what's going on guys today I'm going to
teach you some pre-med study strategies
things that I learned about in medical
school that I wish I knew back as a
pre-med it would have made my life a lot
easier it would have made my studying a
lot more efficient and anyways I'm going
to show you share with you guys those
secrets so the first thing I want to
talk about is active versus passive
learning and I'm sure a lot of you have
already heard about this a lot of us
tend to do passive learning but you want
to do active learning it's a lot more
effective the first thing is identifying
what's important when you're reading a
textbook or listening to lecture
actively try to figure out what is
important and emphasize that information
in your notes
number two organize the information
organize it in a way that you understand
that makes sense to you again this is
going to be an active process it's going
to be difficult it's not going to be as
easy to just passively reading but you
will reap the the rewards and the
benefits when it comes to test time for
example one thing that I did I would
create charts so even though the
textbook or the professor did not
necessarily create a chart let's say I
was comparing two different things I
would have a chart which was an active
process to create the chart find the
information compare the two and in doing
so just like creating the chart I
already understood the information that
much better and I also had a tool to
review at a later date to really you
know emphasize it number three memorize
it in an active way I'll get to how to
do that later and four apply the
information this can be done in a
variety of ways so for your pre-med
classes they often give you practice
questions either in the textbook or with
some online services you can also do
quizzes sometimes the professor will
release last year's quizzes or tests
those are very useful as well now the
first to apply to obtaining the
information and these two are going to
apply to reviewing the information next
let's talk about the learning
environment this section is very
dependent on the individual so figure
out what works best for you first is the
location
some people like coffee shops or
libraries I prefer my own place I had my
you know dual screen setup a comfortable
chair it was always quiet but I figure
out what works best for you some people
tend to get distracted at home also are
you setting by yourself or are you
setting with other people I would
generally split it 50/50 I found that is
what worked best for me when I was
sitting with other people I wasn't as
quick as going through the information
but it helped really key in difficult
concepts and kept keep you motivated
home keep you sane so if you do do this
keep the group small with you included
there's only be two or three people so
have one one or two friends join you but
keep it don't don't don't get any more
than that because when you do you'll
lose the benefits of that group studying
and you guys will start to get
distracted talking having fun so keep
those groups small this brings in the
next point about having a routine versus
having novel stimuli so novel stimuli
have been shown to improve recall and
retention at later dates but I find
there's a trade-off between having novel
stimuli and maintaining discipline so if
you have a routine a regular routine
where you wake up same time go to the
same place study the same time it's a
lot easier to maintain that routine and
not procrastinate whereas if you have a
novel stimuli you're studying at a new
place every day or you're working with
different people it's it's harder to get
in the groove and to maintain that
long-term at least for me but again
figure out what works best for you
number three obtaining the information
generally this is going to be done in
two ways as a pre mate
the first is lecture and the second is
textbooks and when it comes to lecture I
did what most of us do go to lecture
pressure stands in the front and they
read off the PowerPoint and then we're
sitting in the lecture hall we have our
laptops out we have the PowerPoint open
and same slide and we're just taking
notes in the third section I do not
think this was a very effective way to
learn a few things to consider first
should you be writing or should you be
typing figure out what works best for
you typing is faster which sounds great
initially but if you type faster you can
copy verbatim what the professor is
saying which is a very passive process
by writing you generally write slower
you have to emphasize the important
information and organize it and there
have actually been studies showing that
writing writing out notes results in
improved recall second are you going to
the lecture hall or are you listening to
the podcast a lot of classes now offer
podcast and for me this works best by
going to the lecture hall there are
distinct advantages though you have a
set routine and you're shunned by other
people trying to learn the information
you can ask questions but on the other
hand a podcast gives you the flexibility
to watch whenever you whenever you want
to to make sure you're well-rested
you're not sleepy you can also watch it
at increased speed so 1.52 times speed
that benefits you in two ways one the
lecture is no longer 60 minutes now it's
only 30 to 45 minutes and also it can
help you focus for me at least the
lecturer could speak too slow sometimes
and this would result in my mind
wandering so by increasing the speed I
was forced to pay attention but again
figure out what works best for you the
podcast really requires a lot of
discipline to stay up to speed otherwise
you will fall behind if you start
procrastinating in that case stick with
the lecture hall I've seen a lot a lot
of people rewash the lectures or they'll
record with like a recording device in
the lecture and then listen to that
later this is a complete waste of time
not do it you can better use your time
reviewing the information organizing it
doing active learning we're going to
office hours asking questions do not
rewatch the lectures don't do not read
listen that's not a good use of your
time when it comes to textbooks what I
did is just highlight the textbook I
don't think that's the best way to do it
instead I think try to make it as active
as you can so how would you know
highlight the textbook and then come
back and just read my highlights before
the test instead get your computer out
get a get a notepad and summarize in
your own words by doing this you're
identifying the important information
and organizing it in a way that you
understand and you'll recall that
information much better come test time
all right now you're ready to review the
information what I did and what I do not
recommend you do is I open up my
computer have my PowerPoint and I'd
review the notes that I wrote in the
notes section and I just do this slide
after slide and do this several times to
learn the information this was not a
good use of time and there are much
better ways to do this some people will
do the same thing with a word document
they'll have you know several pages full
you know full of notes and little review
every single page don't do this either
to memorize one of the best ways to do
this is summarize the information so
take these three pages or take your
PowerPoint notes and condense them so
lets you have three pages make it into
one page don't just decrease the font
size don't change the margins actually
read through it and identify just the
important information and organize it in
a way that you understand by doing so
just this process alone will reinforce
that material and now you also have a
condensed study resource to review at a
later date some people also recommend
you make an even shorter summary sheet
after that I generally just did one
iteration but you can do two three or
what works best for you the other thing
is spaced repetition this is the most
effective way to memorize information
the concept is that if you have let's
say you learned the information on day
zero and these are all the days after
the only person on day zero you're
viewed on day one and each each time you
review it there's an increasing interval
what this does is it allows you to
retain that information in a very
efficient manner instead of reviewing it
every day
you only need to review it right when
you're about to forget so to do this on
your own
requires a lot of scheduling and it's
very difficult what I recommend is a
program called Anki it's a free software
for your Mac PC I think they might even
have for Linux and it will also sync
with your smart phone make your own
flashcards using this app and view them
daily by making your own you're again
taking advantage of the active learning
process if you review someone else's it
becomes you're still doing some of the
active recall but you're losing out on a
lot of the benefit of making your own
flashcards also doing this daily is key
because if you fall behind you're not
really taking advantage of space
repetition and it defeats the purpose so
what I would do to get these done daily
and let's say it's you know the week
before the exam and things are ramping
up I would get my smartphone out when I
was waiting in line at a restaurant or
getting groceries waiting in line or
waiting for a friend and just do a few
flashcards then because even those 5-10
minutes will allow you to do several
flashcards which adds up throughout the
day to review a whole lecture it will
take you know 20-30 minutes but I do a
few flashcards you could you just need a
few minutes and you will still reap all
the benefits lastly on test day make
sure you are well-rested
everyone says this but I cannot
emphasize this enough many people
including myself have made the mistake
of playing an all-nighter and not being
well-rested thinking that cramming
information is more important that will
actually give you a lower test score
than if you are well-rested you have you
know adequate sleep you hit a good
breakfast and you're ready to go because
if your mind is able to critically think
that will benefit you more than trying
to
cram that information when you're tired
I'm going to be able to retain it
anyways so those are the strategies that
I learned from med school I hope you
find them useful leave your comments or
questions down below and I'll see you in
the next video