 In med school, I went from 10 hours a day to 5 hours a day studying and ultimately graduated with a 3.9 GPA. Here are the exact study techniques that helped me do just that. Hey friends, today I'm going to be doing a complete breakdown of literally every study technique and method that I used in medical school and showing you exactly which ones helped me crush med school with less time. And then I'm going to break down all of the study techniques that fall within those categories and also give them a grade based off of retention, time, review potential, as well as my personal experience and then an ultimate grade. And if you're interested, there'll be timestamps down below so you can go to the part of the episode that is most pertinent to you. And if you want all of this in one place, I've gone ahead and created an absolute free Excel document so you can see all the study techniques, all the grades that we give in this episode as well as different resources where you can learn how to master a specific technique even more so. So if you want access to that absolutely free document, that'll be linked down below. But let's get into category number one, which is learning the information for the first time. Now, the first technique that we'll be talking about in this category is note-taking, but specifically QA note. Now, I go into a lot more detail in the full breakdown of how to use a QA method in a separate video, which I'll link down below. But essentially, a QA method for note-taking is instead of looking at your notes of how can I document things in my own words or how can I highlight and annotate things that we do often, how can I instead take the information I'm learning and change it into the form of questions that I could then use later to quiz myself. So if I was in one of my medical school lectures and I was learning how to treat somebody with high blood pressure, then instead of just writing down all the medications, the doses, I may just say, what are the different questions? For example, what are the different meds that I could use to treat somebody with high blood pressure? That may be a question. And then to answer that question, I would put anything on the slides or something that the professor said that would answer them. And I would continue to do this throughout the lecture. What's the side effect of this medication? And then I would put the answer. This way, when I go home, I can easily just look at the questions and ask myself, do you remember this from lecture before you even look at the answers? And then if you don't, you can go ahead and review the material and repeat the process. In my personal experience, transitioning from a typical note-taking strategy to a QA method, I was able to cut down my setting by three to four hours a day because I was easily able to streamline the rest of the process that we'll talk about in today's episode. But in terms of grading on a scale of one to 10, first, we'll have to talk about retention, which in this case, the QA note-taking method gets a nine out of 10. In terms of the amount of time that it takes, because you have to think about your questions, it takes a little bit longer. So it gets about six out of 10. In terms of review potential, because you're creating your questions from your lecture, it's a nine out of 10, an overall grade of an A. And again, if you want a full breakdown as well as examples, I'll link down below that video. Now, study method number two is using high yield resources. Now, really for any busy student, the most important question we ask is, how do I know what's high yield, what's testable, what can I show up on a quiz or a test, particularly in medical school where you're having three, five hours of lectures a day, four or five days a week, you really need to know what's important. And one of the best ways to do that is to use a high yield resource. Typically, my strategy in medical school was to look at, okay, what's the lecture tomorrow going to be about? And then the day prior, I would typically set aside about an hour, hour and a half, and go to some kind of high yield resource that I paid for or something on YouTube or had essentially just short videos on the topic. And it may have taken anywhere from five to 10 to 15 minutes per lecture. But now, when I went into lecture, it was really easy to say, okay, cool, I heard that in the lecture once the professor said it's in my syllabus. That's probably the first place I should start in terms of remembering thing out of this entire busy lecture. And in addition to helping with both the pre-reading and future reviews, it's also really useful if I ever found myself behind in class, because I could just go to the high yield resource and either skip lecture or watch lecture at like two or three X speed, just to go ahead and get to my review quicker. So in terms of grading, using high yield resources on retention gets a nine out of 10. In terms of time, depending on what video or resource you choose to use, it gets about eight out of 10. Review potential, it is much harder to use a high yield resource unless it comes with questions. So on this scale, I gave it a five out of 10, but overall grade of a five. Now, on the note of watching a lecture faster, technique number three that I loved using is speed listening. When I first started medical school, I was listening to most of my lectures at one and a half to two X speed. And I thought that was good enough because you're watching three hours of lecture in an hour and a half. That sounds pretty good deal. I was able to accelerate that tour. I was listening to most of my lectures at 2.75 to three X and really expediting this process. So if you guys are interested on how that works, I will link down below my speed listening episode that we did here on the channel. And so knowing that in medical school, I accepted the decreased