For those consistently making A's/Honors in med school. How do you do it?

[Brahventus]

I hear that repetition is key but I honestly went over our exams ppts 5+ times and made a low B on the exam and this has been the trend so far for me. Will putting more time to do questions get me to the A range?

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[1lifeleft28]

rewatch lectures at 1.5x min to make sure you have the main points of each slide and anything extra they explained thats barely on the slide - go through and memorize the slides - be able to close your eyes and repeat everything on the slide - do this several times and move - best to then go back through the lecture immediately after memorizing it to make sure you know it as opposed to going onto the next 10+ lectures (this is entirely time dependant of course)

 

[frappalino16]

I would first focus on getting the main points/concepts of each lecture and then going through the lectures 2 more times at 1.5x speed (thank you VLC) to fill in the details. It worked for me during the preclinical years, worked very well for Step 1, and has worked well thus far on all of my shelves.

 

[Chiroptile]

This may sound tedious, but it worked well for me. This is how I did the bulk of my studying, though I was forced to introduce variations as the work load and course material evolved.

For any lecture that came with a powerpoint AND a lecture packet, I ignored the powerpoit and rewrote/reorganized the packet in a notebook. I used a bullet point or a Q -----> A format. I would then go through the notebook once and highlight stuff I had difficulty retaining. Go through it a couple more times to hammer down the stuff in highlight. I would look at the bullet header, or the Q portion and try to recall the associated information. If I had it down, I'd leave it alone. If i still couldn't recall it, I'd put it in a different color highlight and go back over the new highlights on my next go around. Then I'd go through the whole thing once or twice more.. Ended up with a whole stack of notebooks, but it was nice. I was able to organize and word things in my own way, write in details on the subject as presented in other classes, add colorful language, draw little flowcharts and create associations. This helped me to understand and learn the material other than just rely on rogue memorization.

For any lecture that only had a powerpoint, I'd listen to the lecture, fill in anything that was missing and highlight anything the professors seemed to stress, then take to the notebooks again..

One thing I should point out is that I changed the way I studied maybe 3 or 4 times throughout my first two years, and many of my colleague did as well. I found, for example that making out flashcards worked me in the first semester, but didn't work anymore in the second, so I had to adjust and invented the whole notebook thing. Towards the end of my sciences I used the notebook maybe about 50% of the time and just highlighted stuff in lecture packet printouts. I think that by then I'd trained my brain to be able to process the information that way. I know that when I was just starting I was unable to straight study from lecture packets.

I think ultimately that is the most important point of advice I can give you from my own personal experience.. When you find what works, be fluid, and be prepared to develop new strategies on the go. Try to set it up in a way that allows you to retain information through understanding rather than rogue memorization.

 

[DrEnderW]

My best advice would be to try to avoid learning passively as much as possible. An example of this would be watching lectures multiple times or just flipping through the slides. Force yourself to actively recall information. With so much volume it's easy to "feel" like you know info when you see the slides but actually recalling information or differentiating between two similar conditions when prompted is very different. It was also very helpful for me to see things multiple different ways. For example, I'd watch the lecture, take notes from the ppt slides at a later date, read from a textbook or BRS, and then do multiple passes over my notes before exams. Spaced repetition is key.

 

[ChrisGriffen]

Stop looking for the magic formula and just study more.

There is no secret. It just takes hard work.

Edit: as in, SDN forums wont give you the answers to your next test. Your powerpoints and your notes will

 

[AnonymousD.O.]

I would say I have more of a social life than most other med students, and I'm able to keep higher grades than avg. Get up earlier. I can't stand when people complain about being so overwhelmed with work and then you find out they wake up 2 min before class and study all night half asleep. Sure, some people can do this. Some people are night time people vs morning. But for those struggling I would suggest waking up early to give yourself extra time in the day. You should be able to do things at night to relax and revamp too.

And if your thinking "O I hate getting up early, I need my sleep". Have fun during 3rd year and residency.

