do you think it's worth taking notes for histo?

[shreypete]

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hey there, i have a question regarding histology. do you think it's advisable for one to take notes for histology from the text (Basic histology atlas and text by Junquiera), considering that each chapter is soooo long and that it takes an even longer time to make notes. and i don't understand what exactly to read of if i'm supposed to skip any parts. for eg. we are cuurently doing types of tissue (epithelial- squamous, stratified, pseudo-stratified, transitional etc.) But when i opened the text, epithelial was a huge chapter in itself followed by connective then muscular and finally nervous.

i just spent so much time today taking notes and i'm wondering if it was actually worth it. the worst part about junquiera is that the text is in small print (which makes it psychologically hard to read as we feel that there's so much on one page---and in fact there is so much in each page!!!...quite ironical).



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[Droopy Snoopy]

hey there, i have a question regarding histology. do you think it's advisable for one to take notes for histology from the text (Basic histology atlas and text by Junquiera), considering that each chapter is soooo long and that it takes an even longer time to make notes. and i don't understand what exactly to read of if i'm supposed to skip any parts. for eg. we are cuurently doing types of tissue (epithelial- squamous, stratified, pseudo-stratified, transitional etc.) But when i opened the text, epithelial was a huge chapter in itself followed by connective then muscular and finally nervous.

i just spent so much time today taking notes and i'm wondering if it was actually worth it. the worst part about junquiera is that the text is in small print (which makes it psychologically hard to read as we feel that there's so much on one page---and in fact there is so much in each page!!!...quite ironical).
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I found it pretty low yield trying to do notes from any textbook. As a general rule for M1 year, don't be afraid to experiment with different study methods. If this isn't working for you drop it and try something else.

 

[smuwillobrien]

Regardless of how you're tested, I think taking notes is an absolute waste of time, but then again - it depends on you and how you learn. I took a histology class when I was in University, and all I needed to do was look at different slides of the same thing - over and over - and then I'd just know it. There were different things though - like epithelial layers - where writing a list down and memorizing it was impossible to avoid.

If you like to take notes - just make broad ones - like the types of tissue, classifications of epithelium - simple as opposed to stratified, squamous as opposed to cuboidal as opposed to columnar, non - keratinized as opposed to keratinized, ...

I don't know, but you'll figure something out.

 

[blz]

Dude, this isn't college. You better learn to live without being an anal-note taker. Med school is all about efficiency.

 

[smuwillobrien]

Dude, this isn't college. You better learn to live without being an anal-note taker. Med school is all about efficiency.

LOL

 

[DarlynVMD]

Listen, taking notes is a complete waste of time for histo. For first year I never bothered taking notes, they take up so much valuable study time. I used BRS histo as my main source for histo. I just memorized each page verbatim and that was my basic strategy. Anything was fair game for the exam, so we were "forced" to memorize the darn book. Our professor swore by Ross but I didn't waste my money or time with the book. While my strategy may sound non-effective, it worked for me, I did really well on all of our histo exams. To be honest, histo took up most of my study time compared to biochem and anatomy for my first semester. I was able to refrain from taking notes, etc., until now... PATH!!! Yes, I find myself making chapter outlines with the most important info. For example, Chapter 2: Inflammation... what a friggin' chapter... all those chemical mediators, etc. But yeah, try different methods out and see what works for you, but I find that you may need to take notes of some sort for classes like path and micro.

Wish you the best.

 

[shreypete]

Listen, taking notes is a complete waste of time for histo. For first year I never bothered taking notes, they take up so much valuable study time. I used BRS histo as my main source for histo. I just memorized each page verbatim and that was my basic strategy. Anything was fair game for the exam, so we were "forced" to memorize the darn book. Our professor swore by Ross but I didn't waste my money or time with the book. While my strategy may sound non-effective, it worked for me, I did really well on all of our histo exams. To be honest, histo took up most of my study time compared to biochem and anatomy for my first semester. I was able to refrain from taking notes, etc., until now... PATH!!! Yes, I find myself making chapter outlines with the most important info. For example, Chapter 2: Inflammation... what a friggin' chapter... all those chemical mediators, etc. But yeah, try different methods out and see what works for you, but I find that you may need to take notes of some sort for classes like path and micro.

Wish you the best.

hey there, thanks i hope i'll figure something out. but how can one memorize each page verbatim? i mean don't you forget the stuff frequently?

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[Blanket]

Taking notes is not really that important.

But, it is REALLY important to learn this stuff. I hated histo (and still do) and i am really paying for it now in Path. i am having to go back and review it all.

 

[dr1day]

Also, drawing seems to help me. Even though my drawings look nothing like the specimens, I know what they represent so it helps me remember.

 

[kdburton]

I use Weaters Functional Histology and just read through the sections that correspond to what we're learning in class. The chapters are fairly short and it seems to only give you the info that you need to know (at least it does for my histo class). As I read I highlight anything that is really important like key ID features and whatnot and make sure to correlated it to what my prof has in his lecture notes... Then I just go back and breeze thru the highlighted sections every once in a while and soon I have it all memorized. I don't think notes will help unless your book is poorly organized and you want to tabulate stuff for each kind of structure you're trying to ID

 

[DarlynVMD]

shreypete,

It is really easy to memorize a few chapters verbatim... it takes me about 45 mins - 1hr for a short chapter and more for a longer. What I did for epithelial, for example, was read the BRS chapter first to understand what the heck was going on and to know what was what and so on. On my second read, that's when I started to memorize the material. Once I finished the chapter, I took out a piece or paper, or if I was lazy to write it all out, I would just say it verbatim. Then, lets say that the following day I had to learn Bone & Cartilage or whatever, before I began to memorize that chapter, I would write out (most of the time speak out) the previous chapters that I had memorized, to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything, and also to keep everything in my head.
But what Blanket said is right... try to learn Histo right the first time around, most of us are paying for it now with Path. I studied the slides pretty often, but still, you tend to forget what a normal tissue is supposed to look like and all that other good stuff. Just stay on top of your material. Try and cover histo 2-3 times during the week, and then again on the weekend covering all the material up to that day. LOOK AT SLIDES!!! Anatomy isn't hard at all, just memorize a few (more like hundreds) of structure, O/I, supply, function, etc., and you should be more than fine. Be sure to do q's like crazy for anatomy though, do q's from BRS, and most importantly, from that Michigan website, the q's are an amazing learning tool.

Best of luck

hey there, thanks i hope i'll figure something out. but how can one memorize each page verbatim? i mean don't you forget the stuff frequently?

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[foofish]

If it makes you feel better, those are actually considered some of the shorter histology texts....so it could be worse.

But basically, you answered your own question--if you don't think taking notes on the text isn't working for you, try a different strategy. I tend to use classes as the groundwork of what to focus on, and use the texts to "fill in the details", as my professor loves to say. If you're at a total loss, ask your prof for suggestions on how to study and figure out what's important and what's not.