I'm sure you'll hear this from a lot more people: there is no one right way to study. What works for me usually won't work for you, and vice versa. Everyone has their own most efficient and lasting way of learning.
For example, in my class people used these methods in physiology:
- go to lecture, read over class notes 4-5 times and memorize, ignore textbook
- skip lecture, listen to MP3, look at powerpoint, make note cards
- go to lecture, take notes, read textbook
- skip lecture, listen, make summaries, fill in blanks
- get together with others and quiz each other
- study alone
For anatomy, I have never seen such an incredible variety of ways used to learn the same material for any class. For example: read book, memorize structures, ignore cadaver vs. dissect, ignore book vs. redraw structures over and over vs. learn everything on the body vs. learn everything on computer/book.
Embryology is probably the worst of all. Whatever you can use to learn the material, use. Your perfect textbook will be someone else's nightmare (like that horrible small text book with Simbryo, whatever it was).
Above all, do not be afraid to change methods. Keep going until you find something that works. Ask for help.
(You won't believe this now, but don't spend thousands on textbooks. Most of the time you don't need them and won't have time to use them.)
p.s. I disagree that everything taught is important. I just burned hundreds of pages of notes and notecards from med school. I can't believe some of the ridiculous esoteric irrelevant crap that we had to memorize. But it did make a nice warm fire on a cold night.
