How to study in med school?

[Ranniks]

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I think I can max reading 6-8 pages with taking one page worth of notes per hour. Without taking notes it depends, but I think 8-12 depending on the subject.

Do med students take notes while reading their homework? Lets say you get homework for monday, 50 pages of subject X. Do you take notes while reading the material? If so, won't that take 5 hours to complete, maybe even longer?

How can you tackel this? Because I do want to understand what I'm reading and ace a test. But taking notes can take a lot of time.

 

[QofQuimica]

Different people use different strategies. It's all a matter of figuring out what works best for you personally, as well as learning about how you will be tested at your school specifically. Regarding the latter, I suggest that you talk to some of the second years at your school to see what worked best for them. A lot of times, they can give you insight into whether the course packet might be sufficient for a specific class, or if a different book might be more helpful than the one the course director recommends, etc.

 

[Ranniks]

Different people use different strategies. It's all a matter of figuring out what works best for you personally, as well as learning about how you will be tested at your school specifically. Regarding the latter, I suggest that you talk to some of the second years at your school to see what worked best for them. A lot of times, they can give you insight into whether the course packet might be sufficient for a specific class, or if a different book might be more helpful than the one the course director recommends, etc.

Well, how did you do it sir/miss?

 

[Shjanzey]

.

 

[xffan624]

I think I can max reading 6-8 pages with taking one page worth of notes per hour. Without taking notes it depends, but I think 8-12 depending on the subject.

Do med students take notes while reading their homework? Lets say you get homework for monday, 50 pages of subject X. Do you take notes while reading the material? If so, won't that take 5 hours to complete, maybe even longer?

How can you tackel this? Because I do want to understand what I'm reading and ace a test. But taking notes can take a lot of time.

Most of my classes don't involve a lot of reading. When they do, it usually is just a journal article or two. I don't bother taking notes when I do read because the class related to the reading will usually cover most of the pertinent items from the reading, but I might review the reading prior to the test to clarify the material, if the prof didn't do a good job of explaining it.

Honestly, most of your studying in MS1 will likely come from digesting the powerpoints provided and memorizing them. Not much scholarly reading involved. When you do read, it's for supplementation or clarification of what's already been provided to you.

 

[QofQuimica]

Well, how did you do it sir/miss?

I read textbooks (not always the ones assigned), went to class, and did practice questions. But I'm not the right person to be asking, because I was an MS1 in 2006, and I almost certainly didn't attend the same med school that you are/will. So again, what you need to do is ask the people in the class above you what they used. You can probably even buy used study materials from them.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I think I can max reading 6-8 pages with taking one page worth of notes per hour. Without taking notes it depends, but I think 8-12 depending on the subject.

Do med students take notes while reading their homework? Lets say you get homework for monday, 50 pages of subject X. Do you take notes while reading the material? If so, won't that take 5 hours to complete, maybe even longer?

How can you tackel this? Because I do want to understand what I'm reading and ace a test. But taking notes can take a lot of time.

When I was in school we knew there would be 2-3 test questions per powerpoint lecture. They would tell us in class which slides were important - no mystery. Remember that much of med school is key word testing to prep you for the board exams so the exams in lecture mimic the boards. They want you to do well and know that will be asked. There is a huge volume of material so much of it is broken down for you. My study group made up our own test questions during the lectures and would go through them in the evening and quiz eachother.

 

[PinknGreenMD]

My ex-boyfriend, MS2 now, finished in the top percentile of his class at the end of this past school term. I can tell you what he did because i was either physically with him or talking to him on the phone or knowing what he was about to do or just finished doing before i talk to him.

At orientation, you get your class schedule and you can login to their website and look at your class "calendar" and when you click on the date it shows you what assignments are due, what you will be going over in class ..

1. The night before class he would read his books on those chapters, not really trying to learn anything but just reading it. Then he would read it again and this time grasp certain concepts. Then he would read through once more to grasp even more. (he read material like a week before that class... always about a week or so ahead then redo the night before)

2. Then he would go over the slides in the class for that week (3-4) times and cross referencing some material in the book.

3. then hang out, jog, watch a movie, go to church or something

4. wake up have coffee go to class and talk to the professor about the things he read.

Again he did this 6 out of 7 days a week and was always a week or so ahead of schedule. Then refreshed the night before. He would normally dedicate about 8 hours or so reading after hes had class, exercised, had dinner, talked to me then read and i would interrupt to give him breaks.

