be frustrating. Just keep your mind open.
The most universal thing is to keep on top of the material. I did well with that first semester but fell behind this semester and as a result it's kicking my ass. This summer I'm going to work on a strategy for next year so I feel better about it.