I am not going to both with reading the replies to your thread but just explain what I think about premeds and their study habits.
First of all, I want to point out a few facts.
Sleep consolidates memory. In reinforces the memories you have formed, and opens up space for new memories.
Long periods of time interspersed with random things that will drown out memories between consolodiation of memory during sleep and studying diminishes what you can retain.
Anxiety and a feeling of "pressure" and "urgency" facilitates memory formation.
Memories are formed through repetition. In otherwords, unless you are a waiter and making full use of the zeigarnik effect, you have to review to form a memory.
Short periods of time between repetition (idealy through unaided retreival and making use of short term memory) helps solidify memories. That's why people like flashcards. Many don't understand why they work through, and will make hundreds of thousands of them. Best method is a a dozen or so flash cards and quick repetition. In other words, you are trying to memorize a complex structure for organic chemistry or biochemistry. Get out a sheet of paper, review 3 different ones. Try to draw them based on that short term memory image you have in your head without looking at the structure. Find out where you made a mistake, and repeat. Short periods (not to long, not back to back, just re-reading) of time between reviewing the material is key.
A technique I developed over 6 years of trying to succeed in school (actually only really got it like a year and a half ago, but it works) with ADHD but no prescription is this.
Consolidate the material the evening after the lecture. Just go over it again, write down the things that seem important. If it is all important and you have to memorize 200 biochemical pathways write them all down. Review that night.
Sleep right after that. Long period of time, of drinking or watching TV or what will drown out any thing in your mind. (7-8 hours is best).
Wake up and chances are you will be able to rattle off everything you reviewed the night before.
Week or two before the test.... (anxiety and that feeling of pressure that increases memory formation starts to kick in). Break your days up into halves.
Study non stop a variety of different topics with short breaks between periods of repetition. Over that time you will get to the point where you can regurgitate what you memorize. Now is the half day step.
Take a 3.5-4 hour nap. This will get you through a single cycle of rem sleep. Repeat the studying again with different material, with another 3.5-4 hour nap after wards. Repeat.
After ~ 2 days of that, get a full night sleep. Making sure you review everything you went over before going to sleep shortly after waking up. Retrieval is the key to LTP.
When it comes to memorization all day every day isn't going to help much, especially if they take long breaks, don't review the next morning, and don't get through 2 cycles of rem sleep.
When it comes to practice, again sleep plays a key role.
It has been proven through studies using video games, that after playing a video game for an extended period of time, the "player" becomes 'practiced'. He then sleeps, and that creates a motor pattern. Basically, he learned how to do something while playing and did it. Sleep turned that into a kind of "autonomic" process so the next time he plays he is better at it.
Runners take advantage of that through training for triathlons.
REM sleep is the key to memory consolidation and "practice".
Exercise is also important. Exercise releases endorphins and those have been shown to facilitate memory formation.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39791
