Studying on your own in med school

[Nomemal]

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So I constantly hear the Med students have to teach themselves, and that no one goes to lectures. I’m kind of overwhelmed by this idea and have some general questions:

1) do people not go to most lectures because the lectures are bad/too fast to learn anything and you have to tech that stuff to yourself if you actually want to learn it?

2) Are you expected to find your own resources to use to “teach yourself” or is it more like you read up by yourself on the chapters of a specific book you’re supposed to use that relate to the topics you’re learning in class.

 

[getdown]

So I constantly hear the Med students have to teach themselves, and that no one goes to lectures. I’m kind of overwhelmed by this idea and have some general questions:

1) do people not go to most lectures because the lectures are bad/too fast to learn anything and you have to tech that stuff to yourself if you actually want to learn it?

2) Are you expected to find your own resources to use to “teach yourself” or is it more like you read up by yourself on the chapters of a specific book you’re supposed to use that relate to the topics you’re learning in class.

1. You're in medical school and thus are assumed to be an adult learner. There no longer is this spoon-feeding of information that happens in undergrad. There is no "studying for the test". There will be tests, obviously, that you have to study for but you need to learn to start looking for and synthesizing answers by yourself like how you will be doing when you're actually practicing. The material that is covered in lecture are either basic or quickly glossed over to be inadequate in terms of actual understanding needed to do well on the tests and general application clinically. Most schools also video/audio tape their lectures so students can relisten to them at their leisure. So people who don't like going to lecture can just learn it on their own time.

2. Yes. This is the very foundation of being a physician. You need to find your own resources, learn and synthesize. The classes will give you guidance but you'll need to look stuff up on your own. Here's an example of this from my own personal practice. A patient comes in with a history of heart transplant and is going for lung surgery. He has other history of COPD, hypertension and liver disease. How are you going to manage his anesthesia? You can read about heart transplant by itself, lung surgery physiology, COPD, hypertension and liver disease individually but you need to know how to put them all together in this one patient. What may be good for one organ system can be bad for another and that's not always found neatly written up in a textbook. You read different sources and use that information to come up with a plan that best addresses all your concerns.

 

[Nomemal]

1. You're in medical school and thus are assumed to be an adult learner. There no longer is this spoon-feeding of information that happens in undergrad. There is no "studying for the test". There will be tests, obviously, that you have to study for but you need to learn to start looking for and synthesizing answers by yourself like how you will be doing when you're actually practicing. The material that is covered in lecture are either basic or quickly glossed over to be inadequate in terms of actual understanding needed to do well on the tests and general application clinically. Most schools also video/audio tape their lectures so students can relisten to them at their leisure. So people who don't like going to lecture can just learn it on their own time.

2. Yes. This is the very foundation of being a physician. You need to find your own resources, learn and synthesize. The classes will give you guidance but you'll need to look stuff up on your own. Here's an example of this from my own personal practice. A patient comes in with a history of heart transplant and is going for lung surgery. He has other history of COPD, hypertension and liver disease. How are you going to manage his anesthesia? You can read about heart transplant by itself, lung surgery physiology, COPD, hypertension and liver disease individually but you need to know how to put them all together in this one patient. What may be good for one organ system can be bad for another and that's not always found neatly written up in a textbook. You read different sources and use that information to come up with a plan that best addresses all your concerns.

But to learn the basics of anatomy, or how each organ system works, I assume you don’t rely mainly on google/journals and you use your textbooks which I hope are more useful than lectures. I understand that when you learn about diseases you’ll have to synthesize information you learned before, but I’m just worried about being thrown into an environment where everyone else knows how to teach themselves using outside resources (not textbooks provided/lectures) and I don’t.

 

[getdown]

But to learn the basics of anatomy, or how each organ system works, I assume you don’t rely mainly on google/journals and you use your textbooks which I hope are more useful than lectures. I understand that when you learn about diseases you’ll have to synthesize information you learned before, but I’m just worried about being thrown into an environment where everyone else knows how to teach themselves using outside resources (not textbooks provided/lectures) and I don’t.

No, you actually go to the cadaver labs and look at the anatomy. This is usually mandatory. The anatomy practicals in medical school, well at least at my school, use actual cadavers with all they're amazing variations. You can use books to get a cleaner idea of what's what but can't substitute actually dissecting and looking at the real thing.

