I'm a non-trad in a post-bacc program where we take accelerated science courses in 3.5 weeks. Each 3.5 week block gives us 4 semester hours of college credit - so this comes out to approximately the equivalent of a typical four class undergraduate load.
In any case, I just finished the first semester of A&P. Now I realize that this isn't medical school, which has me worried - med school will of course be far more intense. I ended up in a 2 or 3 way tie for the highest grade out of 27 people in the class. I say this not to brag - I don't have a phenomenal memory - but to point out that in order to do this it took me 25 hours per week of studying to achieve this - on top of the 20 hours per week we are in class and lab.
I was just barely able to memorize every factoid needed to ensure 100's on my exams given how fast the classes move (one or two tests every week). My study technique consists of recording the lectures (10 hours per week of lecture), then listening to 2 hours of lecture per day while writing an outline of the lectures and also a comprehensive "potential exam question" list. This 2 hours of recorded lecture is expanded into 4 - 5 hours because I am constantly stopping the recording to make notes, work on the outline, etc. Then I quiz myself on my question list, and mark each one I don't know. I then create a new list consisting only of the un-known questions (so as not to waste time repeatedly reviewing information in my lecture outlines that I already know).
I don't read the textbook (found it was a luxury I don't have in these fast classes because the test questions come entirely out of lecture) - just listen to lectures, create outlines and study the slides. So I can't point ot the textbook as a source of "study bloat" in terms of hours spent studying. I probably could have chopped 10 hours per week off of the studying, since the exam questions were multiple choice. I, however, studied to the point where I could - with a little prompting - essentially give the powerpoint lecture from memory, bullet point by bullet point. I don't feel I've really learned something until I can teach it. Being able to pick out a correct answer on a multliple choice test is obviously much easier and doesn't require as solid a grasp of the material.
I don't think I can do more than 45 hours a week of mental work (20 hours of class + 25 hours of studying) even when I'm in medical school. I feel like I'm at my "limit" for how many facts I can cram into my head in a 24 hour period.
So my questions are:
1 - Am I being inefficient? The 25 hours per week of studying are honest hours - not pseudowork. I use a stop-watch and I click it off if I go to the bathroom, shuffle papers, take a break, etc.
2 -The big question - for those of you who have been in med school a while - do you find that your ability to absorb information per unit time is higher than when you started? I wonder if the brain can adapt - somehow subconsciously realizing after a few months or a year that it is tasked with memorizing large quantities of facts - and start burning those neural pathways with less repetition of material.
3 -Do you know of any scientifically valid learning or training methods (besides neuroenhancers) that have been shown to increase the rate at which people can memorize information? I have used leitner box flashcard programs before with success - but for language vocabulary study. I found that using it for anatomy concepts wasn't much help for me personally.
4 - Are med school anatomy exams formatted like "point out corrugator supercilli" or are they "identify this muscle" (exam giver points to a muscle)? I ask this because the first type of question I find much easier. If you give me the name of some obscure structure that I've studied I can usually point it out easily (maybe I have a visual memory). But point out the structure and ask me to produce from memory the multi-syllable latin name, then I could be stuck if I haven't studied it five different ways on five different days.
I'm afraid this A&P class indicates I'm headed for the bottom of my future med school class. Undergrad never worried me before - this is the first time I've had the equivalent of four full undergrad classes that were just pure memorization of facts. I always breezed through classes requiring analytical reasoning and paper writing. And even when I had memorization heavy courses like bio, it was only one or two at a time.
In any case, I just finished the first semester of A&P. Now I realize that this isn't medical school, which has me worried - med school will of course be far more intense. I ended up in a 2 or 3 way tie for the highest grade out of 27 people in the class. I say this not to brag - I don't have a phenomenal memory - but to point out that in order to do this it took me 25 hours per week of studying to achieve this - on top of the 20 hours per week we are in class and lab.
I was just barely able to memorize every factoid needed to ensure 100's on my exams given how fast the classes move (one or two tests every week). My study technique consists of recording the lectures (10 hours per week of lecture), then listening to 2 hours of lecture per day while writing an outline of the lectures and also a comprehensive "potential exam question" list. This 2 hours of recorded lecture is expanded into 4 - 5 hours because I am constantly stopping the recording to make notes, work on the outline, etc. Then I quiz myself on my question list, and mark each one I don't know. I then create a new list consisting only of the un-known questions (so as not to waste time repeatedly reviewing information in my lecture outlines that I already know).
I don't read the textbook (found it was a luxury I don't have in these fast classes because the test questions come entirely out of lecture) - just listen to lectures, create outlines and study the slides. So I can't point ot the textbook as a source of "study bloat" in terms of hours spent studying. I probably could have chopped 10 hours per week off of the studying, since the exam questions were multiple choice. I, however, studied to the point where I could - with a little prompting - essentially give the powerpoint lecture from memory, bullet point by bullet point. I don't feel I've really learned something until I can teach it. Being able to pick out a correct answer on a multliple choice test is obviously much easier and doesn't require as solid a grasp of the material.
I don't think I can do more than 45 hours a week of mental work (20 hours of class + 25 hours of studying) even when I'm in medical school. I feel like I'm at my "limit" for how many facts I can cram into my head in a 24 hour period.
So my questions are:
1 - Am I being inefficient? The 25 hours per week of studying are honest hours - not pseudowork. I use a stop-watch and I click it off if I go to the bathroom, shuffle papers, take a break, etc.
2 -The big question - for those of you who have been in med school a while - do you find that your ability to absorb information per unit time is higher than when you started? I wonder if the brain can adapt - somehow subconsciously realizing after a few months or a year that it is tasked with memorizing large quantities of facts - and start burning those neural pathways with less repetition of material.
3 -Do you know of any scientifically valid learning or training methods (besides neuroenhancers) that have been shown to increase the rate at which people can memorize information? I have used leitner box flashcard programs before with success - but for language vocabulary study. I found that using it for anatomy concepts wasn't much help for me personally.
4 - Are med school anatomy exams formatted like "point out corrugator supercilli" or are they "identify this muscle" (exam giver points to a muscle)? I ask this because the first type of question I find much easier. If you give me the name of some obscure structure that I've studied I can usually point it out easily (maybe I have a visual memory). But point out the structure and ask me to produce from memory the multi-syllable latin name, then I could be stuck if I haven't studied it five different ways on five different days.
I'm afraid this A&P class indicates I'm headed for the bottom of my future med school class. Undergrad never worried me before - this is the first time I've had the equivalent of four full undergrad classes that were just pure memorization of facts. I always breezed through classes requiring analytical reasoning and paper writing. And even when I had memorization heavy courses like bio, it was only one or two at a time.
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