So traditionally, I’m one of those students who reads the textbooks. Word for word, every page that is assigned by the class. I figure if I do that, then I avoid having to cram at the last minute, it makes studying for exams a lot easier since I already know it (just need to remember it), and generally seems to make life easier.
I guess my question is whether that’s actually low-yield studying, despite the fact it seems like its beneficial?
I finally had to say screw it today because my medic program’s reading assignment to be completed by Friday that I got on Tuesday was to read approximately 240 pages in the second volume of the series. Obviously, 240 pages word for word in 3 days is just not happening, so I just attempted to skim but still read over the material and was actually able to get it all done in a couple hours. Granted, I probably did miss a few things, but is this basically just what’s necessary as far as studying medicine goes? I feel like I’m drinking from a damn firehose and it’s making my previous study habits simply impossible.
I generally skim for major themes then outline those themes. I also write down any definitions I may need to remember along the way. I’m a kinetic learner though so I need to be more hands on in my approach.
I say whatever helps you learn the material.
I am currently taking English 110 College Writing. I really feel like it is going to improve my ability to skim, and retain. I am a skim reader and retain short term. Now I know to look for Thesis and key ideas. Working on a Precis is also helping me to really get this concept. I feel that my skimming has a chance of becoming long term. I hate reading word for work. I typically don’t need to. However, in college I do need to retain it.
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modul es/rhe…
tim, i do something very similar - but its more along the lines of speed reading… over the years, i have grown into this ability; but, basically as i skim along i am able to pull out the information that is typically on a power point slide…
and for me, it really helps to write it down as i read it - sort of sets it in concrete…
i read in another forum that this girl who got a 33 on her mcats and a perfect 4.0 from harvard ugrad had nothing but trouble in medical school… and it was because of her study habits from ugrad meeting the sheer volume of medical school. i think its good you realized this before it becomes a big problem for you!! i’m sure you will do just fine though and this will be a great testing time for you to adjust how you do things for medical school…
Are your textbooks Bryan Bledsoe’s & et al “Paramedic Care: Principles & Practices”? Hopefully, the following editions have dramatically improved since I had to read them. I remember the books were hastily slapped together compilations of different articles written by different authors. Chapters tended to repeat themselves and, oftentimes, there were huge chucks of explanations missing from one page to another. Incoherent is the best word to describe them. The instructor tests from the book series were equally as bad. They were more like a list of trivial pursuit questions than reasonable questions of the readings: Example, chest pain is a sign of? A) MI B) angina C) trauma D) PE Answer: Depends on the chapter the test question came from. Yea, that’s right up there with asking what fourth word is on page 240 of the third volume. Seriously, though, if you are using these ubiquitous textbooks, just read for general comprehension. Some of the test questions were very close to the questions on the books’ web pages, but, basically, I would end up reading a couple hundred pages the night before the exam and still got A’s.
Ihopetobeado2, you pretty much summarized everything that’s been pissing me off about the textbooks into one neat little paragraph, and yes they are those exact textbooks.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear the new editions are even more atrocious. Hell the drug cards in the back of the first workbook routinely have spelling errors, dosage errors, etc. that our medic program keeps discovering as we go along and telling us we memorized the wrong thing and to memorize this or that instead.
And yeah, the textbooks repeat themselves a lot and/or provide useless information. For instance, it’s nice to know what an ophthalmoscope and otoscope are, and how to conduct an eye or ear exam, but wtf am I going to have the time and/or need to do that in the field? Ugh. Yeah, being a paramedic is definitely something I want to do for at least a year, but at the same time the problems I see in the training and the massive amount of errors in the textbook just kind of serves to reinforce my desire to become a physician. Hopefully the medical textbooks will be better.
As far as trivial pursuit goes, that’s also a great description of our chapter quizzes. I’d say 70-80% of the questions are fair and the other 20-30% are random trivia nobody cares about and is not useful or relevant.
The style of those questions may seem bad to you now, but learning to recognize them can be of great value to you when you are in med school.
Many questions throughout classes and on USMLE/COMLEX are situation based. The basic question above about chest pain does have multiple right answers. . . but which one is most appropriate for the situation presented? Learning how to see those now and avoid the distractions presented in the scenario will take you far!
Hang in there! And good luck!
I’m glad that some of you guys are ahead of me and share what you are learning…I am learning so many valuable things and am trying to adapt and change now! Thank you all so so much! I too try to read everything, I also like to write everything down and generally I have copious notes and from what I hear just by sheer volume that is impossible to do in medical school and it’s proving a hardship in my upper level classes. I have taken to skimming and trying to learn how to pull out the important parts, luckily so far I am not having too much trouble doing that. Keep sharing guys! It’s all very helpful.
- Linda Wilson Said:
Many questions throughout classes and on USMLE/COMLEX are situation based. The basic question above about chest pain does have multiple right answers. . . but which one is most appropriate for the situation presented? Learning how to see those now and avoid the distractions presented in the scenario will take you far!
Hang in there! And good luck!
Well, the style of questions I'm already used to due to national registry testing for EMT...its basically just the pattern of "all of these can be right but what's the MOST right?"
As far as ihopetobeado2's sample of a question, angina is out since that's just the medical term for chest pain so it would be either trauma, MI or PE depending upon the context. What is most right? Depends on the situation. If I was given no further information, I would go with MI because that's the "most" right since trauma can cause any sort of pain, PEs usually present with SOB but not always chest pain, and MIs (unless silent) will typically present with some sort of chest pain. Perhaps not crushing radiating down the left arm, but it will be some sort of chest pain. And cardiac causes would be the first thing I'd rule out if someone was complaining of chest pain.