anyone else seem to forget something old when they learn something new

[baylor1989]

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just seems like when i learn something new... i forget everything else.

I am senior in college, got into a handful of med schools - few top 20. sitting here reviewing notes for our third test (tests are comprehensive). seem to get 3rd test material down. but when i start at looking for material test 1 and 2... it's always like i don't know exactly what something is, but i've "heard" of it. i can take a test, get an A on it. than if i were to take the same test 2 weeks later, i'd literally fail.


anyone else have this problem?
i think i am really bad at it. i don't know. just kind of nervous about med school starting i guess lol.

i have really good grades, did well on my mcat. but i just think i am at my max capacity (hope not). was talking to my TA for one my labs a minute ago. kind of scared me, because what he described (also what i described above), i think i am in the same boat as him. smart guy, went to hopkins medical, one semester later.... well, let's just say he's my TA for a bio class.

any opinions?

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

just seems like when i learn something new... i forget everything else.

I am senior in college, got into a handful of med schools - few top 20. sitting here reviewing notes for our third test (tests are comprehensive). seem to get 3rd test material down. but when i start at looking for material test 1 and 2... it's always like i don't know exactly what something is, but i've "heard" of it. i can take a test, get an A on it. than if i were to take the same test 2 weeks later, i'd literally fail.


anyone else have this problem?
i think i am really bad at it. i don't know. just kind of nervous about med school starting i guess lol.

i have really good grades, did well on my mcat. but i just think i am at my max capacity (hope not). was talking to my TA for one my labs a minute ago. kind of scared me, because what he described (also what i described above), i think i am in the same boat as him. smart guy, went to hopkins medical, one semester later.... well, let's just say he's my TA for a bio class.

any opinions?

It's the penguin theory. Your mind is an iceburg, and all your ideas are little penguins scurrying about on the surface. Your iceburg doesn't get any bigger, but the penguins don't know this and keep breeding as penguins do. Eventually there's no more room up there, such that for every shiny new baby penguin you've gotta dump a decrepit old geezer penguin. You just gotta hope that he's not carrying your bank PIN number or wedding anniversary.

 

[Yope]

It's the penguin theory. Your mind is an iceburg, and all your ideas are little penguins scurrying about on the surface. Your iceburg doesn't get any bigger, but the penguins don't know this and keep breeding as penguins do. Eventually there's no more room up there, such that for every shiny new baby penguin you've gotta dump a decrepit old geezer penguin. You just gotta hope that he's not carrying your bank PIN number or wedding anniversary.

?

 

[da8s0859q]

?

Penguins **** in your head and screw up information you remember. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[baylor1989]

think he means their is a limited room on the iceberg (your brain) and the new baby penguin being added to the iceberg (i.e. new info) but since there is a limited room, an older penguin (old info) has to leave the iceberg (your brain)

but doesn't really help. think i just need to cram less. like i'll have a test in 3 weeks. i can study for the whole 3 weeks. but i learn just as much the last 2 days, as the 3 weeks minus 2 days, before

 

[marble30]

It's the penguin theory. Your mind is an iceburg, and all your ideas are little penguins scurrying about on the surface. Your iceburg doesn't get any bigger, but the penguins don't know this and keep breeding as penguins do. Eventually there's no more room up there, such that for every shiny new baby penguin you've gotta dump a decrepit old geezer penguin. You just gotta hope that he's not carrying your bank PIN number or wedding anniversary.

👍 Love the penguin analogy.

 

[eablackwell]

In high school we call it infodumping. My students do it on almost every subject. They were all aces at the various forms of equilibrium, but we've now just finished thermodynamics & electrochemistry. I gave them an equilibrium problem the other day (we spent 6 weeks on equilibrium), and they couldn't even make an equilibrium expression for me. 👎

Another example, APUSH, they obviously are past the civil war by now. AP Lit teacher asked about the civil war, Answer: "It was the war where all the black people rose up and killed all the whites."

These are all good kids, but they don't see the use of holding onto information for more than the exam.

Try to find ways to string all the information together in your mind. Granted, some things are going to slip through the cracks, but you should make an effort to not allow all of it to do so, (aka, throw various problems into your studying from past units).

Good luck 👍

 

[shepardsun]

Welcome to medical school, the world's largest information landfill. With the amount of information that you will get thrown at you on a daily basis it's hilariously futile to attempt to remember everything. Everyone memorizes tons of facts that are then dumped immediately after the exam. What's important is to learn and understand general concepts that you retain and then when you have to learn all of the minutae again for licensing exams it comes a little easier because you've seen it before. Anyone who tells you with a straight face that you need to memorize and retain everything you learn in medical school is a dangerous poker player or an idiot.

 

[grotto]

In high school we call it infodumping. My students do it on almost every subject. They were all aces at the various forms of equilibrium, but we've now just finished thermodynamics & electrochemistry. I gave them an equilibrium problem the other day (we spent 6 weeks on equilibrium), and they couldn't even make an equilibrium expression for me. 👎

Another example, APUSH, they obviously are past the civil war by now. AP Lit teacher asked about the civil war, Answer: "It was the war where all the black people rose up and killed all the whites."

These are all good kids, but they don't see the use of holding onto information for more than the exam.

Try to find ways to string all the information together in your mind. Granted, some things are going to slip through the cracks, but you should make an effort to not allow all of it to do so, (aka, throw various problems into your studying from past units).

Good luck 👍

This isn't high school. We do the equivalent of a high school chemistry class in, at most, a week - maybe a few days. We covered two semesters of college biochemistry in 2 weeks. Immunology, a one semester undergrad course: 4 days.

Details are sometimes lost, hopefully the principles stay so the next time you study the same material it sticks for the boards.

 

[hrandani]

One of our professors mentioned that basically what most medical students do is just load their hypothalamus (short term memory) to maximum right before the test, and quickly lose it. I don't know that accuracy of that though.

However after seeing enough research, what I try to do with stuff like GT, qbanks and notes I've come up with over the years is to make enough big picture connections over enough months to where the information is repeatedly recalled and enough associations are made to where it's moved into long term memory.

Guess I'll see how it goes in July.

 

[courtnes]

Er, hippocampus maybe?

Grotto, thanks for the insight on the relative amount of content compared to college classes, I've been wondering about that.

 

[RySerr21]

The first quote at the beginning of high yield principles of First Aid:

" There comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therfore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[willen101383]

Er, hippocampus maybe?

Grotto, thanks for the insight on the relative amount of content compared to college classes, I've been wondering about that.

What he/she failed to mention is the lack of detail in most med school courses. You get minutiae but not nearly as much as youd get in a spread out undergrad course where you may spend an entire week on...errrr.......SN2 reactions or something.

 

[courtnes]

What he/she failed to mention is the lack of detail in most med school courses. You get minutiae but not nearly as much as youd get in a spread out undergrad course where you may spend an entire week on...errrr.......SN2 reactions or something.

Another thing I've seen mentioned a lot here is that some lecturers will focus mostly on their research and not necessarily on things that will be important for you to know clinically or for the boards. How much would you say you encounter that in classes? Or is it really lecturer/school dependent?

 

[da8s0859q]

Another thing I've seen mentioned a lot here is that some lecturers will focus mostly on their research and not necessarily on things that will be important for you to know clinically or for the boards. How much would you say you encounter that in classes? Or is it really lecturer/school dependent?

It'll vary a little by school, and a lot by lecturer. We have some guys who love research, theirs or other people's, but it's one of those things that you just have to take in stride when you see it.

At least in my experience, only a couple of those people have had exam questions that actually tended towards research and not current understanding and treatment (like you'd need to know for Step).