reading habits used for studying

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i was just curious on the studying habits of others when reading textbooks/review books

mostly whether you
a.) just read
b.) underline/highlight as you read with one color
c.) underline/highlight as you read with more than one color
d.) make notes/summarize on a different paper while you read(that has got to be too time consuming for most)
e.) something else

personally i underline/highlight using two colors, one bright color for stuff i think really important and one for just stuff that might help when i quickly need to look through what i've read again. this was for the handouts/textbooks used in class.

but very recently i purchased blueprints for medicine and am finding it just faster to simply read.

what reading habits do you guys/gals use?
 
oh yeah, as for

d.) make notes/summarize on a different paper while you read(that has got to be too time consuming for most)

i have seen people do this when starting off in med school and slowly giving up as the load of study material increases
 
e) something else.

I read out loud. I remember what I hear, so I find a private room and read out loud to myself. It seems silly, but it works quite well. I re-read whenever reasonable.

Cheers,

doepug
MS III, Johns Hopkins
 
e.) underline/highlight as you read with more than one color and make mindmaps
Usually highlight only the most important info (like latin at anatomy), I use more colours because I'm very visually oriented.
I make mindmaps only with keywords - I use it as a review. Making any other types of notes/summaries is just not effective (waste of time, you don't retain all of it anyway).
It's helpful to read the summaries in textbooks (like Levy) first. It gives you an idea of what's more important and you know how chapters are organised that way.
Hope this helps😉
 
Read and reread and reread. I got this advice from someone on this message board, and it improved my grade a bunch. The first time I read something, I don't absorb much, which is frustrating and it takes a LONG time. The second time I read something, it is amazing how much more you absorb. The third time I read something I pick up on the little details that they might ask you on an exam. If time is available (and it should be if you have good time management skills) you can read it a fourth time. Each time you read the assignment, it gets easier and faster to get through it. I would recommend trying this for one block of tests. It may not be for everyone, but I think it will help most.

This works for manageable reading assignments. I am not sure one could do this with 50-100 page dense reading material everyday for each class, but who knows. Again, I am just now trying it, and it worked for my most recent test. I am in the bottom 1/3 of the class when it comes to study hours/week, so this isn't for just the gunners.
 
Tried.
Works in high school, doesn't work at univ.
There's just SO MUCH to read! And I can't stay with it so long (200 pages at once is THE limit!) I read once good, make mind map and then repeat actively (= closed textbook&notes, mind maps allowed only first two rep's). It's far more tiresome, but it works much better for me.
 
I make the most use of D so far.

I've heard that people give up on this as it goes on, but I know some people that still do it, and Ill keep doing it as long as I can.

I find that by restructuring the material in the form of a new outline or diagram etc etc definitly helps me with retention more than just reading it, even if it is a few times.
 
i like to highlight as i read. and then later studying for tests making lists of important concepts/info is also helpful.
 
FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. I spent all of college and my 1st year of med school wondering why I couldn't memorize things from just rereading them like many of my fellow students did. Well, for me it just didn't work. I looked at what classes I did best in and why - and I learned that I had to take the time to sumarize things in my own notes, my own words. It's time consuming to do it neatly and in colors and all that, but it is worth the time if you actually remember it. If I'm in a rush I might just scribble in the margins some keywords or circle some keywords. Anything active seemed to help me more than reading and highlighting. Sitting in class falling asleep in lectures was worthless for me as well, so I quit wasting time with that quickly.
However, many of my AOA friend went to all classes and actually remembered what they heard there. Everyone is different.

TRY EVERYTHING until you find what works best for you. What I learned most in medschool is that you are finally on a playing field with all the other people who were smart enough to make it here just because they were simply smart. Now you are expected to remember and understand massive amounts of information and you may have to entirely rework the way you learn. The good news is, you will get through it. Despite my frustrations in the first two years of medschool, I very comfortably passed my boards and expect to match into a great residency without a problem. You too will be here before you know it.
 
No idea what a mindmap is?

I highlighted through the first 2 yrs... Didn't really help much, but it at least made me feel like I'd done something.



Jan 7th is the day...
 
Wow. A lot of people are fallowing my plan. I read once, then the second time I read with a highlighter and get the most important stuff. (This is for notes. Don't normally use books) Then I reread until I have the highlighted stuff totally memorized, then I pick up the small stuff knowing I already have the important stuff.
 
Originally posted by shag
No idea what a mindmap is?
Click to expand...

Seriously, no. I think I already make them, from the sound of it... but I'm really not familiar with the term mindmap, can someone explain what it is?
 
mind maps / concept maps are visual representation of ideas and the relationships between them - do a google search for either 'mind map' or 'concept map' and you'll see sites with lots of examples -

the familiar Kreb's Cycle diagram is not unlike a concept map
 
I'm a "d" that does a lot of rereading.

First I read through the chapter. Then I skip back and forth comparing different aspects and getting a solid idea of how everything ties together. Finally, I stand up and lecture (to the dust bunnies) from memory on the subject . When I can't remember a portion, I go back and read that section before continuing my "lecture".

