Memorizing all the details in course notes.

[gman33]

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So I'm a few months into M1 and I'm having trouble figuring out how to best prepare for exams. It seems like to do well on tests you basically need to memorize everything in the course notes. I'm more of a big picture learner, which I'm learning doesn't work too well for med school.

My approach has been to read the notes, highlight based on lecture and then make electronic flashcards for the relevant material.

I think the system is okay, but it seems like there is no use highlighting, as the questions can come from anywhere.

Any suggestions on how to learn everything (not that you can really do that).

 

[vtucci]

Fear not Gman. You are not alone.

You basically have a choice here. You can try to memorize all the minutae or continue focusing on the larger picture. The former is needed to honor the MSI and to a lesser extent MSII coures. The latter approach is better for MSIII and clinical rotations and shelf exams.

I had a miserable time as an MSI trying to memorize useless facts without context. It become a bit better in MSII when you are studying things like pathology and micro that are more relevant to actual medical practice than the citric acid cycle.

Try the recall series. That is pretty good for reinforcing memorization.

 

[mikedc813]

I too learn best by understanding the big picture, but some things unfortunately have to be plain memorized. I agree with vtucci that a great place to start are board review books, like BRS. It gives you the main concepts, but also includes key facts for memorization. I used mainly BRS books and my lecture notes during 1st and 2nd year and did pretty well. Good luck.

 

[Doublecortin]

Fear not Gman. You are not alone.

You basically have a choice here. You can try to memorize all the minutae or continue focusing on the larger picture. The former is needed to honor the MSI and to a lesser extent MSII coures. The latter approach is better for MSIII and clinical rotations and shelf exams.

I had a miserable time as an MSI trying to memorize useless facts without context. It become a bit better in MSII when you are studying things like pathology and micro that are more relevant to actual medical practice than the citric acid cycle.

Try the recall series. That is pretty good for reinforcing memorization.

what are the recall series?

 

[ZagDoc]

I had a miserable time as an MSI trying to memorize useless facts without context. It become a bit better in MSII when you are studying things like pathology and micro that are more relevant to actual medical practice than the citric acid cycle.

Ditto.

I always try to start big. If its anatomy, its learning big structures and landmarks. Large nerves and arteries. If its physio, its the major graph or concept, like the Frank Starling curve for CV, the parts of the nephron for renal, the compliance curves of the chest wall and lung in respiratory, etc. Pharm learn classes before individual drugs. If you can tie the individual mundane details to even an individual concept, it makes them easier to recall on the exam.

 

[scotties123]

whats helping me (in anatomy at least) is knowing where all the structures are and how they fit into the body. If I get a page of detailed info and just told to memorize it, ill be screwed, but if im giving a netter page to compliment it, A Okay. It let's me picture "okay the musculocutaneous nerve innervates the corachobrachialis, which makes sense because its popping off right there *points at picture*..."

 

[coldweatherblue]

yeah man, no doubt this is something almost everyone struggles with. my current strategy is to learn and understand all the big concepts (and a lot of the details) as they come up in class, then the day/week before the exam go back and fill in the gaps. Basically if I understand WHY something happens, it's not hard to learn the other associated details.

sometimes it seems like the only way to really rock exams is to know EVERYTHING in the notes though, which as I stare at the 400 + pages of notes we've covered in the past month before next week's exams, is a lot easier said than done.

also a good habit is to constantly be thinking about what concepts could be tested on as you read through the notes. There are certain things that just jump out "LEARN THIS, WILL BE ON EXAM" when you read them.

Also for me doing as many questions as possible has helped: ie, for anatomy, UMich website, BRS, old exam Q's, etc.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

Bump. I think this thread is useful and would like to solicit additional responses. Over and over again I've heard that course notes are relied upon more heavily than the text (which is most useful as a reference), which is often too dense to read thoroughly while maintaining time efficiency. Relying on lecture notes appeals to me because it seems like, at least, you know what represents the upper limit of what you have to actively memorize. Seems like more active studying rather than text reading, which, to me, is passive, demotivating and deceptive in terms of its yields.

How many of you have blocks/courses where you literally have to read every word in your text book to feel prepared? When you are done reading, how do you actually have time to really study?

When do I feel like I need to read everyword in the textbook? Never

When do I feel like I need to read the textbook to supplement my notes? Other than looking in my Netter's in anatomy (can that even be considered reading the text?) I havent had to crack a book, nor have I even bought one other than that.

So far I have used only my annotated course notes with great success. From the people who actually read the book? They are usually the people who are the furthest behind, and seem to be the most worried if they are going to pass or not. Is there a correlation? probly, but I figure its mostly just them wasting their time. The notes have EVERYTHING we need for our exams (at least so far). Why would you need to look elsewhere?

