How I Would Study in Med School (If I Could Start Over)

Summary

In this reflective video, Dr. Justin Sun shares his medical school experience and the learning mistakes he made, such as over-engineering for exams and lacking clinical perspective. He advises students to simplify complex information, focus on clinical reasoning first, and strategically utilize clinical placements to reinforce learning. His tips aim to make medical education more efficient and enjoyable, emphasizing the importance of understanding knowledge in a way that translates to real-world practice.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Over-engineering for exams was a mistake; it didn't translate well into practical clinical use and led to repeated relearning of forgotten information.
• 🔍 Lack of discernment in learning details resulted in a disjointed understanding of the big picture and difficulties in managing complex clinical cases.
• 📚 The speaker regrets not utilizing clinical attachment days effectively, missing out on learning opportunities that couldn't be gained from studying alone.
• 🤔 Clinical reasoning was neglected until late in the medical school journey, which hindered the ability to navigate from symptoms to potential diagnoses.
• 🗂️ The importance of having a system for foundational knowledge was overlooked, leading to inefficiencies in learning and retention.
• 🧩 The realization that learning should not be compartmentalized but integrated from a clinical perspective first, then reinforced with detailed disease-focused study.
• 📉 The shock of failing a clinical attachment due to an exam-focused learning approach highlighted the need for a more practical and foresightful learning method.
• 📈 Emphasis on the need to understand information in a simplified and intuitive manner to avoid feeling overwhelmed and to improve clinical application.
• 📝 The speaker advises to pick important areas to focus on, acknowledging that it's impossible to learn everything in medical school and to prioritize based on clinical relevance.
• 👨‍⚕️ The mindset should be that of a doctor in training, not just a medical student, which changes the approach to learning from memorization to understanding and application.
• 🔄 The recommendation to prepare for clinical placements by studying the most likely conditions to be encountered, creating a direct link between study and practical experience.

Q & A

What was Dr. Justin Sun's profession before becoming a learning coach?

Before becoming a learning coach, Dr. Justin Sun worked as a junior doctor for a couple of years.

What is the main focus of Dr. Sun's work now?

Dr. Sun's main focus now is on education, educational entrepreneurship, and social enterprise, helping students worldwide learn more efficiently.

Why did Dr. Sun fail his first clinical attachment in medical school?

Dr. Sun failed his first clinical attachment because his learning method, which was suited for exams, did not translate well to clinical practice and real-life application of knowledge.

What was one of the biggest mistakes Dr. Sun made during his medical school years?

One of the biggest mistakes Dr. Sun made was overlearning for exams without considering how he would use the information in the future, leading to a lack of foundational knowledge and frequent relearning of the same topics.

How did Dr. Sun's approach to learning change after realizing the issues with his initial method?

Dr. Sun started learning from a clinical reasoning perspective first, then later reinforced his learning with disease-focused pathophysiology, which organized his knowledge functionally and provided more context.

Why did Dr. Sun struggle with understanding patients with atypical presentations or multiple comorbidities?

Dr. Sun struggled because his knowledge was fragmented and disjointed, lacking a big-picture understanding of how different aspects interacted to affect patient presentation and management.

What was the issue with Dr. Sun's approach to learning about shock during his preclinical years?

Dr. Sun's issue was that he learned shock as a collection of different types, ideologies, and clinical findings without a unifying framework, making it hard to remember and apply the knowledge effectively.

How did Dr. Sun's senior help him understand shock in a more intuitive way during his clinical attachment?

Dr. Sun's senior used a simple diagram comparing the body to a pump with tubes in a container, explaining that shock involves problems with the pump, tubes, container, or fluid, providing a framework to understand and question different aspects of shock.

What was the key realization Dr. Sun had about anatomy during his rotation in Orthopedics?

Dr. Sun realized that the reason to know anatomy is not just for the sake of knowledge, but to apply it in practical situations, such as during surgeries, which helped him understand and remember anatomy better.

What advice does Dr. Sun give to medical students about making the most of their clinical placements?