PS. i never really saw him take notes, or when i looked through his class stuff, i didnt see any notes, just like random things written down on the powerpoint or a page number or one or two terms..

 

[KGflyboy]

Most of my classes don't involve a lot of reading. When they do, it usually is just a journal article or two. I don't bother taking notes when I do read because the class related to the reading will usually cover most of the pertinent items from the reading, but I might review the reading prior to the test to clarify the material, if the prof didn't do a good job of explaining it.

Honestly, most of your studying in MS1 will likely come from digesting the powerpoints provided and memorizing them. Not much scholarly reading involved. When you do read, it's for supplementation or clarification of what's already been provided to you.

Exactly. I hardly ever have to read textbooks. I spend my time going over the PPTs from class and making flash cards. It takes a lot of time, but after making cards I can memorize info extremely efficiently. In order to make sure I know how to apply the info I memorized, I do the practice questions before the tests. This allows me to identify deficiencies and re-study what I didn't quite get.

I don't always pay much attention during class, but studying efficiently has helped me be really successful in school.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

My ex-boyfriend, MS2 now, finished in the top percentile of his class at the end of this past school term. I can tell you what he did because i was either physically with him or talking to him on the phone or knowing what he was about to do or just finished doing before i talk to him.

At orientation, you get your class schedule and you can login to their website and look at your class "calendar" and when you click on the date it shows you what assignments are due, what you will be going over in class ..

1. The night before class he would read his books on those chapters, not really trying to learn anything but just reading it. Then he would read it again and this time grasp certain concepts. Then he would read through once more to grasp even more. (he read material like a week before that class... always about a week or so ahead then redo the night before)

2. Then he would go over the slides in the class for that week (3-4) times and cross referencing some material in the book.

3. then hang out, jog, watch a movie, go to church or something

4. wake up have coffee go to class and talk to the professor about the things he read.

Again he did this 6 out of 7 days a week and was always a week or so ahead of schedule. Then refreshed the night before. He would normally dedicate about 8 hours or so reading after hes had class, exercised, had dinner, talked to me then read and i would interrupt to give him breaks.

PS. i never really saw him take notes, or when i looked through his class stuff, i didnt see any notes, just like random things written down on the powerpoint or a page number or one or two terms..

holy nerd......

med school isn't like undergrad. for us at least, you don't have assignments. Never has a professor said "tonight, read pages X through X for tomorrow. Basically, they say, "this is what you need to know for the test." So you will find what works for you.

you will also decide very quickly how important your grades are to you. i have three kids, a wife, and i enjoy doing my many extracurriculars. No way i would ever follow a schedule like the one above as it is just not worth it to me.

you will also see very quickly what people mean when they say "study efficiently." taking extensive notes is generally not efficient.

 

[paul411]

Ask upperclassmen at you school because there is too much variability among med schools.

General study tip: get really good at developing and using mnemonics. Read a book about memorization techniques, it helped me immensely.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Too much variability between different programs, there really is, regardless of how unsatisfactory anyone finds that answer. There is a big difference between a school with system based, long blocks, pass/fail, no weekly quizzes, etc from a program that is traditional curriculum, F/P/HP/H, test every week. When you decide which of your acceptances you want to attend, you'll start getting emails from upperclassmen as well as have an orientation where there will be panels of MS2's that discuss exactly this topic. That information is far better than what any one of us can give you. The thing to remember at this stage of the game (for those of you who haven't started the 1st day of MS1) is that the attrition rate each year in most US MD programs is like one or two kids truly wash out and don't come back per year. Less than 1%. Everybody figures out a system that will keep you moving forward except for a precious few who either just weren't cut out for it (very, very rare) and the few who decide it just sucks too much or have some life-altering event happen (less rare.) Add those up and it's the fingers on one hand with leftovers every year.

 

[jombojuice22]

Saw this post (made by an attending) a while back and bookmarked it:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9403559&postcount=15

I have far from an "photographic" memory but I am an excellent student. I went for mastery of the material and not for quick memorization. Quick memorization puts information in your short term memory where it isn't likely to stay unless you use it daily. If you master the material and link it to your present knowledge base, it stays in there and you can recall it with a solid review.

I never let myself get behind the class. If I was sick or missed a study day, I went to where ever the class was and mastered that material. I could catch up on the weekend but I didn't use the weekdays to "play catch-up" because that was unproductive for my study strategies.

I studied in 50-minute bursts with 10-minutes of break in between. I never sat for hours staring at a page because after 50 minutes, my attention span was gone. I made sure that I tailored my study routine to my attention span. On those 10-minute breaks, I would run up and down a fight of stairs or get something to drink but I got completely away from my study materials to let my brain get a break.

