time management

[Awendela]

I have a giant whiteboard on the wall (~6ftx4ft), a smaller one as a table top (4ftx3ft) and a 4 month white board calendar on another wall. Also have Google Calendar that syncs to my iphone, a schedule in OneNote and a To-Do list on OneNote.

I also have a white-board that's small enough to fit in my bag. That way I can write out structures and mechanisms on the go. (Or at least between classes.)

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[kanderson615]

Buy a good molecular modeling kit and use it every time you study. I went over each functional group, mechanism, etc. and got an A.
There's something about feeling and manipulating the information that cements it in your brain.
Good luck!

Yes! I didn't have one, but I borrowed my friend's. Really helped me study things like molecular orientations, which I don't hardly remember at all now but knew really well at the time. What is it, like L and R orientation? Am I making that up? Whatever it was, the little models helped me understand a lot better than looking at it in 2D.

 

[Kpowell14]

Yes! I didn't have one, but I borrowed my friend's. Really helped me study things like molecular orientations, which I don't hardly remember at all now but knew really well at the time. What is it, like L and R orientation? Am I making that up? Whatever it was, the little models helped me understand a lot better than looking at it in 2D.

Your not making it up lol.. To the left ( counterclockwise) was Levorotation and to the right (clockwise) was dextrorotation

 

[kanderson615]

Your not making it up lol.. To the left ( counterclockwise) was Levorotation and to the right (clockwise) was dextrorotation

Yeah! That's it! Haha, I can't believe o-chem was almost two years ago now. I'm honestly surprised I remember the little amount that I do

 

[LetItSnow]

Thank you for your honesty and I appreciate your comments! I try to get all of the emailing and fb'ing out of the way first so I can focus...but there is always the occasional text, or email along the way. I think I need to find a new way to study.

Thanks for not being offended. I felt like I was tiptoeing.

Try talking outloud when you study. One of the other posters mentioned it, and it was something I forgot to mention. When I drove to/from school every day, I 'lectured' back to myself the key points from the lectures that day or the day before. It *REALLY* helped a lot. I think any form of that could be useful - reading out loud, lecturing to yourself, talking through problems out loud.

People will think you're nuts, of course, but so what?

I was in your boat (back in science classes after a long, long time away). It was rough for a bit, but your brain will catch up!

 

[twelvetigers]

RE: dry-erase marker smudging on the whiteboard... if you have something more permanent to put up (or if you want a diagram or list with blanks to fill in) try using Via-a-vis or similar wet erase markers. Those stay put until you wipe them off with a wet paper towel. Just don't leave the stuff up for longer than a week or two or it will stain the board a bit eventually.

 

[Lilly63]

For those in vet school or have completed vet school, did you have enough time to read all assigned readings before lecture? Also what techniques did you use to learn the most amount of information in such a short amount of time? My study techniques are effective (they vary class by class), but seem a bit time consuming. For example, most of undergrad I used to make outlines for material that would potentially be on the exam. Is that study technique too time consuming for vet school? I know that time management in veterinary school is key to success and helps to reduce some of the stress (probably not much ) from the demanding course load. Thanks ahead of time for any advice

 

[pinkpuppy9]

For those in vet school or have completed vet school, did you ever read all assigned readings before lecture? Also what techniques did you use to learn the most amount of information in such a short amount of time? My study techniques are effective (they vary class by class), but seem a bit time consuming. For example, most of undergrad I used to make outlines for material that would potentially be on the exam. Is that study technique too time consuming for vet school? I know that time management in veterinary school is key to success and helps to reduce some of the stress (probably not much ) from the demanding course load. Thanks ahead of time for any advice

ftfy.

As a first year, no, I don't pre-read before lecture. I tried in high school, I tried in undergrad, I tried it here. It doesn't help me much other than confuse me. At least at my school, our instructors present the material how they want us to learn it, and it often differs from the book. I use my books as a reference if I'm really stuck on something. Plenty of my classmates never actually purchased the textbooks. I'd say the only exception is anatomy since those books are my source of diagrams and images during dissection. I try to read through those and organize the week's dissection. I also make a spreadsheet of required muscles/bones/etc. and innervations/insertions/origins/etc. as a study tool and dissection cheat sheet.

The best study technique for me won't necessarily be what's best for you. I find flashcards good for rapid fire memorization, but not good for concepts. Our profs are asked to publish 'lecture objectives' for each lecture, and I'll make a guide out of those. Sometimes profs send us their own study guide questions that we fill out. If you are thoughtfully making outlines of lectures, that in itself is studying. One thing I've learned so far is that if you spend too much time making crappy (I'm referring to my own laughable attempts) study guides/flash cards, you won't have time to learn it all. I have a tendency to drift off and make a flashcard for almost everything on a slide instead of reading/summarizing a slide and going from there. The latter is a far better, more efficient strategy for making study materials.