 

[DrEnderW]

^ That is excellent advice @AnonymousD.O.

 

[DocWinter]

Most people you are talking about are lying about their grades. Usually those who do really well in the sciences don't have A grade skills in the clinical portion of the coursework, or vice versa. very, very few pull a 4.0 in any semester.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

There's no catch-all solution. It's about self-diagnosis. The most obvious answer is not enough study time. But maybe that's not true. Then it's about study hygiene. How distracted are you? Then it's about study format. How do you study? Are you engaged? How is your retention? What are your study materials? Do they accurately reflect the test content? Then it's about efficiency-- are there faster ways to cover the material as well as you already are? That will allow more passes in the same timeframe. Then it's about finding out what other, more successful people do and trying that.

The solution will be specific only to you. What bothers me most are people who consistently just try to do more of the same, or they abandon ALL habits, functional or not, in an attempt to completely reinvent themselves. You're a scientist. Change one variable at a time and record results. Continue changing variables until you have the desired effect.

 

[dvmhopeful2018]

Study groups. But really. Study the information before hand, and have everyone come with questions prepared. I've found that we all think different things are important/stressed by the professor. I also learn well by teaching and explaining, so sometimes we'll just go quickly through the pots and when someone has a question I try to reword the ppt. Wins all the way around.

 

[painmd87]

What's wrong with a low B?

Learn the medicine-relevant material that will get you through your career, learn the board-relevant material that will get you into a career, and skip the fluff.

Start broad and narrow. Lecture/textbook is broad. Your notes are narrow. Your keywords are narrower. Your flashcards of keywords are narrowest. If you do practice questions, take notes from the explanations (EVEN IF YOU GOT THE QUESTION RIGHT!), and incorporate into your keywords/flashcards.

Your preclinical grades barely matter to most residency programs, especially when you consider you're being compared against a lot of pass/fail students. I got a mix of preclinical grades, mostly Bs with a few As and Cs. It came up once in 18 interviews - "You osteopathic students take the weirdest classes. Why did you get a C in geriatrics?"

Focus on the goal - learn the medicine, prepare for USMLE/COMLEX, survive, and move on to rotations. Get a hobby or six. Prepare for the wards.

(Obviously this thread wasn't targeted to me - I didn't consistently get As/Honors during MS1 or MS2. I got straight As MS3/MS4 though.)

 

[DocWinter]

^ This guy.

I'm happy as pie with Bs. I get an A sprinkled in, and I work to keep out of the C range. It's fluff, it's unwarranted, and if you want A's go ahead and knock yourself out. If you get a average COMLEX/USMLE score and interview well, I really don't see the problem for 90% of students. If you cardio at JH or radonc at Mayo, then I have no advice. I only would ask why the hell you would DO anyway if you're not happy doing 95% of the very attainable and satisfying positions available to you.

 

[orangeman25]

I only would ask why the hell you would DO anyway if you're not happy doing 95% of the very attainable and satisfying positions available to you.

Eh, it's more like 70% programs are attainable (according to NRMP match statistics) for osteopathic grads.

 

[DocWinter]

I'm speaking not of programs, but of overall # of positions available. There's far more family docs> dermatologists or IM> Urology.

 

[OneTripAcross]

I would say I have more of a social life than most other med students, and I'm able to keep higher grades than avg. Get up earlier. I can't stand when people complain about being so overwhelmed with work and then you find out they wake up 2 min before class and study all night half asleep. Sure, some people can do this. Some people are night time people vs morning. But for those struggling I would suggest waking up early to give yourself extra time in the day. You should be able to do things at night to relax and revamp too.

And if your thinking "O I hate getting up early, I need my sleep". Have fun during 3rd year and residency.

I like this advise. My first two years were awesome and had a boat load of free time. I can't speak for 3rd/4th years as they have been 2 of the most agonizing years of my life but here's what I did.

