How do you take lecture notes in med school?

[Lifeblood_20]

Not a med student, just posting here to get some perspectives. What do people like to do to learn the lecture material efficiently? So far with my heavy science classes I print out the slides and take notes on paper; however with this habit when I review the slides + notes I tend to get caught up in the nitty gritty details instead of the bigger picture. Plus I quite literally never read my notes...

Any suggestions?

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[libertyyne]

Opinions will vary,
I do not take notes in medical school.
I smash the space bar like a monkey getting ready to be launched into space.

 

[Osteosaur]

Every morning I review my Anki cards, and speak the answers aloud (So I know I'm retrieving the information and not simply recognizing the card). Every afternoon I watch prerecorded lectures at 2x speed and create cards based on slides and what the lecturer emphasizes. As far as the "bigger picture" is concerned I make a few cards asking myself to summarize some general concepts. The key is making sure you get it right when you make the card, or following up days later if the card makes no sense.

My grades and quality of life shot up by a good 10-15 points on my last two exams doing this.

There is a lot of information you need to retain over a long period of time, while simultaneously learning new information. Its not really a learn and purge, hob-nob with the professor to show you're smart kind of deal. Anki spaces out those reviews and re-exposes you to the material, briefly, days or weeks later to keep it fresh.

What you're asked to do in undergrad may be very different from medical school, bare in mind. The goal for the first 2 years is to answer stuff about this on a standardized test we will take in 2 years time. So how we do it may not be (yet) relevant to you.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Every morning I review my Anki cards, and speak the answers aloud (So I know I'm retrieving the information and not simply recognizing the card). Every afternoon I watch prerecorded lectures at 2x speed and create cards based on slides and what the lecturer emphasizes. As far as the "bigger picture" is concerned I make a few cards asking myself to summarize some general concepts. The key is making sure you get it right when you make the card, or following up days later if the card makes no sense.

My grades and quality of life shot up by a good 10-15 points on my last two exams doing this.

There is a lot of information you need to retain over a long period of time, while simultaneously learning new information. Its not really a learn and purge, hob-nob with the professor to show you're smart kind of deal. Anki spaces out those reviews and re-exposes you to the material, briefly, days or weeks later to keep it fresh.

What you're asked to do in undergrad may be very different from medical school, bare in mind. The goal for the first 2 years is to answer stuff about this on a standardized test we will take in 2 yearst time.

I have heard many people do something like you, relying heavily on Anki, but I really can't imagine studying off of Anki like that I don't like flash cards because the info feels so disjointed and I'd be limited on how much info I can put on them.

 

[libertyyne]

I have heard many people do something like you, relying heavily on Anki, but I really can't imagine studying off of Anki like that I don't like flash cards because the info feels so disjointed and I'd be limited on how much info I can put on them.

The basis of learning information is understanding and retrieval of information after some duration, not making notes. The more you retrieve information from your brain it becomes more solidified. Spaced repitition through anki is an extremely efficient way of accomplishing this.

There many ways of forcing your brain to do this and space out the learning.

doing practice questions.
Doing anki cards
Reciting from memory
writing down from memory


If people can cram all of medical school in anki, or a language in anki, you can cram what ever class you have into it.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

The basis of learning information is understanding and retrieval of information after some duration, not making notes. The more you retrieve information from your brain it becomes more solidified. Spaced repitition through anki is an extremely efficient way of accomplishing this.

There many ways of forcing your brain to do this and space out the learning.

doing practice questions.
Doing anki cards
Reciting form memory
writing down from memory


If people can cram all of medical school in anki, or a language in anki, you can cram what ever class you have into it.

Yeah I agree; I guess right now from that list I mostly learn from reciting/writing down from memory -- can be pretty inefficient.
How would you suggest someone who's never used Anki start with it?

 

[libertyyne]

Yeah I agree; I guess right now from that list I mostly learn from reciting/writing down from memory -- can be pretty inefficient.
How would you suggest someone who's never used Anki start with it?

