Question regarding studying for first year

[Calizboosted76]

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Hey everyone,

So I am currently in my first year and we are taking Anatomy and Molecular medicine. I have done well in the practical portion of anatomy (100 and an 88) but the written exams for Anatomy and Molec are killing me (75 and 80 for Anatomy and 76 for Molec).

Granted these tests haven't been worth much of my overall grade in Anatomy but Molec is a different story (3.5 and 6 for the anatomy written and I think 18 for Molec) I want to find a solid study strategy. I am finding that I need to slow down and read the questions better because we do a review and when I reread the question I see where I went wrong. However this is only going to save me a few questions.

Currently I am using ANKI and doing the three pass rule for lectures. I was making my own ANKI cards but I find that it will prove to be difficult to do so moving forward for our upcoming test I have decided to try and adapt my mentors ANKI deck and remain using the three pass rule and if this doesn't work I'm hoping someone might have suggested another way of studying on this thread that I can attempt for the test after my next.

Thanks for reading.

 

[deleted966837]

Anki and three passes sounds solid. Have you tried incorporating practice questions? Your textbooks typically have some. The UMich anatomy questions were popular with my class University of Michigan Medical School - Practice Questions

 

[Calizboosted76]

Anki and three passes sounds solid. Have you tried incorporating practice questions? Your textbooks typically have some. The UMich anatomy questions were popular with my class University of Michigan Medical School - Practice Questions

No, I hadn’t worked in practice questions simply because I just didn’t have the time. Making the Anki cards was taking up a lot of time so now that I’m not going to be making the cards for every lecture I will definitely work in some practice questions.

 

[Osminog]

Collaborate with classmates on making cards. Make a spreadsheet and divvy up the lectures. This will buy you more time to review material.

 

[KirksvilleKrunk]

UMich anatomy practice questions like the person above said. Clinically relevant vignette, board-style questions. Highly recommend

 

[Neopolymath]

Questions are the most important way to learn and this only becomes more true as you progress through school. Try to find a way to work some in!

 

[Calizboosted76]

I am seeing a common suggestion lol. Thank you to those who have responded thus far. I am definitely going to try and work some questions into my studies for sure.

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

do the tophat q's they assign for sure

 

[Calizboosted76]

do the tophat q's they assign for sure

Those are the questions I have actually been doing but there aren’t many assigned often.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

Went from being a low C student first yr to an A student second yr by ditching anki. If you do use it, I don’t recommend making your own cards. I will also say that it’s going to be hard to get 3 complete passes and anki done. If you get 15 hours of lecture a week, that’s 45 hours plus anki which could take 2-3 hours per day to review. Plus any mandatory things like OMM. Maybe doable but I think it’s overkill and will put you at 60 hours a week conservatively.

I recommend using boards and beyond and Anking if you’re going to use anki. Saves you time and you can be confident you’re learning things that are high yield.

If you’re getting 3 passes, you don’t need anki as long as you’re using active learning during those passes (no re reading, taking notes and highlighting - use all Feynman and don’t waste time writing anything you don’t have to). I had a lot of trouble trusting that this would work for me but got to the point where I had no other choice. I failed a block and during my committee meeting was told I had to attend lecture. This meant no time for anki. My grades jumped from low C’s and even failing to A’s.

 

[Real McCoy]

Essentially you need to ensure you are constantly "assessing your knowledge." The easiest way to do this is with questions. Since there aren't an infinite number of assessment/practice questions, and you don't have unlimited time, you have to maximize your efficiency when going through questions. First, cover up answer choices when reading the question, come up with an answer in your mind, then uncover answer choices to see if your answer is there. If your answer or a variation of your answer is there, you can tell that you know that concept. As there are 5 answer choices, you should be able to walk through why each answer is wrong, and why the correct answer is right. If your answer is not there, you have immediately uncovered a gap in your knowledge.