I stopped taking notes in medical school

I stopped going to class and I take no notes. For years, I lied to myself thinking I could actually learn during lectures and spent way too much time taking notes. It wasn't sustainable in medical school, so I decided to reinvent my entire approach and focused on building a system that fit my lifestyle. After years of reiteration, I've discovered a way to take learning into my own hands without going to class or ever taking notes. Here is my updated study system.

🙏 Thanks for watching!
- Mike and Matty

[neo]

One of the hardest things to do is knowing what’s important to study and what’s not. And. It’s not helpful when the teacher says “everything is going to be on the exam”

[yasseressa]

the only reason I take notes is to understand how the professor view the material in order to answer his bad exam questions

[NabhanPhD]

Awesome tips Matty. I'll share these with my students who already mastered step 1 of ignoring my lectures or just sleeping through them :p

[Joseph-oopp]

This is why the 2020-21 school year had my best grades ever. When we were made to do virtual learning, I flourished. Many people’s grades dropped, but mine rose. Proof that everyone learns different.

Edit: with so many likes and comments (probably more than I’ve had on any other comment) I’d like to clarify. As I said, not everyone did well with virtual learning. I was likely in the minority when it comes to being successful.

[idonteatcheetos]

That's why I really enjoyed going to an alternative high school, I was only required to go 2 hours a day, 4 days a week, but it actually made me WANT to learn and gave me a sense of responsibility. If I didn't want to walk to school I could do my classes on my computer at home, and the teachers were always available to answer questions or help us out with hard problems because the class size was so small. Regular schools treat their students like babies and it's about time things changed.

[maplaf]

I never realized I was studying by explaining shit I learned in class to my parents or loved ones because I was passionate about what I was learning. Explaining it to them in a way they understand actually helped me remember what I learned

[studyaddict]

Matty: I stopped taking notes
Me: I didn't even started

[sleepisirrelevant]

1:19 I stopped going to class,
watched recorded lectures after
struggling to through the materials on
my own first
3:33 I don't take notes when I self study, I only
make flashcards on remnote
4:40 SQRRR
4:50 Skim through the textbook and jot down
bold terms
5:04 Rephrase or feynman technique
5:44 Recall - transforming the informations
into flashcards
6:08 - (Spaced) Repetition through the
flashcards.
6:32 going back to recorded lectures
6:53 - Practing Questions
7:12 - set clear goals

[gamingguardan]

Study suggestions for the undisciplined or 'lazy':

Like me, if you hated online class/learning this last year, this may not work for you. For those like me who find themselves undisciplined when it comes to school--simply because we don't enjoy school-- I find that going to class/school is much better than being at home because I'm forced to leave my comfortable home environment and dedicate the class time to learning time. Write down the questions you may have in class, then afterwards go up to the professor to have them answer all of your questions. Depending on your professor and the class size, ask questions as soon as you have em; they'll stop to answer your question because more likely than not others in your class have the same question but just aren't asking. Lastly, after class, go to a workplace/library (anywhere where others are doing work) and complete all of your homework right there. This way, the information from your class/notes will be fresh and you can knock out all homework for the day in one sitting.

[BrokkoliSchleuder]

Holy shit this is so true it hurts. All my studies at university (6 years) have been nothing but short-term memory exercises. It was almost never necessary to actually understand things. In fact, most of the time there wasn't enough time to understand things. Not just during lectures but in general. Properly understanding things that are listed on hundreds of pages takes so much more time than just squeezing them into your short-term memory... And then you would just empty all of it out during finals... just to forget about all of it three weeks later. Now after having my degree I feel like I've learned nothing since all I did was short-term memorizing buzzwords and inexpressive definitions each semester. It really is sad that if I took the time to try to understand things I would have had worse grades. What a waste of hard work.

[TabeaBaumann]

Just some notes for myself (maybe they'll help someone else too)
1 - skip classes (synchrone ones): there are way too many people all learning differently, so no professor could ever adapt to every student - - > first learn things yourself, then watch recorded classes (if you have big problems, then visit those)
2 - do NOT take notes, but use flashcards (way more efficient)
3 - learning technique: survey (=skim), question (what u learn --> really understand things), rephrase, recall (flashcards), repetition (spaced repition with flashcards)
4 - set clear goals (what to learn when, what and how much to revise, ...)
--> skip class, stop taking notes :)

Ironic I wrote notes for a video with the title "I stopped taking notes..."

Thanks for these great tipps. I'm still in the first year and I really love getting new/old but forgotten input about how to learn best. I still have big problems with skipping classes as I will always feel bad afterwards... Maybe a task for the new semester :)
Thanks so much for your good work
Greetings from Germany

[DeathBeGone]

"I stopped attending lecture"

But also my professors: "Your attendance is required for all lectures."

[harryroberts]

Feel like with self-study you need to have discipline. Given you have sufficient resources, you need to be able to stick to a schedule and finish the content within time frames. I've completed aviation theory for an RPL licence only by self study and it's definitely fun and more comfortable, but at times I found myself slacking off.

[triman]

Thanks, it allowed me to improve my learning system :
1. See what I'm gonna learn
2. Try to guess what will be said / Do my own research before consuming the content
3. Don't take notes while being first exposed to the new info : only do it after, rephrasing what you learned
4. Recall them repetitively not just reading notes but actively trying to recall what you learned (Flashcards or the same principle of flashcards)
5. Teach others / Confront yourself to real problems (teaching others is a way to meet reality)

[yashvi]

Highlight of Video:
1) SQ3R
Skim -> observe Headers, Subheader, Key Words
Question -> Practice Problems, Past papers
Rephrase (Feymann Technique): explain in simple way
(Active) Recall -> Flashcards (Anki-> RemNote)
(Spaced) Repetition -> at intervals getting longer

2) Depend on: Clear Goals (new info + review old info)
His Daily Goals: 40 Practice Problems, Review Weak points, Go through Flashcards

[ahealingplace]

It's devastating the countless hour's I wasted making notes, re-reading.... hour's and hour's on end and still not getting good grades.... my whole life revolves around school and my life has been complete misery....
I'm just beginning to incorporate these effective learning techniques and I already feel much better because my school life is falling into place! Thank you Dr Mike and Matty 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[Logiedacat]

I 100% relate to skipping lectures. So many professors just read their powerpoints monotone and verbatim. Sucks that they're required because they're more often than not, a waste of time. I have cut down so much time by not reading textbooks, doing textbook problems that don't relate to the class, or going to class and I've gotten much better grades and more free time.
I really liked the point you made about using the daily documents to go back and review yesterday's hardpoints. I usually keep all my notes and cards in their own subject without using the daily documents or linking but it looks like it works really well for you. I'm not sure how to really incorporate that (afraid everything would get lost in daily documents) and I'd love to see a more in-depth video on that if you don't already have one.
Also living for the HxH in the background, absolutely amazing show.

[simonhallin]

I absolutely understand people who do not take notes, and it has worked for me during a mechanics class, but personally, I find myself being most efficient taking important notes and practicing, but everybody is different

[lydi]

I'm always amazed by how different my college experience was from everyone else I've talked to. None of my classes allowed computers for note taking, and they made attendance part of the grade. I started in 2014

[nickeaton]

My dad went through medical school. He forced himself to always ask a good question every class, this kept him focused and allowed him to stay engaged