Study Tips for First Year Medical Students

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Hey team, in this video we're talking through 10 study tips for first year medical students. We talk about how to approach your studies, tips for revising efficiency, tips for getting the most out of lectures, and the much-requested topic of the best resources for anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology and pathology. Enjoy xx

TIMESTAMPS

01:17 - Use your seniors
03:18 - Keep the exam in mind
05:03 - Understand the big picture
07:43 - Use Active Recall and Spaced Repetition
10:07 - Do a bit of work each day
12:49 - Avoid flashcard overload
14:54 - Pre-read for lectures
16:33 - Textbooks are overrated
19:30 - Recommended resources for each subject - Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology
29:12 - Work together
31:50 - Wrap-up

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[aliabdaal]

TIMESTAMPS
01:17 - Use your seniors
03:18 - Keep the exam in mind
05:03 - Understand the big picture
07:43 - Use Active Recall and Spaced Repetition
10:07 - Do a bit of work each day
12:49 - Avoid flashcard overload
14:54 - Pre-read for lectures
16:33 - Textbooks are overrated
19:30 - Recommended resources for each subject - Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology
29:12 - Work together
31:50 - Wrap-up

[diegorecuenco]

THIS GUY IS JUST THE TOP ADVISOR FOR MED STUDENTS IN YOUTUBE

THANKS MAN

[neurobibliophile]

All your work here has been spot on. You are a natural teacher and I am sure that will translate to what kind ofa doctor you will be. I am a doctor, a neurologist in practice in New York City, having graduated medical school in 1982. Clearly the experience has changed to a significant degree but your advice in this episode is brilliant. In many ways, I wish I could start the life experience of going to medical school once again, especially with all the available resources through the internet that was never available when I went through this. The bottom line I have discovered is that it doesn’t matter what medical school one goes to but rather the kind of person you are, your personal motivation and hope that you have the one thing that really cannot be taught, but must be part of the substance of the person one is... and that is empathy. With empathy, you are essentially guaranteed to make a difference in patient’s lives and also that you will continue to love your life’s work. I will continue to watch this series with joy and interest and I thank you for all your fine work.

[kingapex]

When I’m a doctor in a decade and a bit I’ll come back and say how it went on this comment

[Aetohatir]

23:58 Let's talk about Pharmacology
As medical students and as doctors we have to learn a list of a ton of drugs, and by far the best way of doing that is by using them.

[deborak.]

Resources: (19:30)
-instant anathomy (web site)
-anki (for pharmacology)
-medical pharmacology at a glance (book)
-wikipedia
-the big red text book: rode's(hepatology)

[mariatrinidad]

His voice is so attractive it’s actually distracting me from the content of the video 😂

[EricTian]

The advice about not overusing Anki and looking at past exams early is absolutely GOLDEN! I started learning anatomy for the first time last week (still undergrad) and have 800 flashcards just on the upper and lower limb and released yesterday I don't understand any of the bigger concepts. Thank you so much for this :)

[tbhx]

Lol 5 months late but I love how this channel went from "this is how you get in" to "congrats! Now this is how you survive..."

[jst.l]

I’m starting as a first year medical student in 2 weeks. These 33 mins were so valuable thank you! Can’t wait to get started!

[richardms]

How to use Anki properly would be really good. I struggled a little with the magic spreadsheet but I found it useful for concepts, and Anki for facts (like Pharmaco).
PD: the audio sounds great 🙌🏼

[nithyasreesathyanarayanan]

The last point is my favourite! I’m gonna start pre med in a few days and my parents are already pressuring me not to tell others about how I study and really feel disgusted about their mindset. It really makes me happy that you’re telling us to enjoy studying with others rather than just alone.Thank you so much for all the advice you gave in this video! You just lifted my spirits!😊

[batuayde]

This guy is a truth preacher, doesn’t just apply with med school but way of life...

[elizabethrigby]

On the note of pre-reading for lectures- that technique is called 'flipped classrooms'. I'm studying teaching and we are required to do this (and thats how i know what it's called lol) BUT it's a really, really great way of gaining a deeper understanding of a topic, even if you use it to figure out what you don't understand and know what to ask when you are in class. Plus, it kind of works like spaced repetition too ;)

[AMoore-qxvv]

For my first lecture of Biology class in freshmen year of college, my professor taught us long term potentiation (essentially active recall), spaced repetition, memory palaces, and organisers. Organisers include the lecture topic, main concepts, main sub-concepts, an organiser (I.e a way to sort such concepts with details examples of sorting includes flowcharts, mind maps, hypothesise/diagnose, table, etc), key words in each sub-topic, 3 boxes for check marks (if you decide to re-do those organisers, and the last is how the sub-topic relates to the bigger picture. We do these for every lecture and it’s really useful for finals.

[yakineferjani]

You are SO amazing and one of the few people on the internet whom I really appreciate and look up to. It's so rare to find someone whose every idea is just so well-formulated and explained in a way that you need absolutely zero effort to get your head around what that person is trying to say (which is GREAT because it's all this really easy flow of ideas that you find yourself eager to just keep on watching). I could hear you rumbling for hours and it'd add so much to my knowledge on how to study/how to approach medicine and how to just be a really nice, kind and well-rounded person. I'm guilty of being one of those first years on instagram bombarding you with questions and it's so lovely of you to answer us and give us a bit of your time.
Looking forward to all you upcoming videos and have a lovely day xx

[dianasandovalcabrera]

I've been watching your videos ever since i was a middle school student, as of today I'm two weeks away from my first day of medical school!
So glad i spent so many hours watching every single one of your videos bc know i feel a tiny bit prepared for what's to come

[kezla]

The audio quality is so damn good! PS. Thanks for the timestamps, your attention to detail/quality is one of the reasons you are my go to channel for study tips content.

[goincrazy]

About to start med school in 2 weeks so really needed this! Thanks Ali :D

[cassandramarin]

Just started my own med school journey and this video was incredibly helpful! Thank you!