Now I did wake up 10 minutes before class but I went to 99% of lectures and tried to stay focused the whole 4 hours (usually only could last about 2 before I'd start murdering solitaire) and towards the end I was just listening for high points and would circle/take notes on really highlighted slides and material. After lecture I went straight home and went over all of the lectures that day (about 4 hours) by transferring PowerPoint's into word document study guides with my notes and highlights or simply hand writing bulleted notes. When my wife got home I was done, I shut it down and spent the late afternoon evenings with her and we had a blast doing whatever the hell we wanted. The weekends Id start studying at 7 and finish by 4-5 with a good 1 hour break in the middle and numerous smaller breaks in between and went over all the study material for the lectures I had made during the week. These were mainly my guidelines and if I wanted an afternoon off I took it or a weekend off I took it and made up for it later. That was my non-test week schedule, test weeks was this same schedule except I was done at 10 everyday and there was no days taken off ever (and it sucked). But I can say never once did I study past 10 in my first 2 years. This schedule got me good grades and was top 10%. I remember seeing people walking into school the night before a test at 5-6 to study all night and was just mesmerized at how people could torture themselves like that. Or driving by the school on a Friday or Saturday night on my way to grab dinner/movie with my wife and friends seeing the parking the parking lot full and just shaking my head. Just a little time management and your life can be much easier.

To each his own I guess.

 

[BMSc2DO]

Memorize everything and try understanding it as best you can. I have never looked at practice problems. It is pointless. If you know your stuff, nothing will stop you on the exam. Memorize details and slides until you can anticipate the next word while reading. Write everything out on scrap paper. If you can't, you don't know it. Just my 0.02.

 

[dfib slim]

Stay healthy, eat good food, exercise, and don't underestimate the power of sleep.

Also, have a photographic memory.

 

[jqueb29]

I play Xbox until I have to cram

 

[BrooklynBulls]

^ This guy.

I'm happy as pie with Bs. I get an A sprinkled in, and I work to keep out of the C range. It's fluff, it's unwarranted, and if you want A's go ahead and knock yourself out. If you get a average COMLEX/USMLE score and interview well, I really don't see the problem for 90% of students. If you cardio at JH or radonc at Mayo, then I have no advice. I only would ask why the hell you would DO anyway if you're not happy doing 95% of the very attainable and satisfying positions available to you.

That's a little bit of a myopic view to have. Preclinical grades aren't that important. But the only people who murder COMLEX/USMLE are in two groups: Those that did very well preclinically, and those that while not doing well preclinically, did so strategically with a nearly constant eye on those exams. In other words, they didn't really study less or study only more clinically relevant stuff, they just took the hit in grades to focus their study toward board-based material.

And I know, you're going to say why do you have to do well on boards when you can get a reasonably good residency without it? Well because if you want anything that is above-average in competitiveness, particularly allopathically, you're going to need those scores. And not all residencies are created equally.

I'm going into Radiology, and while the statistics say I'd very likely match in SOME residency if I had just average scores, the quality of residency has a lot more bearing in how your career goes than some like to admit. I'm not saying that one needs great board scores so that they end up at Johns Hopkins, but it would be nice to A- have a lot of choices where you end up. You might match your specialty, in a place you're loathe to live in, and B- tailor your residency toward YOUR career goals. Even if your career goals are meager, if you are interested in something specific, only a handful of residencies may offer that opportunity to you. FM with a lot of c-section exposure, Oncologic Interventional Radiology (my interest), OB with an ability to subpecialize in MFM (which coming from most community programs, good luck), solid tumor treatment (coming from many community programs, without a fellowship at that program, good luck). The list goes on.

The point is that scores, even for mildly competitive, or EVEN uncompetitive specialties might not be the gateway to a FIELD, but it may be the gateway to a desirable residency. It's best to do as well as you possibly can, because these grades roll over into board scores pretty easily, and then you're stuck with mediocre (if you're lucky) scores, but a desire for something just a bit greater than mediocre. But you're stuck. It's a bad place to be.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

Eh, it's more like 70% programs are attainable (according to NRMP match statistics) for osteopathic grads.

