Study pointers for someone completely lacking study habits?

[Gormegil]

Eyyy

I'm prepping for 1st year this fall and have been really leveling with the fact that, on top of being out of school for a couple years, I really had TERRIBLE study habits in undergrad. Pretty much didn't read textbooks, crammed for exams, etc. Ended up with a solid GPA, so I never really had to change anything. That being said, I recognize that dog ain't gonna hunt in med school.

So I guess I'm just curious what has worked for you, or if you have any tips on where to start? I just want to be efficient and not waste the first couple months finding a way to study that works for me. Thanks and cheers!

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[Dr. Scribe]

I was the exact same way. Never studied for more than 2 days before an exam, ate the Devil's lettuce all day er'day, etc. Then, I started my Master's degree (SMP) and everything had to change. Here is what I did/advise you to do.

1) Identify you have a studying problem (Which you did, so check)
2) Quit any bad habits that may have been distracting but didn't affect your grades in undergrad (i.e. smoking, drinking, etc.)
3) GET A STUDY GROUP (cannot really stress this enough)
4) Stay on top of things in the study group (don't just show up, show off)
5) Talk to other students (find out what other people are focusing on- there's a lot of material to learn in med school so make sure you are covering the most significant points)
6) Avoid passive learning (within your study group, constantly quiz each other, make concept maps together, talk through lectures, etc.)
7) $$$$

 

[Osteoth]

To be honest I don't think think the hard and fast rules people are going to give you will work as well as most recommend. Coming from someone who was in a similar situation to yourself, getting by with good grades in college due to superior short-term memory, I would recommend experimenting with various styles and flow patterns to determine what you prefer.

The only thing I would without a doubt recommend, however, is spaced repetition. Anki, with the Zanki deck, is the bedrock of any successful study regimen. Download it, and every day when you go over a new topic, add the cards from that topic to your deck. At the end of the current block, move those cards from your "Current" deck to your "Past" deck, but still spend 1-2 hours a day on those topics so they remain fresh.

 

[Gormegil]

Thanks for the info. What note taking techniques would you recommend/would you at all? I took thorough lecture notes (lots of arrows/comments/figures, etc), but never printed slides or really utilized them much. I've been thinking about using note taking software and a stylus to do a hybrid typing/drawing on slides method for lectures. I can't imagine that handwriting notes during lecture will be very effective considering the volume of information and time constraint.

 

[Dr. Scribe]

To be honest I don't think think the hard and fast rules people are going to give you will work as well as most recommend. Coming from someone who was in a similar situation to yourself, getting by with good grades in college due to superior short-term memory, I would recommend experimenting with various styles and flow patterns to determine what you prefer.

The only thing I would without a doubt recommend, however, is spaced repetition. Anki, with the Zanki deck, is the bedrock of any successful study regimen. Download it, and every day when you go over a new topic, add the cards from that topic to your deck. At the end of the current block, move those cards from your "Current" deck to your "Past" deck, but still spend 1-2 hours a day on those topics so they remain fresh.

1) Says hard and fact recommendations probably won't work well
2) Proceeds to give hard and fast recommendation
3) ???

(0_o)

 

[bonemann]

The only thing I would without a doubt recommend, however, is spaced repetition. Anki, with the Zanki deck, is the bedrock of any successful study regimen. Download it, and every day when you go over a new topic, add the cards from that topic to your deck. At the end of the current block, move those cards from your "Current" deck to your "Past" deck, but still spend 1-2 hours a day on those topics so they remain fresh.

Is there a specific Anki feature that does this?

 

[Goro]

Eyyy

I'm prepping for 1st year this fall and have been really leveling with the fact that, on top of being out of school for a couple years, I really had TERRIBLE study habits in undergrad. Pretty much didn't read textbooks, crammed for exams, etc. Ended up with a solid GPA, so I never really had to change anything. That being said, I recognize that dog ain't gonna hunt in med school.

So I guess I'm just curious what has worked for you, or if you have any tips on where to start? I just want to be efficient and not waste the first couple months finding a way to study that works for me. Thanks and cheers!

