memorize medical school

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speeddemon

speeddemon

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What exactly are you supposed to memorize in medical school?

We seem to get 60+ slides on a daily basis, and I have no idea what exactly we are supposed to memorize for the 4 or so questions on the test for the lecture.

I spend a lot of my time studying to barely pass, which is discouraging. After the test, I forget almost everything, and I'm scared I won't pass the year end NBME, which is coming up in 2 months. By forget everything, I mean I don't even know what the radian nerve does anymore even though that was just 2 tests ago. If you fail the NBME, you basically have to redo the year or get kicked out, which are both terrible options.
 
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You have to learn what's important and what's nit picky details. Best way is to get tutored by a 2nd year and ask what you should know. It's also best to keep memorization to a minimum and rely on understanding the whole system and goals of the system in order to reproduce it on an exam. But there are many times where it's just easier to brute force memorize.
 
Some stuff like biochem and anatomy are just memorization. Just realize that you won't have to know everything you are learning. Physio/path you can reason your way through.

I am very similar to you (struggle to learn everything then forget it). It sucks when other people are so much faster at memorizing but that is life.. I learn concepts and physio way better. Anyway, firecracker may be helpful if you can find the time to use it..
 
Yeah, if your school offers tutors, you should use them. If they have one skill, it's an ability to predict what'll show up on the tests.
 
Tsk Tsk. We all saw that. We all let it go.
 
Normally, I'm all for it, but not when someone is obviously down.
 
Personally I thought it was kind of cute...and illustrative of what OP was trying to say.

To the OP: On a serious note, once you've learned it once...take a day - any day of your choosing and just run through your nerves and arteries again. It won't take more than an hour. Those first two minutes it will seem like you've totally forgotten everything but it all oozes right back in and you'll make the connections way faster than when you learned it the first time. All you have to know is the path visually - look at it, ( close your eyes and draw it with your finger down your arm a few times), where it can be injured, what those injuries are called and what they result in...and which muscles are affected. If you do it quickly it won't take you more than 20 minutes per terminal nerve. Brachial Plexus is by far the coolest of things in anatomy.
 
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I'll agree it was kindly done.
 
Doctor Bob said:
The radian nerve?
Click to expand...

Yeah the radian nerve duh

7736-952_10766_0199210896.radian.1[1].jpg
 
Wow. I don't think I learned anything from that test block.

I'm pretty sure I'm not cut out for med school. Will probably end up quitting/getting booted in 2 months
 
speeddemon said:
Will probably end up quitting/getting booted in 2 months
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Not if they can get more money from you for the next disbursement cycle.

it has been said on here many times: first year sucks. Before I started medical school, all I ever heard from people was how bad the third year is, that it is the worst year of medical school, that physicians, Residents, Nurses and pretty much everyone treat third year students with disdain and it will drive you to near suicide. Then I went through first year and I returned home dismayed at my MD friends for not disclosing to me how pathetic first year was. Some practically looked behind them before telling me how they hated their first year, they were surprised they were not dismissed, and that they walked around their first year believing like you do. You are not alone.

It's only October and no MD school would dismiss you at this point. If you need help get it. Resources are in place at MD schools to support the students. No one wants to dismiss you. . They have a vested interest in you graduating.

I do not know what your experience in medicine is. There are some really great doctors out there and there are some really ****ty ones, some who should be dismissed but are not. If the latter can make it, anyone can.

First year is about finding your momentum....keep at it

Chin up!
 
Second years at your school would be much better to ask about this than SDN. They can help guide you. If your school has any kind of tutoring done by the second years, definitely hit those up. Or even just any tutoring services offered by your school would probably help you direct your focus.

I also would forget everything soon after the exam was over. In second year now as we revisit organ systems, I find myself surprised at how much I actually retained.
 
roadlesstravel said:
Not if they can get more money from you for the next disbursement cycle.

it has been said on here many times: first year sucks. Before I started medical school, all I ever heard from people was how bad the third year is, that it is the worst year of medical school, that physicians, Residents, Nurses and pretty much everyone treat third year students with disdain and it will drive you to near suicide. Then I went through first year and I returned home dismayed at my MD friends for not disclosing to me how pathetic first year was. Some practically looked behind them before telling me how they hated their first year, they were surprised they were not dismissed, and that they walked around their first year believing like you do. You are not alone.

