“I can’t keep it all straight.”
“There’s too much to know.”
“I don’t have enough time.”
These are the three most common phrases I hear; I hear them over and over and over.
I understand it’s difficult. I understand there’s a lot of material, and that there’s a finite amount of time to learn it.
If you can’t spend more time studying, then you need to rethink how you’re spending your study time.
Rereading notes and texts has been shown to provide very little benefit. Despite all the data, rereading and highlighting remain the most popular study techniques among students.
The issue is that when students read over their notes, they become fluent with their notes. This feels really good. Like you’re making progress. The problem is that you aren’t mastering the concepts and ideas. You’re not building durable memories with roadmaps and cues to find the stored information.
The words simply slide through your mind.
No wonder you don’t remember what you studied yesterday. No wonder you don’t remember what you studied a month ago. Those were just words moving across your mind and now they are gone. You can recognize the words if you go back to your notes, but you have not mastered them.
On your exams, you are asked to pull the information from memory without your notes or texts to cue you.
In the March issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletter, you’re going to learn to build a better picture. You’re going to learn how to hold more data in your brain, and then (even more importantly) access it when you need it.
I finished writing it last week and I don’t want to toot my own horn, but this one is pretty gosh darn good. It heads to the printer soon.
Get your fingers on this issue:
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace