How are you supposed to feel about info before a test?

[LuluLovesMe]

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I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

 

[----x----]

Sounds like something for the med student forums.

 

[LuluLovesMe]

Sounds like something for the med student forums.

oops posted in the wrong section. Can a mod move it over please <3

 

[WedgeDawg]

yep

 

[Foot Fetish]

I like to go into the exam knowing everything cold. If it's in the professor's notes, I memorize it. This resulted in beating the class average on every exam in the last set of exams, with 90's and a couple 100's. And the few questions I got wrong weren't because I couldn't recall a fact; it was simply because the question was poorly/ambiguously worded or because I failed to solve an application-based problem (biochemistry)...Indeed, I make it a point to memorize 100% of the minutia. They're easy points that you guarantee for yourself...that said, this ends up being overkill, i.e. 80% of my knwledge wasn't even tested in the exams...but I figure it's always better to overshoot than to undershoot.

 

[LuluLovesMe]

I like to go into the exam knowing everything cold. If it's in the professor's notes, I memorize it. This resulted in beating the class average on every exam in the last set of exams, with 90's and a couple 100's. And the few questions I got wrong weren't because I couldn't recall a fact; it was simply because the question was poorly/ambiguously worded or because I failed to solve an application-based problem (biochemistry)...Indeed, I make it a point to memorize 100% of the minutia. They're easy points that you guarantee for yourself...that said, this ends up being overkill, i.e. 80% of my knwledge wasn't even tested in the exams...but I figure it's always better to overshoot than to undershoot.

How many exams do you have in each set? Seems like you've gone through more exams already than most med students.

I've never ever memorized most of the info for any class in my life. I've always managed to get through with a basic amount of knowledge and good guessing. Your way would be impossible for me.

 

[Azete]

How many exams do you have in each set? Seems like you've gone through more exams already than most med students.

I've never ever memorized most of the info for any class in my life. I've always managed to get through with a basic amount of knowledge and good guessing. Your way would be impossible for me.

Agree. We get 200+ slides a day, there's no chance I'm going to memorize every piece of minutiae -- just not enough hours in a day.

My level of knowledge going into an exam is a strong understanding of the big picture, memory of the minutiae my professor emphasized in lecture, and that's it. Really, at the end of the day, no matter how much you know your professor could write an exam the whole class would fail if they wanted to.

I think the only "red flag" would be if you're consistently below the class average.

 

[Sardinia]

@LuluLovesMe Medical school is a combination of drinking from the fire hose and running after the fire truck. Depending on the culture at your school, assess what the best options are available to you. Reach out to professors for advice on how to tackle material or see the student learning resource center. I thought that the first three to four weeks were brutal until they made us aware that they were just drilling us on first order questions. Then they started incorporating clinical vignettes with vitals and clinical manifestations of symptoms that were targeted towards seeing whether we could apply the things we learned in and out of class on the test without being forewarned. First year is in every sense of the word a baptism by fire.

 

[Donald Juan]

I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

This sounds about right for me on every test.

 

[Foot Fetish]

How many exams do you have in each set?

Four exams per set (one per class), taken in one sitting.

there's no chance I'm going to memorize every piece of minutiae -- just not enough hours in a day.

There's enough time if you have very little life outside of school, like me. I basically turn down every single social event in favor of solitary studying. I study 5-8+ hours per day, every day. It basically runs my life. I don't even make time to exercise, regrettably...just constant studying. It's pretty sad now that I think of it...I have a lot of sitzfleisch though. For some reason, I am able to persist in this monotonous barrage of studying way past the point where most people would no longer be able to tolerate it. I guess that's my strength. I may not have the highest IQ in the class, but I have a deep memory and a willingness to sacrifice more time than most people to fill it...It's not for everyone. More power to you if you can get satisfactory marks by just focusing on the "high-yield" material. I will carry on in what I see as the more risk-averse, "brute force" method of simply memorizing everything. It's working quite well for me so far...(inb4 "but at what cost?")

 

[LuluLovesMe]

Four exams per set (one per class), taken in one sitting.



