How to truly learn everything????

[pakmand]

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I'm a second year student with decent grades a's/b's but i'm still really confused about what i need to know to be a good doc. i'm not a good student for some reason or another, but i put in my 2-4 hours a day to learning. i can't sit in a class all day and study on top of it so i skip the class time and study on my own.

I came into medical school wanting to be a surgeon because that's what i've always wanted to do, but that doesn't really work with a marriage so i've decided to go into internal medicine. I didn't decide to go into IM so i can be a slacker but the # of hours are better, but my true question is, when do you truly need to digest everything that is thrown at you? I study and study but there's always something missing come test time, the little itty bitty detail that i guess is important but doesn't seem so within the stacks of notes that i have. Everyone says that everything is important in medical school but is that really true? I feel that i'm above average in my class but i also feel like i don't know enough to take care of anyone. So do things change once my rotations or residency start or are my shortcomings hiding behind my grades?

Sorry its so long but i've thought about this since i started school and now i feel even more pressure since the boards are coming soon.

thanks

 

[doc05]

as it turns out, you aren't expected to know everything. at least not until you are an attending. but the fact is that you should be able to learn and understanding everything at your level.

I am concerned that you are only studying 2-4 hours per day. what are you doing with your time?

it's early in 2nd year, so try not to feel pressured just yet. by april you should have a very solid foundation for more focused board study.

also keep in mind that no matter how well you do in ms1/2/step-1, there is a whole lot more to patient care, and you learn virtually nothing relevant to that until ms3.

also keep in mind that internal medicine is somewhat better hours-wise than surgery, but IM residents work very hard, and in private practice you will have many pressures which will limit your time. keep your options open, since at this point you can't really say where your interests lie.

good luck

 

[lattimer13]

"How to truly learn everything????"

simply put...you CAN'T

our instructors tell us this, physicians tell me this. trust me i've worried (and sometimes still do) about this. there's too much info right now. get as much of it as you can while perserving your sanity.

i ask doctors what they do when they don't know the answer. they consult literature and with one another.

remember, "jack of all trades is master of none."

yes, when you're out in practice as an attending, you should have most of your $hit down, but we're always learning new stuff about medicine that changes our approach to treatment. one example, we stop doing something to patients that we once thought was good for them because we now realize it's not so good.

 

[Galaxian]

Chill, seriously!

Okay...I admit, when the big bad boards start creeping up on you, the knowledge base you THINK you need to have starts to overwhelm you, its natural. But...as far as medical knowledge and a good clinical foundation are concerened, (I'm sorry to say this) you're not gonna have a good grasp on it until the end of MS3, like the other guy said. Personally, I had medicine and surgery back to back in third year, and when I was done with medicine, everything just started to make sense all of a sudden, then I took step 2, and now, halfway through 4th year, I feel like I have a decent foundation of clinical and basic science knowledge (you can forget most of the basic science stuff btw), H&P skills, presentation skills, and some basic procedural skills.

My advice to you is to relax... 2 well spent hours a day is enough. Make the most of years 1 and 2, because it just gets worse (well, until 4th year! Then it becomes a nightmare). ANother thing that worked for me was to try and fit things into the big picture. If you get too worked up about the details, you'll lose track and become overwhelmed. Finally, repetition is key. If you see something over and over again, it'll stick, eventually. So, if something interesting comes up, that you don't really feel too comfortable with, spending 15 minutes to go over it will pay huge dividends later.

good luck

 

[jed2023]

Originally posted by pakmand
I study and study but there's always something missing come test time, the little itty bitty detail that i guess is important but doesn't seem so within the stacks of notes that i have. Everyone says that everything is important in medical school but is that really true?

One could make the argument that "everything is important," but that seems like a load of crock to me. Some concepts and facts are far more important than others. This commonly shows up at exam time, when what a specific student thought was important doesn't match up with what the profs thought were important, which happens all the time. It is possible to know 75% of the material covered for a section fairly well (less important info) but bomb a test because you didn't focus your time on the other critical 25%.

So, you might ask how do you know what's important? There are two main ways that I know of. One is getting ahold of old exams at your school. This usually gives you a flavor for what the profs at your school think is important and their style of asking questions. The other method is get ahold of good review books for the boards and know the core information (related to the section or block you are studying) as well as you can.

