Books that teach memorization and study skills

[Scuderia21]

I will be starting my journey to med school in a few months, starting from scratch with a degree in Biology. I am 27 and having been out of school for about ten years, I want to make sure I have my habits and studying techniques up to par for maximum grades and absorption. I am concerned I may not be able to memorize things as easily, I am nervous about starting school again, and I cannot or will not do poorly or average. I need stellar GPA's. Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that help teach memorization techniques or study habits that will help me along my journey? Anything that will help my undergrad sciences grades as well as for when I get to Med school. Memorization is huge! As well as study habits and techniques. Thanks all.

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[dsoz]

I will be starting my journey to med school in a few months, starting from scratch with a degree in Biology. I am 27 and having been out of school for about ten years, I want to make sure I have my habits and studying techniques up to par for maximum grades and absorption. I am concerned I may not be able to memorize things as easily, I am nervous about starting school again, and I cannot or will not do poorly or average. I need stellar GPA's. Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that help teach memorization techniques or study habits that will help me along my journey? Anything that will help my undergrad sciences grades as well as for when I get to Med school. Memorization is huge! As well as study habits and techniques. Thanks all.

Sorry that I don't have anything to help you with your question. I do wish you luck and skill with your journey.

Memorization may be HUGE, but long term understanding is more important. Especially if you want an easier time with the MCAT.

My advice is to start slow, only a couple of difficult classes at a time, then when you feel like you have mastered that challenge, then ramp it up a little, then a little more, then a little more.

Also, balance is key. Don't become a one track pre-med. Family is important, Friends are important, Having a social life is important. Extra-curricular activities are important. Make sure you have time to volunteer, shadow, work, exercise, love, hate, and laugh.

I am 42, and starting med school this summer. You have plenty of time to do this journey and enjoy the ride.

Your obsession with having all your classes PERFECT and "not poor or average" is concerning to me. That type of attitude will burn out really quick. Do the best that you can, work as hard as you can, but if things don't turn out PERFECT, don't beat yourself up or go off the deep end resulting in someone getting hurt (yourself or others). It does not take PERFECT stats to get into med school (maybe it does to a top ten school, but there are a lot that are not top ten). Many people get in with a less than perfect GPA.

Good luck. I hope that you do well and make it to an acceptance to medical school someday soon.

dsoz

 

[Scuderia21]

Thanks for the encouragement, and for that advice. I think I have it in my head I have to be like a "PERFECT" student to be accepted to any med school. I do need to do well, but also enjoy the ride and not constantly beat myself up about every little thing. This is something I need to remember. Thanks again.

 

[Patassa]

Thanks for the encouragement, and for that advice. I think I have it in my head I have to be like a "PERFECT" student to be accepted to any med school. I do need to do well, but also enjoy the ride and not constantly beat myself up about every little thing. This is something I need to remember. Thanks again.

I started my post-bacc adventure a year ago telling myself I had to be perfect academically, or as perfect as I'm capable of being. That mindset has served me well, I don't get 100% on every test, but I try to. Because, why not? I only get one shot at this and I'm trying to make a statement.

I'd whole heartily agree, you should not and can not be average, most of your competition will be far above average. Maintaining close to perfect for 4 years would be really really hard so I can't really speak to that. Take it one semester at a time, one test at a time.

Read up on the Physiology of short term and long term memory, knowing how the memory works should give you a good foundation on how you can optimize yours.

 

[Patassa]

I will be starting my journey to med school in a few months, starting from scratch with a degree in Biology. I am 27 and having been out of school for about ten years, I want to make sure I have my habits and studying techniques up to par for maximum grades and absorption. I am concerned I may not be able to memorize things as easily, I am nervous about starting school again, and I cannot or will not do poorly or average. I need stellar GPA's. Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that help teach memorization techniques or study habits that will help me along my journey? Anything that will help my undergrad sciences grades as well as for when I get to Med school. Memorization is huge! As well as study habits and techniques. Thanks all.

For Physics and Organic, forget about memorizing anything. Work hundreds of problems. Biology is all memorization. General Chemistry is somewhere between the two.

 

[Girly X]

^This. For pre-reqs and MCAT do practice questions till you are blue in the face and you will do well. I've heard memorization skills will play a bigger role in med school , so I plan to make Anki my best friend before I start this summer.

 

[Scuderia21]

Forgive me, but what is Anki?

 

[Girly X]

Forgive me, but what is Anki?

It is a flashcard program that uses spaced repetition. Lots of med students use it and I heard it works very well for long term memorization.

 

[Scuderia21]

I will definately look into that.

 

[deleted520847]

This post was from 2013 but does anyone know if Anki is still the go-to software to assist with this or is there anything else that trumps it now? The software I downloaded looks like it has not been updated in a while

 

[ZPakEffect]

If you want to go to medical school, don't major in Biology or any hard science. Major in something easier and just take the minimum prerequisite science courses necessary for medical school. This will make it much easier to attain that near-4.0 GPA that you need to be a competitive medical school applicant.

 

[popopopop]

This post was from 2013 but does anyone know if Anki is still the go-to software to assist with this or is there anything else that trumps it now? The software I downloaded looks like it has not been updated in a while

From the looks of the MCAT section, Anki is still the way to go. I rather have physical flash cards, but I can see how Anki might work for some.

 

[popopopop]

If you want to go to medical school, don't major in Biology or any hard science. Major in something easier and just take the minimum prerequisite science courses necessary for medical school. This will make it much easier to attain that near-4.0 GPA that you need to be a competitive medical school applicant.

I really appreciated all of the extra courses I took besides the pre-reqs, ended up doing well. It's not like it's getting any easier when I'm in medschool, why cheat myself early? My traditional friends had the advantages when it came time for the MCAT, as MCAT chem just isn't a big deal when they've dealt with 4 years of rigorous science courses ala biochem majors here at my uni.

 

[ZPakEffect]

I really appreciated all of the extra courses I took besides the pre-reqs, ended up doing well. It's not like it's getting any easier when I'm in medschool, why cheat myself early? My traditional friends had the advantages when it came time for the MCAT, as MCAT chem just isn't a big deal when they've dealt with 4 years of rigorous science courses ala biochem majors here at my uni.

Of course medical school is tough, but getting in is far tougher. Over 95% of medical school matriculants eventually graduate. Only 40% of medical school applicants matriculate in any given year. It is better to get a high GPA and improve your chances to get in than it is to Quixotically challenge yourself with tough upper level science courses.

The MCAT is not a science test; it is a reading comprehension test. I only took the minimum prerequisites plus Genetics and scored a 39 on the old exam. IMO, my Ethics and Logic classes taught by the philosophy department were far more important to my high MCAT score than any science class.

 

[popopopop]

^Oh, as a retaker, I understand what you mean, and recently there's been a good thread on content vs comprehension in the MCAT section. One of my strategy this time around was to get a deeper understanding of rhetoric and analyzing essays. There's a fine line in the practical and being a miser when it comes to majors, but at the end of the day, just pick whatever you'll be happy with for a few years.

Speaking of the original post, I've read a few books on memorization and they all essentially told me to try and incorporate as many senses as I can when dealing with rote memorization. There's a good TED talk about memory olympiads if someone cares to watch.