 Being a doctor is awesome, but the journey through medical school was filled with eight to twelve hour study days, weekly quizzes and tests, constant board exams with the pressure to perform, and a complete lack of self-care or sleep, which was definitely now fun. Thankfully for you, I learned a few ways to make med school easier. Let's break it down. By the way, the last two are the reasons for most of my success. Make sure you stay tuned. So number one is to nail down your study flow. Now when I started medical school, my day was filled with studying for ten to twelve hours a day. To hindsight being twenty twenty, if I looked at those ten to twelve hours, really only two hours were helping progress my knowledge and my retention. The other eight to ten hours were spent on techniques that weren't so useful, such as going to lecture, rereading my notes, writing, highlighting, and other crap that wasn't really helpful. And so one of the best ways to fix this, if you're studying too much and not getting the grades that you want, is to work backwards from the ultimate goal. And if you know that you have to perform for a quiz or test, and the best thing you can do for yourself is to put yourself in those quizzing and testing environments as soon and as much as possible. Some of my favorite study techniques include using the Q&E method, which I've talked about in this episode. I'll link down below in the description, as well as doing a lot of practice questions really early on. And then once you start improving your study flow by increasing the amount of quizzing situations or review phase you put yourself in, then you can start to have a nice breakdown of the 80% to 20% ratio where you try to make as much of your studying. About 80% is the ideal situation in that review quizzing phase, and 20% actually acquiring the information. In my personal experience, if I had a day, for example, where I had three hours of lecture, I knew that three hours weren't going to be effective. So I said, let's speed this up by watching the lectures at 2x. So now you're done with the lectures in an hour and a half. And now I can use four to five hours doing really effective study techniques that are spent in that review phase. And I go over a lot of these in my video of how I got a 3.9 GPA in medical school. I break down all those and different techniques that you guys can use. So if you're interested, that'll be linked down below. But the biggest takeaway is that I knew that I had to be ready for test questions is that I made myself be in that testing environment as much and as quickly as possible using these various study techniques. And the main takeaway is that if you want to do well on your testing quizzes, then you need to put yourself in those same testing and quizzing environments as quickly and as often as possible. And usually when you do these, you tend to use study techniques that are efficient and effective, and that's also increased your free time. A tip number two is to find a good all-in-one resource. Now, a big mistake that I made in medical school was very early on. I pretty much purchased everything under the sun because I saw other students use it, found videos on YouTube or Reddit or student doctor forum. And I thought that that would be the magic bullet for me to really succeed. In fact, if you're interested on how much money I spent on resources throughout medical school, I'll link down below a video when breaking down the entire cost of my medical school education, including really expensive, unnecessary resources. But that's not to say that these all-in-one resources aren't helpful. In fact, a good way to identify a good all-in-one resource is one who can teach you the information, quiz you on that information, as well as help you review that material before your quizzes and tests for your classes. And so on this channel, we talk a lot about these various resources, depending on where you are on the journey. But my main recommendation is it's better to use a good one consistently than find a great one and use it inconsistently. And since we're talking about finding a great all-in-one resource for medical school, it's a great time to talk about today's sponsor, which is Kenhub. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Kenhub, it is one of my favorite resources to master one of the hardest topics in medicine, which is anatomy. With their entire database for pretty much anything you need to know for your anatomy lab, as well as your class and multiple choice exams, Kenhub is honestly one of my favorite resources to recommend because they really combine what I talk about in using an all-in-one resource that really works for you because they help you learn the material, help you quiz yourself on the material, as well as review before quizzes and tests. And just to show you how effective Kenhub can be to teach you topics like anatomy, you can essentially break down any organ system or body part you're learning about in lab or in class, such as the upper limb. So let's just say you're trying to learn the arteries of the upper limb before going into the lab. Kenhub does a great job of having individual models that essentially teach you despite what kind of learner you are. So if you're somebody who enjoys videos or has videos for you, if you enjoy text, there's text. And my favorite part, honestly, is doing these individual quizzes. So I may watch this video on the arteries of the upper limb, trying to get a framework of what I need to expect the next day as well as go through their atlases and understand where individual structures are. But then I may be able to just go, OK, let's go ahead and start the quiz so I can make sure I know what I'm looking for the next day. And one of the most unique parts about how Kenhub does their quizzing is that normally any other resource will just combine all of the types of questions that they have for a particular topic. But Kenhub allows you to stratify it based off of how you're learning that information. So if I'm learning something anatomy for the first time, I don't really want a really complicated question. I usually