Medical School coursework

[erythrocyte666]

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I've read some posts that all seem to indicate that med school coursework is extremely high volume, but inherently not very difficult to understand.
In undergrad, I've realized my best way to learn something well is to go through the material and ask questions on ANYTHING that doesn't sit well with my previous knowledge/experience; I would write down questions as I learn and then keep asking the professor in office hours/e-mail until I'm satisfied. I've come to enjoy this a bit.
So is this method of continuous questioning viable for med school coursework considering it's a slightly more time-consuming than just reading?
Secondly, is concept mapping useful for med school coursework? I've found it pretty useful for biology-based classes, my research, and recapping my notes from previous ugrad classes.

 

[allantois]

Sounds like someone goes to a small liberal arts college

 

[erythrocyte666]

Sounds like someone goes to a small liberal arts college

Uhhh...nope, and what does that have to do with my post?

 

[Ismet]

I've read some posts that all seem to indicate that med school coursework is extremely high volume, but inherently not very difficult to understand.
In undergrad, I've realized my best way to learn something well is to go through the material and ask questions on ANYTHING that doesn't sit well with my previous knowledge/experience; I would write down questions as I learn and then keep asking the professor in office hours/e-mail until I'm satisfied. I've come to enjoy this a bit.
So is this method of continuous questioning viable for med school coursework considering it's a slightly more time-consuming than just reading?
Secondly, is concept mapping useful for med school coursework? I've found it pretty useful for biology-based classes, my research, and recapping my notes from previous ugrad classes.

You need to learn how to find the answer for yourself. You can't keep asking the professor every question that pops into your head, mainly because most of these questions can be answered by doing a little digging yourself. If there's something you don't fundamentally understand and can't find a good explanation somewhere, then that's when you ask the professor. My neuroanatomy professor in undergrad had a great policy - "ask 3, then me." So that she didn't get inundated with dozens of questions every day, we had to ask 3 people ("people" also includes reliable internet sources) before asking her a question about course material.

If concept mapping works for you, then do it. Different methods work for different people. What worked for me might not work for you. You'll figure it out once you're in med school.

 

[anbuitachi]

I've read some posts that all seem to indicate that med school coursework is extremely high volume, but inherently not very difficult to understand.
In undergrad, I've realized my best way to learn something well is to go through the material and ask questions on ANYTHING that doesn't sit well with my previous knowledge/experience; I would write down questions as I learn and then keep asking the professor in office hours/e-mail until I'm satisfied. I've come to enjoy this a bit.
So is this method of continuous questioning viable for med school coursework considering it's a slightly more time-consuming than just reading?
Secondly, is concept mapping useful for med school coursework? I've found it pretty useful for biology-based classes, my research, and recapping my notes from previous ugrad classes.

You need to balance this. I'm just like you in that I like to understand stuff and ask questions. However, realize in medicine that a lot of things are unknown, and your textbook often wont say that, so you'll end up researching/googling only to find out its unknown. Also many treatments are given, not because there's some miracle reason, but because they did a study and showed it had significant effect. I can't tell you how many times I asked something like "why do they use this.. sounds so unrelated" and I would spend time researching the answer, only to find out that some dood randomly found it in some cohort study or some thing.

Basically dont go crazy.. just accept most things

 

[erythrocyte666]

You need to learn how to find the answer for yourself. You can't keep asking the professor every question that pops into your head, mainly because most of these questions can be answered by doing a little digging yourself. If there's something you don't fundamentally understand and can't find a good explanation somewhere, then that's when you ask the professor. My neuroanatomy professor in undergrad had a great policy - "ask 3, then me." So that she didn't get inundated with dozens of questions every day, we had to ask 3 people ("people" also includes reliable internet sources) before asking her a question about course material.

If concept mapping works for you, then do it. Different methods work for different people. What worked for me might not work for you. You'll figure it out once you're in med school.

Well, I'd write down anything that pops up into my mind and ask what I can't find on Wikipedia. But is a constant questioning approach possible in the high-volume workload in med school, considering the fact that it's a bit more time-consuming than simply reading/memorizing the material?
The point of my post is that questioning and concept-mapping help me make use of information I learn rather than passively absorbing it. Is there time for this in med school (where apparently there are weekly/biweekly exams encompassing 1500 slides of material)?
Also, I see that you're currently in med school; what active study strategies do you use to try to put in long-term memory?
Thanks for your input!

