How do you determine what lecture information is important for your exams?

Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine
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FrankLake

FrankLake

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Do you get a "feel" for it? Use board materials to guide you? Rely on the syllabus?
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I second what the sorcerer said.

Almost every exam question we ever had was derived from a lecture objective.

Boards material (Sattar, Ryan, etc.) are good for another point of view of a topic you struggle with understanding using your lecture material. (Not every instructor is as gifted as the aforementioned).
 
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ExplodingUlcers said:
Simple. Is the information in outside board resources? If not then it will be tested.
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It is SO annoying, lol. Life is so easy for the people with NBME exams. The only potential upside is that a not insignificant amount of high step scorers report getting a few qs right only because of class.
 
ExplodingUlcers said:
Simple. Is the information in outside board resources? If not then it will be tested.
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I always recommend skimming through board resources so you can figure out what not to focus on for the class exam lol


But actually, if you listen to the lecturer, they will tend emphasize concepts they feel are important and I would make a note of these while you listen. Otherwise it's mostly a 'feel' thing after multiple passes through the material and corroborating with board resources.
 
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Adjet said:
But actually, if you listen to the lecturer, they will tend emphasize concepts they feel are important and I would make a note of these while you listen. Otherwise it's mostly a 'feel' thing after multiple passes through the material and corroborating with board resources.
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Unfortunately, I’m someone that just does NOT have the ear for this, so I found a pair of ears that did! Several in fact. If you just don’t have that skill, study groups may also be the way to go. Don’t gotta go it alone!
 
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i usually go into the lecture, "skim" through just to see that it is focused on, then go to bnb or pathoma, learn it there, then do anki that was made by upper class, and THEN do the house lecture. By then i know the foundation and HYI, so i can "layer" the extra stuff without being overwhelmed by it. Our school is NBME though.
 
M&L said:
i usually go into the lecture, "skim" through just to see that it is focused on, then go to bnb or pathoma, learn it there, then do anki that was made by upper class, and THEN do the house lecture. By then i know the foundation and HYI, so i can "layer" the extra stuff without being overwhelmed by it. Our school is NBME though.
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A lot of professors I've found will have a "tell" when they are really trying to drive a point home. Some will star those slides, some will make those slides a different color, and some will even straight out say, "you need to know this for testing purposes." OFC, some say the same thing about every slide so it isn't foolproof but you gain insight over time about which indicators a prof is giving off that says that they will likely test you on that material.
 
Also in my school majority of lecturers are practicing clinicians . That brings great insight - they show amazing images, scans , tell stories , talk about how THEY approached things . I love it .
 
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I am not studying to simply pass board exams ... I am studying because I want to become a good doctor , and I like learning from people who are practicing ... what’s weird about it ?
 
M&L said:
I am not studying to simply pass board exams ... I am studying because I want to become a good doctor , and I like learning from people who are practicing ... what’s weird about it ?
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Med school, especially preclinicals, is not what makes you a good doctor; residency is. Of course, you need to attain your foundational knowledge to be able to learn and apply at the subsequent levels (clerkships + residency +/- fellowship). The point is that med school does not have a monopoly on teaching you this foundational knowledge. Your goal of becoming a good doctor can just as easily be obtained by ditching your school lectures and just focusing on board materials. Because you're tested with NBMEs, you'll have zero penalty for doing this, because BnB, sketchy, Zanki, etc teach you everything you need to know for those kind of exams. If you were tested with crappy in-houses like me and ExplodingUlcers unfortunately are, there would be a risk of failure for ignoring school stuff.
 
