Want to Learn Medicine? Stop Trying To Memorize.
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
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Timestamps 🚀
0:00 The Problem With Memorization Techniques
1:17 Memorizing vs Knowing
3:21 The Power of Deducing
5:47 What If There's No Formula?
Who am I?
I'm Santiago Acosta, a Medical Intern from Universidad del Rosario 🇨🇴 on its way to become an Internal Medicine Resident in the US 🇺🇸
I use this channel as a platform to share tips and tricks about studying, productivity, medicine, personal growth, tech, and fitness 📚
I also run a second RUclips channel where I teach Internal Medicine 🩺 to Spanish-speaking students and interview awesome doctors from all around the globe 🌎
/ tutoríasmedicinainterna
If you have USMLE 🇺🇸 related questions please check out my FAQ page here:
docs.google.com/document/u/3/...
If your questions are not addressed on the FAQ page, feel free to leave them in the comment section ⬇️ (honestly the quickest way to get a response).
For business inquiries, please send a message to santiagoaqmd@gmail.com ✉️
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"Out of all senses, common sense should be a doctor's most valued one." One of the best pieces of advice an ER doc gave me while rotating with him.
Combining understanding with memorization is the best strategy. Understanding alone won’t help you in situations where just recalling the fact is all you need. Memorization alone is useless in unusual situations where knowing the root of issue is what counts.
~ Understand before you memorize ~
Please make a video with more examples on how to figure things out vs memorizing them. And great video as always!
Always try questioning facts "why did that happen?" Wikipedia is your best friend.
@@AhsanKhan-wo2ql I’ll second that, I’m doing this with most of the things that I’m coming across and my life became so much easier
From my experience (especially Step 1), they test your understanding through the question stem and then test your memory through the answer choices. You absolutely need both. Pure memorization is only needed in a few subjects like micro or pharm where they can easily test minutia and there are a lot of details that are seemingly random.
Anki should be used for spaced repetition, not a tool of learning. It's a huge mistake I see alot of people making.
Hey! Great video but i would like to add something, there are some topics that do need intense memorization and just understanding wouldnt help you remember those facts, for example some autoimmune disorder names, some cancer genes etc etc and if you try to and understand every single detail then everything will just compile on another, you will find yourself digging for very low yield details and you wont remember everything. Thats why the usmle mostly tests 'concept understanding' . My advice is to incorporate both into your studying, understand the big picture, get into your head of how for example a disease is just the physiology gone wrong and fill in the spaces with information that needs to be memorized. If anything anki is a very great tool, it helps you get to the final cherry piece of information you need to absolutely know.
To summarize: understand big concepts that come up often, fill in the gaps with info that needs memorization.
This is a really helpful advice.Thank you for sharing it with us!!
You're amazing Santiago, you will be an incredibly competent physician! Wish more were like you, actually thinking instead of simply memorizing facts!
Thank you so much, we tend to often overlook it..More content on it will certainly help us better incorporate conceptual deduction in our cliche study style
This is cool because as you explained the way you think, I realized this is also the way I think. Now I realize why I don't rely on memorization of facts. Amazing insight. Thanks for sharing.
You are so amazing!! Thank you for everything! I hope I get to medical school one day!
yes, please make that video !
Thank you so much for sharing this !!
On my first Microbiology exam, I literally memorize everything that I need to know from the outline, read the book and memorized it, attend the lecture and--you are right, memorize everything from there too. Then on the exam day, I got 80% on the test result, I was just frustrated with my exam results. Because I felt confident in myself and on my Anki Retention rate, I got 95% already lol. Anyway, my point is, I'm one of those people who can memorize stuff easily, and it was a great skill to have in high school and early college classes, but not in more advanced classes. Thank you for clarifying this stuff, my recent Microbiology exam results got better and I got to the 90% because I learned the big lesson that we have to learn how to dance with the facts, understand the context, and use them as a tool.
Couldn’t have said it better myself
thanks santiago! you're very helpful brotha!
Teach us more pls... One of the best! Thanks Doc!
You're amazing, thank you so much brother ♥️
Genius! Have online USMLE test taking course and charge it man.
Truth has been Spoken ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Thank you bro ...😍😍🤩. God bless you 😇 Everyone was going Anki anki anki for everything but they need to understand its not for learning long pathologies .
Totally agreed. Would love to see how you process information and learn. Please do make a video about that.
Excellent and Enlightening! Thank you!
Hi Santiago, Yes please make a video on how you learn - that would be very helpful. Thank you so much for your content!
Needed this. Thanks for the vid!
Thanks again Santiago ! YES SURE , I need that Video on how to Know More instead of memorization
Great vid Santi , keep them coming
Amazing advice - really looking forward to the next videos! P.S. Have struggled with Anki for a bit due to the isolated factoids and my failure to merge the facts
this was great! thanks
That’s a really great point!
santiago ,when you talk I was like yeah,ya,ya,ya .Thank you.I was feeling guilty not trying to memorize.I hate memorization. I just want to understand the PROCESS. That why when you spoke I could relate a lot and I was happy.Thank you!!!
Great video thanks alot!! a sequel wud b wonderful
Your videos are game changing.
Yes please make a video about the process!
Yes please make video about how to learn 🙏 because truly your knowledge and experience benefit me 😍😍
please make a video on how do you study , how do you take note . this would be very helpful .
I've learned more about "how to learn" with your videos than with my university to be honest
So true!
Me too
Would like to see a video of your thought process. Thanks!
Este es uno de los vídeos más útiles de medicina de los que andan por RUclips
Great video, man! I agree with you, and to me it is almost annoying how people treat information, as if they were swallowing it like pill, instead of "chewing and tasting", so they understand the nature of things.
please do a video about qbanks and how to approach them it will be really helpful! much respect doctor santiago
Please do more videos of your study techiniques you have learned.
Thank God, at last someone said it!
I think the problem is in U.S medical schools. Students don't even have time to "understand" because every week they have a new exam. They barely even have time to breathe and I feel like if they had more time they would sit down and learn the underlying concepts behind the material.
This is problem of every medschool
@@docpratham99 no it aint. in mbbs we had x amount of weeks for each system with a test at the end of the module, then semester exams. when we did clinical rotations, they were usually 4 weeks, and they're would be a seperate test in department, but the priority for grades was semester exams. rotations, the focus was on hands on learning and connectingwhat we'd been learning
@@BleachBrownie good for you !
Yes, you are right. US med students really dont have that much time to thoroughly understand the concepts, so most of them just rote memorize through anki
@@BleachBrownie so baat ki ek baat, agar uss 5 saal mbbs mein pdhoge nahi toh zindagi bhar aise memorization ke videos dekhte rahoge and I'm one of them. Everything takes time and deep down every med student knows these techniques subconsciously, but again they didn't study when they were suppose to study as in mbbs days and now they barely have time, so they resort to anki and spaced repetitions.
From S.Korea med school student.
This is what i usually do when ‘memorizing’. But still there are some parts need pure memory like amino acid structures from biochem or neuroanatomy, unfortunately.
Listening to you makes me thing of my dad, “it is far easier to think!!” 😭😭
Best comment ever 😂
This is awesome
Great advice
Great breakdown! Nothing goes on an Anki card I can't fully articulate or understand. Memorization does NOT equal comprehension!!
Great video part 2 plz
Muy buena explicación, sería genial que expliques el cómo se puede mejorar en ese aspecto, más como ejemplos como el de insuficiencia cardiaca. El por qué me quedó clarísimo, solo faltaría cómo más lo puedo aplicar. gracias.
Santiago I am down for you to explain your process of thinking and learning. Please make a video
Thank you Your amazing and great content, Yes please make a video about how to learn not memorize.
Great content! Do you watch or use Sketchy or Pixorize?
great!
Buen video, una pregunta. En caso de hacer anki flashcards, como haces para resumir un cuadro grande? Por ejemplo los efectos de los diferenres opiodes? Uso amboss y a veces la informacion es muy extensa. Gracias!
ER Doc here ! I do believe that you do need to memorize certain small facts that help to serve as the building blocks for understanding. In my case by using PATHOMA and learning I di not tough or used First Aid they were a bunch of bullet points, useless (My opinion) and I did great in my boards and I am now a ER pgy-2 fighting covid ! Keep up the work guys !
Okay, I see what you're saying and you make some very important points. However, people can use anki in many different ways. Anki helps me because I learn and understand the content (via my texts and then watch videos) and then use my flashcards and do mcqs.
I retain the content I've learnt longer and I make connections between other systems and topics just like you have with the heart failure example. So I would say learn and understand the content first , then retain the info longer.
I would definitely love to see a video where you talk about learning and not memorizing and showing us techniques.
The best of both worlds. That's what we should all aim to do: Learn to use each tool for the task it makes most sense
yes another one!!!
Pls do make another vedio of how to think to connect the facts, i literally lost faith in medicine ,when i used to think i have doubt at many times my thought is the real reason for the facts
Process the information✔
Yes please make a video
I'm agree with the most of your point, but even when understanding the info is the most important thing at medschool, memorizing is also important cause not all the medicine is about "reasoning" it's also a matter of "pushing it hard"into your brain in some areas such anatomy,micro, pharm and some clasifications or protocols for clinical management. Believe me when i tell u i had some colleagues that were all about "reasoning" and they ended up kissing the ground at medschool thanks to that way of thinking.
Hi Santi, I have a question, what is the better way to study any topic of the career, first in Spanish and later translating every information to English, or mixes, as intercalate information? Sorry for my English, I know that has to improve.
Thank you for the video, it's genial!
Please we want the video on processing
another video please
Can u show as how to learn the paragraph in this video so I can know what to fucos
Is there a detailed video where you explain how you studied for the step 1- with details of what resources you used, how you used them and how much time you spent on each resource? If not- could you please make one!
If you find one can you let me know the video's name
@@someone-yj2im I will but havent found one yet by him in English
I agree, but sometimes on Uworld you just don't have enough time to do indepth thinking i feel like
Basically you need to be able to reason backwards as well as forwards
Does this work for learning Anatomy lab practicals? Or do you just recommend route memorization for anatomy as well?
Please make it we need more information.
I think before you do space repetition, you need to understand first, that way it’s almost easy to retain information.
I do my notes...
So I should then do my ANKI cards?
i never do anki but idk how to use spaced repitition
His signing out song tho. ;)
I have been dependant on memorization for way too long but I know get the difference between knowing and remembering.
How can I start understanding material well and deducing stuff as it seems hard not to resort to memorization?
And how to know if I have understood something?
Thank you
Thank you so much Santiago!!! I just got accepted this cycle but I’ve been looking for more videos like this to prep for medschool. So many videos are anki anki anki, but I’m more of a “making connections/deductive reasoning” type of guy too! Do you think you had enough time though to reach that point and make those connections in your head despite the frightening pace of school???
Congrats ! Learning that was is great BUT there small building block that you just have to memorize ! I recently posted a COVID ICU vlog, since you are soon to be a med student this a video i wish I had when starting to see what it is like !
basically conceptual learning
I only use it to remember details about micro/pharm/path. Pepper for step 1 is what I’m using, the 35,000 flashcard decks seem like a waste of time.
One needs to understand and integrate all the concepts about a certain topic before trying to memorize stuff.
Pon tus videos con opcion de subtitulos en español porfiiii :(
I've found that sometimes I'm able to make connections AFTER doing anki/memorizing the facts.
What do you think about that? Sort of a vague question, I know, but still curious.
I have a few friends that do this. First they create the cards, and then once they're on reviewing them they do all the processing. I don't see a problem with that! The important thing at the end of the day is to take the time to properly learn the content, so if that works for you keep at it!
I'm also the same way!
Gracias loko, estaba negandome inconscientemente al tema de la memorización y me quedaba atascada solo en entender descuidando los detalles que me iban a salvar las papas. Van de la mano, uno para la vida y el otro para los examenes en gral si queres. O por lo menos en mi caso, qué tan desorganizadas son las estructuras de examenes de allá comparados con los de latinoamerica?
I'm a final year going into NSGY. You have to use anki and do practice questions, the whole premise of anki is so that you know something exists and you've at least covered all topics. Then doing questions puts that information into context and solidifies your anki learning. I've noticed on the wards the first time I see symptoms I can basically get it right with a couple ddx's as well based on my anki knowledge but then seeing that patient further solidifies it so I won't forget it, same thing as practice questions basically.
I feel like this is a good video for the early years of medicine when you learn about things like heart failure for the first time.
The problem and the reason you need to memorize in later years is we have to differentiate everything causing cardiac symptoms, mitral stenosis, MVP, aortic regurg, aortic stenosis, tricuspid regurg, cardiac tamponade, AF, ACS, HOCM, and the list goes on.
Also don't forget anki is practice questions, make sure your using it as such.
What is harder than finding the “rule” ,is actually knowing that there is a rule that should be searched for.
Disagree. Finding the rule connecting everything together is way harder
I wish I had seen this video sooner. Anki has become a nightmare as of lately
Anki is the most ovverrated shit ever
Resources are presented as if they are salvation to success,but they aren’t.You are
@Study Techniques Yes, but how tf are you supposed to memorize those concepts? Also, Anki has significant research backing its effectiveness in getting higher Step scores. The fact is, you can understand concepts all day long. That's the easy part of med school. But if you don't remember the details of those concepts? You're gonna get wrecked on boards.
@@ToastMac im with u
@Study Techniques Not intended to direct my comment toward you my b. More toward the fact that I hear people in my class use the "It doesn't help you conceptualize" argument for a reason to not use Anki at all. Which is just not a good argument.
Valid point, but you’re missing out an important thing: you can do both with Anki. I actually use the same reasoning as you did here with every card I have. And oh boy it's powerful.
This dude is for med-students what Radu Antonio was for fitness freaks.
I feel like this was a technique that Goljan audio lectures implemented, and its why those lectures are still so useful in the modern day. He goes through diseases and literally just breaks them down into less academic steps and more "intuitive" ideas. I never thought about trying to do that for UWorld questions though, and I think that going through your process of implementing 'learning/understand' to reviews for Uworld questions would be a great sequel to both this video and your other videos discussing how to review questions.
There's not a lot of people out there who teach you how they go through questions in a block, and what process they go through. I'm not just talking about "reading, memorizing, revising" etc, but rather, how they "LEARN" THE MATERIAL in this manner tha tyou described. Do you build a scenario in your head? Do you try and imagine a patient and run through their body and build intuition in some way. I'm very interested in a video like that.
Hoooo
I think Anki decks have helped me make a lot of connections I would've never thought of. It can depend on the deck you use too, a well made pre-made deck can help a lot in my opinion. Also, there are things you NEED to memorize in med school sometimes, and that's when Anki comes the most handy. You would not be able to reason why Hydroxyurea can increase HbF levels in blood and is helpful in sickle cell anemia patients, because simply, we don't know the reason. The same can be said of a plethora of things we have to learn in medical school, you can't reason why a particular microorganism is catalase positive, it just is.
Another thing is that even though you understand a concept thoroughly, it can still leave you if left unrevised long enough, and again, Anki shines in that regard.
To the people reading this comment, don't give up on Anki just because someone said so, and also don't hop on the Anki train just because I said so. Experiment and look for what works best for you. Anki has done wonders for me and no one can change my mind about it. My friends have found that reading notes is best for them. Others prefer videos. Some prefer textbooks. Try stuff out and stick to what works best for you.
I agree 100% with this. I think the best strategy involves knowing the "underyling formulas" but also knowing some "brute force memorization stuff" via things like Anki
Hey Ahsan thanks for your comment! I agree with most of what you said, that's why I was very careful in saying that memorization techniques do have their place. My point was that using them as Ebbinghaus famously did with his experiment is not useful. The processing needs to happen. Now, as you said it yourself some facts don't have an underlying explanation (Or at least a useful one). For example there is no point in wondering why is Hepatitis C an ARN virus and not a DNA virus... I consider those "Whys" more philosophic than scientific. Another way to think about it is that we are actually concerned with "How's" not the "Why's". In any case, I do think that some sort of processing of the information is always needed. So sure, Staph is catalase positive just because. But hey what exactly is catalase? I was surprised during one of my lectures to find out that a substantial amount of my peers just memorized "Staph aureus is catalase positive and coagulase positive" without devoting any thought to what catalase even is. And just to close the loop on that one, you can certainly see how understanding what catalase is and how it works can help you answer questions (and more importantly) make sense about primary immunodeficiencies (Chronic granulomatous disease). So, I apologize if during any portion of the video I gave the impression that Anki was useless. It's not. My point was that spaced repetition is incomplete without reasoning.
@@SantiagoAQ I get where you're coming from, I've seen people brute force facts into their brain for exams and frankly it's pitiful. Content is forgotten the moment they stop revising, as they move on to the next exam. Reasoning is, as you said, essential in the process of learning medicine, as there are simply too many facts to memorize and remember, and a balance needs to be sought. I mostly agree with your message so I apologize if I came across as disrespectful, the thumbnail just triggered me a little bit.
Keep up the good work.
Hey. I agree with that. What Anki decks worked for you?
There is way too much material that relies on memorization, without knowing a lot of medical facts beforehand, deductions wouldn´t be accurate. Memorization and deduction should go by hand, not separately.
Now try to deduce some microbiology
It’ll be my pleasure 👌🏻
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