It's only October and no MD school would dismiss you at this point. If you need help get it. Resources are in place at MD schools to support the students. No one wants to dismiss you. . They have a vested interest in you graduating.

I do not know what your experience in medicine is. There are some really great doctors out there and there are some really ****ty ones, some who should be dismissed but are not. If the latter can make it, anyone can.

First year is about finding your momentum....keep at it

Chin up!
Click to expand...

I don't know who you were talking to. It seems to be the majority opinion that m4 > m3 > m2 > m1.
 
First year is a complete waste of time. Don't take it too seriously. Learn as much as you can, but there is no way you'll learn all of it, and you will only very infrequently see most of it after you take an exam over it.

Sent from my SGH-M919
 
VisionaryTics said:
I don't know who you were talking to. It seems to be the majority opinion that m4 > m3 > m2 > m1.
Click to expand...

It's so hard to compare first two years with last two years.

I guess I preferred MS3 to 1 and 2 because it required less studying but probably a little less free time overall.

MS2 was better than MS1 (minus step 2 studying which sucks ass).

MS4 is the greatest.
 
David Hasselhof said:
It's so hard to compare first two years with last two years.

I guess I preferred MS3 to 1 and 2 because it required less studying but probably a little less free time overall.

MS2 was better than MS1 (minus step 2 studying which sucks ass).

MS4 is the greatest.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I have been told by MD students in the past year.

I ran into an MS3 last week and he told me life after Step 1 is grand, other than studying for Shelf Exams, he really enjoys his rotations. I knew him last year and he seems much lighter in mood. The MS4 students are annoying but in a fun way - they are skating to their next weight station in life and it's hard not to be jealous. MS2 is definitely alot more information but, as stated in the past by others, by the second year you have adopted study skills and you are more in control of your emotions and expectations. You know what to expect and are stronger, more prepared

There is nothing I can tell to pre-meds in describing what to expect their MS1 year other than BOHICA - bend over here it comes again....Military jargon
 
VisionaryTics said:
It seems to be the majority opinion that m4 > m3 > m2 > m1.
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Agreed.

M1 year is all about learning the language; learning the basic underpinnings which allow you to understand the "conversation" that goes on during the rest of medical education.

Analogy: I use gerunds and pluperfect infinitives all the time when I talk, but ask me to define them and I'd stumble. Same with medicine; I learned all of the biochemical pathways and anatomic minutae so that clinical concepts in M2 and beyond would make sense. I don't remember all of those little details but they make up the framework that makes clinical pathology understandable.

People (for the most part) don't like M1 year because it's drinking information from a firehose and most of it isn't tangibly relevant.
M2 year is a little better because the material has real-world applications, but it's stil a lot of sitting around reading books
M3 year is like getting thrown into the deep end of the pool. There's a lot of flailing around and it's hard to see how you're getting anywhere.
By M4 year you've got your feet under you, you're hanging out on the side of the pool with the other people who are interested in the same stuff you are, and the finish line is in sight.

Brain Bucket said:
Normally, I'm all for it, but not when someone is obviously down ... I'll agree it was kindly done.
Click to expand...

I wrote my first response to the OP, then went back, read it to myself and thought "oh I sound like a dick". So I edited it. Glad it came across nicer. My intent was not to rub the OPs nose in the mistake; we've all done stuff like that during M1 year.
 
sinombre said:
:scared:

How much more information?
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M2 is definitely much more info.
I'd say every day is like anatomy day (minus the dissections).
Each day goes like this: paddle paddle paddle to keep head above water.
Continue again the next day.
Except eventually you start sinking deeper and deeper in the water and can only come up periodically to take a breath.
 
Oh and forgot to mention.
For me personally, I just get exposed to the material over and over and eventually, the important things sink in. But that's just how I learn. And again, everything is important. Med school is just a place where you really do need a good brain.
 
