study skills advice

[OpalOnyx]

It has been a rough semester and I'm starting to realize that I never developed study skills in undergrad. Have so far been a crammer (although I did get better in med school, still cramming a lot of info the week before).

It is difficult for me to sit down for more than 20 mins at a time to concentrate on something. I just get frustrated and do something else (be it another subject or task on the to do list). I'm going to try to improve over the winter break and time my study periods. Develop better focus/concentration.

Anybody else feel like you've just been lucky with education so far and MCAT... and somehow are in med school, feeling like you're just not prepared. ?

What helped people step up to the study skills required of med school?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ACSurgeon]

It has been a rough semester and I'm starting to realize that I never developed study skills in undergrad. Have so far been a crammer (although I did get better in med school, still cramming a lot of info the week before).

It is difficult for me to sit down for more than 20 mins at a time to concentrate on something. I just get frustrated and do something else (be it another subject or task on the to do list). I'm going to try to improve over the winter break and time my study periods. Develop better focus/concentration.

Anybody else feel like you've just been lucky with education so far and MCAT... and somehow are in med school, feeling like you're just not prepared. ?

What helped people step up to the study skills required of med school?

I don't think you got lucky in undergrad and with the MCAT, I think you are intelligent enough that you got by with little effort/discipline before med school.

I am very similar in my study habits, and for me, this meant compensating by spending almost every awake hour trying to study. Obviously, only 50% or so of that time was actually studying, but you do what you have to do. This is a big reason I'm going into surgery, as there is a lot of hands on, and you tend to study in bits and pieces when you have down time (as opposed having 2-3 hours per day for studying).

If you can improve your study habits, that will help you have a life outside of school. If not, you should still make time for other things, but this free time will be limited. You can still do fairly well, but you have to compensate for your scatter brain nature.

Hope this helps!

 

[tmac11]

It has been a rough semester and I'm starting to realize that I never developed study skills in undergrad. Have so far been a crammer (although I did get better in med school, still cramming a lot of info the week before).

It is difficult for me to sit down for more than 20 mins at a time to concentrate on something. I just get frustrated and do something else (be it another subject or task on the to do list). I'm going to try to improve over the winter break and time my study periods. Develop better focus/concentration.

Anybody else feel like you've just been lucky with education so far and MCAT... and somehow are in med school, feeling like you're just not prepared. ?

What helped people step up to the study skills required of med school?

I am an MS1 also and feel the same way. I crammed in undergrad and came to med school with the intention of studying regularly and not cramming. I began the semester studying everyday and slowly went downhill. Now, it is the day before the last exam of the block, and I have 60% of the material left. I think your idea of timing study periods would be helpful. The lack of a schedule/structure to my day has been a detriment, which is why I'm going to make a schedule over winter break. Good luck on your remaining exams.

 

[MCAT guy]

It has been a rough semester and I'm starting to realize that I never developed study skills in undergrad. Have so far been a crammer (although I did get better in med school, still cramming a lot of info the week before). It is difficult for me to sit down for more than 20 mins at a time to concentrate on something. If there is good practice over it everyone can concentrate on it. So according to me this is the good technique for ever. You should apply it for ever to concentrate anything in your life.

 

[LRAccord624]

Have you seen all 5 of these posts? I'm wondering about the "ephedra" link in his sig.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

Have you seen all 5 of these posts? I'm wondering about the "ephedra" link in his sig.

It's a fairly sophisticated spambot.

 

[waitwhat]

I get so distracted with various crap on the internet with certain sites I frequent. This damned site being one of them (facebook, damn you). With all the powerpoints we need to know, its easy to let your mind drift to something else on youtube instead of learning pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism.

I've been using this program called SelfControl (it may just be for macs) and it blocks any website you input in for how ever long. It's pretty amazing. It can help out in class too (if you go). Prevents you form getting distracted and happen to be gchatting people. I don't know if that helps or not, but the link is below.

http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/

 

[JustCallMeDoc]

One thing that has worked really well for me is keeping track of how I spend each 30 minute block of the day. I made an excel grid with the day in 30 minute blocks and just mark each half hour as spent studying or spent doing something else. That way I can actually see how much productive studying I've done.
And its good to set short term goals for studying. So tell yourself that you will focus on studying for the next hour or something, and then you will take a break. And if something comes into your head that distracts you or demands your attention, write it down and either think about it or take care of that task during your scheduled break.

 

[KAULmeMD]

I mean, if you gotta pick up a skill set now or later..."Planning" helps you a lot and when you're in med school thats one of the basic things you'll grab. Plan to study and plan to study a lot. More important plan to study certain subjects every day and also plan how much to study based on which exam is coming.

If you find you still need study skills you can prolly talk to some of your professors and they'll prolly give u tips individualized to each course which may be the best answer you want in med school.

If nothing though, just remember everyone has to study now or later...sleep is 60% of doing well on an exam so the night before needs to be spent sleeping not learning new material, hope that helps.

 

[robu058]

To OP,

I am active learner! So, to keep myself from surfing the net and passively study, I study the active way. This involves in me writing on the whiteboard when i am studying. I tend to repeatedly write a sentence or a paragraph on the board, yes at least 10X before it is ingrained in my mind. Trust me, it helps a great deal!

PS: i bought a whiteboard...so i either study @ home or in school!

 

[ArcGurren]

Turns out that for me, more noise in the background actually helps because then I unconsciously try to tune it out and focus on the material. Plus it's nice because once you want to take a short break, just look up and voila, LIFE.

OP, bro, I feel you. I definitely had to change my study habits when starting med school, and thankfully i had a good class first which forced me to do so.