how would a weak memory affect my medicine studying

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sohayb

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hi everyone, my dream is to become a doctor. but my problem is that i have a weak memory. what difficulties will i face in med school? can i succeed in medical school with a weak memory? i am a bright student and i have great grades but i have a weak memory. thanks for any help.

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Have you taken the MCAT? That test is specifically designed to test if your memory and cognition is sufficient for medical school.

I'm not sure what kind of answer you are expecting. "Weak memory" is a vague term. I'm sure you realize that the goal of medical school is to teach you things pertinent to the practice of medicine. By extension, one must ...remember those things.
 
Memory is very important. So important that the top students often have the best memories and the students that fail often have poor memories.

How we train doctors, it's essential. Like being a good athlete helps in pro sports.
 
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If you are an undergrad right now and you are doing well in the prerequisite for medical school (mostly As) then you should probably do fine. With the exception of a very small number of students, if you get into medical school you will do fine. Admissions committees basically won't let you in if there is any doubt you will succeed in school.
 
hi everyone, my dream is to become a doctor. but my problem is that i have a weak memory. what difficulties will i face in med school? can i succeed in medical school with a weak memory? i am a bright student and i have great grades but i have a weak memory. thanks for any help.
If you have a good enough memory to do great in your pre-med required classes and the MCAT you should be able to handle medical school. But you should be aware that a big part of what you do in medical school is rote memorization so if that makes you unhappy then maybe look elsewhere.
 
...first of all, u need to quit jerking off all the time and focus on details. Get organized it will help. If you play a musical instrument, learn some new pieces...it does help too! Stimulate your hippocampus some more with quality games. Do anything to protect ur brain. SDN is a good start to getting some help, but don't expect too much pampering cos u need to take control of things and put in effort to remember. You've come far, Don't give up!


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What is a weak memory by your definition? A weak memory can be improved upon anyway, it's somewhat of a developed ability. I remember I sucked at memorizing in my freshman year but I got better along the way.

What helps a lot is writing stuff down. Whether it's a process, a group of muscles, taxonomic groups, or biochemical pathways, writing or drawing it out on paper while explaining it to myself always drills it in easily.
 
What is a weak memory by your definition? A weak memory can be improved upon anyway, it's somewhat of a developed ability. I remember I sucked at memorizing in my freshman year but I got better along the way.

What helps a lot is writing stuff down. Whether it's a process, a group of muscles, taxonomic groups, or biochemical pathways, writing or drawing it out on paper while explaining it to myself always drills it in easily.

You really think so? I always thought that it was a matter of innate ability lol that some people are just genius's and the rest of us aren't. I honestly wish I could improve my memory. It's good enough for medical school but I could use all the help I can get lol
 
You really think so? I always thought that it was a matter of innate ability lol that some people are just genius's and the rest of us aren't. I honestly wish I could improve my memory. It's good enough for medical school but I could use all the help I can get lol

Well, I think a lot of it is innate ability but a portion of it is developed. It's like how some people just aren't very athletic but that doesn't mean that they can't work out.

I don't know, I felt like my actual memory (apart from study techniques) improved a lot over the years.
 
You really think so? I always thought that it was a matter of innate ability lol that some people are just genius's and the rest of us aren't. I honestly wish I could improve my memory. It's good enough for medical school but I could use all the help I can get lol

Mnemonic techniques like the art of loci definitely improve memory ability. There is of course an innate factor too, some people can more easily encode and recall things, but I would bet any base level can be improved with memory training.
 
drink a few beers and chill out dude. The fact you're in college means your ability to form memories and recall information is intact. Your subjective cognitive difficulty can be due to a million different things, the most common being anxiety. You most likely need to develop adaptive studying habits and learning techniques, which should make you feel better
 
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I had an AWFUL memory before med school. I was never able to memorize anything. Med school was tough early on, but it's a skill I acquired. It can be learned, but you have to figure what it takes for you to learn well (which requires some level of insight) and you can't be intellectually lazy when you study.

Good luck.
 
hi everyone, my dream is to become a doctor. but my problem is that i have a weak memory. what difficulties will i face in med school? can i succeed in medical school with a weak memory? i am a bright student and i have great grades but i have a weak memory. thanks for any help.

how did you get great grades with a weak memory?
 
I have a weak memory. Personally, I think a week mind is worse than a weak memory, which I think a lot of neurotic pre-meds have.

But it depends on what weak memory means. Does weak memory mean memorizing a large amount of material but forgetting it after a short amount of time? It's subjective.
 
Confused, so anyone who might have a learning disability is labeled as a troll?

I forget things pretty easily after just taking tests while other times I can memorize things in one glance so my memory is all over the place.
 
Confused, so anyone who might have a learning disability is labeled as a troll?

I forget things pretty easily after just taking tests while other times I can memorize things in one glance so my memory is all over the place.

I forget what I study after cramming for the finals. 🙁
 
Confused, so anyone who might have a learning disability is labeled as a troll?

I forget things pretty easily after just taking tests while other times I can memorize things in one glance so my memory is all over the place.

Troll because he/she has 1 post on a topic that may not be serious and no responses to the thread. Pretty trolly.
 
I have a horrible memory, probably one of the worst in my class by my guesstimate. But I'm top 3 by virtue of hard work - I go over the material probably 4-5 times to cram it into my memory, and I'm good at applying the knowledge. So yeah, you can make up for it.
 
I know this might sound like pseudo-science, but I started using the memory palace technique. It cut down my studying time substantially, and my GPA went up by 0.1 lol. There could be other factors that contributed to the improvement ... but w/e
 
I know this might sound like pseudo-science, but I started using the memory palace technique. It cut down my studying time substantially, and my GPA went up by 0.1 lol. There could be other factors that contributed to the improvement ... but w/e

It's not pseudoscience, it's a legit cognitive strategy.


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Just study harder and move on. Your memory is what it is.


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Troll because he/she has 1 post on a topic that may not be serious and no responses to the thread. Pretty trolly.

Even if he is a troll, it's a perfectly reasonable topic. No harm in answering for those who actually are responding with similar concerns.
 
I think having a strong memory is important for getting the grades needed to get into med school like for the Mcat and the premed reqs. But if you can own those two any other way, I don't see why you won't get in.
 
sorry for not replying. i was busy looking for more information and opinions. i mean by weak memory that i keep forgetting where i put my stuff, things to do, facts, names.
 
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