Study Habits in Med School

I realize I just had my first day of class today, but with block 1 exams happening in three weeks, there's no time to waste when figuring out how do well in med school. For the last three days during orientation and MCB this morning, the professors could not have stressed enough about the importance of attending all lectures, reviewing all the lecture material of the day later on in the afternoon, and getting enough sleep.

1. Go to all the lectures.

AUC has an 80% attendance policy, however professors encourage students to attend all classes. I don't think it's difficult to figure out why. When you're in class I know you're just going over the slides, but because you are there, you can see what the professors emphasizes during lecture, thus making it easier to determine what's important come exam-time. In addition, being an active listener and writing notes for each slide definitely helps. 

2. Review all material you learned that day in class ON THE SAME DAY.

For the most brilliant analogy to learning in med school I've read, please click here (This is one of my favorite blogs). The sheer volume of knowledge is hard enough to deal with, but the speed at which we cover material is just going to make things that much harder. If you try putting off review for even a couple days, you will be left behind.

3. Take some time on the weekend to review everything you've learned during the last week.
Self-explanatory I hope, and also try  quizzing yourself with questions from the textbooks or even from the USMLE Step 1 Kaplan books you are given here.

4. Sleep.

Not only is sleep good for recharging your body and mind, but sleep is the time when memory is preserved. When you study hard during the day, try to get at least 7 hours of sleep at night to allow for the memory preservation process to go in full effect.