Length and method of studying

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Sartre79

Sartre79

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It is taking me two hours to study each lecture, and I feel like I just cannot get through the material. We have quizes every two weeks, but I just don't know how to make it through this all (we had over 20 lectures last week).....any suggestions? Also, how many hours of studying do you put in per weekday, and on the weekends? I have been going to class...so i don't know if that is what is hindering my learning. 😡 Any feedback is appreciated.
 
Sartre79 said:
It is taking me two hours to study each lecture, and I feel like I just cannot get through the material. We have quizes ever two weeks, but I just don't know how to make it through this all (we had over 20 lectures last week).....any suggestions? Also, how many hours of studying do you put in per weekday, and on the weekends? I have been going to class...so i don't know if that is what is hindering my learning. 😡 Any feedback is appreciated.
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What I've been doing (I'll preface the rest of my post by saying that my first test is Tues so I can't tell you that it has worked, but I feel like I'm retaining the info), I attend lecture, then after lecture each day, I go through the powerpoint and take notes on the learning objectives (basically what our profs point out as the most important info) and any other key concepts. In the absence of learning objectives, I'd suggest take notes on what you judge to be important... the filtering process will help your retention as will the note taking.

I'm generally putting in a few hours each night and spending a major chunk of my weekends in the library.

Good luck.
 
Here's a general guideline that worked for me in pre-clinical years:

- Focus on the lecture notes and use textbook for reference/clarification only.
- Figure out what the important and relevant information in your notes are and focus on those.
- Use a board review book as a guideline. It's also a good way to prepare for your step I in advance.
- You will not be able to recall everything on exam day. Once you accept that, it will empower you in studying more efficiently.
- Pay attention in lecture when the instructor emphasizes certain points. It's because he probably thinks it is important.
- The most important thing in surviving the first two years is prioritizing information. When you read info, don't just try to understand it but also try to assess how important it is.
 
Depakote said:
What I've been doing (I'll preface the rest of my post by saying that my first test is Tues so I can't tell you that it has worked, but I feel like I'm retaining the info), I attend lecture, then after lecture each day, I go through the powerpoint and take notes on the learning objectives (basically what our profs point out as the most important info) and any other key concepts. In the absence of learning objectives, I'd suggest take notes on what you judge to be important... the filtering process will help your retention as will the note taking.

I'm generally putting in a few hours each night and spending a major chunk of my weekends in the library.

Good luck.
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I'm fairly sure Depakote and I attend the same school, so I'll chuck my thought out there. My method for getting through the first block (took it last year as an MS) was to study the powerpoints, and listen to the lecture while outlining things that the powerpoint missed. Worked for me. 🙂
 
Represent UT!


I've been going to lecture to see what the professors emphasize and to write down the little things they add to powerpoint slides. Then coming home to read through the presentations again and take notes on the learning objectives we are given. If there is something I find a little confusing, something beyond straight memorization, I go to the text or google it in order to actually understand that concept. Then on weekends I review the material, make excel spreadsheets of lists to memorize, listen to the recorded lecture (at 1.5 speed). Of course I fell behind last weekend for reasons that I don't remember anymore...but we'll if this has been working on Tuesday. So I think my weeknights are spent understanding material and weekends trying to burn it all into my memory.

If you take the amount of time I spend "studying" and subtract out chatting online and useless internet surfing...I probably study about 3-4 hours a weeknight. But I am also someone who retains very little after lecture and needs to study to keep up.
 
Ach, stop going to class if it's slowing you down. Do you read fast? Then just get a good textbook that covers the material and use that. If you don't read fast, now's a good time to train yourself to do it (speed-reading is a valuable life skill).

Focus on the important material. Focus on the important material. (it's so important it bears repeating).

You'll do ok. You're in, you'll be fine.
 
Flaxmoore said:
I'm fairly sure Depakote and I attend the same school, so I'll chuck my thought out there. My method for getting through the first block (took it last year as an MS) was to study the powerpoints, and listen to the lecture while outlining things that the powerpoint missed. Worked for me. 🙂
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Ok, I need to figure out who you are... but yup, same class.

you too, Abilene85?
 