There's enough time if you have very little life outside of school, like me. I basically turn down every single social event in favor of solitary studying. I study 5-8+ hours per day, every day. It basically runs my life. I don't even make time to exercise, regrettably...just constant studying. It's pretty sad now that I think of it...I have a lot of sitzfleisch though. For some reason, I am able to persist in this monotonous barrage of studying way past the point where most people would no longer be able to tolerate it. I guess that's my strength. I may not have the highest IQ in the class, but I have a deep memory and a willingness to sacrifice more time than most people to fill it...It's not for everyone. More power to you if you can get satisfactory marks by just focusing on the "high-yield" material. I will carry on in what I see as the more risk-averse, "brute force" method of simply memorizing everything. It's working quite well for me so far...(inb4 "but at what cost?")

Do you want a psychotic break? Because this is how you get a psychotic break.

 

[songl4a]

How do you remember anything at all? Each lecture in biochem we get at a minimum of between 5-10 reactions along with clinical correlations and regulation points. Less than a week to memorize them before the test too.

 

[Rekt]

I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

I disagree with FootFetish. Memorizing everything is completely silly and a recipe for burnout. For the first exam for a new professor, I'll study everything very hard. After that, you should have a good idea of what is expected of you. You'll start looking powerpoint slides and can guess that it is unlikely that X or Y will be tested on. It's hard to describe, but it's a skill you (hopefully) pick up on. I see fellow students spending huge amounts of time trying to memorize some complex picture or mechanism that on the next slide is described it 1-3 bullet points. That's what you need to know.

Also, remember that exams are multiple choice (well most schools). You can't have 100% recall of everything. You're going to be given information that is going to help you in the stem/vignette. I "feel fuzzy" going into every exam, even still being an M2.

 

[LuluLovesMe]

How do you remember anything at all? Each lecture in biochem we get at a minimum of between 5-10 reactions along with clinical correlations and regulation points. Less than a week to memorize them before the test too.

Uh I don't. But I try to with lots of repetition. 1x from watching the lecture, another 1x from making a review sheet on the lecture, another 1x from studying off my review sheet. Then possibly additional repetition from looking at outside sources for the info. I still don't remember much

 

[Azete]

Four exams per set (one per class), taken in one sitting.

There's enough time if you have very little life outside of school, like me. I basically turn down every single social event in favor of solitary studying. I study 5-8+ hours per day, every day. It basically runs my life. I don't even make time to exercise, regrettably...just constant studying. It's pretty sad now that I think of it...I have a lot of sitzfleisch though. For some reason, I am able to persist in this monotonous barrage of studying way past the point where most people would no longer be able to tolerate it. I guess that's my strength. I may not have the highest IQ in the class, but I have a deep memory and a willingness to sacrifice more time than most people to fill it...It's not for everyone. More power to you if you can get satisfactory marks by just focusing on the "high-yield" material. I will carry on in what I see as the more risk-averse, "brute force" method of simply memorizing everything. It's working quite well for me so far...(inb4 "but at what cost?")

Certainly not going to tell you how to study, and I respect your work ethic so long as you can keep it up for two years.

But, at our school, pretty much everybody that consistently scores in the A range has a strong life balance. I eat 3 good -- usually home cooked -- meals every day, I exercise every day, and I get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I also take an hour before bed every night to do whatever my heart desires (usually mindless TV). I don't have much social life, honestly not many med students do, but I strongly believe you need to take care of yourself before you can have sustained success in med school.

Every school is different, but you absolutely do not need to know every piece of minutiae to score highly here. 95% of our questions are clinical vignettes, and if you have a good understanding of the big picture then the rest of the test is just critical thinking.

 

[Mr Roboto]

There's enough time if you have very little life outside of school, like me. I basically turn down every single social event in favor of solitary studying. I study 5-8+ hours per day, every day. It basically runs my life. I don't even make time to exercise, regrettably...just constant studying. It's pretty sad now that I think of it...

Recognition is a step in the right direction, happy for you FF.

 

[deleted647690]

Four exams per set (one per class), taken in one sitting.



There's enough time if you have very little life outside of school, like me. I basically turn down every single social event in favor of solitary studying. I study 5-8+ hours per day, every day. It basically runs my life. I don't even make time to exercise, regrettably...just constant studying. It's pretty sad now that I think of it...I have a lot of sitzfleisch though. For some reason, I am able to persist in this monotonous barrage of studying way past the point where most people would no longer be able to tolerate it. I guess that's my strength. I may not have the highest IQ in the class, but I have a deep memory and a willingness to sacrifice more time than most people to fill it...It's not for everyone. More power to you if you can get satisfactory marks by just focusing on the "high-yield" material. I will carry on in what I see as the more risk-averse, "brute force" method of simply memorizing everything. It's working quite well for me so far...(inb4 "but at what cost?")

