Failed 4 exams first semester - Need major help

[Cardiocookie87]

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I finished my first semester of medical school a few days ago, and while I passed all of my courses, I failed 4 exams in doing so. My finals grades were between 79-85.

I just haven’t been able to retain the information like my classmates are able to. It’s scary as I feel like I’m not preparing well for step even though I’m passing, and I’m performing below the average.

I’ve tried Anki, but it’s very time consuming, and with the speed of information that gets thrown at me, I’m not really able to make cards and have time for the spaced repetition. I spend hours going through practice questions, but it’s clear that my studying habits aren’t working because I haven’t retained the pathways and processes, and end up using my notes, which I don’t think is very useful at that point.

Does anyone have any study methods that they have been successful with? Any study resources/practice questions they found useful?

 

[Type2Fiber]

Everyone is getting the information at the same speed as you. You said your final grades are near the average, so if you don't want to commit to working more doing something like Anki, you'll stay around the average

Questions are more useful once you've done been through a few systems blocks, you don't have enough of a fund of knowledge to get much from them yet in 1st semester. If you're passing near the average, you're doing ok objectively. If you want more, start grinding out B&B/Pathoma/Sketchy and then review class lectures after covering outside resources

 

[Fatalis]

remember, what works for others, might not work for you. I had classmates that loved anki but it simply didn't work for me. Try summarizing the notes/ readings into works of your own. Fro example, during path I would take a sheet of paper, put the pathology in the middle, orange for RF, red for Sx, purple for Dx, etc etc. I would have all of these concepts maps for each path and since I wrote the out, I could recall where exactly the information was on the page. Going over the material often and constantly is key. As said above, if you don't change how you are studying, you can't expect to improve

 

[Goro]

I finished my first semester of medical school a few days ago, and while I passed all of my courses, I failed 4 exams in doing so. My finals grades were between 79-85.

I just haven’t been able to retain the information like my classmates are able to. It’s scary as I feel like I’m not preparing well for step even though I’m passing, and I’m performing below the average.

I’ve tried Anki, but it’s very time consuming, and with the speed of information that gets thrown at me, I’m not really able to make cards and have time for the spaced repetition. I spend hours going through practice questions, but it’s clear that my studying habits aren’t working because I haven’t retained the pathways and processes, and end up using my notes, which I don’t think is very useful at that point.

Does anyone have any study methods that they have been successful with? Any study resources/practice questions they found useful?

Read this.

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2018 edition)

Dump Anki.

Visit your school's learning or education center.

Repetition drives learning.

 

[FindersFee5]

Read this.

• Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2018 edition)

Dump Anki.

Visit your school's learning or education center.

Repetition drives learning.

Uhhhh... Anki is literally just organized spaced repetition?

I finished my first semester of medical school a few days ago, and while I passed all of my courses, I failed 4 exams in doing so. My finals grades were between 79-85.

I just haven’t been able to retain the information like my classmates are able to. It’s scary as I feel like I’m not preparing well for step even though I’m passing, and I’m performing below the average.

I’ve tried Anki, but it’s very time consuming, and with the speed of information that gets thrown at me, I’m not really able to make cards and have time for the spaced repetition. I spend hours going through practice questions, but it’s clear that my studying habits aren’t working because I haven’t retained the pathways and processes, and end up using my notes, which I don’t think is very useful at that point.

Does anyone have any study methods that they have been successful with? Any study resources/practice questions they found useful?

It sounds like you're trying to invest in too many resources and not knowing what to focus on. I agree with the earlier poster who was saying that practice questions (unless you're talking about practice questions made by your TAs for your specific classes) are a waste of time in the early semesters. Second, if you're making Anki cards and not having time to study them, that's not very useful. You need to figure out where the problem with that is, because thousands of other students have made it work for them. Do you spend too long making the cards? Do you try to cram every single detail onto them, making the high yield stuff a needle in a haystack? Do you spend too much time doing other things (IE questions), spreading yourself too thin?

Could you write out what an average schedule for a day is, and what your workflow is when making Anki cards?

 

[Goro]

Uhhhh... Anki is literally just organized spaced repetition?



