When your old study habits are failing

[PokerDoc]

Im an MSI and while i passed all my exams comfortably now i feel like im not studying efficiently at all because it seems like all the study guides i type up arent helping me learn anything. Im ready to throw away the way ive been studying and try something new but i was looking for some suggestions.

Historically, my strategy was to listen to lecture, take notes on the slides, turn it into a study guide, review study guide. But im finding that i never learn anything during the 'making a study guide' portion and it seems like its a waste of time.

how do you guys prep for exams; whats your strategy from first lecture to exam day?

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[Non-TradTulsa]

Im an MSI and while i passed all my exams comfortably now i feel like im not studying efficiently at all because it seems like all the study guides i type up arent helping me learn anything. Im ready to throw away the way ive been studying and try something new but i was looking for some suggestions.

Historically, my strategy was to listen to lecture, take notes on the slides, turn it into a study guide, review study guide. But im finding that i never learn anything during the 'making a study guide' portion and it seems like its a waste of time.

how do you guys prep for exams; whats your strategy from first lecture to exam day?

Hate to give you bad news, but you're just going to have to find what works for you - what other people do won't help much. During my first block of MS-I, I was trying to be a good boy and read every textbook chapter in addition to typing notes on my laptop in class. I learned (the hard way) that there really isn't time for that. Actually, I did get into the habit of taking notes on the powerpoints as they were presented in class.

Whatever you do, you'll probably adjust your study habits as an MS-II, anyway. By your second year, you'll be more used to the "system" but the volume actually increases and some of what worked in MS-I may no longer work.

Good luck.

 

[njbmd]

Im an MSI and while i passed all my exams comfortably now i feel like im not studying efficiently at all because it seems like all the study guides i type up arent helping me learn anything. Im ready to throw away the way ive been studying and try something new but i was looking for some suggestions.

Historically, my strategy was to listen to lecture, take notes on the slides, turn it into a study guide, review study guide. But im finding that i never learn anything during the 'making a study guide' portion and it seems like its a waste of time.

how do you guys prep for exams; whats your strategy from first lecture to exam day?

Hate to give you bad news, but you're just going to have to find what works for you - what other people do won't help much. During my first block of MS-I, I was trying to be a good boy and read every textbook chapter in addition to typing notes on my laptop in class. I learned (the hard way) that there really isn't time for that. Actually, I did get into the habit of taking notes on the powerpoints as they were presented in class.

Whatever you do, you'll probably adjust your study habits as an MS-II, anyway. By your second year, you'll be more used to the "system" but the volume actually increases and some of what worked in MS-I may no longer work.

Good luck.

You have a good answer to your question above. The thing to remember is don't try to change what you are doing drastically. You don't have time to totally revamp your study tactics but you may be able to make an adjustment here and there that will help.

Check with some of your classmates that are doing well and see if you can borrow a tip or two from them. Since you are passing everything, clearly, you don't need much more than a tip or two if that even.

 

[FoundationsFan5]

Im an MSI and while i passed all my exams comfortably now i feel like im not studying efficiently at all because it seems like all the study guides i type up arent helping me learn anything. Im ready to throw away the way ive been studying and try something new but i was looking for some suggestions.

Historically, my strategy was to listen to lecture, take notes on the slides, turn it into a study guide, review study guide. But im finding that i never learn anything during the 'making a study guide' portion and it seems like its a waste of time.

how do you guys prep for exams; whats your strategy from first lecture to exam day?

For almost each class I have taken so far, I have had to approach it differently. General rule:

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If it's broke, abandon ship ASAP and get a new plan and stick to it for the rest of that course. Only change a method ONCE (or not at all) during each course.

Trust your instincts if you feel it's time to change. Everytime I've changed (I'm MS2 now), I've never regretted it.

 

[TexasPhysician]

I don't understand why you make the study guide. If it helps you - fine. I made notes on the slides and studied the slides. That worked great for me, but everyone is different.

If you could eliminate making this study guide, you would save time to read a review book - major help in my opinion.

