Every August, medical students are flooded with lecture supplements and anatomy lab manuals, while attempting to suppress feelings of self-doubt and apprehension. The worst assumption that students can make is that they are the only ones who have no idea how to prepare for tomorrow’s lecture. Regardless of their background, medical students are thrown into an overwhelming environment where it seems as if their neighbor has all the resources. The best steps to take in this situation are those which will help the student create a general strategy that can be adjusted depending on the material being presented.
Step #1: Seeking Help Immediately
Successful students are those who are able to recognize and implement learning techniques where they can retain the most amount of information in the least amount of time. Most of these students are confident in their studying techniques, while making minor changes along the way. Many students reach this stage after meeting with an academic figure who can help them hone in on what needs to implemented and eliminated. At Western University of Health Sciences, the LEAD (Learning Enhancement and Academic Development) office has everything from academic counsellors to tutoring available for students. Students can schedule an appointment to go over their test answers in order to recognize any test-taking trends. Every session is dedicated to recognizing what worked as well as hindered the student from learning to their best ability.
Each podiatry student is also traditionally paired with a faculty member who can provide valuable guidance regarding the curriculum. The faculty are incredible when it comes to providing insight regarding how to balance podiatry and osteopathic-based classes. Their experience can prevent students from utilizing time-consuming techniques especially since they have seen what has worked best for students who have faced similar challenges in the past.
The worst mistake a new student can make is to refuse to recognize that they need help. According to Kathleen Satterfield, DPM, “It is better to ask for help as early as possible to have a smooth transition, especially during anatomy. Many students experience difficulty learning to adjust to the overwhelming pace, and the amount of resources available. Students who are experiencing difficulties with their academics have the additional pressure of trying to rebound immediately from a disappointing test score. The sooner students ask for help, the faster they refine their learning techniques.”1 Even if a student feels comfortable with their habits, there is no harm to ask for feedback from academic counsellors who understand how tempting it is to rely on easy shortcuts in times of extreme duress and anxiety.
Step 2: Understanding Your Learning Style
Upon entering medical school, students are not granted the luxury of taking the time to experiment with every learning technique.In order to create an adaptable framework, it becomes crucial to recognize which modes of learning allow students to understand excessive amounts of information in the least amount of time. Through learning questionnaires, such as VARK, students can recognize if their strengths lie in any of the following types of modes: reading and writing, visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
As a kinesthetic learner who relies on reading and writing, I decided to divide my approach into two portions. I recognized that I need to use other textbooks as a reference, create practice questions, and draw out concepts from memory. During my first active pass of each lecture, I would create condensed study guides which answer the lecture objectives in a succinct manner. Eventually, I would number the slides to correspond to the appropriate objective, and the guides became summary sheets only including important disease and pharmaceutical charts. Through this technique, I could easily test myself on concepts that I knew would be hard to memorize the night before the exam. On my second pass of the material, I use a free, online note-taking platform, Osmosis, to create multiple choice questions on high-yield concepts. On the weekends, I would use one board-related textbook, such as First Aid General Systems or Board Review Systems, to annotate and highlight relevant material that was covered in class. To incorporate repetition, I would quiz myself on my summary guides three times within the week.
Every student has the potential to comprehend lecture material through a variety of methods. However, if they can see what their strengths are, they can develop a plan where they can see a significant amount of material from the lecture slides in a short amount of time.
Caffeinated beverages not required but recommended!
Step 3: Before Lecture
If a student plans to attend a lecture, the best way to make the most of their time would be to lightly preview the material the day before.This should take no more than fifteen minutes for each presentation. Instead of attempting to memorize each bullet point, lightly read through the headers and note which lecture slides correspond to which objective. I have found it helpful to create a mind map which briefly summarizes the relationships between the headings. Dr.Satterfield recommends that students “write open-ended questions for each slide. It is amazing to see how attentive we become when we start listening for the answers to our own questions. This will motivate the student to become more familiar with the objectives before attending the lecture.“1
Each lecture requires a certain amount of time where students will have to struggle through the basics of the topic before becoming comfortable with the material. Rather than let this difficulty accumulate with each pass of the material, I learned to tackle unknown concepts as early on as possible through previewing. After developing this skill, I recognized that the subsequent passes of the material became easier as well as faster with time. Furthermore, I left each lecture feeling I understood important relationships between noteworthy concepts. I would not become anxious as soon as the faculty highlighted an unfamiliar term because the fear of the unknown had disappeared. If there was not enough time to preview every lecture, I would make sure that I at least understood the more complex material for the upcoming week. This has been an advantage for me especially for material taught immediately before an exam. Faculty members also post a separate document along with their powerpoints that present the information in an organized manner. It is incredibly beneficial to look over the document to see if they have bolded particular concepts and definitions, or provided summarized disease and drug charts. Regardless of the technique chosen, the habit of previewing can help students receive a more thorough understanding of the lecture material.
Step 4: During Lecture
While attending lecture, I typically type those points that were not mentioned on the slide because I pay attention to how the faculty describe how each bullet point was related to the bigger picture. Handwriting can be an advantage to those students who not only like jotting quick notes, but are comfortable enough with the idea of not typing every word. The main advantage of typing from my experience, however, is that it becomes incredibly convenient to search for topics without having to reread the entire document. I could easily organize my thoughts by grouping concepts under different headings, and I would quickly grasp as much information as I could within each 50 minute lesson. In the beginning, I would try my best to transcribe every detail said in class, but I quickly realized that they are mostly repeating information that is already presented on the slide. I would become so caught up with the act of transcribing that I would not be comprehending the information. As a result, I highly recommend previewing because it will become easier to highlight important connections in class, and to recognize what has not been mentioned in the bullet points.
Step 5: Breaking Down Lectures and Reviewing
Immediately after lecture, I would recommend dissecting each lecture into a formatted guide, including anything from objectives to useful equations, which highlights important concepts that can be referred to on a daily basis. The goal of this exercise is not to rewrite the slide show, but to organize the information you are uncomfortable with in an accessible manner.
On the days following the lecture, it is significantly crucial to actively review this summary sheet at least three to four times. This technique will allow the student to upcoming prepared when actively testing themselves before running through each powerpoint on the following weekend. It becomes best to avoid passive learning by actively explaining and drawing the concepts while re-reading the material.
If there are multiple faculty members within one course, there is a high probability that each one will be responsible for a set interconnected lectures. It is incredibly beneficial for the student to review all the related lectures together instead of jumping from pathology to microbiology to immunology. This method will highlight significant relationships if a faculty member repeats similar concepts across lectures.
In the week leading up to the exam, it is best to first review the lectures from those faculty members who will be a larger proportion of the test questions on the exam. The earlier students become familiar with difficult concepts, the more confident they will be heading into the exam. This technique will encourage the student to spend more time understanding, instead of simply regurgitating, information for the exam.
During weekend immediately before the exam, for instance, it should be used to review all of the lectures one final time. This will be a crucial time period for students to revisit information that they may have not had the chance to thoroughly understand. The key to this strategy is to actively review each lecture at least five times leading up to the test weekend.
Sample of a "formatted guide" breaking down all lectures by professor
Step 6: Believing in Yourself
Every student has been accepted into this institution because the academic committee for each college has seen incredible amount of potential in the incoming cohort’s abilities. The university believes that each student represents the values of diligence, humanism, compassion, and academic excellence. Many students, however, begin to feel self-doubt after being flooded with clinical cases and microbial cases in their first exam. The most important step to do at this stage is the seek help immediately, and to admit that there is nothing wrong with learning from mistakes. Once I recognized how to incorporate daily active review of earlier lectures, I became more familiar with material, could answer practice questions, and maintained my sense of confidence.
At the end of the day, medical students can become efficient learners upon seeking guidance as early as possible and, consequently, adapting their learning style to prepare well for the next exam, and, more importantly, for life.
By Samta Batra, CPM Class of 2021
References:
1. Dr. K. Satterfield, personal communication, January 9, 2018.