Dr. Sun advises students to focus their studying on the most likely conditions they will encounter in their clinical placements and to engage actively during ward rounds and surgeries to consolidate their learning and ask relevant questions.

What is the importance of simplifying and finding an intuitive understanding of medical topics according to Dr. Sun?

Simplifying and finding an intuitive understanding of medical topics helps create a solid framework for more detailed learning, making it easier to remember and apply knowledge in clinical situations.

How does Dr. Sun suggest medical students approach their studies to reflect clinical application of knowledge?

Dr. Sun suggests that students should first understand medical topics from a clinical perspective and then go back to learn more details about the disease or pathophysiology, which aligns with the trend in medical school examinations towards clinical application.

What is the significance of viewing oneself as a doctor in training rather than just a medical student?

Viewing oneself as a doctor in training emphasizes the importance of learning how to apply knowledge in real clinical scenarios rather than just memorizing facts, which is crucial for long-term retention and effective practice.

Why is it important for medical students to pick their losses and focus on what is clinically relevant?

It is important because it is impossible to learn everything in medical school, and focusing on clinically relevant knowledge helps students to prioritize their learning and better prepare for their future practice as doctors.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Reflecting on Medical School Experiences

Dr. Justin Sun, a learning coach and former junior doctor, shares his personal experiences from medical school, highlighting the mistakes he made and the lessons he learned. He emphasizes the importance of learning efficiently and adapting study methods to clinical practice, rather than just for exams. He also discusses the pitfalls of over-engineering study methods, the challenges of clinical attachments, and the need for a more holistic approach to learning medical knowledge.

05:00

📚 The Pitfalls of Rote Learning and Detail Focus

In this paragraph, Dr. Sun describes how his initial approach to learning was overly focused on memorization and details, which led to difficulties when applying knowledge in clinical settings. He realized the importance of understanding the big picture and the interconnectedness of medical concepts. He also regrets not utilizing his clinical attachment days effectively, missing out on learning opportunities that come from hands-on experience and patient interactions.

10:02

🧠 Clinical Reasoning and the Importance of Context

Dr. Sun discusses the shift in his learning approach from a disease-focused to a symptom-focused perspective, which allowed him to navigate clinical scenarios more effectively. He underscores the value of clinical reasoning and the need to understand diseases from a symptomatic viewpoint. He also shares an anecdote about learning shock, illustrating how a simple, intuitive framework can transform complex information into a more digestible format.

15:05

💡 Simplifying Complex Information and Clinical Correlation

Here, Dr. Sun emphasizes the importance of simplifying complex medical information and finding intuitive ways to understand it. He reflects on his past failure to do so, which led to gaps in his knowledge. He also discusses the importance of clinical correlation, suggesting that students should learn anatomy and other subjects by considering their application in clinical practice, which makes learning more relevant and memorable.

20:06

📈 Prioritizing Knowledge and Maximizing Clinical Placements

In this section, Dr. Sun offers advice on how to prioritize learning and make the most of clinical placements. He suggests focusing on the most likely conditions to be encountered and tailoring study plans to align with anticipated clinical experiences. He also encourages students to engage actively during clinical placements, asking questions, and seeking opportunities to apply their knowledge, which can lead to a more fulfilling and effective learning process.

🚀 Final Tips for Medical School Success

Dr. Sun concludes with a series of final tips for medical students, including simplifying complex topics, focusing on clinical application, and picking one's learning battles. He also stresses the importance of viewing oneself as a doctor in training, rather than just a student, and the value of engaging with clinical experiences to reinforce learning. Additionally, he mentions resources for further learning techniques and his guided step-by-step program for mastering an effective learning system.

Keywords

💡Medical School

Medical School refers to an educational institution that provides medical education and training to students who wish to become medical doctors. In the video, the speaker reflects on their experiences during medical school, highlighting the challenges and lessons learned. The theme revolves around the mistakes made and the insights gained that could make medical education more efficient and less stressful.

