Study advice.

i don't know if my strategies will carry over into med school but i was pretty efficient as an undergrad (i'm gonna be an MS1 in august).

try studying in lots of small spurts throughout the day and separate them by something you enjoy doing. like study neuro for an hour, then play video games or make a phone call for 5 minutes to relax your brain, then hit up histo for an hour...etc. letting my brain rest really helped

also, don't waste time on things that are less important...like before studying try to give a rough guess of what are the most important topics or the ones that are most likely to be emphasized and do those first and then review them later...some subjects you may not have time to go over twice so make sure to hit the important ones twice

best of luck!

symphony said:

Hi!

I'm an MS1 (2nd semester). I am not doing so well right now because 2nd semester workload is a lot more than the 1st semester (neuroscience added). I've to take the neuro, biochem, physio, anatomy and histo shelves at the end of this semester.

I really need advice on how I can improve my current study crisis.

People say, "just study hard." I think I do - but I don't know how to study smart

Help, please..... before it's too late....

2 more months to the shelves - then MS2 (if I pass this semester!)

Click to expand...

Husky85 said:

i don't know if my strategies will carry over into med school but i was pretty efficient as an undergrad (i'm gonna be an MS1 in august).

try studying in lots of small spurts throughout the day and separate them by something you enjoy doing. like study neuro for an hour, then play video games or make a phone call for 5 minutes to relax your brain, then hit up histo for an hour...etc. letting my brain rest really helped

also, don't waste time on things that are less important...like before studying try to give a rough guess of what are the most important topics or the ones that are most likely to be emphasized and do those first and then review them later...some subjects you may not have time to go over twice so make sure to hit the important ones twice

best of luck!

Click to expand...

I'm a MS3...just finished Step 1. It took me a while to find out what worked for me. I would totally agree though. Take things in hour long spurts..it's much more manageable that way. Also, figure out what's high yield for the exams. Does the teacher get questions from the notes only, or is it the textbook too? I often found our class notes to be far to cumbersome to read through several times, so I would read the notes the night before I knew the lecture was to be given (preview). I would go to class, listen and makes notes. The same day I would read them through again, and make a synopsis page of the notes. Then closer to the exam I would read my synopsis notes. It was far more manageable to do it that way. I also would do alot of practice questions from review books to guage my knowledge in the area.

Good luck...you can do it!

I know how you feel...When I started MS1, i just could not get past this hump. I was doing good but just not good enough (call me a gunner, but I wanted As).

Here is my advice....first thing is to realize that you need to change something and you have already done that, thats good. Second, Study everything, in my case, if it was in the notes it was gonna be on the exam (may be not directly but indirectly). It is the small details that give you the answer when you have narrowed your choices to last two. Third....understand how the exams are structured. This was the most important for me. Now, i spend time understanding the question and think through what the answer should be..then look at each choices and make sure that one choice fits in.

I got over that hump with these strategies. It seems like you are studying hard so now just study a little smarter (exactly the same thing i did).

Good Luck.

I think we go to the same med school and I'll try to help you out. I started out an avg med student and now my grades are well above avg. with the changes I made in my study habits.
First, our exam questions come directly from the packets so a vast majority of your study time should be in the packets. Review books are not going to help you with the exams much because they go over big picture concepts. And as you know med school exams are super detailed. Save the review books for your shelf exams and step. It doesn't hurt to skim through them but your focus should be the professors packets.

second, while you're listening to lecture circle, highlight, underline, anything the professor says is imp. or different or interesting because I guarentee(sp?) that will be a test question. Also if they mention they did research on this specific topic flag it! Some will also put words or sentences in bold lettering so if they actually took time out to do this, it's probably imp and will be a test question.

Thirdly, that night make a quick review sheet of all the stuff you highlighted (the high yield stuff) so when it gets closer to test time you save alot of time concentrating on facts that are highyield from the PROFESSORS notes. With this kind of workload time is of the essence! You'll be amazed at what you remember(because you wrote it down) and how much alike the test is compared to your review sheet.

When it comes to doing questions, I do ALL the questions the professor gives us. Again, I do not use review books for questions. I save that for shelf exams and step 1. If you know the material you'll be able to answer any question.

I usually study 5-7hrs each day during the week and 14hrs total on the weekend which leaves plently of time for other things. I actually sit there with a stop watch and time myself to make sure I get these hours. It's one thing to THINK you've studied a certain amount of hours and it's another thing to KNOW. I am no library junkie by any means. i've just learned to manage my time more effectively. Since I've started doing this, my grades have skyrocketed. This is how I study smarter and not longer. So if it works for you I'm happy.
Back to studying, I haven't got all my hours yet...

Best of luck

symphony said:

Hi!

I'm an MS1 (2nd semester). I am not doing so well right now because 2nd semester workload is a lot more than the 1st semester (neuroscience added). I've to take the neuro, biochem, physio, anatomy and histo shelves at the end of this semester.

I really need advice on how I can improve my current study crisis.

People say, "just study hard." I think I do - but I don't know how to study smart

Help, please..... before it's too late....

2 more months to the shelves - then MS2 (if I pass this semester!)

Click to expand...

symphony said:

Hi!

I'm an MS1 (2nd semester). I am not doing so well right now because 2nd semester workload is a lot more than the 1st semester (neuroscience added). I've to take the neuro, biochem, physio, anatomy and histo shelves at the end of this semester.

I really need advice on how I can improve my current study crisis.

People say, "just study hard." I think I do - but I don't know how to study smart

Help, please..... before it's too late....

2 more months to the shelves - then MS2 (if I pass this semester!)

Click to expand...

What in God's name are you still doing in classes? Where the hell do you go to school, Duke?

There's been some pretty good advice so far.

Besides what's been stated, here are a couple of things I do--

1) If your school has coops (and if you use coops), I usually write key words/sentences in a different color right where that concept is explained. This could be true for note packets as well. Save a color and use it for concepts and terms to make them stand out.

2) I usually study by myself or in a very small group. I need some alone time in order to concentrate on the material that I'm covering--it's me, my iPod, my notes, and my books. Before an exam (or after I'm done studying for the night--but definitely before the exam), I get together with a group of people and just talk about concepts. There are many advantages to this, but you can work things through and gage how much you know by how well you are able to explain things to people. Also, others might have a different way of looking at the concept, and that might make it easier for you to remember it. This might not be the most efficient way, but it's really effective for me.

yeah, i agree with above poster, working in groups to discuss concepts close to the exam date is very efficient learning. i do the same.