Oh boy, I guess it's not good that this is my approach to studying, and I'm only in undergrad.

 

[Sardinia]

@acetylmandarin

 

[DocWinter]

Do NOT believe you need to memorize everything cold, that's unsustainable bullpoop. You need to study till your brain hurts, break and go at it again until you know what it takes to hit the class average and what it takes to surpass it. Learn how to extract and expound on information and how to eliminate wrong answers choices and to go with your gut when all else fails.

 

[Foot Fetish]

Oh boy, I guess it's not good that this is my approach to studying, and I'm only in undergrad.

I will say that I didn't adopt this strategy until I got to medical school. In undergrad, I was a major slacker. I would pretty much always just cram the night before the exam, maybe 2 nights max. I did a 180 now in medical school.

Recognition is a step in the right direction, happy for you FF.

I definitely recognize that I could pass all my classes with much less effort. It's just that I am so risk-averse that the thought of going into an exam without knowing everything cold just makes me feel really unsettled. Going in feeling "fuzzy" about the material, as some of you described it, just doesn't sit right with me for some reason. I guess I'm somewhat of a perfectionist in that sense, for better or for worse.....But I should also mention that my main study method is making Anki cards, which is super time consuming.

 

[Mr Roboto]

I will say that I didn't adopt this strategy until I got to medical school. In undergrad, I was a major slacker. I would pretty much always just cram the night before the exam, maybe 2 nights max. I did a 180 now in medical school.

I definitely recognize that I could pass all my classes with much less effort. It's just that I am so risk-averse that the thought of going into an exam without knowing everything cold just makes me feel really unsettled. Going in feeling "fuzzy" about the material, as some of you described it, just doesn't sit right with me for some reason. I guess I'm somewhat of a perfectionist in that sense, for better or for worse.....But I should also mention that my main study method is making Anki cards, which is super time consuming.

I spent the first month learning what it took to beat the class average, then slowed down a lot. Med school is less unpleasant now. But keep doing whatever makes you feel prepared, don't wanna throw off your game.

 

[DoctorLacrosse]

I think a big key to med school is realizing you're never going to walk into an exam and have to write an essay explaining anything. all written exams are multiple choice, so you simply need to study and know everything well enough to recognize it when you see it. this is obviously not ideal since you will need to know some of this stuff on the wards down the road, but a lot of times it really is just too much for most people to have down cold.

as a M2 I still never feel like I know it all, but I also always feel like I know enough to reason my way through and do well. that other poster also hit the nail on the head, as you definitely should develop the skill to be able to pick out the concepts that will be tested. I think that balance is the key and it's allowed me to have a good life outside of school while doing well above average.

 

[Goro]

Just have some faith in yourself, because you really do know more than you think you know.

And trust your gut. The first answer you go for is usually the correct one. Don't overthink!!

I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

 

[mehc012]

I think a big key to med school is realizing you're never going to walk into an exam and have to write an essay explaining anything. all written exams are multiple choice, so you simply need to study and know everything well enough to recognize it when you see it. this is obviously not ideal since you will need to know some of this stuff on the wards down the road, but a lot of times it really is just too much for most people to have down cold.

Except for those of us whose exams are, in fact, a series of essays explaining everything. Our block exams are 100% essay/short answer format except for histology and the anatomy lab portions (the rest of anatomy is still essay/short answer format).

And with that, I'm off to go write my weekly homework essays so I can enjoy the weekend!

 

[DoctorLacrosse]

Except for those of us whose exams are, in fact, a series of essays explaining everything. Our block exams are 100% essay/short answer format except for histology and the anatomy lab portions (the rest of anatomy is still essay/short answer format).

