Material retention during med school

[dweji16]

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Had a question for current med students out there.

I always have had difficulty with material retention in school. Pretty much as soon as the necessary exam is over my brain wipes all the material clean. Will this cause me a lot of trouble during med school? Also, bc I was not a science major during college and have been out of school a while, I feel that the retention will have worsened by now...

How in the world do you retain all the material that is covered in M1 and M2 for Step??? Just the thought of it makes me nauseous..

 

[hypadude]

I'm the exact same way and I'm just starting my 2nd year at Tulane SOM.

In med school, you will constantly be cramming and re-cramming. It is my understanding that before Step 1, you will recram again for 6 weeks straight before the test, rarely seeing sunlight, an amount of studying that isn't really necessary in undergrad . The second time I see material, it is slightly easier to memorize than the first time. Also, when you interact with patients and standardized patients (actors), you are remotivated and your recall ability surprises you. Also remember that med school exams are exclusively multiple choice, with board exams having multiple pieces of evidence within the question to help you answer it, so that while it is a lot of material, you never have to write down anything verbatim or write essays, so the studying you do is aimed at being able to recall information and use it to solve problems. Also remember, that as a medical student who genuinely wants to be a doctor, all of the information is interesting, which helps.

I'm not saying it's easy for people like you and me, it's just not as difficult as you are imagining. There are definitely some memorization-heavy topics (infectious disease, pharmacology) that are very challenging, though.

 

[dweji16]

I'm the exact same way and I'm just starting my 2nd year at Tulane SOM.

In med school, you will constantly be cramming and re-cramming. It is my understanding that before Step 1, you will recram again for 6 weeks straight before the test, rarely seeing sunlight, an amount of studying that isn't really necessary in undergrad . The second time I see material, it is slightly easier to memorize than the first time. Also, when you interact with patients and standardized patients (actors), you are remotivated and your recall ability surprises you. Also remember that med school exams are exclusively multiple choice, with board exams having multiple pieces of evidence within the question to help you answer it, so that while it is a lot of material, you never have to write down anything verbatim or write essays, so the studying you do is aimed at being able to recall information and use it to solve problems. Also remember, that as a medical student who genuinely wants to be a doctor, all of the information is interesting, which helps.

I'm not saying it's easy for people like you and me, it's just not as difficult as you are imagining. There are definitely some memorization-heavy topics (infectious disease, pharmacology) that are very challenging, though.

Okay... So it's not like once you see the material once, you never see it agin till studying for step, but are constantly reintroduced throughout the two years. Thanks for your response! Feeling slightly better!!

 

[weezynation]

Okay... So it's not like once you see the material once, you never see it agin till studying for step, but are constantly reintroduced throughout the two years. Thanks for your response! Feeling slightly better!!

True for the most part, but it really depends on the school. If you happen to go to a school that reduced the 2 year curriculum to 1 1/2 years or even 1 year (Duke), you will have much less repetition.

 

[dweji16]

True for the most part, but it really depends on the school. If you happen to go to a school that reduced the 2 year curriculum to 1 1/2 years or even 1 year (Duke), you will have much less repetition.

Whoa.. reduce a two year curriculum to one year??? 😱😱😱 That sounds... horrible. I cant even imagine how students do it.

Can some current students chime in on what their hardest classes were material wise (ie. classes with very complicated concepts that were difficult to comprehend)

 

[Cinclus]

I'd say it's pretty normal to forget a lot of details. For as much as I learned during 1st year, I know I also forgot a ton. And as someone already said, you will cram it all into your head again when you need it, and the second, 3rd, 4th, etc. cram should be easier, since you learned it before and it's in there somewhere. Just have to reestablish those connections.