The STATMed Study Skills Class
Do you feel like what works for others in med school doesn’t work for you?
Our CLASS teaches med students* all-new, all-different study, time management, and test-taking skills for the med school classroom
Watch a 3-Minute Overview of the Program
Is This You?
- You feel buried by the speed, volume, and density of medical education
- Lecture feels like a waste of time - you leave with less than you came in with
- What works for your peers - Anki, practice questions, study groups - isn't working for you
- Your old strategies - rereading, recopying, making study guides - no longer cut it
- You are struggling, at risk of failing, or already repeating
- You were a strong student before med school and can't figure out what changed
If any of this sounds familiar, you are not alone - and you are not incapable. You just need a system built for this environment. That's exactly what the Study Skills Class teaches.
Medical School Requires a Different Study Architecture
Undergrad rewards exposure. > Medical school requires retrieval.
Volume is manageable in undergrad. > Volume kills in medical school.
Undergrad tolerates inefficiency. > Medical school punishes it.
- Most smart students were never taught how to:
- Find hidden frameworks first and fast every time
- Turn every study session into a high intensity workout
- Cut out all low-yield learning strategies
- Structure-based retrieval practice
- How to effectively learn under the firehose of med school
- Optimize the limited time you have every day
That’s what we teach.
What You’ll Learn Inside the Class
STUDY SKILLS:
- Learning preconceptions
- Foundational study rules
- Frameworking
- Learning with (and without) Lecture
- Reading & Marking
- Visually-Based Mapping
- Retrieval Practice
- Simulated Study Projects
- Customized Study Process
TIME MANAGEMENT:
- Study Session Guidelines
- Study Session Efficiency
- Scheduling Tools (3)
- Workflow Generation
- Micromanager Tool
- Macromanager Tool
- Study Break & Study Space Rules
- Distraction minimization
TEST-TAKING:
- Basic STATMed Test-Taking Blueprint
- Proper question reading sequence
- Common test-taking mistakes
- Effective strategies to offset these mistakes
- Question Analysis Tools
How the Class Is Structured
- Live online
- 10-day immersive experience
- Direct instructor feedback
- Homework using real medical content
- Small cohort (intentionally limited size)
In-Depth 20+ Minute Program Walkthrough
Watch the Full 20-Minute Program Explanation
(Recommended before applying)
One Student’s Rebound From Failure To Super Success
Hear how this ER Doc and STATMed Alumni initially failed out of Med School but turned his fortunes around with the STATMed Study Skills Class, building his dream career in the process.
We Have Helped Hundreds Find Success
The statmed class Is Not For You If:
- You’re past the didactic years and prepping for boards: Look into our BOARDS PREP Platforms (Boards Workshop or Reboot Camp)
- You’re looking for content tutoring
- You’re not willing to change your current process
Study Skills Class
Tuition:
$2,950
- Flexible payment plans available.
- All materials included.
Frequently Asked questions
WHO IS THE STATMED CLASS FOR?
- The STATMed Class is designed for:
- Any classroom-based learner in the pre-clinical years in medical school or related programs: veterinarians, PTs, PAs, Pharm Ds, optometrists, etc
- These students may be entering, rising, or repeating
- The class is not for EVERYONE: It is for students looking for better ways to learn, manage time, and show what they know on boards-style exams
- They may be REPEATING due to failing a class or a year
- They may be RISING but are worried or frustrated by how hard and inefficient or ineffective their studying was the first year. After all, we created STATMed Learning to address the problem that “No one teaches smart students HOW to study in med school!”
- They could be ENTERING med school but are worried in advance because of early issues, problems with reading or ADHD, or just an awareness that they want to have all the tools prior to starting
- Our students usually cite one or more (but not all) of the following:
- I don’t know how to manage the speed-volume-density of med school, the firehose of information being blasted at me
- What works for my peers does not work for me: Anki, repeatedly watching lecture, using practice questions as a primary learning resource, finding the right study group, etc.
- I come out of lecture exhausted, frustrated, and feel like I am starting from scratch
- I have ADHD and don’t know how to best learn in med school with this profile
- I have reading or processing issues, so need to optimize my studying to get the most bang for my buck every time I study
- I just want to learn the BEST ways to study, end to end, in a way that I can plug into any and every learning event
- I need better tools to optimize my time since there is no extra time (spoiler: you have to reengineer study skills to then unlock time management mastery tools!)
