Flashcards are the only way
'How do you know that?"
"I just know it."
I hate it when people say that. It's very hard to get people to talk about their learning process. Maybe they actually don't know how they learned the names of dozens of trees or the plot of every opera or how a microprocessor works. But people don't say "I'm not sure how I learned that" -- they pretend that it's just hardwired into their brains. They were just born knowing it.
For anyone who reads this blog, you know that the last five years have brought a lot of anxiety into my life and much of it revolves around facing my own voluminous ignorance. I don't know much about much, it seems. I started the "Why Don't I Know This?" section (to the right) as a way to help me remember things I've researched. Otherwise I'll forget them faster than I learn them.
It just takes so much repetition. That's all med school has been for me so far: learning something and then forgetting and relearning it over and over again until it sticks. Then a few months later it's gone again, but at least it's easier to retrieve with a little stimulation. I study with flashcards so I can review material quickly and repeatedly, and so that as I begin to understand things I can weed out the cards I no longer need. That's a time-consuming process, but it's so far been the only one that works for me.
(Maybe I should try that with trees. I could paste a leaf to a card and then... eh, nevermind. I would like to be able to say, when it comes to things like ID'ing trees, that I "just know it." But I don't actually want to take the time to study it. Not that I have any free time anyway.)
At school classmates will ask me how I study and I'm very open about it. A lot of people don't want to admit that hearing it once in lecture isn't enough, but I really don't care. I'm doing well in school not because I'm so smart but because I make hundreds of flashcards for every block and I'm fine with that. (I could end this with another lame comparison to Hillary and her work ethic, but that's not panning out for her so much so I think I'll skip it.)
"I just know it."
I hate it when people say that. It's very hard to get people to talk about their learning process. Maybe they actually don't know how they learned the names of dozens of trees or the plot of every opera or how a microprocessor works. But people don't say "I'm not sure how I learned that" -- they pretend that it's just hardwired into their brains. They were just born knowing it.
For anyone who reads this blog, you know that the last five years have brought a lot of anxiety into my life and much of it revolves around facing my own voluminous ignorance. I don't know much about much, it seems. I started the "Why Don't I Know This?" section (to the right) as a way to help me remember things I've researched. Otherwise I'll forget them faster than I learn them.
It just takes so much repetition. That's all med school has been for me so far: learning something and then forgetting and relearning it over and over again until it sticks. Then a few months later it's gone again, but at least it's easier to retrieve with a little stimulation. I study with flashcards so I can review material quickly and repeatedly, and so that as I begin to understand things I can weed out the cards I no longer need. That's a time-consuming process, but it's so far been the only one that works for me.
(Maybe I should try that with trees. I could paste a leaf to a card and then... eh, nevermind. I would like to be able to say, when it comes to things like ID'ing trees, that I "just know it." But I don't actually want to take the time to study it. Not that I have any free time anyway.)
At school classmates will ask me how I study and I'm very open about it. A lot of people don't want to admit that hearing it once in lecture isn't enough, but I really don't care. I'm doing well in school not because I'm so smart but because I make hundreds of flashcards for every block and I'm fine with that. (I could end this with another lame comparison to Hillary and her work ethic, but that's not panning out for her so much so I think I'll skip it.)
Labels: Medical School
posted Thursday, May 22, 2008
Lean Joe
is
1 Comments:
hillary's work ethic has nothing to do with how she is faring right now. she's neck and neck w/obama. okay my knee jerk hillary defense reaction over - i commend you for doing flashcards!! i always wanted to do that to remember things, but realized i was just too lazy to make the flashcards so i had to get comfortable simply being ignorant of most things. in a way it's nice - i retain my child-like sense and wonder about the world. guess that wouldn't work in med school :-)
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