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Yes, unfortunately, memorizing every detail is practically required to have a fighting chance for honors in courses. The big picture is something that 80% of the people get and they will be getting the mean. Those who struggle with the big picture may ultimately fail.

My advice is to ignore BRS review books, recall, flashcards, and textbooks. Although textbooks present the information in the most comprehensive and logical fashion, and frankly some of the lecture notes we had were downright scarily bad, the tests do NOT reflect BRS, recall, or textbooks. They reflect the distributed lecture notes and anything that might be in slides. If you have a lab/PBL/workshop component, of course what's in those materials is also fair game.

Sometimes, powerpoint slides do not entirely correspond with the distributed notes. For this reason, I downloaded these slides separately off the course website and printed them out at 6-slides-to-a-page handouts.

For the tests, I frequently did not attend lectures. I just made sure I memorized (or at least I tried to do this, usually I pulled an all nighter the night before and stuffed details into my head until the last minute) all of the syllabus and all of the slides. PBL usually fit within that, but if it was outside of that, I would briefly look at what that focused on. I got honors in a few courses and I'm sure that had my study methods been a bit better (i.e. read regularly, don't do allnighters and read lectures for the first time at 5 in the morning, three hours before the test, etc.), I think this method could have given honors in almost all the courses. The big exception is anatomy, which requires major lab time for the practicals. Otherwise, it's lecture notes (everything) + slides (everything that's not in the lecture notes) + study regularly and go over things repeatedly = honors.

 

[Noeljan]

Fear not Gman. You are not alone.

You basically have a choice here. You can try to memorize all the minutae or continue focusing on the larger picture. The former is needed to honor the MSI and to a lesser extent MSII coures. The latter approach is better for MSIII and clinical rotations and shelf exams.

I had a miserable time as an MSI trying to memorize useless facts without context. It become a bit better in MSII when you are studying things like pathology and micro that are more relevant to actual medical practice than the citric acid cycle.

Try the recall series. That is pretty good for reinforcing memorization.

actually you can do both, and to honor you NEED to do both.

 

[45408]

Yes, unfortunately, memorizing every detail is practically required to have a fighting chance for honors in courses. The big picture is something that 80% of the people get and they will be getting the mean. Those who struggle with the big picture may ultimately fail.

The people who did memorize all the details didn't have a fighting chance - they honored every test without question. If I could actually remember every slide when I took an M1/M2 test, then I wouldn't have had any problems honoring all my classes. Of course, I lack an eidetic memory.

 

[Random Anesthesiologist]

A wise physician once told me that I will never be able to remember everything, and she was so right.

So, like others have said, I try to focus on the big picture related to what I'm studying with case examples and correlations.

 

[lovelydreamer]

I've had to assure myself that not knowing everything is okay. I've had to let go of this perfectionist attitude during undergrad because if I constantly worry about all the little details that I missed on an exam, I'd drive myself crazy and just feel depressed. Don't be too hard on yourself.

 

[Excelsius]

I am curious to see as to what exactly needs to be memorized. Do any of the medschools post the notes online? Can they be accessed or can someone upload them?

Also, what undergrad course is most comparable to what you have to memorize? I know that physics is too far off (big picture), but is it more purely factual like anatomy or complex and factual, like Ochem? I hope there are samples available.

 

[soonereng]

I am curious to see as to what exactly needs to be memorized. Do any of the medschools post the notes online? Can they be accessed or can someone upload them?

Here is a link to what is basically an old version of our pathology notes. To make an A in the class you basically have to memorize everthing in this (and I mean everything, commas included) plus any other details that are brought up in lecture such as treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, etc.

 

[RySerr21]

Here is a link to what is basically an old version of our pathology notes. To make an A in the class you basically have to memorize everthing in this (and I mean everything, commas included) plus any other details that are brought up in lecture such as treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, etc.

holy mother.

 

[Random Anesthesiologist]

I am curious to see as to what exactly needs to be memorized. Do any of the medschools post the notes online? Can they be accessed or can someone upload them?

Also, what undergrad course is most comparable to what you have to memorize? I know that physics is too far off (big picture), but is it more purely factual like anatomy or complex and factual, like Ochem? I hope there are samples available.

My med school posts slides for class. They also test more than just the facts on exams, and you really have to think. Just memorizing will get you a pass, but barely.

 

[Random Anesthesiologist]

Here is a link to what is basically an old version of our pathology notes. To make an A in the class you basically have to memorize everthing in this (and I mean everything, commas included) plus any other details that are brought up in lecture such as treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, etc.

