how to maximize your efficiency during your CRAM session...

[saanjana]

alright guys....i need your advice (and i know that 95% of you have been in this situation at some point). So my midterm's 1 week from monday....and basically i fell behind in physio (respiratory and renal) and neuroscience (about 2 weeks....oops)since I spent all my time studying for my anatomy practical....so basically i have 10 days to get the information down for my midterms ....i've been going to class and looking over the notes and so forth....but not really "got them down."

what's the best way to get the most out of these 10 days.....another post mentioned breaking a 10 hour study day into 4, 3,3.... someone mentioned plenty of sleep ......the famous 50 min study with 10 min break...... what works for all you guys?

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[ice_23]

alright guys....i need your advice (and i know that 95% of you have been in this situation at some point). So my midterm's 1 week from monday....and basically i fell behind in physio (respiratory and renal) and neuroscience (about 2 weeks....oops)since I spent all my time studying for my anatomy practical....so basically i have 10 days to get the information down for my midterms ....i've been going to class and looking over the notes and so forth....but not really "got them down."

what's the best way to get the most out of these 10 days.....another post mentioned breaking a 10 hour study day into 4, 3,3.... someone mentioned plenty of sleep ......the famous 50 min study with 10 min break...... what works for all you guys?

Practice tests. Practice Questions. It's more active learning than just reading for me. I found that if I do the BRS quizzes at the end of the particular "module" I'm learning, I do significantly better on physiology (particularly respiratory). Same goes with anatomy.

-Ice

 

[Chemguync]

alright guys....i need your advice (and i know that 95% of you have been in this situation at some point). So my midterm's 1 week from monday....and basically i fell behind in physio (respiratory and renal) and neuroscience (about 2 weeks....oops)since I spent all my time studying for my anatomy practical....so basically i have 10 days to get the information down for my midterms ....i've been going to class and looking over the notes and so forth....but not really "got them down."

what's the best way to get the most out of these 10 days.....another post mentioned breaking a 10 hour study day into 4, 3,3.... someone mentioned plenty of sleep ......the famous 50 min study with 10 min break...... what works for all you guys?

So you're 10 days out and only 2 weeks behind? Sounds like you're on the ball, to me.

I say just get yourself to a coffee shop/cafe, crank up the iPod and do it to it. Come home exhausted, crash for 5 hours, and repeat. By day 5 you'll have a nice healthy med student glow/smell about you, for added pleasure.

 

[fun8stuff]

So you're 10 days out and only 2 weeks behind? Sounds like you're on the ball, to me.

I say just get yourself to a coffee shop/cafe, crank up the iPod and do it to it. Come home exhausted, crash for 5 hours, and repeat. By day 5 you'll have a nice healthy med student glow/smell about you, for added pleasure.

lol... you guys are making me look so much more forward to next year when i start!

 

[Bevo]

get a large pot of coffee (or red bull) and sit your but down.

 

[doc05]

study 14-16 hours/day and you'll catch up in no time.

 

[Joel Fleischman]

sounds like med school is finally sinking in for you,
two weeks: goof off ("look over material")
third week: dont sleep.
yep...

 

[saanjana]

sounds like med school is finally sinking in for you,
two weeks: goof off ("look over material")
third week: dont sleep.
yep...

 

[8744]

I have nothing legitimate to add to this thread except that I am trying to get my post count up to 4000 before I sign off for good at the end of May.

The few times that I fell behind, mostly towards the end of second year, I made detailed plans about how I was going to study for the week I had before the exam. I would, for example, get out of lecture and go straight to the Library and study until eight PM every night. This, I felt, would just about catch me up. At five PM as I left the library for home I'd say to myself that I still had six days and I'd make it up the next day.

The days passed and I was still "borrowing" against the rapidly decreasing time before the exam, never really coming close to my study goals. Finally, on the day before the exam I figured that if I pulled an all-nighter I would be all right.

I hate losing sleep. And I hate cramming. So I always just threw in the towel and didn't do any studying on my last chance catch-up day. Somehow it always worked out in the end.

Years ago in the early eighties during my first and unsuccessful attempt at college I used to let myself fall far behind and then attempt to catch up by cramming for two or three days straight. This is no way to study. Nobody, I mean nobody, can do any meaningful studying with no sleep. I used to hate the sensation of being bone tired but being too scared to go to sleep for fear of failing a course. I might as well have slept for all the good it did me. I was never so happy then on the day I was kicked out. It at least relieved me of the pressure to study, something I hated back then. I joined the Marines shortly after that and no matter how hard boot camp was I at least got eight solid hours of sleep every night and woke up feeling absolutely good to go. (They never, contrary to the popular misconception, mess with your sleep in Marine Corps basic training. You occasinally have to do two hours of "Fire Watch" but thats the extent of it.)

The moral? Don't fall behind.

 

[saanjana]

thanks genius! if it weren't for you, I would have never known that procrastination is not the greatest of study habits!

haha...somehow i thought it'd be funny to reply in exactly those words...

btw...though your post was totally worthless to me, its my fav one on this thread....(well...besides ice_123 who actually gave me some sound advice)...the sheer length of the reply makes me feel important....

maybe if i spent this time studying instead of posting dumb replies, i'd be caught up by now.....oh well

I have nothing legitimate to add to this thread except that I am trying to get my post count up to 4000 before I sign off for good at the end of May.

The few times that I fell behind, mostly towards the end of second year, I made detailed plans about how I was going to study for the week I had before the exam. I would, for example, get out of lecture and go straight to the Library and study until eight PM every night. This, I felt, would just about catch me up. At five PM as I left the library for home I'd say to myself that I still had six days and I'd make it up the next day.

The days passed and I was still "borrowing" against the rapidly decreasing time before the exam, never really coming close to my study goals. Finally, on the day before the exam I figured that if I pulled an all-nighter I would be all right.

I hate losing sleep. And I hate cramming. So I always just threw in the towel and didn't do any studying on my last chance catch-up day. Somehow it always worked out in the end.

Years ago in the early eighties during my first and unsuccessful attempt at college I used to let myself fall far behind and then attempt to catch up by cramming for two or three days straight. This is no way to study. Nobody, I mean nobody, can do any meaningful studying with no sleep. I used to hate the sensation of being bone tired but being too scared to go to sleep for fear of failing a course. I might as well have slept for all the good it did me. I was never so happy then on the day I was kicked out. It at least relieved me of the pressure to study, something I hated back then. I joined the Marines shortly after that and no matter how hard boot camp was I at least got eight solid hours of sleep every night and woke up feeling absolutely good to go. (They never, contrary to the popular misconception, mess with your sleep in Marine Corps basic training. You occasinally have to do two hours of "Fire Watch" but thats the extent of it.)

The moral? Don't fall behind.

 

[8744]

thanks genius! if it weren't for you, I would have never known that procrastination is not the greatest of study habits!

haha...somehow i thought it'd be funny to reply in exactly those words...

btw...though your post was totally worthless to me, its my fav one on this thread....(well...besides ice_123 who actually gave me some sound advice)...the sheer length of the reply makes me feel important....

maybe if i spent this time studying instead of posting dumb replies, i'd be caught up by now.....oh well

Didn't I say that I had nothing legitimate to add to the thread? What do you think I meant?

 

[saanjana]

Didn't I say that I had nothing legitimate to add to the thread? What do you think I meant?

well....as you can probably tell...i didn't think!.....though i did hope that you'd post another reply worthy of being a short story....alas, all I got was a sentence....