Use of ‘Memory Palace’ and Related Techniques?

[Daitong]

Hey guys,

Just got done with my first M1 exam! Anyways, I was wondering if you or anyone you knew used specific ‘memory palace’ techinques like those done by professional memory champions to store and recall large amount of information. I’d think that it could potentially be very effective esp. for pharmacology/microbio, but I have no idea how to really implement this- it’s just alphabet soup to me.

Would anyone mind sharing/PMing me ways they utilized it?

Thanks in advance and I hope you guys have a great day!!

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[deleted564680]

Ask Sherlock.

 

[stepone2015]

Use Picmonic and then make your own cards based off their language. I've tried doing real memory palaces, but they are too inefficient for someone who doesn't have time to practice and train with them. Picmonic-esque cards can be made very fast and stick very strongly. I learned >600 cards from Picmonic plus approximately 100 of my own for Step 1. It definitely made me learn things quicker with higher retention. Plus, for some obscure stuff, it got me a few points on the real deal that there's no way I would have remembered otherwise.

 

[operaman]

Yeah picmonic came out January of my M2 year and I loved it -- wish I'd had it for all of the preclinical years. And even now I will occasionally remember something really obscure because of a picmonic card.

Memory palaces and related techniques could work but I think the time it would take to scale it up to a place where it would be helpful is the limiting factor. If you came in to med school a memory champion, sure, it might work for certain things, but you just don't have the time to develop the skill AND keep up with your classes. Not to mention there really isn't all that much memorizing to do if you're efficient about it.

There are so many large patterns and concepts in medicine; learn them and you'll spare yourself a ton of memorizing. Sadly, it doesn't get taught that way very often. I think I personally view the body as a sort of memory palace and most of my personal knowledge base is anchored visually/physically in the body itself or my own proprioception.

Picmonic is great. I was/am a big anki fan, especially for areas that do require some brute force memorization (pharm, micro, etc.).

 

[smokn]

Give Sketchy Medical a glance too. They're just micro for now, but they're coming out with pharm soon. It's basically a pre-made mental palace.

 

[deleted480308]

Sketchy

 

[bashwell]

Second or third or whatever Sketchy Micro. Much better than Picmonic in my opinion.

 

[stepone2015]

Sketchy Micro lacks the breadth of material covered by Picmonic, else I would agree with the above recommendations. Picmonic cards are not as well thought out, but being able to do hundreds is a big advantage over Sketchy. Micro is not the only area that these types of techniques are amazing for.

I haven't had access to Picmonic for months now, yet I can still remember hundreds of cards off the top of my head, which is incredibly useful for getting pimped on rounds as a 3rd year. It makes you look like a rockstar besides just doing well on Step 1.