Just like in undergrad, each course you take you will have to learn to study for it slightly differently. Some will require constant practice via practice questions, some will need lots of additional reading; most will require a lot of memorization.
What I used to take notes
I used mostly Microsoft OneNote for my class notes. I could easily pull in the PDF’s posted on blackboard, and then could add text via my keyboard or use my finger/stylist to
draw/highlight/markup over the slides or my text. This program however does not upload powerpoint presentations well; you’ll have to convert the powerpoint to a PDF before you can download it. And if the file is too big, it won’t download either. Those were the two biggest downsides to using OneNote for class, but overall I had a good experience with this program and liked that I could customize it.
Other classmates I knew used Notability with great success. Notability I believe you can pull individual slides out into a different slide set, whereas you cannot do this with OneNote. You can highlight on Notability and add text on the slides, but you add it like on the slide instead of next to it. Personally, I liked my text separate so I could see them both.
For the most part, I believe these were the two biggest note taking apps my class used. Both of these were also recommended by my university as great note taking apps as well.
Other apps that I used to help me study during the course:
- Mindly (iPad). This is a mind map app. I did pay like $6 something on my iPad for this last year. I used it to help make connections between topics for anatomy so I could see how everything was interrelated. (there are many other interactive Anatomy apps though that actually have a skeleton/body for viewing, I just liked this for being able to make connections).
- KenHub. This is online and I believe there is a free version with limited access, and you get more available to access when paying for a subscription. A dear friend had access and we all used it.
- Google docs. I used this for group study. For some tests we had all of our lecture objectives on it and each took turns filling it out. I note below which classes helped with filling out the lecture objectives and which didn’t. We also used it to make questions based off the content we learned for each lecture and since we all had access to it, we could all edit/correct it if something was wrong or unclear, or take it to quiz ourselves!
- A few friends used StudyBlue or other online notecard apps, but I mostly did notecards by hand. The process of writing it out cemented it in my brain better than typing it did.
*None of these are sponsored, just letting you know what I used and found helpful!
Another large thing that I found super helpful was just using a whiteboard. I could write and erase, quickly use it to test my memory, help make connections (with a bigger white board), etc. This is much more old school, but I highly recommend you at least have a study space with a white board if you do not wish to get one yourself. Especially when trying to remember pathways. My friend bought a large one while we were studying for an immuno final which we would all use. I plan to get one myself for home, but you can always get a compact one that you can easily carry around with you if you cannot find a room with a white board in it!
How I took notes
Personally, I found that going through and answering the objectives for most of my classes in COB to be extremely helpful. I would start a separate page in OneNote purely for objectives.
This worked best for epidemiology, biochem, & molecular. This way, I could re-organize my notes for how they made sense for me, and if I needed additional information, I could add supplemental notes from my textbook next to my class notes all under one correlating objective. Doing it this way made it much easier when relearning everything for the test, as it was all organized by the objective with all of my additional notes. Since I had already done the work of organizing and trying to understand it once already, all I had to do was re-learn it instead of hunting for information!
Also, even though I found the biochem textbook they listed as helpful, they take sections of the Medical Biochemistry An Illustrated Review by Sankhavaram R. Panini. Legit the figures from nucleotide synthesis are taken directly from this textbook. This is the book recommended for most medical students curriculum; most of us just call it the Panini textbook.
For anatomy and physiology, you do have to know the overall objectives, but Dr. Anderson orders his slides to directly correlate with all of his objectives & sub-objectives (so no hunting!). With this way, you don’t need to go through and re-organize your notes as they are all ordered fairly well. You will benefit from trying to start learning some of the major topic ideas as you learn them, but due to the minute micro-detail that he teaches at, it is almost impossible to know every single detail (but hey, if you can fit it all in your brain as you go along great for you!). Since he gives reviews (or usually does), with his information, being familiar with it is good, but you’ll end up tailoring down the amount of information you need to know based on his review. The first semester for anatomy was easier for me to learn a lot more as each class went on, but by second semester the information became more intense and I found it too daunting to try to memorize all of it as we went. So I would most definitely wait until his reviews in second semester.
