With finals week quickly approaching, it is becoming more and more critical to spend your
time wisely.
In the rush and stress of finals, we often make the same mistakes.
Stay tuned to find out what common Finals Week mistakes to avoid.
What's going on guys, J from MedSchoolInsiders.com.
I've been posting regulary on the blog for the last several weeks, so if you haven't
checked out the website in a while, take a pick and let me know your thought.
Also, if you have not already, be sure to check out my prior video and post on 6 tips
for Finals Week where I go over good study habits and strategies to maximize your score
on test day.
In this Video, we will instead focus on common mistakes to avoid leading up to and during
Finals.
The first mistake I see far too often is using Passive Learning rather than Active Learning.
I have gone over the differences in active versus passive learning in earlier videos
such as this one above.
The main takeaway is this: during finals week, your time is extremely limited, so when you
study, be sure to study effectively and efficiently.
It’s too easy for us sit down and decide to “study” without a clear goal or purpose
in mind.
What this often leads to is mindless passive studying, which is only a fraction as effective
as active studying.
So rather than sitting at your desk at 9AM and telling yourself you will study for the
next 4 hours, break down the studying you wish to accomplish into achievable tasks and
goals.
Examples would be completing Practice Test #4, finishing 200 Anki cards, or using the
Feynman technique to teach a complex concept to a classmate during a small group study
session.
Rather than passively reading notes or listening to audio recordings, instead make studying
an active process with recall tasks like flash cards, doing practice problems, explaining
or teaching concepts to others, quizzing your friends, or creating condensed notes.
You will retain more information in a shorter period of time and ultimately get a better
grade.
The next mistake is being disorganized.
This closely ties in with the first.
I don’t mean tidy up your room and color code your class notes.
The organization I’m referring to is with regards to your study schedule.
Sometimes you have multiple finals in a single day, or a final and a paper due the same day.
If you casually approach studying one subject at a time, you’re gonna to have a bad time.
Because of the conflicting nature of exam dates and assignments, it is paramount to
create a schedule to plan out how you will allocate your time for each exam as the date
approaches.
So this is what I would do, I would take a piece of paper and list out the days leading
up to each exam.
I would then divide days based on subject and task.
For example, Monday morning may read “condense chapter 3 through 5 notes and complete practice
test #2 under Chemistry, and Monday afternoon may read “Complete 200 Anki cards on Central
Nervous System Anatomy and go over complex concepts A, B, and C with study group all
underneath my Neuroanatomy course”.
Don’t forget to have blocks of time for errands, mental breaks, and catch up blocks
for when you fall off track, which will very likely happen.
There are certain things you have to do every day – like shower, eat, exercise, etc. – use
these moments as breaks from studying.
Remember, efficiency is the name of the game!
So, other important things to remember include things like taking 20 seconds every 20 minutes
to look at something in the distance to relax the ciliary muscles in your eyes and reduce
eye strain.
Another one of my favorites is to stay hydrated by keeping a water bottle close by which has
dual purpose: one, you're staying hydrated which has a slew of benefits, but two, it
also forces you to get up and move when you need to use the restroom.
The third mistake is something most of us are far too familiar with: procrastination.
I'm gonna take this moment to introduce my friend Justin from Engineering Worth.
His channel is similar to Med School Insiders but it is primarily focus on empowering engineering
students.
However, it is also like Med School Insiders in that there’s something there for everyone
regardless of what type of student you are.
So, without further ado, here is Justine with more on procrastination.
Thank you J for allowing me to be on the Med School Insiders channel.
So, procrastination; this again ties in with the previous point on staying organized.
If you approach your studying without a plan, that is without a proper study schedule and
organized structure, it’s easy to push off studying until later.
Creating a schedule for the days leading up to the exam helps you pace yourself and plan
out a method of attack.
Often times, we don’t realize how much we have to study until we actually write it all
down on a schedule.
Therefore, creating a schedule will be a huge step in the right direction if you have issues
with procrastination.
There are other tips and tricks you can use as well (J made two great videos, one on specifically
how to beat procrastination and another on how to use the Pomodoro technique – which
also happens to be my favorite technique for overcoming procrastination and getting a lot
done in a shorter period of time).
There also will be links to all these videos in the description below.
The fourth and final mistake is limiting your sleep.
If you recall from the first video I created on Final Exams, all-nighters are rarely ever
going to do you any favors.
In short, all nighters make you sluggish during the test and rob you of the benefits of REM
sleep.
I have spoken about sleep stages and the importance of memory consolidation in this video.
While most of us are not pulling all-nighters regularly, most of us ARE depriving ourselves
of sleep on a nightly basis.
I would argue that leading up to and during finals week, there are even fewer reasons
that you should be restricting your sleep.
Yes, you heard that right.
Leading up to finals, you should be getting more sleep, not less.
Class tasks and assignments are on the decline and during finals week, there are generally
no classes to attend.
If you are sleep deprived leading up to Finals Week, I can point to one of two things that
are the likely culprits: First, you’re not using active learning when you study, because
active learning is really exhausting.
It’s extremely challenging to go the whole day using active learning, especially when
you start getting tired later in the day.
Second, you are not effectively using a schedule to organize your study days and plan of attack.
With proper scheduling, you should be able to accomplish a great deal of studying every
day while still maintaining enough time for errands and sleep.
In short, you’re not getting enough sleep because you are not being efficient with your
studying or your time.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Efficiency is king.
Master efficiency and everything else will fall into place.
Remember, to consolidate facts into our long term memory and make them stick in the brain,
we need deep sleep and REM sleep.
Robbing yourself of sleep is therefore robbing yourself of the hard work you put in while
studying.
If you study and get a good night’s rest, you will remember more than if you had gotten
less sleep.
If you are still depriving yourself of sleep, check out my video on Sleeping Smarter which
will help you get higher quality sleep even if you are not getting the recommended 7 to
9 hours.
There have been some fascinating studies comparing sleep deprivation to alcohol intoxication.
In this study, the researchers demonstrated the after 17-19 hours without sleep, performance
on some tests was equivalent or worse than a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%.
Response speeds and accuracy were significantly poorer than at this level of alcohol.
After longer periods without sleep, performance dropped to the equivalent of a BAC of 0.1%.
Another study came to similar conclusions.
The scientists demonstrated that moderate levels of fatigue impair performance to an
extent equivalent or greater than is currently acceptable for alcohol intoxication.
There are more studies coming to similar conclusions and I will place links to this in the description
below.
So, thanks again Justine for helping with this video.
He also created a video to help you out with finals.
He actually featured me in that video, so be sure to check it out.
I will place a link in the description below.
I hope you all found this useful, thank you all so much for watching.
If you liked the video, make sure you press that like button.
New videos every week, so hit subscribe if you have not already and I will see you guys
in that next one.