Why is it that everyone claims that M2 is so much tougher than M1?
As I understand in M2 you usually take Pathology, Pathophysiology, Microbiology and Pharmacology, right?
Meanwhile in M1 -> Anatomy (with histology and embryology), Physiology, Neuroscience, Biochemistry (with molecular biology), possibly Immunology?
It isn't that much of a difference. Anatomy is huuuuge; likely worse than any M2 subject (maybe depending on school?). Neuroscience is terribly detailed...

I'm actually curious: what makes M2 so tough? (I'm taking pretty much the same subjects this year and I find it quite similar to M1 subjects in terms of volume. They might even be easier -> solid Physiology background helps enormously when it comes to Pathophysiology)
Do you guys take anything else? Or is the year shorter due to Step 1?
 
The trick is learning how to memorize the right things and do it efficiently. If it's anatomy, find the bigger patterns like all the posterior UE muscles are innervated by the radial nerve rather than memorizing them all individually. Lather rinse repeat for every other compartment. For physio/biochem, just learn that glucagon always acts through kinases to exert its effect and insulin eventually through phosphatases. Using that plus the basic knowledge that glucagon makes glucose go up and insulin the opposite, you can determine whether or not any given enzyme is phosphorylated in any given situation rather than memorizing all the damn regulatory pathways for glycogenolysis, glycolysis, etc.

I saw this a lot in M1/M2: memorizing the same thing over and over again. Just learn the pattern when you can and save a lot of time.
 
As for why people say M2 is tougher...

So far M2 has actually been great for me, but I seem to be in the minority. It seems to be a combo of having Step 1 hanging over us and people -some of whom did very well last year- struggling a little to adjust to the slightly more ambiguous or global processing sorts of questions we're getting (eg. '<5 sentence clinical vignette> What is the *likeliest* pathogen in this patient's pneumonia?' rather than 'An increase in which of these substrates will decrease blah phosphorylase activity?').
 
operaman said:
The trick is learning how to memorize the right things and do it efficiently. If it's anatomy, find the bigger patterns like all the posterior UE muscles are innervated by the radial nerve rather than memorizing them all individually. Lather rinse repeat for every other compartment. For physio/biochem, just learn that glucagon always acts through kinases to exert its effect and insulin eventually through phosphatases. Using that plus the basic knowledge that glucagon makes glucose go up and insulin the opposite, you can determine whether or not any given enzyme is phosphorylated in any given situation rather than memorizing all the damn regulatory pathways for glycogenolysis, glycolysis, etc.
Click to expand...

I like this. I like when people offer detailed examples in their posts.
 
Regardless of which years are worst, I think we can all at least agree each one is hell 🙂
 
Anyone have any tips for passing NBME exams? I didn't repeat the material enough for the first block, and I feel like I barely know anything but the very basics.

I'm going to need to spend at least some time everyday reviewing old material and learning some biochem stuff for the first time.

If I fail NBME, then I have to redo the year which would suck.
 
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Which nbme? Biochem?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 4
 
Brain Bucket said:
wtf kind of nbme is this? We've only had subject specific or cbs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not sure if we have to take specific subject tests or if they will pull questions from different tests to make 1 combined NBME just for us. Either way, it's going to be a rough 2 months of studying.
 
Stellar Clouds said:
You'll change your tune when you are a resident and realize that medical school wasn't that terrible and fourth year ****ing rocked.
Click to expand...

so throw us a line here, why don't you.

can we expect 4th year to be more leisure as to down time, gym time, going to the movies and traveling on weekends?
 
speeddemon said:
Yeah, I'm not sure if we have to take specific subject tests or if they will pull questions from different tests to make 1 combined NBME just for us. Either way, it's going to be a rough 2 months of studying.
Click to expand...

You should probably find out.

BRS genetics+Pretest
HY Embro
Lippincott/RR Biochem + Lip Q&A Review+Pretest
BRS Histo + Paulsen
BRS anatomy+Pretest+Lip Q&A.

Worked for me.
 
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