I would also move around and pace as I recited things back to myself or to others. The pacing helped to relieve stress. I would master the material alone and then on study group days, we would discuss the material. Since our medical school had the most awesome syllabi in the world, we had everything that we needed to know in front of us when we studied. We didn't have to go searching through multiple books to find information.

I would preview before a lecture, take notes during the lecture and study the lecture later that day filling in anything that needed to be added for my understanding. I would then link the material to the preview for the next lecture. The next day, I would repeat the cycle. On weekends, I studied the previous weeks material as if the test were on that next Monday. By exam time, all I needed was a quick review and I was ready.

When I took exams, I would skim the entire test and answer the materials that I knew right off. If I couldn't answer a question in 30 seconds, I moved onto something else. I would then come back to unanswered questions after I had seen the entire exam. I was almost always the first or second person to finish an exam.

I also did not change answers unless there was something compelling that I noticed (clerical error). When one changes answers, they will invariably change 8 out of 10 answers from right to wrong and 2 out of 10 from wrong to right. In addition, I looked at questions carefully for answer clues which would lead me to the correct answer every time.

I have stone normal intelligence and memory but I maximized what I had. I also never let anyone (including myself) talk me into believing that I was somehow not going to be able to completely master the material. Your "inner voice" can sometimes "talk" you into believing that you are somehow inferior to other students which is far from the case. There is no material presented in any medical school that is unmasterable.

Finally, tune out the folks who boast about having "photographic" memories because they are the ones who "crash and burn" on Board exams. Run your own race and tend to your own work. Challenge yourself to hone what you do best and ignore the boasters who are trying to undermine your confidence. They are human just like you are and have to go from Point A to get to Point B.

You can decide (no matter what your past performance) that you are going to change your attitude and thinking as you approach your studies. Decide right now that you have every tool that you need to do well. Take a deep breath and start working on whatever the class is working on with the attitude that you will completely master it.

 

[thenameismac]

Saw this post (made by an attending) a while back and bookmarked it:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9403559&postcount=15

I am nowhere near ready to apply to med school but this is by far the best advice I've read. Hell, I'm motivated and of course I'm still in undergrad. Great post!

 

[Ranniks]

Saw this post (made by an attending) a while back and bookmarked it:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=9403559&postcount=15

This post has inspired me somehow.......... Thank you attending, and thank you jombo for posting it!

The last 2 weeks I've tried letting go of my fear to fail and I've studied many more hours than I usually do. I feel like I'm becoming more intelligent each and every day.

I'm having sunday free though. like doing nothing at all. I make sure all my homework/course work is done and I've studied the material in such a way that I understand it and keep it with me by reading it overal again once a week with books aside. Reading the notes I make I mean (which are piling up).

Now I'm wondering if I should study sunday too. I mean....I could do 4-6 hours and learn a lot more. But I think I might burn out then. Like I couldn't be at 100% on monday again.

But then again....I'm curious to anything. If I don't understand something, I just need to find out how. I get frustrated when I don't get something. Be it fysics, chemistry, biology, math, history, language or whatever.

Do any of you guys study 7 days a week 4-6 hours a day aside of your college hours? It would total to 50-55 hours if I did that btw. Well, maybe 45 hours combined.

I enjoy learning though. But it might be detrimental to my mental health if I did 7 days a week.

 

[Law2Doc]

... No way i would ever follow a schedule like the one above as it is just not worth it to me....

While everyone us going to find the balance that works for them, the "multiple passes through the material" approach, although time consuming, is in fact what has worked best historically for a lot of med students who do well. You preread before the lecture, attend the lecture or watch it on AVI, review the material and whatever notes you've taken right after the lecture. Then on the weekend, the only days you aren't getting new information, you go through the entire weeks worth of material in detail. And then you will again look at that material the week before your exam. So that's five passes through the material (preread, lecture, review, weekend, pre exam). That tends to put you in good shape for the test. It's a tried and true game plan. If you find you can get away with four passes through the material fantastic, but you decide that after a few tests. What doesn't work us treating it like undergrad, hearing things once and trying to cram again before the test. The volume is just too great. it really is like trying to drink through a fire hose -- you have to find a way to digest things as you go. And never let yourself fall behind -- its near impossible to catch up.

Also most psychologists will tell you active learning trumps passive, so you ought to always be highlighting or taking notes or you will just fly through the important stuff without learning it. Hope that helps.

