Too much material... would studying like this work?

[unsung]

So, this just occurred to me today. I haven't tried it, but I'm wondering how well this works, iyo.

Basically, I am contemplating simply listening to an MP3 of the lecture, instead of attending lecture, and also instead of watching a video stream of the lecture. (We have video-taped lectures that are downloadable.)

Why? Well, and this is probably obvious to most people, but I literally just figured this out lol.

Most of the time, the material on a given test will be directly testing something the lecturer specifically SAID during some lecture.

It may be something said in passing or something repeated & emphasized... but it's very rare that it will be something NOT verbally mentioned (i.e. on a slide, but not explained during lecture; or in assigned reading, but not explained during lecture. (The exception of course is those classes that specifically mention 10% of material come from readings or whatever... But most classes really only require us to master what has been covered in class.)

So if really all I need to master is what is actually SAID during class at some pt, that actually puts a firm limit on the amount of material I really need to study. For one thing, the class notes are often SO much more verbose than what's actually said. And even in the lecture itself, often the slides = gigantic walls of text, which the lecturer doesn't even fully explain or go through. If I really tried to study all that text either in the slides or in the notes, it would just take forever, and I'm not sure how helpful it is.

(I guess it's sorta like how we all figured out a long time ago that reading the "textbook" assigned is beyond pointless.) Well... I guess I'm contemplating down-sizing even further?! Why not just memorize exactly what the lecturer has said in class?

And to do that, I really don't need to go to class or even watch the lecture. In fact when I do watch the lecture, I tend to get distracted, because I'm half-trying to read what's on the slide and only half-listening to the lecturer. So it's like, I'm not even fully absorbing what's being said. Maybe that's just me? lol I do know that so many lecturers put up really distracting slides that are just blocks of text of unknown relevance.

A solution would be to just quit watching. Purely listen to the lecture & glean the info that way. (Obviously there are occasions where looking at figures or flow charts/pathways etc. would be necessary... but a lot of the material we're covering aren't really organized like that anyway, outside of biochem or neuro... a lot of courses are really just hodge-podge bits of info we're supposed to memorize. And for these courses, I'm thinking this method would work.)

Has anyone else tried studying this way? Not a radical idea or anything, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried this. One problem with med school sometimes is too many resources & too much info... perhaps simply down-sizing would make a difference in study efficiency.

What do you think??

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[dienekes88]

Some people I know pre-read the lecture slides and then take good notes without the distraction of the slides.

During first year, I'd go to lecture and then later listen to recordings and add to the notes I already took (different color pen... usually less important stuff). After that, I'd go through the slides and my notes multiple times, because I knew my notes were good and the slides provided visual cues to help with my memory. In the exam, I'd get the feeling that I could visualize the slide... and then see the answer.

Now (second year), I just try not to get caught up in the slides and take notes during lecture. I'll go through my notes on the slides exactly once in the 2 days before the exam. Most of my studying is for Step 1, so I'll try to do a bunch of questions, read the sections in Goljan x2 and First Aid, read HY biochem or HY embryo if necessary, review BRS Physio if I'm weak on the basics, etc.

If I watch the recordings, then I tend to get caught up in copying down everything that is said instead of making the split second decision of "this is important, this is not." When I'm trying to copy everything, it tends to take much longer. Furthermore, when I make the decision that something is important, I tend to do a better job of remembering it.

 

[deuce924]

I guess my question would be, can you "master" the information the lecturer says without knowing the background information provided in the slides and in the readings? It would be nice for you just to memorize everything the lecturer says but, at least for me, I need background information to be able to understand the information rather than just mass memorize everything that was said over the course of the block. Good luck and I hope it works for you.

 

[njbmd]

The only thing that I used from a lecture (outside of pathology slides which had no writing) was the objectives. Powerpoint is a brief outline at best and was/is never my main information resource for anything. It's just a presentation tool.

Basically, I looked at the syllabus topic and objectives for the lectures, skimmed the reading in the text paying close attention to the main points and definitions. I listened to the lecture (in class) only writing down a note or two of what was mentioned but not in my textbook.

