R
Reborn24
as we all know, memorization is key to med. school. Does anyone recommend any books that have been effective in their med. school experience.
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Get the Memory Book by Harry Lorrayne. Great tips. I used the Peg system to memorize the cranial nerves, and it was much easier and much more quick and effective than that stupid "to touch and feel" mnemonic.
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Weirdoc said:
A lot of memory books, give maybe 10 or so pages of Med school relevant material, but for the most part, they focus on pneumonics, and use of peg system to memorize names numbers and so forth. Bottom line to memory that I have found useful from books I read are as follows:
1) Repetition is key, it's much better to pass material 7 times quickly, rather than once or twice very thoroughly, you will remember more.
2) Try to add an emotional or visual component to what you are studying, it will stick better.
3) If you don't review stuff the day before exam your retention will drop significantly and you will second guess yourself. I personally find, that I get very high yield memory of minutae if I study 4 hours, right before test. Your adrenaline is rushing, you are pumped for the test, and pretty much everything you read in that period of time will stick like glue. Also I find that I tend to instinctively focus on material that ends up being on the actual exam. Now I should mention that this works well when you are ready for the test or close to being prepared for the test. It doesn't work as well if you are trying to cram.
4) The more sensory modes you can take in info, the better it will stick with you. For instance, hearing it, seeing it, teaching it to someone.
5) Use old tests to focus in on important material, that way you will get very high yield memorization of most pertinent facts.
6) Also some topics will come much easier than others. Therefore key is to maximize and put more "memory muscle" on topics that are more difficult.
7) Find out if you are auditory person, if you are not, you are wasting valuable study time in lecture. Going to lecture in that case is only valuable, if the teacher gives stuff in lecture, that is not in the notes.
These are some topics, that I found useful and work for me. Good luck.
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Weirdoc said:
Joyce Brothers, 10 days to a successful memory--it's out of print, but you can get it used, cheap.
A lot of people don't remember her initial claim to fame was winning the $64,000 Question" quiz show by becoming an expert on boxing. Weeks and weeks later when the scandal with a different contestant broke, she testified before Congress or some crazy thing like that. They quizzed her out of reference books and sports almanacs, and she still knew it all.
The book is hokey but offers a variety of different strategies for improving memory.
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emack said:
Yea you associate say 10 things and you give them numbers, until they are very vivid in your head. Say item 1 is a couch, 2 is a lamp, three is a coffee table and so forth. So now you have a peg system in place, so if you need to remember something, you can put it on the coffee table, and so it will be easier to make that association, you think of coffee table and voila, you remember the thing you need to. The thing is, while it's useful to remember lists, and something short, it's kinda useless for medical school.
For medical school its seems best to be well organized, to know what you need to focus on the most and distill it to fine detail.
Good luck.
R
Reborn24
Houseness said:
is this the best out there?
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ahh..... good ol memorization.
do we have the most crap to remember or what.
first we have to understand, then we have to memorize. what a pain!
do we have the most crap to remember or what.
first we have to understand, then we have to memorize. what a pain!
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A good little excersize for your memory is that game "simon". You know - the thing with four lighted buttons that blips out sequences that you have to copy. It works for me.
It makes a nice short break between topics. And when you start to screw up on it bigtime you know it's time to take a break. Sort of a diagnostic tool.
Then there's the game "memory" that you can play with a friend. It's fun and a good hippocampal workout.
It makes a nice short break between topics. And when you start to screw up on it bigtime you know it's time to take a break. Sort of a diagnostic tool.
Then there's the game "memory" that you can play with a friend. It's fun and a good hippocampal workout.
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skiz knot said:Katzung Pharm
****ing memorize it!
Once you've got that down, everything else should be cake.
The more I study the more I know
The more I know the more I forget
The more I forget the less I know
So why bother to study?
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Weirdoc said:
A halfway decent cognitive neuroscience textbook (grab one from your library or something) would give you some good insight into how your memory works. Ultimately, the key is deep processing v. shallow. Engage the material somehow in a deeper way than running through the words and highlighting things. People have mentioned a lot of the deep-processing methods that will help you, but ultimately each person has methods and styles that will work really well for them.
If you want to go hardcore about it, you could learn the "memory palace" technique used by the old-school mnemonists (mnemonics = memory) and most of the people who compete in the "memory master" challenges they have these days. (Contestants memorize the positions of cards in multiple decks and such.) It's a visualization system, similar to the "peg method" (which is essentially what those late-night memory courses are hawking). You can find details about it using Google.
