How to/how do you learn?

[s0p0g]

alrighty then, my first thread (yay.) - i hope the searchbar didn't trick me into it as it didn't give any results on this topic

long story short, i've got lots of stuff to learn for uni (really just plain and stupid and therefore VERY boring memorising => medicine), and i really have a problem with that;
not your usual "just wait another week and then pass the tests with some luck", but some serious procrastination which makes passing tests impossible (without an eidetic memory you have to put some effort into learning hundreds and literally thousands of pages), to the point where i don't learn at all but instead my brain decides to sleep all day (like, wtf brain? come on...)
the best i could do so far was learning a week before some test (at best, usually a day or two - and that's a bit too short), and usually it isn't enough - you can't press all the stuff of one semester into your skull within a week

so to those who had serious problems with procrastination as well: how did you "defeat" it? what keeps you up and running?


p.s.: i don't know how other countries handle medicine: in Germany, during the first 2 years you learn the basics - mainly anatomy, biochemistry (as dry as it gets), physiology and some other stuff - the interesting things you actually need in a clinic come afterwards.
now the thing is, except for anatomy, the other topics (more often than not) go too far into detail (unless you want to go into research afterwards) to be relevant for your everyday work at the clinic - it's NOT that i don't like the topics in general, but the "good lord, no-one will ever need that again"-effect occurs too often (at least for me, that is), considering the sheer amount of stuff to stupidly learn (guess all that basically applies to other studies as well, but considering my friends need (less than) a handfull of small books for their BAs, and compare it to my tower - which is bound to grow - i can't help but think "you idiot" xD )
and yes, i am a very curious person in general, and i can focus on stuff i'm really interested in as long as it takes to *understand* (as opposed to just *learn* - that's what bothers me most, i guess - no real challenge, just plain and stupid memorising stuff) it - but my brain kind of has a mind of its own and doesn't really do what i want/need it to

so yeah, fire away!

 

[Amethyst Wind]

I'm a combination visual-auditory-kinetic learner. I learn best when I see, hear and do the work. Individually I'd rank them as most helpful-kinetic>auditory>visual-least helpful.

That being said I feel that currently I work on a time delay of around 18 hours. I might not be too good at remembering something just after looking at it but if I leave it alone and come back the next day I can more readily recall the information.

I recall best in conversations with others and become more able to remember the longer and more animated the conversation becomes.

Heh, crap acceleration but great top speed.

 

[s0p0g]

Heh, crap acceleration but great top speed.

that's what it's all about at the end

but i agree, the whole repetion-multimodal thing works best
if it just weren't so boring xD

 

[Angie7F]

Repetition by memory cards for me.
Also writing out notes on the contents.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Pretty much writing out the info again but as bulletpoing. Also shorten it so it contain only the key facts and highlight it aswell. If possible try to write some info like in rhyme or verse or something in a jingle as it will help you to remember the info more. You should try to do it in two hours and then take a half an hour break (memorizing throught the info will only bored you).
Lastly repetition is key.

 

[nariette]

I know what you are talking about, I'm a bit of a procrastinator myself. The point is, it has never been a problem for me. I can study a lot of information in a short amount of time. In 99% of the cases I didn't study more than one day ahead, I always do everything the day before the test. When there is a really important test, I will study two days ahead, and the way I do that is forcing myself: I write down a scheme of which chapters I want to study, and I just throw myself of the couch. It is hard to do, but really, just say to yourself that you'll count to ten and then you'll start studying.

After you have dealt with the procrastination, try to make a summary: read the chapter, and write down the most important things. After you are done with that, You have already studied whole of the chapter. Then just read your summary through a lot of times, and right before you take the test.

I guess studying is different for everybody, try to find a way that makes things like this a bit more endurable.

 

[s0p0g]

snip

yeah, when i was still at school that worked quite well, but at some point at uni there's just so much you simply cannot read the sheer amount of stuff you have to; a day simply isn't long enough for it; at least if it's not just reading but, you know, *getting* the stuff you have to learn
starting a day or two before the test or whatever was due worked now and then, but now... it's simply too much ^^

oh well
anyway guys, thanks for the input so far - keep 'em coming!

