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Some of the following information was taken from the book Study without Stress by K. Straker and E. Kelman

Study Tips
1. The 50 Minute Rule: For every hour of study time, 50 minutes should be concentrated, uninterrupted study time. 2. To Cram or Not to Cram? Dont Cram for tests. Cramming does not allow information to soak in to your long term memory. Comprehension, repetition, note making and reviewing puts information into your long term memory and you can retrieve it more efficiently. Dont Cram for tests! It might help you remember a few last minute questions, but it just doesnt work. 3. Easy Steps to Successful Studying: A. Pre-read before a lecture B. Make Notes C. Review information D. Test yourself 4. Understand that Studying in Medical School is Different: Medical school requires you to understand, retain and apply detailed and very specific information. Therefore, having a general understanding on topics will not lead to academic success. In medical school, a student must learn to: a. b. c. d. e. 5. Live a highly disciplined life Postpone ordinary pleasures and recreation Devote much more time to studying/working than most people Become an excellent time manager- Dont Waste Time! Dont forget about basic human needs like: eating, sleeping and exercise.

How Many Hours Per Week Should I Study? Medical students typically spend 60-65 hours per week on learning activities. For every hour of class time, you should plan to spend two hours of self directed study.

Page 2 of 6 6. Exam Your Current Studying Schedule.

Do you ever think All I ever do is study? Take a look at your current schedule. Make a detailed list throughout the day (or even a week) of your activities. Are you spending too much time on your grooming, TV watching, recreational or social activities? You might be spending for time than you think! Become disciplined; dont watch more than 1 hour of TV per day. Get a wash n wear hair style, dont have too much fun on the weekends, but certainly have some fun. Being a medical student means telling your friends and family members no, I have to study and make sure they are on board with you. Tell them ahead of time when you say no I cant attend a function, party or social eventyou mean it. 7. Get Enough Rest!

How many of hours of sleep do you get a night? If you dont get at least 6-8 hours, you are short changing yourself. A well rested student is a successful one. You cannot think or listen effectively if you are tired or exhausted. There is certainly enough time throughout the day to get 7 hours of sleep, exercise, eat, attend class and study. You just have to make good use of your time! 8. Time Saving Tips:

a. Multitask. Do 2 things at the same time if neither requires special concentration like listen to the news or watch TV while preparing meals, exercising, grooming or laundry. b. Low Maintenance. Get a wash and wear hairstyle, buy and wear low maintenance clothing, and buy food that required little prep time. (Its usually healthier too) c. Keep a List. Dont clutter your brain with small details like groceries to purchase or errands to run. Keep a list and give your brain a break. d. Calendars. Carry a calendar or schedule with you at all times, it will assist you in achieving more brain power! c. Organization. Get (and remain) organized. Putting everything in its place allows you to go directly to something when you need itinstead of frantically searching and wasting time looking for it. d. Avoid Crowds and High Peak Times. Go to dinner a 5 instead of a higher peak time like 6 or 7. Drive during nonpeak commuter times, avoid 6 pm when grocery shopping. This will also help ease frustration and anxiety levels. e. Study Groups? If you study in a study group, make sure the entire group is using the 50 minute rule and they arent wasting allot of time talking or socializing. Make good use of that time.

Page 3 of 6 f. Repetition. Remember, it takes 21 days to produce a habitso repeat, repeat, repeat! 9. Use a Daily To-Do List. Your daily to-do list will keep you moving towards your goals on a daily basis. Take 10 minutes every night and make a to-do list for the next day. Look over your calendar for the next couple of weeks to remember tasks that need to be planned in advance: searching for literature for that term paper, buying and sending birthday cards, and preparing submissions to conferences and grants. Your to-do list is your friend; never leave home without it. Dont bog down your brain with this informationwrite it down!!! 10. Positive Self Talk!

Turn negative language into positive language. The word challenging should be used instead of difficult or impossible. Negative self talk will compromise your success. Recognize that you are doing this and stop the cycle now! Remember you are Doctor_______ and you are amazing!!!

Dont just survive Medical SchoolEnjoy it!

Additional Tips for OSU-CHS Students: Get a mentor or tutor! Contact Student Affairs for more info. Attend the stress management class. Speak with your Academic Counselor to discuss your specific needs.

Why should I change my study strategies?

If you're not happy with your performance, the most likely culprit is your study strategies. The material presented in medical school is not conceptually more difficult than many rigorous undergraduate courses, but the volume flow rate of information per hour and per day is much greater it has frequently been described as drinking from a fire-hose.

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Everyone admitted to a medical school has study strategies successful for an undergraduate informational flow rate unfortunately, those developed by most premeds are not efficient enough for the fire hose approach of medical school. The most fundamental principle of efficient studying the best use of your limited time requires active, not passive learning.

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Active learning requires making decisions about the material Is this important?, How is this part organized?, Where does this fit into the big picture?, What is the precise definition of this term?,Where have I seen this in an earlier lecture? Passive reading of pages of text or going over notes (even with a highlighter) and hoping to absorb the information is very inefficient if you have enough time, it will work and probably did in undergraduate classes, but it usually isnt adequate for the fire hose.