- My old skills: cramming, overcompensating, rewriting, study groups, knowing how to pick out what was “important,” etc no longer work
- The tools we teach in THE STATMED CLASS translate to all medical school curricular designs: from traditional classroom-based lecture models, to flipped classrooms, to hybrid-style designs, to Problem-Based Learning (PBL) or Team-Based Learning (TBL), to independent learning, to everything else. And all skills are taught to scale upwards to boards prep learning.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A GIVEN DAY OF THE STATMED CLASS?
- Every session of THE STATMED CLASS follows a rigidly-build scope and sequence so we can onboard the all-new, all-different skills in as efficiently manner as possible. Sessions can include:
- Debriefing on on-demand video lectures previously assigned, allowing for questions, feedback, and relevant conversational/educational tangents
- Disseminating content we feel is better suited to live dissemination (allowing for students to ask questions in real time)
- Workshopping new skills immediately after dissemination, allowing for immediate feedback that will accelerate skill acquisition
- Roundtable discussions on specific topics
- Debrief on homework, using pre-designed analysis kits to again accelerate learning and feedback, while also allowing students to ask specific questions when relevant
- They key is understanding that every class has a set of goals and objectives in mind, allowing us to cover a tremendous amount of ground in a relatively short timeframe
HOW DOES THE HOMEWORK LOOK LIKE?
- We use what we call “curated homework assignments” so our students can IMMEDIATELY roll up their sleeves and get to work. This has come from YEARS of working with students, finding authentic med school and boards-relevant concepts that will plug directly into the skill/skills being taught. This is one of the secrets to how The STATMed CLASS can induce so much change so fast with our students. For example:
- When we teach the essential skill we call FRAMEWORKING on day one, we disseminate, then workshop two lectures (giving feedback for both), then the homework is usually FIVE more frameworks from five med school lectures we provide. This lets you iterate, iterate, iterate on this single skill. Then we debrief on it the next day (this is actually where the LEARNING happens!)
- When we put all the skills together, you would framework a peptic ulcer disease lecture, for example, putting the main skills together: framework, watch the lecture, read and mark using the STATMed method, then repurpose the framework as a framework self-testing tool….then we unpack/debrief on this in class the next day
- When teaching skills like MEMORY PALACES, we have lists from lectures/boards prep you can use, so you do not waste time seeking a list or picking a list that does not align with the objectives of the assignment
- You will also watch on-demand lectures when relevant before each class. These are great to re-watch later as well. But watching them when assigned is always the key to success
- We are very deliberate in how we march each student through the STATMed Class, so you NEVER have to worry about knowing what to do because we always make the NEXT STEPS very clear; this lets you focus on learning the new skills in a safe environment where we encourage experimentation, trial-and-error, and even (gasp) getting things wrong as you learn the new skills!
HOW LONG DOES THE STATMED CLASS TAKE?
- The STATMed Class is offered several times per year, with approximately 6-12 students (12 is the maximum (in each class. Each class has its own schedule, spanning approximately ten to twelve days.
- Each class is a combination of live online group sessions, on-demand videos watched in sequence when assigned, and homework practicing the skills
- We consider the whole process three phases: (link to a graphic here?)
- Phase 1: The ten-12 days of the class: This is where you are acquiring the skills and starting to practice them
- Phase 2: Between the last day of class and returning to school: This is where you practice your new STATMed skills, striving to practice each skill a dozen times (the “magic dozen”) on your OWN material
- Phase 3: First two weeks back in school: Expect to spend a little extra time here, integrating back into the firehose of med school, making adjustments as you acclimate
- The last two phases are variable for each student, and we help set you up for these two phases when you build what we call the PSSP (Post-STATMed Study Plan) in the class with us.
WHO DOES THE CLASS ADDRESS ISSUES WITH ADHD?
- You do not have to have ADHD to participate in THE STATMED CLASS
- Approximately half of our students may have a diagnosis or suspect a diagnosis of ADHD, though
- Every skill we teach likely helps with the ADHD learning profile, even if we do not say so! We address issues including: structure building, working memory, executive functioning, making learning external and explicit, building workflow, developing initiation and transition, planning and tracking progress, integrating structure-based retrieval practice, making interleaving and distributing relatively easy, among many others
- Those with ADHD need these skills, and many others without these issues need them as well!
HOW IS THE CLASS DIFFERENT FROM TUTORING?
- Tutors teach specific concepts. This can be valuable for the right student’s needs.
- But we are NOT tutors! Most of our students will say something like, “It’s not that any single concept in med school is that hard….it’s just that there is so much of it, coming at me so fast, and I am responsible for ALL of it….and I just can’t manage it all!”