After I come home from class, I look over the powerpoints from that day and from those for the next day. I only own the few books that are the cheapest AND the most beneficial. They are more of a security blanket for me because I primarily focus on the text and figures of the powerpoints. They usually hit the high points well, which condenses a lot of the studying time. This takes a few to several hours each night, and so long as I do this daily, my weekends aren't too bad.

Of course, when test time comes, I read all the powerpoints...over and over again.
 
Depakote said:
Ok, I need to figure out who you are... but yup, same class.

you too, Abilene85?
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I know where you live...you can come over and drink Quarentini's at my place. 😉
 
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One thing I'm fully coming to terms with is "selectful neglect". After changing up my study habits this week, I've realized there's no way to retain everything that is taught (that and my professors say don't try to). Some of my professors note or hint what slides we should especially take into consideration; else, I just try to weed out what could be high-yield (primarily slides and concepts that are discussed more extensively). But then again, if you have the professor that is out to get you with minutia, it will probably come down to luck and other random factors 👎
 
You had over 20 different lectures last week? And it takes you 2 hours each? At first I was thinking 2 hours each wasn't bad since it took me about 5 hours to nail down 2 lectures at the library today, but then again I don't think I have 20 separate lectures a week, maybe closer to like 12-14.

Well, I'll still give what advice I can though. I'd read through the lecture notes for the next day's lectures and go through with a highlighter on stuff that's important. Don't go too nuts and study it 100% though, since that'll take even longer than 2 hours since you don't even have the lecture to help you through the notes, just read and understand what you can.

Then the next day in lecture kinda use the lecture to build on what you got out of the notes in your previous run-through. This kinda requires you to not be half-asleep during lecture though.

Then finally, go through the notes once more to nail it down and it should be a little easier.

If you're behind (I know I was) just jump ahead to the next day's lectures to stop falling behind even further, that's what I kinda did for fundamentals.

That said, I still have to put in a lot of time now to nail stuff down, but then again I also missed a few lectures, lol.

P.S. This whole studying ahead thing is honestly easier said than done (for obvious reasons) but I honestly feel like it made things easier when I managed to pull it off. But it's kind of hard since it requires you to kinda be more active while in class to build on the previous read through, and when you're feeling half-asleep it's not quite as helpful, lol.
 
I don't sweat the small stuff. Usually that means I skim through the lectures a couple of times until the last two weeks of the block and then I start getting serious. By that time, a lot of stuff has been reviewed more than once and things start to make sense (so much of what we learn is somewhat circular, its hard to know one thing without understanding something that is taught later). I also then have a better idea of what is considered important. (Usually much more than what I thought in the first place.) At this point I may have a few stressful/overwhelming days because it feels like I'm SO far behind, but I think I handle the stress pretty well - otherwise my method wouldn't work. Then, somehow, it all just sort of comes together in the last week or two - at least it hasn't failed to yet.
 
I realized that the times that I was in class was actually the time of day when I learn best; and I also realized that I learn from reading, not from listening to a professor. So this upcoming 2 weeks before my first test I'm going to treat studying like a 9 to 5 job. I going to read through the lecture notes, highlight and summarizing what I think is important; then I'm going to read the BRS chapter that corresponds to my lectures notes, paying special attention to the types of tertiary quesitons that they ask at the end of the chapter. If I dont' understand a concept, then I either Wikipedia it or I look in a book. For anatomy, I love going to UMich's anatomy site and taking their practice quizzes; it really helps you to figure out if you really stuck what you studied in your head. I'll update you on whether my change in studying style worked out for me after I take my first tests. But I think that overall you have to figure out what works for you. If you end up rereading everything anyway, then just stay home a read, and download the lectures just to make sure you didn't miss anything.
 
Keep trying new ways of studying with texts, lecture notes, review books, websites, etc. Eventually, you'll get into a good routine. Then, you'll realize that the first two years of med school could be self-taught as a correspondence course. Finally, you'll feel gipped that your undergrad provided better instruction at a cheaper price than your med school.
 
