How do you do this?

[Sartre79]

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M1 here who just started classes. I'm desperately seeking advice about hot to study the material. The resources available are the notes packet, Note-service, Podcast (audio only), textbooks, etc. I just don't know hot to organize the material. Do you read the text? Do you ignore and just memorize the notes? Help!!!

Currently taking Molecular and Cell Bio, Anatomy, Ethics, and Interviewing .

 

[DocYuki]

I'm in the exact same boat you are ---

Personally, I study 100% off the note packet, using the lecture transcription service to follow along. I don't listen to the audio (though it is available) because it takes extra/unnecessary time. Let me know how things go! I think tons of us are feeling this way about now. Things are getting heavy fast!

 

[Law2Doc]

M1 here who just started classes. I'm desperately seeking advice about hot to study the material. The resources available are the notes packet, Note-service, Podcast (audio only), textbooks, etc. I just don't know hot to organize the material. Do you read the text? Do you ignore and just memorize the notes? Help!!!

Currently taking Molecular and Cell Bio, Anatomy, Ethics, and Interviewing .

There are many many approaches, and most will only be the right approach for a small handful of people, making it impossible to get useful advice from others. Come up with something that you think works for you and if it doesn't work well, don't be afraid to switch it up.

In general, you learn medicine by repetition -- seeing things over and over and over again. Some people like this via multiple aveneues -- lecture, notes, texts. Others like to pick one resource and use it as the primary approach. Most people in med school use the textbook as a secondary resource, so I wouldn't sit down and read that like you might in college -- the tests will come from the prof's notes/lectures. Some people like group study, others don't. Some attend lectures, others feel reading is a more time efficient approach. In general active learning -- actually writing out things, works better than passive. Try things. See what works. Be flexible.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I'm guessing your notes packet is like our course syllabi where it's material prepared by the professors covering what they're teaching. If it is, it should generally be your primary studying tool. If the professor wrote it, it's a pretty clear indication that it's what she thinks you should know. Go to the other tools when the note packet is incomplete or when you just need to study from something else.

Whether you use the podcasts, lecture notes or textbooks is going to largely depend on how you learn. If you're an auditory learner, use the podcasts. If you're a person who generally likes to read text to learn, go for the textbooks. I would always suggest looking over the lecture notes just to see what the professor emphasized in class, but rely on the notes packet over the lecture notes whenever there's conflicting information.

 

[tacrum43]

It depended somewhat on the class, but for the most part I either took notes onto the handouts we were given during lecture or added them in later from the lecture notes (when I skipped lecture). This consolidated the material into one source, which was then easier to study a second time before the exam. As for the text, I only read it if I couldn't understand the concepts in the notes (and after checking Wikipedia first since it's usually faster/better). This was just my system and I'm sure there are probably several others that would work just as well or better.

 

[Blade28]

IAs for the text, I only read it if I couldn't understand the concepts in the notes (and after checking Wikipedia first since it's usually faster/better). This was just my system and I'm sure there are probably several others that would work just as well or better.

You're using Wikipedia to study for med school?! 😕

I feel old...my how things have changed. 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

You're using Wikipedia to study for med school?! 😕

I feel old...my how things have changed. 🙂

You have to be careful with Wiki -- since it is user edited it frequently contains info that is not exactly right. Sort of like borrowing a study outline from a "classmate" but you aren't sure if this person is an A student or a C student, or perhaps not really even in the med school at all. The fact that the comedian Sinbad learned that he had died on Wiki this past year should give some skepticism. Wiki can be a good starting point, but you shouldn't rely on that info as gospel.

 

[SeventhSon]

Your approach should depend on whether you care about passing/doing well in class or about really learning the material.

If you just care about making a grade in the class, I would go completely off the class notes, and use other sources such as wikipedia and textbooks for clarification. Then do as many practice problems as you can get your hands on.

If you really want to learn the material, then you have to find the approach that works the best for you personally. For me, that entails never going to class, and reading textbooks and the class syllabus. But whatever your approach is, you should make sure you do as many problems as you can get your hands on, and DO NOT wait until the day before the test to do them.

As far as wikipedia as a resource, I generally have found wikipedia to be a much more reliable resource than class lecture notes/class syllabus, which explain things poorly and are often riddled with errors.