 

[ejw5075]

My ex-boyfriend, MS2 now, finished in the top percentile of his class at the end of this past school term. I can tell you what he did because i was either physically with him or talking to him on the phone or knowing what he was about to do or just finished doing before i talk to him. .

LOL. I can't be the only one who found this funny...

To OP, listen to everyone else who is saying it is highly variable and talk to your upper class.

For me- The few days before I started MS1, I downloaded the powerpoints for lecture, read the associated chapters/took notes, even met with three of my friends the night before and went over stuff.... That never happened again. And if you try to tell anyone who knows me in real life, i'll deny it ever did 😛

Throughout MS1 and MS2 my big rule was, if it weighs more than 5lbs, I'm not reading it.

 

[MDforMee]

... the "multiple passes through the material" approach... You preread before the lecture, attend the lecture or watch it on AVI, review the material and whatever notes you've taken right after the lecture. Then on the weekend, the only days you aren't getting new information, you go through the entire weeks worth of material in detail. And then you will again look at that material the week before your exam.

So that's five passes through the material (preread, lecture, review, weekend, pre exam).

... active learning trumps passive, so you ought to always be highlighting or taking notes or you will just fly through the important stuff without learning it. Hope that helps.

I didn't know that it was a recognized "approach."

I've been doing this for a while, now. It seemed the right way.

 

[Patassa]

Throughout MS1 and MS2 my big rule was, if it weighs more than 5lbs, I'm not reading it.

How did your grades and scores turn out? Er, less directly, how did this approach work out for you?

 

[mcloaf]

How did your grades and scores turn out? Er, less directly, how did this approach work out for you?

Pretty much everything you need can be found on the internet. At least where I am you rarely need to open a text book, and if you want to do so the library has them all online in electronic form anyway. The only things worth owning hard copies of are anatomy atlases, IMO.

 

[ejw5075]

How did your grades and scores turn out? Er, less directly, how did this approach work out for you?

Lol its alright. Grades were mainly 85-95s, not that it matters anymore, a "P" is a "P" no matter which way you look at it.

Step 1 was decent- my goal was 230 and I surpassed that, so I'm happy.

I'm using mainly Qbanks during rotations, we'll see how that works for step 2.

Maybe in residency I'll buy a big textbook....

 

[cabinbuilder]

I think I can max reading 6-8 pages with taking one page worth of notes per hour. Without taking notes it depends, but I think 8-12 depending on the subject.

Do med students take notes while reading their homework? Lets say you get homework for monday, 50 pages of subject X. Do you take notes while reading the material? If so, won't that take 5 hours to complete, maybe even longer?

How can you tackel this? Because I do want to understand what I'm reading and ace a test. But taking notes can take a lot of time.

As they say in medical school "repetition is the key to mastery"

 

[Dharma]

Don't discount reading just because most here say they rarely/never crack the text. You just have to find what works for you, which is easier said than done. I know plenty of students who read hundreds of pages weekly and a whole lot of others who rely on PPTs or some type of class notes. A lot of it depends on your curriculum. I personally can't imagine just being a power point junkie without reading, but to each his own. Maybe I'm just old… school.

But no assignments in med school for the most part. Being able to recognize what is important and pertinent without being spoon fed is a necessary (learned) skill IMO.

 

[Gfliptastic]

Not only is there a lot of variability between med schools, your professors at your school, I think what hasn't been said is there is a lot of variability in what class you are studying for.

ie - I would NO WAY study for biochem the same way I studied for physio

Genetics, read a book??? F no! You are probably going to get pedigrees out the ying yang. What's the point of reading a book??? Grab as many questions that are available and do 'em! We had 2 genetics professors, one liked interpretation of gel electrophoresis to determine if a patient had a disease. The other, wanted us to do probability of disease to offspring like genetics counselors. Do you study the exact same way for both professors??

Med schools are different. Professors at your school are different. Classes are different. There's no "grand unifying" magic method.

However, to be more helpful, I suggest you take a Briggs-Meyer before you start school. I am ISTJ and know that gave me a clue as to what study methods would work best for me.

 

[mcloaf]

However, to be more helpful, I suggest you take a Briggs-Meyer before you start school. I am ISTJ and know that gave me a clue as to what study methods would work best for me.

Could you elaborate on this?

I'm wondering how insightful knowing this info would be. I'm an INTJ and while it's true that I prefer to study alone, I knew this before I had ever taken Myers-Briggs.

