Scholastic rut
Posted by enrico | Under Medical School Tuesday Feb 28, 2006I’m sorry I haven’t made a lot of substantive posts lately, but I have been having a hard time organizing myself studywise. I really thought I had all this shit figured out by now. If I just read the textbook, I understand just fine, but lack any depth. If I sit and take notes as I read the chapter, I wind up with LOTS of notes and it takes forever, since I’m not really sure at that point what is really important yet or not. If I read the chapter, highlighting what I think is important, then go back and type out what I realize was really important that seems to be the best way but it takes the absolute longest. At this point, I’ll usually pull out the BRS and realize how much I let slip through the cracks, and then start plugging the holes. All this isn’t really studying per se, but laying the groundwork for studying.
On the flip side, having said all the above, I’ll surprise myself with what I will remember the next day or whenever for those things which I speciifcially thought I didn’t really get to study. I’d like more control over what I retain vs. what I don’t. I have a serious mental block with anything related to immunology, it seems — I don’t know why. Subjects/concepts that are learned by ingesting tables and rote memory have me running for the hills. I don’t doubt my capacity at all, I’m just too easily distracted with certain subjects since they don’t really hold my attention. Actually, I’m easily distracted all the time, but that’s another matter. I’m just getting frustrated with the seemingly endless cycle of cram, test, cram, test, cram-like-there’s-no-tomorrow, final.
I’d love to hear comments from anyone about how they organize their subjects, notes, etc. particularly integrating digital copies of lectures/texts (PDFs, PowerPoints).
I really relied on combo of BRS/NMS, with shared note service (I HIGHLY recommend fighting for that), and the blueprints in ” ” series, along with the textbook. I found that for the boatloads of “notes from textbooks/outlines” we did ourselves in college, the 20 bucks for a book or notecards that did it for you sometimes was worth it, but that’s because I’m used to the selection that major’s gives you, and I have always had two med textbook stores blocks away.