The bolded part you're gonna have to figure out yourself. Do you have a study plan? How do you study now? Is it effective? Can't worry about other people so best figure out if you're doing it right before you start medical school.

 

[sniderwes]

Lectures generally suck and are too slow and inefficient. We just study the sped up online version or powerpoint slides to save time. Only 10-20% of students physically attend non-mandatory lectures.

You don't really have to find your own resources. There's like a few accepted high yield resources that everyone uses and knows about, and if you study from those you'll be fine.

 

[Goro]

So I constantly hear the Med students have to teach themselves, and that no one goes to lectures. I’m kind of overwhelmed by this idea and have some general questions:

1) do people not go to most lectures because the lectures are bad/too fast to learn anything and you have to tech that stuff to yourself if you actually want to learn it?

2) Are you expected to find your own resources to use to “teach yourself” or is it more like you read up by yourself on the chapters of a specific book you’re supposed to use that relate to the topics you’re learning in class.

The days of the "sage on the stage" filling your brain up like it's an empty vessel are coming to a close. People retain info via active learner better than passive learning.

The big trend in medical education is TBL. U VM has no lectures. At my school, our TBLs are material given you you ahead of time (PPT file, packets, or required reading etc) and you show up with the entire class to take a quiz or exam individually and then as a team. There is evidence that this help long term retention. I hate it because it' turns us faculty into baby sitters.

Alas, I'm a dinosaur. My kind is dwindling. The mammals will be taking over soon.

 

[hebrewBAMmer]

The big trend in medical education is TBL.

I was under the impression PBL was the new big trend

 

[RNthenDoc]

Essentially the world is realizing that the internet is replacing higher education, and the entire house of cards is tumbling down.

As I sit here teaching myself medicine, I often wonder why society needs so much tuition...

In undergrad I once had a professor in a private unit refer me to Khan academy when I asked about a specific topic. Didn’t bother them in the slightest, or give them any pause. They simply knew that a YouTube video that is free was superior to their high-salary, doctorally-prepared lectures. Fine. But then why did I pay thousands in tuition?

 

[LukaDoncicLuk]

The days of the "sage on the stage" filling your brain up like it's an empty vessel are coming to a close. People retain info via active learner better than passive learning.

The big trend in medical education is TBL. U VM has no lectures. At my school, our TBLs are material given you you ahead of time (PPT file, packets, or required reading etc) and you show up with the entire class to take a quiz or exam individually and then as a team. There is evidence that this help long term retention. I hate it because it' turns us faculty into baby sitters.

Alas, I'm a dinosaur. My kind is dwindling. The mammals will be taking over soon.

FWIW I can vouch for "flipped-classrooms" and active learning. I took my EM physics in one of these new-fangled setups and it was infinitely better than a traditional lecture. Even though the material was MUCH harder than the newtonian physics course I had just taken I ended up doing a lot better and was actually motivated to attend lecture.

 

[ciestar]

The days of the "sage on the stage" filling your brain up like it's an empty vessel are coming to a close. People retain info via active learner better than passive learning.

The big trend in medical education is TBL. U VM has no lectures. At my school, our TBLs are material given you you ahead of time (PPT file, packets, or required reading etc) and you show up with the entire class to take a quiz or exam individually and then as a team. There is evidence that this help long term retention. I hate it because it' turns us faculty into baby sitters.

Alas, I'm a dinosaur. My kind is dwindling. The mammals will be taking over soon.

My school has no in-person lecture now. Instead, it is the flipped classroom PBL/TBL and the faculty has prepared “lectures” online that have handouts and pre-recorded videos in place of a traditional lecture.

 

[Goro]

My school has no in-person lecture now. Instead, it is the flipped classroom PBL/TBL and the faculty has prepared “lectures” online that have handouts and pre-recorded videos in place of a traditional lecture.

How do you like it?

 

[Goro]

I was under the impression PBL was the new big trend

PBL has been around for almost 50 years.
EDIT: kudos to Med Ed!

 

[hebrewBAMmer]

PBL has been around for almost 20 years.

I mean since the creation of the first medical school it's relatively the new big thing amirite?

 

[FMDoge2020]

1)The first two years is mostly memorization plus understanding some physiology. People don't go to class because the material is usually only memorization or concept is too hard to learn in 50minutes.