💡Clinical Attachments

Clinical Attachments are practical, hands-on experiences in a medical setting where students apply their theoretical knowledge to real-life patient care. The script mentions the speaker's struggles during their clinical attachments, particularly in their third year, which differed significantly from their prior success in pre-clinical exams.

💡Over-engineering

Over-engineering in the context of the video refers to the excessive and overly complex approach the speaker used to prepare for exams, which proved ineffective for clinical practice. The term is used to illustrate the mistake of focusing too much on exam-specific learning rather than developing practical skills and knowledge applicable in a clinical setting.

💡Short-term Memory

Short-term Memory is the cognitive capacity to hold a limited amount of information temporarily. The speaker regrets building a learning system based on short-term memory, which led to repeatedly relearning the same information throughout medical school and practice, instead of creating long-lasting foundational knowledge.

💡Discerning

Discerning in this context means being able to distinguish or identify what is important or relevant. The speaker admits to not being discerning about the level of detail needed in their studies, focusing on excessive specifics without understanding the bigger picture, which hindered their ability to apply knowledge effectively.

💡Clinical Reasoning

Clinical Reasoning is the process of thinking and problem-solving used by healthcare professionals to diagnose and manage patients. The video emphasizes the importance of clinical reasoning, which the speaker initially neglected, leading to difficulties in handling complex patient presentations and formulating management plans.

💡Spiral Curriculum

A Spiral Curriculum is an educational approach where concepts are revisited and built upon in an increasingly complex manner throughout a course of study. The speaker mentions this as a modern educational method that integrates clinical scenario thinking from the early stages of medical education, contrasting with their own disjointed learning experience.

💡Clinical Correlation

Clinical Correlation refers to the application of basic science knowledge to clinical situations. The speaker advises medical students to seek clinical correlations, emphasizing the importance of understanding how theoretical knowledge applies to real-world patient care, which was a realization the speaker came to later in their education.

💡Differential Diagnosis

Differential Diagnosis is the process of considering and sorting through various potential diagnoses to identify the most likely cause of a patient's symptoms. The script describes the speaker's initial inability to think through differential diagnoses effectively, which improved when they began studying from a clinical reasoning perspective.

💡Pathophysiology

Pathophysiology is the study of the mechanisms and causes of disease. In the video, the speaker suggests a learning approach where pathophysiology is understood in the context of clinical presentations and symptoms, rather than as isolated disease states, to create a more functional and memorable knowledge base.

💡Anatomy

Anatomy is the study of the structure and parts of the body. The speaker discusses the importance of learning anatomy in a way that is directly applicable to clinical practice, such as understanding the implications during surgery, rather than just memorizing anatomical facts without context.

💡Shock

Shock in a medical context refers to a life-threatening condition where the body's tissues do not receive enough oxygen and nutrients. The speaker uses the example of shock to illustrate the importance of simplifying complex information and understanding it within a clinical framework, which was a transformative learning experience for them.

💡Clinical Placements

Clinical Placements are periods during medical education where students work in healthcare settings to gain practical experience. The speaker regrets not utilizing these placements effectively, missing opportunities to learn from direct patient interactions and clinical experiences, which could have enriched their understanding and application of medical knowledge.

💡Intuitive Understanding

Intuitive Understanding refers to grasping a concept or idea in a way that feels natural and makes sense, without needing to rely solely on memorization. The speaker encourages developing an intuitive understanding of medical topics as a foundation before adding details, which helps in long-term retention and application of knowledge.

💡Specialist

A Specialist is a medical doctor who has completed additional training in a specific area of medicine. The video mentions that even those who successfully completed medical school by memorization are now relearning as specialists using the more effective learning strategies the speaker advocates, highlighting the long-term benefits of these methods.

💡Flashcards

Flashcards are a learning tool used to aid memorization through repetition and visualization. The speaker mentions using flashcards for complex topics like shock but found them ineffective due to a lack of intuitive understanding, suggesting the need for a more integrated and simplified learning approach.

Highlights

The speaker, Dr. Justin Sun, shares his experience and mistakes from medical school, aiming to help others avoid similar pitfalls.

Over-engineering learning for exams was a mistake that didn't translate well to clinical practice.

