Study tips ???

I periodically reread my powerpoint slides throughout a module and then put in a good two days of solid studying before the exam. I've found that putting that 30 minutes of review in most days is enough to keep the material fresh in my mind, and I don't need to do as much cramming...

redcard said:

Anyone willing to share some of his/her golden study tips ??

I don't need tips telling me how to relax " cuz i got plenty of those "

I want tips that can leave me totally burned-out (with neck/butt pain ) .

what does work for you guys and what doesn't?

I for example find it very enhancing to start studying directly after waking up whether it is a good night sleep or a nap (without watching T.V or doing anything else that might disturb my thoughts in between) ... and i find naps very helpful too.


Taking 10-15 min. breaks on the other hand doesn't work for me (unlike many others ).


So anyone care to share !?

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Study Method Part I: What it takes to be an Excellent Student



In a very basic sense, we all learn the same. We must understand the material and then see it over and over again. In undergraduate, because of the low volume of learning, a person can get away with all sorts of weaknesses. However, the best students will often not have to alter their study methods at all for medical school.



To be a good student, the intangibles are required: work-ethic, dedication, and self-confidence. However, in medical school, you will discover that almost everyone has that. The filtering process of undergraduate has removed most of those that lacked these intangibles.



At this point it comes down to study method. The students who have the best methods are called geniuses. The students who have the worst methods flunk out or barely pass.



Get this in your mind and keep it there: It is the study method that makes the good student!!!



Now, one last important point, it is most important that one realizes that every good study method comes down to just a few things. You must understand the material by translating it in your own language. You must then review the material over and over again. You need to see the material at least 4 times with an optimum of at least 6 times. And finally, you need to review over several days. That is the best way to do it. When methods have these simple points in them, they are good methods.







Study Method Part II: 3 Most Common Mistakes by Medical Students:



Please note: premed students make many of the same mistakes..



1st NO NO: Don’t oversimplify the material..



I’ve now had the chance to watch many students flunk out. Every single one of them gave the same response. “Well, the material was easy to understand. It’s just the volume of information.” Wrong, Wrong, Wrong… The few times that I spoke to a student about this, I would ask them questions about the material that they understood. Again and again, I would notice a superficial memorization process in their answers. This is why they were overwhelmed on the questions. Medical school and USMLE test questions are conceptual. You don’t get that many memorization gimmies. You need to understand the material and manipulate it in your mind. Understanding the material is not easy. It takes effort, but it is a rewarding endeavor.



2nd NO NO: Don‘t just read and reread the material. You must take your own notes..



I’ve seen this countless times. In almost every case the student who did this was failing. A good student takes their own notes and transcribes things into their own words. This is critical because you are translating the notes into a language that you understand. Students who don’t do this will end up failing. This is basic study strategy and it must be done.



3rd NO NO: Don’t start to review the material on the day before the test.



Student who are doing bad are often as tired as they can be. They stay up all night before the test slaving. They put in incredible 18 and 19 hour study days on the day before a test.. Yet they still do bad. You have to understand that the mind is a muscle in many ways. You can’t work it for 18 hours straight. Review needs to start well-before the day before the test. Give those concepts time to become entrenched within your mind. In undergraduate, you can get away with not doing this. In medical school, it’s a very bad idea. Remember, medical school is like the pros. You need to be better. A good method has review built into it, such as the method that I will present.





Finally, here is an overview of one study method that will work in medical school. Enjoy. Let’s begin. This method will address every defiency that medical students make.



1st: You must preview a lecture. You can count this as the first time that you seen the material. Go here for how to preview a lecture:



Before every lecture, I preview the material. Now, I should explain where most medical students go wrong -- where I went wrong. Previewing the material SHOULD not involve reading it for 2 hours! That is LEARNING the material.



