Review today's lecture or tomorrow's lecture

[37Base]

So I just started M1 and I'm getting into the swing of things. I've realized that after going to mandatory class from 8-12 sometimes 8-5, I only have time left in the day to either 1) review that day's material or 2) review tomorrow's material. So I'm wondering which should I do?

I'm leaning towards reviewing tomorrow's material as I find it helpful to be somewhat familiar with it by the time I get to lecture it helps reinforce it, but then again I also want to review today's material as I just saw it.

Anyone have insight on which is the better choice?

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[Donald Juan]

Whatever works for you. I would lean toward recommending to be ahead and study for the next day. That way, you don't get lost in class and feel like you have no idea what's going on, and end up blanking out for 4 hours.

Also, mandatory 8-5 class?? Ugh...

 

[.hematoma.]

I would review the material from the day in the evening, and then wake up early the next morning and pre-read the day's lectures!

Mandatory 8-5 is brutal.

 

[meurotic]

Try to stay dynamic. Review anything from today's lecture you felt iffy about and then skim for tomorrow. No need for a full review of today's material if you're already losing that much time to mandatory lecture.

 

[mw18]

When I started last year I had this cute idea about staying on top of things and organized. And that I would spend however much time reviewing today's stuff and then previewing the next day's. You end up just doing whatever it takes to survive. But if you actually have to be there for the lectures and especially that long, then you should at least get something out of it. Which I think means previewing/learning the next day's lectures, so that you're really integrating that material when you're stuck in lecture.

 

[CharakaComplex]

I've got mandatory 8-4 6 days a week, and even though I would like to be familiar with tomorrow's material before the class, that never worked for me. If you're a lazy ass like I am and have issues with motivation, it's sufficient to study today's material - after all, the point of the class is to introduce the material to you.

If you study the material before going to class, chances are you're only going to have a half-baked understanding of it, and the class will serve to reinforce that material for you. But if you learn the material in class and then go home and revise, you can study it in greater detail and save yourself a lot of time with revision (assuming you can retain at least the important information).

That's what worked for me, anyways! How you study is ultimately up to you, as long as you remember the important information and score satisfactorily on the exams. You'll eventually find a way of studying that works best for you (especially since you've only just started your first year). Also different classes require different levels of effort, so you might have different study styles for each class.

 

[Goro]

Mandatory lectures????

Ideally, you should be reviewing both lecture sets. Visit your school's learning or education center for help with this!

So I just started M1 and I'm getting into the swing of things. I've realized that after going to mandatory class from 8-12 sometimes 8-5, I only have time left in the day to either 1) review that day's material or 2) review tomorrow's material. So I'm wondering which should I do?

I'm leaning towards reviewing tomorrow's material as I find it helpful to be somewhat familiar with it by the time I get to lecture it helps reinforce it, but then again I also want to review today's material as I just saw it.

Anyone have insight on which is the better choice?

 

[Psai]

Best is to preread but realistically you'll only have time to review and you'll have to cherry pick it. There's only so much time in the day and learning how to manage your time is key.

 

[AlteredScale]

Best is to preread but realistically you'll only have time to review and you'll have to cherry pick it. There's only so much time in the day and learning how to manage your time is key.

Def agree with this. IMO reviewing today's material takes precedence over prereading the next days material. If I had time at the end of the day I'd do a quick skim of the next days material unless there were skill checks then I'd move over to those but even then, some days didn't work out like this and like @Psai said, it's essential to learn how to manage your time.

 

[GoodWillShunting]

Get to lecture 5-10 minutes early. Quickly skim to see what they will talk about- nothing more. Sit and listen to the lecture- don't take notes. Seriously. Just let them explain what the hell the topic is about. Then, review the topics. Either by doing multiple passes with deeper dives into detail with each pass, or just 1-2 passes with what you need. Reviewing is the best. I honestly do not believe pre-reading is going to make a huge difference when you are going to study after lecture, anyways. Quick skim, if anything. My humble opinion.


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[cherubb3]

I am trying to figure out a similar strategy... I too have a LOT of mandatory lecture time.

 

[Stagg737]

It depends on when you actually "learn" the material the best. Is the mandatory lecture better for just giving you an overview of the material so you can cement it in that night or is it better to skim/pre-read the night before and try and cement it in during the lecture where you can ask the prof to clarify something if you're confused? Depends on how you learn, but I think the vast majority of people would go with reviewing after seeing it in lecture rather than pre-reading if you've only got time for one. As Don Juan said, figure out what works for you and stick to that. Don't worry about grades for your first few weeks, just get your study habits solidified so you can be successful for the rest of the next 2 years.

 

[NotYou20]

I've got mandatory 8-4 6 days a week, .

Wtf

 

[GoodWillShunting]

I've got mandatory 8-4 6 days a week

6 days a week? I assume you mean 5, but even at 5, that's horrible. Why do schools still think lecture benefits everybody? Even if they do it for other reasons, they should know damn well that it can actually hurt a good handful students.


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[Lee Ik-jun MD]

am i the only one studying lectures for next week? LOL!
serious answer, study today's topic.