Lack of foresight in learning led to repeated relearning of foundational knowledge throughout medical school and doctor career.

The importance of discerning the level of detail needed for effective clinical application was overlooked.

Clinical placements were underutilized, missing opportunities for contextual learning.

Clinical reasoning was neglected, leading to difficulty in applying knowledge to patient presentations.

The realization of the need to learn from a symptom-focused perspective rather than just disease-focused.

The transformative effect of a simple diagram in understanding shock, emphasizing the need for intuitive learning methods.

The importance of deliberately simplifying complex information for better understanding and retention.

Anatomy should be studied with the intention of using it in clinical practice, not just memorizing facts.

The value of putting oneself in the position of performing a procedure to understand the relevance of anatomy.

Making things simpler and more intuitive is a key strategy for effective learning in medical school.

Clinical perspective should be prioritized when learning to facilitate understanding and application of knowledge.

The concept of being a doctor in training rather than just a medical student is crucial for effective learning.

The advice to pick one's losses and focus on what's clinically relevant for effective learning.

Utilizing clinical placements effectively by aligning study with anticipated clinical experiences.

The importance of engaging in clinical experiences to build on and consolidate learning.

Dr. Sun's regret of not focusing on clinical experiences during early rotations and the wasted time.

Final tips for medical students on how to make the most of their medical school journey.