retention and said, well, if I gain an extra hour and a half or two hours, where I can actually jump into review, my retention is going to help compensate as well as improve beyond what it would have if I just listened to lecture. So in terms of overall grading, speed listening from retention standpoint gets a six out of 10 on a time standpoint because it's so efficient. It gets a 10 out of 10 review potential. Obviously, it's hard to review audio lectures. So it gets a five out of 10 and overall grade of a B plus. Now the last study method that we'll talk about in the learning category is going to be just reading your syllabus or your class material. Now, this was easily the quickest thing that I let go of in medical school, including also going to class, because I realized that one, it just took way too long and my overall retention was really poor. If you are somebody who really enjoys reading from the text or your school happens to ask a lot of questions from syllabus readings, you want to understand how you can better improve your reading technique to better prepare for the exam. I'll link down below an episode that we did on essentially how to remember everything that you read using a very step by step easy to follow system. Personally, after my first semester of medical school, I'd essentially just stopped reading the syllabus altogether. It's my overall grade for reading syllabus or class material in terms of retention four out of 10 terms of times just takes forever three out of 10 review potential. It's just really hard to review overall. So it's a three out of 10 and an overall grade of one big fat red F. Okay, next we'll talk about study methods that I use to help me review the material that I learned. Hopefully you can do the same. First we'll start with space repetition. Now most students are familiar with space repetition through various different softwares, whether it be Anki or Quizlet or using space repetition themselves, essentially just saying show me information in one day, two days, three days, and then tend to show me the information I suck at more than the information I'm really good at. Now, there's one technique that not necessarily saved me time, but just streamlined the entire process where I was like, Oh, I can literally just do this from start to finish and be prepared for the exam. This was it. In fact, if you want to see my entire streamlined approach of how I use one of the space repetition tools in Anki to really just help me using some advanced tools and techniques in medical school, get that 3.9 GPA. I'll link down below the full breakdown of that entire video. And in that episode, as well as other free resources that I'll link below in that worksheet, I essentially show you how I use a space repetition tool to both understand and take my notes for that first phase, then actually review them and then use them for both tests as well as long term retention. So really just one strategy for all of it. But in terms of overall grading, space repetition on retention scale gets a nine out of 10. In terms of time, it gets an eight out of 10 review potential because it's built around it. It's at a 10 out of 10 and my overall grade of an A plus. Now, setting up method number two within the review phase is making outlines. And this is a technique that I did a lot in college and it was working. It was one of those things that didn't work in medical school when I made the switchover. It just took me way too much time. But essentially I was making what I thought was a big hit list and had like 20 or 30 pages for every protest or quiz. And I said, if I knew all of this and I'm golden, unfortunately, I just never had enough time to actually go into my outlines, which most students have. But interestingly enough, I argue that if I had switched to making my outlines using the QA method that we talked about earlier, then this would be much more effective. Unfortunately, I didn't do so. So my personal experience making outlines on a retention scale gets a six out of 10 and timescale takes so long that three out of 10 review potential four out of 10 for an overall grade of C. Now, again, this had the potential of being a B minus B plus study method, not as great as the space repetition tool and not as great as the one I'm about to talk about next. But it could have been so much more effective. So again, if you love making outlines, definitely check out that Q&A episode down below. Now, before we get back into today's episode, let's take a quick second to talk about today's sponsor, which is Picmonic. Now, if you're unfamiliar with Picmonic and you're on your medical journey, they have hundreds and hundreds of videos for literally any class or material that you may need. And what makes Picmonic so unique is that in addition to having so many videos on literally any topic you need, so for example, here we're in microbiology, you can click on any video. So here's Staph Aureus and the videos themselves are very short. So this video is about one minute 54 seconds, but essentially we'll break down the most high yield components that you have to know in this setting about Staph Aureus in this very nice story format using images. So here's a very nice Oreo essentially will link an image to your brain on important concept about that. And the future videos you may find that the same memorable image is included in another related video. So then you can link together concepts. For example, here, this venom jar with green represents food poisoning. So any bacteria that may cause food poisoning may have this image in their overall picture and video. So you can say, okay, I know all different bacterias that have food poisoning. And then whenever you feel comfortable with a relatively short story, you can easily go into the review and quiz phase and actually quiz yourself on the various different high yield