Highlighting systems?

[SB100]

I apologize if I sound naive about this. I was reading over the "You might be in medical school if" thread and noticed a lot of statements about highlighting systems and multiple colors, etc. and it made me curious as to why you would need so many different colors and whatnot. That being said, how do you guys break down your hightlighting methods? Enlighten me, someone who has only ever used one color (yellow) all his life 😛

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[Rhuby]

I feel as though I'm in the minority on this subject, but I have basically stopped using highlighters since starting med school. The only time I use them now (and its still only a yellow one!) is if I'm reading a textbook, which is happening less and less as time goes on. The compulsive highlighting with multiple colors that I see happening kind of drives me nuts to be honest. If you want a coloring book, go get one at Walgreens!

That being said, I do use different colored pens. During lecture, I only use one color, something other than black so that my notes stand out from the printed handout. If I wrote it down, it must be important. Then, when I go back over lectures, I use a different color and either circle or underline important concepts. Then, the third time I see the lecture, I use yet another color and either circle or underline, whichever I didn't do the first time. This system used to be a lot worse, until I couldn't remember which color I used for what and just gave up 🙂

Moral of the story I really think is this: most people in medical school are incredibly Type A and anal about everything. Therefore, we must have some "system" to feel more in control of our lives. This seems to involve, for many of us for some odd reason, very intricate systems of colored writing utensils!

 

[45408]

Yellow = important. Blue pen = fact that is not included or not obvious from the notes.

Nothing else.

 

[Slide]

I used to have a three-color highlighter system, but after 3 months I realized how ******ed it was and stuck to one color or just using a pen to underline. After a while the colors become distracting and you end up highlighting most of the test/handouts, which defeats the entire purpose of highlighting.

 

[coffeebythelake]

Yellow = important (should review)
Blue, Red = more important (single color for single concept)
Orange = most important (must memorize)
Green = summaries

I also use highlighters in no particular order when I'm tracing pathways for neuroscience, etc.

 

[Powel6016]

Pink/red- very important or word need to know
Yellow- important
underlining w/ pen- not as important as the other 2 but should look over again.

 

[Ashers]

Most notes:
Yellow = important
Red pen = more important
Purple pen = gram positive bacteria
Pink pen = gram negative bacteria

Pharm:
Yellow = important
Green = equations
Blue = drug names
Pink = class of drug
Orange = non-drug vocab (eg. norepinephrine, aldosterone, psychosis, etc)

 

[Re3iRtH]

Yellow = important. Blue pen = fact that is not included or not obvious from the notes.

Nothing else.

Hey Prowler. I heard from someone in your class that most of the averages on
all the science courses in your school are high 80s. Do you think this
may not be grade inflation? I guess when class rankings come out it won't
matter whether the class averages were 90 or 60 on exams. Because it will
turn out the same way in the end. Does the school do it to pad people's egos?

I was just wondering because I never experienced any classes both in under
grad or med school that had high 80s averages.

 

[45408]

Hey Prowler. I heard from someone in your class that most of the averages on
all the science courses in your school are high 80s. Do you think this
may not be grade inflation? I guess when class rankings come out it won't
matter whether the class averages were 90 or 60 on exams. Because it will
turn out the same way in the end. Does the school do it to pad people's egos?

I was just wondering because I never experienced any classes both in under
grad or med school that had high 80s averages.

Make a poll, I think you'll find that mid-80s averages are fairly common. What's the point in making an exam with an average of 60%? The point in med school is to try to learn everything, so making an exam with a 60% average will just make people feel like their studying is pointless.

 

[SugPlum]

I had a multi-color highlighting system for awhile. Now I highlight with one color and/or underline. Here's my system:

Highlight & underline: most important
Highlight only: important
Underline only: less important

 

[alphaholic06]

Hey Prowler. I heard from someone in your class that most of the averages on
all the science courses in your school are high 80s. Do you think this
may not be grade inflation? I guess when class rankings come out it won't
matter whether the class averages were 90 or 60 on exams. Because it will
turn out the same way in the end. Does the school do it to pad people's egos?

I was just wondering because I never experienced any classes both in under
grad or med school that had high 80s averages.

Exams at my school (not MCW) have averages in the mid to high 80's. I can also think of two classes with averages in the low 90's.

 

[Abilene85]

I have a green highlighter from the 1990s that I use to highlight disease names that are mixed here and there with the basic science info. I have a teeny tiny orange highlighter that I break out very rarely when there is a point so important the professor pretty much says he will kick us out of school if we forget it. My school gives us handouts with notes/ppt slides, and pretty much everything in the packet is important and testable, so there's no point in trying to highlight the "important" stuff. I see some people with these elaborate 5-6 color systems, with every line but one highlighted, and it makes me laugh. I guess if it works for them, it's cool, but it just seems like a distracting pain in the butt to be constantly flipping back and forth between colors during lecture.

I'm a fan of taking the info that might actually justify a multi-colored system (muscle - pink, innervation - yellow, origin - green....) and turning it into a chart.

 

[Scaredshizzles]

Purple pen = gram positive bacteria
Pink pen = gram negative bacteria


Should be the other way around shouldn't it.

 

[Ashers]

Purple pen = gram positive bacteria
Pink pen = gram negative bacteria


Should be the other way around shouldn't it.

I don't believe so. Gram positive are blue/violet, and Gram negative are pinkish.

Here's the wikipedia article.

I always remembered that Staphylococcus looked like a bunch of purple grapes hence the name.

 

[ksav]

i need color in my life to be happy.... so i change it up often. usually use a 3 color system when highlighting my self-made study pages (1 color for main topics, another for points, and a 3rd for subpoints).... but again... color makes it interesting and helps me rememer... "it was highlighted in purple on that one sheet" or "it was that teal point under the pink one on ..."

 

[mdgator]

I don't use a highlighter very often, but when I do:

Yellow highlighter for what seems to me to be the highest yield info. I try to learn as much of this as possible, as quickly as possible.

Any other color, and/or underlining for concepts that seem harder for me to remember/less high yield, yet still pretty important.

Sometimes I'll add a third color for concepts so important that they should go on a flashcard (which I also rarely use.)

 

[mdgator]

Related question: Like I said, I hardly ever use flashcards...basically only for Latin and a few for MCAT. But med students seem to love their flashcards. Do you guys pretty much all use them in med school?

 

[samenewme]

I use multiple colors just because it's pretty. I'm practical in most areas of life, but anything that takes a little of the dreariness out of studying seems like a good idea to me. I did talk to a physician once who used colored highlighting to mark his progress in studying. His system:
1st pass: highlight key points in yellow.
2nd pass: highlight stuff he hasn't memorized yet in green (easy to cover yellow with green).
3rd pass: underline whatever he still doesn't know, and go over that for exams.

I tried it for a couple of classes, but it just didn't resonate with me. Otherwise I have been studying largely from tutor notes this year and highligthing is not as essential there.

I use flashcards for pharm--hand-me-downs from a guy in the previous year. I LOVE them, particularly the occasional editorial comments he included about modes of administration or side effects. I also used the Netter flashcards for anatomy, though not heavily. They were helpful but not essential.

 

[Hurricane95]

I use black ink to write margin notes and highlight in one color. That's it. I usually use orange because it sticks out more than yellow which can be kind of light sometimes. A highlighting "system" will not make or break you in med school. Honestly, I understand some girls like to use 10 different colors simply because they have 2 X chromosomes and girls like colorful things, and that's ok, but I don't get why people have actual systems where they use a ton of different colors, each with a special meaning. I mean, damn, I think it takes more effort during studying to remember WHAT each color means than to just focus on the highlighted text. Too complicated for me.

 

[Abilene85]

Related question: Like I said, I hardly ever use flashcards...basically only for Latin and a few for MCAT. But med students seem to love their flashcards. Do you guys pretty much all use them in med school?

I haven't used one since...o-chem almost 4 years ago. I like to study from charts.

 

[SupaManu]

No highlighters, i use Onenote and add notes to the ppt slides and just study on my computer, saves me a lot of time and is much neater than me trying to write everything out.

 

[Haemulon]

For books, I highlight all the new/important info that I am not familiar with in yellow (yes, its a helluva lot of highliting). Then when I read through it a second time I just read the yellow, and re-highlite what is left that I still don't know in pink. The third read through (usually just before the exam) I just read the pink. Each read gets faster and more familiar. Yeh, its time consuming, but seems to be working for me so far. I also make written notations in the margins for stuff I want to be able to find easily without searching through the text.

Obviously there is not enough time to do the above for every class, so I usuualy pick 2 classes a year to really focus on the text (like Physiology, Neuro) and the other classes I rely more on the lecture notes, which is faster but less detailed. I basically read my Neuro and histo books 3 times cover-to-cover doing this. Paid off for one, not so much for the other. But I enjoy it anyway, gives me a sense of accompishment seeing all of the highliting and notes everywhere. lol

 

[tacrum43]

I find highlighted text hard to read (hurts my eyes), so I just underline, circle or mark with an asterisk with increasing importance in blue pen. I did highlight some notes that were in word documents though, since I didn't want to print them out just so I could use my usual system.

I guess everybody has their own system that works for them.

