How to Study while not attending class

I personally found that going to class was a waste of time. Individuals such as my roommate can go and pick up a lot of information while my mind usually wanders and I get bored. I personally utilize the mp3 recordings mostly for my notes and supplement it with the transcription service (but usually only to fill in gaps - I don't use the notes that much). With most of the class lectures supplied in powerpoint format, I make my notes directly on the slides and find it much easier to pay attention without having to worry about missing something. With most of the questions on exams coming directly from notes and almost nothing from texts, I utilize texts only for reference and never to study from. Using this strategy is great because I don't waste time in lecture and can have a lot of free time where I can hangout with friends and go out.

 

Scribes only here. Books for reference (rarely). I get a lot out of being there, but like my free time even more. If there wasn't a scribe service, I would be in class.

 

I skip lecture but catch it later on videotape, which is way more effective. I'd go to lecture if I didn't have that option. It tells me what the prof thinks is important...and more clues as to what will be on the exam. I mean there's craploads of information on any given subject, and it's doubtful a single text will cover it neatly in one chapter. Lecture saves a lot of work, I think.

 

Scribes and I...

 

I haven't been to a class in two weeks and I have learned so much more efficiently and have absolutely enjoyed my extra free time. That being said, without scribe notes and mp3 recordings of every class, there is no way that I would skip at all.

As it stands now....I wake up when I want, though generally limit it to 7-8 hours....then go to the library/starbucks/wherever and listen to the previous days' lectures (on my ipod), with the class notes and scribe notes in hand. Its like having a personal tutor. When the teacher says something that I miss, or is too fast to comprehend....I simply pause, rewind and repeat as many times as I need to fully understand and then I can write down my personal notes at my own pace. When I'm ready....I un-pause and continue with the lecture. It generally take around 2 hours to complete a 1 hour lecture, but because I am actually studying and understanding everything that was contained in the lecture, I have no need to go over the lecture again that night, if at all....and generally not until right before the test.

When I wasn't using this method, I was struggling to wake up and then stay awake for a full's day worth of classes. Some classes were helpful, some weren't...but in the end I'd be too tired and short on time to effectively review the days material that night. That doesn't even take into account the extra time and energy I now have to do things such as go to the gym, run errands, take naps...etc

None of this would be possible w/o a scribe service and/or mp3's...especially the mp3's bc I know that I have not missed anything said in class because of them.

 

good question !


if the teacher puts up power points, i tend to look over them, look up any new terms to me, then i turn to scribe notes, brs path, brs phys and wikipedia

 

I don't get any flashy services, so I read. From the, you know, textbooks.

 

It depends...if our school had a really good scribe service, I would still choose to not attend class-I much prefer reading to listening. But, as some of you may know, my medical school has 'fill-in-the-blank' course packs (thats right you heard me) -so if there wasn't an excellent scribe service and they took away online lectures-I would be forced to attend. The truth is that I have to watch the lectures because I need to fill in the blanks on the coursepack-some of the lectures are helpful-but most of are only helpful because the coursepacks are so horrible. For all of the classes that have fill-in-the blank coursepacks-I am forced to watch them because even when you fill in the blanks the coursepacks are still horrible-and the scribe service is pretty much a verbatim repeat of the coursepak-so no help there.

On the other side of the equation, our anatomy coursepack is complete, and I don't go to class, and I do fine on lecture exams.

What I generally do when studying is: play the lecture a little bit, then pause and write notes, and look up anything that is unclear in the textbook. That is how I like to study-I write things in my own words and make a lot of drawings and diagrams-essentially I rewrite each coursepack and put things together in a more clear, concise and informational manner. Unfortunately, I don't always have time to do that for every lecture, (and I never do it for anatomy lecture because too much crap is there-I focus 90% of my time on the lab)-so when time runs out, I usually just write out the more challenging or important concepts and just read the rest of the material and do these little drills in my head-repeat stuff that I think they will test on.

 

Quick question for those of you who have lectures on mp3... Is there a page I could go to to see/listen to one of those? Would be much appreciated!

 

my school has the mp3 lectures on a server that requires login credentials so nothing there is public. Not sure about other places

 

We don't have mp3 here, but online lecture slides, transcription service and lecture notes does the trick. Plus I have a CD with last years lectures. Its funny how the professors almost say the same thing word for word. At least change the corny jokes lol. But anatomy lab is mandatory. But for this block (head, neck, blood and lymph) is kinda necessary.

 

We don't have mp3 here, but online lecture slides, transcription service and lecture notes does the trick. Plus I have a CD with last years lectures. Its funny how the professors almost say the same thing word for word. At least change the corny jokes lol. But anatomy lab is mandatory. But for this block (head, neck, blood and lymph) is kinda necessary.

 

I would to have to study very hard if I didn't attend lectures.
At least for now, I see the point of going, because the texts are so indepth compared to what they do during the lecture, it really saves me alot of time in studying when I actually know what they did in class..which is what the exam is going to be on anyway.

 

I just read the notes, and do the practice questions in board review books.

I then make a high-yield review sheet with all of the important information in the notes.

Textbooks are useless in medical school. The notes contain all of the information you need. If you have difficulty understanding something, then you go to the board review books.

 

for those of you with a transcription service: is it student run or farmed out? I'm curious how other schools run these programs - ours is student based and not everyone participates

-J

 

unless it's like my biochem class where all we get is the book. today was are first class and the prof said in a serious tone, "i'm sure u will all do fine.... as long as you know the whole book."

 

So they don't give you typed up notes with the important things emphasized in learning objectives or bold words?

That sucks.

 

Ours is student run and got pretty bad last yr until some Iron Fisted MS's took it over....... on the other hand, they seem to be getting poor again?

 

student run...its pretty decent for the most part...some scribes are better then others....the worst scribe notes aren't horrible- they are basically verbatim of the class....some are so good that you can throw away the lecture notes....so they are basically hit or miss, but when you have the mp3's online it doesn't matter

 

there are lesson objectives at the beginning of each chapter. they told us those were our objectives

 

Our transcription service is student run and pretty good. Between scribes and any lectures notes/slides, I find I'm all set. Except for a few profs who seem to pull their test questions out of their asses. Some classes do require book learning, but I often find that the book is easier to read/better organized than the notes/lectures.

 

thanks for the replies regarding scribes, that's basically how our system works as well but we currently don't put up mp3s although the capability is there (our first years do this and don't do scribes).

I'll probably push more next semester for the mp3s and quit the scribe service, I'm pretty compulsive about attending class.

 

Here's my take on this:

The advantage of going to class is that you know the information that the professor(s) will emphasize on exams.

The advantage of not going to class is that you have more time and can learn at your own pace.

There isn't a scribe service at my school, and professors often have exam questions that are "were you attending class" questions that can't be readily found in textbooks. This is the risk you take by not attending class, because unless your school is awesome, the material on the exams is *nothing* like what is emphasized in board review books.

 

A scribe/mp3 service allows you can get the best of both worlds....learning at your own pace while still getting exactly what the teacher emphasized....