How do you learn/understand in medical school and not memorize?

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I think, to simplify this thread, there are top down thinkers and bottom up thinkers in med school.

Bottom up thinkers say that everything is memorization. Top down thinkers have to understand things or they can’t remember anything.

This thread is the perfect example of bottom up thinkers telling Top-Downers to work bottom up, and top down thinkers telling bottom-up people to think top down.

Confusing? yes. Both sides are probably right. Identify your camp and learn that way. I am a top down thinker so I focused on understanding in med school and then the memorization came naturally. There are plenty of bottom-up people here who memorized first and then things just “clicked.”

The big question is, what is your goal score? If you want to be a 250+, then yeah you gotta work your butt off no matter what. 230-250 seems more attainable for the average person if they work smart. 210-230 means something went wrong or they are not a good test taker.
 
mistafab said:
The big question is, what is your goal score? If you want to be a 250+, then yeah you gotta work your butt off no matter what. 230-250 seems more attainable for the average person if they work smart. 210-230 means something went wrong or they are not a good test taker.
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Do both types of learners get 250+? Or is it one or the other? I've read on here that people who did really well on the step tend to focus on pathophysiology and that seems to be much more about understanding than memorizing?
 
Girlygirl2020 said:
Do both types of learners get 250+? Or is it one or the other? I've read on here that people who did really well on the step tend to focus on pathophysiology and that seems to be much more about understanding than memorizing?
Click to expand...

I literally know people who only did an Anki deck (straight memorization) and got 250+.
 
mistafab said:
I think, to simplify this thread, there are top down thinkers and bottom up thinkers in med school.

Bottom up thinkers say that everything is memorization. Top down thinkers have to understand things or they can’t remember anything.

This thread is the perfect example of bottom up thinkers telling Top-Downers to work bottom up, and top down thinkers telling bottom-up people to think top down.

Confusing? yes. Both sides are probably right. Identify your camp and learn that way. I am a top down thinker so I focused on understanding in med school and then the memorization came naturally. There are plenty of bottom-up people here who memorized first and then things just “clicked.”

The big question is, what is your goal score? If you want to be a 250+, then yeah you gotta work your butt off no matter what. 230-250 seems more attainable for the average person if they work smart. 210-230 means something went wrong or they are not a good test taker.
Click to expand...
This is the best post in this thread. I have a really hard time memorizing anki cards from sketchy/pathoma until I’ve watched the videos on those cards. Once i watch it though i can churn and burn those cards! Meanwhile, i have friends who can’t stand the pathoma vids until they’ve passed through some cards on it. They synthesize the cards slow at first but then 2x speed the vids like its nothing.

Both camps have to know the same material to get the same grade. Theres no wrong way to do it if you get to the same end goal.
 
Memorization gets you 90% of the way to greatness. the last 10% is conceptual. once stopped overthinking and focusing on big picture and became a flashcard junkie I did much better. And I'm mostly a conceptual leaner for sure. Upper level math and physics were my favorite subjects and came to me with the least effort relative to my peers. Philosophy and economics were similar. It's why I regret going to med school sometimes. I didn't pick a career that capitalized on my natural strengths and instead picked something that was expected of me to do and looked like it would give me a nice life down the road on paper.

Other professions like engineering, it's the reverse
 
TheIllusionist said:
Memorization gets you 90% of the way to greatness. the last 10% is conceptual. once stopped overthinking and focusing on big picture and became a flashcard junkie I did much better. And I'm mostly a conceptual leaner for sure. Upper level math and physics were my favorite subjects and came to me with the least effort relative to my peers. Philosophy and economics were similar. It's why I regret going to med school sometimes. I didn't pick a career that capitalized on my natural strengths and instead picked something that was expected of me to do and looked like it would give me a nice life down the road on paper.

Other professions like engineering, it's the reverse
Click to expand...

Eh, I was an engineer for 10 years. There’s some conceptual work involved, but 90% of it was looking specs up - very little actual critical thinking. The grass is always greener...


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mistafab said:
That’s sad bro.
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I probably envy my friend who does trading and sales at a bulge bracket the most. Paid a ton for a 23 year old to speak convincingly and think

I also envy my patent law friend making 180k in her first year. She's also paid to think pretty deeply. Yeah there is a lot of BS but a ton of it is framing intuitive arguments and weighing a lot of different things in cases to rationalize your side. It isn't monkey see monkey do.
 