100% of fields are ATTAINABLE. You gotta count the osteopathic match. But yes, the most competitive specialties, you do have to be a special kind of brilliant to match.

 

[DocWinter]

That's a little bit of a myopic view to have. Preclinical grades aren't that important. But the only people who murder COMLEX/USMLE are in two groups: Those that did very well preclinically, and those that while not doing well preclinically, did so strategically with a nearly constant eye on those exams. In other words, they didn't really study less or study only more clinically relevant stuff, they just took the hit in grades to focus their study toward board-based material.

And I know, you're going to say why do you have to do well on boards when you can get a reasonably good residency without it? Well because if you want anything that is above-average in competitiveness, particularly allopathically, you're going to need those scores. And not all residencies are created equally.

I'm going into Radiology, and while the statistics say I'd very likely match in SOME residency if I had just average scores, the quality of residency has a lot more bearing in how your career goes than some like to admit. I'm not saying that one needs great board scores so that they end up at Johns Hopkins, but it would be nice to A- have a lot of choices where you end up. You might match your specialty, in a place you're loathe to live in, and B- tailor your residency toward YOUR career goals. Even if your career goals are meager, if you are interested in something specific, only a handful of residencies may offer that opportunity to you. FM with a lot of c-section exposure, Oncologic Interventional Radiology (my interest), OB with an ability to subpecialize in MFM (which coming from most community programs, good luck), solid tumor treatment (coming from many community programs, without a fellowship at that program, good luck). The list goes on.

The point is that scores, even for mildly competitive, or EVEN uncompetitive specialties might not be the gateway to a FIELD, but it may be the gateway to a desirable residency. It's best to do as well as you possibly can, because these grades roll over into board scores pretty easily, and then you're stuck with mediocre (if you're lucky) scores, but a desire for something just a bit greater than mediocre. But you're stuck. It's a bad place to be.

Good points. However, when you look at the span of scores (comlex/usmle) entering different specialties, unless you want something high end like cards, radonc, etc....you easily, easily can get there with a score that is average. Last year the usmle average was 229, I believe. That's pretty damn good IMO, and you see people getting into all kinds of fields with what is a B score - which is what the original poster is getting, and worried about. I'm giving him some hope that he's doing alright and should be happy/proud of that because he's on track.

Yes, of course, if you go to buy a car, even if you want a family sedan, you want to have the dough to be able to pull the sporty 2-seater from the lot. My point is, there are dozens more brand-new, beautiful sedans than 2 seaters out on the floor and he can have his choice of 95% of the cars with the coin he'll have.

Fully agree that board scores > grades when you get down to it. No shame in pulling C's for a semester if it raises your usmle ten points. When you take thousands of the most hard working, intelligent people you can muster and put them through 2 years of tough assignments, it's pretty good to land in the middle of that pack all said and done.

 

[buttfrogs]

I spend way too much time cramming and I'm terrified that it will come back to bite me when boards come around. Reddit and video games are more fun than school, so I tend to do those more than I should.

That said, I study almost exclusively with Anki. Watch lectures at home (1.5-2x speed), make flashcards for everything. I think flashcards are the best because you have to actively recall the information rather than passively glancing over your notes multiple times. And I love Anki specifically because I can take a flashcard with a lot of text and use cloze deletions to make a bunch of different flash cards from the same information.

Example: one card that has [disease name], [causative organism], [gram stain], [shape], [catalase/coagulase/etc.], [virulence factors], [diagnosis], [treatment], or any other combination of information. I could make a bunch of flashcards with each of those items in brackets being its own card, or I could mix and match and make cards with multiple bracketed items missing from it that I have to recall.