This method has worked great for me on the core subjects, and in areas that I can't grasp by simply reading it. I probably will pick up a totally different style when I am actually in med school.
 
I read and reread, highlighting the most important stuff and underlining the less important things. I don't retain as much as I would like unless I reread multiple times though.
 
My first post on this forum; entering med school this fall.
As an undergrad, I would read the book (w/ highliters- terms, names, key concepts) before class, follow along in the book during class, then copy me notes and re-write the book in my own words. That last one was key- by just changing the smallest things, but making sure not to repeat anything verbatim, everything just "stuck" better than it did with any other technique.
Also, as I've taken more and more advanced courses, it seems that the texts more and more often contain out-of-date or incomplete information. Thus, following along in the book during lectures allowed me to make corrections and additions where ever the profs pointed them out.
 
Originally posted by HouseHead
... and re-write the book in my own words. That last one was key- by just changing the smallest things, but making sure not to repeat anything verbatim, everything just "stuck" better than it did with any other technique.
Click to expand...

I think that's the key.... Understanding the subject well enough to put it in your own words. I know that once I understand a subject that well, it is much harder to forget.
 
I do the following...

I read it once

I read it again concentrating on the main ideas and highliting them with different highliters

I get a paper after that and write what I recall form what i have read

the day before the exam, I reread it again carefully with a paper next to me to write the main keywords and notes..😛
 
Along these lines, do people usually read the handouts and the text? Or just the handouts?

I think some profs unknowingly make it more difficult when they provide INCOMPLETE handouts...because the handouts end up having some of the material found in the source text and then some additional material that they think is important (that's not found in the text). But since the handouts don't have *everything* from the text, you're forced to read two sources, and some of it is redundant.

Is that a good thing or bad thing? It seems incomplete in a way.

I wish they would just have handouts that are either complete or only have the additional information that they will test the students on.

Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way.

Any thoughts on my comments? Or any comments on my thoughts? 😀

Originally posted by hihihi
Read and reread and reread. I got this advice from someone on this message board, and it improved my grade a bunch. The first time I read something, I don't absorb much, which is frustrating and it takes a LONG time. The second time I read something, it is amazing how much more you absorb. The third time I read something I pick up on the little details that they might ask you on an exam. If time is available (and it should be if you have good time management skills) you can read it a fourth time. Each time you read the assignment, it gets easier and faster to get through it. I would recommend trying this for one block of tests. It may not be for everyone, but I think it will help most.

This works for manageable reading assignments. I am not sure one could do this with 50-100 page dense reading material everyday for each class, but who knows. Again, I am just now trying it, and it worked for my most recent test. I am in the bottom 1/3 of the class when it comes to study hours/week, so this isn't for just the gunners.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by heelpain
I found just as many bright people in the non-premed areas: engineering, someone trying to get a bachelor's in physics or math. Some med students in my class could not even go very far beyond pre-med physics.
Click to expand...

I totally agree. I don't know what's all this fuss about med students being THE best of people, the brightest, the smartest ect. 🙄
Personally, I think there are loads of them going into medicine because their parents, grandparents (and so on) are in it - sometimes I wonder whether some of the students at my med school have absolutely no ethic reservations regarding some 'touchy' topics (like eutanasia)
:wow:
There are also some of the best people I know here. :clap:
 
Originally posted by heelpain
I found just as many bright people in the non-premed areas: engineering, someone trying to get a bachelor's in physics or math. Some med students in my class could not even go very far beyond pre-med physics.
Click to expand...

i was an engineering major as well as many of my friends. i've also met many math majors as well.

medicine attracts people from a whole spectrum other than the stereotypical chem or bio major.
 
I'm a bit late to this thread but I am currently reading Oklahoma Notes - Study Skills and Test-Taking Strategies for Medical Students which might prove useful to most, if not some. It goes on about how you can adopt study habits that reflect your own personal learning style which is dictated by how you perceive the world and how you learn. It is well worth a read at least.
 
Originally posted by heelpain
It still doesn't make medicine the MOST DIFFICULT FIELD, because there still are people in medicine that could not do physics beyond the pre-med req.

My point is that there were many bright people in other fields besides medicine. People that received doctorates in math, geophysics, etc. It is just as hard to get in to a clinical psych program now.

There are many brilliant people in college who could do medicine, but have no interest in doing so.
Click to expand...

i agree with what you say in this post, i was just noting that in your original post, you wrote, "I found just as many bright people in the non-premed areas: engineering, someone trying to get a bachelor's in physics or math. Some med students in my class could not even go very far beyond pre-med physics." this suggests that people getting engineering, physics, or math degrees are not-premed. premed can come from any major. i would also say that many other programs are probably more challenging. i don't think phd programs usually take hundreds of students compared to the average med school class.
 
IMO medicine isn't the most difficult field but it's one of the most difficult fields to get into.
 
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