What do the top students do?

[Doc driven]

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I know we are all top students. I did very well in undergrad all by myself. I never studied in groups and would just ask the teacher if I had a question. I was just wondering if the top students in medical stick to themselves or study in groups. I heard that everyone studies in groups. Could anyone give me any advice? I appreciate your time.
thanks a lot,
Doc driven

 

[BSN2DOC]

Not a medical student, but with any degree program, the top students will have varying ways of studying. You will have students who study well by themselves and others who study better in the group setting, and then you have those students who can listen to a lecture and retain everything they listened to (I envy those students!).

 

[schrute]

I know we are all top students. I did very well in undergrad all by myself. I never studied in groups and would just ask the teacher if I had a question. I was just wondering if the top students in medical stick to themselves or study in groups. I heard that everyone studies in groups. Could anyone give me any advice? I appreciate your time.
thanks a lot,
Doc driven

The top students, otherwise known as 'gunners,' live in perpetual fear that some day, in a moment of inspiration, they will be outshone by a complete *****... (thank you "House of God")

Just do what works for you...don't base your study habits on what the #3 ranked kid in class does, because it's going to be different than the #2 kid, etc...

The only way to learn this is by trial and error.

 

[SomeDoc]

Never read House of God, and have no intentions of ever reading it, for exactly the reason described above 🙂. OP, every student is different; you'll see that different approaches work for different individuals. The one common denominator is that there is no skimping on effort, "genius" or not.

I think we see a common theme here...

 

[Doc driven]

👍Thanks a lot. I'll see what works for me.
Doc driven

 

[surrender903]

the top students use Hydroxycut.

...

 

[Buckeye4life]

Even though it seems as though there aren't enough hours in the day to get through all the material, one tip I would definitely recommend is make sure you just take care of yourself. Eat right, work out, and make time for friends and family. Having some sense of balance, even though it requires a little more effort that you may think you just don't have, will pay off in the end. During orientation week, my school actually told us to plan these things first when managing your time. good luck.

 

[alEXatosu]

the top students use Hydroxycut.

...

hahaha yeah just ask dean marshall

 

[surrender903]

im glad someone got my joke.

 

[SomeDoc]

Even though it seems as though there aren't enough hours in the day to get through all the material, one tip I would definitely recommend is make sure you just take care of yourself. Eat right, work out, and make time for friends and family. Having some sense of balance, even though it requires a little more effort that you may think you just don't have, will pay off in the end. During orientation week, my school actually told us to plan these things first when managing your time. good luck.

This is good advice.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I know we are all top students. I did very well in undergrad all by myself. I never studied in groups and would just ask the teacher if I had a question. I was just wondering if the top students in medical stick to themselves or study in groups. I heard that everyone studies in groups. Could anyone give me any advice? I appreciate your time.
thanks a lot,
Doc driven

If you've done very well in undergrad using a certain method of studying, unless it's ridiculously time consuming (making flash cards and drawing pictures of everything), chances are you won't have to change your style much in med school.

Continue your good habits, adjust as necessary and be deligent. You will do well young grasshopper!

(Oh and skipping class helps too).

 

[surrender903]

If you've done very well in undergrad using a certain method of studying, unless it's ridiculously time consuming (making flash cards and drawing pictures of everything), chances are you won't have to change your style much in med school.

Continue your good habits, adjust as necessary and be deligent. You will do well young grasshopper!

(Oh and skipping class helps too).

a post where Saib does NOT talk about skipping class wouldnt be a complete post.

miss seeing you on campus 🙂

 

[JohnUC33]

Even though it seems as though there aren't enough hours in the day to get through all the material, one tip I would definitely recommend is make sure you just take care of yourself. Eat right, work out, and make time for friends and family. Having some sense of balance, even though it requires a little more effort that you may think you just don't have, will pay off in the end. During orientation week, my school actually told us to plan these things first when managing your time. good luck.

Watch plenty of House👍 But seriously, that is some of the best advice given to making sure that you do well in med school.

 

[nlax30]

I agree, do what works for you. Don't worry too much about what other students are doing. And having a little balance is helpful.... exercise, time with family/friends, etc...

For me I do most of my reading/studying by myself. I have a group of 4-5 close friends that I'll go over stuff with if we happen to be studying together at school. Usually after we've studied something on our own we may talk about it a little bit, or if there's something we don't understand we'll take a couple minutes and have someone explain it in their words.