Changing a habit isnt easy, so dont be surprised if you need to hear or review active strategies multiple times it takes time to change.

What are the fundamentals of active studying?

Four active processes will be used in the steps of any active study pattern and any study time that does not involve one or more of these steps is almost certainly passive and inefficient! Identifying the important information answering the eternal question of whats important here? Organizing the information start with the big picture to create a framework that facilitates memorization and access appropriate for differential diag nosis. Memorizing the information this requires frequent review to keep it available for use! Applying the information to more complex situations old exam questions, clinical applications, etc.

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Everyone will develop their own high volume study methods eventually, b ut the majority of medical students benefit from a starting strategy and one generally successful starting point uses five basic steps: Finding the "big picture" by skimming the information before lecture identifying and memorizing the four or five major topics will keep you on track during lecture. Creating a complete rough draft of the material by annotating the lecturer's slides notes emphasizing the lecturer's context are supplemented as needed from other reading materials. Don't rewrite this! Creating summary charts, lists or diagrams that organize the needed material to emphasize patterns that facilitate memorization. Actively memorizing the charts, etc., as they are created, then incorporating quick and frequent review during later study to nail the information down you'll still need the fundamentals after finals are over. Practicing application using practice or old exam questions during the study process and not to test yourself just before the exam.

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Why find the "big picture" before lecture?

Many students find they lose sight of the forest as they focus on the leaves, much less the trees. If you notice you are getting lost during lecture, finding the "big picture" before lecture provides a road map through the forest that will increase active learning during lecture.

Pre-lecture work should take no more than 10 minutes/hour lecture and has 2 goals:

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The road map. Scan the material to identify the number of major headings and the major subheadings each has, then take just a couple of minutes to memorize those (don't skip this part!). Read the introduction and summary, which emphasize those points. The vocabulary. Scan the material again to note any definitions or equations. Exact definitions are crucial and equations help relate many different factors correctly.

If the lecturer provides a syllabus prior to the lecture use it! If not, you can benefit from skimming theassigned reading.

How do I generate my "rough draft" of all this information?

Take lecture notes that emphasize context the big picture and what the instructor thinks is important. Much of the factual information is typically provided in a syllabus or a handout of a lecturers Power Point slides, so just annotate these dont forget you can use the backs of pages for your notes. 1.

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Always note circumstances that indicate when one reflex or response will outweigh another! Number the pages of lecture notes for each subject so that you can easily identify them. You will need those specific page numbers for cross-indexing your notes and references from your summaries. Use abbreviations and develop your own shorthand from them. Never write out the entire name of a macromolecule, gene, etc. after the first time. Use symbols for words whenever possible and be creative. Keep a list of them for the first quarter or two and be consistent. As they become habit, your speed will improve a lot.

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Focus on adding context from the lecturer this requires decision-making and so is active. On a power point graph, note the point a graph or chart is making, or clearly label the axes. Emphasize any comments of the lecturer on what is important information vs. what is just color.

Create the rough draft by labeling, annotating and cross-referencing your lecture notes as you read through them the first time this is the messy but complete document youll use as source material for more concise summaries.

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1. Impose the big picture on your notes.

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Add major headings and subheadings within the notes and in the left margin in a different color ink this reinforces the organization of the lecture. The lecture outline will frequently provide headings if they aren't apparent from the lecture slides. Label each topic in the left margin and circle specific definitions within the notes in a different color these will be used both for reference and for keying memorization of the material.

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These processes force you to analyze the material and begin to actually learn it (notjust track it); this will speed up integrative summary design, also. Supplement your notes with any additional information from other readings that will be needed to create effective summaries. Use your notes about the lecturers emphasis to help decide whats important, and to look for missing information if the lecturer discussed three abnormal conditions and provided causes for only two, maybe you missed the third.

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Use the index in the text to direct you to specific topics don't get caught up passively reading large sections without actively pulling out the facts to incorporate into rough draft. Cross-index your notes between lectures you won't remember which lecture contained each experiment the weekend before the final. Each time the lecturer mentions something you remember being discussed in an earlier lecture, stop, find the pages in your earlier notes and add the page numbers in both places. This makes it much easier to create summaries that contain the from multiple lectures which are the most useful summaries!

Your rough draft is the single reference document you will refer to incase you need to add detail later to summaries or check on somethingyou originally didn't think was important.

How do I create organized summaries from my rough draft?

Organizing necessary detail into integrative summaries facilitates both memorization and application and these summaries combine to form the final draft of your information that you will use to study for the final. What is "necessary" detail? See FAQ on "How do I know what will be on the exam?" or How do I know how much detail to learn? Different material lends itself to different types of summaries simple lists, charts, flow diagrams, or pictures use whatever combination you prefer. In each case, organize the material to emphasize connections and facilitate memorization.

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Where possible, create "big picture" organizations that integrate material from multiple lectures. If you're not sure whether to include a specific detail, leave it out and just put in an asterisk in the appropriate spot with the page number from your rough draft for quick reference.

