Post your study strategies here!

[iluvnetters]

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[PreDentTechySon]

Every school is different so putting together a schedule might be difficult. Here are some pointers about the difference between Undergrad and dental school:

Amount of material to study is more and the time to study it is shorter. You will learn to get better at using your time wisely and spending more time studying. In undergrad. It was usually like a week or two weeks between tests. In dental school, it’s like 1 or 2 days sometimes. Just know that it is going to be hard but if you work hard you’ll do fine.

As far as strategies, everyone does something a little different. Usually what works for people in undergrad tends to work well in dental school. Flash cards are good for some classes, mnemonics are great. Here’s what worked for me.

I would go to class and sit through lecture. Not everyone did that, but I would work as hard as I could to actively listen. I would record the lecture and take good notes. Afterwards, I would go home and re-watch the lecture on 2x speed (sometimes a couple times) and listen/star any concepts I didn’t understand and highlight things the instructor said. Don’t discount the instructors, a lot of times they will tell you what they want you to know, it’s not always a guessing game.

When it comes to bulk information like a chart or a table, mnemonics and flash cards are great. Re-writing charts and drawing pathways are good ways to make them stick. If it’s a list, think of a mnemonic to keep it memorized.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

"Unlimited Memory" by Kevin Horsley.

This book is the best study strategy and well worth your time this Christmas break.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[shulk]

Pre-Dent (DAT studying): ANKI for biology, Chad's, some big book of biology questions that was absurdly expensive, study for several months
D1: Carefully made anki decks for certain courses, going into the lab, checking out skulls and going over every bone again and again, looking over old quizzes, etc
D2: Similar to D1, greater anki emphasis for certain courses like oral path.
CBSE studying: Borrowing from medical students, the UFAP method with the addition of Zanki and Boards and Beyond.
D3: Look over slides about a week before the test a few times.
D4: Briefly look at the slides the night before/morning of test.

 

[knewstance]

I rewrite all of my notes, sometimes multiple times if I have time. I do this by hand (not typed) to force myself to think about what I am writing even more. It is extremely time consuming, but I'd say I put about the same or slightly less study time in than the rest of my classmates and I typically score about the same as them (at least those that I'm close to).

I've tried and also looked into other study methods, but this is what I did during both BS and MS. It has typically earned me A's and a few B's in those classes and I've been maintaining mostly A's with a couple A-/B+ as well during D1 so far.

My advice to you: If you have a study method that has worked well for you, stick with it. You know how you best learn and what you need to do to remember something. For me, it requires writing it down and then re-reading, re-explaining, and re-writing (if time permits). For you, that may be different.

 

[iluvnetters]

Thank you all for your input! Is it tough to stay away from cramming with the sheer content in dental school? I can definitely cram, but would feel more comfortable being able to study a few days in advanced for my tests.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

Thank you all for your input! Is it tough to stay away from cramming with the sheer content in dental school? I can definitely cram, but would feel more comfortable being able to study a few days in advanced for my tests.

Just takes a lot of discipline.

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[roadtodmd1]

Hi all,

Four or five years ago, I read a post on one person's way she anecdotally succeeded in undergrad, allowing her to matriculate into dental school. She would post a week's schedule on how she would study by retyping notes, how early she would study, etc. I followed this schedule very closely and think it's a huge reason I did well in undergrad -- it gave me guidance. I know that its very important to do well early on in dental school, and that it can bite you in the butt if you have a rocky transition if you plan on specializing. I was wondering if you dental students could post a similar thing on how you study in dental school? Please be as specific as you want! I've always heard just "memorize, be organized", but I was looking for more than that! Do you use quizlet, do you use ANKI, do you rewrite notes, do you use monday night to study monday's lectures, do you use monday night as a primer for tuesday's lectures, how early do you start studying for a test. Literally walk me through how you go about all of this! I think that writing a detailed schedule like this would help incoming D1s tremendously, as there isnt really anything on SDN that I've found to be helpful like I did for undergrad.

Where can I find her advice on how to study??


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[TanMan]

Hi all,

Four or five years ago, I read a post on one person's way she anecdotally succeeded in undergrad, allowing her to matriculate into dental school. She would post a week's schedule on how she would study by retyping notes, how early she would study, etc. I followed this schedule very closely and think it's a huge reason I did well in undergrad -- it gave me guidance. I know that its very important to do well early on in dental school, and that it can bite you in the butt if you have a rocky transition if you plan on specializing. I was wondering if you dental students could post a similar thing on how you study in dental school? Please be as specific as you want! I've always heard just "memorize, be organized", but I was looking for more than that! Do you use quizlet, do you use ANKI, do you rewrite notes, do you use monday night to study monday's lectures, do you use monday night as a primer for tuesday's lectures, how early do you start studying for a test. Literally walk me through how you go about all of this! I think that writing a detailed schedule like this would help incoming D1s tremendously, as there isnt really anything on SDN that I've found to be helpful like I did for undergrad.

Are you a crammer or a constant studier? Everyone is different when it comes to how well you learn. Once you've determined your style, then you can formulate a strategy. I am a crammer. I can give you my strategy, but will it work for everyone? Not necessarily, not because they are stupid, but because people have different learning styles.

Look at your objective. Ideally, we study to learn, but in the real academic world, we study to pass or do well on the exam (first and foremost).
Objective 1: Pass or do well
How do you do that? What do you study? How do you study? You study for the exam. You need to know how the exam format goes. Is it MC or FR? How are the points distributed? If your professor gives you old exams, study those extremely hard. You get into the mind of the exam-maker, think how they think, then you can anticipate the types of questions they ask. If they ask a lot of "which of the following is not true?", you can use the "learn as you go" technique, which is learning during the exam itself. I love those because I'm learning/confirming 4-5 new facts every question. If it's free response, learn to memory dump w/ rote memorization. Usually, in your memory dump, the correct answer is somewhere in there. Most graders are looking for keywords, and if you trigger the keywords, you get the credit. How do you study? See above and understand what works best for you. If you don't have old exams to go by, ask upperclassmen what they remember of the exam. I found that powerpoints and friend(s) notes were the best. Going to class was a waste of time for me.
Objective 2: Pass or do well in ALL your classes
This is an extension of objective 1. How do you allocate your time to pass every class? This depends on your workload. My thought processes here are: difficulty of class, number of classes, and consequence of failing a course. In 2nd year, I remember one semester that was the most taxing time of my academic life. 1 hour of sleep per day during exam week, the rest was either taking exams or studying. We had 15 finals that week, and as a crammer, I didn't look at any of the material until the week before. I had no choice but to strategize. I decided to focus on opath (most difficult, most consequence) and I remember only allocating 1-2 hours for microbio (seemed easy) right before the exam. I don't remember the rest because it was a blur, but it was a right choice based on my thought process.

I hope this helps slightly, if you like to cram.

Edit: What is ANKI?