 

[deleted245139]

don't study for grades, study to be a good doctor - the grades will come. Take that statement for what it's worth... Test taking is a skill you have to master and isn't always perfectly parallel with mastery of the information. That said, it's more important to understand what you are learning rather than memorize stuff to regurgitate.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

don't study for grades, study to be a good doctor - the grades will come. Take that statement for what it's worth... Test taking is a skill you have to master and isn't always perfectly parallel with mastery of the information. That said, it's more important to understand what you are learning rather than memorize stuff to regurgitate.

I think this is a rather rosy view of things. Some classes, that's true. Some classes, it's not. My understanding of biochemistry will not further my career nor make me more competent in it. I'm going to be a Radiologist. I can list off another 5 classes and about 75% of my rotations whose material will be of minimal importance to me as a Physician.

Oftentimes, it's about the grade. I begrudge nobody that would prefer the easiest way to get the highest grade, because for a good group of people, that IS what matters.

 

[Biology4Life84]

I was going to start a thread, "How do you decide what to know to do well in medical school.." I've looked at just one Medical Physiology book and it seems to go over a lot of interconnected studies in the sciences and it has over 80 chapters in the book..... I am not in medical school, but it must be frustrating as can be for med students.....

There must be a better way to decide what to study. One of you wrote to look at old tests and study the relevant material but even in undergrad.....this approach was not a good idea so......So how do most successful med students decide what to remember? Is it just luck or is there an underlying pattern to success?

 

[deleted245139]

fair enough. I'll agree a lot of subspecialties require a specific set of knowledge. Radiology is so physics-heavy it blows my mind. That's not so much as touched upon in med school. I'll concede that it's a rosy simplification of things too... But what i'll add is this: if you study only to memorize, and put no effort in a solid connection of concepts, you'll only ever be a list of facts. I've seen residents who did this. It does NOT translate to clinical acumen.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

fair enough. I'll agree a lot of subspecialties require a specific set of knowledge. Radiology is so physics-heavy it blows my mind. That's not so much as touched upon in med school. I'll concede that it's a rosy simplification of things too... But what i'll add is this: if you study only to memorize, and put no effort in a solid connection of concepts, you'll only ever be a list of facts. I've seen residents who did this. It does NOT translate to clinical acumen.

There's no doubt that there are those that study mal-adaptively. But my point is that there isn't one correct way to study or learn. It is all based on goals and on talents. I'm not a good memorizer. So even though memorizing, for me, as a person who knew they'd be going into Rads, would have been SUFFICIENT, it was not EFFICIENT. I had to take the longer way around and understand and learn completely to achieve my necessary grades.

That's exactly it though. Lots of ways to skin a cat, and then again, some people don't want to skin a cat. They want to MRI a cat.

 

[BrooklynBulls]

I was going to start a thread, "How do you decide what to know to do well in medical school.." I've looked at just one Medical Physiology book and it seems to go over a lot of interconnected studies in the sciences and it has over 80 chapters in the book..... I am not in medical school, but it must be frustrating as can be for med students.....

There must be a better way to decide what to study. One of you wrote to look at old tests and study the relevant material but even in undergrad.....this approach was not a good idea so......So how do most successful med students decide what to remember? Is it just luck or is there an underlying pattern to success?

There's an underlying pattern. And it can't be generalized. It is specific to each topic, each instructor, each student, and their goals.

But that's why success in totality is un-generalizable. Because there is no one path that works for everyone.

 

[Biology4Life84]

Memorization means "to commit to memory."

Learning means "the process of acquiring knowledge."

It seems that memorization is just one process of acquiring knowledge.....

But what I wonder about med students is, most say that your study habits in college no longer apply in med school, so what's the difference? We used to joke in school that our brains are not sponges, we don't just absorb information........

I remember being in the pre-med club and we had some med students show up one meeting and one of them said that reading a medical school textbook has become easy because their brain just "absorbs" the information.....I find it hard to believe. I guess there are people out there like that...

