The number one thing you have to keep in mind in order to be successful in medical school is pretty much one thing: repetition. Unfortunately, I’m not one of those students that are really good at memorizing a lot of things very quickly, rather, I love learning subjects that are more conceptual. I like taking my time to really understand something rather than spending the same amount of time just memorizing random facts – and medical school needs to be a combination of both. There a lot of facts you just need to brute memorize (Pharmacology) and others that are understanding based (Physiology). Nonetheless, here’s my tried and true, successful approach towards studying massive amounts of information in medical school.

1. Plan Your Studying

I love using weekly planners and plan out my entire week, usually on Monday morning. That way, I know exactly what I need to study that week and space out big loads of lectures. It breaks down the insane amount of information given to us and makes it seem more manageable. Sometimes I like using daily planners as well, especially right before exams because I know these days will be completely packed with studying and reviewing.

2. Multiple Passes on Lecture

This is so simple but key in medical school. You need to repeat the information over and over again. No matter how easy the material is, if you don’t review it, you will forget it. That’s because there is just too much material in general. You need to be reviewing old material in addition to new material every single day. Now, I do something different when I review lectures. Here’s how I would approach learning a typical class.

First Pass: Watch the Lecture

This is the most crucial yet the pass I don’t retain much at all. Sometimes I think this first pass is just a waste of time but its not! It’ll be embedded in your subconscious, so come second pass, it’ll be a lot easier to remember and understand things. It’s honestly incredible and super important.

Second Pass: Take My Own Notes

This second pass is what takes the longest to go through. Writing your notes takes up so much time that usually if I’m tight on time, I will forgo this step and make going through the PowerPoints my second pass. It’s honestly a luxury to have time to make quality notes. Second-year will make this nearly impossible. But if you are able to take your notes on everything, you will definitely have a better time retaining all the information.

Third Pass: Read Over Notes

Now, assuming that you were able to take the notes for your second pass, it’s now time to read over your notes, with the intention to memorize everything. I’ve learned the hard way that if I’m distracted while taking notes or if the notes are messy, there is a big chance that I won’t even use my notes to review at all. The idea is, for every pass you go through, you have to be actively learning and memorizing. This is very, very difficult because it’s very taxing on your brain, especially if you do this all day every day for hours on end. But you have to train yourself to do it.

Fourth Pass: Watch Lecture Again

This is always a drag to re-watch lectures but at this point, I try to speed up the lecture recording usually about 1.5 or 2 times the original speed, just so I can get through the lecture quickly again. I’m always surprised at missing important details that I would’ve otherwise missed from my first pass at watching the lecture. Usually, by my fourth pass, it’ll be close enough to the exam time where I will remember every single detail from the lecture to do well on the exam.

3. Use Other Resources

Even when you’re able to go through all four passes, which at this point you probably have a fairly good grasp of the material, you would still want to gain complete mastery over the material. And in many cases, this will opt you to use outside resources to enhance your knowledge. Plus, many of the resources I use are for board prep, so in my situation, it’s a win-win.

Boards and Beyond

This is one of the best outside resources to understand Physiology. I can’t say how many times I’ve been saved by Boards and Beyond in terms of helping me understand what’s going on in class. This is also a golden study resource to study for board exams. Although it’s pretty pricey in my opinion, I think if you share it with a friend, it shouldn’t be too bad.

Pathoma

This was great for learning Hematology. And if you didn’t know, Chapters 1 to Chapter 3 is also golden for board studying. A lot of the questions come from these first three chapters so I would definitely invest in this resource too, even if it’s just for the first three chapters. This also costed way less than Boards and Beyond so it was definitely worth it to me.

Sketchy

Holy cow. This was my savor for studying all the little bugs for Microbiology. It made recall so, so much easier. I don’t know how people just brute memorize through a Microbiology class but with Sketchy, it’s way more fun and interesting. I would just say, be careful about small details that may be potentially out of date. This is especially the case for SketchyPharm. There are new drugs coming out so fast that there is now a lot of old information still in there. But the good news is that it mostly covers board material so most of the time, even if it’s out of date information, you still need to know it for boards.

Anki

This is like the flashcards for medical school. When you know how the algorithm works for this program, you’ll know that if you use Anki every day for studying, you will end up learning every day. This is a golden resource to start early on and incorporate into your studying. I would know how to use it, first and foremost because it is a bit unintuitive at first, in terms of knowing how to customize everything. But once you learn it, it’s a very powerful study aid.

Youtube

Heard of NinjaNerds or Osmosis? If you don’t want to spend the money for board prep resources, you could also opt for free resources like the ones on YouTube. Before medical school, these free resources would be the ones I rely on the most.

4. Study Groups

Studying in a group was a recent discovery that I found works very well. The only exception is that you need to find a couple of people that are willing to pull their weight in contributions. I tend to be a person that prefers studying by myself and learning as much as I can before I even start group studying. Usually, the best way to study as a group either talks through a concept together, talking through a difficult lecture together, or my personal favorite, doing practice review questions a couple of days before the exam.

The main goal of group studying is to reinforce knowledge or pick up small details that you might’ve missed studying by yourself but your friends could’ve picked it up. If you rely on group studying to actively learn new material and concepts, you will not find yourself welcome in a study group nor have foundational knowledge if you don’t learn it first yourself. Other people will get tired of helping you all the time as well. So, the best way to approach this is just to do your part in your own learning to the best of your ability and then studying in a group to facilitate a deeper understanding of the material.

5. Emailing Professors

This is the main way I use to communicate with professors with my questions. I could have the option of asking questions after a live lecture, but I usually don’t have any profound questions immediately after my first pass at lectures. I find myself having the most questions during my second or third pass on the lecture material because that’s when I’m actively trying to understand and learn the material. They usually are able to answer my question via email quite effectively and quickly so I believe this is another way to enhance my understanding of the concept.

6. Using the Textbook

Honestly, this is absolutely optional unless your professor specifically tells you to read the book. I know a handful of students that swear by the textbook for every class, but I don’t believe it’s the best use of your time. There are far more classes where the professor just slams a bunch of words on PowerPoints and expects you to know everything on their slides. That alone is enough for you to study it for hours. Sure, the textbook helps you get a better understanding of the topic, but only if you have the luxury of having enough time to do that. The lecture slides are already the SparkNotes of the material that you need to learn from the book. So, focus on the lecture slides as a priority and if you still don’t understand it, try outside resources or reading the book, and then ask the professor.

So, these are the golden guidelines to ensure a successful exam score, which I aim to be 90% or better. This method is the way that I was able to successfully study during medical school and may not work for everyone. This takes a lot of time to accomplish but this helps me with long term retention of the knowledge, as well as short term exam goals. There is no shortcut in medical school so, in any way you choose to study in medical school, you will live, breathe, sleep medical school.

Happy studying! Let me know if you have any questions.