- Instead, we teach an array of discrete study, time management, and test-taking skills to put our students in charge of their learning when they return to the med school classroom, then use these skills in boards prep and rotations and beyond.
- If a tutor is helping you catch a fish to feed you a single dinner, we are teaching you how to fish so you can feed yourself for the rest of your career.
HOW IS THE CLASS DIFFERENT FROM WORKING WITH MY SCHOOL’S LEARNING SPECIALIST?
- Every school’s specialists are different, from the time they have to spend with you to their philosophy of how learning works to the methods they deploy. Overall, they are limited in the time they can spend with each student, often carrying caseloads of a hundred or more students; plus, they are often trying to intervene in the middle of the semester, which is very tough!
- Their roles, from our perspective, should be to support low-level issues that can be rectified with brief interactions or to address smaller issues, and to perhaps provide tips and tricks. This will work for some learners, but not all
- We are the opposite. Our expertise is vast, and we make sure prospective students are proper fits, starting with them watching the DEEP DIVE video then having an informal phone interview chat with Ryan Orwig. Then we plug students into the CLASS where we teach each skill in isolation, using curated homework assignments (authentic med school and boards-relevant material) to accelerate the onboarding and mastery of each individual skill, then combining these skills into full learning events so our students get tons of iterative practice with these skills in an environment with no grades so you can experiment, experience trial-and-error, and get feedback to rapidly grow your new skills. This would not be possible with less time or while you are currently in classes
- Plus, we are amazing at what we do. Ryan has been working exclusively with med students since 2005, and David has been exclusively working with med students since 2014. And since we have low student loads, running either small groups or one-on-one sessions (with our Test-Taking Boards Workshops), this has allowed us to exponentially grow our expertise.
- As with any field, you can have people who are terrible at their jobs, people who are fine at their jobs, then people who are amazing at their jobs. We are pretty amazing at our job.
HOW IS THE CLASS DIFFERENT FROM A BOARDS REVIEW PROGRAM?
- The STATMed Class is ENTIRELY different from any boards review program.
- Boards review programs are packages telling you WHAT you need to learn, and they often package the content you need to know for boards in a variety of different ways. These are great and in many ways essential. This is NOT what we offer at STATMED LEARNING, especially in THE STATMED CLASS.
- If they teach the WHAT, we teach the HOW: HOW to study, HOW to maximize your limited time, and HOW to show what you know on boards-style exams.
- Additionally, THE STATMED CLASS is expressly designed for pre-clinical didactic learning, for the “first two years” of medical school. Few programs directly address the unique challenges of learning in the medical school classroom prior to boards, and if we can address these issues up front, our students can reap the benefits prior to getting to boards prep.
DO YOU HAVE TO BE A MEDICAL STUDENT TO TAKE THE STATMED CLASS?
- No! While we always say “med student” this and “med school” that, the STATMED CLASS is designed for any pre-clinical learner in any medical or health science program, including but not limited to: veterinary students, physical therapy students, optometry students, physician assistant students, pharm d students, and even biomedical masters students, among others.
- If you are beyond the pre-clinical years, we have two amazing programs that could fit your needs with our BOARDS WORKSHOP or BOARDS REBOOT CAMP.
- We are not suited for other non-medical fields, like finance, law, undergrad, etc.
HOW LONG DO I HAVE ACCESS TO THE ON-DEMAND VIDEOS?
Your on-demand video units remain accessible for three months after the CLASS concludes, so you can revisit the material as many times as in the months after the class concludes. If we have the bandwidth, we can extend video access upon request. We want our students to re-watch these essential videos!
Who teaches the STATMED CLASS?
- STATMed Learning is ONLY two people: Creator Ryan Orwig and Lead Instructor David LaSalle. So you will be working with one of us, assigned from the outset, so you know you are only working with the best.
- We are interchangeable but you work with only one of us, so you have all of our ”brain time” focused on you, your needs, and your progress. David teaches most of our STATMED CLASSES.
If You’re Ready to Change the Way You Study In the classroom -
Start Here
You have probably spent a lot of time wondering why everyone else seems to be keeping up while you are not. The truth is, you are not broken – you just process and learn differently than the methods medical school assumes you will use.
Your performance isn’t always a reflection of how hard you work. It’s a reflection of whether your system matches how you actually learn.
You simply need a better system – one built for the way your brain works, not the way everyone else’s does.