STUDY HARD STUDY SMART | 10 WAYS OF SMART STUDY

 

 STUDY HARD STUDY SMART

You know the saying you just got to try your best.  I would say that you got to be the best is being the top 20 of your class good enough for you? No.  If you want something you got to get after it and then you will start producing good results.  Then you will build confidence along the way. Let's just cut to the chase.

Here are 10 study  techniques that I swear by as a medical student they help me get into medicine and I use these on a day-to-day basis half of them focus on the actual study techniques and the other half focus on the study mentality which is just as important.

1. STUDY FROM TESTABLE CORE MATERIALS

You gotta study from the testable core materials outwards.  So let's say the box represents all the information that is presented to you and the star in the middle is the testable material. l someone who  doesn't know how to study will go from  top to bottom covering every single  little detail  and when the exam time comes they  haven't covered like 20 to 30% of  what is testable.  Whereas someone who  knows how to study will start from the  middle, study from the core materials  that are testable and then study outwards  and when the exam time comes although  they haven't studied everything  they studied what is important and what is testable.

 I know that you want to be the best student as possible I want to be the best doctor as possible. So when studying,  we have this tendency to try to learn everything.  but we have to make this mindset shift from focusing on those long-term goals to short-term goals. and those short-term goals when you're taking courses is to pass and get good grades in every midterm and every exam that are presented before you.  and then those long-term goals will take care of themselves .so how do you know what's testable or not.

 There are three ways of figuring that out.

First is to look for practice tests or previous tests sometimes the lecturers give you a couple of questions at the end of their lecture to go over on pay attention to those.  I also looked online in undergrad to figure out if there were any practice tests lying around.  I asked seniors if they have taken the course and if they had any practice material. I asked my friend who was also taking the course. You got to use your resources to figure out if there are any additional study materials that you can use. You have to think like an examiner,  not a learner. So when you're going over the material always imagine in your mind how can I test it in a multiple-choice format? how can I test this in a short answer format?  and then try to learn that way.

 2. HOW TO RIGHT GOOD NOTES

Write good  concise notes and then plan out your  timing for all your midterms and all your exams and then constantly evaluate as you're studying so that you're not falling behind.  So for example let's say you're taking  five courses and before a midterm you  have to go over 10 lectures  per course.  And then each lecture has 50  slides.  that totals up to 2 500 slides that you  have to go over before a midterm.  So you have to write a good concise note  that summarizes everything  that makes it manageable for you to go  over the materials before you write the midterms. so that you're not overloaded.  Try to write notes as concise as  possible containing keywords  and important information. You know that  if you don't remember something from your note you have the PowerPoint slides that you can always fall back on.

 3. ACTIVE RECALL

Use active recall when learning.  Let me start off by giving you examples of students who don't know how to study.  So when presented with information like mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. what they do is without thinking they're just right. Nothing's coming into their brains.  So what I do when I'm going over my notes is what I read the information I  write only the keywords.  And then as opposed to looking at my notes, I look at that keyword.  For example what is mitochondria? and then I try to think mitochondria is the part of the powerhouse of the cell.  Why is the powerhouse of the cell?  and  then I try to supplement information  from the lecture.  it's the power of the cell because it produces  ATP. So I'm using all of my senses. I'm writing down which is my you know tactile motion. I'm saying  things out which is verbal. I'm looking at my notes previously. I'm using my visual cues and  I'm as I'm saying it, I'm listening,  so I'm using also my auditory senses.  and most often when you're actively  recalling you cannot remember all the information  and that is okay.  Because studies have shown that just by attempting to recall you're creating the connection between the information and your memory. 

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 4. REVIEWING

Reviewing is just as important as learning new information.  So if I have 20 lectures to go over before midterm  for example.  As supposed to going 1 to 20 and  then going back to 1 to 20. what I do is, I go from 1 to 5 and then I review 1 to 5 quickly and then move on to 6 to 10.  and then once I'm done 6 or 10 even  more quickly I go over  1 to 5 and then I look over look  over  6 to 10  and then I go into 11 to 15.  Obviously, you have to time this correctly before a midterm so that you actually cover everything.

