How to Start Studying at Medical School
So you have secured your place at medical school and are about to start your first week of studying in Year 1. Medicine involves accumulating and processing a huge amount of information, substantially more than you are accustomed to with your A-levels. In addition, you will find you will have less time to undertake this. Sulaiman Ghiyas, final year medical student at UCLAN medical school, shares with you his tips on how to make this transition.
What is revision?
At a basic level, revision is a systematic way of reminding yourself of what you have learned in preparation for a written or practical exam. In the last decade, so much has been written about the best ways to revise and the most efficient techniques for committing things to memory. Choosing a personal path for revision may be confusing with so many choices available. Remember that you are already adept at passing exams because you have successfully gained GCSEs, A-levels and perhaps a degree. As you already know, revision isn’t rocket science, but it is a necessary part of your learning repertoire, and like anything else, revision skills can be made more effective.
We have mentioned the importance of revising right from the beginning of the course rather than leaving things to the last minute. This way, you build your knowledge, understanding and skills gradually and systematically over time, which will increase your confidence level. If you have managed to review and organise your notes, lecture handouts, articles, etc., each week into a logical filing system, then you are already halfway there. You will have been revising as you went along and now it will simply be a matter of refreshing your understanding and perhaps getting in some practice for any practical exams.
How to succeed at medical school
A critical thought we would like you to hold in your mind whenever you revise is to imagine that you are the examiner setting a question on this topic such as:
What understanding would you want to test?
What question would you ask to test it?
Having this overview always present in your mind will help you see the knowledge and skills you have acquired from an assessment perspective and help you visualise the questions and tasks that you may be asked in an exam.
Different kind of revision techniques
So, what kind of revision techniques will work for you? Do you learn well from books? Is it better for you to discuss what you know in a group? Are you a visual learner who enjoys diagrams or graphic representations of things? As with all learning, we are all unique and do things in different ways, but interestingly research conducted by Turner, 2007 has shown:
We remember 20% of what we read
We remember 30% of what we hear
We remember 40% of what we see
We remember 50% of what we say
We remember 60% of what we do
We remember 90% of what we read, see, hear, say and do
So, it is advisable to have a mixture of revision methods which may be helpful to increase your knowledge overall.
Create a revision plan
It is vital to spend a few hours drawing up a comprehensive revision plan right at the start. Perhaps have one timetable for each week, decide upon the focus for that week and then break this down for each day, scheduling how long you will spend revising each topic. Remember to factor in time to eat, relax and have a period of exercise each day to counteract periods of inactivity – a long walk or a swim. Draw up a revision into blocks of 1.5 hours with 30-minute gaps between them to stretch your legs and get a drink. So, each revision block lasts 2 hours and you could aim to do three or four blocks for each full day, or maybe one if it is an evening session. Factor in at least two periods each week when you will revise with others in a group.
If you have made a comprehensive plan covering the subjects to be revised and stick to it, you can stop worrying about whether you've covered everything.
Organise your space
For the purposes of revision, however, I would recommend a more radical reorganisation of your life! The reason for this is to minimise all distractions so that you can really concentrate on revising. So, before getting down to work, some preparation is necessary:
Clean your flat or room
Sort out and put things away
Change the bed
Organise your desk
Stock up on healthy food and snacks
Tell everyone you are about to start revising
Make a ‘do not disturb’ notice for your door and place your phone on that mode.
Think about ‘known distracters’: are there some things that consistently tend to distract you. Perhaps telephone calls, instant messaging on your computer or switching the TV on for a second when you have a break only to find yourself sat in front of it 2 hours later? Plan how to avoid these; perhaps switch off your phone, unplug from the Internet, put a towel over the TV.
Suppose you live in a place where it is impossible to study in a quiet environment without interruption. In that case, you will need to revise in the library or other room at university.