Previewing involves creating a roadmap in your head. You need to develop a feel for where the lecture is going. This will remarkably increase comprehension. There are two methods for doing this:







How to Preview a Method





Method 1: 8 Sentence Process-Oriented Method



Look over the lecture. Write 8 general sentences explaining the lecture. The 8 sentences need to relate as a process. Make sure that you leave plenty of space between each point. The goal is to come back and fill in the details under those 8 points. Always be aware that the main point of this is to create a roadmap in your head. You need to have a feel for where the lecture is going. Within time, you will be able to do this in a few minutes. Please remember that you don’t need to learn the lecture during the preview phase! You just need to develop a feel for where it is going.



Method 2: 8 Sentence Question-Oriented Method



Look over the lecture. Write 8 general questions that you have about the lecture. The 8 questions need to cover multiple aspects of the lecture. Make sure that you leave plenty of space between each question. The goal is to come back and fill in the answers under those questions. Again, be aware that the main point of this is to create a roadmap in your head. You need to have a feel for where the lecture is going. Within time, you will be able to preview within a few minutes. Please remember that you don’t need to learn the lecture during the preview phase! You just need to develop a feel for where it is going.





Now, let’s do a brief tab. So far, you have seen the material one time for preview. You only went over it for a few minutes, but those were an essential few minutes as you will now come to see.





Getting Something Out of Lecture: the Actual Lecture Itself:



This part is relatively simple if you engaged in the previewing method.



You need to bring your 8 or 10 sentence list to class. As the professor lectures, check each point that you feel the professor has covered as the professor lectures over it. You may still take notes on another sheet of paper. But use the "checklist." It takes two seconds to check a sentence. Whenever the professor has not touched something, put a question mark by it.



Use the question mark if you don't understand something also. Write it down and then put a question mark by it.



IMPORTANT: it is extremely important that you put a question mark by anything that you don't understand and IMMEDIATELY see the professor about it!



Now, after class is over or during class, ask questions about everything that you don't understand. Don't be embarassed. Just tell the professor that you didn't understand it.



Derivation 2: Write down each point that you don’t understand on a separate sheet of paper. Go see the Professor about it.



Now, there is a Part II to getting something out of lecture. If the professor initally explains something and you still don't understand it go to the professor‘s office hours. Ask the professor to explain it again while politely telling him or her that you didn't get it. If you still don't understand it, ask the professor again -- but this time try to be more specific in determining what aspect of the professors explanation is causing problems.



If you don't understand it for a third time, go home.. pull out a book. Read it. Come back the next day and ask the professor to explain it again. You will most likely get it.



It is important to understand that you can still do well in medical school without going to lecture. It’s just that you will have to study a lot longer and harder than if you learn how to retain information from lecture. It’s advantageous to use a proven method, such as this one, that will help you utilize things like lectures.



IMPORTANT OPTIONAL DERIVATION: Many learning psyschologist maintain that you should do an additional step. You should take 10-15 minutes immediately after the lecture to re-read the material. I will personally do this, but it is optional. Supposedly, studies have shown that it greatly increases comprehension.



Time for a Tally. You have seen the material one time for Preview. You have also seen the information 1 time in lecture. That is two times. If you do the Optional Derivation, then you have seen the material 3 times! But lets assume that you don’t do the optional derivation. You’re at two times right now. It’s time to learn how to cover a lecture..





Covering the Material:



Now, we enter the next stage of learning.



This should be the third time that you see the material within 24 hours (possibly fourth)! When you finish covering the lecture, you should have everything entered into memory, save a concept or two that you will need to ask the professor about for clarification.



You must learn to become a transcriber. This means that you must get used to transcribing the notes or books that you have been reading into your own, concise words.



This needs to be in an organized format. Something that naturally flows within your own mental construct. What’s important is that you learn to word your notes in a clear, concise fashion.



Second, and this is extremely, extremely, extremely important. You must diagram. Now, you might find yourself copying diagrams and pathways. That’s okay. You need to do that. But challenge yourself to try and create your own diagrams and drawings also.



