Getting through medical college is a phenomenal endeavor. Not only does it require intellect, hard work and determination, it also requires correct skills for studying. You have to have a strategy for worming your way through the mountains of notes and the mounds of books. Just imagine - one subject requires tons of reference material; now there are numerous subjects and the amount of reference material that has to be referenced simply defies imagination. Now this would be a herculean task for even a genius. As such, a smart way to maximize your learning is essential and this article presents you with some of them.
1. Which Books Are Recommended By Your Professor?
Typically, this will be provided in your course syllabus. These are the books that should receive your undivided attention. They come first. Get those books. If your finances permits, get three additional references on the same subject. For those who lack the means, the library is the best alternative. Make it a point and your level best to go through all the books listed. Start on your reading even before college commences. Keep ahead in the reading. This will help you when the subject comes up for discussion in class. You'll understand the Professor better. Your advance reading could also impress your professor and you could thus get into his good books.
2. Don't Cram
Cramming is not worth it. It is one of the major causes of a mental block. Unless you "understand" and "study" a subject you'll never learn it. Make it a point to study every day. Medical subjects are awfully interesting. Just imagine studying about the circulatory system; about the flow of blood through the left and right auricle, pumped around by the heart to and from every part of your body. Awesome, isn't it? Unless you are genuinely interested in a subject you cannot learn it.
3. Understand The Material That You Are Committing To Memory
Understand a concept before you commit it to memory. Word for word memorizing never helps. Read it first, understand it and then try to condense it in your own words so that you can explain it back in your own terminology. Reading it aloud and writing it down helps you reinforce the material into your memory. You see it, hear it and write it, three fold fortification.
4. Mnemonics Are Of Great Help
Mnemonics are of great help in storing and recalling the stored information. Especially lists. It is something like creating an abbreviation, something that you can easily remember. For instance, FOG for Flow of blood, Oxy-hemoglobin and Globin. The more imaginative and funny the association the easier to recall.
5. Use Real Material
When you are studying about bones in your anatomy class, get hold of a genuine skeleton and study it. Go to the laboratory and touch and feel them in your hands as you spell out their names. If it is going to be a heart, get a model of a heart and study it as if you are going to explain it to a class.
6. Organize Your Notes
Use highlighters. Highlight major points with a bright color of your choice and the minor ones with another distinct color. And visualize them. This will help you remember. Rewrite your scribbled notes into neater ones. Organize them. Bullets and numbering are more easy on the eyes. Keep your sentences short and simple. These two practices will help you remember more easily. Visualize them. By rewriting your notes and visualizing them you are reinforcing the same material twice into your memory. Prepare an outline for every chapter. As you read and prepare you will understand the matter more and even more when you condense them for review during exams.
7. Set Up A Time Table
Prepare a timetable and allocate specific time periods for your studies and allocate more time for the tougher subjects. Stick to the timetable. Find out the best time that you can study and study during those time periods. The timetable should be broken down with allotments for assignments etc. Plan for any additional work load should the need arise.
8. Use the Read, Summarize and Evaluate (RSE) Technique
Creating associations with events or objects in everyday life to the summarization of the topic of study is the way to memorize and learn. Visualization of the event or the object reinforces the association. Make meaningful associations that are based on your own experiences. For example, for the digestive system you could associate it with a factory that takes in all the needed material(food, nutrients),processes them through separate units of machinery (stomach, intestines, etc.) and discards the wastes (the excretory system).
9. Counseling By Either Your Professor Or Others
If even after following all the above methods you find yourself still swamped by your lessons, get help from either your classmates or from your Professor. The formation of study groups where one topic is taken up discussion helps everyone in the study group. There should be active participation and contribution from each member of the group. A Q & A session will be very much helpful. Make it a point to see that all the questions are answered. Acquiring these skills is not an easy matter, and the worst enemy is giving up. You do not acquire skills overnight. Set yourself a goal. Try to achieve that target. Reward yourself when you achieve the goal. Do it again and again till it becomes second nature to you. You can do it, many before you have done it
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2924017
It is written by Ahmed Kotb Ali and taken from EzineArticles.com
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