I was naive.
I was idealistic.
I thought physicians should know the how and the why! The details are important! They separate us from the nurses!
I was wrong.
I had reems of class notes in folders, mixed with handwritten notes, mixed with this and that, organized this way and that way.I struggled to contain everything. Afterall, my education is apparently worth 250,000 dollars... I should keep it!
Nope. In my fourth year I purged everything. Just tossed it. I literally never looked at class notes after the block was over. I didn't use them for Step studying. I didn't use them for reference. I don't feel like I lost something important, now that they are gone.
That said, I did write my own notes, a condensed version of everything I learned in a way I understand it. After about 100 pages of basic science stuff, that is literally all I have kept.
it seems important to keep everything, but really it isnt. You learn the details to such a deep extent so that the fundamentals become innate, become easy. Those fundamentals stick with you. The difference between Conjugated and unconjugated bilirubin is importnat. Urobilinogen and which inherited disorder is a TATA box mutation is not. But you learn the latter so that the former becomes engrained in your soul.
