Improving Study Habits in Medical School

A large part of medical school so far has been finding the most effective ways to study and retain the huge amount of information that is constantly being thrown at me. I’m still working on tweaking my study habits, but since I was asked, I figured I would make a post about what is currently working for me. Hopefully by the end of the term, I will have a more solid breakdown of the things that really help, but this post should serve as a good general breakdown.

Time Management

I’ve mentioned it before, but time management is a huge part of succeeding in medical school. People constantly tell me that they don’t know how I do everything while raising a child, but I think it’s actually a really big advantage for me. While most students have the option of going home and probably taking a nap or doing other things that distract them from studying, I don’t have that luxury. Because I have a child, virtually every minute has to be accounted for. I don’t have the same amount of study hours as my peers, so I have to make every second count. It’s easy to put off studying when you have the option of waking up early to do it, but it’s a different story when you have to wake up at 6am and get your child ready for school.

What works for me is breaking down the schedule and giving each lecture a set amount of time spent studying for it. We are expected to study 5-7 hours outside of lecture, but right now I am currently averaging around five hours a day of studying. Normally one class will have had more hours than the others, so I try to devote three hours a day towards studying for that, and I give the other classes about an hour of study time. If I get out of class at 5, then that gives me one hour of study time before I have to pick up my daughter, and then my mommy/free time is typically from 6-8pm. I study another four hours from 8-12, and then I am done for the night. So far I have been good about hitting my goal, but there’s always a little extra time when anatomy lab gets out early or when my group is not going for OMM lab where I can get in some extra study time.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

This is definitely something I can improve on. The only way you can truly gauge how you’re doing on a subject is by quizzing yourself and doing practice tests. There are a ton of websites that have quizzes to help you, and so far I have found the Board Review Series (BRS) books pretty amazing. Also, make sure to go over your answers and figure out where you went wrong. I did not do this with the exam I just took, and I am convinced that at least one of the questions was very similar to one I did in the BRS book, but did not go over. For anatomy, the University of Michigan has excellent practical and written exams, and I also really like the SUNY Downstate material. I used Firecracker for about a month until my free trial ran out, and I think it’s a pretty good resource as well, although a bit pricey.

Review the Material Multiple Times

I recently got great advice from one of the second year medical students on studying, and the key point was to make sure to review the material at least five times outside of lecture. That means attend or listen to the lecture at least once, review the material three times over a semi-spread out timeframe, use the fourth time to take quizzes, and devote the fifth and final time to group studying. Even if you’re not a fan of group studying, it can reveal things to you that you might not have learned, so it’s a good thing to do if only for an hour or two. I haven’t actually done this yet, but we just started a new block and I plan on implementing it, so I will let everyone know how it works out for me after the next exam.

Ways to Retain the Information

Outside of repetition, YouTube and mnemonics have been lifesavers when it comes to retaining information. Mnemonics make it easier to remember long lists of things (ie the branches of the external carotid artery), and I find that the more dirty they are, the better they work. I have also found some amazing videos on YouTube that have explained things to me in five minutes or less despite having spent hours on my own trying to figure it out. YouTube pretty much has videos on anything you can think of, so if you get stuck on something, use that search function! I remember things that are really off-the-wall and eccentric, and some of the videos posted have all the elements needed to make the information stick in my mind.

Know What Works Best for You

 It’s important to remember that everyone has different ways of studying, so what works for me might not necessarily work for you. During orientation, I took a LASSI exam and found out that I am a strong read/write learner. I already knew this, but I learn best from reading the textbook and taking my own notes. This doesn’t work for everybody, and it is a really big waste of time to not study in a way that feels comfortable to you. Furthermore, what worked for you during your undergraduate years will probably not work in medical school just because of the sheer volume of material. Don’t be afraid to spend a month or two tweaking your study techniques until you find something that works. Also, I’m pretty sure that all schools have learning centers with people there to help you find effective study skills, so use them!

This pretty much sums up everything for now, but I’m sure I will have more posts on the subject in the future. The current term ends for us in November, and then we will start a completely different block that will consist of full days of lectures without labs. This is probably when I will have to really get a handle on things, but for now I am sticking with what I have written above. I wrote this post in terms of medical school, but I think the tips can be used by anyone whether you're in medical school, graduate school, or undergraduate school. It's important to build a good foundation early on so that you don't struggle later, so I hope this post helps!

They Don't Call it Hell Week for Nothing!

I’m back! Right after my last post, I looked at my schedule and realized that I had seven exams approaching, and they would all be within a one week time frame. Needless to say, I’ve been M.I.A. because I have been absolutely swamped with studying and test taking. I thought I had been through what people referred to as “hell week” before, but nothing even comes close to the past week. Not finals week during undergrad, not my comprehensive exam for my master’s degree, nothing! To give you an idea of what I am talking about, here’s a little breakdown:

Exam 1: PCBM (Preventative and Community Based Medicine) – This exam covered epidemiology and statistics and was only an hour long. If you know anything about me, then you know I absolutely hate math which is a pretty large portion of this class. Basically I had to know t-tests, Chi squares, Type I and II errors, and a whole bunch of other statistical stuff for this exam. It wasn’t fun, but I managed to do really well (which was an absolute necessity because I bombed the first exam).

9/26 Exams 2 and 3: SPOM and PCS – Yes, I had two exams back-to-back on this day :-( SPOM (Structural Principles of Osteopathic Medicine) is something you’ll probably see me write a lot about between now and November, and it covers five subjects. These subjects are anatomy, embryology, histology, physiology, and radiology. We do not get separate exams for each of these subjects, but instead we get one three-hour written exam that covers everything learned since the previous exam. To give you a better understanding of how extreme it is, think of finals week where you take multiple 1-2 hour exams for each subject, and just combine all that information into one exam. It’s intense, but the good news is that once we finish an exam, we no longer need to worry about the information (well, until we take the boards in 2 years).

As for PCS (Primary Care Skills), this exam was only an hour long and I was so busy studying for SPOM, that I completely forgot about it. I basically had 20 minutes to study for it in between tests, and I was so happy to have made a B on it! The patient stuff comes pretty easy to me, and a lot of it is common sense, but there were definitely a few questions that I just outright guessed on.

9/29 Exam 4: SPOM Lab Practical – This exam coincides with the SPOM written exam and is worth 40% of the overall grade for SPOM. For this exam, we have 40 seconds to answer an identification and secondary question on each cadaver, so it’s only about an hour long, but you really have to know your stuff. It’s especially hard if the body that you’re looking at isn’t properly dissected. Textbooks have pretty pictures of body parts, but it definitely isn’t like that in real life. The good news is that if a student has failed the written portion of the exam, they can redeem themselves by doing really well on the practical portion. I find I’m pretty good at the practical, but horrible on the written exam, so the SPOM practicals really save me. I have no idea how I did on this though since it is hand-graded, but hopefully I’ll find out by next week.

10/1 Exams 5 and 6: OMM Written and Practical – OMM (Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine) is what the D.O. program prides itself on. For the written portion of this exam, we not only had to know how to information about treating various dysfunctions, but we were also tested on the history of osteopathic medicine. Apparently, this information will also be on the boards, so it is really important that we learn it all now. I also did well on this, so that was a relief. (I forgot to mention that for all of our exams except the practicals, our score pops up on the screen as soon as we click submit. I like knowing how I did right after everything is said and done, but this can also be a bad thing if you do really bad on one exam and have another one coming up right after.) 

For the practical, we were given time slots for when we had to act as patients as well as times for our actual exam. I was lucky that I got to be a patient first, because it kind of helped ease my nerves a bit having already been in the exam room. There were five stations: palpation, range of motion, cervical muscle energy, thoracic muscle energy, and lumbar muscle energy. The professors would tell us a technique and we had to perform it properly. I’m not sure how I performed on this because there were definitely a couple of things that I forgot to do, but hopefully I will not have to remediate. This would mean that they would give me a failing grade of 69, and even if I properly performed the technique in remediation, the failing grade would still stand.

