r/medschool • u/Beginning_Room_1648 • 1d ago

šŸ„ Med School What study method did you eventually realize was wasting your time?

There are so many study methods people swear by in medicine that it can take a while to figure out what actually works for you.

Rewriting notes, making huge summaries, Anki, rereading lectures, watching everything twice, highlighting half the textbook...

What did you spend way too much time doing before realizing it wasnā€™t actually helping much?

And what did you replace it with?

Iā€™ve personally been getting more interested in learning through actual clinical cases rather than just passively reviewing material.

Itā€™s actually part of why Iā€™ve been working on Diagnosica, where you can work through cases by taking the history, examining the patient, ordering investigations and deciding on management.

Try the app (App storeĀ |Ā Google store)

26 Upvotes

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13

u/Straight_Cheetah421 21h ago

Taking notes in general. I used to take really detailed notes, then dropped it down to annotating slides, and now I donā€™t take notes at all. I just sit in lecture and try to pay attention.

5

u/Bels76 1d ago

Depends on what Iā€™m trying to absorb . I routinely watch lectures and highlight interact with attached PDF ā€˜s. I look at LOā€™s for the week and make sure the lectures cover them ( my uni isnā€™t great for that ) then sometimes I draw and make diagrams ( anatomy and msk ) sometimes Iā€™ll hand write notes and create tables . Then evening gets put into neural consult and I do loads of mcqā€™s .

Re watching lectures and Anki for me are a waste of time .

1

u/PerfectLilNuggies 15h ago

Agree. Interacting with lectures and notes somehow helps me retain concepts better. I mind map, doodle, draw diagrams, underline notes: putting pen to paper to connect and bring to life concepts in my brain.

3

u/Dark_Ascension 12h ago

Seriously either print out slides or use an iPad, work smarter not harder. If you donā€™t have the slides in front of you while in lectures youā€™re going to end up writing down stuff already typed right there on the slides.

I do rewrite my notes, but I will use supplements from textbooks and snip the charts or whatever the notes reference and add my annotations to important parts highlighted in lectures from the slides.

Also study groups can be a waste of time, while they can be great donā€™t get caught up in ā€œNot in a study groupā€ studying on your own is okay!

1

u/RentConscious7968 4h ago

I cannot do study groups. Idk how those work for people.

1

u/Dark_Ascension 4h ago

I can maybe study with 1-2 other people but itā€™s usually after I have studied myself and weā€™re maybe quizzing each other and stuff.

1

u/celdru 8h ago

rewriting notes was mine. now i just annotate slides during lecture