How to Study in Medical School

A review of successful study strategies in med school, including retrieval practice (testing effect), spaced repetition, and varied practice. I also discuss common learning myths, including learning styles. And I end with a discussion of popular study resources for med students, including Pathoma, First Aid, Picmonic, SketchyMedical, Anki, Firecracker, Osmosis, Najeeb, and more...

In direct response to some comments, I would like to emphasize that I'm not asserting "Sketchy" doesn't work - I'm just saying that the study technique it uses is unproven and is novel enough to not yet have established a conventional wisdom about it among learning scientists. Also, regarding First Aid, I appreciate that Step 1 is perceived to test the long lists of unconnected esoteric facts that First Aid is great for, however, I also see students use First Aid as a primary resource for their courses, which I think has major drawbacks.

Selected references include:

Make It Stick - The single best layperson guide to learning theory (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Sci...)

Learning Scientists Blog - Another great resource for all things related to the science of learning. (http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/)

"Paradoxes of learning and memory" - Free book chapter outlining some successful study strategies, with discussion of how they can be counterintuitive. (http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%2...)

"The Learning Styles Myth is Thriving in Higher Education" (http://journal.frontiersin.org/articl...)

"Metacognition and the spacing effect: the role of repetition, feedback, and instruction on judgments of learning for massed and spaced rehearsal" - Also touches on our inability to accurately judge successful learning (http://castel.psych.ucla.edu/papers/L...)

"The effect of selected 'desirable difficulties' on the ability to recall anatomy information" - Also touches on retrieval practice and the testing effect (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25...)

"The Picmonic(®) Learning System: enhancing memory retention of medical sciences, using an audiovisual mnemonic Web-based learning platform." - Peer reviewed paper written by founders of Picmonic (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24...)


Links to Resources:

Anki (http://www.ankisrs.net)
Firecracker (http://www.firecracker.me)
Osmosis (http://www.osmosis.org)
UWorld (https://www.uworld.com/)
Kaplan Qbank (https://www.kaptest.com/medical-prep/...)
USMLE-Rx (https://www.usmle-rx.com/)
SketchyMedical (https://www.sketchymedical.com/)
Picmonic (http://www.picmonic.com/)
Pathoma (http://www.pathoma.com/)
First Aid for Step 1 (https://www.amazon.com/First-Aid-Usml...)
Dr. Najeeb (https://www.drnajeeblectures.com/)
The Noted Anatomist (   / @thenotedanatomist  )
Armando Hasudungan (http://armandoh.org/)