When to start studying for exams
HOW TO STUDY FOR FINAL EXAMS: 5 Tips!
hey guys my name is Jamie and I'm a
first-year mergency medicine resident
today I want to talk about a pretty
common question in my channel and that
is how to study effectively for exams
and with the exam season right around
the corner I think now is a great time
to talk about it and without further ado
let's jump right in my tip number one is
to stop procrastinating and have a study
plan I know that sounds really obvious
but it's also one of the biggest
pitfalls of studying for an exam the
last thing you want to do is wait until
the last minute to study for exams
waiting until the last minute can get
stressful and most of the times it can
result in a grade that's not ideal the
best way to stop procrastination is by
prioritizing and having a study plan if
you haven't already I suggest creating a
schedule of when your exams are going to
be one of the ways I approach making a
study plan is by actually quantifying
the materials you have to know for an
exam so to make a simple study plan I
like to quantify what I need to know and
then divide it evenly by the number of
days I have to study I then at a
comprehensive review day or day
a'practice questions to really make sure
I know my stuff and then I take the exam
the next day this is a basic skeleton I
used to study for all my exams in
medical school as well as big exams like
USMLE step 1 and 2 for the most part
what you're going to study for first
it's going to be dictated by which exams
you have first but sometimes exams
aren't spaced out evenly so be sure to
prioritize ones that are harder to study
for so for example if you find chemistry
challenging then it makes sense to
prioritize it over a subject you don't
find as challenging once you have a plan
on when to study my second tip is find
an area where you can study people have
different preferences when it comes to
study locations some people like to
study in a quiet library or at home
while others like to study in a cafe
with some background noise in both
scenarios you want to find an area where
distractions are minimal so that means
if you're easily distracted at home then
maybe you consider studying in the
library and alternatively if you're
easily distracted by people then it will
be better to study at home a lot of
people have told me that they find study
with me videos to be really helpful when
they're studying if you haven't tried
them you can check out some of mine up
my strive studies channel
my third tip is to change our study
style for different subjects some
classes require a lot of memorization
while other classes require a lot of
applications so for example classes like
anatomy and pharmacology require a lot
of memorization while a class like
general chemistry and math require a lot
of application so for classes that
require memorization I've made a video
in the past about how to best memorize
and I'll link that video up here and
stay tuned because I'm looking to update
that video in the future for application
heavy constants like chemistry or
calculus the best way to improve your
grade is to keep doing practice
questions this memorization can only get
you so far my fourth tip is to study in
groups and avoid stressful people one of
my fondest memories in the medical
school is studying groups it was like a
security blanket because we were able to
compare notes help each other with
concepts problems from practice
questions and things like that the key
to having a productive group is making
sure that everyone is on the same page
and with that said there are some people
that you may want to avoid if you're
studying with someone that you're close
friends with after a while it may be
hard to stay on track because you may
end up distracting each other so the
best way to go about this is going back
up to my first tip which is having a
plan schedule one to meet up and what
topics we'll cover and once you're done
with that you can either go back to
studying separately or move on to other
classes to cover I personally like to
avoid people who stressed me out
especially during exams and this might
mean having some quiet time to yourself
before exams instead of joining in on
the conversation about what you know or
don't know what you think is gonna be on
the exam I think anxiety can definitely
play a big role in how people do an exam
so it's best to avoid people who stress
you out and stay as calm as possible
before taking your exam finally my last
tip is to make sure to get enough rest
sometimes all-nighters can seem like
it's appealing but again going back to
my first tip if you're planning and
prioritizing there's really no need for
all-nighters sleeping should be a
priority several studies have shown that
sleep is required for consolidation of
memory and without it it's harder to
absorb and recall information I've
talked about the importance of sleep in
a previous video which I will link up
here but really quickly the lack of
sleep comes with a lot of negative
consequences
winces and learning like decreasing the
attention span memory loss and the
ability to concentrate so please make
sure to take care of yourselves and get
enough sleep so that's all the tips I
have today on how to best study for
exams and before I close today's video
I'd like to thank brilliant for
supporting today's video one of the most
common questions I get regarding medical
school is whether you have to be fit of
math and science in order to fit in and
the short answer is yes because there's
a heavy focus of math and science in the
MCAT as well as a pre-med curriculum one
of the reasons why many students
struggle with math and science citizens
because we're often taught these
subjects in a passive learning
environment like sitting in a lecture
hall when these are topics that are best
learned by actually doing the
problem-solving and interacting with the
subject matter brilliant is a website
that teaches you complex concept like
algebra calculus 2/6 physics and break
them up into bite-sized concepts and
help you master them through an
interactive problem-solving interface if
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will see you guys next time bye