If you take a look at a book like First Aid (considered the USMLE Step I Bible, by many), you'll see that it is, in fact, surprisingly superficial. Yes, it assumes that you have already learned the stuff in the first place, but my point is that the knowledge expected of you at the end of 2nd year isn't particularly deep for most areas. But it is voluminous. But before you go looking for miniutiae, it would do you well to learn the core.

I also have the same question as a previous poster, namely, why are you only studying 2-4 hours a day, if you are skipping class? If you were attending class that would be enough, but given that you aren't, that's seems pretty minimal. Overall, your classmates who are attending class and studying regularly are probably putting in 2 to 3x the daily time total that you are. Yes, it may be possible to get by with this, but it sounds like you are interested in having a sense of mastery, and not just getting by. (The whole reason you started this thread, right?) If that's the case, those minimal study hours, assuming you skip all lectures, won't cut it.

 

[doc05]

Originally posted by jed2023
I also have the same question as a previous poster, namely, why are you only studying 2-4 hours a day, if you are skipping class? If you were attending class that would be sufficient, but if you are not, then that's pretty minimal, given that you truly are interested in mastering 2nd year material. Overall, your classmates who are attending class and studying regularly are probably putting in about twice the daily time total that you are. Yes, it may be possible to get by with this, but it sounds like you are interested in having a sense of mastery, and not just getting by. And, if that is the case, then those minimal study hours (assuming you skip all lectures) won't cut it.

On a side note: in ms2 I only attended required classes/labs, never lectures. This way, you can study about 6-8 hours per day, and still have plenty of free time.

This approach doesn't work for everyone, though.

 

[Singh]

Pacman: what you're going through is perfectly normal. Most start medical school wondering whether or not they're smart enough to pull it off. It's healthy to be self-critical. When we finally get admitted, we need to prove to ourselves and our surroundings that we are smart enough and study like crazy. I myself along with most of my classmates have been trough this. But after some years (abt. 3rd yr) I realised that there's no need to study all day long. It's okay to relax once in a while. 2-4 hours a day sounds fine. I don't attend lectures and only some classes but have done well since I started. I study about 3 hours a day; 6-8 hours a day some weeks before the exams. This strategy works fine for me, because when I study - I really study. If I cannot concentrate, I stop.

There's no need to be overambitious and try learning everything! It's just not possible. So do what you need to do, and remember to take care of yourself. 🙂

 

[lowbudget]

Man, I know where you're coming from.

Don't worry too much about learning enough to "try to take care of somebody". That'll come after the same material reappear over and over in your board review, 3/4th year and residency. At this level, your goal in the 1st 2 years should be Step 1. You want to be able to slap that @ss...

I agree with the above. You've got some good advice on this thread to start with. Maybe some things that helped me survive:

-Use First Aid and Step Up as you guide through your courses. It's got some good mneumonics/charts to help you MEMORIZE the details. Plus, it helps you focus on what topics to know superficially and what topics to know in depth.

-Try going to class. If you can get a hold of old lecture notes, study them (not just glance over them) before class, then go to class and pay attention to HOW the professor explains/stresses certain points. Sometimes they'll drop hints and you can pick that up in lecture and not in books/scribe notes. When the new scribe notes come out, study it like the gospel. In a matter of a few days, you've looked at the material 3 times.

-Repetition. It helps to drill the damned details into your head. Which means you need time for that. Try to review the material at least 2-3 times before an exam... which means you have to set a date to have all your studying NEW material done.

-Memorize. Remember, in med school you're probably graded on the curve. And everyone in your class "understand the concepts." Despite what your professor says, it's not important to JUST know the concepts... you need to know the concepts AND the details to outperform the average. One way is to take notes from your book/syllabus/scribes onto notecards in a question/answer format. Try to think about how THEY would write a certain question. (And of course, you can bang through these cards on the stair-stepper, use them in study groups... side note: you can also buy tapes that drill word associations... I used them when I was jogging).

-Lastly, SLEEP and RELAX and EXERCISE and EAT WELL and SOCIALIZE.