Notecards will be your friend in these classes, but notecarding everything will be too overwhelming. Using anatomy apps/websites (as noted above) were very beneficial for learning and quizzing for anatomy. For physio, make sure you understand the figures given to you in your lecture. I usually had to go back to the book to read/understand the context and what it was showing, as he usually tested on a lot of the information that he went over via these figures.
Immunology. Oh man, this class was a beast. Like I said in a previous post here*, Dr. Shnyra throws a lot at you but is very willing to take his time outside of the allotted class time to help you if you are confused. I did a lot of re-writing my notes to try to re-organize them (not the best use of my time for this class), making large tables with all of the functions of certain interleukins/chemokines as you need to know them, comparing/contrasting certain leukocytes and immunoglobulins, those types of things. I usually did this in google docs though as I could easily find the information using the command + F function on my Mac computer.
Hint 1: Okay, just go to tutoring for this one. You will need it. If not for the organization of the material, at least to help make some connections for you. And the questions. You want those questions; trust me.
Hint 2: His slides are organized via how the book is organized, but that DOES NOT MEAN the powerpoint itself is organized where everything on one topic is grouped together, etc. Immunology seriously doesn’t make sense until you know all of the facts, making it confusing. But let me tell you, just trying to re-organize the information from his slides into something that made sense to me was the hardest part.
Hint 3: You should be looking/studying/trying to figure out immuno either everyday or at least every other day. As mentioned in a previous post*, I didn’t like the book. But using other immunology resources to help simplify the material so you understand it is crucial.
Hint 4: He can test on very broad topics to very minute, specific details. Make questions the day of lecture so you can continually quiz yourself over the material. I liked multiple choice because my brain had an easier time recognizing the information that way than fill in the blank, and he tests using multiple choice. I did make a few short answer/fill-in-the-blank, but usually got them wrong because it was just a lot for my brain to handle. *Remember, continual exposure will get the information stuck in your brain faster*.
For microbiology, I had to stay fairly on top of my notes as we were quizzed once a week on the material. But we took group quizzes, meaning we used our iclickers to buzz in our answer, but we could chat with our classmates before putting in the answer. She also gave reviews, so she would point us in the right direction for what to hardcore study for the test. I usually wrote out the topics I was confused about or topics that Dr. Kincaid spent more time on during lecture to better understand them, and would supplement them with the book information.
Hint: I suggest writing out all of the short answer/essay topics given to you with a group so you can make sure you guys have all the complete information. She usually only has you pick one from many of the sub-options available for essays, so you can see which one is easiest for you to remember and only have to remember that one sub-essay topic to write about. I.e., when we were learning about immunoglobulins in micro, there are 6, but we only had to pick one to know thoroughly to write about.
For embryology, I didn’t feel doing the objectives were super helpful. Staying on top of the information, i.e. reviewing the class notes the day of lecture was helpful. I usually re-wrote my notes anyways on paper so I could figure out the drawings with my notes next to them. Again, I learn with everything all together so I don’t have to flip through and hunt for the information. Since this class is also taught by Dr. Anderson, he will give a review.
Hint: I said this in a previous post*, but make sure you look at the end of the chapter book questions. He tends to use some of these on your test.
I found this infographic online which I think is super helpful in helping you determine what ways taking notes are available and how well they help you learn/remember the content!
Class Progression
Each class has 3 tests per semester. Each test block has 5 weeks from start to finish. For the year I attended COB, we had one exam week, with one exam each day at 9am. Testing blocks were standard 2 hours, but Dr. Anderson always cut his down to 1.5 hours (really you need max 1 hour for his tests, much less if you studied based off his reviews).
In general, the second test for most courses tends to be the hardest.
Biochem, Anatomy, Physiology, Epidemiology, Immunology, and Molecular are all core classes. Microbiology, Histology, Embryology, and Genetics are all electives. You pick one elective per semester.
In my year, the above schedule was for the first semester. I believe they are changing the order for the next year.
Let me know if you have any questions down below, and comment what you would like to see next!