Need help with my study technique!

pigglewiggle · Sep 4, 2007

Hi! I am a 2nd year and I am still finding myself completely overwhelmed with all of the material we have to learn. I am a BIG outliner and learn best by writing everything down, but the problem is my outlines end up being hundreds of pages and in the end I have to make outlines of my original outline. It's really time consuming. Ideally I would like to have an outline that is 2-3 pgs for each lecture (we have abt 30-35 lectures per exam) but I am always afraid of leaving things out. Everything seems important. Just wondering if anyone had any advice for me or wanted to critique my study habits. Any words of wisdom would be mucho appreciated. Gracias!

Blade28 · Sep 5, 2007

What subject is this, pathology? That's what got me during second year - my solution was to carefully read all of Robbins' (took all of my MS-I and MS-II years to do this), and review the important parts and slides/graphics/images EVERY DAY.

Repetition, repetition, repetition!

medicomel · Sep 5, 2007

Maybe pull out the highlighter AFTER you've had a first pass at your notes. At that point you'll be able to pick out what's really important. After that, force yourself to read only what was highlighted and then read it as many times as you can before the test. Key words and phrases that will jog your memory...not paragraphs or many sentences. That's just inefficient.

Anyway, hope that helps. I would ideally love to rewrite my notes, but it's near impossible given the volume of paper thrown at me on a daily basis.

Good luck,
'mel

baylormed · Sep 5, 2007

pigglewiggle said:
Hi! I am a 2nd year and I am still finding myself completely overwhelmed with all of the material we have to learn. I am a BIG outliner and learn best by writing everything down, but the problem is my outlines end up being hundreds of pages and in the end I have to make outlines of my original outline. It's really time consuming. Ideally I would like to have an outline that is 2-3 pgs for each lecture (we have abt 30-35 lectures per exam) but I am always afraid of leaving things out. Everything seems important. Just wondering if anyone had any advice for me or wanted to critique my study habits. Any words of wisdom would be mucho appreciated. Gracias!

I'm having the same problem. I love making outlines because it condenses the material by a good amount and makes it easier to study. But still, I find that I end up with sometimes long outlines, or that it takes way too much time to make them. Sometimes I get tired of making them and end up only doing the 1st half of the material....but I can't think of any other way of doing this! I tried making flashcards, but that takes longer and they occupy more volume...200 notecards vs 40-50 pages of outlines.

And I actually do what someone else suggested. I read the syllabus once. Then I go over it again with my highliter. Then I make my outline. And in the meantime there are other classes to study for...arghh.

jsong812 · Sep 9, 2007

i know exactly how you guys feel...

njbmd · Sep 9, 2007

pigglewiggle said:
Hi! I am a 2nd year and I am still finding myself completely overwhelmed with all of the material we have to learn. I am a BIG outliner and learn best by writing everything down, but the problem is my outlines end up being hundreds of pages and in the end I have to make outlines of my original outline. It's really time consuming. Ideally I would like to have an outline that is 2-3 pgs for each lecture (we have abt 30-35 lectures per exam) but I am always afraid of leaving things out. Everything seems important. Just wondering if anyone had any advice for me or wanted to critique my study habits. Any words of wisdom would be mucho appreciated. Gracias!

If your outlines end up being hundreds of pages, you are filling in too much detail and spending loads of time doing the clerical work of writing down that detail instead of honing your knowledge.

You might try combining "concept mapping" with your outlining. Do your concept map on a huge whiteboard (or blackboard ) in a classroom. Outline the major headings but use the concept mapping to fill in the details. Once you write your material on the concept map, you can fill in the details orally by lecturing them back to yourself. Purchase a digital tape recorder and you can play them back while you are working out or standing in line at the bank.

I even took digital photos of my concept maps (I had a 60-inch whiteboard in my living room) that I would review before the tests. I used those some of those photos for review for USMLE too. By making a concept map, your brain fills in the details and reviews them for you as opposed to you rewriting everything.

Do a Google search for "concept mapping" if you are not familiar with this tool.

Ashers · Sep 9, 2007

njbmd said:
If your outlines end up being hundreds of pages, you are filling in too much detail and spending loads of time doing the clerical work of writing down that detail instead of honing your knowledge.

That's exactly how I studied M2 year. My grades improved significantly. My first pass through the notes was just to write/type down everything the lecturer had in their notes and said in class. Then before the exam, I would've read the book (Robbins for path, Goodman and Gilman for pharm, and Lange Micro and Immuno for Micro), and then I'd go through, compare my notes with the color pictures I added from the slides to the outline (because our notes were black and white), and I'd compare my notes to the lecture notes, and annotate.

It was a lot of repetition, but I learned the stuff that way.

harrypotter · Sep 16, 2007

njbmd,

could you explain the concept map a lil bit more? Or upload a sample? I'm having a hard time figuring it out. But then again, I am sleep-deprived.

Thanks!

emtp6811 · Sep 25, 2007

harrypotter said:
njbmd,

could you explain the concept map a lil bit more? Or upload a sample? I'm having a hard time figuring it out. But then again, I am sleep-deprived.

Thanks!

here's a good site that I found with Google Search:

http://classes.aces.uiuc.edu/ACES100/Mind/CMap.html

tony montana · Sep 25, 2007

1) 1st pass highlight high yield points
2) 2nd pass read only highlighted material
3) Do qbanks (questions and answers)
4) review the weak areas as determined by qbank results
5) kill that test

IDing the HY points is an art you will learn to develop. Grow comfortable knowing you will not cover/learn 100% of the test material. With this method you should do 80 - 90% in a rather comfortable and "active" manner.

sammas47 · Sep 29, 2007

Hey, this might help you. Have a look at this study technique.

Need help with my study technique!

pigglewiggle

Full Member

Blade28

medicomel

Purveyor of short posts.

baylormed

On the Search

jsong812

Senior Member

njbmd

Ashers

Bacteria? Don't exist.

harrypotter

Full Member

emtp6811

iLurk

tony montana

Dr. G-Spot

sammas47

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