what are you doing with last semester's crap?

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since we're on to new courses now, just wondering what everyone else is doing with your old notes, books, handouts, etc.? i feel like i may need some of it to study for boards, but i'm not really sure how to begin sifting through it. maybe i'll just throw it all in a big box for later
what are you guys doing?

i threw all my stuff out, only to find out yesterday that most of the classes are cumulative

I'm really tempted to toss everything, but the inner packrat refuses. Still, I can't imagine ever looking at notes that I didn't even read the first time around.

I put all my old notes/handouts into a plastic bag and keep them in my closet...

Originally Posted by lilmo

i threw all my stuff out, only to find out yesterday that most of the classes are cumulative

yep, i was afraid that was going to happen. I'm gonna go with the "throw it in a big box" style and wait until later to burn it in effigy

threw them out..there is no way you will have time to review ALL class notes for boards...a good review book and the BRS will do

Keeping me warm in the fireplace. I would never use that stuff to study for national exams

I kept the books...too much money invested. Also, some specific diagrams that I put alot of infomation on, flow charts and integrated theory stuff. Most of the notes I tossed, I looked thru them and only kept some of the clinical correlates. I agree that notes are too bulky to ever get thru again.

Originally Posted by felipe5

yep, i was afraid that was going to happen. I'm gonna go with the "throw it in a big box" style and wait until later to burn it in effigy

if i had a big box, and a really big closet to store all that stuff in...........for some reason i decided my clothes were better suited for the closet and my first semester notes for the dumpster.

Unfortunately

You will never need your old notes. Studying for the Step 1 with lecture notes is highly inefficient and once you pass and start third year you will find that a few carefully selected pocket reference books or a well appointed PDA are all you will ever need for reference.

Good Lord. If I even bothered to print out all of my lecture notes and powerpoints (which I never did prefering to study from my laptop) I would have about three hundred pounds of paper. Better to let it go. That way you won't even be tempted to go digging around for something.

i recycle ALL my notes and handouts right after the sequence is over. there's no way i'll study off old notes and powerpoint presentation slides in the future. that's what review books are for. and, as i have only purchased a few essential books, those are the only things i save and i don't have to worry about the smaller incidental books.

seriously - you're never gonna use them. you'll find the info in a more efficient, convenient manner elsewhere (i.e. a textbook, or google, or something more high-yield and specific for your questions) in the event that you need it in the future.

and by all means -- RECYCLE!! don't throw them in the trash! paper is sooooo easy to recycle!!!

Originally Posted by velouria

since we're on to new courses now, just wondering what everyone else is doing with your old notes, books, handouts, etc.? i feel like i may need some of it to study for boards, but i'm not really sure how to begin sifting through it. maybe i'll just throw it all in a big box for later
what are you guys doing?

I bought some new binders for next semester so I can save and catalouge all my old notes...never know when I might want to reference it. Plus it will be fun to look at the biochem notes in 20 years and realize that 80% of it is wrong.

At the end of every semester I threw away ALL materials related to the classes that semester.....that includes syllabi, handouts, quizzes, tests everything.

come boards time. totally useless in my opinion. I had been annotating First Aid and BRS Phys and Path like crazy the first 2 years. If it wasn't in those books I didn't care about it come boards time.

tons of my friends kept everything. Of course they had no time to use any of it ever, but many people "feel better" hanging on to stuff, "just in case".

later

Originally Posted by velocypedalist

it will be fun to look at the biochem notes in 20 years and realize that 80% of it is wrong.

Fun?

Originally Posted by thackl

Fun?

that definitely doesn't top my fun list either. it's a little depressing to spend hous learning stuff that's going to be wrong by the time we start practicing medicine.

I also have this problem. i can't seem to threw out lots of personal
stuffs.

i still have some of my old college study materials. i tried to threw
away some, but when i read them. they remind me of that particular
moment. and like those old essays, when i re-read them again, they help
me to understand how far i have improved, etc.

As soon as I am done reading and outlining a lecture, I rip it up and throw it in the recycle bin. I never go back to look at the original notes, and the act of ripping them up keeps me going.