My 15 Study Tips for Medical Students.

1)Have a to-do list and set deadlines (realistic deadlines, of course). Nothing gives you a greater sense of achievement than crossing something off your to-do list.

2) Aim to do a little bit of studying each day, even if it’s just revising notes from the afternoon’s lectures or reading some anatomy. Little things add up, and you’ll be surprised how much you learn. 

3) Study in a group - the key here is to choose your friends wisely and to strictly limit how much time you study with them. Ideally, you should do all your studying on your own, and use group studying time as a review or to clarify confusing points. The sessions should be rapid fire and limited to no more than an hour or two a week. The ideal study group is one with similar views on studying and work ethic that complements your knowledge base well.

4) Translate the notes you receive into your own condensed, easy-to-read version This helps you internalize the knowledge in a way you can easily access.

5) Diagrams and pictures! Anything that is conducive to being in a flow-chart or diagram should be. It forces you to think about the information, and makes a great revision tool come exam time. 

6)If you are going to highlight, write notes in the margins to summarise, otherwise you’re going to have to read the text again. 

7)Keep organized - Take one general topic, and list all its subtopics underneath it. Keep diagrams concise so that you can review them for quick reference and comparison.

8 )Plan time-blocks and breaks. There’s a lot of material, and no time to realize you just wasted an entire afternoon poring over obscure clinical research on Chinese laparoscopic surgery outcomes. This is where time-blocking trumps simple to-do lists; you need to know when to start and stop doing things

9) Enjoy what you are doing — if you find yourself getting bored while you study, stop. Take a break, and think of a way to make what you are studying interesting, whether that is by turning it into a game, making it interactive, more visual

10) Get copies of old tests. This is very important! Most professors are not industrious enough to create new questions for each exam. And there are only so many questions you can ask about the same topic. Therefore, many questions are repeated. Some may have wording changes, but most questions have the same concepts.

11) To revise all the topics on the previous day of exams , use my collections of powerpoint presentations.Visit  www.medicalppt.blogspot.com , download and save all presentations to your computer/lap/mobile/tab

12)Don’t forget your family. Your family is proud as heck of you for making it into medical school. Call them once in a while. Better yet, write them an e-mail and send pictures. 

13)Sleep is essential - Get your sleep! It’s better to eliminate the random wasted minutes/hours throughout your day than to sacrifice minutes/hours of sleep. If you’re sacrificing sleep, then you should have already maximized your daily studying.

14)Activity is especially important to maintaining focus. Do things that challenge you physically or mentally. Go to the gym. Go surfing. Go running. Play a sport. Practice yoga. Do something. It doesn’t have to be every day, but an hour every other day won’t hurt you. You’ll feel better.

15)Enjoy life - this goes along with rewarding yourself. Look at the world around you and take in all the beauty. Remember to smile. Make it a point to go out and enjoy yourself, and don’t think about what you have to get done later.

Courtesy:Various online articles.

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