 5. MIDTERMS

It is more of a mentality thing.  You have to study harder for your  midterms than your final exams.  You're gonna obviously study hard for  your final exam but you have to study  harder  for your midterms because that sets the  tone for the entire course.  Let's say you got a bad mark on a  midterm then the entire course is just a  catch-up game.  You're worrying the whole time probably  two to three months  worrying about whether you're going to  get a good enough final mark so that you  can  make up for getting a bad mark on your  midterms.

6. STRONG MINDSET

Having a strong mindset throughout the school year. I'm gonna come across  as a little harsh here but you know the  saying you just gotta try your best.  I would say that you gotta be the best  is your best  really the top one percent of your class  is your best  to top five percent of your class. if the  program that you want to get into in the  end  has less than 10 acceptance rate is  being top 20%  of your class good enough for you. No. so,  if you want something you got to get  after it  and then you will start producing good  results and then you will build  confidence along the way.

7. OUTWARD EVERYONE

Putting the work in and  out working everyone is kind of  counter intuitive to put it in this video  because this is a study technique video  but compared to someone who knows all  these study techniques but doesn't work  hard,  someone who doesn't know any of these  techniques and is just putting the hours  in  studying and getting the information  into their brain is always going to beat  that person with better study techniques.  I wasn't the brightest person in my  class. so what I did was I just literally outworked everyone. How do I know that? I walked into a library  before everyone else  and I walked out of the library after  everyone else. I spent my time starting on Friday nights, Saturday nights when everyone was going out partying.  and there was you know one other student  that was leaving the library at the same  time  late night and he is now a cardiac surgery resident at u of a so  things like that happen so you just have  to outwork everyone if you really want  to be  successful. 

8. STUDY PARTNER

 Getting a serious study partner and friend who wanted as bad as you.  If you think it's gonna be hard to find  them, well,  if you start studying late nights at a  library all the time,  you tend to come across these guys. It's  hard coming in early in the morning  and leaving late at night. Coming in on  weekends but in undergrad, i had a group of friends who I really studied with and we didn't really disturb each other .  When it was time to study we studied. We didn't interrupt each other.  And when it was when the business was taken care of we went out and had fun.  

9. STAYING CONSISTENT

Staying consistent and staying on top of everything.  Especially in medicine.  where there's like a million things going on. if I start to lose track of things, I get super stressed. so I have to be on top of every email, I have to be on top of every assessment, and all the work that i have to do in undergrad.  you're dealing with five courses plus your  extracurriculars. And everything going on, so you have to stay on top of things so  that you don't fall behind and get  stressed.  let me give you an example of consistency and why it is so important?  You have student A and student B. Student A  is working friday night, saturday ,sunday  12 hours each.  Student B decides to work on friday but  takes saturday and Sunday off.  Then that student B has fallen behind  student A by  24 hours.  So no matter how hard he tries, the next on monday studying 14  hours as opposed to 12 hours  on Tuesday starting 16 hours. That guy is  always playing catch up to student a and when you're on a curve in university and  undergrad  you're just going to not be able to compete against udemy.

10. CONTROL YOUR ANXIETY

Effectively controlling  your anxiety and your worry when you're going through school. There are two types of warriors. One is someone who doesn't study and is worried about not studying. The solution to that is simple you just gotta study.  The second type of warrior is someone who worries despite having done all their studies.  And when you're in that position then you need to write down what you're worried about on a notebook on an iPad or whatever. You're worrying because you're not seeing what you're worried about.  So divide a line halfway in the middle.  write down what you can control and what you cannot control. Something like what you can control is waking up early,  going to the library, and studying for x  amount of hours and staying focused when you're studying.  What you cannot control  is the actual grades that I'm going to  get from this course. so if I'm worried who am I going to get a B,  am I going to get a B +, I'm going to do an A-, A+ you cannot control that. Just focus on what you can control  and you just have to give up on what you cannot control.