speed reading and memorization tricks..

[Grey1993]

Hey guys.. So I think I am talking on the behalf of many med students who are teying to figure out a way to study more productively cause I know nowadays these a lot of peoples are aftwr learning these techniques. I was hoping that if anybody has any opinion or experience on speed reading and memorization techniques like the method of journey would share it on this thread so all of us can benefit from it.. Do they really work in mastering medical material? What about the amount of the information? How would you apply them? Isn't it better just to take notes and highlight or such? For me personally I prefer to study textbooks like harrison's internal or Cecil rather than sticking to review book which are really short on information in many subjects. So.. What is the better approach overall.. Any kind of opinion or advice would be most appreciated.

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[Jabbed]

Hey guys.. So I think I am talking on the behalf of many med students who are teying to figure out a way to study more productively cause I know nowadays these a lot of peoples are aftwr learning these techniques. I was hoping that if anybody has any opinion or experience on speed reading and memorization techniques like the method of journey would share it on this thread so all of us can benefit from it.. Do they really work in mastering medical material? What about the amount of the information? How would you apply them? Isn't it better just to take notes and highlight or such? For me personally I prefer to study textbooks like harrison's internal or Cecil rather than sticking to review book which are really short on information in many subjects. So.. What is the better approach overall.. Any kind of opinion or advice would be most appreciated.

OP clarify where you are in your education. It sounds like you're using Harrison's as an MS1/2...

 

[coffeesnob]

OP clarify where you are in your education. It sounds like you're using Harrison's as an MS1/2...

OP's username suggests birth year of 1993, which equals the current age of 21 years old. My guess is OP is a MS-0 in disguise.

 

[TheShaker]

OP's username suggests birth year of 1993, which equals the current age of 21 years old. My guess is OP is a MS-0 in disguise.

Eh, some med students are 21.

 

[Bearimbolo]

Hey guys.. So I think I am talking on the behalf of many med students who are teying to figure out a way to study more productively cause I know nowadays these a lot of peoples are aftwr learning these techniques. I was hoping that if anybody has any opinion or experience on speed reading and memorization techniques like the method of journey would share it on this thread so all of us can benefit from it.. Do they really work in mastering medical material? What about the amount of the information? How would you apply them? Isn't it better just to take notes and highlight or such? For me personally I prefer to study textbooks like harrison's internal or Cecil rather than sticking to review book which are really short on information in many subjects. So.. What is the better approach overall.. Any kind of opinion or advice would be most appreciated.

I'm actually pretty curious about this myself. I've been playing around with the loci and pegging methods the past couple of months just for fun and have been wondering whether or not they'd be applicable to school

 

[Jabbed]

I'm actually pretty curious about this myself. I've been playing around with the loci and pegging methods the past couple of months just for fun and have been wondering whether or not they'd be applicable to school

I recently read a book about the whole principle of memory palaces/loci/spatial memory and tried incorporating it into daily life. I'm able to memorize shopping lists really well, but I haven't had much further application beyond that.

I think the virtue of those techniques comes into play when you're memorizing long lists of simple objects or simple ideas related to objects (ie heart as a symbol for love, statue of liberty as a symbol for freedom). But I haven't been able to apply it to anything much more complex than that (try putting Janeway lesions, Osler nodes, Roth spots, and splinter hemorrhages on memory pegs?). At best it's just been a surrogate for mnemonics.

Something that I think is useful in general though is properly mentally organizing the categories of whatever I'm studying before trying to retain all the information. In keeping with my pericarditis example above, I'd rather learn a bit about all of the major cardiac pathologies before diving into memorize the nuances of each. That way I know where to 'file' the more minute information.

 

[Nephronlearner]

Hey guys.. So I think I am talking on the behalf of many med students who are teying to figure out a way to study more productively cause I know nowadays these a lot of peoples are aftwr learning these techniques. I was hoping that if anybody has any opinion or experience on speed reading and memorization techniques like the method of journey would share it on this thread so all of us can benefit from it.. Do they really work in mastering medical material? What about the amount of the information? How would you apply them? Isn't it better just to take notes and highlight or such? For me personally I prefer to study textbooks like harrison's internal or Cecil rather than sticking to review book which are really short on information in many subjects. So.. What is the better approach overall.. Any kind of opinion or advice would be most appreciated.

2 thoughts:

1) Most review books aren't short on details if used correctly. If you understand everything in say, BRS Physio, you will most likely do fine in any physio course. However, they are indeed, review books so they should be supplemented with either textbooks or good lecture notes.

2) You are never going to "learn" the entire Harrison's.

As for speed learning techniques, I don't know anyone using them. Making mnemonics may be good for some stuff (for instance microbiology) but in most subjects there are too many concepts you have to understand - it would be very hard to turn it into a "journey method" - used primarily to memorise a bunch of unrelated words... and just imagine how many "journeys" you would need to make for every single lecture.

Most students I know either take notes or highlight. I do neither.

 

[Jabbed]

Most students I know either take notes or highlight. I do neither.

Do you glare at the text book and say "I just internalized you.. bitch."

 

[Nephronlearner]

Do you glare at the text book and say "I just internalized you.. bitch."

Have to admit, it sounds fun, but no. I usually just go through lecture notes or review books as many times as I can. Every now and then when I need more info about something I look into the textbook and, if necessary, annotate into the review book. I tried anki, it was good for some things, not as good for others.
Taking notes seems like a bit of a waste of time - what's the point of "rewriting" what is already written in the textbook?! That being said, some of the best students in my class take their own notes so I may be wrong, lol

 

[ExpatmeStat]

OP's username suggests birth year of 1993, which equals the current age of 21 years old. My guess is OP is a MS-0 in disguise.

1993 = 21 year old! :-(

 

[Jabbed]

Taking notes seems like a bit of a waste of time - what's the point of "rewriting" what is already written in the textbook?! That being said, some of the best students in my class take their own notes so I may be wrong, lol

I very much agree with this. So often I've found that note-taking ends up being a watered down version of the essential information. And since your memory is a watered down version of whatever it is that you're studying, you're working knowledge of the material ends up being a watered down version of a watered down version of the source material. Mostly I think that the appeal of note-taking is purely a matter of convenience-- being able to review the material without having to carry a large book around or flipping through 100s of pages.

With the advent of ebooks though, it's sooo convenient to just highlight the material that's worth reviewing and "re-read" the entire textbook (but mainly your highlights) whenever you want to refresh. I can easily get through a few hundred pages of highlighted material in an afternoon with this method.

 

[Grey1993]

Hi.. Sorry for the delay.. I just finished my third year actually..! I think the system of medical education is a bit different in Iran.

 

[Grey1993]

I recently read a book about the whole principle of memory palaces/loci/spatial memory and tried incorporating it into daily life. I'm able to memorize shopping lists really well, but I haven't had much further application beyond that.

I think the virtue of those techniques comes into play when you're memorizing long lists of simple objects or simple ideas related to objects (ie heart as a symbol for love, statue of liberty as a symbol for freedom). But I haven't been able to apply it to anything much more complex than that (try putting Janeway lesions, Osler nodes, Roth spots, and splinter hemorrhages on memory pegs?). At best it's just been a surrogate for mnemonics.

Something that I think is useful in general though is properly mentally organizing the categories of whatever I'm studying before trying to retain all the information. In keeping with my pericarditis example above, I'd rather learn a bit about all of the major cardiac pathologies before diving into memorize the nuances of each. That way I know where to 'file' the more minute information.

So how do you manage to classify info without any notes? There are tones of similar info. One important question.. How much time do you dedicate to studying per day or week?

 

[Grey1993]

Have to admit, it sounds fun, but no. I usually just go through lecture notes or review books as many times as I can. Every now and then when I need more info about something I look into the textbook and, if necessary, annotate into the review book. I tried anki, it was good for some things, not as good for others.
Taking notes seems like a bit of a waste of time - what's the point of "rewriting" what is already written in the textbook?! That being said, some of the best students in my class take their own notes so I may be wrong, lol

I have the same question for you as well.. How much time do you spend on studying per day or week? It sound like you review the material a lot. (Which if you do.. It's pretty good by the way!)

 

[Grey1993]

1993 = 21 year old! :-(

Third year.. What's up with the age thing?!

 

[Nidor]

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[Grey1993]

It always really helped me to make a summary of the information. Typically I'd use a review book/course book in combination with my lecture notes to try and get which parts the professor felt like where most important. It worked pretty well for me because it forced me to see the structure in the large heaps of information. Furthermore I had to actually think about what I was working on instead of just staring at some pages or reading threw it.

Hi.. So did you like make a notebook out of it? I know that's really helpful for reviewing the material but it also takes a lot of time.. Doesn't it? And also.. What do you think about what others said? I personally am more comfortable with writing stuff down and highlighting and taking my time with the material but the time is a issue here.. I don't think there is enough time to do this for every subject. How much time do you dedicate to this?