Transcripts

going to medical school was an amazing

unique experience that I never want to

do again by the time I graduated medical

school there are a lot of things that I

wish I had done very differently and

they would have made mid School much

easier or saved me a lot of time and

stress and so let me tell you the

mistakes that I made I'll tell you what

I did what problems it led to which

weren't like that obvious at the time

and then what I would do differently or

how I managed to change things up by the

time I graduated and hopefully it can

save you some of the Str that I went

through going through medical school

myself for those of you that are new to

the channel welcome I'm Dr Justin Sun

I'm a learning coach and the head of

learning at I can study but in my past

life I worked as a junior doctor for a

couple of years before deciding that my

true passion and Alignment lay with

education and educational

entrepreneurship and social Enterprise

and so that's what I do now so for the

last 10 years I have been helping

students from around the world learn to

learn more efficiently so let's just

jump into it with the first mistake that

I made which was that I really over

engineered a way of learning that was

suited for exams and this was fine in my

pre-clinical years and when I entered

into my clinical attachments in

hospitals uh which for me was in my

third year of medical school I actually

failed my first run that first one was

General medicine or for those of you in

North America Internal Medicine which

you probably know is like a major major

attachment and this came as a shock to

me because I was doing reasonably well

in my preclinical examinations so I

didn't really expect to bomb so hard in

my clinical attachment and the reason

was because I was learning in a way that

was fine for the exam but it wasn't

translating very well to clinical

placement and the way that I would need

to use that knowledge in real life and

so not only could I not really use my

knowledge effectively but also I built a

system that was really more around

shortterm memory like learn it for this

exam and then a month or two later I

don't really needed anymore so I wasn't

creating strategies that allowed me to

build foundational knowledge and carry

that through year after year so what

ended up happening was that I would

probably every single year of not only

medicine but also working as a doctor

relearn the same things that I had

learned and just kept forgetting over

and over and over again and so that was

probably one of the biggest mistakes

that I made was was just overlearning

for exams without having more foresight

into how I would need to use that

information in the future but another

aspect of it was that I wasn't very

Discerning about the level of detail

that I needed I had a general sense that

I needed to learn everything and I was

very focused on a lot of very specific

details so I would have fragmented

discret but like a copious amount of

factually accurate technical specific

information and detail but when it came

to really understanding how everything

worked at a big picture level I was very

disjointed it was very fragmented so

when I started seeing patients that

didn't just have like this disease with

this particular symptom cluster and they

had atypical presentations of a disease

and they were slightly older and they

were on this medication and a previous

comorbidity and they had this type of

surgery and they also have this other

disease and they've got this other thing

which maybe is diagnosed or maybe not

but you don't know cuz the record was

from 20 years ago it just became way too

confusing because I didn't know how all

these different aspects interacted with

each other to affect the presentation of

the patient in front of me or the

management for them moving forward and

I'd look at my scene

and they used to be a to like take all

these things and just come to these very

Nuance really well synthesized

management plans and and differential

diagnoses for the patients very quickly

and it became obvious to me that it

wasn't just because they had memorized

more than me they fundamentally were

able to see the patient and all that

information through a different lens

like it made sense to them in a way that

it just did not make sense to me that

was not about just knowing more facts I

never already thought about how you can

understand information in a different

way through preclinical when I was in

preclinical there was a method of

understanding a topic that was given to

me like this is how you learn

antibiotics this is how you learn you

know microbiology this is how you learn

genetics this is how you learn Anatomy

whatever it is and that is the way that

I would learn it the way it was given to

me is the way that I would learn it and

if it was hard to understand it's just

like I guess this is kind of a harder

topic I just need to study more more I

didn't go out of my way very often to

look for a simpler way to put it all

together as a proportion of time wasted

this probably wasted the most amount of

time for me throughout all of medical

school which was that I didn't utilize

my clinical attachment days very

effectively there were a lot of days

where I rock up and I wasn't really

interested in what was happening during

the ward round I wasn't interested in

what was happening during the patience

like I didn't really even want to

see patience because I felt like I had

such a knowledge deficit that I just

wanted to go and study like I would come

to the hospital just to show face show

my seniors like hey I'm around I exist

please remember me for when you do my

marking forms hey by the way can I go

and just study now and thinking back on

it it is important to take time

independently to study but there's also

a lot of learning that I could have

gained from Clinical placements

that I just completely ignored there are

just some things that you cannot learn

from just studying like you need the

patient there to be able to understand

what you're learning in context to give

it relevance and that's what I found was

that when I was studying it purely

academically I didn't have a sense of

relevance for how I could use this

information and all the nuances around

it and so it was very hard for me to

make sense of it and organize it because