Read this (and congrats on the accept! ):

Goro's Guide to Success in Medical School (2017 edition)

 

[MD-2021]

Eyyy

I'm prepping for 1st year this fall and have been really leveling with the fact that, on top of being out of school for a couple years, I really had TERRIBLE study habits in undergrad. Pretty much didn't read textbooks, crammed for exams, etc. Ended up with a solid GPA, so I never really had to change anything. That being said, I recognize that dog ain't gonna hunt in med school.

So I guess I'm just curious what has worked for you, or if you have any tips on where to start? I just want to be efficient and not waste the first couple months finding a way to study that works for me. Thanks and cheers!

I'm almost done with M1 and I still haven't developed good study habits lol. In college I used to start cramming 2 hours before a test; now I start cramming about 7-10 days before a test.
I have a feeling that medical school really wouldn't be that difficult if I could just study 2-3 hours outside of class every day, but I just can't manage that for some reason.

 

[Osteoth]

1) Says hard and fact recommendations probably won't work well
2) Proceeds to give hard and fast recommendation
3) ???

(0_o)

Spaced repetition is a methodology of studying, you can do it a thousand ways. I should have included that I was going to lay out how I did it before I went into detail, you're right it was misleading.

Is there a specific Anki feature that does this?

You can open the browser type in any term like "Hashimoto" and then move the cards from the "Bros..." to your "Current" deck.

 

[Gormegil]

Thanks for the info. What note taking techniques would you recommend/would you at all? I took thorough lecture notes (lots of arrows/comments/figures, etc), but never printed slides or really utilized them much. I've been thinking about using note taking software and a stylus to do a hybrid typing/drawing on slides method for lectures. I can't imagine that handwriting notes during lecture will be very effective considering the volume of information and time constraint.

Just wanted to try to revive this bit here. Notetaking methods?

 

[MD-2021]

Just wanted to try to revive this bit here. Notetaking methods?

One note is godly.
I just transcribe as much as I can during lecture, and then afterwards I have a complete transcript matched to individual slides. Basically becomes a custom textbook

 

[TheOneAndOnlyJamesFranco]

Is there a point to taking notes when watching lecture if we have Anki and Outlined notes like BRS or Medbullets already available?

I always find myself just rewriting/retyping basically the same thing word for word and never going back to reread it.

I understand just watching a lecture is passive, but with Anki and QBanks, do we really need to take notes ?


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[mkvquigley]

I highly recommend reading Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown. It's a book about learning and discusses evidence-based learning methods while dispelling common myths about learning. As someone who was never taught how to study or take tests because I always pulled A's in high school and mostly A's in undergrad, this book has been really eye-opening.

While there's a lot in the book that is super helpful, the biggest things I took out of it were retrieval practice, spaced practice, and interleaved practice. Basically, you read the text or go to lecture (Actively--taking notes, asking questions, etc), then use flashcards, quizzes (self-made and otherwise), writing summaries... anything that makes you recall the information. Space out the retrieval practice (Anki is really good for this): let a day or so go by before doing more retrieval practice. Some forgetting has happened, and it will be harder to recall the information, but the harder it is to recall something, the more powerful the learning will be. Interleaving practice of topics, aka mixing it up, does the same thing as spaced practice, but also breaks up the monotony of studying the same topic for hours on end and helps you to relate the different topics to each other which helps with learning.

 

[Gormegil]

I highly recommend reading Make it Stick by Peter C. Brown. It's a book about learning and discusses evidence-based learning methods while dispelling common myths about learning. As someone who was never taught how to study or take tests because I always pulled A's in high school and mostly A's in undergrad, this book has been really eye-opening.

While there's a lot in the book that is super helpful, the biggest things I took out of it were retrieval practice, spaced practice, and interleaved practice. Basically, you read the text or go to lecture (Actively--taking notes, asking questions, etc), then use flashcards, quizzes (self-made and otherwise), writing summaries... anything that makes you recall the information. Space out the retrieval practice (Anki is really good for this): let a day or so go by before doing more retrieval practice. Some forgetting has happened, and it will be harder to recall the information, but the harder it is to recall something, the more powerful the learning will be. Interleaving practice of topics, aka mixing it up, does the same thing as spaced practice, but also breaks up the monotony of studying the same topic for hours on end and helps you to relate the different topics to each other which helps with learning.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely be diving into that resource.