Just how do you know if your study-method is "working?"

[Osteosaur]

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M1 here. I'm making this thread with the caveat that surely there's room for improvement, and medical school is surely constantly figuring out how to better learn new material. Nonetheless, going into medical school I decided to put a few things off until I "felt settled" with my classwork.

Honestly I'm not sure if that's happened. I'm studying about 8-10 hours a day and for the most part earning low- to mid-80s, though was rather alarmed by a recent 75 on an exam. I don't know if that means I still need to be tweaking my study style, or just... keep doing what I'm doing and try to live life a little. I've been pretty cloistered for the last few weeks as it is.

Its hard because I don't really know how I'm doing. Is it enough to just be getting passes and high passes? Do I need to shoot for more or is there a diminished return on the work I'd be putting in?

 

[libertyyne]

no one knows what they are doing , keep tweaking your studying until you are happy with the work reward ratio.

 

[676188]

no one knows what they are doing , keep tweaking your studying until you are happy with the work reward ratio.

This might be the best piece of advice I’ve ever read on SDN.

 

[Jesus1]

If you're getting good results with a reasonable amount of time spent (not studying all day everyday), then you should be good to go.

 

[Osteosaur]

What would you guys say is a "good result?" That's what also kind of has me baffled.

 

[Goro]

What would you guys say is a "good result?" That's what also kind of has me baffled.

Exam results that make you happy, or at least satisfied with the results.

What I like to see is scoring at median or better.

I don't want to see a score in the bottom 10%

 

[Coltuna]

... and don't call me Shirley

 

[deleted645092]

100% what was said above about work/ reward ratio. If you're studying 8-10 hours a day and scoring in the mid-80s, you aren't doing bad. You can continue to tweak your methods to become more efficient vs. scaling back a little bit to see if you're still scoring the same; Why do 8 hours for your mid-80s when you might be able to pull it off with 7 or even 6? When you need to completely revamp your study method is when you're doing 8-10 hours a day and barely passing.

But in the end what really determines if you were studying correctly is when you see a question or related concept months down the road after you hadn't thought of something for awhile, and you're able to integrate that material.

 

[831929]

If you are really studying 8-10 hours straight a day (which I really doubt you are or anyone does) then those results are not so hot. Realistically, you are probably studying a solid effective 5-6 hours a day and getting 80s. That's a pretty good result. Also, if you really are sitting and studying 10 hours, maybe that's the problem. Maybe you need to cut down and take more time to relax. Might be "burning" yourself out.

 

[mistafab]

Once you hit the score range you are happy with consistently, then you know what you are doing is working.

For me, 88-92 was the range I was happy with. Good learning/work/reward balance for that range. It says I didn’t have any deficits in my overall knowledge, but I might not understand all the esoterics that take lots of extra work to master. Not having deficits in your knowledge base will get you a great step score. Not having deficits + knowing all the esoterics will get you a legendary step score.

 

[DiscusKeeper]

no one knows what they are doing , keep tweaking your studying until you are happy with the work reward ratio.

I want to emphasize this, especially since you will probably have to learn differently in each class. For example, I studied almost exclusively with Anki during anatomy. I made all of my own decks and spent hours and hours going over all of the cards. It worked really well and I consistently scored about the same on all of the exams, on avereage.

However, I didn't find anki to be as helpful after finishing anatomy and dropped it completely. I was putting in significantly fewer hours studying as a result during the last 2 months of M1 after anatomy but found myself only going from scoring around 85-90's to the 80-85 range. The point is that cutting out what had previously been a huge part of my routine only cost me a few points on each exam.

This story is meant to highlight that the most important thing isn't the number of hours you're putting into studying but the work/reward ratio, as is pointed out in the quoted post. As an M2, I have since completely changed around my studying habits to prepare for Step 1, but I still approach it with the same philosophy. I also have chosen to not use anki at all this year based on my personal experiences with it in M1 and instead do insane amounts of question bank questions, since that seems to work better for me than anki cards.

So if something isn't working or is only providing you minimal benefit, don't be afraid to stop doing it and try something else. And rest assured that everyone else is just as clueless as you are as they try to figure out what does and doesn't work lol. You will have to continue to do this as you progress through each year of medical school.

Ps: This is not a post meant to say anki doesn't work well. I know tons of people who have had amazing results with Anki. I just personally wasn't gaining enough of a benefit from the hours I was putting in based on how I learn.

Another example, which seems laughable to me now in hindsight, was when I first started M1, I tried making one-page consolidated note sheets for each lecture. Again, I found that this was not significantly helping me understand or retain the material but was eating up hours of my study time each week, so I stopped doing that very early on.

 

[kb1900]

Another thing to keep in mind is the diminishing returns of studying. Especially as you get higher grades.


It would not even be an exaggeration to say that going from a 90 to a 95 could mean an extra 15 hours of work per week (enough for at least 1 more pass thru all the material)

 

[kopftonmd]

Just an M1, but a few insights I think I've gleaned so far:

1 - If your school has a learning specialist, use them. Even if you're doing great, they can give you tips to help you do super-great. Or if you're doing not-so-hot, go to them and they should be able to help you direct and streamline your studying.

2 - Decide what grades you want. If your school is P/F (or even potentially H/P/F, depending on what you want to go into), decide how far above that P you want to be; if you score past that point, you can pull back on the studying to get some more of your life back. For example, I shoot for a 75. I've been consistently doing in the mid-upper 80s, so I know that I don't need to drill the material as much (especially because that puts me above the mean).

3 - Make time for a life! I know people who are going nuts/crazy/bonkers/drinking-monsters-staying-up-all-night because they're not happy being the first in the class. Odds are, you're not going to be first in the class. So decide what you're going to make time for outside of medical school and do that. An M2 told us that no one fails out of medical school. So put your head down and grind, but make sure you come up to breathe or you will burn out and then you'll definitely do poorly.

 

[Weirdy]

Went to all classes 1st semester and stayed on campus for hours on end. Grades weren't that great despite time put into it.

2nd semester skipped class, slept in more, but watched lecture recordings at 1.5 to 1.75x speed.

Grades went up.

Quality, not quantity.

 

[MD-2022]

The secret is that we all don't know what we are doing. That's what residency is for.