I just didn't know how I need to apply

it at the end of this video I also talk

about how you can make the most of

clinical time this is what I recommend

to all my clinical medical students now

this is what I started doing in my final

year of medical school and it it just

makes clinical days so much more

valuable okay so let me give you a

couple of examples now specifically of

things that I had learned like this

wrong way and the way that I had changed

it so that you've got a bit more context

and I'll end off with like a few

specific concrete recommendations that I

would recommend for any medical student

I promise you this is going to make your

medical school life much easier much

more enjoyable and just like you're

going to save a lot of time so here's

what happened I was sitting there in the

ward and my consultant otherwise known

as an attending physician he sat down

after I saw a patient and he said okay

your patient here has chest pain what

are you thinking about and I said okay

well there are some things it could be

like it could be an MI mardan function

it could also be a PE and I just could

not think like I was choring for ideas

for chest pain which is like the most

typical like the most classical you know

symptom that you should probably be

prepared for and that's when I realized

I'd never really thought about it from

that perspective before like I had

thought about it from such a disease

Focus that i' never really thought about

it from a symptom focus when someone

just presents to you with whatever they

have how can I navigate backwards to

figure out what disease or diseas is I

got going to sit in my differentials and

I just couldn't use my knowledge in that

direction it was just too fixed it was

just too rigid and this came up time and

time again it happened for diabetes it

happened for shock uh because the way

that I learned something like diabetes

was that I learned it like this right

I'd learn okay this is diabetes this

panop these are the complications

andever I tested myself I test myself

like this as well hey what are the

microvascular complications of diabetes

Well the macrovascular complication of

diabetes I didn't test myself from the

other way around I didn't say okay let's

say that someone has blindness in their

eyes what are the differential diagnoses

for that what are the possible things

and what are the questions that you

would have to ask to rule in or rule out

certain diagnoses the clinical reasoning

part of my studying I just did not think

about it until way too late in my

medical school and a lot of medical

schools now have realized that that's a

problem with the way that they teach and

so there are these things they're

technically called spiral curriculums or

spiral integrated curriculums or

integrated curriculums but the idea is

that you have a lot of this clinical

scenario thinking all the away from the

beginning in your preclinical years

which is a great step but I also work

with a lot of students that are going to

medical schools they teacher this way

now and what I've realized is that they

still compartmentalize it they still

learn every disease as a disease basis

first and then way way way way down the

line they then try to go backwards and

then they get overwhelmed and overloaded

and because medical school is

challenging and there's a lot of volume

to study it's just too much and people

just end up more confused and so one of

the things that I wish I had done and

then I started doing later on is I just

studied it purely from the clinicals

perspective first I learned it from a

clinical reasoning perspective to begin

with and then later when I'd understood

that I'd come back to the path of

physiology and then reinforce my

learning at a disease Focus because that

actually makes a lot more sense rather

than learning the disease one by one and

then trying to bring it together to see

you know how you can look at it from a

symptom first perspective I just learned

it from a symptom and sign perspective

first and then I worked my way through

the differentials and then patted up

with pathophysiology so if someone comes

in with chest pain I would start

thinking okay pain in the chest could

come from the skin could come from the

bones could come from the muscles I just

work my way in could be the plura could

be The myocardium could be

neurogenic so I would start in that

order and then I think okay so what are

the things that I can think of that

could be affecting things there and

anytime I didn't understand or I thought

I was missing something then I would go

to learn more about that particular

disease so that I would be able to work

through my differential and clinical

reasoning process a little bit more what

this meant was that my knowledge was

much more functionally organized to

begin with and I had the same level of

detail but I had much more context to it

and a great example of where this came

in handy was when I learned about shock

so when I first learned shock in prein I

learned it pretty much like this I just

had all the different types of shock all

the different possible ideologies the

pathophysiologies and all the like

various clinical findings like cardiac

output is down or up or jvp is elevated

or not or neutral or you post and heart

raid like I would just learn all of

these different things and I have these

committed to flash cards actually you

know what I literally for this

particular topic I literally Drew

handwritten cards and blue tacked them

to my wall and I so proud because they

were very pretty and I literally got no

value out of it I probably looked at

them like five times and uh I never

really remembered anything about them to

this day I don't remember what it looks

like other than the fact that it used to

hang right above the door handle on my

wall so this is how I learned shock and

I managed to you know pass all my exams

if you ask me hey what are all the

symptoms of hypo volic shock what are

all the signs I would have been able to

give you an answer honestly I don't

remember anymore but when I worked in Ed

my senior pulled me aside and he was

like hey let's just talk about shock for

a second he was like you know I know

that when you go through mid School you

learn it this way but let me show you a

way that's just much faster so he takes

a piece of just random clinical paper

