HOW DO I STUDY FOR _____________
So I think this might be the question I get asked the MOST often. People are always asking me how do I study for this or that class. So I thought I would just make a master post I could link you all to. :)
Watch my video on how to study. This applies to almost everything you have to study.Â
See below for additions to doing everything listed in that video.Â
Do problems. Do all the problems. Do them again.Â
Do all the problems in your book.
Get another book and repeat step 2Â
Trust me 99.9% of all math classes is pattern recognition. If you can learn how to solve the problem you can ace any set of variables they throw at you.Â
See math—because physics is JUST applied math. You have to learn how to read the questions and pull out the information you need—the only way to do that is to do dozens of questions!
Flow charts—break things up by group to understand them. You have to group things to remember what’s gram positive or gram negativeÂ
Don’t blow off the actual micro part of micro. If you understand the virulence factors you’re more likely to understand the sx/tx
I had to use a lot of silly sayings to remember all the little pieces of micro. So I would remind myself about the diseases of haemophilus influenzae by saying haEMOPhilus (epiglotitus, meningitis, otitis media, pnuemonia). It was silly but it worked for me.Â
Do all the problems. Do them again.Â
Get another book and repeat step 1Â
Flashcard the reactions you don’t understand—put the reactants on one side and the products on the back. Practice these backward and forward.Â
Draw out every step of reactions you don’t understand
Circle your electrons or mark whatever it is you lose track of
Count—count where everything went at the end to make sure you didn’t screw up.Â
Categorize. Do all members of this group react this way?? It’s easier to learn the rules and the exceptions than force memorize every individual compound’s reaction.
Understand real world examples. I related all of the stuff about heat to a cup of coffee. It worked for meÂ
Talk through it! I had to read chemistry out loud or try to repeat it out loud in my own words to have any idea what was going on.Â
YouTube videos are absolutely perfect for gen chem!! (There’s even a whole CrashCourse series on Gen Chem that’s appropriate especially for high school level chem).Â
General Biology—Genetics/Immunology/Cell Biologyetc
You really need to watch my videoÂ
Cross relate—you have to integrate all your biology together to keep all that information in your head.Â
Flashcard only the stuff that can’t be understood. (Like cell markers, etc)Â
Charts! Biology is all about categorization and understanding the similarities between different groups of things. If you can simply remember the characteristics of a group it’s easy to know everything you need to about all the members of that group.Â
Look at the pictures until you feel sick.Â
Make flashcards of the pictures so you can at least do immediate identification of what you’re looking at even if you don’t know exactly what the pathology is.Â
Integrate! How does the physiology relate to exactly what is going on with the pathology? How does the pathology predict treatment?Â
Learn some latin and greek root words. Even if you have no idea what the word means you might be able to figure it out from there. :) I’ve gotten more than one question right by just figuring out what the word meant.Â
Understand the mechanism of the drug—it will really predict how it is used or what its toxicities are for
Flashcard the bare minimum or anything bizarre you can’t remember any other way.Â
Figure out the similarities in the names. If it sounds the same, it probably belongs in the same class.Â
Don’t learn in isolation. It’s hard to study pharmacology on its own—instead study it integrated with physiology and pathology whenever possible for the best understanding.Â
Study as case studies!! What diuretics would you give to a patient with CHF? With ESLD?Â
Charts—get poster boards or tape together a ton of sheets of paper and try to write out every pathway you can to see how it all is integrated.Â
Always track the flow of energy!! Where is your NAD/ATP/etc?
Group pathways by the “point”. Are you destroying carbohydrates or building fats? How does this compare to other pathways that do the same thing?
Try to rewrite the pathways from memory then see what you missed.Â
Spend a bunch of time with the specimens if you have access to them.Â
DRAW even if you suck at drawing
Learn the clinical correlations—why do you care
Thing about everything in relationship to one another!Â
Do questions!! Grey’s has a student question book I recommend.
I’ll probably add more to this list as I go and as more of you ask for specific subject advice, but here you go!!Â
When in doubt, always ask yourself “how would this be asked on a test?”. If you could write a test question about it, you should definitely know it!Â
And always remember that you should study for understanding and not just for a grade—always be learning and not memorizing. It’s more important you understand the material than you get the A!!