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slowthai said:
Med school, especially preclinicals, is not what makes you a good doctor; residency is. Of course, you need to attain your foundational knowledge to be able to learn and apply at the subsequent levels (clerkships + residency +/- fellowship). The point is that med school does not have a monopoly on teaching you this foundational knowledge. Your goal of becoming a good doctor can just as easily be obtained by ditching your school lectures and just focusing on board materials. Because you're tested with NBMEs, you'll have zero penalty for doing this, because BnB, sketchy, Zanki, etc teach you everything you need to know for those kind of exams. If you were tested with crappy in-houses like me and ExplodingUlcers unfortunately are, there would be a risk of failure for ignoring school stuff.
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ahahahah damn. I see your point, but i never in my wildest dreams thought i would be CRITICISED for actually listening to my instructors. Yes, some of them i do not like personally, but some of them are pretty amazing. Excuse me if i want to use both my school and outside resources and that i actually like the lectures in my school. Plus when they lecture, they actually stress what is HYI for the boards. My school historically has pretty high average step 1 score, and i know that it is partly because school stresses stuff like that during lectures, and preps are well for it.
 
M&L said:
ahahahah damn. I see your point, but i never in my wildest dreams thought i would be CRITICISED for actually listening to my instructors. Yes, some of them i do not like personally, but some of them are pretty amazing. Excuse me if i want to use both my school and outside resources and that i actually like the lectures in my school. Plus when they lecture, they actually stress what is HYI for the boards. My school historically has pretty high average step 1 score, and i know that it is partly because school stresses stuff like that during lectures, and preps are well for it.
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I wasn't criticizing you. I don't think ExplodingUlcers was either. He was just wondering why you were doing all that extra work of looking at school lectures on top of boards stuff when you could easily use that time for like any other thing, lol. But I understand why you do now.

All I was saying is that you can be a great doctor without having to rely on your professors during preclinicals (if you want). Their lecture materials aren't the standard for preclinical education.
 
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M&L said:
ahahahah damn. I see your point, but i never in my wildest dreams thought i would be CRITICISED for actually listening to my instructors. Yes, some of them i do not like personally, but some of them are pretty amazing. Excuse me if i want to use both my school and outside resources and that i actually like the lectures in my school. Plus when they lecture, they actually stress what is HYI for the boards. My school historically has pretty high average step 1 score, and i know that it is partly because school stresses stuff like that during lectures, and preps are well for it.
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Your school sounds a lot more forward thinking than ours as they give you the tools to succeed. It's as if they set you up on a nuclear powered battle ship carrier with radar, GPS and other gadgets to weather or evade any storm. Meanwhile our schools throw us on a canoe and say "godspeed" before we trudge unprepared head on through hurricanes in the South Pacific (step 1) or the ice berg dotted waters of the North Atlantic (clinical rotations). Sure we can manage just fine but why make it harder?

I'll admit that the few times we've had a physician come and give a lecture on clinically relevant cases have been a breath of fresh air for me in the midst of all the searing toxic sludge that permeates the preclinical curriculum.

Didn't mean to come across like a d!ck or like I was criticizing you, rather I'm just jelly and disgruntled lol. As @slowthai pointed out, I was also legitimately curious why bother reviewing lecture material if you can get by without it but I understand that now.
 
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So our school is doing blocks, vs separate subjects, and majority of our instructors for blocks are practicing physicians. Groups are very helpful too, clinical skills sessions, we have ultrasound built into the curriculum. For example, we just finished GI. Yes, we had basic lectures on structure, and such. BUt we also have a separate lectures from clinicians on how to actually work with lab results, how to work through the differential diagnosis, how to interview a patient with specific symptoms and what it actually translates into. They talk us through the imaging, etc. I do use BnB and pathoma, but our lectures offer more things that are just not there. We have training on cost of medicine, on how to use diagnostic tools to decrease the cost, how to navigate through treatment protocols, etc. From what i understand students from my school on the average are more prepared for clinical rotations than some other schools because of stuff like that. For example, any third year student from my school who just started clinical rotations can use ultrasound, and often then actually end up showing tricks to new residents even, who come in from other schools. Going prepared into rotations makes us feel more useful, and be more ready. Yes, i couldve just learnt bunch of anki cards (which i do, btw, - i use BnB, pathoma, FA, cheesy lightyear deck, Uworld and Amboss), but why on earth stop there, if my favorite Dr. K, for example, in just 40 minutes can teach me full differential on diarrhea with labs, imaging, interviewing, pharm, and treatment options? I would be the biggest idiot if i just ignored the amazing resources my school offers.

