Hey everyone, I just wanted to share a few of study tips with you all.
"You don't need to be a genius to do well in college. It's all about time management," my good friend told me when I was starting my university studies. In my experience, this has been very true. All you need to do is spend time working hard.
The same applies to medical school. If you don't have a great short term or long term memory, then keep repeating your study material more and more times, even if that means staying up late or waking up early. You still need to sleep, but if you're struggling, sleep the minimum you need to retain information and feel functional, and work hard.
Medical school is hard and unforgiving, but you can't give up.
Now say you have a full day of studying, how do you make the most of your time?
The Stopwatch Method:
Pretty simple. All I do is hit Start on my stopwatch when I start studying, and pause it when I'm taking a break. I do this throughout the day, and I can quantify how much I've studied.
The Timer Method:
Depending on how hard I need to study, I set a timer for 1-2 hours and hit Start. When the time is up, I let myself take a break, and repeat.
These tips should help you stay on track and structure your study a little better.
It's all about time management. Additionally, I advise against staying up the entire night studying, especially before an exam. Your classmates who do it might seem really hardcore, but the truth is, doctors who don't sleep can't focus well and they make mistakes. So get into the habit now of being rested before exams and that will help you form the habit of resting before a procedure or getting involved in patient care.
For those on clinical duties: People who are too tired are playing with their patients' lives. Live by that.
Good luck!
"People who are too tired are playing with their patients' lives." Interesting choice of words, but I couldn't agree more. In our hospital, residents who have just gone through a 24hour shift still need to stay in the hospital for another 8 hours or so...making it quite difficult to deliver optimum patient care. Is it the same in your hospital?
ReplyDeleteHi , I am a 5th year dental student . I come from Vietnam ( an Asian country ) and have been learning here. Our training program is stressful too, covering a lot of differents subjects. Yeah i find it true that time managing is the important key to study well in medical school. If you don't mind, i want to know whether you as a medical students have a part- time job , whether you spend time to learn a new language ( French for example) :D I work as a private tutor every Sunday morning and take a little time studying English at home by myself so it is harder to focus on medical subjects only. Anyway, thank you for sharing some of your tips on how to manage studying time , I would definitely apply and see how it works :D
ReplyDeletehey there, Thuanh Anh, thanks for reading.
ReplyDeletePart-time jobs are not common but still available at my medical school. Some students work at the library while some work as emergency room techs, but it's usually just about 5-10 students in each class, I believe.
I actually do enjoy learning languages a lot, and I take some study breaks to learn Russian or Swedish. I find it works best if you find a way to combine both, like try to read a wikipedia page related to what you're studying in French or Swedish.
Some students also find time to do volunteer work, and also help teach for the medical school entrance exam.
I hope my study tips help! Thanks for reading!