Studying

[thunder27104]

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guys I’m needing desperate help with studying…. What am I doing wrong? I am not doing well and I am not use to it. In undergrad I was a B average student never failed. Now I’m failing exams and scrambling on ways to study. How do you guys study/make things stick for you?

 

[beans2020]

What are you currently doing to study, and which classes are you struggling with?

 

[HorseObsessed]

I'm just a first year, but finding some stuff from my undergrad is going over well so far. I'm doing anatomy, embryology, imaging, and histology, so that is where my advice is relevant.
TEACH what you need to know to a friend. If you find a gap in what you know, look it up together.
Use regular active recall. Set timers to go draw out something you've been forgetting once a day at random times. Make yourself repeat things withOUT looking at your notes
Draw everything out-- concept maps, venn diagrams, diagrams of all topography, flowcharts of arterial and venous bloodflow, diagrams of nervous pathways, transverse cross sections at every layer of the body
Only study when you are ready to absorb material-- fed, rested, and in a focus-conducive environment
If you're taking anatomy, use little Miller's as the bible and try scrolling through IMAIOS to understand imaging and topographical relationships better
Use your school's resources if you have academic coaches or something similar!

 

[breezywonton]

i agree with horseobsessed. my main study method is active recall - i explain my notes/powerpoints like i'm the professor without looking directly at it, and when i stumble or can't remember something that's when i go back and review. i used to only use quizlet/notecards in undergrad but being in vet school i do not have the time to make them for every lecture, it's just not efficient. i only use flashcards for things that just need memorized quickly - for example i made one for suture absorption times so i can quickly go through it. practice quizzes are also very useful. i also make study plans everyday so i don't get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff i need to know. i'm a second year and that's the method i have been using and am doing just fine.

 

[mw1356]

if you are a flashcard person, i would recommend making them during class. my school is flipped classroom so i make them while watching prework and then edit them during class with the lecture ppt on the other half of my screen to follow along/annotate. mostly this forces me to actually pay attention in class and then i’m left with these super broad flashcards that i essentially use to do active recall. so for example my term might be “hip dysplasia” and the definition side will include common presentation, PE findings, and xray findings.

 

[TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo]

I am a very understanding-based learner. You can't completely avoid rote memorization, but I would spend a lot of time (in both vet school and for my specialty boards) talking myself through the underlying physiology and connecting concepts. If you understand it you can work backwards even for some of the things that would traditionally be strictly memorization. I also drew out lots of stuff. For classes like bacteriology I had a blank chart and tragically would just fill it in 100 times in a row until I got it since that class didn't really have another option.

I often would work with a skeleton: take a few big "key points" write those down, and then slowly add in more specific details under each heading until I reached the level of detail I needed/wanted. Sometimes I would have 4+ "levels" of indentations for said chart but it helped organize my thoughts.

I also learn by writing things down, so I jotted notes all over the lecture slides via a tablet in class. Reading the slides with my notes (typing on the slides didn't work the same way in my brain) solidified the information far faster than just reading the slides plus I saved a ton of time not rewriting all the same information.

Everyone learns differently, so without knowing how your brain works it is a bit hard to give advice.