When I first came to Saba, one thing that became immediately clear was how helpful the upper semesters were at giving advice on how they studied, from what materials, how much time they devoted to each class, etc. This advice is really variable. I remember on Day 1 someone telling me to follow the same study methods that worked during undergrad. A few minutes later, a different student was telling me not to rely on my previous methods because these courses were more intense. I heard over and over again "Don't worry, but hit the ground running and don't stop until you're back in Canada in December." Needless to say, I was thoroughly freaked out early on, which definitely lit a fire under my ass for first block.
Coming from a non-science background and an undergrad that ended more than 4 years ago, I was sincerely anxious about my ability to actually pull this off. Everyone hears the stats - 25% of the class leaves in the first semester, a number of people fail or drop, etc. I think it's important not to listen to these statistics. For example, already 30% of my class has left. But the vast majority of these people left because they genuinely didn't like it here or they had problems back home.
The relief I felt after passing block 1 exams was great. But I knew I could do better so i set out to revise my strategies. I thought I'd share them.
Block 1: I didn't have much of an idea in this block. I studied mostly in my room and I spent most of my time pouring over lecture slides and converting them into cue cards in question and answer form. This was very time consuming and I ran out of cue cards in the first two weeks. Even with all of these hand-made cards, I still felt like I was losing a lot of information and that I was missing details because of how tedious it was. What was worse, so much of my time went to cue card making that I had very little time to review them. Some of them I still haven't taken a second look at.
Block 2: My new block resolutions were to exclusively study in the library, to sit nearer to the front of the class. By the end of this block, I was making very few cue cards, knowing that it really wasn't that efficient. I would read the lecture slides, then refer to Dr. Rao's notes to summarize what I had been studying. Dr. Rao is a past anatomy professor whose notes are still circulating among students years later. I did even worse in this block and I felt it was because I wasn't being active enough in my studying. I would read but it wouldn't stick.
Block 3: Early on in this block, I came across the blocking method and it changed my life. Really. The idea is simple - using the power point slides, block out the important words or diagram labels or whatever you would normally highlight in a textbook. The key to doing this is blocking in a way so that once you come across the slide again in the future, you have an idea of what's behind it. So blocking an entire sentence or slide doesn't make much sense. I think this works well for me for a number of reasons:
- Blocking requires active reading because you don't want to block irrelevant shit. So the first time you go over it, you're actually studying.
- It can be started in class. Although I like listening to the prof during class, a few blocks can be made here and there without missing out on the lecture.
- It's fast. I can get through an entire lecture and maybe even review it before the night is done.
- I'm not losing any information this way, like I was with cue cards. Each diagram is in perfect form (not hand-drawn). Because the slides are developed from a number of sources, there's little reason for me to consult another source, unless I'm not understanding something.
I tried to make sure that I went through each lecture 3 times before writing the exams. I'd finish each lecture by night time, review all the lectures of the week on the weekend and again before the exam. By the third time, I usually had a great idea of what was going on.
Anyway, I felt I had a lot more time with this method, I knew the material way better and I kicked ass at the exams. Of course this won't work for everyone but I suggest you give it a try.
I supplemented this method with doing all the BRS and Michigan questions the weekend before the exams.
Block 4: This block I want to doodle and write out lists, etc. Not anything fancy to study from, but just to make the process even more active.
Oh I should also say what I love about this method is that there's a defined amount of work to do thus I know exactly how much I'm behind at any give time, or when I'm done the lecture that evening, I don't have to feel bad for taking the rest of the night off. This is important for sanity purposes.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Coming from a non-science background and an undergrad that ended more than 4 years ago, I was sincerely anxious about my ability to actually pull this off. Everyone hears the stats - 25% of the class leaves in the first semester, a number of people fail or drop, etc. I think it's important not to listen to these statistics. For example, already 30% of my class has left. But the vast majority of these people left because they genuinely didn't like it here or they had problems back home.
The relief I felt after passing block 1 exams was great. But I knew I could do better so i set out to revise my strategies. I thought I'd share them.
Block 1: I didn't have much of an idea in this block. I studied mostly in my room and I spent most of my time pouring over lecture slides and converting them into cue cards in question and answer form. This was very time consuming and I ran out of cue cards in the first two weeks. Even with all of these hand-made cards, I still felt like I was losing a lot of information and that I was missing details because of how tedious it was. What was worse, so much of my time went to cue card making that I had very little time to review them. Some of them I still haven't taken a second look at.
Block 2: My new block resolutions were to exclusively study in the library, to sit nearer to the front of the class. By the end of this block, I was making very few cue cards, knowing that it really wasn't that efficient. I would read the lecture slides, then refer to Dr. Rao's notes to summarize what I had been studying. Dr. Rao is a past anatomy professor whose notes are still circulating among students years later. I did even worse in this block and I felt it was because I wasn't being active enough in my studying. I would read but it wouldn't stick.
Block 3: Early on in this block, I came across the blocking method and it changed my life. Really. The idea is simple - using the power point slides, block out the important words or diagram labels or whatever you would normally highlight in a textbook. The key to doing this is blocking in a way so that once you come across the slide again in the future, you have an idea of what's behind it. So blocking an entire sentence or slide doesn't make much sense. I think this works well for me for a number of reasons:
- Blocking requires active reading because you don't want to block irrelevant shit. So the first time you go over it, you're actually studying.
- It can be started in class. Although I like listening to the prof during class, a few blocks can be made here and there without missing out on the lecture.
- It's fast. I can get through an entire lecture and maybe even review it before the night is done.
- I'm not losing any information this way, like I was with cue cards. Each diagram is in perfect form (not hand-drawn). Because the slides are developed from a number of sources, there's little reason for me to consult another source, unless I'm not understanding something.
I tried to make sure that I went through each lecture 3 times before writing the exams. I'd finish each lecture by night time, review all the lectures of the week on the weekend and again before the exam. By the third time, I usually had a great idea of what was going on.
Anyway, I felt I had a lot more time with this method, I knew the material way better and I kicked ass at the exams. Of course this won't work for everyone but I suggest you give it a try.
I supplemented this method with doing all the BRS and Michigan questions the weekend before the exams.
Block 4: This block I want to doodle and write out lists, etc. Not anything fancy to study from, but just to make the process even more active.
Oh I should also say what I love about this method is that there's a defined amount of work to do thus I know exactly how much I'm behind at any give time, or when I'm done the lecture that evening, I don't have to feel bad for taking the rest of the night off. This is important for sanity purposes.
Anyway, hope this helps.
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