How I Choose The Right Study Material πŸ“–

#medicalschool #study #productivity

Have you also felt overwhelmed by all the study materials that exists out there? Many of us end up buying too many books, collecting too many notes, doing thousands of flashcards and besides that, there are also hundreds of hours of videos on YouTube to watch. The amount of material just never ends.

I struggled with this problem for many years in medical school. I ended up choosing too many study materials which made me frustrated because I had too many options, so I was constantly switching between them and questioned throughout my study process which one to focus on. I fell behind, because I typically ended up not having enough time to cover everything I needed before the exams.

Long story short, it made my life more complicated and definitely didn't made me perform well in exams either. I learned from my mistake and now I want you to avoid this mistake. So, I'll share with you how I'm able to choose the best study materials and pick only few, so I can stress-free focus on learning the most important things in most effective way!

1. Lecture PowerPoints & past papers

I always use PowerPoint slides from lectures and past papers as my fundamental resources in every subject. It's a must!

Lecture PowerPoints guides me on what to study for my exam. Depending on how good it is made, how many informations is written on the slides, I sometimes use it as learning resource.

Past papers is amazing for testing my knowledge and preparing myself to think in a way that my examinator wants me to think. If I'm lucky sometimes even very similar questions show up in the exams.

These two resources are a must! No matter which subject! I've underestimated the power of these resources for too long and I must admit that it has been very visible on my grades. Don't do the same mistake as me. Always, always, always study your lecture slides and past papers.

If you don't have access to previous exam questions, then I highly recommend you to use other forms of question banks to test your knowledge.

2. Summary notes made by previous students

These can be a huge help and time saver! I don't have to spend time on writing notes but instead focus on learning immediatly.

It is important to make sure that you can trust what's written in the summary notes is correct. Either by checking if the person who wrote it added references in the document. It can be that it's a popular summary note that have been studied by several students and throughout the years being corrected. It can be it's a summary note written by someone you personally know.

Where can you find summary notes? Well, it depends - it can be shared on facebook groups, a drive or directly between students. Ask other students to figure out because there is always a kind person who are willing to share their great notes. If you're one of them, thank you for helping others.

3. What the university recommends

I always check what my university recommends, because usually these are good books and since they recommend it, they might ask exam questions based on these recommendations.

In case my university recommends several books, then either I ask the professor which I should choose if I only could pick one or I go to library and look through the books to see which style I like the most. My current university informs us about which pages we should read but in my previous university they didn't do that. Instead what I did, was directly to ask my teacher or professor about which pages are most important because usually these books are huge and it's not everything that we as students should know.

I you're not big fan of reading textbooks or simply can't afford to buy another book, then make sure to check which topics are covered in these textbooks that your uni recommends. Then you can study those topics from different resources. Ask other students who have the book or go to library to check the topics.

4. Search online or ask other students about which material is most recommended

It is always a good idea to get advice from people who already have been through the path that you're going to take. They know what works and what doesn't. Of course we're all different and we study and learn differently but even tho that's the case, I often found that people mostly recommended the same study materials.

You can often find forums about which materials people recommends on Reddit or Quora. If not, then you can ask in these forums or ask other students from higher years in your university. Don't get all the materials they recommend! Choose the one that you like the most or the one that is recommending by the majority.

5. How do you prefer learning?

This is important question to ask yourself. And it's quite simple: If you like reading textbooks, then stick to textbooks. If you hate it, then don't waste your money and time on it, just because others are recommending it.

Many of us end up collecting dozens of study materials for a single subject, because it's hard to choose only few and because we feel that we must have all these materials, otherwise we fear missing out on important informations! In reality, they only collect dust in our shelf.

The most important thing is to enjoy the process of learning because when we do that, we learn better and remember what we've learned for longer time. We can enjoy the process by making learning as simple as possible. How? By choosing only few but the best study materials, that we would enjoy and actually have time to cover - stressfree.

Recap everything in 5 sentences:

  1. Always use lecture slides and past papers (question banks, in case you don't have access to past papers).

  2. Pick one good summary note, if you can find one. It will save you huge amount of time!

  3. Always check the books your university recommends - no matter if you decide to choose it or not, always figure out which topics are in those books that you must know.

  4. Search online or ask other students in your school about which material they recommend for your subject - Pick the one you like or the one most people recommend.

  5. Make your learning process as enjoyable and simple as possible by avoiding collecting dozens of materials, but instead, pick the best and as few as possible. So you actually have time to study them - nobody is holding you back from choosing a new material when you're done ;)

Which resources I usually use & why

It depends on the subject, but usually I use 6 types of study materials:

  1. Lecture PowerPoints β€” to guide me on what to study

  2. Past Papers β€” to test my knowledge & prepare for exam

  3. One summary β€” to save time on taking notes

  4. One textbook β€” when I don't find answers other places

  5. YouTube videos β€” to learn in most efficient & fun way

  6. Extra: One website β€” danish website for doctors (Sundhed)