and he just draws a very simple diagram

and he just says hey look at the end of

the day shock is just about a pump the

tubes that are connected to the

pump sit sitting inside a container that

is your body and then there's fluid

being pumped through the tubes so if

you've got shock it's either going to be

a problem with the pump a problem with

the tubes a problem with the container

or a problem with the fluid and that's

all the different types of shocks and he

went through and then he mapped every

single part of shock and all the

different types and ideologies to this

framework and he said so when you're

seeing a patient all you need to do is

ask yourself is there a problem with the

pumps and you know exactly what

questions to ask is a problem with the

pipes you know the questions to ask is a

problem with the fluid you know the

questions to ask is a problem with the

container you know the questions to ask

and for me that was a transformative way

of thinking one of the things that I

said before was that I didn't spend a

lot of time when I was studying

academically to deliberately make things

simpler and here's the reason why it

would have helped me a lot because just

looking for like an image for this video

I actually found that there are a lot of

other ways that of thinking about shock

and I found this particular image here

which classifies shock in a very similar

very simple way and I don't know when

this was published but if I had taken

the time to deliberately take something

that I thought was overwhelming and very

detailed and say there must be a simpler

more intuitive way to understand this

what could it be if I had taken the time

10 15 20 minutes to take this

information and deliberately try to make

it simpler and more intuitive I probably

probably could have arrived at this kind

of or this kind of conclusion by myself

years earlier but I didn't and as a

result I had a gap in my knowledge and I

wish I had done that for anatomy as well

I've restudied Anatomy again and again

and again almost every single year and

it's only when I actually did a run in

Orthopedics that it kind of clicked how

I needed to be thinking about it and it

clicked for me during surgery I was

retracting a body cavity as you do

just trying to maintain tension and not

have the consultant surgeon yell at me

we've all been there and also not trying

to fall asleep it's a long operation

it's like a 4 and 1 half hour operation

just standing there almost falling

asleep passing out and after the

operation he comes out to me and he says

so what did you learn and to be honest I

learned that I hate retracting body

cavities so I didn't really learn

anything and I tried to make something

up like oh it's really interesting

seeing how you did the suture it was

cool to see the hip replacement go in

how you dealt with the bleeding and he

was like okay okay okay it was like do

you notice where I switched from using

the the scalp of dimy and where I moved

to blunt dissecting do you know why I

did that and honestly first of all I

didn't notice that he did that and

second of all I had no idea why I wasn't

even thinking about why and he proceeded

to explain to me that that is the point

at which the I can't remember I think

may have been like a offshoot of the

femoral artery like a very important

artery passes around there so you need

to be careful around that area which is

why he stopped and he started blunt

dissecting instead and I thought okay

that's actually a really good point and

I probably should have known that and

now I feel like an idiot for not knowing

that but that's also when I had the

realization that the reason that you

would need to know Anatomy is not just

to know Anatomy but you need to use that

knowledge somehow and I'd never really

thought how to use the knowledge of

anatomy Beyond like just a very obvious

clinical corate that was taught to me in

lectures so when I started going back

through my anatomy and now thinking okay

let's imagine that I'm

operating how would I study the anatomy

if I was operating and there's this

really good scene in this like Korean

movie like TV series on Netflix and

there's this one medical student who has

to perform surgery on this other person

and because he's still a student he has

has no idea how so he spends all night

studying his Anatomy textbooks to devise

a strategy for

operating and the reason that I think

that scene is really good is because

that's exactly the way that I started to

study I put myself in the position where

I thought what if I'm the first person

to ever do this operation how does that

make me look at Anatomy differently and

when I started doing that Anatomy became

so much easier more engaging and more

just enjoyable and more memorable to

learn because there were consequences

there was a context and a sense of

relevance to what I was learning and

again yes it does take longer but

surprisingly not that much longer and

the time you're spending is a lot more

enjoyable and you just remember so much

more that you're going to save your time

like truckloads in the long run because

something like Anatomy is useful for all

forms of medicine like even saying

someone's got chest pain to think well

how can you work through that well you

can take an anatomical approach well if

you don't know your Anatomy well enough

to think about the chest wall and work

your way from out to in and understand

the structures that are in place that

cause chest pain that's not going to be

very easy for you if you don't know your

abdominal and Anatomy well enough that

if someone says hey you've got like LIF

upper quadrant pain and then you can

work through anatomically to think where

that could be caused from it's going to

be very difficult whereas learning the

anatomy very well sets a good foundation

for all the other type of learning that

you're going to have to do here are my

final tips here's the things that I wish

I had done that I encourage you to do

first of all as much as possible

whenever you can try to make things

simpler and more intuitive don't just

learn it the way that it's given to you

find a way to understand it it may be

less detailed but give yourself

something simple to base things on I

have a skeleton of a simple intuitive

understanding and a framework to think