 

[Gfliptastic]

Could you elaborate on this?

I'm wondering how insightful knowing this info would be. I'm an INTJ and while it's true that I prefer to study alone, I knew this before I had ever taken Myers-Briggs.

Our personalities are quite close so I can maybe comment on our commonalities. (I_TJ)

You aren't going to be a study group person, and I realized this a couple weeks into school. Since, as was posted already, MY upperclassmen told me that study groups help. You will feel the urge to take personal ownership of your studying endeavors. Meaning, even tho I was around brilliant people when I was in a study group, I always did their share of the work "to be 'safe'" and that kind of defeats the purpose of a study group. I ended up feeling like study group was a waste of my time. An hour in discussion, as productive as it might have been, felt like a waste of time. I would think, "Oh I could be going over specifically on [this concept] as opposed to sitting here discussing something I know really well." I need personal structure I can't really rely on others for structure lol

Before the end of basic sciences, my study group ended up being me and my 2 buddies (also I's a believe because we got along so well). We'd study for like 4 hrs sitting by each other, never saying a word, but then we could also approach each other, and ask: "Hey, how do you think this works?" or "How are you memorizing this?" Quick, to the point. And it worked. My buddies were pharm mnemonic wizards. I'm super badass at patho. We complemented each other.

T & J mean you probably like to know the nuts and bolts of everything, have a firm grasp of a concept, and then use it. I believe Q posted something similar to how I was. Not only was I prone to read chapters in textbooks (I mean speed read), I also found EXTRA books. I HATED being spoon-fed. I tended to not appreciate "prima facie". I had to research things. Own it. For example, EKG's. There were study notes running around that basically had a book of EKG's. i.e. - if the EKG looks like this, it's that. And even if you want to do Internal Med, that's fine. EKG recognition wasn't for me tho. I had to know WHY the EKG looked like that. (My cardiology attending luved me during my elective cuz I asked intricate questions during my rotation. Don't think I want to do cards tho lol)

Our difference, S vs. N, I'm NOT sure about. Sensing is different than iNtuitive. So my guess is you won't like just getting a bunch of questions and doing them, regardless if you are right or wrong. Cuz I can say I believe I know a lot of N's. And they were the type who would reserve the practice questions til the very end. To check their knowledge. Me, I used my study questions to guide my studying. Not as a check. I preferred to see the deficits in my knowledge early and address them. As opposed to trying to learn as much as possible, and verifying I knew it by getting the practice questions right. That's just how I am. And how most S's are. I think N's can't do that.

Being S definitely put me in the anatomy lab a lot. I had to physically dissect, locate, palpate where things were on the body. Atlases were basically useless for me. I had to go to the lab, do my thing, go home, redraw it. And being S tends to make one that way.

My amateur psychologist take on all of this! 🙂

 

[NuttyEngDude]

INFJ here, wouldnt mind hearing more on this too.

 

[Gfliptastic]

Basically the same. F (feeling) means you like to go w/ your gut, use your instincts. And if standardized testing/Board exams has taught me anything, that might be the way to go. I can't tell you how many x's (studying for Step 1 and shelfs) I've picked an answer, moved on, thought about it, reread it, changed it...and my original choice ended up being right.

Overthinking. That is quintessential T!

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Without throwing this too off the topic of studying, I found this today, lots of neat graphs and statistics:
http://careerassessmentsite.com/mbti-personality-types-socioeconomic-infographic/

 

[Zelda840]

Cool - thanks for the link. I am INTJ and while I've heard that it's pretty uncommon for women, I've met quite a few others. Maybe we flock to each other.

 

[To be MD]

Not only is there a lot of variability between med schools, your professors at your school, I think what hasn't been said is there is a lot of variability in what class you are studying for.

ie - I would NO WAY study for biochem the same way I studied for physio

Genetics, read a book??? F no! You are probably going to get pedigrees out the ying yang. What's the point of reading a book??? Grab as many questions that are available and do 'em! We had 2 genetics professors, one liked interpretation of gel electrophoresis to determine if a patient had a disease. The other, wanted us to do probability of disease to offspring like genetics counselors. Do you study the exact same way for both professors??

Med schools are different. Professors at your school are different. Classes are different. There's no "grand unifying" magic method.

However, to be more helpful, I suggest you take a Briggs-Meyer before you start school. I am ISTJ and know that gave me a clue as to what study methods would work best for me.

Hi, resurrecting more dead threads.... but I'm wondering where you got a majority of your practice questions?