Also, as for time management, don't be like me and get up every 5 seconds while you're trying to get stuff done.

 

[Coquette22]

For those in vet school or have completed vet school, did you have enough time to read all assigned readings before lecture?

We had readings before class? Crap. Apparently I did vet school wrong. Does this mean I have to give back my degree? Cause you can't have it....

Seriously we rarely had pre-lecture readings. They recommended you review material beforehand, but I almost never did. On the few times it was required, yes I did have time.

 

[DVMDream]

We had readings before class? Crap. Apparently I did vet school wrong. Does this mean I have to give back my degree? Cause you can't have it....

Yup most of the time there weren't any required readings prior to class. There were some sections of certain courses where the instructor for the section gave required readings and sometimes I would forget about them.. ooops.... so then I was all, uhh... crap, guess I'm winging this today. Never seemed to have any issues.

The techniques I used for learning probably wouldn't work well for others... I am an odd learner and I learn via reading/sound. So I read out loud. A lot. Repeatedly. I rarely write up condensed notes. I have very few spreadsheets. I have maybe a few outlineish things for pharmacology. But really that is it. I can't organize notes to save my life. I tend to end up just re-writing thing verbatim when I attempt to do spreadsheets/outlines and there is no time for that. So, I read, out loud, a lot. And I question myself, out loud, a lot about what I read. Occasionally I will draw out a process to try to understand it better. Like anesthesia circuits and how the oxygen/gas flow works through each one.

You just have to trial and error it until something finally works for you. I would get caught up in trying to write notes and make outlines like everyone else and that was never helpful. So I stopped caring and just did me. It has worked.

 

[LetItSnow]

For those in vet school or have completed vet school, did you have enough time to read all assigned readings before lecture? Also what techniques did you use to learn the most amount of information in such a short amount of time? My study techniques are effective (they vary class by class), but seem a bit time consuming. For example, most of undergrad I used to make outlines for material that would potentially be on the exam. Is that study technique too time consuming for vet school? I know that time management in veterinary school is key to success and helps to reduce some of the stress (probably not much ) from the demanding course load. Thanks ahead of time for any advice

I don't recall a lot of pre-lecture readings. I certainly never went out of my way to figure out what the lecture was going to be about and then read ahead of time.

The experts will tell you that's the smartest way to make the lecture useful, but meh, I never did it.

Study techniques varied from class to class. Sometimes it was just peruse the powerpoint a few times before an exam. Sometimes it was making study notes and reviewing them. Sometimes I studied in a small group setting with a friend and we quizzed each other.

*shrug*

You just have to adapt to the material and how hard it is for you. Some undergrad techniques will work fine (most of them, really), and some won't.

It will be fine.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Pre-reading in a lot of cases would be quite inefficient for the amount of material covered in vet school unless you were like the most disciplined robotic machine on the face of the planet

 

[Caia]

I've encountered pre-reading for labs (just to read the manual), but nothing else thus far. I've found the time for it ok. Might not have wanted to spend time time reading 30 pages of text at times, but it gets done.

 

[Lilly63]

Thanks for the input everyone. There were some assigned readings in undergrad and a TON of assigned readings in grad school. I'm currently taking a grad level course in cardiovascular physiology and the professor warned us that if we don't read the assigned readings from the textbook prior to class, there is a good chance we may not do well in this course. It's good to know that vet school isn't like that and have a different approach in teaching the material. That's why I was concerned with time management in vet school.

 

[CatLover91]

-Turn your phone OFF if you know that you check it too much.
-Go to a "quiet floor" in your library if possible- this has helped me a lot. I get so much done in just an hour or two.
-Plan out your day (or week) in advance. Write down everything that needs to be done and how long/ at what time you will be doing it.
-I go to a tutor for certain classes. Even if I understand the material it's extra time that I am studying and I think discussing material with others really does help. Maybe you could study with classmates.
-I have found that actually writing rather than typing helps me remember material.

 

[CatLover91]

Any tips for ochem will be welcome!

Know your functional groups and do practice problems A LOT. When it comes to mechanisms, you can't do too many practice problems.

 

[DVMDream]

Know your functional groups and do practice problems A LOT. When it comes to mechanisms, you can't do too many practice problems.

That post was 4 years ago.

 

[CatLover91]

That post was 4 years ago.

Haha omg... totally didn't even realize that!