TheMightyAngus said:
Keep trying new ways of studying with texts, lecture notes, review books, websites, etc. Eventually, you'll get into a good routine. Then, you'll realize that the first two years of med school could be self-taught as a correspondence course. Finally, you'll feel gipped that your undergrad provided better instruction at a cheaper price than your med school.
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LOL!! :laugh:
 
My experience is slightly different, since we have an integrated curriculum, but on my typical day:

The day/night before I read through the syllabus for what we're covering the next day so information isn't new to me when it comes up in lecture and lab. This allows lecture and lab to be reinforcing experiences, instead of learning ones.

I attend lecture every morning and highlight/fill in key points on the syllabus from lecturer. I find it better to weed out high yield information from lecture rather than on my own.

I go to gross lab with the objectives for the day photocopied from the night before. After completing the dissection, I make sure I can identify every single objective.

Take a break for lunch.

I immediately go to the library after lunch and review what was covered in lecture and lab that day. I'll read through the syllabus a couple times, make my own personal notes, but most of the time is spent with the lecture objectives. I fill out the objectives I know. The ones I have to look up, I review that material until I "know" it too. When I have all the objectives answered, I study those pages.

I then go for an hour run, then rinse and repeat and start on the next day's material all over.

On days I have things going on in the afternoon (preceptorship or other classes), I push back library studying from after lunch to after obligations, which is typically 5pm. I dont get to run those days.

On the weekends, I generally group study, because after I read something a certain number of times I just end up skimming the pages so I need to "teach" it verbally to reinforce it.
 
I have about as much lecture as you do (~20 hours a week). It is taking me 1-2 hours studying per hour of lecture to get through the material. I have already changed my approach a few times but here is what I'm doing now. I have stopped going to lecture even though I feel I might miss a few things because it is just too much of a grind and I don't feel like studying after sitting there all day. For me, just reading through the lecture notes it too passive and I don't retain very much. Also, just reading them through multiple times takes too long. So now I just go through each Powerpoint with either a text or Google/Wiki and make myself a review sheet or flashcards with this software I have. After that I never look at the slides/notes again (except for big diagrams or figures). Reviewing the review sheets/flashcards is fast so actually studying for the exam is not that big of a deal. I also retain a lot just through the process of making the review sheet. I also read the review books when I can to bring everything together. Also, doing this forces me to look up/understand everything in the notes the first time through. It takes 4-8 hours to process one day's lectures but if you look at med school as a full time job then it's about right. Overall I will miss a few things by not being in lecture but I hope it will even out since I'm actually studying more.
 
Sartre79 said:
It is taking me two hours to study each lecture, and I feel like I just cannot get through the material. We have quizes every two weeks, but I just don't know how to make it through this all (we had over 20 lectures last week).....any suggestions? Also, how many hours of studying do you put in per weekday, and on the weekends? I have been going to class...so i don't know if that is what is hindering my learning. 😡 Any feedback is appreciated.
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Most important rule of med school -- ignore what other people are doing. Much of it won't help you. There is no one size fits all -- everything has to be customized. So it simply doesn't matter how many hours of studying anyone else is doing. If it takes you two hours to study each lecture, and you feel it useful to attend class, and you are doing well, then that's what it takes. If you aren't doing well, scrap parts of that. Always look for tweaks to do things more effectively but the end goal needs to be to master the material regardless of whether it is fast and efficient or painful brute force. There will be people who are more efficient than you, but you have to do what works for you, and what they are doing frequently won't.
 
remo said:
So now I just go through each Powerpoint with either a text or Google/Wiki and make myself a review sheet or flashcards with this software I have. After that I never look at the slides/notes again (except for big diagrams or figures). Reviewing the review sheets/flashcards is fast so actually studying for the exam is not that big of a deal. I also retain a lot just through the process of making the review sheet.
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What software are you using?
 
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My Plan:

Pre-read for every lecture. Otherwise, lecture is a waste for me.

Make condensed study notes, alternating b/t question format for key issues (ensures that I am actively studying) and outlining. Try to read corresponding BRS and/or FA section on what we're studying. Make notes when necessary.

