study habits

The medical school that I am currently attending - like most medical schools these days - has shifted to a pass/fail system for the first semester. This is to give students time to adjust to the new pressures and demands of medical school and to really ease the students in to their new roles and expectations.

I am fully appreciative of this shift. The undergraduate institution I went to was rigorous to say the least, but I feel the demands that I have been feeling as an MS1 are much much higher. They say we should treat our position as medical school students as our job. But I've had a job for a year as a research technician, and that life seems like an easy breezy heaven compared to this. The amount of material that is covered per day is much more than anything I've experienced. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays are the longest days - 3 hr lectures in the morning followed by anatomy lab and lecture. Students are essentially on campus from 9-5 (like a regular job). And it's exhausting because our brains feel supersaturated by the end of anatomy lab. After that, however, we can't just go home and relax because we have to review the material we learned that day and the many recommend that we preview the lecture material for the next day. If we don't do these tasks or we get left behind, it becomes so difficult to catch up because the speed of progress per day is simply overwhelming.

I personally study best when I make myself stay in the student carrels (or study prison, as I like to call it). The handful of people that use this study space are very dedicated and focused, and the depressing atmosphere actually makes me more productive. I like to stay on campus because I have a gym nearby that I can go to when my mind needs a break. I also don't have the usual distractions of home - like a fully stocked kitchen, a bed, a kitten, a boyfriend, random household chores that seem so fun to do when all I've been doing is studying signaling pathways.

This semester, though, I would also like to try studying with friends and going to cafes. The nice thing about doing that is a constant source of coffee, of course, and if I am in a more social but still study-conducive environment, it's easier to ask friends about questions, form deeper friendships, and really, the carrels are just depressing.

One very important thing that we have to establish this semester is our personal best routines and high yield study habits. We have to figure out the best way that we learn, and the best way that we retain the information long-term. Most of us are good at cram memorizing, where we basically forget everything we learned by the end of an exam. However, it can't be like that in medical school. Information is really cumulative. If we don't solidify the material the first time around, we will really suffer the second time. My father tells me that how well we learn the material and create a "structured, conceptual memory" the first round will set apart the mediocre, good, and best the second time we encounter the material (which we definitely will again.)

But what is a structured memory? How do I get it? How do I learn the material in a way that I can memorize all of the details, understand the concepts, and then apply what I learn? I'm still trying to figure the trick out.

The first exam, I tried the usual: attend lecture, preview and review and review again, write notes by hand, and then quiz myself before the exam.

For the next exam, I am trying a different tactic: not attend lecture and study the material closely and carefully. Listen to the mp3s of the lectures at my own pace (speed up the playback, pause when I need to write down a lot of notes, and repeat if I don't understand).  I also wrote study questions for myself the first slow read that I did, and then answered them later on a review of the material. Hopefully, before the exam, I will give myself this "test" again, and I will be able to give the answers in detail with minimal reference to the syllabus. I also want to study in a group before the exam, asking questions and answering questions.

Hopefully, the pass/fail system of the first semester will give me the time and opportunity to explore various methods and via trial and error, and determine what works the best for me.


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completely off-topic. A memorable experience from my travels this summer.
Felt like I was riding a motorcycle in the air.

Power hang-gliding. Kauai, August 2010