Need to change study methods, please advice...

[Bernoull]

---

Members don't see this ad.

M1 here, I've had several exams thus far and besides one, I'm not happy with my performance. I've passed everything but some just barely. I've realized that i'm being slaughtered on questions requiring details/factoids...

Little background on my study habits...
1. I focus on main concepts/processes and try to have those down cold. I try to know a few key details associated with these main concepts..
2. I mostly highlight/annotate syllabus notes, rarely read textbook...
3. I started the semester a little slow, fell behind on lectures and i find myself learning most of the material the week prior to the exam...
4. My old study methods which served me quite well until now, revolved around knowing key principles/equations/concepts and tons of practice problems (engineering/math background).. Never outlined, never did flashcards..


I know i need to catch up on coursework and study more consistently; I'm catching up (mostly on weekends..😡)

But my main problem right now is how to memorize all the peripheral details, what works for you? I've tried flashcards for the past 3wks but I find myself rewriting my lecture notes in flashcard format (not sure how productive that is...)

For instance, this is the type of details i struggle with ... say some bacterial toxin infects the GI via some endocyotic, retrograde secretory pathway mechanism..bla bla bla (think shiga toxin) ... when I study I focus on knowing the receptor name (GB3), the endocytotic mechanism (clathrin-independent), the vesicle trafficking (late endosome-->golgi-->ER-->cytoplasm); the composition of toxin (A/5B subunits); the mechanism of cell death (A subunit inhibits translation, B helps with targeting etc)

So I spent a lot of time knowing the main processes etc, now the only 2 questions on the exam regarding this topic were something like:

Which one is false: The shiga toxin binds to a protein receptor bla bla (i missed this bcos the receptor is not a protein but glycolipid, some random factoid low on my priority scale)..

Which one is true: The A subunit of shiga toxin is a glucosidase that inhibits translation... (i knew it inhibits translation but I didn't think it was a glucosidase, so i narrowed it down to two choices guessed wrong..)

I find my knowledge prioritization to be at odd's with those of the exam writers, so these type of detail/factoid questions are killing me!

I'll appreciate suggestion on how you guys memorize such things, what works for you, how do u prioritize what u need to know????

thanks n sorry for the length...

 

[UAAWolf]

M1 here, I've had several exams thus far and besides one, I'm not happy with my performance. I've passed everything but some just barely. I've realized that i'm being slaughtered on questions requiring details/factoids...

Little background on my study habits...
1. I focus on main concepts/processes and try to have those down cold. I try to know a few key details associated with these main concepts..
2. I mostly highlight/annotate syllabus notes, rarely read textbook...
3. I started the semester a little slow, fell behind on lectures and i find myself learning most of the material the week prior to the exam...
4. My old study methods which served me quite well until now, revolved around knowing key principles/equations/concepts and tons of practice problems (engineering/math background).. Never outlined, never did flashcards..


I know i need to catch up on coursework and study more consistently; I'm catching up (mostly on weekends..😡)

But my main problem right now is how to memorize all the peripheral details, what works for you? I've tried flashcards for the past 3wks but I find myself rewriting my lecture notes in flashcard format (not sure how productive that is...)

For instance, this is the type of details i struggle with ... say some bacterial toxin infects the GI via some endocyotic, retrograde secretory pathway mechanism..bla bla bla (think shiga toxin) ... when I study I focus on knowing the receptor name (GB3), the endocytotic mechanism (clathrin-independent), the vesicle trafficking (late endosome-->golgi-->ER-->cytoplasm); the composition of toxin (A/5B subunits); the mechanism of cell death (A subunit inhibits translation, B helps with targeting etc)

So I spent a lot of time knowing the main processes etc, now the only 2 questions on the exam regarding this topic were something like:

Which one is false: The shiga toxin binds to a protein receptor bla bla (i missed this bcos the receptor is not a protein but glycolipid, some random factoid low on my priority scale)..

Which one is true: The A subunit of shiga toxin is a glucosidase that inhibits translation... (i knew it inhibits translation but I didn't think it was a glucosidase, so i narrowed it down to two choices guessed wrong..)

I find my knowledge prioritization to be at odd's with those of the exam writers, so these type of detail/factoid questions are killing me!

I'll appreciate suggestion on how you guys memorize such things, what works for you, how do u prioritize what u need to know????

thanks n sorry for the length...