 

[Chromatic Aberration]

-snip-

Medicine is probably one of those subjects that really rely very heavily on just learning and absorbing information; Especially in the first two years as I have been told by many of my peers who went on to study this - also mother is a physician so....yeah...I can relate. Personally I'm currently finishing my studies in Physics but I also took some courses in Biochemistry so I might have some decent tips on how you can properly go about learning all that stuff.

1) Make connections and think about the stuff you learn. It's one thing to just learn it and another to really think about it, because that is usually where it gets interesting for me. For instance Sickle Cell Anemia is caused by just replacing one (or a few can't recall) acidic amino-acid with a lipophile one in the haemoglobin protein. It's those kinds of connections, those perturbations where you can see how such a simple error in terms of an amino-acid sequence causes a systemic disease that you as a doctor need to treat at some point that turn the info from useless to interesting for me. Or perhaps take anatomy: how about comparing the anatomic structure of one your pets to human anatomy - where are the differences? Why? What about evolutionary or historical aspects (For instance the Zwischenkieferbein (sorry didn't find a translation - sue me) is not without reason also sometimes referred to as "Goethe-Knochen")? Those things might be able to make you remember all that stuff by their connections and implications - in fact, it's pretty much a very standard thing to do if you are out to memorize a bunch of random stuff: Make up a story about it or somesuch - it helps immensely.

Your mileage will, however, certainly vary on that; I'm a physicist after all and really thrive on these kinds of mechanical aspects. Also, in terms of Biochemistry I really liked the presentation in Müller-Esterl [http://www.amazon.de/Biochemie-Einführung-Mediziner-Naturwissenschaftler-Biowissenschaften/dp/3827420032/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370986477&sr=8-1&keywords=m%C3%BCller+esterl+biochemie], although I don't know how it compares to Stryers book [http://www.amazon.de/Stryer-Biochemie-Jeremy-M-Berg/dp/3827429889/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1370986512&sr=8-2&keywords=Stryer+Biochemistry] which is usually cited as a classic - give it a look, though.

2) Use efficient methods to organize your stuff. My standardized approach to any kind of exam was usually to take about two weeks in advance to work through the script, the exercises, look through some books when things were unclear, summarize the script and then learn using my summary while resorting to the script and books again when I couldn't remember something in there anymore - it worked perfectly for me and the summaries I did still prove a very useful dictionary when I can't remember something but know that I did it at some point in a certain lecture. Such an approach might help you too - at least to organize, say, the different Biochemical Pathways and how they feed into each other.

Also do exercises, even when you are just learning the stuff: write down the most important formulae again and again until you know them by heart - for instance the nucleic bases or somesuch. Let another person ask you about anatomy. Try to write down whole pathways - that kind of stuff. It's work but it really helps a lot.

3)Simple but: don't procrastinate and devote enough time to learn that shit. I always took two weeks, give or take a few days depending on the lecture. You must find that kind of balance to really know your stuff well enough in advance so that you can pass, preferably with a decent grade if needed. But all that time doesn't help if you end up procrastinating - you really have to force yourself to do it during those weeks; One of the most useful things to achieve this is to go away from where you normally procrastinate[footnote]say in front of your PC that just so happens to have a giant Steam Icon sitting in the middle of its Desktop - oh how I hate Steam..... [/footnote] to a place where you simply don't have the means to do so: try for instance the university library or quiet outdoor areas on campus and stay there until the day is over[footnote]I sifted through a whole book on Quantum Field Theory while sitting in a beer garden with my laptop one summer - I always celebrated with a good Weizen afterwards; Good times ^_^[/footnote]. It also helps to set your alarm to make you get up early so that you have more time of the day to spend learning. Still, you won't succeed without effort in uni - I highly suggest you make a real effort to make it work.

Apart from those tips, you also might consider PMing Skeleon [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Skeleon] and ask him for advice. He's a microbiologist now if I'm not mistaken and also studied medicine until maybe a year or so ago.