This seems no different than what my professors expect of my class, except for the subject area (not in path yet).

 

[Excelsius]

Here is a link to what is basically an old version of our pathology notes. To make an A in the class you basically have to memorize everthing in this (and I mean everything, commas included) plus any other details that are brought up in lecture such as treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, etc.

Would that be all you have to know for just one semester for one class? Or is it more like for a midterm? How much time do you have to retain all that information (are there quizzes?) and how many other books like that do you have to memorize?

I'd appreciate any links to med school sites where everything is open to public: lecture notes, syllabus, etc.

I am assuming that Duke must have one of the toughest workloads since they try to cram all the study into the first two years to give you more freedom for research and clinicals later on.

Thanks for the link.

 

[HPSPpayissue]

Here is a link to what is basically an old version of our pathology notes. To make an A in the class you basically have to memorize everthing in this (and I mean everything, commas included) plus any other details that are brought up in lecture such as treatment modalities, diagnostic tests, etc.

So true. It seems like there are always a few, well ~ 5% of the class, that fail exams. If you can't make 70%, you pretty much failed! You have to somehow UNDERSTAND and MEMORIZE everything within a limited amount of time. I see way too many people cramming. This is med school, not undergrad. Cramming most likely won't work.

 

[HPSPpayissue]

Would that be all you have to know for just one semester for one class? Or is it more like for a midterm? How much time do you have to retain all that information (are there quizzes?) and how many other books like that do you have to memorize?

I'd appreciate any links to med school sites where everything is open to public: lecture notes, syllabus, etc.

I am assuming that Duke must have one of the toughest workloads since they try to cram all the study into the first two years to give you more freedom for research and clinicals later on.

Thanks for the link.

To give you an idea: ( I don't know if you took biochem or not)

In a three week period, we had to memorize glycolysis, glycogenolysis, gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis, fatty acid breakdown and synthesis, proteoglycan synthesis and breakdown, lipoprotein synthesis, oxidative phosphorylation pathway, and all its enzymes, substrate names, cofactors, regulatory steps, diseases associated with each steps and drugs to prevent or alleviate ailments, etc. The only things we didn't need to know were the actual structures and where the arrows go, etc. Everything else was a fair game. Trust me, a lot of people - about 5 to 10% - failed that exam! The best way to prepare for an exam like this is to keep up and review frequently.

 

[45408]

Also, what undergrad course is most comparable to what you have to memorize? I know that physics is too far off (big picture), but is it more purely factual like anatomy or complex and factual, like Ochem? I hope there are samples available.

Anatomy was almost entirely factual, but physiology has a lot of conceptual stuff to understand. My phys course was pretty intense, and if you didn't see the big picture, you were going to miss a lot of questions.

 

[HPSPpayissue]

anatomy is the most pain in the ***** class, I think. It is almost nothing but pure memorization.

 

[HPSPpayissues]

I am assuming that Duke must have one of the toughest workloads since they try to cram all the study into the first two years to give you more freedom for research and clinicals later on.

It is not just Duke. It is like this in the UC's or ANY other accredited med school.

 

[RySerr21]

It is not just Duke. It is like this in the UC's or ANY other accredited med school.

I think he meant to say "cram all the studying into the first year." Duke doenst have the traditional two years of in lecture class and tests, its all done in one long year. The 2nd year is then like the 3rd year at other schools (doing rotations), and the 3rd year is spent doing research, getting another degree, or something else like that. 4th year is regular rotations like at every other school.

 

[ShV]

The people who did memorize all the details didn't have a fighting chance - they honored every test without question. If I could actually remember every slide when I took an M1/M2 test, then I wouldn't have had any problems honoring all my classes. Of course, I lack an eidetic memory.

I can't agree more with you.
Big picture = common sense of a doctor.You need it to survive in the field.
Details=scores of test.If you want honor or have a score higher than average,you HAVE to know the details that will be tested.

I took molecular biology last year.The tutor was a famous killer ,6 ppl failed in my class(2011). 2 in class 2010.We recorded what he said in the lectures and reviewing the slides with that record. Big picture cannot help students in such a freak course.

 

[ShV]

anatomy is the most pain in the ***** class, I think. It is almost nothing but pure memorization.

I have the same feeling when I learned anatomy .

However, now in clinical rotation, I am eager to study gross anatomy and neuroanatomy again.

 

[soonereng]

This seems no different than what my professors expect of my class, except for the subject area (not in path yet).

yeah, I think it's probably pretty typical of all med schools.