And with that, I'm off to go write my weekly homework essays so I can enjoy the weekend!

lol wow, I didn't know this existed. I'm sorry to hear such a tragedy

 

[bananafish94]

In college, I felt as if I could walk into the exam having a complete mastery of the material. It might take me a long time to get there, but I would get there. In medical school, this is not the case. Part of the adjustment to medical school is the fact that you really have to study hard every single day, and on the test you will be expected to pull some things out of the dark recesses of your mind. I know that there are some schools where you are tested every 1-2 weeks, and in these cases I suppose it might be theoretically possible to be super comfortable with everything before the test if you study like a madman. At my school, we only have one exam per block that is 80+% of our grade, and given the volume of material I truly don't think it is remotely possible to know every detail unless you have some kind of bizarre eidetic memory. Admittedly, it's a little uncomfortable but I think it's all part of the process!

 

[LuluLovesMe]

Except for those of us whose exams are, in fact, a series of essays explaining everything. Our block exams are 100% essay/short answer format except for histology and the anatomy lab portions (the rest of anatomy is still essay/short answer format).

And with that, I'm off to go write my weekly homework essays so I can enjoy the weekend!

What medical school is this? Sounds like hell

 

[hsk013]

I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

I think you and I go to the same school. Let's be friends and vent about how insanely difficult this upcoming exam will be...

 

[username456789]

You don't NEED to memorize everything, but t sure does pay dividends. Third year shelf exams and general knowledge questions on rotations were mostly cake after demolishing the first two years. Contrary to what people suggest, a lot of the stuff you're taught in the first two years carries over into the clinical years and having that knowledge engraved into your memory makes excelling throughout the rest of medical school a fairly straight forward task.

 

[sovereign0]

I often feel this way too, but in my short time so far I've learned a couple of relevant things:

1.) We are poor judges of when we have learned something or not. You know more than you think you do.

2.) Just because you can't always recall a large block of information on a whim doesn't mean you don't know it or not. Most of the time, when prompted, you will be able to remember the bits that you studied and learned. Fortunately, multiple choice questions are going to have specific prompts (assuming you can cut through any BS in the question stem), and will have specific answers. If there are elements of a chunk of information you aren't sure about, most of the time you'll know enough to be able to eliminate false answers.

With that said, our 2nd years said that - for exams written by certain course directors - we will never feel prepared walking into an exam ever again.

 

[musicalfeet]

In college, I felt as if I could walk into the exam having a complete mastery of the material. It might take me a long time to get there, but I would get there. In medical school, this is not the case. Part of the adjustment to medical school is the fact that you really have to study hard every single day, and on the test you will be expected to pull some things out of the dark recesses of your mind. I know that there are some schools where you are tested every 1-2 weeks, and in these cases I suppose it might be theoretically possible to be super comfortable with everything before the test if you study like a madman. At my school, we only have one exam per block that is 80+% of our grade, and given the volume of material I truly don't think it is remotely possible to know every detail unless you have some kind of bizarre eidetic memory. Admittedly, it's a little uncomfortable but I think it's all part of the process!

That's exactly how I feel after my first test cycle. So the way our school does it, we have one big exam week, where every subject we've ever studied (including the non-basic sciences) are jumbled up and distributed randomly over three days. According to an MS2 I talked to yesterday, she said that by doing so, it actually pulls down our class averages by quite a bit (because you don't know what to study, it's just this huge random block of info). She said the one time they did it by subject, the class average shot up from 75-76% to a 90%. I'm still not sure how I feel about it...because by test week, I don't know what to study anymore.

On a hopefully happy note.... it might prepare us for Step????

 

[bananafish94]

That's exactly how I feel after my first test cycle. So the way our school does it, we have one big exam week, where every subject we've ever studied (including the non-basic sciences) are jumbled up and distributed randomly over three days. According to an MS2 I talked to yesterday, she said that by doing so, it actually pulls down our class averages by quite a bit (because you don't know what to study, it's just this huge random block of info). She said the one time they did it by subject, the class average shot up from 75-76% to a 90%. I'm still not sure how I feel about it...because by test week, I don't know what to study anymore.

On a hopefully happy note.... it might prepare us for Step????

That sounds like an interesting strategy! At my school we will do one big subject, which a bunch of things under that umbrella (i.e. anatomy, histology, biochemistry, etc. that all relates to a certain organ system) and then we have one test where everything is fair game. So far, I like the high stakes tests. I do think it prepares us well for Step.