probably just want to know if I can identify it on an atlas or on a body. So I may say, OK, lab is tomorrow. Let's make sure that I can actually identify the arteries of the upper limb doing their basic identification questions. So for example, in this quiz, I have the question of, do I know where the left subclavian artery is? And I have two examples without really much context. And I'm saying, is it this one or this one? And hopefully, after being a physician for as long as I am, I know what I'm looking at. And if you're more of a visual person or somebody like me that enjoys hit lists, then you can say, OK, let me just know all of the things I have to know for this upcoming lab and then seeing if I can identify it on this atlas. So I may want to know where the artery is and now color codes it. OK, now let's look at the ulnar artery and then it's going to help me distinguish the differences. And so you can really test yourself. Like, do I know everything on this hit list going into lab, going into a practical? That's a great way. Again, have how Kenhub helps any type of learner really master and learn anatomy. So for example, if I knew that I was going to have an upcoming practical on just the thorax, and I can essentially say, let's go ahead and add everything that's fair game. And then I'll be able to ask myself questions specifically to that. And I can even refine my selection further by saying, OK, well, I didn't actually really learn anything about the jugular notch. I'm going to take that off and you can essentially add and subtract things based off of what you've learned and then start your quiz. And just like before, now you can essentially do a combination based off of how your comfort level is. If you're getting closer to a quiz or a test, you can say, actually show me exam level questions or advanced identification questions. And so now I can do a combination of multiple choice questions or ID questions, depending on how my practical is built. And so this combo of learning is great for somebody who may need to identify things for the practical, but also have to do really well in multiple choice exam for anatomy itself. And so if you're on a medical journey, especially if you're brand new and you're going through a class that is as complicated as anatomy, definitely consider checking out all in one resource. Kenhub would be my recommendation. If you guys are interested, they'll be linked down below with any discounts that are associated. And as always, thanks to Kenhub for being today's sponsor. Now, tip number three is to reverse plan your time. One thing that made medical school so tough is that if I had 10 hours to do work, I could easily find 10 hours of med school related work to fit into it. But on the flip side, if I only had five hours for whatever reason, other obligations, then I could find five hours and fill those in nicely as well. But as you start to progress through your medical journey, you realize that the quality difference between when you're spending five hours and 10 hours is really not that different. And honestly, sometimes you tend to be more focused and productive during that five hour period compared to those longer study sessions. Realizing that and also understanding that during those longer study sessions, I was miserable because I had no time for myself. I decided to flip my calendar on its head by asking one question, let's make sure that you have time for yourself and the things that are important to you first. So for example, if I was planning the week, the first thing I would do is add things that I could just simply have no power to move over my calendar. Maybe you have classes you have to go to or labs or anything like that. And those would be the first things you do. So let's just say nine to 12 every single day, you have a mandatory class that you have to go to. But once you have all of those non-movable obligations, usually a student will say, let me go ahead and spend some time studying here and some time studying here. But my first actual recommendation is to go, okay, first I'm gonna wake up at 730. Let's go ahead and see if I can have a nice workout for myself every single morning from 730 to 830. And then the same light, I would ask myself the same question, what would you like to do each evening that actually makes yourself feel like you're actually in control of your schedule? I may go, okay, well, seven to nine o'clock, you got a B-Ball game to watch. On other evenings, I may actually have a dinner with my wife. On another evening, I may go dinner with some friends. And then maybe on this day, I decided not to get a workout in the morning, but actually go for a longer run in the evening when the weather's nicer. Now, using this strategy, I have included my happiness and my priorities first. And then I can see, okay, what study times are available for me to actually get to work. And you may be thinking to yourself, oh man, if I can't study during this time, I'm not gonna do so well on that quiz or test. But the honest answer is that you've likely spent an extra two hours every single day and haven't gotten the grades you wanted. So the more hours is actually not the solution. Sometimes when you give yourself less time to study, you become more efficient and more calculative of how you actually spent that time. And if you focus on the study flow techniques that we talked about earlier in today's episode, then you'll actually be able to use that time much more productively. Tip number four is to make mistakes often to identify the high yield. Now, a big issue that I had and a big question that I get from students is there's so much information, I have no idea what's important. And to be completely honest, if you're relying on the slides or the syllabus from your professors to indicate what's high yield, you're just kind of wasting your time. One of the best ways to actually identify what's important is to use some kind of high yield resource that can essentially just test you immediately and allow you to make mistakes. That's why I really enjoy doing practice questions throughout my entire block. A lot of