components. In addition to having a very unique and easy way to remember information for your quizzes and tests, you can also add all of the videos you're watching into a relative playlist. So if you're studying for a microbiology class, you can go ahead and essentially click all the videos you add and add it to those playlists. And then whenever it's time, you can come back to your individual playlist and either watch those individual videos again or ask for specific quiz questions related to the videos that you've now said that you've mastered or at least learned the first time. And that's just scratching the surface in terms of features that Picmonic has to help you on your medical journey. Other cool things include having a weakness guide so you can see which topics here are the weakest in as well as their study scheduler. So you can actually say these are the topics I need to know. And here's my test day and then it will essentially will give you a study schedule based off of that. So if you're looking for an all-in-one resource for your on your medical journey, you haven't quite found it, definitely recommend checking out Picmonic if you're interested. I'll be linked down below. And our friends at Picmonic have also been nice enough to include an extra 20% discount if you use the code the MB journey at checkout. And so if you're interested in learning more about Picmonic, that link will be down below. And as always, thanks to Picmonic for being today's sponsor. Now, study method number three is the notion or the Excel method. So if you think about all of the information you're learning and lecture and saying, huh, I can put all that into a database, then I can essentially see what's left to be mastered for any quiz or test. If I have everything checked off, then that means I'm golden. I've done all my reviews have done all my first and second passes, and I'm ready for the test. And I can also sort based on my weaknesses. So that's essentially where the notion method comes. Now, this is a database that we've created for both our coaching students as well as students within our level up your studying course. So if you guys are interested, they'll be linked down below. But essentially, you can break down all the information by lectures, informations, answers, as well as what specific topics. So if you're on a cardiology block, you may have a topic that's hypertension, arrhythmia, etc. So if you're struggling with one thing, you can always come back and do those specific videos. And then this specific database will add a little bit other fancier nuances like difficulty score. So then when you have to review, you start with the topics that are the hardest to do, and then move down the line, as well as being able to mark before a test. Okay, test day is coming. Do I feel confident about every single topic that I've added to my database? Now in medical school, whatever I wasn't able to naturally use a space repetition tool like flashcards, this is the study method that I ended up going with. And it was really nice to essentially say, if I'm going to make the effort to learn a syllabus or to learn a slide, then I might as well incorporate all information I learned and then saying cool luck. Now you just have to learn this database. You don't have to go back and forth to the slides and the lectures unless you really need to. And then if you know everything here, you're golden. And so in terms of overall grading for a database method like the notion method retention, you get a nine out of 10 for time doesn't take too long about an eight out of 10 review potential super effective nine out of 10 overall grade of an A. And again, if you're interested in learning more about the notion method or getting the template or any of the other study strategies we teach your students, I'll link down below level up your studying course. You guys could check it out yourself. Now next we're going to transition to our final category being test prep as well as long term retention. Now being in medical school and now being a physician, this is arguably the most important phase. And so again, if you want to check out how a use space repetition to essentially do this, I'm not going to talk about it again. Go ahead and check out that on key video down below. But the first study technique that we'll talk about within this phase is going to be the utility of practice questions. Now every student has their own way of using practice questions. Most people will tend to use it as a closer to a quiz or a test personally in medical school. I was always having practice questions be part of my daily or at least weekly component. So if it was a really busy class, I would say commit two days in a week where you just try to do 20 or 40 questions from a question bank that you paid for or something you find online. And if it was a lighter class, and I would say, okay, try to do five questions a day. And essentially what I was trying to do is one, identify topics that I have learned that obviously I wasn't good at, but also two, I'm saying, oh, like, look, this is a way that they connected two different ideas that I've learned over two lectures. Or here is what's high yield. I've heard my professor say it. I've heard the syllabus say it. It's high yield resource say it. And here's a practice question on it. This much be fair game for any test that shows up for boards, as well as an upcoming test. And so if I missed a practice question during my cardiology block, I would add it to those relevant notes. And so when an upcoming quiz or test came around, I made sure not only did I understand the information from lecture, but also the practice questions I was doing to prepare for it. So in terms of final grading practice questions on a retention scale, get a nine out of 10. On a time scale, you can argue depending on how long it takes you, it gets