Sharpen the Axe

I stumbled onto a book at a used bookstore that has helped me a great deal. It is called “Study Power”, and was written by William R. Luckie and Wood Smethurst.


It teaches study/learning skills with a method that is/was used at Harvard. I have always been tooling with how I get the job done when it comes to using my time. I know all of us struggle with this. This book helped me get a system going.


I don’t have a lot of time for free reading and never get to read for fun anymore, but this was worth it.


If anyone else has found books that are good for this, or for MCAT prep please list them here.

I don’t have any titles to recommend at the moment, but thanks for yours. I look forward to reading it.

Yeah - I wish I had latched onto a few things prior to getting into medical school…here’s


a few that you may find helpful…

  1. If you can do it - get into a speed reading course — seriously — do it online if you have to but if you can read and retain quickly – it’ll help

  2. There’s a book out called ‘How to succeed in medial school’ – big, white softcover with a bunch of people in white lab coats smiling happily on it – good book. A lot of things about how to study for medicine (layering, multiple passes, organizing info in your head, etc). Get it before you get in and implement the techniques so they’re old hat – you’ll be flyin’…


    So— as always your mileage may vary — good luck and remember that no plan ever survives first contact — in Marine parlance – the enemy doesn’t always read the book — in medicine - the patients never read Robbins…