Not Crazy Am I?

[FutureDoc4]

Hey Everyone,

So my first set of exams is coming up in around two weeks....I am at a P/F school, and I have been getting a lot of people telling me how I am studying is "wrong".... in particular in biochem

I have Lippincott and I really like it to get an overall picture... I am pretty up on the reading corresponding to lecture (maybe 1 or 2 lectures behind). However, I definitely don't get out all of the details from it.... I get more of an overview. In any case, my plan was to finish up the reading this weekend and THEN start to go through the lecture notes with a fine tooth comb to get all the details before the exam (I will still have over a week to do this).

My thing is people are saying I am wasting my time (which as we all know is extremely valuable in med school) reading Lippincotts and that I should go straight to the lecture notes. I am also of the mindset that going through Lippincotts first (now) and then come board review time looking through it again it will be much better being much more familiar with it... however, I am feeling pretty tight on time right now.

I know EVERYONE HAS a different way to study... I just would like an opinion if I am wasting my time.

P.S. The tests are suppose to reflect little details from the lecture notes.

Thanks for the help in advance.

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[Colbert]

Whatever works for you is the best method. There is no "wrong" way to study. I usually read the book alongside the lecture notes and fill in the details as I go. I find it makes me actively read and pay attention and then I can just reference my lecture notes when I'm done instead of worrying about looking back in the book. Take the test and see how well you do. If you're doing fine, then stick with your method. If you don't do well, maybe it need some tweaking.

 

[xx216xx]

Whatever works for you is the best method. There is no "wrong" way to study. I usually read the book alongside the lecture notes and fill in the details as I go. I find it makes me actively read and pay attention and then I can just reference my lecture notes when I'm done instead of worrying about looking back in the book. Take the test and see how well you do. If you're doing fine, then stick with your method. If you don't do well, maybe it need some tweaking.

Completely agree, it's whatever you feel comfortable with and works. I know people that will spend 8 hours a day in the library studying after lecture and lab because it makes them feel more comfortable, seems crazy to me, but it works for them. And I'm weird in that I like reading the details in embryo even though we only require superficial knowledge, it makes me feel more comfortable because I don't like skipping from one stage to the next without knowing what happens in between. I know i spend more time on embryo than most but it's what i like to do and it works. So, don't worry about what others tell you, their is no right way to study, you'll know if you're on the right track after the first test.

 

[DoctorPardi]

I use the lecture notes as my primary resource then use lippincotts as a resource to understand. Ultimately what most school's tests will come from is what the lecturer said and that is the most important thing.

So unless they give you a bunch of "read this on your own" type of assignments I would base my studying off of the lectures. Also my school's biochem book is not the book I use but the lecturers follow it precisely. So if you did have it and use it you could probably substitute it for most things.

Seeing as how you are using lippincots I doubt that is your school's primary textbook.

Note of warning: I just took my first medical school exam today and have no clue how I did, so I'll tell you next week if I have any what I am talking about lol.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I think our study methods are similar. I come home and go through all the powerpoint slides from the day's lectures, and then I read the pertaining sections of Lippincott's. On weekends, I basically do the same thing but for the whole week's lectures. I did well on our first test (top quarter), so it seems to be working. We'll see how that holds up for this next exam, though. Yeesh.

 

[EBI831]

Hmm, i say leave lippincott's for after lecture notes are studied. you just said the test is details from lecture. i was like you last year, except lazier. i just read lippincott's and i love that review book but since our tests were written based on lecture, i could never get above Bs (which is ok in a pass/fail school and which owed to the fact that i took biochem in undergrad and did really well in it already so i used the power of recall). so if u want to ball out in med school, triage: in order of what's important: lecture notes, lippincott's, textbook. ps , it's way too early to be getting a headstart on boards...chances are you won't remember it in 1.5 years when u start really studying for boards. think of lippencotts as a lecture review , not board review...for now. time is limited. don't burn out on the big picture if the class just wants the minutia.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Don't you guys get a syllabus? That was always my primary study resource in the pre-clinical years.

Anyway, I agree with the previous posters - whatever works for you, go for it! Some of us are just book learners - I was, and an organized chapter often made more sense to me than a lecture if the lecturer was fragmented or scattered.

A caveat, though - Lippincott's is a quick read and should cause you no problems. When I started first year, I was determined to always read the texts of my classes. For some classes, you just won't have time to get all the way through the text. The best example of this that I can think of is Moore's Anatomy - absolutely fabulous book, but the average chapter is, if I remember correctly, about 150 pages. I almost bombed first-block anatomy because I got so far behind trying to read the book.

So, I say use the texts whenever they're useful to you - as long as you're not getting behind. And, remember - if your lecture notes and Lippincott's disagree on a point of fact, Lippincott is not going to be the correct answer on the test. This happens rather more often than you'd like if you have an experienced, opinionated lecturer. Disagreements probably won't happen often in biochem, but in things like neuroscience, it happens all the time.