my preparation for exams (term two)

For this second lot of exams, I took a different approach to revision. I decided to use mind maps, hand-drawn diagrams and flashcards as my main modes of revision and I decided not to write out lecture notes as I found it time-consuming and really not that helpful.

An example of a hand-drawn diagram I made is this one:

In the above diagram, I also colour coded - for example, Na+ is in orange, H2O is in blue, etc.

Mind maps were useful for anatomy and for more complex concepts. For example, I attended a lecture on the digestive system and I wanted to condense the sheer amount of information I needed to learn for the exam. In order to do this, I connected all of the clinically relevant things in one mind map. I made it a bit more interesting by adding some colour but there was no colour coding on this occasion.

With my bus journey being one hour each morning and each evening (sometimes more if traffic is bad - it was ninety minutes throughout March due to roadworks), instead of spending that time staring into space, I made flashcards to use for my commute.

The flashcards are very boring and not exactly aesthetically pleasing but they do the job. I only made flashcards for things I found it hard to remember and the condensation of information on each card means that learning big chunks of information isn't as intimidating as they could be than if I was just reading them off some lecture slides.

In terms of organising my revision, I allocated two days to each condition studied (so, two days for each week) and this allowed me to decide when to start hardcore revision and also ensured that I got everything done in time for the exams. Of course, I revised at the end of each week too so I managed to avoid cramming (something I'm not a massive fan of but did a lot in my first degree!).

Finally, I made use of practice questions I found online, in books or supplied by my uni. They were invaluable in showing me where the holes in my knowledge were but also helped me learn new things. In fact, some practice questions I did came up in the real exams so this is one thing I'll definitely do again next time.

my week #103

This is the first week of my new module and I thought it would be a good idea to schedule in a few events where I catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while due to exams at the end of the last module. This has resulted in a significant dent to my bank account and probably a few kilograms in weight gained too. Back to some running it is then...

How has your week been?

term two lecture notes

This term, I've opted not to write out every single lecture because it is just too time-consuming. As a result, my term two notes looked considerably different to my term one notes.

I am still using washi tape to highlight titles and sub-sections. For example, I have a 'handover' guide:

After each week, I summarise that week's work on a single side of A4 (sometimes, it turns into both sides of A4 if it's a week with a lot of content). This helps me look back at the week quickly and allow me to decide what to concentrate revision on because this summary helps me pinpoint what things I struggled with.

I also decided to start summarising things on A3 paper. This condenses the information and makes learning it all more manageable.

If I struggled with any lecture content, I would write the difficult bits out instead and then annotate it with scribblings that help me make sense of things.

On the actual lecture slides, I would put a sticky note at the front, referring to the clinically significant slides:

Each week, I have an anatomy session in the dissection room and we get given some anatomy sheets. I download these sheets and then stick in some pictures and diagrams that aid my learning. I then go back to these notes and highlight things that I kept forgetting.

After each tutorial, I summarised the content and broke it down into smaller chunks. Here is an example:

I am still using coloured pens as I find that colour aids my learning.

All in all, I just condensed information and summarised everything. It's easy to get bogged down in the minute detail of everything but that's not required for this course. I quickly learnt that breadth easily trumps depth on this course!

If you have any questions about these notes and how I organise them, please do leave a comment or email me and I will try my best to respond in a timely manner. However, please bear in mind that my time is severely stretched at the moment and it might take me a few days to a few weeks to answer sometimes! (Apologies to those who have already experienced this!)

a special handwritten post for #NatStatWeek