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Don't recreate the wheel. If you find a good chart in some text orother source, photocopy it and add it to your summaries. Be sure to addany additional information to make it complete or more comprehensive try a different color ink to make it stand out. Create and organize the headings before you spend any time filling in the actual information. The headings or location within a diagram should reinforce the big picture or anatomyor chronological sequence or steps in a physiological process or someaspect of the process.

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Finalize the organization of the headings for your list or chart, or the spatial organization for a flow chart or diagram before adding in any of the information (this uses up a lot of scrap paper). This requires analysis and integration of the material, which isactive, and aids memorization, since there is a "reason" for the orderor spatial organization.

Use a hierarchical approach for headings or spatial organization no more than five major headings on a list or chart or six major sections on a diagram more is too hard to remember. If you need more headings or sections, decide how they are related and create subheadings. The same numerical limits apply to subheading if necessary, go to the next level of subheadings.

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ii) Make sure your headings (charts/lists) or spatial organization (flow charts, diagrams) provide information due to their sequence or location. Multiple summaries or diagrams are better than one big one. Simple outlines in a syllabus provide a great source for topics that your summaries should cover. Limit the material covered in a single summary to an amount reasonable to memorize, then use multiple summaries to cover the material from different points of view. For complex material, the organization of the headings may not be enough to establish the "big picture"; in these cases, some summaries just focus on the big picture. Don't hesitate to include the same information on different summaries,especially if they are organizing the material from different points ofview or at different levels of detail.

How can I memorize actively and be sure I know the material?

1. Don't put off memorizing material until just before the exam.

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Of course you will forget much of it after the first time that's why you need to build repetitions into your study pattern. But if you memorized it actively (see above), you forget the "address" of the information much more than the actual information. So review will move it into long term memory. If you cram it the night before, you won't remember it a week later, much less the next quarter or the next year.

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So save the picky (but necessary) details for the night before, but memorize all the concepts and the first couple of levels of detail as you go and review them as you study later material. Memorize the headings first their order should reinforce useful information like anatomy, time course, etc. First, memorize how many items (e.g., headings) there are Second, memorize the headings themselves using biological logic, visualization, or mnemonics.

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Third, memorize the information associated with each heading, starting with just a key word or short phrase, and finally adding the full item. When you think you have memorized any piece of the chart, etc.:

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4. 5. Cover the original, and write out the material on a blank piece of paper (dont be pretty, but dont cheat!), then throw what you have just written away!!! Look at the original if your confident you got it all great! If there is any question, dont compare with what you should have thrown away just memorize it again.

This method emphasizes what you dont know; comparing the new with the old only confirms what you already knew, which misleads us into thinking we know more than we do. Quizzing each other is good motivation, but beware of subliminal cues used to help answer the questions without mastering the material. Explaining it out loud to yourself is a good start, but you can verbally "hand-wave" around areas you aren't clear on. Always check yourself as above. Frequent review is relatively painless with organized material and extremely helpful.

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When an earlier topic or concept is mentioned, stop and review to yourself the relevant summary list start with how many, then the headings, then the key words, then the concepts or facts. This review actually decreases the time needed to master later lectures, since later material builds on earlier; this also increases exam speed, since answering factual questions will be easier and faster.

How do I prepare for exam questions?

What are the most common problems medical students have with exams? 1. Clarity of definitions or concepts vs. those derived from context.

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Students often generate their own general concepts or definitions from context after all, thats how we learn to speak but this doesnt provide enough clarity to analyze and correctly answer the questions.

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Medical terminology and equations are very precise being close enough often isnt sufficient. Familiarity with material vs. mastery of the material. Familiarity refers to recognizing the logic provided by someone else as when leaving a good lecture, you can say, yeah, that made sense. Mastery of the material requires integration and memorization of sufficient detail that the information can be successfully applied to new situation.

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Good test questions discriminate between the two! Not having enough time to answer the more difficult applications questions involving multiple steps in feedback loops or multiple related equations. You need a method to approach complex question before you get to the exam. Use examples given in lecture, released old exam questions or other practice questions while you are studying to work out approaches for such questions ahead of time.

Where do I find time for all this?

1. Successful high-volume studying relies on good investment strategies: Creating summaries takes a lot of time, but it provides the "final draft" from which you study for the final you won't have time to go back through the origninal notes! There is more time available in a day than you think use it all.

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Finding the big picture before lecture is easily put off, but it usually saves more time during creation of the rough draft.

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Divide your studying into a series of short tasks don't wait until you have 2 or 3 hours to study. Use small bits of time while your clothes are drying or while the rice is cooking for dinner for a single task. Use all the "extra" time you can in the early weeks to be caught up in lectures and ahead on papers so there is some slop when it gets really intense. Be VERY careful about "robbing Peter to pay Paul" it's inevitable, but try to keep it to a minimum. Its tempting to completely quit keeping up with other classes to study for the upcoming exam, but this is a major trap that class has a final, too. Usually, skipping class to do a paper or study for an exam ends up costing significantly more time in make-up time in the missed subject.