this was posted here a few years ago and I've found it very helpful
For rote memorization I like repetition with a white board
AUDIO STUDY METHOD
Our class scribed notes, so I would go to lecture, then take the scribed note and read them into my tape recorder rather than annotate, study and highlight. Before each set of block exams, I would listen to the notes on tape 3 times. I no longer read the books for class (my theory was that anything that a professor would test you on, he would mention at least once). I still did some practice questions with friends as well. This strategy paid off and I graduated in the top 10 of my class.
The approach worked so well, that I studied for the boards this way. I took First Aid for Steps 1,2, and 3 along the way, Step Up for the USMLE, and Underground Clinical Vignettes as well as a couple of other books and recorded all of them and listened to study. This resulted in top board scores for all three Step exams and an ophthalmology residency in New York.
When I graduated medical school, I threw most of the tapes away and had recorded over many of them.
As I began ophthalmology residency, I turned digital. Now I put all of the ophthalmology review books on computer as MP3 or MP4 and listen to them.
HOW I STUDIED AUDIO: I found the most effective way to study audio from a book such as First Aid is to sit down with the book open and put on my head phones. I would put the playback speed on fast, because your brain can usually think faster than a person can speak. I would look at the diagrams and flip the pages as I went along.
I didn't re-read the text while listening, just look at the diagrams, so I got the visual and the verbal portion of learning at once. I think it is essential to have both the book and the audio, one alone won't do for a lot of medicine. For example, all the path slides in the back of the book.
I would listen to the book three times through as fast as I could (my attention span was about 50 minutes at a time) with a five minute or so break. Retention of material is about 15% the first time through, 40% the second time through, and 85-90% the third time through. By the time of the exam, I was ready.
Third time's a charm:
Whenever I would study for the board using audio, I would listen to the material three times.
The first time through, I would just become familiar with the material. I wouldn't actually retain much but I would get through the ENTIRE book. The mistake a lot of people make is spending three days to memorize the first few pages and not getting through all the material.
The second time through, I would recognize a lot of the material and passages. Now I would begin to understand the diagrams and photos, and some of the data is sealed into memory.
The third time through, I would recognize almost all the material as I went. This is the point where I note the information that I DID NOT RECOGNIZE OR REMEMBER. I would put a note on these sections, this is the 10-15% of material you have to sit down and actually memorize from the book.
I would memorize as little as I could, and save the memorization for as late as I could.