2)for first two year, you really don't have to other than PBL and case studies. A good school should always have faculty supporting your learning should you have trouble understanding the material.

Sent from my SM-G965U using SDN mobile

 

[ciestar]

How do you like it?

I actually managed to avoid it. My class was the last class with the old curriculum

 

[libertyyne]

The first two years is mostly raw memorization. In order to reason you still need to know 5 factoids that are necessary to reason through a question.
You can sit in a lecture hall and listen to someone deliver a poorly prepared lecture in the monotone that is usually reserved for guided meditation or you can sit in your underwear at home and save yourself the commute while you feverishly jam all the material in your head.

Once the material is in your head you can start making integrations or connections. But there is really no time for that.

The first two years are realistically an exercise in masochism and endurance training ultimately culminating in step 1.


It's like learning a new language, there is a lot of confusion, frustration and old fashioned hard work . At the end of it you get to practice the language at the hospital.

 

[Goro]

The first two years is mostly raw memorization. In order to reason you still need to know 5 factoids that are necessary to reason through a question.
You can sit in a lecture hall and listen to someone deliver a poorly prepared lecture in the monotone that is usually reserved for guided meditation or you can sit in your underwear at home and save yourself the commute while you feverishly jam all the material in your head.

Once the material is in your head you can start making integrations or connections. But there is really no time for that.

The first two years are realistically an exercise in masochism and endurance training ultimately culminating in step 1.


It's like learning a new language, there is a lot of confusion, frustration and old fashioned hard work . At the end of it you get to practice the language at the hospital.

One of my colleagues described it as for 2 years you're studying French, and then for the next two years you go live in France

 

[Nucleophile1]

So I constantly hear the Med students have to teach themselves, and that no one goes to lectures. I’m kind of overwhelmed by this idea and have some general questions:

1) do people not go to most lectures because the lectures are bad/too fast to learn anything and you have to tech that stuff to yourself if you actually want to learn it?

2) Are you expected to find your own resources to use to “teach yourself” or is it more like you read up by yourself on the chapters of a specific book you’re supposed to use that relate to the topics you’re learning in class.

1. I don't go to lecture because I would prefer to sit at home and watch the lecture on 2x speed instead of having to get dressed, drive to school, walk to class, etc. It's much more efficient to watch the lecture at home. Also, I have a second monitor at home so I don't really like having to just use my laptop. It's also nice to be able to pause the lecture and look something up or rewind the lecture to listen to a specific part again.

2. Not really. When you get to med school, upperclassmen will give you advice on how best to study for the exams. It will depend on if the professors write the exams or if they use NBME exams. First Aid, Pathoma, Sketchy, Boards and Beyond, BRS, Robbins, etc. are super common resources especially if NBME exams are used. Your school will also have an academic learning center that can help you if you are struggling to figure out how best to study.

 

[Med Ed]

I was under the impression PBL was the new big trend

PBL has been around for almost 20 years.

PBL has been used in the US since the 1970's. It is the brainchild of Dr. Harold Barrows, who developed the scheme in the 1960's at McMaster.

TBL is the big new trend. It checks all of the LCME boxes for self-directed learning while using a fraction of the faculty time required for PBL. That said, I think there has been some resurgence in interest in PBL, which got quite popular in the late 90's/early 00's but waned.

 

[iforget2]

We only have 24 hours in a day. I thought I would be a lecture person going into med school, but have changed to watching them outside of class. If you have a 3 hour lecture, even if you could only manage 1.5x speed, that 3 hour lecture still becomes 2 hours or less if the professor gives breaks or ends class early and you essentially just gained at least an hour. With that hour I can knock out a few hundred anki cards, workout, run errands, etc. I hear people say to go to class because you can't see structures the professors are pointing at when you're watching the lecture from home, but for the most part you can still figure out what's going on.

 

[Medic741]

I’ll help w 2:
Sketchy & Pathoma — use em early & often

 

[sniderwes]

I’ll help w 2:
Sketchy & Pathoma — use em early & often

Save Sketchy for your Micro block.

*Edit: Actually they've come out with courses besides Sketchy Micro since I used them. If you plan on using their other sections (which I've heard are not as high quality, but possibly still decent) you might consider using it early.