Securing a good GPA in medical school and preparing for board exams is the hardest job. Pre-exam anxiety and cramming are common among medical students that lead to nothing but low GPA and medical school stress. Every medical student wants to pass school and board exams with minimal effort. You are required to learn a lot of information, following some amazing study techniques will help you perform better at medical school and later in professional life.
There are some really effective learning strategies that can increase the rate of knowledge retention by minimizing the amount of studying. Sounds interesting? Let’s discover some super easy study methods that help medical students absorb and memorize complex information more effectively.
- Say Goodbye to Cramming
- Study Everyday
- Pre-Read the Course Material
- Improve Your Note-Taking Skills
- Create a Concept Map
- Choose Flashcard-based Learning
- Take Practice Tests
Effective Study Hacks for Medical Students
- Say Goodbye to Cramming
Cramming before an exam is a common practice among many students. A majority of students dedicate more time to learn concepts when the exams approaches. Unfortunately, cramming and sleepless nights, regardless of your caffeine-fueled brain doesn’t work at all. It is not logically possible to cram the entire course material only a few days before the day of exam. If truth be told, cramming is a stressful technique that never brings the desired result. You need to study well if you really want to become a successful medical student and earn the highest GPA.
- Study Everyday
Okay, it is one of the best and result-driven study tips that can help you perform well on the exam day. All you need is to review your course material or lectures every day, I repeat, every day. Though it seems impossible to make a daily investment of time.
Medical students have to do a lot of assignments, perform clinical work, complete lab work, and much more. Studying every day allows you to avoid medical school stress and prepares you in advance for the exams.
- Pre-Read the Course Material
Set aside time for reviewing your lectures to refresh the concept in your mind. Before starting the new chapter or topic, it is advised to skim through the topic to create a logical flow in your mind.
By scanning the material, you will prepare your brain to absorb new information. It gears you up that what you are going to learn in the coursework. A quick scan also highlights the important aspects of the content that you will learn during the lecture.
Students who have done a quick scan before attending the lecture find it easier to learn the concepts compared to those who didn’t review the chapter earlier. They know the important points of the chapter and only write those points that matter most or what they haven’t already read in the textbook.
This flow-based note taking helps students to enjoy lectures and create notes properly. Pre-reading is the best technique to polish your note-taking skill. It helps you jot down points in order so that you can master the material and prepare for your exams.
- Improve Your Note-Taking Skills
Once you make notes during the class, it’s time to consolidate your notes. All you need is to read what you have written during the lecture. Now combine the information from the textbook, information you jot down during class and other informative sources to create notes that you can use for future review or study for the exams.
Make sure to create notes as soon as you attend the lecture. As it is the best time to recall what you have learnt and revise all the points. This technique needs your time and effort, but it helps you create notes that you can use to prepare for exams.
- Create a Concept Map
During medical school, you take many concept-based courses such as pharmacology, physiology, endocrinology, etc. that include a lot of processes, definition and case studies. Creating a concept map is a great idea to create a flowchart that allows your mind to identify how one point is related to the next one. It helps students memorize different concepts easily.
- Choose Flashcard-based Learning
Flashcards are the most effective study techniques that generate impressive results when it comes to knowledge retention and memory boosting. There are many online flashcard tools that medical students use to prepare for the MCAT preparation and board exams.
Flashcard-based learning allows you to break the intricate concept into small, manageable bite-sized facts. It works on spaced repetition technique, so that you can memorize the material for long. Learning small concepts via flash cards increases your ability of active recall by repeating the concepts. It further strengthens your memory and optimizes your learning.
- Take Practice Tests
It is one of the most effective learning strategies for medical students that prepare them for the upcoming test or exam. Instead of whipping through many pages, just go to the main sections and recall what is important for exams.
To recall your memory, you can take practice tests. Undoubtedly, it is the most effective memorization technique that prepares medical students for the actual exam day while enhancing their memory and improving their concepts.
Wrapping Up
If you want to get extraordinary results in your medical school exams, it is the right time to change your learning style and follow the above-mentioned study techniques. Hopefully, this ultimate study guide will help you study effectively with less effort and become a successful medical student.