1. Read without taking notes...and just really think about the information. Picture it happening...do not just memorize. People who just memorize get crushed in the long run..you need to think and understand. Theres a reason why kids in my class who ace anatomy exams struggle with other exams that are fairly basic...

2. After you have a GOOD understanding of the concepts, add in the details with methods such as flashcards or writing notes. For me, I burn it in my brain with repetition...writing or typing works for me.

3. If you have a girlfriend....

Seriously though...since becoming single my test scores have skyrocketed...like from mid 70's to 90's.

 

[Bernoull]

1. Read without taking notes...and just really think about the information. Picture it happening...do not just memorize. People who just memorize get crushed in the long run..you need to think and understand. Theres a reason why kids in my class who ace anatomy exams struggle with other exams that are fairly basic...

2. After you have a GOOD understanding of the concepts, add in the details with methods such as flashcards or writing notes. For me, I burn it in my brain with repetition...writing or typing works for me.

3. If you have a girlfriend....

Seriously though...since becoming single my test scores have skyrocketed...like from mid 70's to 90's.

Thanks so ur suggestion, so it's like "layering the information" get the main concepts down then go back and add details... How many times do u repeat the cycle of "going back and filling in more details"..

Also how many times do u typically read the material over (i know this is bound to vary across individuals, but just trying to get a sense of what works for you)... and do u annotate at some point in ur repetitive reading cycle (underline/highlight key stuff??)


Do you try to memorize all the details if not, how to do u draw the line b/t wheat and chaff (just intuition??); useful/useless detail...

I'm single too, i just gotta improve time mgmt...

thx again

 

[UAAWolf]

Thanks so ur suggestion, so it's like "layering the information" get the main concepts down then go back and add details... How many times do u repeat the cycle of "going back and filling in more details"..

Also how many times do u typically read the material over (i know this is bound to vary across individuals, but just trying to get a sense of what works for you)... and do u annotate at some point in ur repetitive reading cycle (underline/highlight key stuff??)


Do you try to memorize all the details if not, how to do u draw the line b/t wheat and chaff (just intuition??); useful/useless detail...

I'm single too, i just gotta improve time mgmt...

thx again

The details thing is a tough one....for anatomy I learned that I just need to memorize every thing no matter how stupid and pointless. For physiology the prof likes to see we can think..

You kind of have to get a feel for every class..over prepare for the first exam or 2, then you have a good marker of what you need to do.

I read over the material very slowly the first time...like super slow and think about it. Second time I go through it and type notes in a word doc..just very brief bullet points of ONLY stuff I don't get...I'm talking like 2 pages max for a 20 page chapter. If thats not your style, maybe highlight or use flash cards.

Depends on how many times I reread...for this biochem I'm doing now I read the main lectures like 4 times slow, made a study guide, and just memorized the study guide.

 

[Bernoull]

The details thing is a tough one....for anatomy I learned that I just need to memorize every thing no matter how stupid and pointless. For physiology the prof likes to see we can think..

You kind of have to get a feel for every class..over prepare for the first exam or 2, then you have a good marker of what you need to do.

I read over the material very slowly the first time...like super slow and think about it. Second time I go through it and type notes in a word doc..just very brief bullet points of ONLY stuff I don't get...I'm talking like 2 pages max for a 20 page chapter. If thats not your style, maybe highlight or use flash cards.

Depends on how many times I reread...for this biochem I'm doing now I read the main lectures like 4 times slow, made a study guide, and just memorized the study guide.

Hey thanks a lot, i appreciate!!

i'm studying for biochem too, i like that there's some framework to help tie things together (pathways/mechanisms)...

goodluck on biochem!

 

[sideways]

Here's what I do:

First read: I just read it. Just try to get through it. As I'm reading I may find myself trying to analyze some points, but then I correct myself and push on, just reading. I don't even know what the **** I'm reading half the time, but it doesn't matter. The goal is to get through it so I can remove the anxiety of not knowing what I have to confront for the exam.

2nd read: Since I've read all the notes, and have the gestalt of testable material, I can calmly and accurately give better attention to the relevant.

3rd read: I can overlook what I've deemed unimportant, and give focused attention to the important. It's at this point I'll make efforts at constructing mental tricks to learn the high yield material.

4th read: I know this ****. The big picture is my bitch. But there's factoid after factoid that I'm not comfortable with. Since 4th read takes place late at night before the exam, I just cycle through the notes as much as possible in an effort to sponge up the minutae.

Last piece of advice: here's a thing I've been doing since 2nd yr began, and I can promise you doing so will lift your grade substantially: my tests are very early in the morning, but I wake up really ****ing early in prep. About 2 hrs before the exam. During those two hours I'm just scanning, repeatedly, the pure-ass memorization factoids. <-- Doing this, when I walk into the test I laugh at the hirsute proctor because I'm not cheating, although it feels like I am.

 

[Phur]

It's good to ask for advice, but just keep in mind studying tends to be a very individualized thing and what works for one person, won't always work for everyone.

You're right in the fact consistently getting some studying done each day is huge. Even if you don't get through everything, some is better than none. And it works to your benefit when you're reviewing stuff over the weekend instead of learning new stuff.

Like you I started with rewriting notes and trying to make flash cards, but the time commitment outweighed the benefit in the long run. What I eventually found worked best for me was to go through the powerpoint slides (or paragraph if it was in word or something) one at a time, read it and then cover it up and try and recite everything that was on the slide. Stay on the same slide until you can say everything that's on it, then move on to the next. When you get to the end of a concept or topic, go back and recite as much of you can of the of the whole topic. Do the same thing for the next piece of the lecture, so in the course of the afternoon/evening you've broken it down and then put it altogether again. Once I was confident enough recalling everything, me and a buddy would take turns explaining things to each other, and the other would throw in the details or things the other person missed as we went. And again repeat until you can do it in its entirety without being corrected. I truly believe that you can't say you understand something unless you can explain it to someone else, especially in topics like physio where it's less detail oriented and more conceptual.

So that was my n=1 strategy for basic science. You really need to figure out for yourself what kind of learner you are and go from there. If you're visual, then maybe you can just get away with reading and looking at the pictures. If you're more auditory, talking it out with someone or even reading the slides aloud to yourself. If you're more active, maybe try drawing things out. If you're a creative mind, come up with stories.

Not sure if this helped at all, but good luck

 

[Bernoull]

Here's what I do:

First read: I just read it. Just try to get through it. As I'm reading I may find myself trying to analyze some points, but then I correct myself and push on, just reading. I don't even know what the **** I'm reading half the time, but it doesn't matter. The goal is to get through it so I can remove the anxiety of not knowing what I have to confront for the exam.

2nd read: Since I've read all the notes, and have the gestalt of testable material, I can calmly and accurately give better attention to the relevant.

3rd read: I can overlook what I've deemed unimportant, and give focused attention to the important. It's at this point I'll make efforts at constructing mental tricks to learn the high yield material.

4th read: I know this ****. The big picture is my bitch. But there's factoid after factoid that I'm not comfortable with. Since 4th read takes place late at night before the exam, I just cycle through the notes as much as possible in an effort to sponge up the minutae.

Last piece of advice: here's a thing I've been doing since 2nd yr began, and I can promise you doing so will lift your grade substantially: my tests are very early in the morning, but I wake up really ****ing early in prep. About 2 hrs before the exam. During those two hours I'm just scanning, repeatedly, the pure-ass memorization factoids. <-- Doing this, when I walk into the test I laugh at the hirsute proctor because I'm not cheating, although it feels like I am.

I'm really digging the layering concept, I've never done these systematic repetitive reviews b4.. the most i've gone over notes is 1-2 and I tend to review the earlier lectures (X2) and the last couple lecture barely once (staying up later night b4 exam to do that)... yeah my study method is definitely screwed up right now since i'm playing catch-up (reading most material de novo 5-6 days b4 exam)....

I expect to get current with my coursework within 3 weeks (gotta get 2 big exams out of the way first) and then I'll focus on consistent studying and layering this bad boy!!

Great advice overall!! For the last piece, I find myself staying up pretty late on exam night (4am sometimes, sleepin 3-4hrs), finishing up my review (it's bad i know).... so waking up earlier means well not sleeping at all, which i've done once already..

Thanks a lot!

 

[Bernoull]

It's good to ask for advice, but just keep in mind studying tends to be a very individualized thing and what works for one person, won't always work for everyone.

You're right in the fact consistently getting some studying done each day is huge. Even if you don't get through everything, some is better than none. And it works to your benefit when you're reviewing stuff over the weekend instead of learning new stuff.

Like you I started with rewriting notes and trying to make flash cards, but the time commitment outweighed the benefit in the long run. What I eventually found worked best for me was to go through the powerpoint slides (or paragraph if it was in word or something) one at a time, read it and then cover it up and try and recite everything that was on the slide. Stay on the same slide until you can say everything that's on it, then move on to the next. When you get to the end of a concept or topic, go back and recite as much of you can of the of the whole topic. Do the same thing for the next piece of the lecture, so in the course of the afternoon/evening you've broken it down and then put it altogether again. Once I was confident enough recalling everything, me and a buddy would take turns explaining things to each other, and the other would throw in the details or things the other person missed as we went. And again repeat until you can do it in its entirety without being corrected. I truly believe that you can't say you understand something unless you can explain it to someone else, especially in topics like physio where it's less detail oriented and more conceptual.

So that was my n=1 strategy for basic science. You really need to figure out for yourself what kind of learner you are and go from there. If you're visual, then maybe you can just get away with reading and looking at the pictures. If you're more auditory, talking it out with someone or even reading the slides aloud to yourself. If you're more active, maybe try drawing things out. If you're a creative mind, come up with stories.

Not sure if this helped at all, but good luck

I definitely hear u on the applicability of the different suggestion to my situation, great point. I know what works for me for understanding main concepts (read, annotate, rewrite on blank sheets, draw diagram, explain aloud etc etc) and I'm sticking with those. My flaw is with the details and that's partly due to insufficient study time and inexperience at having to learn this amount of minutiae before (therefore i'm unskilled at memorization random details)..

I like ur study buddy idea, and once i'm current and consistent with my studying, i'll try it out... i think i'm behind most people in my class in reviewing the material so i'll need to catch up first to have productive study groups/Q&As etc... thanks for the suggestion...

 

[Fleur de Me]

Just a slightly different perspective- I am a person who really values studying "smarter" and not harder, because I believe that having time in my life for other things (working out, relaxing, going out) is important for my over all well being.

So- I don't do things a million times, I try to find out what works for me in each class. What is important in anatomy is different than biochem, so I approach the two differently. I put in much less time than most people and still make >90% on my exams. And I'm never stressed about school stuff.

For biochem, I usually go through lecture videos, taking my time to take good notes from the slides- and at the same time, I make notecards of the important details. Going through the lectures this way reinforces everything "important"- but at the same time I make sure I understand the big picture, and make note of the little details that are bound to come up on the exam. If there's something I don't get, I rewind and go through that part of the lecture til it clicks. I stopped going to lecture because it overwhelmed me, but when I go through the lectures by myself, it always feels super simple in the end, so it takes all the stress off.

The 1-2 days before the exam- go through the note cards. Wake up the day of the exam and go through them again. Usually by the time I take the exam, there is NOTHING that surprises me. Any dumb question I miss is probably because I misread something- (question or answer), never because I didn't "know" something.

For anatomy- I now realize that it is just repetition. From several formats. I'm not big on textbooks, but I do think going through the atlas is key. And the dissection guide. And then reinforcing stuff on the body when I'm in lab, a little at a time and then spend a good extra hour for review twice before the exam. When I have a few minutes waiting for an appointment/meeting/lunch, I will go through netter's cards on my phone. At night, I'll do 30 mins on UMich a few times a week- after doing that things just sink in.

By the time the exam rolls around- I've seen it in an atlas, I've seen it on UMich, I've seen it in the Grant's dissector, and I've seen it on the bodies- sadly it takes this many different sources, but it all comes together. I try to keep that in mind and not freak out, I know by exam time, I will be OK. My thing with anatomy is not to force it- just be confident that a little bit here and there, from a few different places, will make it come together.

And my best piece of advice- listen to myself. If I'm tired, I take a break, if I'm feeling like I am not in the mood, I take an evening off and relax, and I am SO much fresher when I do study.

 

[Mace1370]

Every class is different. For courses that nearly 100% of the testable material comes from lecture here is what I do:

1st pass: Print out power point slides and take notes while watching the lecture video online at 1.6x to 2.0x speed (depending on how fast the speaker normally talks). I make a point to do the 1st pass the day the lecture is actually given.