On weekends, I review everything from that week. Weekends before tests, I review all my notes.

It's a time consuming method, and I can be inefficient at times, but it has worked very well so far for me.

I do worry about long-term retention for Step 1. Anyone have advice for that?


-goose-
 
remo I LOVE YOU!!! (in a completey professional and manly way 🙂) I just downloaded the software and its exactly what I need. I definietely learn best when I answer questions than just looking through outlines filled with facts. Thanks alot for the software link!
 
Law2Doc said:
Most important rule of med school -- ignore what other people are doing. Much of it won't help you. There is no one size fits all -- everything has to be customized. So it simply doesn't matter how many hours of studying anyone else is doing. If it takes you two hours to study each lecture, and you feel it useful to attend class, and you are doing well, then that's what it takes. If you aren't doing well, scrap parts of that. Always look for tweaks to do things more effectively but the end goal needs to be to master the material regardless of whether it is fast and efficient or painful brute force. There will be people who are more efficient than you, but you have to do what works for you, and what they are doing frequently won't.
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I have heard this rule a lot, but it's kind of hard to find your own way all the time and suggestions can really be helpful. Not looking for someone to tell me exactly what to do, just doing a "survey" to see what's out there.
 
Law2Doc said:
Most important rule of med school -- ignore what other people are doing. Much of it won't help you. There is no one size fits all -- everything has to be customized. So it simply doesn't matter how many hours of studying anyone else is doing. If it takes you two hours to study each lecture, and you feel it useful to attend class, and you are doing well, then that's what it takes. If you aren't doing well, scrap parts of that. Always look for tweaks to do things more effectively but the end goal needs to be to master the material regardless of whether it is fast and efficient or painful brute force. There will be people who are more efficient than you, but you have to do what works for you, and what they are doing frequently won't.
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Good rule.

Listen to what other people say only to pick out little things that you feel like will work for you. Try different things and see what works. If you find yourself zoning out/falling asleep in every lecture, either find a way to pay attention or stop going and start using lecture time to study on your own. If using textbooks helps you understand stuff better, then use textbooks. Ignore the people who tell you textbooks are a waste of time. If studying nothing but lecture notes works for you, then ignore the people who tell you to use textbooks.

But if what you're doing is NOT working, be flexible. If you used flashcards in undergrad but they're not helping you in med school, ditch them and do something else. If you did fine in undergrad by just skimming your notes but that's not cutting it in med school, try something different, like maybe rewriting all your notes as you study them. Most people have no idea what's going to work for them, you need to try out different methods before finding something that does work.
 
Depakote said:
What I've been doing (I'll preface the rest of my post by saying that my first test is Tues so I can't tell you that it has worked, but I feel like I'm retaining the info), I attend lecture, then after lecture each day, I go through the powerpoint and take notes on the learning objectives (basically what our profs point out as the most important info) and any other key concepts. In the absence of learning objectives, I'd suggest take notes on what you judge to be important... the filtering process will help your retention as will the note taking.

I'm generally putting in a few hours each night and spending a major chunk of my weekends in the library.

Good luck.
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This is pretty much what I'm doing as well. I do 2-3 hours each weeknight and about 6 hours per day on the weekends. We've had biochem quizzes and I'm doing fine on those but no real exams yet. We'll see how well this is working after our first set of exams starting next week.

In undergrad I just went to class, took notes, and started reviewing them a few days before an exam. I knew right away that this wouldn't work in med school - there is way too much new information each day.
 
-Goose- said:
I do worry about long-term retention for Step 1. Anyone have advice for that?

-goose-
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You are using pretty much the same study method that I used with with great success. I didn't bother with any review books but concentrated on knowing my coursework cold.

It turns out that thoroughly knowing my coursework was the best prep for USMLE as I used Kaplan's Q-Bank (USMLE World is OK too) for a couple of weeks and aced Step I with no problems. You study and learn your coursework but "review" for USMLE. You cannot "review" what you haven't "learned" in the first place. It was not difficult to recall information on Step I because the information was in my brain in the first place.