10/2 EXAM 7: PACS Comprehensive Exam – This was my final and absolute favorite exam! For this exam we get a patient, exam room, and we get to act as a physician. From the start we have 2 minutes to look over the patient’s chart outside the door, and 14 minutes inside the exam room with the patient. For this exam, we did not have to perform a full exam with draping and our equipment, but instead we spoke to the patients and took a full history. Once the 14 minutes was complete, we were then given 9 minutes to type up a SOAP note outside the room which included the patient’s chief complaint, medical history, and everything else pertinent to the case. I really liked the PACS exam because it reminds me of why I am in medical school. Plus, my patient gave me really great feedback and it made my day :-)

Done!

So there you have it. A few of you were wondering what I was up to, so I had to come back and let everyone know that I am okay. It has definitely been a stressful week, but with determination and a whole lot of prayer, I made it through! We also started another block on Tuesday, but with all these exams in the way, studying for current classes kind of fell through. I will definitely catch up tomorrow and this weekend, but tonight I’m relaxing! I also haven’t responded to any e-mails or messages, but just know that I am not ignoring you. I’ll try to respond to a few tonight, but you should plan on hearing from me by Sunday at the latest. 

Reflections on My First Month of Medical School!

Right before my first standardized patient encounter today

I looked at the calendar today and just had to write a post. Today marks one month of being a medical student, and what a month it has been! It literally feels like I’ve been in medical school for years (but in a good way), and I am absolutely amazed at the amount of material we have covered so far. Just today, I held an actual human brain in my hands, learned how to do a complete pulmonary and cardiac exam, and I even had a chance to examine my first standardized patient in a mock primary care skills exam. I completely forgot to shake my patient’s hand and I was shaking because I was so nervous, but for my first time, I wasn’t that bad, LOL.

In the past month alone, I have accumulated TWO 2-inch binders full of notes, covered the entire back, thorax, head and neck anatomy, learned how to read and analyze MR and CT images, and learned how to do various osteopathic manipulation techniques. This is in addition to having classes in embryology, physiology, histology, and epidemiology, and it really has been a complete blur. The course load is definitely no joke, but I slowly feel like I’m starting to get used to it. I’ve also had some really cool and unique experiences like holding an actual fetus, seeing the effects of cigarettes on actual lungs, and I am now convinced that I can diagnose a person with Horner’s Syndrome or somatic dysfunction. Just don’t ask me about anything else, because that’s all I know for now, LOL! I could go on and on about what I have learned and experienced in the past month, but to make a long story short, I love everything about the past month! I can definitely see a little growth, a lot of adaptation, and new opportunity every day to learn something new about myself and the human body.

I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t had days where I have been completely stressed out, depressed, and exhausted beyond belief, but every day something happens that reminds me of the fact that I am where I need to be, and where I want to be. I think I might be a slight masochist, because I really do love everything that I’m doing right now, and no matter how hard it gets at times, I always seem to want more. Let’s just hope it stays that way!    

A Tough Week, but I Survived!!!!

I’m so sorry for the lack of posts, but it has been a super busy time! I have taken two exams since I last wrote, and I needed the week to somewhat recover. One exam was fairly short and only covered epidemiology, and the other exam was a major one that consisted of 3 hours of a written portion with a one hour anatomy lab practical that immediately followed. To say I have been stressed out and exhausted is a huge understatement! The picture below was pretty much my view all last weekend, and sleep was a luxury that I really could not afford. Since my daughter doesn’t bother me when she’s sleeping, I ended up staying awake basically 24 hours so that I could get some extra studying in. By Sunday night, I was so exhausted that I went to sleep early, but I had no problem getting 8 hours of sleep and being extra refreshed for the exam. After the exam, I came home and spent a few hours typing up an article that’s deadline was on the same day (I’m a huge procrastinator!), but after that it felt so good to finally be able to relax, watch TV, and worry about absolutely nothing!

