5 Fantastic Study Resources I Wish I Knew In My First Year Of Medical School
How to study smart not study hard
The words “ study smart not study hard” always appealed to me. But difficult to practice. Its my 6th semester of Medical school and I finally think I’ve landed on a study strategy that works for me.
The motivation to explore effective study resources and techniques came after I got married in Y2 of my studies. I wanted to make time to enjoy the fine aspects of life with my husband and still stay on top of my studies.
How I Used To Study
I used to summarize my own notes on OneNote. It was alot of work but I thought that I was working smart. They were concise notes, compiled from multiple resources like my lecture slides, medical textbooks and Youtube videos.
The next time I need to learn a topic, I won’t have to go searching for those study materials anymore! Simple I thought. But a few weeks later I’d find myself saying “Omg, I don’t even understand what I wrote!”
I'm sure you've come across Ali Abdaal’s famous video: How to study for exams, using Active recall. Low utility study techniques include summarizing, re-reading and highlighting!
While high utility study techniques include practice testing and active recall. Yet, from where I'm coming from (Indonesia), its something we rarely hear about.
Instead of making notes, I tried Mind mapping like Tony Buzan. It was efficient when it came to submitting my weekly case study assignments. But I soon realized that it gets taxing to make a mindmap of everything.
Zach Highley's video on "How I take 0 Notes in Medical school" was my final push to give their techniques a try.
How I’m Studying Now
Zach shared his study strategy;
Preview
Diligently do your pre-readings before a lecture
Get the general ideas and learn new terms
Search for relevant Anki cards in your Anking deck, watch summary videos from Boards & Beyond, Osmosis or Youtube
Pros: You’d understand and ask better questions when go into a lecture prepared.
View
During a lecture, I find myself annotating using the Mindmapping technique I learnt
After a lecture, this is usually the time I’d open up a textbook to further consolidate my understanding
This is also the time I’d unsuspend the relevant Anki cards in my deck to what I’m learning
This is also the time I’d create Anki cards unique to my lecture if I need to.
Review
Use the pomodoro method to review your Anki cards.
I always feel like I’m the most productive here. Finding a card hard multiple time, highlights to you that there is a gap in your understanding
The most important step here is to review your Anki cards everyday.
If you really need a hardcopy study material to hold on to, I suggest using the First Aid USMLE book to annotate on.
Practice Test
Unlike many USMLE question banks avaliable online, I find it upsetting that Indonesia does not have any available study resources for the UKMPPD.
But its easy to search up Mock Questions online, the downside is that they don’t often come with model answers
I find going through about 5 practice questions a day, useful. It gives an idea how the information you know could be tested.
Hacks I Found for Non-US Medical Students
Obviously, I don’t have to take the USMLE board exams, but I find the information useful, also because from where I’m coming from, my school does not cover those knowledge. I found that you can download them as e-books from Library Genesis. Transfer them over to your Goodnotes app on your Ipad and you'd be good to go!
For Pathology, I really like Pathoma by Husain A. Sattar. You can download his e-book and videos here.
For Microbiology, I find Sketchy Micro super useful. But you’d need an understanding of the concepts first, before watering it down to analogies. You can only find it in audio form. But you can go along with it by looking the relevant Sketchy Pictures in Anki cards. You can download the deck here. If you have not downloaded Anki, get it here.
For Neurology, I loved how Ninja Nerds teach the nitty gritty concepts so well. Their videos are quite long. But totally love the watch. If you’ve never heard of Zach Murphy, you’re totally missing out!
For all other topics, Boards & Beyond and Osmosis covers it really well. You can download the videos using Torrent.
To Summarize, the resources that I wish I knew in my first year ff Medical school are:
Boards & Beyond
Osmosis
Pathoma
Sketchy
Ninja Nerd
All the best in your learning endavour!
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Basrah is a Year 3 Medical Student in FK UMSU, Medan who is also an aspiring authorpreneur. Read Basrah's humble beginnings, "From Rejection to Motivation". Feel free to send Basrah a message here.