How to master all this material?

[despair]

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So far I'm doing badly. I need to change my study habits-- but to what? I normally study the material before the lecture and review the material again after. What am I doing wrong? I refuse to believe that I'm stupid...

 

[anon-y-mouse]

So far I'm doing badly. I need to change my study habits-- but to what? I normally study the material before the lecture and review the material again after. What am I doing wrong? I refuse to believe that I'm stupid...

not doing enough practice questions
not seeing what's relevant information and how the information will be integrated - that's diff for each class

figure out why you're going wrong first. maybe you need a more thorough review of the material.

list more specifics...

 

[ginger60]

What do you mean you're doing badly? have you gotten legitimately bad grades on tests, or bad grades meaning not perfect (e.g. 85% instead of 95%)? or do you just feel overwhelmed by the amount of information and aren't able to remember every little detail? Med school is a completely different beast from undergrad and you won't be able to know everything--you will only set yourself up for anxiety and disappointment if you expect that. However, evaluating and changing your study habits can be a good thing if you are actually doing poorly. It sounds like you're doing well as far as preparing for and reviewing lectures--adding things like making your own notes and drawings or using review books/textbooks could help, but you need to give more details as to how exactly you're doing badly.

 

[despair]

I'm at the borderline between passing and failing...

 

[Depakote]

not doing enough practice questions
not seeing what's relevant information and how the information will be integrated - that's diff for each class

figure out why you're going wrong first. maybe you need a more thorough review of the material.

list more specifics...

where are good places to find practice questions?

BRS only provides so many and we only get a few provided... they don't let students keep their old tests at my school.

 

[smq123]

So far I'm doing badly. I need to change my study habits-- but to what? I normally study the material before the lecture and review the material again after. What am I doing wrong? I refuse to believe that I'm stupid...

Don't "study" the material before the lecture. Pre-read the lecture if you want to, but do NOT attempt to learn it before the lecture. I did this, and this was a bad idea. Paradoxically, when I studied the material before the lecture, I spent large amounts of time playing catch-up. Don't know why.

It's also a pain because I could NEVER accurately figure out what to focus on by myself - I'd have to go to lecture to figure that out. Even after 2 years, I was still terrible at deciding beforehand what would be the main focus of that lecture.

Pre-read, listen to the lecture (at home or in the lecture hall - your choice), and THEN study the material. But trying to actually learn the material before the lecture doesn't usually seem to help.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

I'm at the borderline between passing and failing...

With what? Did you do poorly on the first test? I agree with the suggestion above about doing more practice questions. Unfortunately beyond BRS and school-provided ones (my school usually provided a lot for first year), I don't know where to get those. That seems to be how most people study for boards, and it was definitely a big part of my first year studying.

I agree with your above statement that it's not because you're not smart enough -- adcoms do a pretty good job of figuring out who should and shouldn't be there.

 

[-Goose-]

where are good places to find practice questions?

BRS only provides so many and we only get a few provided... they don't let students keep their old tests at my school.

For anatomy, i'd recommend the famed michigan anatomy website (chung brs has great questions too).

for other classes, BRS and Pre-Test.

 

[anon-y-mouse]

where are good places to find practice questions?

BRS only provides so many and we only get a few provided... they don't let students keep their old tests at my school.

Pretest

 

[sparkly]

So far I'm doing badly. I need to change my study habits-- but to what? I normally study the material before the lecture and review the material again after. What am I doing wrong? I refuse to believe that I'm stupid...

It helps to ask 3rd and 4th yrs on how they studied for the course/rotation. They usually can guide you to the right approach and review texts.

 

[keriza]

hi!!!! exactly how much notes do u have to do? i mean what is the amount of notes that u have? doz i can pretty much memorize the notes!! i'm in 2nd year and i'm doing immunology. teachers here dont give good notes thereby i just cant figure out if what i'm studying is enuuf or not. i feel frustrated coz there's a burden of usmle after a few months. dnt no what i'm gna do. if u've done immuno or any other subjects will u b so kind to upload ur notes so i can compare them with mine?
any help will b appreciated😀

 

[medhacker]

hi!!!! exactly how much notes do u have to do? i mean what is the amount of notes that u have? doz i can pretty much memorize the notes!! i'm in 2nd year and i'm doing immunology. teachers here dont give good notes thereby i just cant figure out if what i'm studying is enuuf or not. i feel frustrated coz there's a burden of usmle after a few months. dnt no what i'm gna do. if u've done immuno or any other subjects will u b so kind to upload ur notes so i can compare them with mine?
any help will b appreciated😀

Kariza, PM me an email addy and I will send you our Immuno scribes.

 

[Depakote]

Pretest

Thanks. I'll check those out.

 

[DragonWell]

where are good places to find practice questions?

BRS only provides so many and we only get a few provided... they don't let students keep their old tests at my school.

I find the "Review Questions" series pretty helpful, esp the Gross Anatomy. The explanations are very good. Unfortunately, I believe this book is out of print, although some pages from it are available here.

 

[Shredder]

The crux is that you cannot master it all. You need to sort the wheat from the chaff. You will be overwhelmed if you try learning everything. If push comes to shove, favor clinically relevant material over minutiae. It is more important for clinical years and long run. Good teachers (most MDs anyway) will tend to prefer it in their test questions.

Pop some Gingko Biloba. Consider referring to First Aid and BRS review materials to help narrow your focus. Use a highlighter but don't make the mistake of highlighting too much--I see a lot of silly peers doing this. It defeats the purpose. gtg

 

[DragonWell]

The crux is that you cannot master it all. You need to sort the wheat from the chaff. You will be overwhelmed if you try learning everything. If push comes to shove, favor clinically relevant material over minutiae. It is more important for clinical years and long run. Good teachers (most MDs anyway) will tend to prefer it in their test questions.

Pop some Gingko Biloba. Consider referring to First Aid and BRS review materials to help narrow your focus. Use a highlighter but don't make the mistake of highlighting too much--I see a lot of silly peers doing this. It defeats the purpose. gtg

I agree with this. What has helped me is identifying what material needs to be understood and what material needs to be memorized. For example, if you understand the mechanisms of jaundice, it's pretty easy to remember that hyperbilirubinemia w/ a conjugated bilirubin of 20% or less is often going to be hemolytic in nature. For a lot of subjects, it pays to read for understanding first, and then go back and add the few specific details that must be memorized.

In contrast, some information (ie micro, pharm) just needs to be memorized. Find a way that works for you and drill it until you've got it. The key is to minimize as much as possible the info that fits into this pure memorization category.

 

[yyd]

-

 

[DragonWell]

Could you please explain what are these and where to get them? Thanks.

Board Review Series

Pretest Series