Retaining information

[susannaQ]

Hey, I'm an undergrad waiting to go eother to med school or PA school. I have a question: I've looked at med school books(med gross anatomy, gross lab, physio, ect) and all that information and I was wondering: are you supposed to retain all that information? Is it good enough to retain it good enough for the test and finals?

That is A LOT of information. How good of an information retainer do you have to be to do good in med school and be a good doctor?

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[Mumpu]

Yes, "good enough for exams" is good enough. It will give you the core on which you will add the details as you progress through your training and career. Anyone who says otherwise is a gunner.

 

[leorl]

You do have to keep retaining it though...like cramming for MS-1 isn't enough, cuz you're going to have to re-cram it all for the USMLE, and then you'll encounter it again during some of your rotations. So while the bulk of it you can cram your 1st year, you will have to review it from time to time. After that, you can just look it up in a book .

 

[LuckyMD2b]

It's a ton of information to retain, but you do have 4+ years of school to try and get a hold of as much as possible. And a lot of that learning is on-the-job training in the clinical years. And even after that you aren't considered a "real" physician til after residency.

 

[Fermata]

Supposedly the information is thrown at you multiple times so a little bit more sticks each successive time.

 

[daisygirl]

Supposedly the information is thrown at you multiple times so a little bit more sticks each successive time.

There is a lot of repetition in med school. Often times you'll learn something important first year, and then you'll see it again second year (when you see it again, you're often given more pieces of the picture too). Learning a concept multiple times definitely helps retention, and it is also easier to
'learn' something the second time around (if that makes any sense). However, many concepts are not thrown at you multiple times.

Med school is hard because of the volume. I've also found the vocabulary tough at times- So many things are named after dead people. I've often wished that medical terminology followed an 'IUPAC' system (IUPAC is the organization that dictates the terminology to be used in chemistry in case you don't remember- I was a chem major in undergrad ).

I'm studying for step one right now, and I swear that I have holes in my brain. The information that I've learned over the past two years seems to leak out of my head at an exponential rate. It's very disheartening .

Back to relearning all of the tumors of the female reproductive tract

 

[4 Ever]

There is a lot of repetition in med school. Often times you'll learn something important first year, and then you'll see it again second year (when you see it again, you're often given more pieces of the picture too). Learning a concept multiple times definitely helps retention, and it is also easier to
'learn' something the second time around (if that makes any sense). However, many concepts are not thrown at you multiple times.

Med school is hard because of the volume. I've also found the vocabulary tough at times- So many things are named after dead people. I've often wished that medical terminology followed an 'IUPAC' system (IUPAC is the organization that dictates the terminology to be used in chemistry in case you don't remember- I was a chem major in undergrad ).

I'm studying for step one right now, and I swear that I have holes in my brain. The information that I've learned over the past two years seems to leak out of my head at an exponential rate. It's very disheartening .

Back to relearning all of the tumors of the female reproductive tract

IUPAC *shudders* - the downside with that was even though IUPAC itself was great, you then had to know the common name AND the IUPAC name so it just ended up being more things to memorize.

 

[daisygirl]

IUPAC *shudders* - the downside with that was even though IUPAC itself was great, you then had to know the common name AND the IUPAC name so it just ended up being more things to memorize.

True, but at least IUPAC names made sense. The terminology used in medicine (based on my med school experience) gives me the urge to stick my head through a wall. Countless things are named after dead people, and to make matters worse, often the same thing has another name (sometimes the 'other' name actually makes sense, most times it doesn't). The generic pharm names aren't much fun either- I can barely pronounce them, let alone spell them.

Another favorite of mine, is how robbin's will refer to the histopath resembling a 'fried egg'. I've come to the conclusion that everything looks like a fried egg under the microscope .

 

[ericdamiansean]

Supposedly the information is thrown at you multiple times so a little bit more sticks each successive time.

i agree with you on that, things like DM and HTN, they get thrown to you so many times you get sick and tired of it..i had my GP posting for a week, and DM was thrown at me for just 3 days...it's now permanently tattoeed on my forehead..

 

[gwyn779]

Another favorite of mine, is how robbin's will refer to the histopath resembling a 'fried egg'. I've come to the conclusion that everything looks like a fried egg under the microscope .

If it's not a fried egg, it's some other type of food (strawberries are also popular).

You're expected to memorize a very large amount of information, although I think this isn't the way they should be teaching since the information changes so quickly. Pharm is a great example, some of the stuff I memorized was out of date a year later. It makes so much more sense to teach us concepts and then how to find the details quickly. Sorry, old rant.

 

[Mumpu]

The best way to deal with the material is to learn in the context of patients. You'll remember zebras like necrobacillosis for the rest of your life once you work through a patient that has one. Needless to say, having a lot of patient contact in the first two years helps a lot.