For me the trick is spending enough time each day so I don't get behind. A LOT of info will be thrown at you and it can overload you fairly quickly if don't stay on top of it. I am not a fast reader AT ALL, and I have a hard time just flat out memorizing facts, but if I can read through something once and really spend time understanding the concept and placing it in a larger context, THEN I have it down. So I just need to stay on top of the reading each day and not get behind.

Other than that just do what works for you. We're strictly a PBL curriculum so some people take notes from the books, some highlight, flashcards, review books, etc.... I tried taking notes and highlighting but it just slowed me down even further. So I just sit and purposely read through the text and then think about the material and do any review questions. When test comes closer I may go back to the book to scan through some of the points I'm hazy on, or read the same material in a review type condensed book.

 

[SexPistol]

I think one of the most important things is really studying when you are studying. No facebook, myspace, espn, addictinggames, or whatever your online distractors are. If you can cut that stuff out the time will be so much better spent. No TV, no radio, these are all things taking away attention. If you really study in the hours you set aside you will have the time to do excercise and hanging out, etc. But also the fact of matter is that even in med school some people are just smarter than you are. And the lecture you need six hours to understand, they can do it in two. But if you manage your time while you are doing school stuff and also get far away from school with other activities you will do fine and also seriously decrease your burn out rate. Speaking from someone burnt out in my nervous system thread. But I only have two weeks and one more test to go.

 

[Doc driven]

This is all good serious advice and thanks for the humor too.Doc driven👍

 

[Iquitos]

I agree that skipping class helps a lot for my studies. I usually read the handouts, powerpoints and if there is something I don't understand I can listen to the lecture on MP3, double speed. However, I do go to the required classes (OMM, Ethics). It just seems like I can get about 50% to 100% more work done when I skip class. I also agree that the news, facebook, addicting online games, foosball (my favorite), and even SDN can cut back on your productivity significantly. Try to keep those activities to a minimum. And definitely make time for family/friends/yourself.👍

 

[Iquitos]

I also forgot to mention how much I love highlighters!!! When I read the material the first time I highlight the significant/high yield material. That way when I go back through for a second time (a lot of times there is only time for two read throughs) I can skip the fluff and go through the material faster!

 

[Doc driven]

I also forgot to mention how much I love highlighters!!! When I read the material the first time I highlight the significant/high yield material. That way when I go back through for a second time (a lot of times there is only time for two read throughs) I can skip the fluff and go through the material faster!

I know. Thanks a lot. That is what I did in undergrad;guess I'll keep on doing it👍.
Thanks
Doc driven

 

[scpod]

Nothing works for everyone. Here's my take on it:

Highliters, taking notes....stuff like that doesn't work for me and I'll tell you why. I've tried highlighting before. What I find when I go back and read the whole chapter again is that I'm amazed at the crap I highlited. I keep asking myself, "Why on Earth did I highlight that?" It happens because I was highlighting before I had read the whole chapter. How could I possibly know what the important stuff is if I haven't read the whole chapter and grasped the "big picture" first?

I think it's important to read the whole chapter, even if you don't understand something, like you would a novel. When you're finished, write down what you can remember about the "big picture" of the chapter. The next time you read it, do so with that "big picture" in mind. You may find that you understand things a lot better that way because you aren't just taking a few sentences out of context. When you highlight things the first time through it might look like important stuff, but it might just be trivial minutia that you are wasting your time on.

Finally, read it again with an attempt to understand things that have evaded you. At this point you can also take out the review books to see if what you think is important is what they also think is important. Try not to use the review books first, though. Keep in mind that they are there to help you "review", not "learn" the material in the first place. If you rely solely on them then you may have trouble understanding the basic concepts well.

Some people will just study from the syllabus or powerpoints from class. I believe that's a poor idea. Yes, you may do well on the tests in med school because the tests are made by the guy giving the lecture, but those aren't the same people writing board questions for the most part. Not many of your basic science professors has ever taken COMLEX. They might test you on what they think is important, but they may not be testing on what you need to know for the boards.

Also, realize that what you did in undergrad may NOT work at all for medical school. I had to totally change things around. What works for me may not work for you either. No two people study exactly alike. Never do something solely because someone else does it that way. Find what works for you and don't worry if it takes a little while at first. Just don't be afraid to change if things aren't working out quite right for you. Flexibility is really the key to doing well.

