How to study Med?

[pi]

I got a couple of the textbooks yesterday and had a quick flick through, and there is an enormous amount of material in them! Are we expected to know most of that? I've heard from previous/current Med students that it is actually physically impossible to cover everything in the course before exams, is this true?

If so, what study techniques did you apply successfully?

In VCE, I didn't have a lot of memorisation to do (and I'm guessing that I'll have to do a lot for anatomy, etc.), so I'm a bit stuck atm I'm thinking along the lines of flash-cards or rote-learning for these things, but I', not sure...

Also, did you make notes (apart from notes from lectures), for example, did you take notes from various textbooks too?

Thanks

[Russ]

Don't learn anything before the year starts, you have enough time to do that in the next 5 years. You can't learn everything, don't bother trying to start early. Learn the concepts and how they fit together before you go trying to add on detail. Other than than, study techniques won't differ from other courses that much, you'll learn how you learn best as you go.

nb, there is no good way to learn anatomy other than rote learning. Get a decent atlas and just deal with it

[shinny]

Once again, break everything down into being either conceptual things, or things to rote learn. For conceptual things, if you don't get it during the lecture, make sure you note that and go home and read up on it within that week from a textbook until you understand it. For anything which needs to be rote learned, write notes (e.g. anatomy/pharmacology will need this) and revise these regularly, or cram them just before the exam if you prefer that approach. One of the top students in my cohort is known for her (excessive) use of flash cards, so you could try that as well. Personally I'm a bit too lazy for those though. The exams are almost all multiple choice at Monash, so you don't really need to memorise anything perfectly anyway unlike VCE. A rough understanding of everything will get you by a MCQ exam with flying colours.

EDIT: Actually on second thoughts, DO NOT CRAM ANATOMY. That is about the only subject I tried in on a weekly basis. Everything else I crammed before the exam, but for anatomy, actually bother with pre-reading to get the most out of every tutorial. With this mentality in mind, it'll make sure you keep up to date. Otherwise it's very easy to fall behind.

[Jdog]

do we need to buy all the books on the booklist?
there seems like a ridicilous nymber. are there some you just borrowed from a library?

[pi]

do we need to buy all the books on the booklist?
there seems like a ridicilous nymber. are there some you just borrowed from a library?

Nah, I doubt it (it would be like thousands of $$!). MUMUS has a list of "recommended" texts to buy on their site, check that out: http://www.mumus.org/ (under the second post). I'm going to get those ones and borrow the rest when I need them

[shinny]

do we need to buy all the books on the booklist?
there seems like a ridicilous nymber. are there some you just borrowed from a library?

You'll rarely use any of the textbooks for beyond a 6 month period or so, with most only needing to be opened to clarify something in a lecture. Lecture notes will cover the majority of what you need in 1st and 2nd year, and summary books (e.g. the 'At a Glance' series) are personally my recommendation when it comes to further explanation rather than the amazingly over-detailed books the university recommends. Monash's own study guide notes that you'll be given will cover things such as clinical skills adequately as well. So my recommendation is to invest in an e-book reader (i.e. iPad or the like) from the start like I eventually have to refer to whatever you need when you need it. You'll continue to need new books basically every year, and purchasing every one of them will cost far beyond the cost of a tablet. Borrowing them from the library is an option as well, particularly in clinical years when every hospital has its own library and finding books you need is generally a bit easier. Expect many of the needed textbooks at the Clayton campus to be perpetually unavailable close to exam period. But yeh, I generally would recommend buying handbooks such as the Oxford Clinical Handbook and 'Baby Netters' (a mini anatomy atlas) which you can bring with you everywhere and revise on public transport, or quickly reference within a tute. For everything else, go without it for as long as you can, and if you feel as if you're borrowing it very often and that only having an ebook format doesn't suffice as nothing really beats the feeling of having the physical copy, then sure, go ahead and buy it off BookDepository or something.

[Russ]

Yeah don't buy textbooks until you know you need them. Not even the "prescribed" ones. Find out if you need them first, you don't lose anything by waiting a week.

I ran the UoM MD first year booklist earlier and it was 2.5k, so yeah...