By going over my course materials at least three times (preview, study, review on weekends), the material wound up in my long-term memory rather than the short-term cram that killed a couple of my classmates on USMLE. You don't have to memorize tons of stuff for USMLE but you DO need to be able to tap into your knowledge base as you move from question to question.

From medical school into residency and now fellowship, I have found that having a strong knowledge base upon which to build has been my best strategy. Every time I review something, I obtain greater insight.
 
Never changed my atrocious study habits that worked so dang well in undergrad (3.9 GPA). Skipped class 1/2 the time and crammed 2-3 hours per test. Worked to get A's on weekly tests, B's on bi-weekly and C's on anything longer. I wouldn't recommend this method as it resulted in a 3.0 GPA and the contempt of about 1/2 of my basic science professors. Worked my ass off for an average Step 1 (215) and felt that I had a lot of catching up to do 3rd year. DO NOT DO WHAT I DID! Can anyone tell I wish I could go back and be a more diligent medical student?
 
Sartre79 said:
I have heard this rule a lot, but it's kind of hard to find your own way all the time and suggestions can really be helpful. Not looking for someone to tell me exactly what to do, just doing a "survey" to see what's out there.
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Well, you also asked what hours people were putting in per day, which is meaningless to you. You already know how long it is taking you to feel prepared. Pick any two people out in your med school class and they won't be getting the same effect out of the same hours. There is no "X hours outside of class a day equals Honors" formula. You are going to find one guy doing great with 5 hours/day and another struggling at 8. Best to ignore all of it, and worry only about yourself and what you need to do. You know you better than anyone else.
 
Law2Doc said:
Well, you also asked what hours people were putting in per day, which is meaningless to you. You already know how long it is taking you to feel prepared. Pick any two people out in your med school class and they won't be getting the same effect out of the same hours. There is no "X hours outside of class a day equals Honors" formula. You are going to find one guy doing great with 5 hours/day and another struggling at 8. Best to ignore all of it, and worry only about yourself and what you need to do. You know you better than anyone else.
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I wouldn't push the mantra that you should ignore everyone quite so much. True, you should find out what works for you and not worry that you aren't matching other people's hours or methods. But...you can use other people's methods as a model to develop your own. Why reinvent the wheel? Just take the bits that others do well and work for you, rather than stumbling around for a year.
 
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LifetimeDoc said:
I wouldn't push the mantra that you should ignore everyone quite so much. True, you should find out what works for you and not worry that you aren't matching other people's hours or methods. But...you can use other people's methods as a model to develop your own. Why reinvent the wheel? Just take the bits that others do well and work for you, rather than stumbling around for a year.
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It's one thing to tweak based on what others seem to be doing, it's another to try and model your methods after theirs. If what you are doing is working, ignore the rest.
 
There's been some good points mentioned on here. My school is completely PBL (with the exception of anatomy lectures/lab during the first 10 weeks) so once anatomy ends we get plenty of time to read/study on our own.

My one thing that I've been trying to get better is doing some studying in groups and/or with a partner. I hated doing group work or studying with someone else in undergrad but I think it really helps nail down the material when you have to "teach" it to someone else or actually talk about it in depth with someone. I'll spend most of my time reading/studying on my own but then maybe 1-3 times a week, and more before a test, I'll get together with another person or two and review the material and we'll take turns "teaching" things to each or asking the other person to explain something.

I think that it's important that you get exposed to the material in multiple ways. I guess there are some people that can just read through stuff and be totally fine but I think they're in the minority.
 
TRAMD said:
Never changed my atrocious study habits that worked so dang well in undergrad (3.9 GPA). Skipped class 1/2 the time and crammed 2-3 hours per test. Worked to get A's on weekly tests, B's on bi-weekly and C's on anything longer. I wouldn't recommend this method as it resulted in a 3.0 GPA and the contempt of about 1/2 of my basic science professors. Worked my ass off for an average Step 1 (215) and felt that I had a lot of catching up to do 3rd year. DO NOT DO WHAT I DID! Can anyone tell I wish I could go back and be a more diligent medical student?
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i remember you majored in both physics and math in undergraduate.. and you only studied 2-3 hours per test and obtained 3.9 GPA??

talking about efficient studying..
 
jae9970 said:
i remember you majored in both physics and math in undergraduate.. and you only studied 2-3 hours per test and obtained 3.9 GPA??

talking about efficient studying..
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The 2-3 hours was for all my OTHER classes such as bio and chem. I didn't study at all for math or physics tests. They were much more intuitive to me and if you do all the homework and understand it then there shouldn't be a need to study much further. My other classes brought down my 4.0 in my majors' classes.

Memorization of massive amounts of facts in a short time, taking a test and then promptly forgetting most of what I had remembered was my specialty. Just too dang much information on a lot of med school tests.

Checked out your profile. I see you studied engineering . . . always good to meet a fellow math geek (of a sorts). Don't you wonder how everyone else seems to do better on BS than PS on the MCAT? I was 11V, 12PS and 9BS . . . and biology and chemistry were all I studied for it . . . oh well, doesn't matter anymore.
 
Damn. Impressive!

I spent WAY too many hours studying for my undergrad major, only to be thwarted time and time again on the damn midterms and finals.

It was my other classes that helped bring up my GPA. 🙂
 
Photographic memory can save your ass a lot. It is just too bad that it is not LONG-TERM photographic memory.
 
Blade28 said:
Damn. Impressive!

I spent WAY too many hours studying for my undergrad major, only to be thwarted time and time again on the damn midterms and finals.

It was my other classes that helped bring up my GPA. 🙂
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What was your major?
 
This is a somewhat related story. When I took biochemistry I almost always skipped class and did my usual 2-3 hour cram sessions. This worked for all A's on the weekly quizzes but resulted in quite a few F's or low D's on the main tests. Going into the final I had a low D. We were told that getting an A on the final would give you an A in the class but that most people scored about the same on the final as what they had in the class. As a senior hoping to go to medical school with 3 B's during my entire undergrad and all the rest A's I was not looking forward to receiving a D in a class. Previous to that class I had never received below a B on anything, ever. Anyways . . . I locked myself in the library over the weekend putting in about 6 hours a day for 2 days. I received a 97% on the final--one of the highest grades in the class. However, the professor informed me that you need to have a B in the class to qualify for the automatic A--I think they just didn't like me because I never came to class. I ended up with a high C in the course. I guess they told my story to my friend's class the next year during the "most people score about the same" speech.

BTW, I improved my study habits starting with Step 1.
 
Blade28 said:
Bioengineering.
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Sounds tough. I had a buddy in medical school that did that. One of my professors was telling me about how competitive certain majors are for getting into medical school. Assuming that biology is has--of course--a 1:1 ratio of competitiveness with itself then chemistry has a 3:1 ratio with biology. Hence, if 5% of biology majors who apply get in then 15% of chemistry majors get in. Math was 10:1, physics 11:1 and biomedical engineering was 20:1.
 
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TRAMD said:
Sounds tough. I had a buddy in medical school that did that. One of my professors was telling me about how competitive certain majors are for getting into medical school. Assuming that biology is has--of course--a 1:1 ratio of competitiveness with itself then chemistry has a 3:1 ratio with biology. Hence, if 5% of biology majors who apply get in then 15% of chemistry majors get in. Math was 10:1, physics 11:1 and biomedical engineering was 20:1.
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I've never heard it described that way, but makes sense. My fellow pre-med bioengineering buddies and I (and there were only around 8 of us crazies!) looked up those numbers one time during undergrad and were pleasantly surprised by the higher acceptance rates among bioengineering majors.

Of course, as I've said before, it's a self-selection process, since those non-bio majors who apply to med school are pretty damn serious, since they've taken all the pre-reqs IN ADDITION to their usual major courseload. Ditto for the non-science majors who apply to med school. On the other hand, almost every bio major in college applies to med school, so there's less of a "self-weaning" process there.
 
