First pass, second pass, third pass...

[Espressso]

First year here, interested in hearing some other students study routines. More specifically, how you go through the material following a lecture.

Assuming lecture/notes during lecture is pass 0 (following a skim of the material before lecture), what's the next steps?

I've been going over the lecture in detail daily, following lectures, then a second pass would be me going over the lecture objectives in detail.

I'm still in my first week, coming off a year and a half out of school, so I'm trying to tinker with study habits. Obviously this process varies between people, but I'm interested in hearing what some of you do.

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[BorntobeDO?]

try to get 4+ passes before tests. When I do that I usually get a B or better. 3 is usually enough for passing, but it cuts to close IMO.

 

[getfat]

My plan is light pass, anki key terms night before. Then go to lecture. Cover missing material, look up what I'm bad at through texts outside resources that afternoon.

Rinse repeat.

Weekends organize material and catch up on what I'm not confident on


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[Rekt]

First year here, interested in hearing some other students study routines. More specifically, how you go through the material following a lecture.

Assuming lecture/notes during lecture is pass 0 (following a skim of the material before lecture), what's the next steps?

I've been going over the lecture in detail daily, following lectures, then a second pass would be me going over the lecture objectives in detail.

I'm still in my first week, coming off a year and a half out of school, so I'm trying to tinker with study habits. Obviously this process varies between people, but I'm interested in hearing what some of you do.

Lecture objectives at my school were completely worthless, one less slide I had to read. I recommend against a detailed pass with your first pass. Each subsequent pass of a lecture should be picking up more details. Start with getting the superficial idea of what the lecture is even about then you'll pick up more things each time you cover the lecture. Your goal should be covering content as quickly as possible. Some people get caught up in spending hours either making anki cards or even writing out notes, which is far too time consuming for the amount of material that you have to cover. So unless you're very fast at making anki/quizlets/whatever I recommend starting out at just powering through the slide decks multiple times. I also agree that four passes is a very good goal. That usually put me at ~95% on exams.

 

[IslandStyle808]

My school's curriculum is pretty brutal, so I would say I get 3 passes in before test time.

 

[shadowlightfox]

My school's curriculum is pretty brutal, so I would say I get 3 passes in before test time.

Care to elaborate when exactly do you do the extra passes?

 

[IslandStyle808]

Care to elaborate when exactly do you do the extra passes?

After I make my cards, my first pass will be the day off (those 8am-4pm days Mon. & Tues.). On the half days, I will not only do the first pass on that day, but will also do a 2nd pass of cards from Mon. and Tues (ex. Wed. and Fri., 8am-12pm). If I am falling behind, then it will just be a first pass for all cards for that week.

Then on the weekend, I will be doing a complete 2nd pass of last weeks materials (I will usually study 8-4pm Sat. and Sun. and then go with my study group to hit high yield concepts on Sun. takes around 3 hours).

The third pass will start happening on Sun. or Mon. of the coming week. I will be doing the first pass of Mon. and the third pass of last week on Mon. (really long day). Then around Wed. I will be doing the second pass of Mon. and Tues. material and 3rd pass of anything I missed on the previous week. By Thurs., I would have finished three passes of last week material and will be doing the 2nd-3rd pass of this weeks material. Then Friday is our exam.

 

[shadowlightfox]

After I make my cards, my first pass will be the day off (those 8am-4pm days Mon. & Tues.). On the half days, I will not only do the first pass on that day, but will also do a 2nd pass of cards from Mon. and Tues (ex. Wed. and Fri., 8am-12pm). If I am falling behind, then it will just be a first pass for all cards for that week.

Then on the weekend, I will be doing a complete 2nd pass of last weeks materials (I will usually study 8-4pm Sat. and Sun. and then go with my study group to hit high yield concepts on Sun. takes around 3 hours).

The third pass will start happening on Sun. or Mon. of the coming week. I will be doing the first pass of Mon. and the third pass of last week on Mon. (really long day). Then around Wed. I will be doing the second pass of Mon. and Tues. material and 3rd pass of anything I missed on the previous week. By Thurs., I would have finished three passes of last week material and will be doing the 2nd-3rd pass of this weeks material. Then Friday is our exam.

Dear lord that is keeping you busy. Please tell me you are getting straight As. How do you even incorporate board studying in the schedule?

 

[IslandStyle808]

Dear lord that is keeping you busy. Please tell me you are getting straight As. How do you even incorporate board studying in the schedule?

Nope, I'm a B average student and our school curriculum is brutal and will probably need to be revamped (all of my class is just as tired and jaded as I am). However, I've heard our credit load will get lower next year (ex. most of our classes end at 12pm). So hopeful we get more time to study for the boards.

EDIT: forgot mention this was my 1st year schedule

 

[shadowlightfox]

Nope, I'm a B average student and our school curriculum is brutal and will probably need to be revamped (all of my class is just as tired and jaded as I am). However, I've heard our credit load will get lower next year (ex. most of our classes end at 12pm). So hopeful we get more time to study for the boards.

EDIT: forgot mention this was my 1st year schedule

Damn. What you are saying is like a reverse of my school, as I'm sure you noticed from that other thread I created a while back.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Damn. What you are saying is like a reverse of my school, as I'm sure you noticed from that other thread I created a while back.

Yep, that was the exact thought I had when I saw your thread. I'm not sure what you say about your situation where you also have to do board studying. However, it would probably be best to put any extracurriculars on the back burner for your courses and board study.

