Blog Post Focus
This is another blog post about studying. In particular, a likely need for changing your habits. I certainly needed to change my habits from college to become more effective in medical school and residency.
In the past I have written about good study habits and bad study habits and about why it is so important to embrace good habits while avoiding bad habits. If these topics are interesting to you, check them out in my prospective medical students section and medical students section. I’ll link these below.
My Studying Experience—Years of Early Excellence Led to Poor Study Habits
Early Years
I had an experience that may be similar to several prospective medical student and prospective medical students. I excelled academically. I expected near perfect marks for tests. Through grade school I studied, but it didn’t seem like it took nearly the time that others took. I simply read things and took notes and I could think critically and do well.
High School
In high school I did have some classes that really challenged me. I started studying more, mainly by doing more reading and more note-taking. Nothing special other than really taking time to read and take notes. By the end of high school I probably studied more than most students.
Undergraduate
Once I got into college I started to feel overwhelmed by studies on a regular basis. I did collegiate sports, tried to balance my time for my friends and family and loved ones, and studied. I studied a ton. With sports I traveled a lot and had too much time devoted to practice and at irregular, always-changing schedules. I studied more than ever. More brute force than ever.
I Could Not Get Ahead, but Still Did Well
For the first time in my life I was unsettled because I could not stay ahead or easily be on top of things. By the end I regularly felt behind on things. It was so frustrating, spending so much time and effort and feeling like I couldn’t keep up.
I still did well – scoring very well in almost all my classes. I got into my first choice medical school, so I felt I did well enough and that my study habits were what they needed to be. I was told studying required hard work and dedication—I was disciplined and could spend as much as was needed to achieve my goals and dreams.
Medical School
However, once I was in medical school, where studying was so broad and the expectation was to just “know everything,” I realized I needed to become more efficient and effective in my studying. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know where to look to improve my studies.
Trialing Different Methods Arbitrarily
My first year and a half I just kept trying different methods of studying. I took electronic notes for the first time ever. I would download PowerPoints and edit them or make comments on them and focus on those for studying. I read a lot. I highlighted a lot. I would re-read a lot. I would sometimes just write down everything I could at once. I would try to summarize notes in my own words.
Some of the study choices were fast, and some took way too much time. Overall, I simply kept scoring the same across the board regardless of study method, which was frustrating. I was generally above the class average, but I wanted to score in the top. Sometimes I came very close to being in the top performer groups, and sometimes I passed with too little comfort.
Board Prep Resource—Attempting to Use High-Yield Resources Poorly
At some point in my second year I started utilizing board prep resources and I liked how well they could teach things. Yet, I tried to utilize too many of them. Despite having better resources, I continued to do the same. Much of this continued through the remainder of my third and fourth year, except that I found my preferred resources and was ultimately able to spend less time studying. Despite all this effort though, I wasn’t improving my scores.
Finally Arriving at Better Methods
It wasn’t until the very end of my fourth year of medical school and my intern year of residency where I came across Make it Stick and found out better methods for studying. Then, I started to feel that my studying was more effective. I scored much better on my STEP 3 and COMLEX Level 3 scores relative to the previous two exams. I started feeling more comfortable learning and applying clinical knowledge. Then, I came across Learning how to Learn on Coursera and its sequel course MindShift and was able to apply some more evidence-based study methods.
Advice, and Who Needs to Change Habits
There are better and worse study habits, which in other posts I write about I call good study habits and bad study habits. Good study habits are more effective (help us learn material more deeply) and more efficient (help us learn material more quickly) compared to bad study habits.
If you already use good study habits, awesome! Keep up the good work.
Who Should Look To Improve Study Habits?
If you feel you never really needed to study, or all you ever did for studying was spending a lot of time reading, highlighting, and taking notes, then you should actively look to employ good study habits. These study habits can be used immediately.
Great Resources
I highly recommend you look into the resources below. Make it Stick is an interesting read. It is not necessary to read the whole thing other than to have it emphasize why the study habits are superior to others. The Coursera courses Learning How to Learn and MindShift can be audited, that is, the material can be learned without paying for the course. However, you can pay for the certificate if you want that or to support the creators of the Coursera courses. Links are posted below.
Conclusion – Don’t Make Medical School Any Harder Than It Needs to Be
Using good study habits will not make medical school or medical education easy, but it will make it easier compared to if you use bad study habits. Plus, good study habits are helpful in general whenever you need to learn something – whether related to medicine or not.
Like me, I suspect many people are hampered by using bad study habits that were used because they were enough for success in in their education through college. And like me, when you actively look to utilize good study habits you will find yourself performing better on tests and feeling more comfortable translating what you learn to patient care.
Resources
Note, at this time I have no affiliate partnerships and do not make money from any referrals. I simply found the following resources to be quite informative for my own educational journey.
- Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning on Amazon
- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects on Coursera
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles To Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
- Past posts on study habits in the prospective medical students and medical students sections https://permanentstudentdoctor.com/good-study-habits-as-a-prospective-medical-student/ and others ***
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