 

[Ismet]

Well, I'd write down anything that pops up into my mind and ask what I can't find on Wikipedia. But is a constant questioning approach possible in the high-volume workload in med school, considering the fact that it's a bit more time-consuming than simply reading/memorizing the material?
The point of my post is that questioning and concept-mapping help me make use of information I learn rather than passively absorbing it. Is there time for this in med school (where apparently there are weekly/biweekly exams encompassing 1500 slides of material)?
Also, I see that you're currently in med school; what active study strategies do you use to try to put in long-term memory?
Thanks for your input!

It really depends on what you're studying. I'm a visual and kinesthetic learner, so drawing flow charts/diagrams for certain things, especially physio and path, really helped me. Also organizing things into charts. Micro is a monster at my school, crammed into 4 or 5 weeks, and I made a huge spreadsheet to contain and organize the information into a way that was easier to digest than our 600 page syllabus. Some classmates liked using white boards when studying. Some classmates made flash cards or used Anki. I hate flash cards so that really never worked for me.

You may find that your study method works in med school. I don't think there's anything inherent in your study method that would make it impossible to apply to med school. Just be flexible and open to changing it up during your first few months. It's something you really can't anticipate..

 

[67552931811]

It really depends on what you're studying. I'm a visual and kinesthetic learner, so drawing flow charts/diagrams for certain things, especially physio and path, really helped me. Also organizing things into charts. Micro is a monster at my school, crammed into 4 or 5 weeks, and I made a huge spreadsheet to contain and organize the information into a way that was easier to digest than our 600 page syllabus. Some classmates liked using white boards when studying. Some classmates made flash cards or used Anki. I hate flash cards so that really never worked for me.

You may find that your study method works in med school. I don't think there's anything inherent in your study method that would make it impossible to apply to med school. Just be flexible and open to changing it up during your first few months. It's something you really can't anticipate..

Random spot for this question but I'm a visual/ kinesthetic learner as well and am curious as to how you related boards studying to this learning style? Did you just beat the crap out of Uworld and FA (pardon my ignorance if this question is terrible..)?

 

[Pacna]

Random spot for this question but I'm a visual/ kinesthetic learner as well and am curious as to how you related boards studying to this learning style? Did you just beat the crap out of Uworld and FA (pardon my ignorance if this question is terrible..)?

I don't know if I'm a kinesthetic learner, but my previous method for studying was too time-intensive (read: inefficient) for med school. In undergrad, I was writing every word of material I was responsible for down in a notebook (including flowcharts, images, etc). There is nooooo waaaaaaay I would have time to do that in M1-2. I recognized this before I started, and I spent the summer before matriculation studying how to learn best.

After digging around, I decided to go with SRS (space repetition software) in combination with initial conceptual learning (insert your own method of conceptualizing any given info here). There are a bunch of programs for SRS. I use Anki, but I hear Supermemo and Firecracker work with the same idea. I'm sure there are more.

Our memories are hyperbolic, which is to say that you'll remember 100% of what you read for a few seconds, then the rate of loss increases over time unless reinforced. This is where repetition comes in, but it's difficult to keep track of what you've forgotten. SRS does this for you. SRS isn't sufficient to learn material in the first place (I tried that with Biochem, oh god *facepalm*), but it will efficiently keep stuff in your head long enough to crush exams/step1/noobs/etc.


@OP- Agree with above posters, but then again, profs (usually) LOVE when you ask them Qs right after lecture. It shows someone was paying attention. If you inundate their inbox with questions daily, they will likely stop responding.

 

[lmn]

It's good to ask questions if you need, but with the speed and volume that material is coming at you in med school, if you keep emailing questions to your professors and waiting for their responses, you can quite easily fall behind very, very quickly. And with test blocks only a couple of weeks apart, but each with a ton of information, a strategy like that can really backfire.

You'll have to learn to figure things out yourself, find explanations online or on youtube/etc, and to utilize your classmates around you that understand it.

 

[NickNaylor]

As others have said, medical school is substantially more "self-directed" than undergrad (read as: you will teach yourself a LOT of the material) - if not during the pre-clinical years then definitely during the clinical years and for the rest of your career. The responsibility to learn and ensure that you're competent in what you're doing shifts to you. To get to your question, I'd agree with what others said. Not only is it really not feasible if you're feeling the need to look up questions all the time, but it'd be good to get into the habit of relying on yourself to figure out the answers to your questions.

