Study Advice to Others

[FutureDoc4]

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I got to say after being in med school for two-three months you still don't feel really adjusted...however, coming into medical school I felt prepared... everyone told me before school started and during orientation that what we did in undergrad "won't work" and that we should make sure we preview each lecture, and stay on top of everything little thing and do X, Y and Z... so for the first set of exams I did all those things and I did well (def above average and in no way close to failing).. however, I knew I could do better... so, I finally said F*ck it and went back to what I did in undergrad, and I after my last set of exams, I did way better than my first set.... so, I guess I just wanted to reiterate to my fellow first years... everyone seems to tell you what you did in undergrad won't work here, but isn't that what got you here? IF you find yourself lost amongst all the suggestions for study routines, go back to what you know. I wish I had just done that from the beginning.

End of Rant.

 

[supernareg]

i had a 3.7 undergrad gpa, if i do the same thing now in med school 1st term as i did then, i'd fail. no doubt. fail. 100%. No $$

 

[montessori2md]

I think it varies a lot depending on you, your ugrad, and your med school. This has been said before, but there is no one plan for everyone to do well in med school -otherwise, someone would be selling it to us.

That said, my technique is not super-different than what I did in undergrad. I have to look at the material more than I did in ugrad, because I have to know the material better than I needed to know it in ugrad -the exam questions simply require you to have a more thorough understanding than my ug instructors required. I also have stopped doing practice questions prior to exams -I have found that it takes up too much time, and what I need to do is spend that time learning more in my weak areas -and I know what those are without "testing" myself.

What has changed most for me is the way I read exam questions. In undergrad, I could look at a question and answer it 90% of the time, without really thinking about it (unless you had to do a calculation or something). In med school, I have done much much better by reading the questions carefully at least twice -first I answer everything, then reread each question as I bubble - I never bothered to check over an exam in undergrad, except maybe a question here or there that I wasn't sure about. There are so many terms that look similar, and so many opportunities to miss nuance, that it's easy to be wrong due to careless reading.

That has probably affected my notetaking -I now take my notes on my laptop so that when rereading my notes I KNOW which enzyme I was writing about, b/c I have crappy handwriting.

 

[FoundationsFan5]

There is also a big difference between MS1 and MS2 study style. I've been more focused on integration and combining multiple concepts into one in order to memorize my crap more quickly, and it's working.

 

[FutureDoc4]

I just wanted to simply state that not all of us have to change what we did in undergrad to succeed. Like everyone on here seems to think. Granted, I am only an MS1, and I will see how my methods develop into second year. I just wanted to give others hope that they don't have to throw their methods to the wind.