 

[BillyWitchDoctr]

M1 here who just started classes. I'm desperately seeking advice about hot to study the material. The resources available are the notes packet, Note-service, Podcast (audio only), textbooks, etc. I just don't know hot to organize the material. Do you read the text? Do you ignore and just memorize the notes? Help!!!

Currently taking Molecular and Cell Bio, Anatomy, Ethics, and Interviewing .

It's almost impossible not to be overwhelmed when you start med school. I remember feeling like it was impossible to learn all of the material...it just came too fast. It just takes alot of time and repetition to learn the basic sciences. As you get further along you'll develop your own studying system that works for you.

 

[poloace]

med school is like this.

the more time you spend freaking out - the less time you spend studying. don't freak out and just read something.

i always read handouts 1st and text 2nd. figure, if its pertinent enough that the lecturer wants to speak about it and include it in a handout, then, its solid enough to be expected on an exam.

 

[Sartre79]

I've been notating the handouts with information from the texts, but this seems to be too time consuming. The slides alone leave me feeling as if I don't fully understand the material so I have been going to the text...but I also feel like there aren't enough hours in a day to cover everything. Am I missing someting? Our first quiz over the material (only worth marginal part of grade...by the way, my school is P/F/Honors) is this Friday and it doesn't look like I'm going to do that well...but others in my class are giving a similar complaint. 😱

 

[tch001]

I've been notating the handouts with information from the texts, but this seems to be too time consuming. The slides alone leave me feeling as if I don't fully understand the material so I have been going to the text...but I also feel like there aren't enough hours in a day to cover everything. Am I missing someting? Our first quiz over the material (only worth marginal part of grade...by the way, my school is P/F/Honors) is this Friday and it doesn't look like I'm going to do that well...but others in my class are giving a similar complaint. 😱

We just had our first quiz yesterday, and I felt the same way last week. I read over the notes, and used the textbooks/internet/asked people about conepts and things I wasn't quite sure of. Then I just read my annotated note packet over and over again. I also found it helpful to make charts consolidating some of the material (our quiz was on embryology, so I made a flow chart showing which cell layers differentiated into what and then what structures they eventually developed). I also found it helpful to draw out figures that were particularly confusing. Don't worry, it will all sink in! Good

 

[LadyWolverine]

Relax. Breathe. It'll be OK.

One thing that I've realized about medical school - the amount of information that you have to memorize is vast, yes. But it's not insurmountable. What I find the most intimidating is the sheer volume of resources at your disposal. As an MS2, I am still struggling with *what* and *how* to study. I wish that someone would hand me a book entitled "Everything you need to know to get through medical school and become a doctor," and say, "memorize this." Unfortunately, that doesn't happen. 🙂

But seriously, a little organization at the beginning will really be worth it at the end. This is the advice that I give to all the 1st year students. For each class/block, pick 2 or 3 solid resources that you will use exclusively. Then, don't even bother buying anything else. If you need another resource that desperately, use the internet, go to the library, or borrow a book from a classmate.
To give you an example of what I mean, these were some of my MS1 resources:
For anatomy, this was lecture notes, lecture powerpoints, and Netter Atlas/flashcards.
For embryo, it was lecture notes, lecture powerpoints, and Langman's.
For histo, it was lecture notes, lecture powerpoints, and looking at lots of slides on Blue Histology and so on.
For CMB, lecture notes, lecture powerpoints, and lots and lots of Wikipedia (and the occasional glimpse at Lehninger).

Sense a trend? In short, you don't have time to use every single resource at your disposal. Trying to do so will be counterproductive, anyway, as most of them will say the same stuff over and over again. Pick a couple of sources that you like, can trust, can understand, and can get through feasibly in your limited time frame. This is the method that I used, and I managed to do fine. (I do realize that everyone studies and learns in a different manner - however, I believe that limiting your resources is sound advice for anyone trying to slog through this much material in such a short time). Which resources you deem most appropriate for your style of learning is up to you, and might take a little bit of trial-and-error.

DON'T worry about what your classmates are doing/reading/how they are studying. Just because Jenny is making flashcards and Tom is reading Rohen instead of Netter doesn't mean that you should be doing those things, too. Don't even LOOK at other people study. Just do your own thing. Good luck. I'm so glad I don't have to go through M1 again.