students will wait till they vary in when quizzes and tests come around to say, okay, I feel ready, let's test myself. Instead, I just say, let's just do five to 10 questions every single day. You may not even know anything about this topic, but if you miss it, you're like, okay, cool. I missed 10 questions and I made eight mistakes and only got two, right? Usually most students will feel discouraged, but in my head, I'm like perfect. That is eight connections that I know how to identify high yield. I know how different topics may be interconnected, even if they were covered in two different lectures and you feel much more prepared and ready for a different type of questionings that may show up on your quizzes and tests. So again, don't focus too much on the percentages that you're getting on these practice questions. Instead, focus if you get something wrong, beautiful. That means that now you make the mistakes ideally you don't do it on testing. Now tip number five is to understand the minimum success principle. Now procrastination is the bane of all medical students. I know I definitely struggle with it, but for some reason we come up with this logic that there's so much to do that I'm just not gonna do any of it, which is completely illogical. So sometimes the best thing you can do is to have yourself a minimum goal every single day. Now a minimum goal is essentially one thing that you have to get done every single day, even if the rest of your to-do list isn't done. And once you get that done, that is considered to be a success. And so when I was a student, sometimes my minimum goal would be okay. If you're gonna make yourself a list of questions that you have to answer from this lecture, using things like the Q and E method that we talked about, then perfect. At least you have to cover that lecture. You may not do the reading you have to do or prep for the upcoming quiz, but you have to do those review questions. Or I may say you have to do five questions a day of practice questions. I may have originally wanted to do 15, but I need to do five, that's easy, yes. It's the same principle that people often use to teach themselves a habit. For example, if somebody wants to learn how to run, sometimes the first step may just be put your shoes by the door, learn to put your shoes on, walk out of the door and come back in, and then you're done. That is a level of minimum success. Eventually that person's gonna feel pretty silly putting on their shoes or doing just one push-up if their goal is to do push-ups every day, and you're gonna start to do a little bit more. So find your minimum goal. Usually when you start it, it's easier to go ahead and to say, I can keep going. And tip number six is to focus on progress in multiple aspects. So far we've spent a lot of time talking about how to study better, how to manage your time better, and your mindset, but once you actually realize that you can start to get the grades that you want, you unfortunately also realize that there's other students doing exactly the same. You have to learn how to differentiate yourself. So on a weekly basis, one of the best things you can do for yourself is ask yourself, okay, how is my studying doing? How can I make it a little bit more efficient? How is my time management doing? How can I make it more consistent and more predictable? And then also asking yourself, how can I start making small moves and progressing toward whatever career path you're trying to do? I recently started working with a student who's interested in both internal medicine and psychiatry. They're already interested in going to those combined programs. They already know these are the extracurriculars I plan on doing. This is a research project that I hope to get involved in. That person has thought about, okay, what are the next steps I can take? And you don't have to be on that level or have all those answers yet, but once you know this is relatively my circle of interest, then you can say, what's the next thing I can do? Maybe it means reading about a certain topic. If you're interested in cardiology, listen to a podcast about cards. If you know you wanna do cards, see if you can find some shadowing opportunities or research, and then you continue to move the needle forward, depending on your answers each and every week. But if you want medical school to be easy, particularly later on, don't be complacent now by not asking you a question, what do I want out of a future career in medicine, and what kind of things can I do now to pursue that and make my story a little bit more rich? In the same aspect, make sure that you're making personal progress and things outside of medicine, both in things that you care to learn, as well as things that you just have to. For example, personal finance is something that you have to know once you start making money, but you have no idea because no one's taught you, as well as things that, oh, I really would learn how to cook, or I wanna make sure I'm reading more, or I wanna make sure I'm optimizing my health and fitness. How can I learn small things each and every week to help optimize each of those? This is really the difference between the student who just gets the grades and the student who gets the grades, and also has people just super impressed and start asking, like, how in the world did you have time for this? Really, that student in the latter category just asked themselves small questions, made small decisions, and then remained consistent using the techniques and strategies that we've talked about so far. But if you wanna make sure that medical school is as easy as possible, it's still gonna be difficult, then make sure that you check out all the study strategies that break down into this episode on how I got a 3.9 GPA, and all the study strategies responsible for it, as well as this one right here on how I remembered exactly everything that I read using a very step-by-step approach. Hopefully you guys enjoyed those, and as always, thanks for being a part of my journey. Hopefully that was a little help to you guys on yours, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.