honors & advice

[care bear]

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[RLMD]

my orientation starts this coming week ,and to make a long story short, it's my second orientation.

i will only be taking 4/8 classes ; i finished the other 4 last fall.

anyhow, here's the thing: because of this situation, i know i *must* get honors in everything.

however, i haven't been at the top of a curve since high school and the thought of having to outdo ~150 med. students is intimidating to say the least!

can honors students share some study habits; advice?

i have started re-reading Moore for anatomy and should be done with that by the end of orientation. any advice is appreciated.

I realized early that the professors at my school draw almost all of their test questions from lecture. Therefore I went to every lecture I could and took really good notes (we had audionotes so I could go back and listen to certain parts if I missed anything). All I did was study my notes and the powerpoints for each lecture. I hardly ever read any outside sources, not even the syllabus (usually wasnt very good anyway). I would only read something else if I needed more clarification or the prof explicitly suggested we read something else. But 95% of the time, the lecture notes and powerpoints were sufficient. I guess since you have taken half the classes already, you know how the tests are structured. Go to lecture, figure out what is emphasized and focus your studying around that. I studied every detail of lecture, every word, because test questions could come from any little off-hand comment. I made my notes as complete as possible so they would be the only source I would need, and went over them as many times as I could before the test. I put in about 5-6 hours a day during the week and 20-30 on saturday and sunday, every week, and I honored everything comfortably first year.

 

[daisygirl]

my orientation starts this coming week ,and to make a long story short, it's my second orientation.

i will only be taking 4/8 classes ; i finished the other 4 last fall.

anyhow, here's the thing: because of this situation, i know i *must* get honors in everything.

however, i haven't been at the top of a curve since high school and the thought of having to outdo ~150 med. students is intimidating to say the least!

can honors students share some study habits; advice?

i have started re-reading Moore for anatomy and should be done with that by the end of orientation. any advice is appreciated.

I did really crappy first semester of med school. I was attending a lot of the lectures first semester and it just didn't work for me. I'm not much of an auditory learner when a professor is simply pasting biochem ppt slides on a projector.

I found what worked for me second semester- I never went to class. I always honored classes that I never went to, and I'm not kidding. I would either high pass the classes that I did attend or I would just pass them. I really believe that not going to class gave me the time to memorize the mountains of minutae that I was tested on. I was able to read the transcripts (we have a notes service), read the syllabi, and cross reference using texts. My method of studying never failed me. As far as missing the teeny little soundbits thrown around by professors in lecture- I didn't miss anything by not going. Usually the syllabus (if you are given good quality syllabi), will have everything and more. Lastly, use old exams!!!!!! Old exams are really good to use after you are done with the 'learning' part of your studying. They will help you guage if you are truly getting it and they will also illustrate what is important to the professors.

You need to figure out what works for you, and do this fast since time is not an easy thing to come by in med school. Figure out if you are an auditory learner, or if you learn best when trying to process the information on your own.

Med school really isn't hard (intellectually, but learning how to plant your butt in a chair for hours to drill stuff in your head isn't fun). Figure out what works for you and run with it. Don't worry about what others are doing; have faith in yourself.

One last thing, never trust a professor stating that they 'only want you to get the big picture for exams'. Learn everything that you can, since more often than not the little details are so important on exams.

Good luck and kick butt.

 

[aus1ander]

i found that honoring in subjects is directly related to study habits and the amount of time spent studying. if you study hard, do questions, and don't fall behind, honoring isn't extremely difficult. most of medical knowledge isn't complex anyway--you don't need to be "smart" to learn it. its the volume that gets most people in trouble. if you can repetitively study (review something 2-3 times before a test), you can usually tackle most multiple choice questions thrown at you. obviously, this is easier said than done--its a major time committment. the advantage you have is that you are only taking half of the classes, and will have less volume to study for midterm exams.

 

[omarsaleh66]

my orientation starts this coming week ,and to make a long story short, it's my second orientation.

i will only be taking 4/8 classes ; i finished the other 4 last fall.

anyhow, here's the thing: because of this situation, i know i *must* get honors in everything.

however, i haven't been at the top of a curve since high school and the thought of having to outdo ~150 med. students is intimidating to say the least!

can honors students share some study habits; advice?

i have started re-reading Moore for anatomy and should be done with that by the end of orientation. any advice is appreciated.

i think re-reading moore's is not as productive as memorizing the lecture notes and filling in the gap with BRS anatomy, hi-yield, pretest, First Aid , etc..

Moore's takes too long to read, and even though its great, retaining the info is so hard. I would have the lecture notes down, and then the review books down (super hi-yiled stuff) and then read the Moore chapters that u still dont get too well. Looking at the lecture nots and review books willl make u go thru moore's alot faster and ull retain it.

later

edit: Also screw trying to honors anatomy, honor the other 3 and just hi pass or pass anatomy. Anatomy take so much time that it will tak away from ur other classes.

 

[Long Dong]

hi , thanks for all the advice.

so. . . i went to orientation today and found out that my school has just switched from H/P/F first year to P/F!! so in a way i'm disappointed, but in a way i'm relieved. oh well, i still want to try hard to do well anyway.

any further advice is always appreciated!

They probably still keep some type of internal ranking.