On the constant study grind!

As for another update, shortly after my last post, my S.O. had to go back to Louisiana for at least the next month or two, so I have been following plan B of the schedule I previously posted (SEE HERE). The closest family I have lives about 45 minutes away from where I stay, so driving there would have cost me two hours of study time. I’m pretty much doing everything on my own now, but I’m used to it, so it hasn’t been too much of a shock. I’m pretty sure that I’m the only parent in my school who is balancing a child and school without the help of family, but it is still very doable. I just can’t express how grateful I am for a fellow student and mother who helped me out by having her husband watch my daughter last Saturday so that I could go take a mock anatomy practical exam at the school. One thing I learned is to never be afraid to ask for help, and I am so blessed to be at a school where pretty much everyone tries to help and look out for one another.

Bowling for Babies with GA-PCOM SNMA!

On another subject, I had the opportunity to help support the March of Dimes through an event today called “Bowling for Babies”. It was put on by the GA-PCOM chapter of the Student National Medical Association, and I am happy to finally be a medical student member of the organization (I was an associate member all throughout my undergraduate career). It was also great being able to gain volunteer hours while bowling and spending time with my daughter. I’ll probably end up making tomorrow my study day, but I definitely don’t regret it.

My daughter keeps me all smiles :-)

There are quite a few posts that I know I need to write, so hopefully I’ll be able to get to them this week. I plan on writing about a few lessons that I have learned from my exams so far, and I was asked about the format and subject matter of the exams at my school, so I will cover that as well. If there’s anything else you guys want to know, don’t be afraid to shoot me a message. I always respond even if it takes me a day or two. The current block covers head and neck anatomy, which is supposed to be one of the hardest exams (which we will have on the 26^th), so most of my free time will be spent studying. So far, we have only had 4 days of classes to cover it, and it is already so much material!!!! I’m really trying my best to not get overwhelmed, and I definitely appreciate the support that I get from you all. So another huge thank you to those of you who read, comment on my posts, and send me messages because it really keeps me going. Until next time!

Ready for Week 3!

The Study Grind!

Happy Labor Day! I remember when this day meant sleeping in and good barbeque, but my, oh, my, have things changed! I actually woke up at 6:30 this morning to study, and that’s pretty much what I’ve done the entire day. It was so refreshing to have an extra day to study without any new material, plus by waking up before my daughter, I received the added benefit of interruption-free study time. I still feel like I have so much more to learn, but at least now I feel slightly caught up. They weren’t lying about one week of medical school being comparable to a semester of undergraduate courses, and I have the binder to prove it! I already had to make the switch to a two-inch binder for my lecture notes alone, and if it weren’t for the fact that my lectures notes are printed four slides to a page front and back, I would probably need a larger one. Oddly enough though, I feel completely in my element and I am happy with the workload so far. It’s not easy, and it’s definitely exhausting, but I just love learning material that is geared towards my dreams. Plus, learning about the human body, clinical correlations, and everything else that comes with it really excites me! Whether good or bad, this is all just one big process to get me to where I want to be, so I’m embracing it all.

Mother-Daughter Selfie Time!

On another note, I stayed true to my “study-free Sunday” rule and had the chance to attend my little brother’s wedding yesterday. It was great being able to see friends and family that I hadn’t seen in years, and my daughter had a good time as well. I know down the road that school will probably get in the way of attending weddings and other big milestones, so I feel very blessed that I was given the opportunity to do so this time. Plus, I was happy to get dolled up, because studying has made me feel extra frumpy lately, LOL.

Anyway, this week I have an exam on Tuesday in epidemiology and then I will be studying my butt off (in addition to attending classes) for my SPOM exam next week. I’ll have to go into what exactly that is on another post later, but if you don’t hear from me until later next week, just know that is the reason why. Things are starting to get real, so please pray for me!

Ready for the week ahead (Model Style!)