Maybe you’ve given it some thought already - but you can really do a lot of deep thinking in medical research. Your salary won’t be as high as pure clinical work but you can definitely help a lot of people and move science forward in a way that a lawyer just won’t do. You could see pathology in clinic, develop a deep conceptual understanding about a disease. Turn to the lab and come up with new ways to target the pathology to either prove a mechanism or develop a drug. You can turn around and use that drug on models of the disease and maybe even people if it works.

Researchers also get paid to speak convincingly. And you can make a decent salary. None of this job would be monkey see monkey do. It is totally possible to get the things you are looking for as a physician-scientist.

So what if med school is a bit straightforward. That doesn’t have to be your job if you don’t want it to be.

TheIllusionist said:
I probably envy my friend who does trading and sales at a bulge bracket the most. Paid a ton for a 23 year old to speak convincingly and think

I also envy my patent law friend making 180k in her first year. She's also paid to think pretty deeply. Yeah there is a lot of BS but a ton of it is framing intuitive arguments and weighing a lot of different things in cases to rationalize your side. It isn't monkey see monkey do.
Click to expand...
 
mistafab said:
Maybe you’ve given it some thought already - but you can really do a lot of deep thinking in medical research. Your salary won’t be as high as pure clinical work but you can definitely help a lot of people and move science forward in a way that a lawyer just won’t do. You could see pathology in clinic, develop a deep conceptual understanding about a disease. Turn to the lab and come up with new ways to target the pathology to either prove a mechanism or develop a drug. You can turn around and use that drug on models of the disease and maybe even people if it works.

Researchers also get paid to speak convincingly. And you can make a decent salary. None of this job would be monkey see monkey do. It is totally possible to get the things you are looking for as a physician-scientist.

So what if med school is a bit straightforward. That doesn’t have to be your job if you don’t want it to be.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I loved my basic science research year. I also want to do expert witness testimony one day, and I'm involved in policy work.
 
A lot of answers here do not appear to provide good advice. I will give good advice however.

In Medicine you must recall both what is on the syllabus AND what is on ALL of the lectures. The lecturers know the syllabus better than you. They are the ones who write the exam questions (other doctors help, but they in the end, they are the big boss). They are the ones who examine you. You must buttress your facts, only once, with understanding.

You learn 400 facts. There is no guarantee that you will remember them tomorrow or even 7 days later. No guarantee. Many facts are just too dull and forgettable.

So you must cement the facts with understanding.

Understanding takes time. So do not understand too much, just take what you need and move on.

Memorisation can take time sometimes. So you need to understand. You also need to learn and understand the material early, so when revising, you do not take forever to learn it.

You need to learn the syllabus and lectures. I had examiners who tried hard to fail students. So breadth of knowledge matters. But breadth must be matched with accuracy. My examiner tested me on the first lecture he gave. He did not release the slides. He did not teach it properly on the PowerPoint. He did not even explain what he taught in the first place. I was not his student during a clinical placement. But a student that he taught (on his first lecture) in the clinical placement (who also got 98% average in medical exams, I saw), FAILED the exam. I tell you this because this CAN EASILY occur to you. My friends experienced similar situations. Learn in breadth. Understand so it will stick. And SNATCH the knowledge from the consultants, because you will not find it on the textbooks. Consultants will not openly tell you this. You must literally start digging for exam questions that you visualise in your mind.

Furthermore, face to face exams are just like written exams. Written exams require you to answer almost all of them. This is why your facts must be really cemented. Get three out of ten questions wrong and you fail. Understanding is a way to help with this. Repetition helps, but I found, repetition has limits where you may not recall all the facts in the eloquent manner you are required to answer. For example, the different neural pathways that go down the spine, dorsolateral etc. You need to explain the different types. This requires firm understanding. Sometimes you must understand from 2 different angles.

Written exams sometimes have questions on obscure topics. Once I saw 50% of a Medical School year fail. Another time I saw 20% of a Medical School year. Yes, this is rare, but it happens. Usually 2 to 3 people fail. Conclusion, understand all the facts so you can recall them during written exams without fail.

Understanding is also important in multiple choice questions. I am not talking about distinction questions. I am talking about trick MCQ questions. Medical Schools say they do not do it. I disagree, that statement is subjective. When I had a question on the Sartorius muscle, I immediately realised that my Medical School may have tried to trick students.

In conclusion. 1. Memorise, 2. Understand, but understand quickly. Study slow and you guaranteed to fail, 3. Learn syllabus and lectures really well, SPECIFICALLY snatching the knowledge from the doctors on the ward.
 
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