2nd pass: Go over the slides for the previous days lecture and try and memorize all key details. This consists of little tricks like writing out words that I have a hard time pronouncing to picturing the organs in the body that are affected by a disease as I say the symptoms of the disease (ex: picturing the liver and saying cirrhosis and then the lungs when I say fibrosis).

3rd pass: Usually on the weekends I try to review as much of the material throughout the week as I can. Basically what I did 2nd pass, but focusing on the parts that didn't stick as well as others.

Doing those 3 passes will get me a B. Getting the A requires a 4th pass or 5th pass before the exam. My strategy for success is to keep up with the work and review constantly. Cramming is not my style (although sometimes it can't be helped).

 

[Bernoull]

Just a slightly different perspective- I am a person who really values studying "smarter" and not harder, because I believe that having time in my life for other things (working out, relaxing, going out) is important for my over all well being.

So- I don't do things a million times, I try to find out what works for me in each class. What is important in anatomy is different than biochem, so I approach the two differently. I put in much less time than most people and still make >90% on my exams. And I'm never stressed about school stuff.

For biochem, I usually go through lecture videos, taking my time to take good notes from the slides- and at the same time, I make notecards of the important details. Going through the lectures this way reinforces everything "important"- but at the same time I make sure I understand the big picture, and make note of the little details that are bound to come up on the exam. If there's something I don't get, I rewind and go through that part of the lecture til it clicks. I stopped going to lecture because it overwhelmed me, but when I go through the lectures by myself, it always feels super simple in the end, so it takes all the stress off.

The 1-2 days before the exam- go through the note cards. Wake up the day of the exam and go through them again. Usually by the time I take the exam, there is NOTHING that surprises me. Any dumb question I miss is probably because I misread something- (question or answer), never because I didn't "know" something.

For anatomy- I now realize that it is just repetition. From several formats. I'm not big on textbooks, but I do think going through the atlas is key. And the dissection guide. And then reinforcing stuff on the body when I'm in lab, a little at a time and then spend a good extra hour for review twice before the exam. When I have a few minutes waiting for an appointment/meeting/lunch, I will go through netter's cards on my phone. At night, I'll do 30 mins on UMich a few times a week- after doing that things just sink in.

By the time the exam rolls around- I've seen it in an atlas, I've seen it on UMich, I've seen it in the Grant's dissector, and I've seen it on the bodies- sadly it takes this many different sources, but it all comes together. I try to keep that in mind and not freak out, I know by exam time, I will be OK. My thing with anatomy is not to force it- just be confident that a little bit here and there, from a few different places, will make it come together.

And my best piece of advice- listen to myself. If I'm tired, I take a break, if I'm feeling like I am not in the mood, I take an evening off and relax, and I am SO much fresher when I do study.

Every class is different. For courses that nearly 100% of the testable material comes from lecture here is what I do:

1st pass: Print out power point slides and take notes while watching the lecture video online at 1.6x to 2.0x speed (depending on how fast the speaker normally talks). I make a point to do the 1st pass the day the lecture is actually given.

2nd pass: Go over the slides for the previous days lecture and try and memorize all key details. This consists of little tricks like writing out words that I have a hard time pronouncing to picturing the organs in the body that are affected by a disease as I say the symptoms of the disease (ex: picturing the liver and saying cirrhosis and then the lungs when I say fibrosis).

3rd pass: Usually on the weekends I try to review as much of the material throughout the week as I can. Basically what I did 2nd pass, but focusing on the parts that didn't stick as well as others.

Doing those 3 passes will get me a B. Getting the A requires a 4th pass or 5th pass before the exam. My strategy for success is to keep up with the work and review constantly. Cramming is not my style (although sometimes it can't be helped).

Thanks to both of you, awesome advice!!

This has been very helpful, i'm most grateful!

 

[MD2BE2013]

You have a pretty good collection of good advice in the older posts. I also found review books quite helpful. BRS and/or Rapid Review have been my favorites. They have many of those key (picky) details in the margins and have good practice questions (with explanations for the correct and incorrect answers). Gross is gross. Relationships are key. If you know where it is coming from and where it goes you can figure out what it is. Most of all, do whatever you have to do to maintain your sanity. You will survive. Good luck.