Did your studying habits/tactics change from First to Second Year?

[secants]

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Hey all,

Finishing up MS1 and I just wanted to know if you guys had any dramatic change in the way you study in second year versus first year. Right now I'm basically typing notes based on lecture PPT and our transcript service but I honestly don't think I can keep this up with the pace of second year.

From what I've seen at my school, second year is a whole lot of highlighting the Robbins path textbook. Did anyone completely stop taking full blown notes? I catch myself going back and looking at PPT and review books more than the notes I took so not sure if I should just stop.

Chime with any other advice!

Thanks!

 

[tco]

Like all questions similar to these, it depends on your school. Mine does not have a notetaking service. If it did, I would attend class and actively listen rather than try to make my own notes. Then, I would review the powerpoint along with the notes and annotate my own points to remember. Anything I didn't understand, I would consult the book.

Highlighting Robbins is useless. I don't know why people do that. You should never highlight something the first pass through it unless you know the material. You'll never cover all of Robbins multiple times, so why highlight?

To answer your question, yes, my studying changed from first to second year. First year, I basically memorized every line and could recite my notes. Second year is impossible to do that for a few reasons: the massive amount of material, the randomness of the points of some of the diseases, and the...Massive amount of material. Just do your best to understand the material the first pass, and try to get finer points as you continue your studies. Sometimes things will make more sense after you've covered something else - antimicrobials after you cover the bacteria, for example.

 

[AlexMorph]

I quit taking notes of any kind. What's the point? I wasn't going to go through any of the sources more than once, except for lecture notes. Even for those, it was just more efficient to read them over rather than add other crap to them. It worked out pretty well. You will find that you will adapt if need be.

 

[Dwindlin]

Stopped reading course notes, started using BRS Phys/Goljan/Katzung Pharm exclusively.

 

[JimmyChitwood]

I am a prolific highlighter (of powerpoints and lecture notes, that is) and tend to only do so when I have the time or when I am going to review them again. If I try to read something without highlighting, I find myself drifting off and then 5 pages later I realize I don't have any idea what I'm reading. Highlighting, even if I won't go over it again, helps me focus on what I need to remember. That way I read it, think "oh, that seems important," and then I recite it in my head a few times as I highlight it. Different strokes, though.

 

[hrandani]

First year I highlighted what I needed to know.

Second year I used a black marker to strike out what I didn't want to memorize.

 

[lildave2586]

Take your first year study time and multiply it by two. That's the only strategy you need.

 

[RadOncRocks]

Take your first year study time and multiply it by two. That's the only strategy you need.

SO true!! Second year is a different beast altogether...

 

[Seven of Nine]

First year I highlighted what I needed to know.

Second year I used a black marker to strike out what I didn't want to memorize.

lol'd.

quite the mindset 😎

 

[shadowfox87]

You know, the obvious things - I partied more, went to the gym more, hung out with friends more, chatted more, watched tv shows more, etc.

No seriously, all I did was the same damn thing and it's working for me. I DO take notes. Just because others don't, that doesn't mean anything. The reason other's don't is because there's too many things to do and nobody wants to take the time to summarize and make their own notes when they can just annotate and highlight instead. Read notes, ask why for everything you don't understand, then do questions, then read notes again. You take less and less time after each time reading your notes.

 

[justaregularmed]

SO true!! Second year is a different beast altogether...

Only by TWO? I wish I went to your school. A test for us second year covers like 150 pages of (NOTES not always in paragraph form) and probably around 1000+ ppt slides.

But they hate us. The real trick is trying to figure out what they are going to test on.

 

[LRAccord624]

Man I haven't sat down and talked with a second year about this in a long time, but it seems like second year for us isn't a huge change in workload. I really could be wrong about this, but at least first semester they went out a lot more than us and test every 8 weeks instead of every 3-5. Maybe it is a lot harder and they just don't b!tch about it like 2nd years I know at other schools (people I know personally, not talking about you guys)... can't imagine doubling my study time...

 

[deleted387928]

Only by TWO? I wish I went to your school. A test for us second year covers like 150 pages of (NOTES not always in paragraph form) and probably around 1000+ ppt slides.

But they hate us. The real trick is trying to figure out what they are going to test on.

We had 400-500 pages per test. The tests were integrated to include every class. Every 5 weeks it was one giant test over every lecture at once.