The process of learning and memory works like this. Learning something is a skill.. That is, you understand something as a process and you are able to master the process within your mind. Afterwards, you form logical representations within your mind of various relationships. This is what enters the information into long-term memory.

You’re a thinker suddenly. Your thinking through your information as you study it. You’re finding relationships, and it enters memory. That is the whole key to learning! You have to form relationships.



Think about this.. What is a mnemonic.. A mnemonic is simply a relationship that links words to a simple concept. In essence, you are forming a primitive relationship of the scientific material so that it enters memory. Now, imagine the power of forming your own relationships. You will remember things longer and faster.



Train yourself how to think through material. Many medical students never master that and they pass. But they never become excellent at mastering the scientific material. You can, but you have to work hard to learn how to do this..



Now, I can explain why the diagram and drawing is so important. The diagram that you make represents interconnecting relationships that you have made yourself. At least that is the case when you make your own diagrams. Use drawings, use boxes, use learning trees ect.. Try to understand the process.



Challenge yourself to make at least 5 diagrams per a lecture at the beginning. After that, you will naturally find how many you need for the information to enter memory.



Finally, make sure that you understand everything. If there is word that you don’t know know, look it up! If there is something that you don’t understand, ask for help. You need to understand these concepts to form relationships.



IMPORTANT!!! There is a common question that should be addressed. People often ask how to diagram and how they should ask their questions. That is a very good question, and it is easy to answer. The best way to learn how to word your own notes is to look at the professor’s lectures. Take a look. You will notice plenty of diagrams along with concise, interconnecting points.



When you get done with covering the material, your information should look like a lecture that you prepared. Imagine yourself getting ready to present it in front of the class. Imagine having to answer questions about the material. That’s the key to covering this stuff.



After you finish going through all the trouble to make your own notes, make sure that you organize them in a folder. You will use these for the review process.



It is time to take a Tally. You have now seen the material 3 times (4 times if you do the optional way). You know it (mostly).



Now, it is essential that you review like a madman or manwoman. This is where the difference between a high-pass and honors student takes place.















The Review Phase



If you don’t remember anything else, remember this: The Review Phase Must Happen Over Time!!!!!!!!!! Let me say it again. The Review Phase Must Happen Over Time!!!!! The best method of review is to do it over time, not all in one day.



Review 1: This occurs the day after lecture. Spend no more than 10-15 minutes reviewing a particular subject each day. But there is an art to reviewing also. Most students make the often repeated mistake that I used to make. They simply scan over the material and call it review.. Hell NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



This is how you review. Read over your previous notes – the ones you made the day before. You’ll be able to do this in about 5 to 10 minutes after you get a little bit of practice.



However, while doing this, you will need to do something else. You will need to do something that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else on the web. You need to challenge yourself to add at least 5 sentences to your notes.



Now, in these 5 sentences, you should be able to link concepts to something else. Write down the relationship in a brief sentence. You will become so good at this that you will be able to do this in 10 minutes.. It is essential that you link your notes to existing concepts within your mind. This is how things stay in long-term memory.



It’s time for the second review.



2nd Review.. Now, you need to see the material a 5th time. This time spend 5 minutes skimming over the lecture – mainly looking at the major points of your concise, diagrammed, lecture notes. Try to add at least 2 sentences to it. It should take no more than 5 minutes.



At this point, you are done with the material for one day.. So, let’s recap really quickly.



In review, you spent 10-15 minutes going over the previous days lecture. You added 5 sentences to your previous notes linking them to existing concepts within your mind. During the other 5 minutes (you need to spend 20 minutes reviewing), you went over the material that you reviewed before – adding 2 sentences to it. Once again, you are linking it to an existing concept within your mind. Concept building is the key to learning.



Okay, so by now.. You’ve seen the material 5 times in 72 hours!! You’re probably saying enough already.. But it is not over yet.