 

[URMD]

The morning of test day I know everything is clear in my head, But I won't be able to pull it out on a moments notice. I require keywords and multiple choice answers to pull out the information im looking for the question to answer it correctly.
So yes, I know most things, but no I couldn't repeat it to you verbatim until a question stem was presented to me with relevant key words and answer choices.
It's basically a form of trigger recall rather than blind/total recall.

In this way its all a haze in my head, but becomes clear once I see the question.

It's kind of hard to explain but I hope I made it clear enough.
You should know the material well but don't worry about having to recall it blind, its much easier/less work to be able to recall it upon trigger. (you can have multiple triggers for the same information)
All my exams are multiple choice so this works for me. If your exams are not multiple choice than this method doesn't work.

 

[3characterslong]

The morning of test day I know everything is clear in my head, But I won't be able to pull it out on a moments notice. I require keywords and multiple choice answers to pull out the information im looking for the question to answer it correctly.
So yes, I know most things, but no I couldn't repeat it to you verbatim until a question stem was presented to me with relevant key words and answer choices.
It's basically a form of trigger recall rather than blind/total recall.

In this way its all a haze in my head, but becomes clear once I see the question.

It's kind of hard to explain but I hope I made it clear enough.
You should know the material well but don't worry about having to recall it blind, its much easier/less work to be able to recall it upon trigger. (you can have multiple triggers for the same information)
All my exams are multiple choice so this works for me. If your exams are not multiple choice than this method doesn't work.

I want to say that i'm halfway between this and stone cold memorized. Some things are totally hazey but functional, other things are just ingrained verbatim.

 

[breezy16]

Agree. We get 200+ slides a day, there's no chance I'm going to memorize every piece of minutiae -- just not enough hours in a day.

My level of knowledge going into an exam is a strong understanding of the big picture, memory of the minutiae my professor emphasized in lecture, and that's it. Really, at the end of the day, no matter how much you know your professor could write an exam the whole class would fail if they wanted to.

I think the only "red flag" would be if you're consistently below the class average.

While we are PF, our class average has been an 89 on our previous exams. So, at least here, I wouldn't necessarily call it a red flag unless you were a std deviation below.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I'm an M1. There's been so much info thrown at me in the past 3-4 weeks that everything just seems so fuzzy in my head.

If you asked me about purine synthesis, I would be able to tell you that the committed step where an amino group is added to PRPP is inhibited by 6-mercaptopurine and that methotrexate inhibits IMP synthesis through stopping reduction of folic acid. But if you ask me for enzymes I MIGHT be able to recognize a few if presented in a multiple choice format. If you ask me for structures I'll probably not be able to identify many. I know Lesch Nyhan is a deficiency in HPGRT (whatever that stands for) which results in more PRPP and decreased IMP and GMP production but that's it. I really don't know anything else about salvage pathways. I only know purine degradation as it relates to gout.

This level of understanding is pretty true across the board for me. I could remember all of the steps and enzymes and disease pathologies if I were given enough time, but there's too much info to remember. Everything in my head is just in a hazy state of halfway knowing. Is this normal? I feel like the info is crystal clear for some of my classmates. I just do ok enough on tests to pass by a moderate margin.

Lol right there with you. I know the general concepts and high yield relationships, but the minutia is only partially there in a murky fog.

Feels kind of like looking for an old clothing item in the back of your closet when you're not totally sure it's there, but swear you saw it somewhere recently.

 

[AlteredScale]

First year I felt like I had to poop myself every test no matter how much I reviewed.

This year, I don't think I've really bothered getting stressed before an exam and it hasn't done anything in terms of results. Stressing is bad for me heart.

 

[Azete]

You don't NEED to memorize everything, but t sure does pay dividends. Third year shelf exams and general knowledge questions on rotations were mostly cake after demolishing the first two years. Contrary to what people suggest, a lot of the stuff you're taught in the first two years carries over into the clinical years and having that knowledge engraved into your memory makes excelling throughout the rest of medical school a fairly straight forward task.

I think you can accomplish the same thing by consistently reviewing high yield points throughout first and second year, so that major concepts are always fresh. I think cramming is the worst thing a med student can do because they're more likely to forget everything, but sacrificing sleep to memorize every surface antigen on every strain of bacteria is just overkill, in my opinion.