I'm not retaining anything

[Raisins]

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I don't feel like I am getting much out of school. I study a lot for the exams, take the exam, and then forget all the stuff within a week or two.

I just feel like I am going to finish 2 years of studying and not know anything for the USMLE or the wards. Anyone else in the same boat?

 

[geogil]

I don't feel like I am getting much out of school. I study a lot for the exams, take the exam, and then forget all the stuff within a week or two.

I just feel like I am going to finish 2 years of studying and not know anything for the USMLE or the wards. Anyone else in the same boat?

That pretty well sums it up for me.

 

[Chemguync]

It seems that way, but you'll surprise yourself when you start studying for boards. The volume is so high that most of it just gets crammed deep in the sulci and you forget about it because after the test you move on to a completely different topic.

A lot of the stuff the PhDs think is important, yes you will forget, because it's just not that important. Dig it back up for step I, then let it go again - it's just not worth the fight to know the nasty details of carbohydrate/protein/whatever metabolism. If you go into genetics, you'll study it again, and then you'll remember it because it pertains to what you're doing.

 

[njbmd]

I don't feel like I am getting much out of school. I study a lot for the exams, take the exam, and then forget all the stuff within a week or two.

I just feel like I am going to finish 2 years of studying and not know anything for the USMLE or the wards. Anyone else in the same boat?

If you are not using every small detail of your first and second year coursework, you will tend to not recall some of those details. The good thing is that if you have learned them in the first place, a good review session and they are back into the forefront of your mind.

You don't have to be able to recall every single little detail from first and second year at any given moment during third year. Every time you see a patient or are asked a question by an attending or are given an explanation for some pathology that you are observing, your mind will link the new knowledge with the old.

Relax and keep learning as much as you can. When board review time comes along, you will be fine. Daily study and review will help keep those small details in your memory longer than a quick "cram" but anything that you don't use regularly gets filed in remote memory. It can be recalled with review.

 

[bjolly]

I felt that way too - don't worry, you're learning more than you think you are. Some of the material will come up again and again, in different ways as it fits into various topics you're learning about. And then during the clinical years the information will come up in a whole different context. If you're understanding what you're learning as you go along, and are doing all right on your tests, you're doing fine.

 

[Percival]

OP, I'm in the same boat. My grades are decent. I feel like I understand the material when I'm tested. Then I forget most of it. I have no idea what the muscles of the leg are, for example, and I did pretty well in gross. I just figure that as a physician in the future, I will know the stuff that I use on a regular basis. I will look up the stuff that I forgot when it comes up.

I had an attending tell me that he would fail the heck out of the Step 1 if he took it now. He's a respected doctor, but he just doesn't have to know all this basic science stuff in his job now.

 

[Occams Razor]

Don't get stressed that you won't remember things in the future. Med school is about rapid fire, but also about repetition.

do your best to learn what you can for exams. what you need will stick. trust yourself. to refresh myself of concepts, i've kept all of my notes from classes i've passed, and i review them when i have break time (xmas, spring), or when i can't sleep at night. no stress, just flipping through and glancing at diagrams. i'll have the associations i need through that.

keep on keepin' on my friend.

 

[lilnoelle]

I'm the same way. I'm currently just starting to study for Step I and I find the thought of taking an NBME test right now to test my weak areas is laughable. All areas are weak. Whats the piont of taking a test when I won't know any of the answers?

I'm hoping that it all comes back like people say it does.

 

[Its_MurDAH]

Don't get stressed that you won't remember things in the future. Med school is about rapid fire, but also about repetition.

do your best to learn what you can for exams. what you need will stick. trust yourself. to refresh myself of concepts, i've kept all of my notes from classes i've passed, and i review them when i have break time (xmas, spring), or when i can't sleep at night. no stress, just flipping through and glancing at diagrams. i'll have the associations i need through that.

keep on keepin' on my friend.

in the classes that you didn't pass did you just throw the notes out and say f*ck it?

good for you man

 

[Occams Razor]

Didn't throw 'em in the bonfire like my classmates 😉

 

[DoctaJay]

I felt the same way, but I was recently inspired by a study partner who seems to retain alot. I noticed that in his room he has (tacked on his wall) loads of papers with tidbits of information that he doesn't want to forget. When ever he is glancing up, he is reviewing past stuff he has studied. I haven't gotten to that point, but I do find myself looking at material in review books more to remember what I have forgotten. But yeah, if it went in to your brain at some time, its still stuck in there somewhere.

 

[GuzzyRon]

I don't feel like I am getting much out of school. I study a lot for the exams, take the exam, and then forget all the stuff within a week or two.

I just feel like I am going to finish 2 years of studying and not know anything for the USMLE or the wards. Anyone else in the same boat?

My thoughts exactly.

 

[kingcer0x]

medicine is a giant process of learning and forgetting. i bet the average physician forgets more information than the average person learns in his lifetime.