It sounds like you're trying to invest in too many resources and not knowing what to focus on. I agree with the earlier poster who was saying that practice questions (unless you're talking about practice questions made by your TAs for your specific classes) are a waste of time in the early semesters. Second, if you're making Anki cards and not having time to study them, that's not very useful. You need to figure out where the problem with that is, because thousands of other students have made it work for them. Do you spend too long making the cards? Do you try to cram every single detail onto them, making the high yield stuff a needle in a haystack? Do you spend too much time doing other things (IE questions), spreading yourself too thin?

Could you write out what an average schedule for a day is, and what your workflow is when making Anki cards?

Anki either works, or it doesn't. It seems to require a lot of effort, and is clearly not a cure-all for all students, like The OP

 

[Sleepingdoc]

I finished my first semester of medical school a few days ago, and while I passed all of my courses, I failed 4 exams in doing so. My finals grades were between 79-85.

I just haven’t been able to retain the information like my classmates are able to. It’s scary as I feel like I’m not preparing well for step even though I’m passing, and I’m performing below the average.

I’ve tried Anki, but it’s very time consuming, and with the speed of information that gets thrown at me, I’m not really able to make cards and have time for the spaced repetition. I spend hours going through practice questions, but it’s clear that my studying habits aren’t working because I haven’t retained the pathways and processes, and end up using my notes, which I don’t think is very useful at that point.

Does anyone have any study methods that they have been successful with? Any study resources/practice questions they found useful?

You passed so move on... do what works best for you, not what others suggest... Others might suggest reading the textbook 4 times... it might work for some...but may not work for you. Med school is scary..so is life after... suck it up and move on.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Anki either works, or it doesn't. It seems to require a lot of effort, and is clearly not a cure-all for all students, like The OP

It’s just a program that idealizes spaces repetition. It can work for anyone if you’re willing to make the cards fit your learning style. A little bit of effort up front will save a lot of time actually because of the way the algorithm works.

 

[CJhooper123]

It’s just a program that idealizes spaces repetition. It can work for anyone if you’re willing to make the cards fit your learning style. A little bit of effort up front will save a lot of time actually because of the way the algorithm works.

+1 on the Anki route. I get that it doesn’t work for some people.. and that’s ok. It’s unclear whether it doesn’t work for OP or whether they aren’t willing to commit the extra time to it. Sounds more like a time management issue. If your willing to give Anki another try, I’d recommend less practice questions and more Anki time. You only have so many hours in med school... and as much as you want to use every resource and learn everything inside/out... it’s impossible.

I’m a little extreme... but I almost exclusively use Anki. I never used it prior to med school. If I get something right on Anki 4-5 times prior to being assessed on it... I get it right on the exam. It’s kind of a fail-proof system for me, unless I really am struggling with a concept. I’m not bright and probably shouldn’t have gotten accepted to med school with my undergrad GPA... but have somehow managed to perform above average on all my med school exams (all credit to Anki).

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

+1 on the Anki route. I get that it doesn’t work for some people.. and that’s ok. It’s unclear whether it doesn’t work for OP or whether they aren’t willing to commit the extra time to it. Sounds more like a time management issue. If your willing to give Anki another try, I’d recommend less practice questions and more Anki time. You only have so many hours in med school... and as much as you want to use every resource and learn everything inside/out... it’s impossible.

I’m a little extreme... but I almost exclusively use Anki. I never used it prior to med school. If I get something right on Anki 4-5 times prior to being assessed on it... I get it right on the exam. It’s kind of a fail-proof system for me, unless I really am struggling with a concept. I’m not bright and probably shouldn’t have gotten accepted to med school with my undergrad GPA... but have somehow managed to perform above average on all my med school exams (all credit to Anki).

I mostly anki too. I do anki cards for the topics we have lectures on (which I don’t watch), then do boards and beyond videos and the associated questions for those topics. I also skim the powerpoints to make sure I don’t miss something important that the profs focus on. If there is a good sketchy video for something I’ll watch them too. Then I’ll do usmle rx questions closer to the exams.