How else does one a learn a new skill now?
Go play around with it.
Watch some youtube videos about it
Read about it online.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

How else does one a learn a new skill now?
Go play around with it.
Watch some youtube videos about it
Read about it online.

Laaaaaaame

 

[libertyyne]

Laaaaaaame

Consider this your first lesson in life-long-self-directed learning. There is a lot more of it in your future if you end up going to medical school.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Consider this your first lesson in life-long-self-directed learning. There is a lot more of it in your future if you end up going to medical school.

In all seriousness, yes I know what you mean. I will work on that.

 

[Osteosaur]

Download anki. Set up an account. Sync to phone. Make a deck. Make subdecks using "deckname::subdeckname". Set new cards per day to something higher than 20. Done.

My advice is don't get too fancy. People do all kinds of stuff with cloze deletions and image occlusion. The idea isn't to recognize specific questions but regurgitate concepts.

One might be something conceptual: "Describe countercurrent mulitiplication in the loop of henle. What is the end result?" And I would write a good, short, paragraph after some diligent checking.

Or something more specific:

"What apical channels are present in PCT? What basal channels?"

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Download anki. Set up an account. Sync to phone. Make a deck. Make subdecks using "deckname::subdeckname". Set new cards per day to something higher than 20. Done.

My advice is don't get too fancy. People do all kinds of stuff with cloze deletions and image occlusion. The idea isn't to recognize specific questions but regurgitate concepts.

One might be something conceptual: "Describe countercurrent mulitiplication in the loop of henle. What is the end result?" And I would write a good, short, paragraph after some diligent checking.

Or something more specific:

"What apical channels are present in PCT? What basal channels?"

Thanks, this is helpful!

 

[MedScat]

One semester in to med school and I still can't figure out Anki. I just started doing my systems blocks (starting with cardiology) and the boards and beyond videos are SO helpful. For the other stuff such as biochem and genetics, I would draw out the big picture and then after drawing things out a bunch of times, I would then try to retain some of the details. Histology is just finding as many images as possible to expose your brain to so you can recognize many forms of the same thing. Anatomy, I just used the lecture slides and wrote directly on them (referencing Netter's as needed but, Complete Anatomy was more helpful). In my opinion, anatomy was the easiest of my blocks so far

Full disclosure, with my method (After anatomy, during anatomy I could actually take days off!), I study every single day for at least 4 hours after lecture. It is exhausting but its what works for me. I did not take many of the classes in undergrad that my classmates took so I have to work a little harder and I am aware of this. Everyone on SDN loves anki but, most of my classmates do not use anki (at least the few I speak to). I've had to be flexible since each class has been different. Good luck! I am at a U.S MD school FYI

 

[Coltuna]

Every morning I review my Anki cards, and speak the answers aloud (So I know I'm retrieving the information and not simply recognizing the card). Every afternoon I watch prerecorded lectures at 2x speed and create cards based on slides and what the lecturer emphasizes. As far as the "bigger picture" is concerned I make a few cards asking myself to summarize some general concepts. The key is making sure you get it right when you make the card, or following up days later if the card makes no sense.

This is pretty much exactly what I do too. This way I'm fresh when I'm actually actively studying as opposed to just brute forcing my way through learning after watching 3-4 hours of lecture (on 2X speed). One thing that I've found especially helpful is having notability open on one half of my ipad screen and Anki on the other half. By using the scissor tool in notability, I can quickly cut and paste whole slides into the "back" section of my anki cards and just type a few questions into the front section. By transferring all of my notes to Anki, I'm basically guaranteeing that I'm actively studying and not just reading the powerpoints.

 

[PathoTurnUp1865]

Nobody does class stuff anymore. The ones who do, don’t do as well. Books and lectures are the olden times. Lecture videos, anki and q banks are the new times. Get with the times kid or you’ll get lost.