It was probably for the best at my school that most of the material was front loaded, so we could study for the boards during 2nd year.

 

[shadowlightfox]

If I can find at least one person in my class who did well AND killed the boards, I would be so happy.

 

[Dreamstoo]

1st pass through - going to lecture/making my notes (I did stream most of the time so I paused/play an hour lecture at 2x within probably 40-50 minutes with in depth notes).
2nd pass through - read through again, try to gauge the High Yield points. Check the old test banks provided to us by our school (some lectures had previous exam questions that are offered to us as practice, some are really helpful and some are not). After that, I make my Anki notes for that lecture (it can vary from 5-6 cards to at times 20 or so, I used to do 30+ per lecture but it was far too much and too exhausting to keep up with 1800+ cards for the exams we had that included 50-60 lectures, I also started doing better on exams when I cut down).
3rd pass through - additional resources - First Aid, other board prep materials. If it was 4-5 days out of the exam, sometimes my 3rd pass through will be a "group study session" where we ask each other questions and draw out concepts on the white boards in our study areas.
4th pass through - Read all my "simplified notes" from the 3 passes prior, redo the practice questions from the Q bank, and if I can incorporate the pre-made Brocephalon/Zanki decks for system-based exams (I have admittedly got questions on exams right because they felt like re-worded cards from these decks, they're really good).

 

[deleted244469]

1st pass through - going to lecture/making my notes (I did stream most of the time so I paused/play an hour lecture at 2x within probably 40-50 minutes with in depth notes).
2nd pass through - read through again, try to gauge the High Yield points. Check the old test banks provided to us by our school (some lectures had previous exam questions that are offered to us as practice, some are really helpful and some are not). After that, I make my Anki notes for that lecture (it can vary from 5-6 cards to at times 20 or so, I used to do 30+ per lecture but it was far too much and too exhausting to keep up with 1800+ cards for the exams we had that included 50-60 lectures, I also started doing better on exams when I cut down).
3rd pass through - additional resources - First Aid, other board prep materials. If it was 4-5 days out of the exam, sometimes my 3rd pass through will be a "group study session" where we ask each other questions and draw out concepts on the white boards in our study areas.
4th pass through - Read all my "simplified notes" from the 3 passes prior, redo the practice questions from the Q bank, and if I can incorporate the pre-made Brocephalon/Zanki decks for system-based exams (I have admittedly got questions on exams right because they felt like re-worded cards from these decks, they're really good).

I'm assuming you only made Anki cards for concepts you truly didn't know/were struggling with?

 

[shadowlightfox]

1st pass through - going to lecture/making my notes (I did stream most of the time so I paused/play an hour lecture at 2x within probably 40-50 minutes with in depth notes).
2nd pass through - read through again, try to gauge the High Yield points. Check the old test banks provided to us by our school (some lectures had previous exam questions that are offered to us as practice, some are really helpful and some are not). After that, I make my Anki notes for that lecture (it can vary from 5-6 cards to at times 20 or so, I used to do 30+ per lecture but it was far too much and too exhausting to keep up with 1800+ cards for the exams we had that included 50-60 lectures, I also started doing better on exams when I cut down).
3rd pass through - additional resources - First Aid, other board prep materials. If it was 4-5 days out of the exam, sometimes my 3rd pass through will be a "group study session" where we ask each other questions and draw out concepts on the white boards in our study areas.
4th pass through - Read all my "simplified notes" from the 3 passes prior, redo the practice questions from the Q bank, and if I can incorporate the pre-made Brocephalon/Zanki decks for system-based exams (I have admittedly got questions on exams right because they felt like re-worded cards from these decks, they're really good).

Wait, you had 50-60 lectures before an exam!?

 

[NecrotizingFasciitis]

I can't help but notice none of you incorporate time for crying in your study schedules. Am I doing something wrong?


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[deleted244469]

I can't help but notice none of you incorporate time for crying in your study schedules. Am I doing something wrong?


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I just assumed that crying was implied. I even have a dedicated corner of my study room set up for it.

 

[Scrubs101]

I can't help but notice none of you incorporate time for crying in your study schedules. Am I doing something wrong?


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I just assumed that crying was implied. I even have a dedicated corner of my study room set up for it.

Its only n=26 but everyone that ive talked to with a >240 step said they started crying early and frequently, so for those of you not incorporating it youre gonna wanna try and bump those numbers up


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[deleted244469]

Its only n=26 but everyone that ive talked to with a >240 step said they started crying early and frequently, so for those of you not incorporating it youre gonna wanna try and bump those numbers up


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I always knew I was destined for a >240 step score. The above post confirms it. LOL.

 

[cryhavoc]

If you count watching lecture as one pass and making my study aids as another pass, I also just go through all my study aids three times. So five passes usually gets me a B.

I've never risked less. Just barely passing would give me an anxiety attack.

I wondered if more passes beyond five would give me an A but I usually run out of time and am finishing up my last pass the night before so I never get an opportunity to try.

Some people just read lecture slides for their passes, I have to write everything out by hand at least once in my own words/diagrams or I absorb nothing. Got a pretty nice dent on my finger from my first year of med school . . . Wish I could just read the slides, my study aids take forever to make.

 

[MrTaco92]

I can't help but notice none of you incorporate time for crying in your study schedules. Am I doing something wrong?


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I maximize my time efficiency by crying while studying. I could get through an extra few practice questions a day by doing this.