Top medical students study Tips 2023
In this article, I’ll be discussing all the techniques that top medical students use to study. This is a detailed blog post with tonnes of high yield information, so make sure you bookmark it and come back again in the future!
SO HOW TO STUDY?
First thing first. Clear all the concepts. Basic anatomy is to be remembered for understanding surgery or orthopedics. Understand anatomy of whole body. Imagine everything. Just like if you watch your own abdomen and you can recall all structures with orientation and parts. There are only 3 main arteries. Understand how branches are created and supply whole body. Understand how brain works along with PNS. Physiology Pathology is to be understood for understanding diseases and to apply knowledge in medicine. How normal body works and where the problems can be created. Co relate everything and try to understand. If problem is created, how various drugs can set physiology back to normal. Understand it. Correlate how etiological factors affect our body to create pathology and what is the result presented as clinical features. This is how you should integrate everything. No subject in MBBS is separate. Never draw a boundary. Whole human body is one unit. So understand it like that. If you can't remember something after 1 or 2 reading. It's okay. Make a habit of revision. Don't count number of revision. Just revise it until it comes naturally to you just like Hb!
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- Everyone studies differently, even top medical students
- There are study techniques and mentalities that every good student uses. They include:
- Hard work
- Exercise
- Knowing what works for them
- Here are some techniques that top students use:
- Determined to be the best
- Start early and are consistent
- Limit social activities
- The best medical students know that doing the work is the most important thing
Using Technology In the Right Way
Okay, this one admittedly sounds a bit vague, but hear me out.
You should be able to use devices to your advantage and not let them control you. For example, you should know to never use your phone while studying. You will almost certainly get distracted and break your flow.
Other things like researching the best apps for studying and whether you should buy an iPad or not take notes are things you should be actively thinking about. You are in charge of what you use, so you might as well use the best and use it well.
Every medical student is different.
They all put in varying amounts of effort and study in a plethora of unique and interesting ways, some of which I’ll be discussing later in the article.
Due to this variation, there is no one answer to the question “How Do Top Medical Students Study?”. A true answer would require an article that way 10 times the length of this one, covering all the intricacies and methods that top students use to do so well.
Even if I were to create an article of that length, it would still do you an injustice. And that’s because knowing how top medical students revise is not going to get you very far on its own.
Rather, you need to use the information that I am going to present to you and manipulate it so that it works for you.
For example, one student might write handwritten notes on every single lecture. However, some top students would fall ill at even the thought of writing notes and swear by just doing questions, or making Anki flashcards etc.
And so, even though I talk about different methods that work for different students, you should know that most of those ways will not work for you.
You will have to come up with your methods and techniques built on the foundations that I talk about here, and create a system of revising and studying that works for you. With all of that preamble out the way, let’s look at some general methods that all good students use.
What Makes Top Medical Students Different
Although all of the above habits and methodologies are things that all good students do, there are things which make the top students stand out from the rest. That is what I will be discussing in this next section.
Number of Hours
This one is going to seem like another contradiction.
Earlier on I said how all good students work hard in the lead up to their exams, regardless of which course they do and how well they want to do. And although that is true, the top students stand out simply because of how hard they work.
Therefore, if you want to be a top student, there is no getting around that you will have to work smarter and harder than your colleagues.
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Purpose and Determination
This is something that people don’t often talk about.
One of the reasons that I got good grades before medical school was that I was determined to get the best A-Level grades possible, get into medical school and make my parents proud. These were clear reasons as to why I wanted to do well in my exams.
Unfortunately, when I finally got into medicine, I quickly found out that it was much, much harder to do well when you are surrounded by hard-working individuals who have been able to retain that sense of purpose into their university career. This made doing well in exams hard enough that I began to question what the point of being the best was.
Is there anything really bad about just “getting by” in medical school? For me, there wasn’t.
Since that point I have always focused on things outside of medicine that I felt much more passionate about, leaving the bare minimum amount of work needed to pass my medical school exams.
On the contrary, some of my friends and colleagues were hell-bent on getting top grades. Needless to say, it resulted in them becoming top students.
And so, if you do want to be a top student yourself, I suggest you ask yourself why. If you find a reason to keep on studying and working hard, then great. You have already beaten half of the students at medical school.
Starting Early and Being Consistent
Being consistent with your studying is essential at university. When you are younger, you can get away with revising the night before an exam and still getting a good mark. Unfortunately, as the content in university (and especially medical school) is so much greater than high school, you have to start studying weeks, and sometimes months in advance to get the grades you want.
Therefore, doing well in your exams is about doing less work on any given day, and more work in the long term.
Making Studying a Habit
Similar to what I just talked about, the best students ensure to make studying into a habit.
Do you find it difficult to brush your teeth every night? Probably not.
That’s how top students feel about studying.
So, how do you get to that level of sorcery I hear you ask.
The best way that I have found is to always put time aside for work. In the same way that when you think about what you will do in the evening you will include dinner, make sure you include studying in that mental plan of yours.
By doing this every day, you will eventually make studying a habit.
Paying Attention in Class
Although this is slightly controversial as many students find lectures and other didactic teaching methods archaic, there are still people who find it useful and that is why I am including it.
Some of the best students I know are the ones that attend over 95% of everything the school tells them to attend. They diligently listen to the lecturer and take notes on everything they find important.
They don’t talk or have fun. They are there to learn.
The top students would have already looked at the lecture slides beforehand and would probably go home and continue to go over the lecture until they know it inside and out.
Limiting Social Activities
For some, this is going to be a hard pill to swallow.
Humans are social creatures. We need to interact with friends and family to have deep, meaningful lives.
However, if you want to be the best at anything, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. You should be trying to limit the amount of time that you go out and party and play with friends, especially during exam times.
If you find yourself finding this next to impossible, you probably need to go back and read the “Purpose and Determination” subsection. If you are strong-willed enough, you should be able to sacrifice things to achieve your goals, regardless of the cost.
Don’t worry though, you will have the whole summer to party after exams are over.
Productive Procrastination
In your free time, what do you do?
If you are anything like me, you watch YouTube videos, play some games and talk with family and friends. Although all of those things are important and have their place, there is a way that top students take advantage of this time.
They use it as an opportunity to do something that they love, but that is productive at the same time. For me, this website sometimes falls into that category.
That’s because there are times where I should probably be studying but don’t really want to, and so end up editing a blog or the design of the website.
Now, I do this because I love to work on this website and it brings me joy. If you could find things like that, that are somehow related to your school and university work, it can pay dividends.
An example where I used this technique to further my exam results was when I had an end of topic exam coming up and decided that I couldn’t be bothered to study for it any more and so started searching YouTube for stuff related to the clinical skills session that day.
Thereby I ended up learning content that was relevant to my end of year exams.
This is certainly a technique that you can apply almost every day and can help you work even when you don’t want to.
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Planning
If I don’t plan my day, I get much less work done.
This is true because I end up thinking there isn’t anything that needs doing.
However, there is always something that needs doing.
And so, I try to write down everything important that I am going to be doing the next day from the time I wake to the time I turn off the lights before bed. This not only helps me not waste time, but it keeps me on my toes, ensuring that I always feel that stuff needs to be done.
This can be a bit of effort, but I find it well worth the 5 minutes it takes. You don’t have to do it every day, but try to do it when you have your exams approaching.
Sometimes, even if I don’t write anything down, I still think about what I will be doing the next day. This is the absolute minimum that I suggest you do.
Doing Is the Most Important Thing
The best students know that research will only take them so far.
In reality, doing the work is what is going to get them where they need to be. Therefore, although it is great that you are reading this blog, trying to become a better student, I must urge you to stop.
If you know you should be doing work right now, then don’t read any further and get your work
Length of MBBS?
Which book do you think is best for medicine? Harrison? 3000 pages. I think the biggest book among all subjects we read during MBBS. 15–20% of it's text is just anatomy and physiology. 30–35% is pathology. 20–25% is pharmacology. 5% is radiology. So now remove the overlapping part either from pathology-pharmacology-physiology. Almost 50–80% books are done. Or if you do it from those subjects - only 25–30% Harrison is new for you!!! Integration makes it very much easier.
Easy way of remembering!
When you see something, listen something you never forget. How much longer is Tuberculosis or AIDS for MBBS curriculum. Just go and take history-examination of 3 cases. 20 minutes each. And 80% of things are covered. Visit clinicals regularly and learn. If you read steps of tracheostomy, it will take 20–30 minutes to understand. Just see how it is done in 4–5 minutes. You need not to read even!!!
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