Building the Foundations of Learning in Med School Part 1 with the STATMed Study Skills Class
It’s a pretty universal fact that medical school is hard. The standards to get in are high. The pressure to excel is immense. But what happens if you’re failing? If you find yourself sitting in your classes and falling farther and farther behind while your professors — and your peers — are forging ahead, it may be time to take a hard look at your study methods and approaches on test days. You’ve probably scoured the internet to see how to fix the problem. Maybe you’ve tried flashcards, a study groups, or even Anki with no success, and it’s starting to feel hopeless.
When the strategies that have gotten you this far are no longer cutting it, we can help. But if you’re the “try before you commit” type, we get it. This may be the first time you’ve struggled- in your academic career – or ever, and it can be hard to trust that this is different. But the STATMed Study Skills Class isn’t taught by medical students or even medical faculty. It’s taught by learning specialists who have dedicated our professional careers to helping struggling (and even failing) med students implement successful study and test-taking strategies. You can read all about our methods here, here and here.
And you can dig into this video, which is part of the first unit of the STATMed Study Skills Class.
But that video is over an hour long, and while it is chock-full of great information, you might not have an hour. So, in this miniseries of blog posts, we’re going to break down the first unit of the class. But before we get started, a caveat… you’re not going to solve all your problems in medical school in this hour. That happens during the approximately 10-day course. This is simply the first step in a meticulous process to lay the vital foundations as you continue your journey through med school.
We start by identifying one of the problems: med school itself. It isn’t built quite right. Now, we’re not saying it should be easy. But, with the sheer volume of what you’re expected to learn at the breakneck speed you’re expected to learn it, it’s no wonder even smart, accomplished students struggle. You’re basically drinking from the firehose of medical knowledge.
One of the things you’ll hear us say over and over is that no one takes the time to teach smart students how to study. For most of the students we work with, that didn’t matter. Until it did.
Until now, some of the students we work with have simply outworked their peers, overprepared for their tests, and been able to succeed. (The other part would maybe never have learned how to study, were not challenged, or succeeded by cramming.) Studying in med school cannot be “one size fits all.”
And yet, we hear over and over again that all students are being taught the same way, or given the same “one-size-fits-all” advice. This is why it is vital to understand the patterns struggling med students can fall into, so we can build and prescribe skills to offset these differences.
Interested in learning more about our study strategies? Explore our blog and YouTube channel for more strategies and insights.
Are you ready to transform your study habits with the STATMed Study Skills Class? December classes are open now! Check out December Session A: December 10 – 20, 2022 and December Session B: December 19 – 29, 2022. If neither of those work with your schedule, reach out about other options!