More Rote Memory Or Comprehension In Pre-Clinical Years???

[theone1979]

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hey guys

I will be matriculating at a DO school this coming year, and am trying to figure out what to expect in my pre-clinical years.

I hear med students talking about studying 6-8 hours a day, and I am just trying to get a sense of what they are doing during that study time. Is it primarily reading and then rote memorization, or is the work in med school more comprhension/conceptual? I am guessing there must be a good deal of both but I just want a sense of what a typical day of studying is like.

 

[DocEspana]

Anatomy is the most 'rote memory' of them all (and it is very memorization-intensive), but even that has a significant amount of 'understanding the interconnetedness' as you will often get anatomical injury questions. This is especially true for nerve damage questions which can get to be second order questions (where you might need to identify what nerve is injured on your own in order to answer the question 'what other symptoms might you see')

From my experience at least, everything* else is very much trying to grasp concepts and complex interactions. There is plenty of stuff you can memorize, but that rote memory has to be utilized into more complex 'systemic' understanding later on in the pre-clinical years, so you might as well try to limit rote memory from the start.

*= pharm is the exception. You can try to understand the more complex ways each drug interacts, but its probably easier to just memorize the naming conventions of the 30 or so drug classes, and realize that each class has one or two oddballs that defy the naming convention. E.G. anything with a -pril at the end is an ACE inhibitor and you've memorized exactly what all the ACE inhibitors do (though you probably didnt memorize why one is slightly different than the other.... it doesnt really matter that frequently, rote memorization works for that reason)

 

[Lil Mick]

Coming from a mathematician perspective (one of the more conceptual disciplines), it's mostly rote memorization in the first two years. We have some conceptual questions on exams at my school (hallelujah!), but it mostly entails actually memorizing the details in the lecture.

 

[Pansit]

hey guys

I will be matriculating at a DO school this coming year, and am trying to figure out what to expect in my pre-clinical years.

I hear med students talking about studying 6-8 hours a day, and I am just trying to get a sense of what they are doing during that study time. Is it primarily reading and then rote memorization, or is the work in med school more comprhension/conceptual? I am guessing there must be a good deal of both but I just want a sense of what a typical day of studying is like.

It's all rote memorization...the most practical things you learn the first two years is how to do a complete H & P and then write all of it on a SOAP note...which is pretty much the only thing you know how to do properly during 3rd year. Coming from a physics background (which all conceptual), I found the first two years of medical school quite boring, and they dont teach you concepts, and how it all comes together and how it is diagnosed and treated. You will see that in third year...when you try to regurgitate what you memorized and they stare at you like "what the hell are you talking about?...Quit with all that mumbo jumbo...the patient needs fluids"

 

[Slowpoke]

Coming from a mathematician perspective (one of the more conceptual disciplines), it's mostly rote memorization in the first two years. We have some conceptual questions on exams at my school (hallelujah!), but it mostly entails actually memorizing the details in the lecture.

why do you think med school is taught this way? is it because there is just too much information that the best way to approach it is to try to cram everything or does it have something to do with building a foundation to work off of for 3rd year? Though then I would say a conceptual work might be better? Thoughts?

 

[MossPoh]

why do you think med school is taught this way? is it because there is just too much information that the best way to approach it is to try to cram everything or does it have something to do with building a foundation to work off of for 3rd year? Though then I would say a conceptual work might be better? Thoughts?

Because you can't apply information effectively until you have enough to use.

I do a lot less rote memorization that most people. By that, I mean that I rarely sit there and just drill it into my head over and over again. I usually read about or think about interactions, mechanisms, etc. in the context of a clinical vignette and then answer in my head "why?".

Pharm is really the best example of that for me. I tried to make flashcards to drill it into my head, but I found that just reading from a couple different sources and then doing a bunch of practice questions was just as effective for me and not as painful.

 

[scpod]

Anatomy and pharmacoloy are particularly tough rote memorization courses, but everything else can depend on your school's style of learning to some extent. I graduated from a PBL program and we were taught to learn conceptually where possible from day one.

For instance, a patient comes in with low blood pressure. What are all the things that control blood pressure? Anatomically? Physiologically? Biochemically? Pharmacologically? How do they interact? What signs are there that would indicate a particular system might be involved? Would his medications affect it somehow? Where would you look to find the answers?

Then, you start doing a lot of reading and try to integrate information from various sources. You read for a general understanding of the concepts at first, then get more detailed. As you go along more questions come up and you search for the answers to those as well.

In our particular system of learning we were also tested in the same way you would see board questions-- four hour exams 3 to 4 times a semester with all subjects at the same time.

There is still a good bit of brute force memorization involved, but there is also a lot of conceptual learning as well. So, it can depend a little on your choice of schools as well.

 

[Daedra22]

I feel like I spend most of my study time trying to force myself to memorize things. I'm not much on minute details--most of my good grades in undergrad were from essay-based classes--so med school was a bit of a shock. How much time you spend studying and what you do with that time will depend on what aspects of the subject are harder for you.

 

[metalmd06]

Rote memorization is not the way to go if you want to build a lasting knowledge base. The keys really lie in learning medicine stepwise. First, you learn all the basic functions of the body and its cells. Instead of memorizing what a neutrophil does, study its function and relate it to the rest of the immune system. Why does a neutrophil predominate in acute inflammation and a lymphocyte does not. If you integrate the learning of the basics it reiforces concepts much better. That will, in turn, help you to understand the pathophysiology of disease and rationale for the use of particular drugs or treatments to help cure a disease.

You could always memorize, memorize, memorize, repeat, repeat, repeat and maybe it will eventually stick, but why not be more effective and efficient? In some studies, i.e. anatomy, this is unavoidable, but I don't think its necessary even for pharm. If you know a drug's MOA, you know how it works and you can even rationalize its side effects if you know how the rest of the body works.

 

[EmersonAnne]

I found the first two years of medical school quite boring, and they dont teach you concepts, and how it all comes together and how it is diagnosed and treated.

What school did you go to? At my school, you HAD to know the concepts, how it comes together, and how it's diagnosed and treated just to pass the exam.

OP, it all depends on your school. My school is mainly conceptual. Even anatomy is 80% clinical questions. Pharm is also clinical ("patient presents with these symptoms..." you have to diagnose, then figure out how to treat).

 

[Pansit]

What school did you go to? At my school, you HAD to know the concepts, how it comes together, and how it's diagnosed and treated just to pass the exam.

OP, it all depends on your school. My school is mainly conceptual. Even anatomy is 80% clinical questions. Pharm is also clinical ("patient presents with these symptoms..." you have to diagnose, then figure out how to treat).

Have you done clinicals yet?...You will see how the first two years of medical school doesnt really teach students the conceptual side of medicine. It's mostly rote memorization. The majority of third year you will spend thinking "Now why did the attending do that, when I was taught this".

 

[EmersonAnne]

Have you done clinicals yet?...You will see how the first two years of medical school doesnt really teach students the conceptual side of medicine. It's mostly rote memorization. The majority of third year you will spend thinking "Now why did the attending do that, when I was taught this".

I haven't done clinicals yet, but I don't see how that would suddenly change a conceptual test into a rote memorization one. There's a distinct definition for rote memorization. My tests don't meet that definition and regardless of what I learn on clinicals (and I'm certain that I'll learn a ton), it won't change that.