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May 20, 2006
More Thoughts on How to Study in Medical School
Going into the last couple of tests, here's my latest thoughts on how to study with notecards in medical school:
There's to much to learn in medical school to memorize. When writing notecard questions, you've got to make connections between facts rather than learning the same piece of information in multiple different contexts. In fact, you're wasting time if you ask your hippocampus to build a bridge too far. So put lots of information in the question. Make it so you damn near trip over the answer. Write things out, be as conversational as possible. Abbreviations require interpretation when reviewing notecards before a test. Consider:
In an action potential, sodium channels open before potassium channels.
— vs —
In an AP, Na+ channels open before K+ channels.
Did you say "N - A - plus"? "K - plus"? Reading the spelled-out words actually takes fewer bits of thinking and far less interpretation. Be as conversational as possible while being specific. Consider these questions about inhibitory post-synaptic potentials:
What's an IPSP?
What's IPSP mean?
What's IPSP stand for?
The following are some rough stats about my cards. The numbers are median(range).
Number of sentences per question: 1 (1-4)
Number of sentences per answer: 1 (1-4)
Number of questions in a question: 1 (exact)
Nouns per question: 3 (1-15)
Adverbs and adjectives per question: 4 (0-20)
Nouns per answer: 2 (0-15)
Adverbs and adjectives per answer: 4 (0-20)
Questions per card: 4(1-9)
Drawings per lecture: 0 (0-2)
Cards per lecture: 7 (1-20)
Mix of active and passive voice: 50-50
Most common word starting a question: What or what's. Probably 5 occurances for every occurance of any other word.
Others, roughly in order of frequency: How, why, does, if, where, when, are, during, in, membrane, delayed, is, express, for
Time spent per lecture
-- if written once at end of week: 75 minutes (15-180)
-- if notecarding in class then erasing and rewriting every card: 120 minutes (90-180)
-- if notecard in class then rewriting on new cards with minimal erasing: 75 minutes (40-100)
Posted by Niels Olson at May 20, 2006 11:15 PM
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