6th.. During the weekend, you must do a master review. You need to re-read over all the material that you were given. You can skim through it, but you need to go over it for around 2 and a half hours. And guess what.. You need to add more sentences. Try to add 5 to 10 sentences over the entire week of information. This will be the 6th time that you see the information.



In fact, spend every weekend reviewing the material for that entire unit!! So, that you never forget it.



7th.. Finally, let’s fastfoward. The day before the test. Spend 4 or 5 hours reading through all of your concise notes and sentences that you added. You’re ready to make close to a 100% on the test. Reread through the original lecture notes also.



One special note.. You will realize that you will see the material multiple, multiple, multiple times. But each time that you see it, you add something to it. In essence, you never get behind.



Now, I once had a question that you may have right now. I realized that you would see the material several times for older information. But what about the new information. Remember, that by the third time that you see the material, you should know everything. So, it will be fresh in your mind by test time. Plus, you do a master review on the day before the test. So, you will see everything at least 4 times. Most things, however, you will see at least 7 times!



Think about it.. By 7 times, you will probably be sick of the material!!!

In Summary,





Oh, what I would have given for someone to have given this to me before medical school. Please remember that there are a variety of different methods that will work in medical school, but the best methods are the same. They all involve understanding the material and reviewing it like crazy. Seeing the information multiple times is the key.



As an afternote, I am including two other methods that I have seen successful students use. I want to emphasize that the method that I gave is very good. It’s turned many poor students into top students. It’s turned good students into better students. But, it’s good to see other methods. Notice one common thing. All of the good methods involve the same basic principle. You must understand the material and then see it over and over again.

thank you for those notes shanighias

Tagged for when I start in august. Thanks!

I'm try to keep this short. Don't use coffee, energy drinks, or any beverages besides milk, juice, or water. Wake up at 7 am, go to sleep at midnight. Don't stay-up late! A lot of people have this thinking that you are studying more by sleeping less, but it's actually the opposite, you are being less efficient.

Make notes every day for each lecture that you had, summarizing everything in that lecture. Type your notes, copy-paste important diagrams in the original lecture notes into your summary notes. This saves time instead of drawing figures. Do this every day and you MUST make GOOD notes. These notes are your golden ticket. It's not a copy of your lecture notes. When the weekend comes, you review all of your summary notes for each course. You got 48 hours, you can do it. Then next week starts, you keep adding to those summary notes and lectures progress. Weekend begins, read your summary notes again. Etc. Etc.

By the time the exam comes, just re-read your summary notes which you already have been doing, since you've been doing it so much, it shouldn't take long to complete all of your lectures for the course you have the exam for. All that is left is do practice questions. This is where most people fail. When you do practice questions, the source is very important. FIRST, do questions that your professors post or recommend. Then, go to secondary sources such as USMLE preparatory books. Don't MEMORIZE answers to questions, learn why the answer is what is and why each of the other answers are wrong. Due to the high volume of questions, students will get lazy and once they know the answer to a question, they won't bother to read the explanation. DON'T DO THAT. Overconfidence is a big mistake. There will be lots of extraneous memorization facts and drugs, MAKE flashcards for those!

Location - study in the library, not in your room UNLESS it is completely quiet in your room. I find studying in the library helps because others around me are also studying, so this motivates me. When I'm in my room, I tend to procrastinate a lot.

Promise yourself that you will complete a certain set of questions and lectures. Then reward yourself if you finish with watching a movie, fav. tv show, whatever AFTER you accomplished your goal.

Moral of the story - the person with the best, concise, notes has all the tools for success, the rest is up to you.

My way of studying is rather unconventional. I alternate between reading and doing practice problems. I seldom take notes unless I'm really having trouble organizing information in my head. I'll try to get 2-3 passes of the material before an exam. For the second pass, I'll either re-read the first text or will read a different text covering the same material, perhaps in more depth than the first reading. Additionally, I also skim through the lecture slides from class before exams.