 

[BobbyKoch]

This is pretty much exactly what I do too. This way I'm fresh when I'm actually actively studying as opposed to just brute forcing my way through learning after watching 3-4 hours of lecture (on 2X speed). One thing that I've found especially helpful is having notability open on one half of my ipad screen and Anki on the other half. By using the scissor tool in notability, I can quickly cut and paste whole slides into the "back" section of my anki cards and just type a few questions into the front section. By transferring all of my notes to Anki, I'm basically guaranteeing that I'm actively studying and not just reading the powerpoints.

this has been my approach, too, except I use desktop to do it. I use the "10 questions per card" mod on Anki and write a few questions for each slide. this way I'm not just glossy-eyed staring at powerpoints. by the exam I've got a really good sense of the material conceptually and often some idea of what is on each slide. worked well in an SMP, happy to hear it still works in med school.

 

[aldol16]

Basic science classes are very different from med school. Med school is about details and memorization. Some stuff you can reason out but usually there's at least a few fundamental facts that you just have to know. For example, you have to know that bone marrow consists of precursors for RBCs, myelocytes, and thrombocytes and these cells are mitotically active. From there, you could reason out that immunosuppressive therapy which hits rapidly-dividing cells will kill off these cells and cause symptoms related to that. This is why Anki helps with med school - memorize the fundamental facts that you need for reasoning. This is also why it works with language. With language, you have to memorize fundamental things like vocabulary base that cannot be reduced to a heuristic. Conversely, you wouldn't use Anki with every conjugation of every verb because that can be boiled down to a heuristic - for present tense, add this; for past tense, do this - that can be applied to any verb root.

For basic science classes, you can't really do this. The fundamental principles are few - you can certainly use Anki to memorize these but chances are, you already know them just from applying them so much - and the difficulty in these courses is the depth, not the breadth. You have to know the fundamental principles really well and apply them in diverse situations. That's what science is about. For example, you could memorize exactly what an aldol reaction is, what reagents to use, etc. but that won't help you much on an organic chemistry exam. You will need to apply the aldol reaction to a structure you may never have seen before and consider it in context of ten other reactions that may occur on that scaffold. Then you need to use the appropriate reagents/conditions. At an advanced level, you wouldn't even be given any guidance - you get a complex structure and the only instruction is to synthesize it from smaller molecules. So for basic science courses, I would recommend doing a lot of practice problems and making sure that you really understand the fundamental principles behind whatever you're studying. Draw it all out if you have to.

 

[Quantal Reasoning]

Straight to anki as I watch lecture. I realize there are (probably) already existing cards for the material, but it's part of my learning process.

 

[mehc012]

Download anki. Set up an account. Sync to phone. Make a deck. Make subdecks using "deckname::subdeckname". Set new cards per day to something higher than 20. Done.

My advice is don't get too fancy. People do all kinds of stuff with cloze deletions and image occlusion. The idea isn't to recognize specific questions but regurgitate concepts.

One might be something conceptual: "Describe countercurrent mulitiplication in the loop of henle. What is the end result?" And I would write a good, short, paragraph after some diligent checking.

Or something more specific:

"What apical channels are present in PCT? What basal channels?"

This is literally the opposite of how most SRS sources tell you to use it.
If you're good at writing flashcards, you can make cards which require you to use the concepts, without having a vague, long-winded, wishy-washy answer. It's not about memorizing a specific question (indeed, I often word several questions similarly to one another so that I cannot rely on question structure or familiarity to prompt me), but rather having an absolute, zero-questions right vs wrong answer. If you don't have that, you lose a lot of power of the system.

 

[Quantal Reasoning]

stream-of-consciousness if I do at all. Usually I make anki cards while watching lecture.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I take perhaps the ugliest chicken scratch notes writing at breakneck speed while the lecture video plays at 2x speed.

Then I re-write them, with some help from other reference materials, to make them look as good as possible. Like hand written on blank printer paper with fancy diagrams and all. Then I make a condensed version with the high yield points.

Now I’m a 3rd year, I don’t even take notes. Just practice questions and Anki cards

 

[Balo]

stream-of-consciousness if I do at all. Usually I make anki cards while watching lecture.

I wish I were fast enough to do that. Instead I just take notes onto the slides directly and then transform my notes later if necessary.