 

[Jamers]

I know we are all top students. I did very well in undergrad all by myself. I never studied in groups and would just ask the teacher if I had a question. I was just wondering if the top students in medical stick to themselves or study in groups. I heard that everyone studies in groups. Could anyone give me any advice? I appreciate your time.
thanks a lot,
Doc driven

Don't worry about being a "top student' worry about understanding the information and not memorizing every little detail. No matter how good you are, 50% of the class is going to be in the lower half of medical school. That being said, try what is best for yourself and don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Most of all, remember, medical school is a marathon, not a sprint; just when you think it is over, they slam three more exams down your throat.

 

[MossPoh]

I also forgot to mention how much I love highlighters!!! When I read the material the first time I highlight the significant/high yield material. That way when I go back through for a second time (a lot of times there is only time for two read throughs) I can skip the fluff and go through the material faster!

Funny thing is that research has shown (generally speaking) that highlighters are bad and reduce retention to much. One who highlights AFTER reading the first time has a much higher retention rate.


I think one of the most important parts of studying is simply remembering to take little breaks. Every 15-30 minutes go and take a 5 or 10 minute break to stretch, reflect, walk around. When you break up studying into small chunks you are much more likely to remember what you just read. Think about all those times you read straight through something....you remember the beginning and end right? The middle is probably pretty hazy. It is natural to remember the beginning and end better, so just create more of those! (It also helps with sanity)

 

[ArcherM2]

I lived at the local Starbucks for the first two years of school. Although this may seem like an insane waste of money, it was exactly what I needed to do well: coffee and people. I did this for a least two hours everyday for almost two years. I'm the type of person that cannot study at home, I become much too distracted by television, the couch, my guitar, etc.

Unlike some of the other posters above, I absolutely need music to study. I crank up my music, put my head down and would plow through our powerpoints, making my own notes. On Saturday I would go over the lectures I wasn't able to cover during the week and then Sunday was used to review the notes I had made during the week. This worked out very well for me both in the short term and long term (COMLEX, UMSLE, rotations).

And despite studying this much, I was still able to play intramural sports, play music, make new friends and go out on a pretty regular basis. Medical school is a lot of fun. Found out what works and enjoy it!

I agree with skipping classes when appropriate. Find out who on your faculty is worth going to and go to their lectures. There are a few lecturers at my school that are complete joke and therefore their lectures were a complete waste of time. Others were so good that if you attended their lectures and just listened you would retain the information.

I think my biggest piece of advice would be not to take short-cuts. In the end what you are learning in the first two-years becomes the foundation for what will eventually treat human beings who's lives will depend on your fund of knowledge. Do not study for tests. Study because someone's life will depend on it! Good luck!

 

[MossPoh]

Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.


Hookers on Tuesdays.

 

[djnels01]

Some geniuses roam in herds. Some fly solo.

Different strokes for different folks. Do what works for you - trial and error early in school will show you what is the best way to study for YOU.

 

[Orthodoc40]

^^^ The above post(s) pretty much answer it.

Everyone at med school is a 'top student' or they wouldn't be there, for the most part.

Just about everyone at med school thinks they will be THE top student, and THEY will be the ones getting the top residencies, in the most competitive specialties, for maybe about 2 weeks.... Then many people just decide to do their best.

Most people at med school take some time to adjust and figure out what's going to help them succeed, when they realize that what they did in undergrad ain't gonna cut it. It seems like EVERYONE has to make that adjustment in varying ways & degrees. So be ready to be average, be ready to be flexible, be ready to be made more humble than you likely ever have...

 

[Doc driven]

Thanks again.
Doc driven

 

[bth7]

Even though it seems as though there aren't enough hours in the day to get through all the material, one tip I would definitely recommend is make sure you just take care of yourself. Eat right, work out, and make time for friends and family. Having some sense of balance, even though it requires a little more effort that you may think you just don't have, will pay off in the end. During orientation week, my school actually told us to plan these things first when managing your time. good luck.

👍 Super important advice.

 

[Lamborghini1315]

Top students never fail i mean never they will defy gravity as well😎

 

[TrustDrDice]

You've gotta learn to balance studying and extracurricular/family. For instance, I met this hot chic on rounds the other day - she's so hot, I wanted to eat the corn out of her shi%, and I don't even like corn! Now that made me happy for the whole day, just the thought of it.

 

[bkpa2med]

The top students listen to me!

 

[CatsandCradles]

 

[TrustDrDice]

You've gotta learn to balance studying and extracurricular/family. For instance, I met this hot chic on rounds the other day - she's so hot, I wanted to eat the corn out of her shi%, and I don't even like corn! Now that made me happy for the whole day, just the thought of it.

This was an uncalled for statement. I apologize.