How I study Productively- a breakdown of Pre-Med study techniques
Hey friends, for today’s blog I will be going through a quick overview of how I study for my midterms and exams.
Before I dive into things, it would be quiet rude of me to not introduce myself. My name is Opeoluwa Ajiboye, but I do consider you all as friends; you can call me Ope (aw-peh). I’m a first year life science student at the University of Toronto St. George campus. Over the course of my first two semesters at UofT, I’ve had to adapt to say the least, and also learn the hard way that university is the real deal. One of the few improvements I’ve made is in my study technique- and with enough of my rambling let’s get into it. Here are the five improvements I have made to my study routine to fit my post secondary lifestyle.
1. Plan your time
I think for many of us, high school was the peak of procrastination for us. For some reason, we all had superpowers. We managed to start essays or projects a few hours before it was due and still handed them in on time only to get a 93% (anyone else relate, or is it just me?). In university unfortunately, the hare cannot make it’s luxurious comeback on the fox. In other words, procrastination is almost unheard of in university and only those who choose to test the devil itself will know what it’s like to burn. Well I’m kidding, but it’s not far from the truth.
Below is an example of my schedule for an upcoming midterm two weeks away. As you can see it’s pretty packed with active recall dates, times for lectures, tutorials, office hours and other extracurriculars like OYMS. For most pre-med students, your schedule will look like this at some point but you can see it’s not impossible to tackle it as long as we plan it out.
The program I use is Notion and to be clear, this is in no way sponsored. I use this application because I love it. We at OYMS also use Notion to organize our tasks. So if you can’t take my word for it be assured that an organization uses it as well.
2. Re-write your notes
Although, I will be talking about active recall very soon, I wanted to single this out first because this form of learning really helps you expose yourself to the material you’re learning more than once. Rather than just write about it I’ll leave to to my video and Ali Abdaal’s video to explain why rewriting your notes works.
3. Delete social media and replace them with study applications
Unless you have been living under a rock for some time, you are not a stranger to the addictive nature of social media. Apps like TikTok have been single-handedly making people less productive. We’ve all been there. You tell yourself that you will spend 5 minutes and then it’s two hours later and you’re late for class, (anyone relate? No? Just me… ok). To solve this problem, I recommend deleting these social media platform. As a university student, if you are truly being productive, the truth is you won’t have time to go on these apps and they will only be a distraction to you. Rather, I would recommend downloading apps like Notion or Quizlet or Forest, or even apps like GoodNotes and OneNote so that your phone can serve as a more productive device than a distraction.
4. Use study with me videos
In quarantine and online school, most of us have missed the group dynamics and benefits of studying at a library or a quiet study hall. Over the past year or so I’ve found that tricking your brain into being productive works really well, whether it is using the Pomodoro method or using stories to remember different biology concepts. This is no different. I’ve used a number of study with me videos and created a few myself to help replicate the library quiet atmosphere. A very famous youtuber who makes good study with me videos that I use personally is Kharma Medic. If you don’t know him, he went to UofT for his undergraduate studies and is originally from Greece. He is now studying towards a medical degree as he wants to become a doctor. I’ve left a few of his videos and a few of mine for you guys to see but you can always research you’re own ways of recreating a library-study hall atmosphere.
5. Active recall
Finally, every successful post secondary student will mention this technique as the savior of their 4.0 GPA. To get high marks with the towering demand of being a post secondary student, you will definitely have to use this trick. Active recall is pretty much self explanatory. You actively recall the content you learned in class. There are different forms of active recall. I already alluded to one of the methods in my first technique. Rewriting notes is a good way of going though certain information a second time. Another form of active recall would be writing those notes in a question format or using apps such as Quizlet or Anki. With this method, rather than studying random facts you can recall the information to tackle a certain scenario. Regardless of what form you use, the reason active recall works so well is because of the catalyst known as spaced repetition. It is not enough to look at the content once or twice and call it a day. The accumulation of small bursts of spaced repeated recalling of the content is what allows students to gain understanding and retention of most concepts in many courses.