a seven out of 10. But a review potential, it is one of the most effective tools and gets a nine out of 10 for an overall grade of an A. Next up, we'll be talking about the brain dump or the Feynman technique. Now this is probably my most personal favorite technique that I've used all the way back from my college days. Because it is the best of just saying you're completely BSing yourself. You think you know this, but you actually don't. And really quickly, this is how it works. So imagine you had a blank piece of paper, I'm just going to use a sticky note here. And you have told yourself that you have memorized everything from lecture one. A good test is saying perfect election. Go ahead and put it on a piece of paper, go ahead and just scribble it, everything you remember. And you're going to quickly find out that there are going to be places where you're like, Oh man, I know that there was three bullet points about this topic, but I only remember one of them. Those are great opportunities because of the gaps in your knowledge where you can just say, I'm going to mark this on the piece of paper, I'm going to do the rest of the lecture or whatever topic you're reviewing. And then you go back to your syllabus, your notes, your slides and saying, okay, what did I miss? And you fill in the holes and then you do it again. And this is essentially in my opinion is one of the best techniques you can use to prepare for the test, because now you can no longer be as yourself. Visually you can say, actually, Lux, you don't really know that or you don't feel very confident. And so if it was a pathway or a step by step thing, or if I was in economics and I need you to draw a bunch of graphs, I just had to do it. And if I couldn't, then I needed to review it. So in terms of overall grading, the brain dump or the Feynman technique on retention scale gets a 10 out of 10 on a time scale is 10 out of 10, because it's so quick review potential, you have to force yourself to do this and needs to be a predictable schedule gets a seven out of 10 for an overall grade of an A plus next step and studying for exams, we have to talk about group studying, but really the utility of group setting varies so much on the group. And often they just become social hours, but they definitely have the potential of being strategic, especially if you combine it with a lot of the techniques that we talked about so far in this episode, like coming to your group setting with a list of questions, and then asking those two classmates and having them ask you whatever they've had in the list and then you can compile them in a worksheet and Excel document and then trying to see, okay, cool, before the test, can I answer every single question that I've created and my group numbers have created? And then if not, you can use your group setting session to say, Hey, Bob, Jill, whatever, can you go ahead and explain this question to me? I don't really understand the answer. Now, in my opinion, that is the optimal way of using group setting, but unfortunately, usually not the typical. So in terms of grading on a retention scale groups, I think it's a six out of 10 in terms of time, you have to go ahead and set out time to five out of 10 and review potential it's a seven out of 10, but it could be more depending on how you use it. And so an overall grade of a C next, we're going to talk about review sessions and using office hours to prepare for your tests and long term retention. Now, in medical school, we had TA review sessions very often before a quiz or tests, but I realized quickly that actually showing up to the sessions weren't that helpful, more so the actual slides and the questions that the TA came up with were much more helpful. So I saved myself some time and use review sessions strategically by using the slides or whatever information that gave me and saying, cool, what is on here that I haven't put in my database or put in my space repetition that I can add and try to master whether it's more practice questions or a slide that they emphasize the topic that I really haven't given any attention to during my review. That's really helpful, but actually showing up to them, the quality is really dependent on who's teaching as well as the topic itself. And I wasn't really an auditory learner. So not something that I use very often, but in terms of overall grading for retention, because they're so close to the test, they got an eight out of 10 for time, because you have to set aside time to actually show up to these or actually go through the review slides against a five out of 10 and overall review potential of a six out of 10 for an overall grade of a B. Now, if you're finding value out of this breakdown, a quick reminder that that free worksheet will be linked down below as well as all of the free resources and courses that I've created over the past few years. If you go ahead and check that link down below, I'll go ahead and send those to you ASAP. And if you're watching this episode and you're either not happy with your grades or at least not for the amount of time that you're putting in, then definitely consider checking out the level of your studying course or at the very least considering checking out the reviews and results or past students have gotten to ask yourself what I want those results or is that something that's feasible for me. And at the very least, hopefully you guys are interested in some of the advanced tactics that I teased on that decreased my studying from 10 hours to five hours, ultimately helping me get that 3.9 GPA. I talk about them all in this episode down below. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this, hopefully you guys enjoyed today's episode. And as always, thanks for being a part of my journey. Hopefully I was a little help to you guys on yours. I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.