Needed for med school: books on memorization skills?

[funshine]

I'm a skeptic when it comes to memorization techniques and so far, the "just do it" mentality has gotten me though just about everything. But I'm nervous about med school and what I can/cannot handle. Just to be safe, what are some of the more useful books out there?

I'm thinking about getting this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569246297/ref=cm_bg_d/103-9290229-9088640?v=glance&n=283155

Suggestions?


I'm all for improving my memory and learning tricks so I don't have to study as much. I'm just worried that the types of people who find memorization techniques useful are the same types that can keep their rooms clean on a regular basis, stay on schedule...you know, the organized and responsible type. I'm so not. I guess what I'm saying is, learning "strategies" are really only helpful to those who are innately pre-conditioned for those strategies. i.e. efficient people become more efficient. If you're just not an organized thinker to begin with, will these books really make a difference? Success stories, anyone?

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[dz88]

this sounds nice, anyone care to comment?

 

[PreMedAdAG]

I don't know man.. i'm pretty damn anal about how I study and overall I'm a pretty meticulous person . I do just fine in med school (so far 😉 ) But, I find that some of my classmates who are all over the place, never have their stuff with them, never seem to study, always smiling, do just fine too. It's weird.... I think you'll be fine just the way you are.

The biggest challenge is just convincing yourself that 😉

 

[Blade28]

I never know if these books work.

 

[Ezekiel20]

I too am very sceptical about those 'boost your memory' books. I once bought one in highschool, and it was all about making up mnemonics, visual images etc, which most people already do anyway.

I think repetition is the key to memorisation.

It also helps to draw 'mindmaps' inside your head for non-linear concepts (e.g. pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis etc).

I find it easier to memorise things by inserting as much logic into the memorisation process. For example, instead of just memorising the signs and symptoms of anemia, you need to be able to think about what would happen.

But ultimately what you are left with after med school is what you learned on the wards. Rote-learned memory never lasts, and this is no exception to med school.

 

[Dr. Will]

Learning and understanding concepts will get you much further than just memorizing.

 

[WhatUpDoc!]

Amen 👍

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

I have a REALLY good technique for memorizing that I learned from a friend of mine who does those memory competitions, where they show you a deck of cards and you have 60 seconds to look and then reproduce the order, or they show you ridiculously long numbers and you have to regurgitate them back....

.. this technique works really well for names of things - specifically anatomy...

you have to assign mental pictures that are really personally memorable (can be actions, items) to certain words or common letter combos (up to you) then you picture the pictures that symbolize the words when you think of the name of the thing.... Example : If I want to remember the name of my friend, Brian Wilt , I would probably picture a brain floating in a jar, to remind me of brian and an old piece of lettuce, wilt. Its worked wonders for me with names, because i'm very visual, and so i'll associate the person with the name

now the trick when you have a big structure. you picture the structure as you're memorizing certain names and place your pictures mentally on the structure. THen, during an exam, when you imagine the structure the pictures you'll imagine on it will help you remember the name of the structure

this is the really truncated version of the technique, so if you really want to know more about it, just pm me...

 

[fun8stuff]

I have a REALLY good technique for memorizing that I learned from a friend of mine who does those memory competitions, where they show you a deck of cards and you have 60 seconds to look and then reproduce the order, or they show you ridiculously long numbers and you have to regurgitate them back....

.. this technique works really well for names of things - specifically anatomy...

you have to assign mental pictures that are really personally memorable (can be actions, items) to certain words or common letter combos (up to you) then you picture the pictures that symbolize the words when you think of the name of the thing.... Example : If I want to remember the name of my friend, Brian Wilt , I would probably picture a brain floating in a jar, to remind me of brian and an old piece of lettuce, wilt. Its worked wonders for me with names, because i'm very visual, and so i'll associate the person with the name

now the trick when you have a big structure. you picture the structure as you're memorizing certain names and place your pictures mentally on the structure. THen, during an exam, when you imagine the structure the pictures you'll imagine on it will help you remember the name of the structure

this is the really truncated version of the technique, so if you really want to know more about it, just pm me...

you will find that top students do not use these gimmicks... why? because they don't work on the scale that is needed for med school. Often times it's faster just to memorize it in 30 mins than spend hours developing some kind of memory trick. It might be useful to read a book on learning types or how your memory works... but if the book sounds gimmicky (i.e. 'The Secret to Remembering Everything'), stay away. The same goes for just about anything in life... if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

The best thing you can probably do is learn what type of learner you are and capitalize on it. If you are visual, focus a significant portion of your studing looking at or making charts, graphs, and drawing things out. If you are auditory, spend time listening to lectures and talking your notes out by yourself or with someone else. If you are tactile, then make your studying hands on... do the dissecting yourself. Because you have gotten into medical school, your probably already know this.

 

[EvoDevo]

You have to have a variety of tricks in your toolkit. Some subjects/info items lend themselves to visualization and some don't.

I like the visual techniques for getting associations that are hard to just grunt through. For example, derivatives of neural crest cells or fetal circulation pathways. That way, abstract stuff is visualized and it's easy to remember.

OTOH, it's just not possible with other stuff like immunology, most of microbio (though some is effective, as in "Micro Made Ridiculously Simple"). For those things that don't lend themselves to applying the visual technique to, I've found that reading, repeating out loud, and writing your own questions to integrate material works wonders for my performance. 👍

 

[Tater]

Another thing (which is truly easier said than done) is to find an effective study group. Different people think and understand concepts differently. What you understand about something may not be wrong, but it is amazing how other people can help you fill in all the holes. Like a previous poster said, its all about understanding the basic concepts and building upon that knowledge.