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Read This Before Medical School: How to Study Smarter and Live Better While Excelling in Class and on your USMLE or COMLEX Board Exams
Will medical school make or break you? Whether you’ve just gotten your acceptance or are already in the cadaver lab, you can get through (relatively) unscathed by learning from those who’ve already survived and thrived. Herein, we provide you with the hard-won tips, tools, and insights that helped us to excel during those four grueling years. Beyond providing study tips, we draw on inspiration from fields like psychology, neuroscience, education, business, and even self-help to assemble a complete guide to accelerate your development as a medical student and future physician. You’ll even get our personal recommendations for outside resources, such as specific websites and apps, that gave us a leg-up during medical school. NO OTHER book offers this much information, assembled together in one place, and without the fluff. Below are some of the key topics we chose to cover:
- Study tips to help you sail through classes
- Test-taking strategies to help you ace the USMLE and/or COMLEX board exams
- Accelerated learning techniques like speed reading, memory palaces, and mind mapping
- Time-management and productivity hacks
- Tools for self-assessment to track your development
- Advice on wellness, work-life balance, and burnout prevention
- Study tips to help you sail through classes
- Test-taking strategies to help you ace the USMLE and/or COMLEX board exams
- Accelerated learning techniques like speed reading, memory palaces, and mind mapping
- Time-management and productivity hacks
- Tools for self-assessment to track your development
- Advice on wellness, work-life balance, and burnout prevention
236 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 18, 2020
A skeleton key of learning for the pre-med and med student.
June 13, 2026
Interesting read to this day. It puts things in perspective. This book reinforces the specificity of goal visualization. It describes the struggles of drinking out of a firehouse and offers strategies to drink faster.
The section on training yourself to speed read is a personal favorite. Test an initial WPM reading speed. Implement strategies such as 1. the pointer, 2. three-column division, or 3. the zigzag method. Understand that reading the first and last letters of a word is often enough, given the context clues. Prime yourself before you start the speed session by going through headings and forming the question the author is attempting to answer. Practice with an article or a novel, where comprehension is unimportant. Set a timer for 1-15 minutes and read as fast as you can. Do this every day. Go!
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve is a fundamental aspect of learning how to learn. The 11311 method is proven to be the best spacer for maximum retention. Review material 1 hour after the first pass. 1 day after the first pass. 3 days after. 1 week after. 1 month after. Studies show that this achieves 90-100% retention of an idea.
Incorporate all forms of VARK (visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic) in your learning. Through multimodal learning, multiple cues are triggered regarding an idea, enhancing our understanding. Studying in groups can add an emotional element to the topic. Put it all together, and you will remember what you learn more accurately.
Multitasking reduces performance on both tasks. 'Task switching' has a 'switch cost'. Switching between tasks slows task completion, and performance on the current task decreases even after multitasking ends. It should be reserved for automatic tasks with a low cognitive load. Important tasks demand your full attention. Attention wanes throughout the day as emotional and impactful experiences you've had resurface. Hence, important tasks should be done at daybreak before your attention is split.
You are the 5 people you spend the most time with. When choosing colleagues for a study group, choose those you admire. Study with the smart kids. Find individuals whose strengths complement your own. People are flattered when you ask them to collaborate. So, be polite and sincere. Compliment the individual. Go for it!
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It'd behoove me to read this again before Medical School (currently 3 days from departure)
With USMLE1 test-taking tips, goal setting, memory techniques, and COMMITTING, I need this in me. Do a 2nd pass
stress+rest=growth - (85)
Happiness
1. b/c pleasure is fleeting, we spend, 2. most of our time on relationships and careers, 3. finding fulfillment in these is the closest we get to lasting happiness - (78)
success
(currently 2:00 am 6/3/20 as PHOV EMT)
comes in various forms
attention and recognition from others, "tending" 4 self, comparative success, movement in career field, ease of circumstances to explore further goals and interests - (79)
The section on training yourself to speed read is a personal favorite. Test an initial WPM reading speed. Implement strategies such as 1. the pointer, 2. three-column division, or 3. the zigzag method. Understand that reading the first and last letters of a word is often enough, given the context clues. Prime yourself before you start the speed session by going through headings and forming the question the author is attempting to answer. Practice with an article or a novel, where comprehension is unimportant. Set a timer for 1-15 minutes and read as fast as you can. Do this every day. Go!
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve is a fundamental aspect of learning how to learn. The 11311 method is proven to be the best spacer for maximum retention. Review material 1 hour after the first pass. 1 day after the first pass. 3 days after. 1 week after. 1 month after. Studies show that this achieves 90-100% retention of an idea.
Incorporate all forms of VARK (visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic) in your learning. Through multimodal learning, multiple cues are triggered regarding an idea, enhancing our understanding. Studying in groups can add an emotional element to the topic. Put it all together, and you will remember what you learn more accurately.
Multitasking reduces performance on both tasks. 'Task switching' has a 'switch cost'. Switching between tasks slows task completion, and performance on the current task decreases even after multitasking ends. It should be reserved for automatic tasks with a low cognitive load. Important tasks demand your full attention. Attention wanes throughout the day as emotional and impactful experiences you've had resurface. Hence, important tasks should be done at daybreak before your attention is split.
You are the 5 people you spend the most time with. When choosing colleagues for a study group, choose those you admire. Study with the smart kids. Find individuals whose strengths complement your own. People are flattered when you ask them to collaborate. So, be polite and sincere. Compliment the individual. Go for it!
----------------------
It'd behoove me to read this again before Medical School (currently 3 days from departure)
With USMLE1 test-taking tips, goal setting, memory techniques, and COMMITTING, I need this in me. Do a 2nd pass
stress+rest=growth - (85)
Happiness
1. b/c pleasure is fleeting, we spend, 2. most of our time on relationships and careers, 3. finding fulfillment in these is the closest we get to lasting happiness - (78)
success
(currently 2:00 am 6/3/20 as PHOV EMT)
comes in various forms
attention and recognition from others, "tending" 4 self, comparative success, movement in career field, ease of circumstances to explore further goals and interests - (79)
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews