I’d like to
think I’m good a learning. I have two degrees, surely this is evidence that I am
pretty good at learning? Since I’ve started at Warwick and medical school one
thing I have realised is my previous methods of learning and revising were not
adequate for medical school, not adequate at all.
One thing
that I got to grips with is that learning here is more about memorising facts
rather than understanding concepts. This is quite different to what I have
previously experienced and I have been slightly disappointed with. Inquisitive doctors
are surely better doctors?
To exemplify
this, one of the questions in our end of year exam was what is the probability
of contracting Hepatitis C from a needle stick injury from a patient with the
disease. Quite specific right? The answer is 1 in 30 by the way, which luckily I
got correct.
I have been
disappointed in that being inquisitive and wanting to learn more than what is
being taught, whilst useful for your career, is potentially detrimental to your
grades and ranking within the year. I would like to spend time reading through
textbooks, however this is just not worth the time compared to going through lecture
slides for, what feels like, the fifth time.
I think
that part of this is that medical school is largely about memorising facts like
symptoms, incidences, treatments, and so on. The other part of this is that I am
studying for a four year graduate entry medical degree, cutting a year from the
traditional British medical degree. In order to fit everything in a little fat
must be cut and all the material must be concentrated and fine tuned.
I’m hoping
that this changes throughout my latter years at Warwick when things (I’ve
heard) become a little less hectic. Which I hope they do as I don’t think I could
handle another three years as hard as the first one.
In my next
post I will go through a number of different learning/revision methods that I
think could be useful for those starting medical school.