How To Study Well In Medical School (5 Brilliant Strategies)

how to study well in medical school
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How to study well in Medical School?

We get it. You’ve been flipping through those lengthy textbooks, and yes, this isn’t the first time you’re reading it.

But you can’t seem to remember what you read. Everything’s all looking like an illusion.

High School had been fine, you aced your tests amazingly.

But you don’t know whats wrong with medical school. Studying seems to be difficult. Remembering what you’ve learned seems like drinking water from a fire hose.

You’re not alone. According to KevinMD, first year of medical school is usually more cumbersome as you’re new to the process.

The stress is unavoidable. But you can adapt better.

We at MedicsDomain understand how challenging medical school can be. That’s why we wrote this guide to direct your path.

In this post, you’ll get to know what medical school is, and what’s not. You’ll also learn new tips that if followed properly will make your stay a successful one. Enjoy!

Oh, my…Medical School is So Different!

Medical school is an exciting but challenging environment.

It is interesting because you learn new and fascinating things and you meet new people and share amazing experiences.

It is also challenging. Why? Because the workload is frustrating, the pieces of information to acquire are so numerous, and there are lots of periodic assessments that you have to continuously take to enable you to move to the next class and graduate successfully.

These challenges can be overwhelming, and medical students tend to wear out, become unhappy and even break down sometimes.

However, although the stress is unavoidable, you can effectively manage the stress that comes with passing through medical school with the right information and timely approach to the situation.

Here  are some  tips to help you study effectively in medical school;

5 Tips On How To Study Well In Medical School  

1. Attend classes and lab sessions regularly

Most medical students tend to miss classes, especially towards the period of assessments. It is not wise to miss courses and lab sessions because it helps you to follow through and be up-to-date with your course topics and schedule.

Attending classes and listening in class helps you to read and study the lecture notes better and have an idea of the Lecturer’s area of concern or focus.

2. Read daily and Know your style of learning

In Medical school, understanding is by the books. You must read consistently in medical school. It’s challenging but rewarding in the long run.

Try to read and study daily, especially on what you learned in class. Avoid piling up your study notes because it makes studying and revision for assessments difficult and strenuous.

  Try to know and master your style of learning. Knowing how and when best you assimilate information makes your studying more comfortable and productive.

You can know your style of learning by trying out various methods like watching videos, listening to audios and studying different materials.

The method that helps you recall information better and the time either during the day or night that you read better is most likely your study patter.

 It is essential to know and master your study pattern early in medical school.

3. Solve questions regularly and Ask questions– How to Study Well In Medical School

 It is pertinent to solve questions relating to your course of study after reading if you want to know how to study well in medical school.

Solving problems before and after studying improves your ability to recall information and understand the topics better.

When you solve questions, it helps you to identify areas in the course that you understand and the areas that you don’t know very well and this makes your studying worthwhile.  

Solving questions also help you to prepare for assessments and to score excellent grades in exams because you can answer questions with speed and accuracy.

It is necessary to ask questions or seek help when you do not understand a particular topic. You can request for support from your colleagues or lecturers concerning the subject.

It helps you know better, especially when you revise the text after explanation. The most exciting secret about this is that it helps you teaches you how to remember everything in medical school.

4. Study to teach your coursemates

One of the unique ways to test your understanding of a particular topic is to teach it to someone.

When you teach your friend, you tend to understand better and the friend you taught also learns too. Teaching each other what you learnt is effective in study groups.

Study groups should have a limited number of people and a specific time for meeting so that it does not become a waste of time for the group members.

Always study to teach; it enhances your ability to retain and apply acquired information.

5. Always sleep well and Rest before exams– How to Study Well In Medical School

Medical students tend to read so much and have little sleep which is very detrimental to them.

Having a good sleep or night rest helps to relax the brain, and keeps your mind sound and refreshed for the next task.

Knowing your study pattern helps you to manage your time correctly to have a good rest. Medical students must sleep well before an examination to enable them to perform better on how to study well in medical school.

Medical students should be good readers and not bookworms. A good reader has a consistent time plan and routine for study while a bookworm reads every time.

 Medical students should also participate in extracurricular activities to balance their minds and also learn to relate well with their fellow course mates and senior colleagues.

Also Read: How to study anatomy for medical school

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Study Well In Medical School

1. How many Hours should a medical student study?

Dear Medic, if you’ve been asking how many hours should a medical student study, you’re not alone. A lot of students also ask this.

Honestly, time doesn’t really relate with how effective you learn. The main deal is to keep your mind concentrated on the problem long enough so as to tackle it.

In this scenario, your problem is to learn and get knowledge on medical courses. So, if you spend more time with your problems, you have a greater chance to learn more and also be a better medical student than your peers.

According to this research by MededPublish, 50% of A students in a class study for 6-8 hours daily. This goes against the B and C students who study 3-5 hours a day.

But that doesn’t mean you should go all the way making sure to reach a certain study hour. From the rule of thumb, the more you put in, the more you get.

So, our final words here is that you should try as much to read for about 5 hours daily.

If you think that’s outrageous, read this post to see how many hours Dr. Ben carson read while in medical school.

 2. How to Study faster In Medical School?

You can’t force a lot of information into your cerebrum in a short time, but you can trick your brain into a sense of emergency to learn faster.

To learn faster you’ll need to break your study schedules into tiny bits, and feed your brain more study portions per day.

You can have a 30-minutes study session for 10 times a day. And of course, there should be breaks where you get to cool off, get some refreshments or even rest.

Another tip is to get sufficient sleep regularly to keep your brain fresh, and able to take information faster.

3. How to Study Smart In Medical School?

Yes, you will often get frightened by how frequently you see your colleagues read bulky books. You will also learn about how hard someone else works.

 But that’s not the goal. The mission is to work smartly to ensure you learn, and that you ace your tests with the best scores possibly!

How you do this is by getting past questions early enough, and getting married to them! Do them and fail, even before you start reading, and also after you’ve studied.

Using questions early enough keeps your eye on the important thing to learn in your courses. Hence, you won’t be carried away reading too much information.

Final Thoughts On How to Study Well In Medical School

We’d cut it here while we go check some other things out. And yes, we’ve not exhausted all to know on how to study well in medical school.

We do hope with this post, you’ve carried away important things to super-charge your reading ability in medical school.

Let us know if you’ve got anything to add to this topic. Asides that, do read more posts on this blog, and don’t forget to share the post to friends!

Which of the ways on how to study well In medical school are you going to try?

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Chibueze Nwanmah
Chibueze Nwanmah