 

[PokerDoc]

yes im aware of the old adage that i have to do what works for me, im just simply looking for what other people are doing so i can decide from that if that might work or not for me. But yea, i think im going to stop with the study guides, i mean its nicer having the notes all in one place, but in the grand scheme of things, reading a book might help more than retyping notes i already have, albiet in a more organized way.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

For me reading books = monumental waste of time. Unless your school test on material not presented in class or were not in your coursepack, dont read the book. At least at my school the notes they give us are the easier to read format of whatever text(s) the course is based off of. They are by no means complete, as you usually need annotate them as class is going on to get the best grasp of what they are trying to teach us.

so moral of my story: books are a waste of time

 

[TexasPhysician]

For me reading books = monumental waste of time. Unless your school test on material not presented in class or were not in your coursepack, dont read the book. At least at my school the notes they give us are the easier to read format of whatever text(s) the course is based off of. They are by no means complete, as you usually need annotate them as class is going on to get the best grasp of what they are trying to teach us.

so moral of my story: books are a waste of time

Do you study for block exams or Step 1? Block exams are (excuse the language) crap! They do very little for you, especially if they are P/F like many schools are nowadays.

Often, review books contain vital information that your prof completely skipped over. While it may not be on the "block exam", you may as well learn it now. I took this approach, and it served me well come Step 1 time.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

Do you study for block exams or Step 1? Block exams are (excuse the language) crap! They do very little for you, especially if they are P/F like many schools are nowadays.

Often, review books contain vital information that your prof completely skipped over. While it may not be on the "block exam", you may as well learn it now. I took this approach, and it served me well come Step 1 time.

I should re-phrase that. I feel TEXT books are a waste of time to read. I do use review books, and I find them very helpful and would recommend them to everyone as something to use as a supplement for studying for class.

 

[wAyRadikull]

Study guides are good if you are "actively learning" by creating them.

Some of my classmates type up a storm during lecture and fine tune/organize afterwards as a means to review the lecture. I used to do that but it soon became very counter-productive for me as it would become more of a "chore". I dropped it seeing the material is getting tougher and tougher and i'm running out of time.

What seems to work well for me now.. is typing up notes on the ppt slides, and review afterwards. Texasphysician is on the money when he says that supplementing your actual course notes with a review book is valuable.

Not making a study guide will save you huge amounts of time, and that way you can flip through the review book to make sure you've hit all the main points. That takes care of the whole week (attend class+ review class notes later + read subsequent section in review book).

On the weekend, i'll go over each lecture and make a "cram sheet".. for some last minute studying before blocks. Keeping the cram sheet concise is key because.. you dont want to make it a study guide haha. For example, biochem can include one word/arrowed pathways, enzymes.. anatomy can include clinical correlations and such.. you get the image.

Hope this helps.

 

[FutureDoc4]

Anatomy exam coming up tomorrow... tired of studying, wondering how all of you in SDN land are doing, any exams for others this week? (As you can see I'm clearly trying to procrastinate)

 

[PokerDoc]

can u guys recommend the best review beooks to get, or is there a thread on that? i just want review books, no actual text, but ill save myself the trouble and order all of em at once instead of asking this question every theme.

and thanks for the advice, i love it.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

can u guys recommend the best review beooks to get, or is there a thread on that? i just want review books, no actual text, but ill save myself the trouble and order all of em at once instead of asking this question every theme.

and thanks for the advice, i love it.

That's a pretty broad question, but - since you asked, here are my favorites:

Biochem: Lippincott's Illustrated Biochem for the class, BRS Biochem for review. You might want another review book for genetics if you're obsessive.
Gross: BRS Gross Anatomy by Kyung Chung (see my post in another thread) for class only - USMLE Road Map Gross for Step 1 (very little time on this - it's low yield)
Physiology: Costanzo - the text for class, her BRS for review. These rock.
Neurology: BRS Neuro is OK, but pretty complicated. Neuro Made Ridiculously Simple is quite helpful. I didn't really use review books for this course due to the thorough syllabus we had.
Embryo: BRS Embryo. I always hated Embryo, and still do.
Micro/Immuno: BRS Micro. Pretty good.
Histo: I personally didn't review much histo for boards. There is a BRS if you want it.
Psych: There's a BRS Human Behavior, but I also had Kaplan books that I used for this. Kaplan's Step 1 review book is pretty darn good and covers almost everything.
Pathophys: Varies widely depending on personal preference. I liked BRS Pathophys... most people swear by Goljan's Pathophys review - I didn't really care for it. Kaplan's Step 1 review is quite helpful.

You can see I used a whole lot of BRS. The BRS books are NOT quick reads - they're not as bullet-pointed as most review books - they read more like very compressed textbooks, which is what worked best for me. I wouldn't suggest buying these all at once - you don't need them, and you need to find out what works for you.

Some say First Aid for Step 1 isn't thorough enough - but, let me tell you, if hadn't spent so much time messing around with other books and had known every word of First Aid forward and backward, I probably would have scored higher.