#mindofamedstudent

...since I last posted on here 2 years ago!

I have since then:

graduated medical school

started & completed a year of mandatory training as an intern

started my masters degree in psychology & neuroscience of mental health

joined a psychiatry residency where I’m currently an R1

I am not very active on many platforms now, except instagram. I post there regularly about lifestyle, psychiatry, mental health, books - just anything and everything on my mind.

You can find me on instagram @suhaila.als

With gratitude,

My best tip is to target your study for the exam you’re taking. 

So what does that mean? 

1. Practice Past Exams. 

There’s no point in memorising notecards or making study guides if you can’t tailor the content you’ve learnt to answer the question at hand. The short answer to the masses of students who say something to the effect of, ”I don’t understand why I only got X grade when I studied for 14701863 hours” is that “you failed to answer the question”. So get familiar with the type of questions in the exam, make sure you’re learning content that relates to said questions, and then understand how to command what you’ve learnt into an answer that addresses the question. 

An easy way to do this is to grab a marking guide/ your syllabus and physically tick the relevant points/words/concepts you’ve included in your practice answer. You’ll be surprised - sometimes you think you’ve answered the question, when in reality, you haven’t. 

2. Get a basic ‘birds eye view’ of the course before diving into the detail. 

Don’t get caught up on little details. Understand the broad concepts that are examinable. Once you’ve got a working understanding of all of that, go back and fill it in with the detail (e.g. examples, case studies, specific applications of a formula). Why? The art of diminishing returns. Moreover, the first 50% of the marks allocated to a question are the easiest to get. 

3. Do what you need to do, for you. 

Look, just because you didn’t study from day 1 - day 100 doesn’t mean you’re going to fail. It’s not all or nothing; there’s a huge gap between an A+ and an F. Arguably those with that ‘fatalistic, catastrophizing mindset’ are on a one way track to demotivation town. 

So if pulling an all nighter is how you study, then pull that godamn allnighter. If you’re the type to wake up early to study, then set your godamn alarm for 5am. If you need to rest and recouperate and spend a good 12 hours on tumblr procrastinating, then do it. 

You’re not going to fail just because you don’t have the fancy notes or stationery your friend does. You’re not going to fail just because your friend studied for 4 hours last night while you marathoned gilmore girls. 

Stand proud of your own study techniques that have ensured your success to this point. 

+ on a side note, If you’ve fallen behind, here’s a few tips here. 

Here’s a few tips from around the community: 

A Complete Exam Study Guide by @strive-for-da-best

Study Tips For Finals by @attackonstudying 

How to study for an exam by @chemistrynerd2020 (working link by @elkstudies) 

5 Ways to Prep for Finals by @thedailyharoldblog

How to make a study schedule by @mindofamedstudent 

The Really Big Studying Masterpost by @academla

Study Methods by @etudiance

Hey, thank you so much!

My references for pathology were the following:

Pathoma

This is an excellent reference but the issue is that the book itself will only provide you with the most high yield information so it’s criticized often for not being comprehensive enough.

I enjoyed it a lot, Dr. Hussain Sattar would integrate pathophysiology and clinical features in a way that makes sense so you understand it and can infer things without having to memorize.

Lecture slides (annotated with my notes from lecture)

Robbins Basic Pathology

What I would do is

Before lecture: do the pathoma video (ie listen and annotate on the book)

Before lecture: print the lecture slides

During lecture: annotate the lecture slides with class notes

After lecture: 

Add any additional class notes to pathoma OR

Make my own summary using pathoma and class notes (if the topic was long enough to warrant that)

Refer to Robbins for anything I don’t understand/feel I need extra info about

Go over pathoma or my own summaries

As for pharmacology, I was blessed with an amazing professor. I rarely ever needed to refer to anything other than her lecture slides combined with my class notes. On the rare chance I did want extra information; I’d refer to Katzung’s Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. Some of my friends swear by SketchyPharm but I never got into it.

I found studying pharmacology easier when it was in the context of disease. So my advice would be not to try to memorize drugs, indications, contraindications and side effects; rather try integrating these things with the disease(s) those drugs are related to.

messy isn’t always a bad thing!!! if it gets to be at a point to where u don’t understand what u wrote or how the things were supposed to connect then i would suggest some of these tips from my faves:

strive-for-the-best has a good one if u want to use an online app to take notes

mindofamedstudent has a nice little photoset if u use a combination of lecture notes/slideshows/textbooks

and one of my fave studyblrs, universityandme, has a whole tag dedicated to her note taking which i just drool over