I also make sure I sleep a lot. I'll sleep 7 hours at night and I'll break up the day with a 1-2 hour nap. I won't study more than a few hours without sleeping. Otherwise I don't retain anything and it's sort of a waste of time.

I also leave time to sit and just think or do nothing and let my brain process in the background. I'll sometimes put together a list of questions I have and then go through and answer them.

shadowfox87 said:

I'm try to keep this short. Don't use coffee, energy drinks, or any beverages besides milk, juice, or water. Wake up at 7 am, go to sleep at midnight. Don't stay-up late! A lot of people have this thinking that you are studying more by sleeping less, but it's actually the opposite, you are being less efficient..

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that's crazy talk. I get plenty of sleep. Caffeine enables me to work when my brain doesn't want to, even if im not tired.

I would say this is just evidence that everyone studies differently. And while ure working on what works for you best, do your best to ignore everyone else's techniques.

don't judge me shadowfox just cause i love coffee

I tried the take notes for every class everyday thing....it was really inefficient for me.

I've now adjusted my studying depending on the class- for example, biochem is a lot of rote memorization (for our exams, anyway)- so I use flashcards. For histo, I go through pictures again and again and talk my way through things while I'm looking at pictures.

I'm big on efficiency, because being well-rested, well-fed, and getting exercise and doing the things I enjoy is important for me. I make >90% on all of my exams (have even had a few perfect scores), and I promise I do less than most of my peers. I stopped going to lecture and started watching them online at 2x speed, big help once I got past the guilt.

Find what works for you, make adjustments as you go. I found it difficult at first to "give up" the note-taking because it made me feel bad, but it is stupid to waste time when it isn't necessary.

That being said- I went back to learning objectives/notes for physio. Just depends on the class!

And questions are good- this is what I'm definitely going to try to do more of second year. Questions are awesome!

Stixman28 said:

that's crazy talk. I get plenty of sleep. Caffeine enables me to work when my brain doesn't want to, even if im not tired.

I would say this is just evidence that everyone studies differently. And while ure working on what works for you best, do your best to ignore everyone else's techniques.

don't judge me shadowfox just cause i love coffee

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That's the reaction I get every time I tell someone I don't drink coffee. I didn't even drink coffee in 4 years of engineering. I honestly don't think it's necessary. If I'm sleepy, then I will go to sleep. Let my body rest and then go at it again when I wake up. I feel like **** when I drink coffee and I'm sleepy. All you need is adrenaline which is all mediated by will. Btw, I'm not judging you, I just gave my opinion and study tips. Do what works for you.

One word: Anki

shanighias said:

Study Method Part I: What it takes to be an Excellent Student

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This sounds like an interesting method, but does it actually work for the amount of material in med school classes? Have you seen it done successfully? Has it worked for you?

exi said:

If I may offer an unsolicited opinion: be wary of adopting someone else's study strategy and forgetting what got you here in the first place. I say this because when I first started, I had this idea that I had to find a new way of covering all this material we had thrown at us. It took me months to ultimately end up doing something very similar to what I did long before I even applied to medical school.

Experiment and find what's most efficient, but don't feel like you're going to necessarily need new study tips. Everyone adjusts and finds their own groove in med school. The only thing that's almost universally true is that you're going to have to seriously step up your game even though most med students were the "quick study" types in college. Day one of med school had many of us thinking "oh ****, we're not in Kansas anymore."

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Haha no worries. It's just that the method he described was very similar to one I used towards the end of college and in grad school. I would essentially condense down my powerpoints/lecture notes. I thought that his detailed explanation was a way i might 'ramp up' my study techniques. Also, I really learn best by having others quizzing me but i'm afraid that it'll take time to find a solid study group with a similar style in med school (i don't many people who study like i do). So i was interested in methods that will allow me to 'self study' in a more efficient manner reminiscent to my own. Thanks for looking out though i definitely appreciate the advice!

