Unorthodox study methods

Let's face it - this path comes with a ton of information. I try really hard not to cram and then forget everything the day after the exam (or as a pharm professor put it: "purge and regurge"). I try to focus more on concepts and what's going to be useful for the NAVLE and for clinical rotations. But sometimes, you do what you have to.

This has led me to some interesting study habits. Oh, there's the usual stuff like flashcards, endless rewriting and rereading of notes and drawing diagrams. Study groups quickly got crossed off the list when I realized that my friends and I never seemed to get a ton of actual studying done. We get distracted by each other too easily and we end up spending most of the time joking and demonstrating physiological principles with candy from the Bulk Barn (yes, that did happen, I think a strawberry gummy became a heart, right up until someone ate it).

Then there's the more creative methods. In pharm tutorials, the prof had us play charades with pharmacokinetics terminology. My group is sure to get an Academy Award for our moving depiction of "ion trapping".

Then there's the time-honoured method of "Explaining things to your cat/dog/horse/cow/fish/rat/bird/etc". See, the rest of the population doesn't understand and, more importantly, probably really doesn't want to hear about the virulence factors of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. Or the difference and the pathological significance of a firm lung versus a hard lung. But your pets? Well, they'll generally hang around as long as you're either petting them or feeding them and they don't talk back (unless you've got a bird or a Siamese cat) so they can't complain and tell you to shut up.If they do actually ever tell you to shut up, that's probably a sign you need to put down the book and go to bed.

Finally, there's methods you develop on the fly. A notable example: a not insignificant percentage of my class (yours truly included) spent some time on Sunday with a flashlight making shadow puppets. Why? Trying to understand magnification, subject film distance and focal film distance for our diagnostic imaging midterm on Monday. I used a shadow snake for mine.