 

[Rub A Dub GTI]

I found that the less I tried to memorize and the more I tried to understand the material the better I did on tests. When I memorized I would struggle with the questions that were out of left field, now I have background so I can make an informed argument for the answer I choose instead of random guessing.

In systems it is really helpful for to briefly read First Aid Organ Systems before reviewing a lecture, it gives me enough background that I can better understand where the details fit in so its a clearer picture with less reliance on brute memorization. I also annotate First Aid, Pathoma when I go through the lecture to force myself to be more engaged. Another benefit of the Organ Systems book is that they link ideas with things you have previously learned so it is a little extra review of things you may not have seen in a while.

 

[budda10000]

I hear that repetition is key but I honestly went over our exams ppts 5+ times and made a low B on the exam and this has been the trend so far for me. Will putting more time to do questions get me to the A range?

Honestly here is what I do:
1)move ahead on lectures(dont even watch them half the time), many times I am finished with the test material 4-5 days before lectures even finish.
2)make lots of anki cards and review them frequently
3)use firecracker to supplement
4)use pathoma for pathology, kaplan for pharm, najeeb for nuero ect.. whatever people on here think is the best.
5)For systems based stuff I make rapid review sheets with all the emphasized stuff(my high yield study guides)
Study every lecture at least 5 times, 7-8x for more memorization intensive stuff like pharm/anatomy/ect.

Doing this gets me consistently 7-15% above average which is usually an A.
I also sleep 6 hours a night, don't go to class and study all day. I take a break in the middle to workout/eat and that is it. I started this way until I got the grades I wanted, then I added EC's. So far so good

Also like everyone was mentioning above, try to fit all this knowledge into a bigger picture. However, do not neglect to memorize the random stuff, you would be surprised how many times I have been screwed by first order questions out of left field, they are in fact the bane of my existence.

On the last note to the naysayers that say nobody gets a 4.0 in med school. That is bull honkey, I personally know 4 other colleagues of mine from UG that started med school before me and have attained the AOA title(that is all A's). Usually the top 10% of the class has all/mostly all honors, that is exactly what is expected if you want to do ortho or some other competitive field.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Memorization means "to commit to memory."

Learning means "the process of acquiring knowledge."

It seems that memorization is just one process of acquiring knowledge.....

But what I wonder about med students is, most say that your study habits in college no longer apply in med school, so what's the difference? We used to joke in school that our brains are not sponges, we don't just absorb information........

I remember being in the pre-med club and we had some med students show up one meeting and one of them said that reading a medical school textbook has become easy because their brain just "absorbs" the information.....I find it hard to believe. I guess there are people out there like that...

There was a quote from a memory book that I read recently. "To memorize something you need to understand it and to understand something you need to memorize." You may not realize it, but the two go hand in hand. However, one can focus on too much on memorization or too much on conceptual understanding. When it comes to studying, it is a balance of the two.

I cannot comprehend how medical school studying works. However, those students who talked at your pre-med club are probably over simplifying it. They are probably far more efficient at both memory and understanding than they ever were in undergrad. I think their access to resources are better too, q-banks, brs cliff notes, learning specialists who help in study habits, access to old exams, etc. They are kind of forced to push the limits of their understanding and memory of material, it becomes almost habit after they hit their stride. I might be speculating, but this is what I think is happening talking with friends who are medical students and the SDN medical students (I'm a pre-med student so take it for what its worth).

 

[NontradCA]

My best advice would be to try to avoid learning passively as much as possible. An example of this would be watching lectures multiple times or just flipping through the slides. Force yourself to actively recall information. With so much volume it's easy to "feel" like you know info when you see the slides but actually recalling information or differentiating between two similar conditions when prompted is very different. It was also very helpful for me to see things multiple different ways. For example, I'd watch the lecture, take notes from the ppt slides at a later date, read from a textbook or BRS, and then do multiple passes over my notes before exams. Spaced repetition is key.

I'd go with this. Try actually learning the material and understanding it. Memorizing really doesn't do anything for you.