Mind you i'm still a 'premed' but, if anyone cares to read it, i've written out my study method for college/grad school below:

I think these 'concept notes' really speak to my study style. I get a blank sheet of computer paper (I find a blank sheet of computer paper works better than lined cause you can write smaller), I would list the concept /basic idea that i was trying to learn. This means i have already read / have a pretty detailed understanding about what i'm tryhing to learn and i'm just trying to burn it into my memory banks.

So instead of a long drawn out written explanation of the g protein signaling cascade, i would write something like this :
-G protein - alpha, beta, gamma; disease-itis

That, way, whenever i looked at this 'note' i would work my way (mentally) through the signaling cascade...the disease-itis is like a fun fact/ detail fact that is linked to this concept. That way i learn the concept plus a fact that is easy to recall and highly testable. Any time I stumble/forget a piece I go back and re-read the detailed explanation - sometimes i add one or two more words to prompt me or to learn more details that i missed on the first pass (never whole sentences!!). It forces you to learn it really well. Also never write down the things you know!!! I got stuck doing this so mcuh in the college! I'd write **** down in my notes like "G proteins are signaling molecules that are hetero or homo dimers". I just make sure to associate those words (hetero and homo dimers when you see the g protein word..you'll get it after a few times just try to mentally recall everythign you know about the topic - you'll be suprised by how much will just come back to you).

bucks2010 said:

This sounds like an interesting method, but does it actually work for the amount of material in med school classes? Have you seen it done successfully? Has it worked for you?

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That's the whole point. Taking notes condenses that material into something that is do-able and gives you time to do practice questions. Most people don't have time to make notes, so they end up annotating notes and then studying that. Then when it comes for exam time, they have very few hours to review everything, so they instead take the shortcut route and just do practice questions aka cramming. That works for short-term, but not for long-term.

For people who use Qbanks during second year, how do you make sure you don't prematurely run out of questions before actual Step 1 preparation, a month or so before the exam?

what shanighias posted is definitely an ideal method, but not one which is very practical with time. I understand if you're in med school, and studying is the most important thing, then that method will work, but undergrad is about balance and I can't really see how you can continuously and consistently pull off that much note-taking and review while keeping up with your non-academic activities. undergrad isn't that difficult, and such a rigorous method is inefficient imho

sugarcrash56 said:

what shanighias posted is definitely an ideal method, but not one which is very practical with time. I understand if you're in med school, and studying is the most important thing, then that method will work, but undergrad is about balance and I can't really see how you can continuously and consistently pull off that much note-taking and review while keeping up with your non-academic activities. undergrad isn't that difficult, and such a rigorous method is inefficient imho

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You're in the medschool forum.

The method posted by shanighias is great but it doesn't work for classes that aren't purely memorization. For example, to succeed in term 1 gross anatomy you have to draw structures, go to wet lab, do review questions, then go to wet lab more, work in groups, the go to wet lab some more and do more review questions.

That method is deal for classes like biochemistry where all you have to do is to memorize everything that's in the lecture notes.

exi said:

As far as learning new stuff, it's all six vs. half-dozen as far as I'm concerned, so long as you're actually retaining material. Doesn't make a bit of difference if you'd rather create review sheets or rewrite notes or reread notes or highlight like some crazy color-obsessed kid or what -- whatever is overall most efficient for you for whatever you're studying. But I'm not so sure about the "practice questions = cramming" part.

Practice questions from quality question banks, to me, are an excellent way to apply what you know and better solidify concepts. That's as far from cramming as you can get; that's reinforcement. Third and fourth-level questions usually require that you think your way through them anyway, so that's pretty much the polar opposite of what cramming is.

I've become a practice question ***** in med school, mostly because practice questions are collectively the cornerstone to my Step 1 approach.

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There's nothing wrong with doing practice questions. What I said was if you ONLY do practice questions to study for an exam because you don't have to review the lecture material - THAT is cramming imo.