We also have academic development seminars on how to prepare for step, we get free Uworld, free sketchy, we hustled a discount for AMBOSS, etc. So, they push us pretty well in "standard" outside resources as well.
 
M&L said:
So our school is doing blocks, vs separate subjects, and majority of our instructors for blocks are practicing physicians. Groups are very helpful too, clinical skills sessions, we have ultrasound built into the curriculum. For example, we just finished GI. Yes, we had basic lectures on structure, and such. BUt we also have a separate lectures from clinicians on how to actually work with lab results, how to work through the differential diagnosis, how to interview a patient with specific symptoms and what it actually translates into. They talk us through the imaging, etc. I do use BnB and pathoma, but our lectures offer more things that are just not there. We have training on cost of medicine, on how to use diagnostic tools to decrease the cost, how to navigate through treatment protocols, etc. From what i understand students from my school on the average are more prepared for clinical rotations than some other schools because of stuff like that. For example, any third year student from my school who just started clinical rotations can use ultrasound, and often then actually end up showing tricks to new residents even, who come in from other schools. Going prepared into rotations makes us feel more useful, and be more ready. Yes, i couldve just learnt bunch of anki cards (which i do, btw, - i use BnB, pathoma, FA, cheesy lightyear deck, Uworld and Amboss), but why on earth stop there, if my favorite Dr. K, for example, in just 40 minutes can teach me full differential on diarrhea with labs, imaging, interviewing, pharm, and treatment options? I would be the biggest idiot if i just ignored the amazing resources my school offers.

We also have academic development seminars on how to prepare for step, we get free Uworld, free sketchy, we hustled a discount for AMBOSS, etc. So, they push us pretty well in "standard" outside resources as well.
Click to expand...
Damn my analogy was pretty spot on lol.
 
My school used in house exams but honestly my performance improved the less time I wasted on school lectures and resources. I only would bother with the lectures that were covering topics not mentioned in any board relevant stuff. Less time mining terribly curated and convoluted slide decks for factoids meant more time with anki, pathoma, sketchy, B&B and Qbanks. Qbank explanations really help fill in cracks too (especially Uworld).
 
M&L said:
So our school is doing blocks, vs separate subjects, and majority of our instructors for blocks are practicing physicians. Groups are very helpful too, clinical skills sessions, we have ultrasound built into the curriculum. For example, we just finished GI. Yes, we had basic lectures on structure, and such. BUt we also have a separate lectures from clinicians on how to actually work with lab results, how to work through the differential diagnosis, how to interview a patient with specific symptoms and what it actually translates into. They talk us through the imaging, etc. I do use BnB and pathoma, but our lectures offer more things that are just not there. We have training on cost of medicine, on how to use diagnostic tools to decrease the cost, how to navigate through treatment protocols, etc. From what i understand students from my school on the average are more prepared for clinical rotations than some other schools because of stuff like that. For example, any third year student from my school who just started clinical rotations can use ultrasound, and often then actually end up showing tricks to new residents even, who come in from other schools. Going prepared into rotations makes us feel more useful, and be more ready. Yes, i couldve just learnt bunch of anki cards (which i do, btw, - i use BnB, pathoma, FA, cheesy lightyear deck, Uworld and Amboss), but why on earth stop there, if my favorite Dr. K, for example, in just 40 minutes can teach me full differential on diarrhea with labs, imaging, interviewing, pharm, and treatment options? I would be the biggest idiot if i just ignored the amazing resources my school offers.

We also have academic development seminars on how to prepare for step, we get free Uworld, free sketchy, we hustled a discount for AMBOSS, etc. So, they push us pretty well in "standard" outside resources as well.
Click to expand...

That’s how our school does it too.
 
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Some of the things that helped me determine what will be important in med school tests (at least one that is geared toward Step 1): (1) is the concept repeated over several lectures? (2) does it appear in test prep material (I used First Aid, Pathoma)? (3) what do the learning objectives emphasize, and (4) did the lecturer explicitly say "remember this" or "this is important"?
 
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