MS-1 Studying

[medstudent4422]

Hey, so I start medical school next week, and currently, I'm doing a summer academic program at my school. Since the program started I've been stressing how to attack studying for these courses. I have talked to upperclassmen and faculty that have been around for the program for their advice but I'd like to get some more realistic perspective. Some background about me is that I was a Non-Trad applicant. I didn't do a post-bacc after my B.S. in 2019 because I took the pre-reqs with my major (Business Admin) and did fairly decent on my MCAT. Overall, I have a weak science background (no Biochem, Micro, Immuno, etc.) and study skills. I did the summer program for the fact that It would immerse me in my first semester courses to get a brief introduction in them and I wanted to find out what methods others used for them.

The first semester I'll be in 1) Biochem 2) Histology 3) Anatomy 4) Neuroanatomy

From your own experiences how have all of you studied for these classes? When I say studying if you could go in-depth about how you prepped prior to the lecture, while in lecture, and after the lecture. I'm very confused about how students attack these courses.

What I've been doing:

1. Biochem: Night before Pre-read the slides prior to the lecture (passively), In lecture go through the PowerPoint and write on it while the professor is lecturing, After lecture go through all the notes from the PowerPoint (lecture notes with my additional written notes), organize them, and make an Anki deck. I know people recommend using premade decks, but because of my weak science background and never taking biochemistry and I do prefer to make my own and making more in-depth cards for my own sake.
2. Histology: Same strategy as above for the night before, in lecture, and after the lecture. The only thing I do differently is making "study sheets", "1-2 guides", and charts. Yes, it's extremely time-consuming but the professor is very particular about her words and information. I also do throw this information in Anki as well.

3&4) Anatomy and Neuro: Haven't found a good method yet. I did take anatomy in college and it was terrible for me. It was completely my fault because of my poor memorization and study habits, so I'd like to get any help I can for how you attack this class.

If anyone can drop any kind of tops. But please if you can be as in-depth with your study methods and schedule. I did a lot of research from forums and youtube med students but I'd like for someone to straight-up give their process on how they go about prior, during, and after... anything that worked for you at all.

Even bigger help if anyone is a non-trad, older student, poor undergrad student, etc..

I'm just trying to figure out anything that could work for me.

Thank you!

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[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

I barely scraped by in undergrad (took 7 years for my degree, 2.8gpa) but have been ahead of the curve at my school (DO). I started at 34 and came from a non-science BA. I focused on Anking for really everything (didn't make my own cards ever) and it has paid off.

Histologyguide.com is extremely good for histo. Has all the important slides with descriptions, and you can click around to see everything in the tissue sample. Anatomy can be tough because it's not so high yield on Step1 but schools still go in-depth with it. Dope Anatomy deck was great but the UMich Bluelink practice questions were the best resource. Do every one of those q's and you'll be set for Anatomy. Neuro anatomy is pretty much all covered in Anking, and you can refer to Kaplan Anatomy for further explanation and good diagrams. I can answer more in PM if needed.

 

[acstylin]

Study premade Anki cards religiously. If your school wants info outside of that, make your own cards and consider teaming up with someone (there were 5 of us in our group) to split the card-making load. Practice questions through USMLE or histology apps (our school had a good one called Histo!) for a few days leading up to an exam and you’ll be fine.
I did have a few subjects that were detailed and hard to memorize via outside resources or class material. I made memory palaces for those.