 

[Taco Time]

Study today's lectures. If you have these down, review the past week's lectures. If you haven't flossed, floss. If you either haven't slept in 16 hours or it's past 11pm, go to bed. If you believe you must study the lectures from tomorrow, by all means do it, but I can't believe it offers any real benefit unless you know that's the single, unequivocally best way for you to learn.

You'll see that some lectures/lecturers are so tortuous that just getting through a lecture the day before isn't worth the effort (my opinion). But, if they're easier to get through, they'll be even easier after listening to the lecture. Also, don't feel upended by students that prepare in advance of everything. It doesn't make them smarter, just more familiar with X material. It's one thing to look over a cook book and memorize a few ingredients but another challenge to actually prepare the meal. No one asks you in class before lecture what the ingredients are, but you're expected to be the chef come test day.

Edit: Although it'd be easy to presume by my username and the analogy that I used that I'm some food mongering, pudgy guy, I'd like to let everyone know that my BMI is a o k.

 

[CharakaComplex]

6 days a week? I assume you mean 5, but even at 5, that's horrible. Why do schools still think lecture benefits everybody? Even if they do it for other reasons, they should know damn well that it can actually hurt a good handful students.

Well actually it's unnecessarily complicated for us. In India, the general pattern is seven hours of classes (an hour of lunch) Monday through Friday, as well as odd Saturdays (1st/3rd Sat in the month and 5th if applicable). But because we have so many religious holidays (for Hinduism, Islam and Christianity at least) not to mention the public holidays (Independence day, Republic day, various freedom fighter birthdays - this can differ state to state), usually they end up coopting every Saturday for class.

That said I'm in the paraclinical year right now (year 2) and we spent three of those seven hours in postings, and then an additional two hours in practicals or demonstrations, so we're not actually in a class for more than two hours a day. Unless they coopt the practical classes if they're lagging behind on theory. Preclinical first year was definitely worse, because they regularly did away with practical classes to focus on theory (especially on the particularly important topics, like the uterus, thyroid, the heart, the important nerve plexuses, practically all of endocrinology incl. diabetes, the whole aerobic respiration block, etc.).

There's pros and cons to the system. It definitely helps that medicine is an undergraduate course here (MBBS, equivalent to your MD) and that we have 5.5 years for it.

Wtf

I know, I definitely don't appreciate the timesuck haha. It makes it nigh impossible to focus on extracurriculars and research.

 

[GoodWillShunting]

Well actually it's unnecessarily complicated for us. In India, the general pattern is seven hours of classes (an hour of lunch) Monday through Friday, as well as odd Saturdays (1st/3rd Sat in the month and 5th if applicable). But because we have so many religious holidays (for Hinduism, Islam and Christianity at least) not to mention the public holidays (Independence day, Republic day, various freedom fighter birthdays - this can differ state to state), usually they end up coopting every Saturday for class.

That said I'm in the paraclinical year right now (year 2) and we spent three of those seven hours in postings, and then an additional two hours in practicals or demonstrations, so we're not actually in a class for more than two hours a day. Unless they coopt the practical classes if they're lagging behind on theory. Preclinical first year was definitely worse, because they regularly did away with practical classes to focus on theory (especially on the particularly important topics, like the uterus, thyroid, the heart, the important nerve plexuses, practically all of endocrinology incl. diabetes, the whole aerobic respiration block, etc.).

There's pros and cons to the system. It definitely helps that medicine is an undergraduate course here (MBBS, equivalent to your MD) and that we have 5.5 years for it.



I know, I definitely don't appreciate the timesuck haha. It makes it nigh impossible to focus on extracurriculars and research.

Oh- "India" must have slipped by me. I glossed over it.


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[37Base]

Just want to say thanks to everyone for the awesome advice. I've been reviewing that day's lectures AFTER as recommended by most people on here and that seems to be working well. Also staying flexible is good as sometimes I fell behind a couple times and had to review lectures from several days ago...in retrospect I was probably was being a little optimistic that I could get ahead. Anyways, got an A on my first anatomy exam so it's working. Thanks everyone

 

[WarrensBeenThere]

The first thing to know is that you don't have to read everything in depth. You need to hit the highlights and go into more detail only in those areas you don't understand. You also need to adjust your review strategy to focus on the areas that are difficult for you.

For highlights in books and handouts look at section names, subtitles, bold print, bullet points, and figure captions. For reviewing slides after the lecture, go with your notes.. Indicate in your notes what is important, and review that.

About 5 minutes before lecture starts, skim through the handouts and slides. Look at the general topic, don't read in depth. Just enough that you won't be lost during lecture.

 

[TedStark]

Lecture helped me figure out what was important and then I would review that days materials afterwards, focusing on the high yield stuff.

 

[futuremdforme]

Review! You can get an idea of what's important or the prof might say something in such a way that it becomes blatantly easy and does not require more revision, ever. (I tried to pre-read but found it very useless. The exception is if you have flipped classrooms, where you are expected to do some reading and then the class is in discussion format.)