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melba

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have a q for all you upperclassmen. I have done very well in my courses thus far and did exceptionally well on the MCAT. I've noticed though that while my short-term memory is excellent, my long-term memory is really not too good.

So...how did people like me perform in medical school? More importantly, if you were able to change your study habits so that you were able to retain large blocks of info for longer periods of time, how did you accomplish it? Thanks in advance for any advice. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

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I don't have any "first hand experience" information for you but I would recommend the book "Your Memory, how it works and how to improve it" but Kenneth Higbee, Ph.D. It explains all about short and long term memory and how to use them.
 
Actually your MCAT (which you did exceptionally well on) is the best predictor of your medical school performance. Don't worry too much about your long term memory, everyone has to see things several times before they finally "get it" and things stick with them. That's what medical school is all about, showing you the same thing over and over until you get it. At least that's what the first two years and the boards have been all about anyways.
 
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•••quote:•••Originally posted by ckent:
•Actually your MCAT (which you did exceptionally well on) is the best predictor of your medical school performance.•••••I disagree. While there have been limited studies that correlate MCAT and med school performance, if you actually read them you will be terribly unimpressed with the results. In my class, there are several (more than 10) cases of people who scored poorly on the MCAT that have done very well in med school thus far. Med school is all about working hard. Dumb people can graduate near the top of their class if they work hard enough and brilliant people can fail out if they don't work hard. Long-term memory is better but your short-term memory will get you through med school just fine.
 
it's like this people eventually forget what they don't constantly use, throughout medical school there is a lot to learn no one expects you to remember everything. you only have to remeber the important stuff, don't worry you'll know what's important when you get there.
i wish you good luck man. don't worry too much, no one remembers everything and no one expects you to remember everything.
 
•••quote:••• Dumb people can graduate near the top of their class if they work hard enough ••••-posted by Fah-Q

I have heard this theory several times and just don't understand the logic. How can you graduate at the top of your class and be dumb. Sure a person who is slower might have to work harder, but if they've masterd the work....and they've done it nominally more than their peers,how can they be dumb? And if they are slower, but workharder, I would rather them succed, than the more gifted student, who sloths through each goal.

-just my 3 cents.
 
•••quote:•••Originally posted by G3:
• •••quote:••• Dumb people can graduate near the top of their class if they work hard enough ••••-posted by Fah-Q

I have heard this theory several times and just don't understand the logic. How can you graduate at the top of your class and be dumb. Sure a person who is slower might have to work harder, but if they've masterd the work....and they've done it nominally more than their peers,how can they be dumb? And if they are slower, but workharder, I would rather them succed, than the more gifted student, who sloths through each goal.

-just my 3 cents.•••••It might be shocking for the average pre-med to hear but here goes: The vast majority of med school applicants would graduate from med school if they were accepted. Is med school hard? Sure it is. Is it nearly as difficult as its made out to be? Absolutely not.

G3...the problem I have with your post is the word "nominally." The difference between a hard worker and a slacker in med school is hardly nominal, IMHO. Despite all the hype and warnings, you can cram in med school and pass. Pass=MD is the first bit of knowledge they will teach you in med school. A student who works hard can kick the sh__ out of his less-than-motivated peers because of the above equation. I will say it again...passing in med school is not that difficult if you work hard. Students do fail out, but you must ask the question...why did they fail out? I would venture to say that 99% of those who fail out of med school do so because of a lack of effort, not because they lack the ability to memorize a course syllabus.

The key to the first 2 years of med school is this...know the important points the day of the test. You don't have to know them after the test or the day before the test, just during the test. In other words, CRAM!!! The key to the last 2 years of med school is this...stay as late as possible, act interested, and kiss a little bit of ass. If a monkey could follow these simple rules then I guarantee you that monkey would be AOA.

Pre-meds, med students, and docs would like to think that they are somehow intellectually superior to others just because they got are involved in medicine. The truth is that the average student/doctor is an overachiever. Hard work is a much more valuable commodity than intelligence. Imagine if you were a resdent/attending evaluating a student...would you rather give the A to a the guy who answered all of your trivia/pimp questions correctly but didn't help make your life easier, or would you give the A to the kid who was clueless but did all your scutwork for a month so you could go home earlier? That's what I thought.

I'm telling you...hard work=top student

I'm way too drunk to go on.
 
One of my professors threw out this statistic the other day: on average, one only retains 3% of the knowledge learned in a given class. I don't know how valid that is, she didn't cite any studies or anything, but it does make a good bit of sense. I have felt the same way you do about long term memory at a number of times, but I think it's just natural to forget a good bit of your studies after time.
 
Fah-Q,

I think we're pretty much saying the same thing only w/ varied semenatics. Intelligence has yet to be a characterstic that can easily be quantified, or in instances identified. I agree that the key to getting ahead is overachieving. 3% same about right to me as far as retention. But after repeated exposure of material, the % should increase (ie. anatomy undergrad, grad, path, etc.)
 
so i guess while studying for the boards, things were a lot easier than when learning everything for the first time?
 
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