Hello!
I'm Mouse, fifth year medical student from Poland. I want to share some advice on the methods of studying with you. Especially with those who just started their journey in med schools, or are planning to start.
How not to waste time on ineffective studying? This is guide for lazy people like me.
1. Don't study too much, do not hurry.
Exactly, you should only consider studying when you are in perfect form. Get a good night's sleep, eat your fill, make yourself a cup of coffee, watch your favourite TV series while drinking it. I'm not talking about being distracted by stupid things, but the need for entertainment also has to be minimaly satisfied. Do not be stressed by time. Let us say that the minimum daily is the hour of effective learning, but everyday. I only study more one day before tests, and the week before exam. I have never failed the exam, and very few times I failed a test. Do not worry if you cooked dinner for half a day, you will still find time in the evening and you will be full. Keep studying if you do not have enough after an hour because you were interested in something, it is the most effective learning. I always start learning with
2. Start with testing yourself!
It has been well proven that testing your knowledge helps building your long-term memory. But it also has a second advantage. You should only learn what you do not know yet, devote most of your learning time to it. Testing allows you to easily check your gaps.
Think what your next big goal is. Mine is LEK exam after sixth year (medicine studies last 6 years here in Poland). It's somewhat like STEP 2 in the USA. It give you a license in the practice of medicine, and the right to choose your residency, depending on the result. I always start my daily studying by solving a few questions from LEK exam. If any question causes me a problem, I start to explore the topic. But this is not about picking up books, medical textbooks make me fall asleep easily and are too heavy.
3. Use audiovisual resources.
If you are not yet familiar with a specific medical topic, you probably won't benefit from reading whole long chapter from your Internal Medicine manual, you will rather fall asleep after few pages. I also do not benefit from listening to long lectures based on power point presentation, it makes me fall asleep even faster. But I highly recommend you to look for short and interesting videos on youtube (maybe d.tube soon?), with attention-grabbing animation, like Osmosis or Armando Hasudungan. They are a perfect appetizer for the more complex dish, and a whole spectrum of medical subjects. If I'm already familiar with certain topic, but I need a deepening or reminder, I often go to Strong Medicine for more advanced lectures. After I watch some videos, I can finally take a book and compare what I have learned with the text, and reading is much easier now.
4. Never give up issues you did not understand during the course of learning.
They should become your next priority, no matter if they will be on the next test or not, you learn for yourself. You can return to the second point (testing) only if everything has been explained. It will pay off in the long run. Your goal is to be a good doctor, not to pass every possible test with the highest grade.
5. Use your smartphone smartly.
There is so many wonderfull apps for medical students, that it is sin to not use them.
After I once again looked into the guidelines for resuscitation or learned something about emergency medicine, I like to test my skills with Resuscitation! After I once again studied about certain surgery, I like to perform it myself with Touch Surgery. When I have free time while traveling by train I solve cases with Clinical Sense, imagining that I am already a doctor, or with MedShr communicating with doctors from all around the world.
6. Use websites like Radiopaedia depending on your interests.
I think about becoming a radiologist so I broaden the sources of knowledge about more specialized materials. A few puzzles from this page before each going on duty with radiologist is my routine, helps me maintain my skills in high condition.
I hope some of these tips will be useful, now please share some of your advices and habits with me!