through whenever you feel like man

there's a lot to remember and a lot to

memorize here whenever you feel that

sense that this could be overwhelming

find a way to break it down and make it

simpler you can always go and learn the

details and you should but you should

always do that after you have a very

simple intuitive way of understanding

the entire topic it's going to help you

also whenever possible look for the

clinical coret ask yourself how am I

actually going to use this knowledge

before you try to learn anything through

a patho Fizz or a disease or you know

very discret isolated perspective find a

way to think about it from a clinical

perspective first understand it from a

clinical perspective first and then go

back to learn more details about the

disease or the pathophys again it's

going to make it much easier and it's

going to make it make more sense and

you're probably going to do better for

all of your examinations as well because

most medical schools around the world

are transitioning towards having

examinations that reflect clinical

application of knowledge uh a little bit

more closely remember you are not a

medical student you are a doctor in

training and that's a difference you can

try to just keep memorizing and smashing

things through forever but trust me it

doesn't really work the friends that did

that and got their way through medical

school and thought hey why do you need

to change the way that you're studying

you just need to memorize it more now

they're studying to become a specialist

and they're having to relearn all that

stuff all over again because they don't

remember any of it and now they're

having to learn it through the methods

that I'm teaching you now and honestly

there is no reason that you can't just

learn it like how a specialist in

training is trying to learn it when

you're a pre-clin medical student it's

just a better more intuitive way to

learn the material my next tip is to

pick your losses you really can't learn

absolutely everything that you learn in

medical school or just in medicine in

general like it's straight up impossible

and you do have to learn a lot of things

so I would recommend that you kind of

pick your losses don't try to learn

everything make a decision about what is

important for you to learn and why again

coming back to that clinical application

and the things that you feel are less

important you can still try to fit them

in when you've got time but don't try to

cover everything the final tip here is

just how to make use of clinical

placements more effectively I said that

I talk about this at the end and this is

the final tip when you're going into a

clinical placement there is a wealth of

information that you can possibly

extract Center you're studying based on

the likely things you will learn from

your next day or week in clinical

practice don't study the things that are

like less relevant if you know that the

common conditions you're likely to see

in a given placement chest pain and

shortness of breath and some kind of

skin rash and you like headache back

pain center your studying around those

things because what you want to do is

you want to study something and the very

next day you want to have a clinical

experience

that builds on what you just studied

that could be through seeing a patient

or it could be attending a surgery if

you know that you have to spend time in

theater and you're going to be there

observing a surgery anyway study about

that condition and that surgery the day

before so that when you're in there

having the mandatory experience and

spending the time that you cannot Escape

you are at least engaged and you are

gaining value from that there is some

part of your learning that is being

built on and consolidated and that also

allows you to ask very good questions

that your senior is going to realize you

really are putting an effort to getting

learning out of this experience and

that's something they appreciate because

trust me when I started having students

under me when I was a doctor it's very

very clear to see which students

actually care and put in effort and

which ones are just there to burn time

and the ones that are there to burn time

you don't really feel very motivated to

help them along whereas the ones that

are motivated you are more motivated as

well to teach them and help them be

involved in more things and to you know

go out of your way a little bit more to

help their education and I really regret

what I did when I was in my you know

early rotations in clinical placements

where the things that I would be

studying on a daily basis with things

that my University curriculum said that

I need to learn by the end of that

placement and it wasn't really based

around the experiences that I

anticipated that I'd have the next day

or or during that week and what I've

realized now is if IID focused it on

those clinical experiences I would have

covered probably 90 95% of what I would

have needed to know based on what my

University mandated and the other 5% I

could have just easily fitted in around

that time or just before my assessment

it wouldn't have been a problem but

instead I wasted a lot of time and Ward

rounds and clinical attachment days were

so draining and so tiring and I was not

very- engaged and I didn't get a lot of

value out of them because I didn't do

this so a bit of a long video

but I hope this has helped you I

certainly wish someone sat down and told

me this stuff when I went into medical

school if you want some more techniques

around what to do specifically during

lectures or with your note taking or

with your revision strategies or

revision timing or what to do with your

flash cards and make them more effective

these types of other specific techniques

I do also have a guided step-by-step

program where I've taken all of these

techniques looking at the research

triing them and seeing what works and

what doesn't across thousands of

students stud and packaging it into a

single guided step-by-step program that

teaches you an entire Learning System if

you're interested in that you can check

that out at Icon study.com there's a

link in the description I also have a

ton of other videos that provide more

specific techniques that you can check

out on my YouTube thank you so much for

watching I hope this helps and I'll see

you next

time