TRAMD said:
The 2-3 hours was for all my OTHER classes such as bio and chem. I didn't study at all for math or physics tests. They were much more intuitive to me and if you do all the homework and understand it then there shouldn't be a need to study much further. My other classes brought down my 4.0 in my majors' classes.

Memorization of massive amounts of facts in a short time, taking a test and then promptly forgetting most of what I had remembered was my specialty. Just too dang much information on a lot of med school tests.

Checked out your profile. I see you studied engineering . . . always good to meet a fellow math geek (of a sorts). Don't you wonder how everyone else seems to do better on BS than PS on the MCAT? I was 11V, 12PS and 9BS . . . and biology and chemistry were all I studied for it . . . oh well, doesn't matter anymore.
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yes i love calculus and physics.. and i can completely relate to you. 😀

Verbal was by far the hardest section for me. I could improve my BS score (although i had only taken 1 semester of most basic biology by the time i took my mcat) by simply studying more and learning more, but that didn't work with verbal.

as for your 2-3 studying right before the exam thing, yes i can see how people in our type of majors can do that. Doing all the homework and staying awake at lectures is really all you need to do well on exams, but the thing is, those dang HW assignments take the majority of your day to complete. And when you can get stuck for hours. At least that's how my math, engineering mechanics, and other most of my major classes worked.

Still, though, I have to say you must be a brilliant dude to pull that off in your entire undergraduate studies. I had to study far more for many other classes. To get an average score on an o-chem exam, i had to study pretty much all day for 2-3 days reading texts and memorizing facts. Even biology classes required many hours of studying, for me. A few engineering classes in my major were memorization-emphasizing in nature so that required many hours of studying as well.

Talking about bioengineering, i minored in bioengineering and took a few classes at my undergraduate institution, and i have to say, those bioengineering people are smart. At least in my school, bioE was the hardest engineering major to get into, with the fewest number of students. All the bioE classes were much harder and intensive than my major classes, too.

sorry i wrote for so long
 
jae9970 said:
yes i love calculus and physics.. and i can completely relate to you. 😀

Verbal was by far the hardest section for me. I could improve my BS score (although i had only taken 1 semester of most basic biology by the time i took my mcat) by simply studying more and learning more, but that didn't work with verbal.

as for your 2-3 studying right before the exam thing, yes i can see how people in our type of majors can do that. Doing all the homework and staying awake at lectures is really all you need to do well on exams, but the thing is, those dang HW assignments take the majority of your day to complete. And when you can get stuck for hours. At least that's how my math, engineering mechanics, and other most of my major classes worked.

Still, though, I have to say you must be a brilliant dude to pull that off in your entire undergraduate studies. I had to study far more for many other classes. To get an average score on an o-chem exam, i had to study pretty much all day for 2-3 days reading texts and memorizing facts. Even biology classes required many hours of studying, for me. A few engineering classes in my major were memorization-emphasizing in nature so that required many hours of studying as well.

Talking about bioengineering, i minored in bioengineering and took a few classes at my undergraduate institution, and i have to say, those bioengineering people are smart. At least in my school, bioE was the hardest engineering major to get into, with the fewest number of students. All the bioE classes were much harder and intensive than my major classes, too.

sorry i wrote for so long
Click to expand...

I remember quantum mechanics homework that would have 5 problems and you had 2 weeks to complete it. My buddy and I had the best grades in the class and it still would take us 4-5 hours and more than 5 pages of equations to finish one problem working together. Tough stuff.
 
TRAMD said:
I didn't study at all for math or physics tests. They were much more intuitive to me and if you do all the homework and understand it then there shouldn't be a need to study much further.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree. My degree is in statistics and that's how all my math and stats classes went for me. Everything was intuitive so once I got the concept, I was good to go.

This whole "memorize a whole bunch of terminology and facts" thing is a pretty different learning experience for me.
 
oxeye said:
I absolutely agree. My degree is in statistics and that's how all my math and stats classes went for me. Everything was intuitive so once I got the concept, I was good to go.

This whole "memorize a whole bunch of terminology and facts" thing is a pretty different learning experience for me.
Click to expand...

I agree but apparently high math ability corresponds with success in medical school.
 
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