Medical School Resources! (and Other Human biology,physiology,biochemistry-related Resources)

My Study Method

by futurecomposer

Notes and processing info: 

i write my notes with Google Drive / Docs (android / itunes)

before the lecture: First of all I write the textbook notes and maybe articles about the subject, that way, when I go to the lecture, I already understand the topic. If there’s available slides, print them, so you can annotate on them later.

during the lecture: Take as many notes as you can, but also write about the most important stuff. For this I use paper. I feel like It’s easier to link stuff, draw diagrams, etc. … It doesn’t matter if your notes are messy, you’ll rewrite them later. Remember: if it’s in the blackboard, it’s because it’s important.

after the lecture: After the lecture I write my lecture notes in the previous document. Now it’s time to get fancy: use bold, italic,, both of them to indicate keywords and/or important phrases. But be careful: don’t overuse them, or they will become useless. 

At this point you should have all the information you need for the exam perfectly summarised in a doc.

Summarising and flashcards

bullet points: It’s time to make another doc. This time we’ll resume the information in bullet points. The goal is to have clear, concise, brief facts.

summary cards: Here comes the most important part. Summarise one topic in one flashcard. The point is to really condense the information and see what’s most important. Fill the flashcard with info, don’t get cut back by aesthetics. The previous doc is your guide.

This system’s point is to manage and work the information, get familiar with it, then find the most important concepts. This way, you have actively worked with it, and have more tendency to remember it.

MASTERPOST

Hi! This is going to be pretty long and I have tried my best to cover as much as I could. If there are any specific requests, please message me on my personal blog! (Linked in the description.)

Study stuff

How to make a study schedule 

Daily printable planner (with to-do list)

By the hour detailed planner (printable)

2015 printable calendar

Improve vocabulary in 5 minutes

Cornell note-taking method

More note-taking

10 general study tips

Crash Course

Best damn tutoring

Math tutor

Khan Academy (obvs)

University of reddit

Coursera

edX

Ways to boost your note-taking

Awesome study flowchart

Websites to increase productivity

Get shit done even when you don’t feel like it

How to not freak out during finals

Subject-specific tips:

Square root calculator

Cube root calculator

Oil painting

Reading a painting

Free language tutorials (20 LANGUAGES)

Shakespeare deaths infographic

A HUGE ASS WRITING TIPS MASTERPOST 

Synonyms for commonly used words

Put your feelings into words (I know, I know, it’s complicated. Maybe this will help?)

Common grammar mistakes

More common mistakes (after all, to err is human)

Masterpost with music to influence your writing

Words. You’re welcome.

Try this math game

Wolfram Alpha

Text books are fucking expensive. Go here, okay?

How to not say the word ‘very’

‘Everyday compounds’ infographic

Online courses masterpost (apart from the sites I’ve mentioned)

Nervous system chart

Endocrine system chart

Common pre/post fixes chart for med students

Types of stitches (???)

Learn programming

COLLEGE! 

How to grow the fuck up (masterpost)

How to become an adult (masterpost)

Dorm essentials checklist

THIS DORM CHECKLIST!

What to do with your major

Read this before you join a Sorority/Fraternity 

Deal with a hangover

Food to buy

Fix your leaky faucet

Remove a carpet stain

Organise your closet

More food to buy

WINTER SURVIVAL

FOOD BC WHY NOT

100 Ramen recipes

Triple Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cookies

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Healthy, but tasty snacks

Apple pie inside a fucking apple

Disney inspired recipes

Deep dish mug cookie

Food hacks

Recreate food porn

More food porn recipes

A lot of people are turning to using tablets or laptops to take their notes, for reasons that I won’t go into in this post. But, while there are lots of posts about taking handwritten notes, there don’t seem to be very many about taking notes using a laptop/tablet (I’ll refer to as digital notes from now on).

Set up folders for each topic. Create these folders before lectures/class and save your notes into the correct ones. It will keep all of your notes organised and easy to find. You might want to have different folders for lecture and reading notes. Develop a system which is intuitive for you.

Know the program. Choose which program you’re going to use to take your notes. There are lots of options available, including Microsoft Office. If you can’t afford Office, then you can look into (illegal) free downloads of it. If you have Office, you could also use Onenote. Alternatives include free programmes like Evernote which allow you to access your notes from anywhere on any device.

Get a template (M Office only). On Microsoft word, you can download different templates. See if there is a template that you can use for taking your notes. Alternatively, you can create your own template by adjusting the margins, font, size, etc. and saving your preferences. If you don’t want to use a template, you can just use the default settings.

Name the notes. Make sure that you name the notes so that you know what’s inside. On Microsoft word, when saving documents you can add tags. Then you can search these tags for any documents with that specific tag. I’ve found this to be a really useful organisational tool.

Do you need anything to take your notes? If you’re using a tablet, you can buy Bluetooth keyboards which will connect and can be quicker than typing on the screen. You can also buy a stylus which will let you write like you would with a normal pen; some devices also have the option to convert your handwriting to typed notes.

Get to know your keyboard. If you’re using a keyboard, then I suggest looking at this website which will teach you how to touch type.

Become familiar with keyboard shortcuts. Especially for things like bold, italicise, underline, highlight.

Downloads. If the teacher/lecturer puts up any material for the lecture download it. These are typically powerpoint slides. When I take notes next year, I will download these and split screen between word and powerpoint. Then I’ll be able to copy and paste material and diagrams straight from the actual powerpoint, speeding up my process.

Back up. Please, back up your notes on google docs. If your computer crashes you will have a backup of your notes that will be essential to studying! Again, for the people in the back, back up your notes!

Creating your notes. Use the technology to your advantage.

Use bold/highlight/italic. Make your heading and subheadings stand out from the rest of your text.

Use bullet points.

You can even make sub bullet points (like this) using the tab key to follow your line of thought/reason.

Highlight the important things; you could even use different colours for different things. E.g. yellow for important dates, blue for important quotes.

Develop an annotation style. For example, sometimes you might fall behind a bit, and miss a detail. When this happens to me I insert a series of dots into my notes, like this (……..) and I know that means I missed something so I can return to the recordings to find out what I missed. You could use question marks (?) to indicate something that confuses you that you need to do more reading on. There are lots of different symbols so you can develop your own system.

This also works with words. If you have certain words which you’re typing a lot then you can make them shorter and easier to type. For example, the word “participants” comes up a lot in my course, but I use “ps” because it’s shorter and quicker to type.

firstly, some general tips from me:

don’t use spark notes/schmoop/other reference sites until AFTER you have read your book and formed your own opinions, because it makes your essays a lot more interesting, which your teacher will appreciate, if everyone is doing the same essay on something! (However, don’t do this if you don’t have time, rely on those sites when you are racing a deadline or juggling tons of stuff ofc)

do the in-class reading beforehand! this sounds so silly, but doing the reading beforehand can help so much if there is an in-class discussion on it after

highlighters (or other writing utensils in various colors) are your best friend when there is an in-class essay! while obviously in general they are great, if you have a few different colors you can quickly mark up the text to find recurring elements and structure essays around that!

look up the social-cultural-historical context of a book! this is super great for reading nonfiction, but also great for most fiction because it allows you to understand the lens the author was writing through and their motive for doing so, which gives you great fodder for discussion if you need to discuss purpose

other useful tips + guides:

mla official formatting

general essay help (basically recipe for a good essay)

SOAPSTone method

words that connote tone

standard themes in literature

i know this isn’t a comprehensive list, but i hope it helps with untangling the mess that is understanding some lit classes!

// I’m back with some tips on taking notes from readings! This is a sequel/prequel (whatever floats your boat) to how to take lecture notes. One big tip I have is that you shouldn’t really be using the same study methods for every single class in your undergraduate career. Different subjects/professors/assessments/levels require different methods. The more attuned to that you are, the more likely you’ll get that A

// not like anybody cares but here’s my summer study notes //

Medical Textbooks (PDF versions)

Hi Everyone!!

I was asked by @dankamphetamemes to share my holy grail textbooks and I did, but I thought I’d do you guys one better. I recommended that you should check them out in PDF versions before you buy them because honestly they’ll burn a hole through your pocket - so I gathered all the books I use and a couple of others for you to check out!! 

Heres a list of books you’ll find in my google drive:

- Robbins and Cotran’s Pathological Basis of Disease

- BRS Pathology

- Lippincott’s Biochemistry

- Lippincott’s Pharmacology

- Physiology by Linda Costanzo

- BRS Physiology

- Moore’s Clinically Oriented Anatomy

- Gray’s Anatomy Flashcards 

- Unfortunately I couldn’t find a PDF version of Medical Microbiology by David Greenwood - Ill keep looking and upload it when I find it

Extra books/flashcards:

- Guyton and Hall Textbook of Physiology

- Clinical Microbiology made ridiculously simple

- Netters Anatomy Flashcards

- Snells Clinical anatomy by regions

If you happen to face any trouble downloading them or accessing them shoot me a message and let me know

Here’s the link - enjoy!!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByVv1ccrvWveUGVuZFRCQWp3MDQ&usp=sharing

i never used to do notes for any classes but this year i promised myself to put effort into making my notes look decent and it’s definitely a work in progress ✨

For anyone who thinks all studyblrs are perfect, just a reminder that I failed my first year of med school. I’m trying to turn it around though!