 

[Grey1993]

OP clarify where you are in your education. It sounds like you're using Harrison's as an MS1/2...

So I was browsing about that and as it turns out 6'th year international med students equivalent 4'th year US med students.. (You know since we don't have pre med or med school and it's seven years of straight forward studying for us. So if I want to equalize I would be MS1/2 as you said above.

 

[Nidor]

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[Nephronlearner]

I have the same question for you as well.. How much time do you spend on studying per day or week? It sound like you review the material a lot. (Which if you do.. It's pretty good by the way!)

It's very hard to accurately say how much I study because it depends on a lot of things - topics covered that day, time when I get home, when the next exam is, etc
I usually have to be at school until ~3 pm four times per week. Afterwards I would generally study for 2-4 hours depending on the day. On days off (3 days per week) I try to study for 5-7 hours. And the week before the exam, I generally try to study for at least 8 hours/day. It varies, though. And as I said, I rarely make any kind of summaries or anything because there are review books that are certainly written better than my notes would be.

However, some of the best students in the class study more and make their own notes (what Nidor said). I just never really got into that habit. And I always thought it was better to get through a good review book 5 times, than it would be to get through a large textbook once or twice. You learn less details (so if the course is graded, your grade might suffer) but you generally learn the concepts better.

 

[Grey1993]

It's very hard to accurately say how much I study because it depends on a lot of things - topics covered that day, time when I get home, when the next exam is, etc
I usually have to be at school until ~3 pm four times per week. Afterwards I would generally study for 2-4 hours depending on the day. On days off (3 days per week) I try to study for 5-7 hours. And the week before the exam, I generally try to study for at least 8 hours/day. It varies, though. And as I said, I rarely make any kind of summaries or anything because there are review books that are certainly written better than my notes would be.

However, some of the best students in the class study more and make their own notes (what Nidor said). I just never really got into that habit. And I always thought it was better to get through a good review book 5 times, than it would be to get through a large textbook once or twice. You learn less details (so if the course is graded, your grade might suffer) but you generally learn the concepts better.

Thanks for your reply. I do agree with you.. Quality is way more important than quantity. But for us international students finding good review books is an issue itself.

 

[Grey1993]

Yea, I'd basically have a notebook with summaries for most subjects. It is incredibly time consuming. I study in Belgium, which (different from the US) has your entire grade for a class depend on a single exam at the end of the semester. Since the quantities we had to study by that point where huge it really helped to have a summary, especially for less purely memorization subjects (E.g. didn't use it for Neuroanatomy, did use it for Neurology).

Also, I struggle sitting down and cramming, it helps to 'have something to do' so I don't just skip over everything. The extra time it took was worth it to me because I actually learned that way.

Naturally, everyone has something that works for them, the other suggestions are excellent if they're your cup of tea.

Yeah if anyone can manage to make notes on each subject like organized notes it would be awesome. I guess it's more about the management and choosing one way and sticking to it.

 

[Grey1993]

Now about speed reading.. Has anybody done that? How do you stay focused while speed reading? I've tried it but sometimes it's like I don't have time to understand the sentence since I can't go back and I have to move fast on the line.. Actually this happened everytime. It might be related to bad habits but how can I fix this?! Anybody got a clue?!

 

[Nephronlearner]

Thanks for your reply. I do agree with you.. Quality is way more important than quantity. But for us international students finding good review books is an issue itself.

You can purchase review books from Amazon. I do it and I am a "foreigner" too

 

[ExpatmeStat]

Third year.. What's up with the age thing?!

No, just feel old when I think about what music I was listening to at the time. I think it makes very little difference in the end. You are non-trad until third year and beyond.

 

[Grey1993]

No, just feel old when I think about what music I was listening to at the time. I think it makes very little difference in the end. You are non-trad until third year and beyond.

what do you mean by a little difference? I didn't quite get it.

 

[Dr. USMLE]

Now about speed reading.. Has anybody done that? How do you stay focused while speed reading? I've tried it but sometimes it's like I don't have time to understand the sentence since I can't go back and I have to move fast on the line.. Actually this happened everytime. It might be related to bad habits but how can I fix this?! Anybody got a clue?!

The key is to try to visualize what you are reading...as if you're watching a movie instead of reading a book. When you're watching a movie, it doesn't matter if you miss a few frames...you still get the gist of the plot and central characters. It's similar with speed reading. It's said only 30% of a sentence is actually needed to convey the meaning.