 

[Ismet]

Random spot for this question but I'm a visual/ kinesthetic learner as well and am curious as to how you related boards studying to this learning style? Did you just beat the crap out of Uworld and FA (pardon my ignorance if this question is terrible..)?

Lol I felt like I had no clue what I was doing when studying for Step 1. FA has a lot of good diagrams and information organized into tables already, so that was easier to absorb. Pathoma's videos, mainly his drawings, were indispensable for MS2 and Step. I would watch the videos and redraw everything he drew in the book. Anything I encountered in UWorld that I didn't know or wasn't sure about I would annotate into FA to reinforce, and sometimes the UWorld explanations had good diagrams or flowcharts.

 

[67552931811]

I don't know if I'm a kinesthetic learner, but my previous method for studying was too time-intensive (read: inefficient) for med school. In undergrad, I was writing every word of material I was responsible for down in a notebook (including flowcharts, images, etc). There is nooooo waaaaaaay I would have time to do that in M1-2. I recognized this before I started, and I spent the summer before matriculation studying how to learn best.

After digging around, I decided to go with SRS (space repetition software) in combination with initial conceptual learning (insert your own method of conceptualizing any given info here). There are a bunch of programs for SRS. I use Anki, but I hear Supermemo and Firecracker work with the same idea. I'm sure there are more.

Our memories are hyperbolic, which is to say that you'll remember 100% of what you read for a few seconds, then the rate of loss increases over time unless reinforced. This is where repetition comes in, but it's difficult to keep track of what you've forgotten. SRS does this for you. SRS isn't sufficient to learn material in the first place (I tried that with Biochem, oh god *facepalm*), but it will efficiently keep stuff in your head long enough to crush exams/step1/noobs/etc.


@OP- Agree with above posters, but then again, profs (usually) LOVE when you ask them Qs right after lecture. It shows someone was paying attention. If you inundate their inbox with questions daily, they will likely stop responding.

Thanks for the input, good sir/ ma'am: truly appreciate it.

Lol I felt like I had no clue what I was doing when studying for Step 1. FA has a lot of good diagrams and information organized into tables already, so that was easier to absorb. Pathoma's videos, mainly his drawings, were indispensable for MS2 and Step. I would watch the videos and redraw everything he drew in the book. Anything I encountered in UWorld that I didn't know or wasn't sure about I would annotate into FA to reinforce, and sometimes the UWorld explanations had good diagrams or flowcharts.

Awesome, thank you! Very informative, 'preciate it.

Preemptively, I am planning on doing as many questions as humanly possible (when the appropriate time comes about via question banks + Uworld {Uworld is just a bunch of questions right? Please correct me if this is wrong.}). I figured this makes the most sense since I am a kinesthetic learner. I am also planning on doing as many practice exams as possible.

 

[Ismet]

Thanks for the input, good sir/ ma'am: truly appreciate it.


Awesome, thank you! Very informative, 'preciate it.

Preemptively, I am planning on doing as many questions as humanly possible (when the appropriate time comes about via question banks + Uworld {Uworld is just a bunch of questions right? Please correct me if this is wrong.}). I figured this makes the most sense since I am a kinesthetic learner. I am also planning on doing as many practice exams as possible.

Yes, UWorld is a question bank, about 2200 questions if I remember correctly. There's also USMLERx, which is made by the people who make FA, and the answer explanations point you back to the page in FA where you can read about the topic.

It's generally recommended to do all of UWorld at least once, and a lot of people do two qbanks (i.e. Rx and/or Kaplan in addition to UWorld).

 

[67552931811]

Yes, UWorld is a question bank, about 2200 questions if I remember correctly. There's also USMLERx, which is made by the people who make FA, and the answer explanations point you back to the page in FA where you can read about the topic.

It's generally recommended to do all of UWorld at least once, and a lot of people do two qbanks (i.e. Rx and/or Kaplan in addition to UWorld).

Awesome, gracias gracias! Any consensus on Rx vs. Kaplan?

 

[Law2Doc]

Everybody tries a couple of study methods in med school before they find one that works for them. And one method won't work well for everyone. Just know that what worked in undergrad might not in med school and be ready to scrap all or parts of it. Part of the goal in first year is to find an approach that will work in second year when the pace picks up even more and the materiel is even higher yield.