 

[SV6885]

Oh my, I just had to reply to this. I am one of those people with 6 different highlighters. I have my own crazy system, but it works for me. And yes, pretty much everything gets highlighted, but for me, when I highlight something, I'm actually forced to read it and process what i just read so I know what color it goes in. And, it makes remembering things easier. Say I'm trying to remember a chart that would give me the answer I need, it's easier for me to picture the chart between the pink and the blue highlighters in the middle of the page, then it is for me to bring it up just like that.

Plus, it makes my notes look pretty and happy, and don't we all need a little happiness in our lives ?

 

[roja]

I used one particular color, black pen and red pen.

Similar to previous. Don't use a system that bogs you down. I saw a couple of students do this. thier system took so much time they increased thier study time significantly.

 

[The Dark Knight]

I haven't used one since...o-chem almost 4 years ago. I like to study from charts.

charts? are these ones you create with important info summarized, or do profs at your school give out their notes in a chart form? thanks

 

[vtucci]

It is interesting to hear that students are using colors all across the color spectrum.

personally, my system is to use one color highlighter and then write items in the margin that I want to emphasize.

Learning theories have posited that people fall into two categories: those that retain information with blue, green, purple and those that retain information better with pink, orange and yellow. most people I know do have a preference. For me, it is the blue, green and purple system-- I can also use pink and orange but yellow downright annoys me.

 

[IcedTea]

I just use a yellow highlighter. Having 10 different colors would confuse me the hell out of me.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

I apologize if I sound naive about this. I was reading over the "You might be in medical school if" thread and noticed a lot of statements about highlighting systems and multiple colors, etc. and it made me curious as to why you would need so many different colors and whatnot. That being said, how do you guys break down your hightlighting methods? Enlighten me, someone who has only ever used one color (yellow) all his life 😛

This is just TOO funny - because I know it's a serious question. I saw that "You Might Be in Med School" thing after I was already in... and I looked at the basket I keep on my desk with 30 or 40 highlighters and cracked-up laughing. Nobody taught me any system - you just learn to love highlighters as you learn to read and to absorb vast amounts of syllabus cr*p - excuse me, syllabus material every day.

My self-developed, self-taught system: Yellow - something I need to know for the exam, but not critical. Orange - something I need to know that's very important and testable. Red - critical; can't understand the material without the red-highlighted fact. Lesser stuff: Blue - definition of a term. Green - interesting and useful fact that is non-testable.

There are times that I tried more than five colors, but it got unmanageable. I'm a devoted adherent of my five-color system, though. Once you pick what each color "means" - stick with it, or you'll make yourself crazy.

Another tidbit: learn not to bother highlighting review books. Every word is important. That's why they're called "review books." Save yourself the time and use it to read the chapter more than once.

 

[Abilene85]

charts? are these ones you create with important info summarized, or do profs at your school give out their notes in a chart form? thanks

Sometimes we get a small chart in our lecture notes, but I usually just make my own. I summarize information that could go into an entire stack of notecards or some complicated highlighter system ("pink is the name of the drunk, blue what it is used to treat, yellow is side effects...") into a chart. I like to have all the information right in front of me on as few pages as possible.

 

[Haemulon]

(Snip) ...

Another tidbit: learn not to bother highlighting review books. Every word is important. That's why they're called "review books." Save yourself the time and use it to read the chapter more than once.

Agreed. I actually attemped once and very quickly realized that there was no point. It is already distilled down and every word is important. Better to just read and re-read several times in this case.

 

[muscles]

Yellow = important. Blue pen = fact that is not included or not obvious from the notes.

Nothing else.

Come on prowler...

everybody knows you can't mix a yellow highlighter and a blue pen - it smudges...

 

[SB100]

This is just TOO funny - because I know it's a serious question. I saw that "You Might Be in Med School" thing after I was already in... and I looked at the basket I keep on my desk with 30 or 40 highlighters and cracked-up laughing. Nobody taught me any system - you just learn to love highlighters as you learn to read and to absorb vast amounts of syllabus cr*p - excuse me, syllabus material every day.

My self-developed, self-taught system: Yellow - something I need to know for the exam, but not critical. Orange - something I need to know that's very important and testable. Red - critical; can't understand the material without the red-highlighted fact. Lesser stuff: Blue - definition of a term. Green - interesting and useful fact that is non-testable.

There are times that I tried more than five colors, but it got unmanageable. I'm a devoted adherent of my five-color system, though. Once you pick what each color "means" - stick with it, or you'll make yourself crazy.

Another tidbit: learn not to bother highlighting review books. Every word is important. That's why they're called "review books." Save yourself the time and use it to read the chapter more than once.

How can you read a critical fact if it is highlighted in red? Doesn't it become difficult to see? 😛