At the end of the class, I looked at my notes and filled in anything that I wrote partially so that later on that evening, I could make sure that I had everything to master the objectives. I didn't "answer" or "write out" the objectives but just made sure that I could link concepts and put everything together. I used my text as a reference but most of the time, I didn't need it.

I then linked the material to my notes from the previous lecture, looked at any pictures in my text especially graphs and tables so that I knew the important relationships. I studied a week's worth of material from all classes on the weekend (my third time with the material) and reviewed everything just before the exams.

I didn't use any review books (waste of time going to outside stuff) and focused on how the material was presented (could do this because I wasn't driven to be a clerk in class to get every word) and where the prof had put emphasis or explained things in detail.

I was never "material" overloaded but had everything organized the way that my brain wanted to review and master it. I am not a rote memorizer and have never needed to have every word or even the slides that a prof presented because most of the stuff was "filler". I could look at a slide, see what was there and if it was worth writing down. This was not much of a problem because I had previously previewed the material,and could decide what I wanted from a particular slide.

Now, that I am a professor in a medical school, my slides have no words outside of a title. All of my slide titles follow a logical outline for presentation of material. My students have excellent textbooks and syllabi that contain everything that they need to know along with references for more information. This method allows them to organize the material in a manner that works for them and allows folks to listen to my explanation of the more difficult concepts without being distracted by verbage on the slides.

I never (undergraduate, graduate or medical school) depended on the professor to provide all of my educational materials which worked extrememly well for me because most of the time, I was better organized than the professor.

 

[da8s0859q]

The only thing that I used from a lecture (outside of pathology slides which had no writing) was the objectives.

I know several people who do something similar to this, and I've been moving over towards not attending -- or watching, or listening to -- lecture at all. Not necessarily a fault on their part (we've got some awesome lecturers); just a matter of time management.

Seems perfectly possible to not even review the actual lecture at all and still do well on exams.

 

[unsung]

I know several people who do something similar to this, and I've been moving over towards not attending -- or watching, or listening to -- lecture at all. Not necessarily a fault on their part (we've got some awesome lecturers); just a matter of time management.

Seems perfectly possible to not even review the actual lecture at all and still do well on exams.

Another thing I have realized is that I spend more time listening to lecture than actually doing problems, i.e. real studying.

This. Is. Wrong. I mean, this never happened in undergrad. Consider trying to learn math by simply listening to lectures or reading notes all day... if I took that precious med school time and actively tried to do practice problems (or even plain time spent trying to memorize stuff, for the more memorization intensive courses), how much better would I be doing?

As it stands, it wears me out just trying to get through all the lectures... At first, it couldn't be helped, because our Anatomy was of course mandatory attendance, so I was forced to spend hrs digging through fat (& maybe 5 min actually looking at structures)... But now, it's like, why am I still spending so much time passively sitting through class??

There has to be a better way to do this.

 

[da8s0859q]

Another thing I have realized is that I spend more time listening to lecture than actually doing problems, i.e. real studying.

This. Is. Wrong. I mean, this never happened in undergrad. Consider trying to learn math by simply listening to lectures or reading notes all day... if I took that precious med school time and actively tried to do practice problems (or even plain time spent trying to memorize stuff, for the more memorization intensive courses), how much better would I be doing?

As it stands, it wears me out just trying to get through all the lectures... At first, it couldn't be helped, because our Anatomy was of course mandatory attendance, so I was forced to spend hrs digging through fat (& maybe 5 min actually looking at structures)... But now, it's like, why am I still spending so much time passively sitting through class??

There has to be a better way to do this.

Are your lectures mandatory attendance these days? A few friends of mine (and I) have found, from actual exam grades, that not attending or listening is not necessarily a detriment. If you can make yourself go through the material page-by-page and really absorb it in roughly the same time it would take you to sit through the lecture (and then feel like you have to do it all over again that night), hey, it's worth it.