Memorization in med school

[leviathan]

I've been worried about my capacity to remember the large volume of facts in the first years of medical school, like anatomy for instance. I'm great at understanding concepts, but am bad at rote memorization.

 

E.g...I got an A in the course I recently did in cardiopulmonary physiology (20% higher than the class average)

But I got a C+ in Anatomy (and was 2% lower than the class average)

 

I found Anatomy very interesting, but just found it hard to take in all of the random facts.

 

Are there are any med students on here who feel the same as me, and how did you do in those courses like anatomy? Do you think it would become a major problem at succeeding in medical school?

[0T6]

mnemonics and a lot of time in anatomy lab going through everything on my own.

 

ughh.. hate anatomy.

[leviathan]

Some Lovers Try Positions

That They Can't Handle

Yeah and don't forget

"Oh oh oh, to touch and feel a girl's...." you know that one right?

 

But yeah...I wish there was a program where you could just do a virtual dissection and rotate it in 3 diimensions. I hate trying to study something like the pelvis which looks very different from every angle, and trying to remember all the different foramens / canals and all the nerves and arteries that pass through each. Ugh... or the brachial plexus and other plexuses (plexi?).

[chewy]

I don't really remember those thingys very well. I usually make up my own. Like for animal diversity: kangaroos pounce carelessly on fluffy green sheep. It doesn't make ANY sense, but I remember it back from my high school days. haha.

 

I had the most difficult time trying to memorize this too. I too used an mnemonic, but the one I used was Karen's panties come off for great sex.

[0T6]

How is Karen nowadays?

 

Good site: http://www.medicalmnemonics.com/

[supafield]

I love mnemonics but for whatever reason kingdom, phylum..... was the one thing that stuck with me from high school. I sing it like a song almost? I have no idea why I chose to remember that and nothing else.

[antisera]

In med school you have to memorize random factoids, differentials, anatomy, and in my opinion the most difficult to memorize is histopathological details of different diseases. But you also need to understand the physiology & conceptual side. What has worked best for me is repetition, reviewing the week's notes throughout the week, on the weekend, at the end of the block. It's the only way I could get things to 'stick', since rote memorization isn't my favourite either!

[NLengr]

I didn't find anatomy bad for memorization. There was lots, but I didn't find it hard, or random. But I didn't try to memorize words. Instead, I basically committed the image of the area to memory first. Then I over-layed the names on top of that. Then I figured out how it looked from different angles and in 3D.

 

Once you know the layout off by heart, knowing actions and flow paths etc. is way easier than trying to memorize every action of every muscle flat out. The only catch is it requires a bit of mental 3D processing and manipulation. Some people who tried the method liked it, some hated it.

 

Anatomy was my favorite first year course to tell you the truth.

 

Path and biochem on the other hand, I find to be a lot of flat out memorization, which I don't enjoy. I'm much more of a mechanical kind of guy.

[futuredoc]

I didn't find anatomy bad for memorization. There was lots, but I didn't find it hard, or random. But I didn't try to memorize words. Instead, I basically committed the image of the area to memory first. Then I over-layed the names on top of that. Then I figured out how it looked from different angles and in 3D.

 

Once you know the layout off by heart, knowing actions and flow paths etc. is way easier than trying to memorize every action of every muscle flat out. The only catch is it requires a bit of mental 3D processing and manipulation. Some people who tried the method liked it, some hated it.

 

Anatomy was my favorite first year course to tell you the truth.

 

Path and biochem on the other hand, I find to be a lot of flat out memorization, which I don't enjoy. I'm much more of a mechanical kind of guy.

 

That isn't a bad idea. I haven't taken an anatomy course but when we covered body systems in biology, I would form the image in my head and then add in the labels.

[JessMD]

I'm in your boat.

 

I'm alright at anatomy. Not the best. I can't really memorize things very well, at least in the first term of my anatomy class. I ended up with an "A" only because I changed my learning style.

 

I found an amazing anatomy atlas that had a "cartoon" diagram next to a photograph of what something looked like. I usually looked at the cartoon, then at the photograph, and somehow, DING things magically connected. I also studied in sections and tried to find connections.

 

I found it was sometimes very intimidating to study group with some people who knew 99% of the material. It was a really good learning experience, listening to them study, but it sometimes made me leave really frustrated with my inability to soak in random facts.

 

We all have different learning styles - I guess you just have to find yours. I'd like to see what all the other fine people of the forum have for advice though. I'd like to practice and stretch my mind a little too.

 

 

can u give us the name of this cartoon book?