 

[Raney Schauer]

Opinions will vary,
I do not take notes in medical school.
I smash the space bar like a monkey getting ready to be launched into space.

Erbody jus tryna get dat pellet....

 

[tsmleague]

Every morning I review my Anki cards, and speak the answers aloud (So I know I'm retrieving the information and not simply recognizing the card). Every afternoon I watch prerecorded lectures at 2x speed and create cards based on slides and what the lecturer emphasizes. As far as the "bigger picture" is concerned I make a few cards asking myself to summarize some general concepts. The key is making sure you get it right when you make the card, or following up days later if the card makes no sense.

My grades and quality of life shot up by a good 10-15 points on my last two exams doing this.

There is a lot of information you need to retain over a long period of time, while simultaneously learning new information. Its not really a learn and purge, hob-nob with the professor to show you're smart kind of deal. Anki spaces out those reviews and re-exposes you to the material, briefly, days or weeks later to keep it fresh.

What you're asked to do in undergrad may be very different from medical school, bare in mind. The goal for the first 2 years is to answer stuff about this on a standardized test we will take in 2 years time. So how we do it may not be (yet) relevant to you.

When do people start zanki then? It seems you make your own anki cards

 

[Dagrimsta1]

Honestly, I hate anki which is probably why I'm not in the top of the class. Anki is proven to work and pretty much guarantees you a good grade, problem is, I wanna stab myself in the face everytime I open the damn app.

I resort to actually understanding concepts (*GASP*) and wording things my own way in my own sheets of paper. Linking different concepts together into a map of sorts is helpful. This does take a LONG time tho so in times of finals, CRAM.
Example would be thymidine synthesis of biochem --> instead of just putting the important steps down, I would put in diseases associated w/ a loss of X enzyme next to the actual pathway so I can see what would accumulate and cause problems. Things like that. Also jot down drugs that speed up/inhibit etc. etc.

For this random facts/equations/names we have to know --> I hide my knife and use anki.

Practice questions = key! Whenever I get something wrong, I can take some comfort knowing I can resort to my notes instead of a DAMN ANKI CARD or google.

ANKI = devils playtoy

 

[EmilKraepelin55]

I follow along on my PowerPoints and put small notes at the bottom of each slide when they tell us about testable material, and I also make notes of a particular statement that really clarified the slide for me. Other than that, none at all. Short and pithy. 95% of my learning occurs when I go home, follow the PowerPoint again, and draw/write out everything on my whiteboard. Then I rinse and repeat until I have the info down cold.

 

[mehc012]

Honestly, I hate anki which is probably why I'm not in the top of the class. Anki is proven to work and pretty much guarantees you a good grade, problem is, I wanna stab myself in the face everytime I open the damn app.

I resort to actually understanding concepts (*GASP*) and wording things my own way in my own sheets of paper. Linking different concepts together into a map of sorts is helpful. This does take a LONG time tho so in times of finals, CRAM.
Example would be thymidine synthesis of biochem --> instead of just putting the important steps down, I would put in diseases associated w/ a loss of X enzyme next to the actual pathway so I can see what would accumulate and cause problems. Things like that. Also jot down drugs that speed up/inhibit etc. etc.

For this random facts/equations/names we have to know --> I hide my knife and use anki.

Practice questions = key! Whenever I get something wrong, I can take some comfort knowing I can resort to my notes instead of a DAMN ANKI CARD or google.

ANKI = devils playtoy

I hate this dichotomy that everyone sets up where doing flashcards means you can't understand the concepts.
Understanding the concepts is how you make good flashcards, and also how you answer them right. The two are not mutually exclusive; flash cards can be used to enforce conceptual understanding.

Now, I ended up not using Anki during med school, largely because I used it during my postbacc and then there wasn't really much left in med school, imo, but it's definitely not the be-all-end-all of learning. The best learning involves understanding concepts whether or not you use Anki to help with that. So, please, let's stop with BOTH the idea that Anki is the only path, AND this idea that people who Anki aren't actually comprehending the underlying themes and ideas.