Hi all,
I am in need of some sage advice. I was just told that I could take an optional final that is cumulative as I received a B on my midterm because I was really really sick at the time. I am grateful for the opportunity to review physiology one more time before taking the MCAT and before taking it with anatomy in med school, but there is a LOT to memorize! We are not doing much anatomy, but we do need to know all the types of channels for each type of response, all the factors involved in cascades, etc…so it won’t be easy as there is a lot to know and I really am not great at memorizing things. I am also taking my cumulative physics final three days earlier (really not my strong point). I could really use some advice as to how best to prepare for this as my course is highly competitive, with a tight curve and I really would like to get an A. How on earth do I memorize all the basic physiological mechanisms? I did keep up this semester, so I was not slacking. But I am overwhelmed! Any really good study tools online? Study techniques that help you be more efficient? Memorization techniques?
Draw it on white board or paper, color coding the mechanisms in some system that makes sense to you. Draw it repeatedly, making sure you understand the steps. Try to make your diagram vary spatially - it helps to memorize things if they are in a spatial context. For example, I could give you 25 objects and ask you to memorize them, OR I could place them in different rooms of your home, take you on a walking tour showing you several in each room, and you would be much more likely to remember all of them because you would have a chronology (the order in which we went thru the rooms) and a spatial referent - picturing each object in the context of the room. The richer a “context” in the diagram you can give it the better. There’s a reason the Kreb Cycle is diagrammed in a circle. That’s the best advice I can give you.
For physiology I did a colored diagram for autonomics with two spinal cords segments on either side of the paper, drawing the sympathetic innervation from the L and the parasympathetic from the rt. Used blue for presynaptic neurons and red for post synaptic neurons. drew a little stylized heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys and bladder, etc in the middle. Could draw lines from T 1-5 merging and going to the heart from the sympathetic side, etc. Numbered my segments. Saw it done, studied it, reproduced the picture twice, glanced before the test, had it all memorized. Worked for me.
Remembering that SNS is fight or flight and PNS is “rest and digest” would tell me what was effect at each organ system.
That kind of thing.
kate
That’s really good advice. I think I will invest in a set of colorful pens today and use that method to review the chapters. It sounds like “concept mapping”, which I am familiar with but I guess have not relied on for a long time. Thanks!