Healthy Living:

I finished a stressful week this monday. We had a difficult exam for blood & lymph, and it was not until the 2 nights before that I realized I don't know anything and that I don't know how to study. I really need to reaccessed my studying habit, because I just knew that with this studying pattern, I will probably fail the next exam.

I passed. It was a pretty rough day, and I didn't sleep. I had like 4 hours the day before, and no sleep the day of the exam. I was extremely tired and was pretty much falling off my seat.

I don't know. I don't think medical school is easy at all. I was struggling, and I am still.

In the past few days, I also realized that I am hitting burn out. Its getting harder to study and stay focus. It was not until my fear of failure trump my burn out did I turn full focus on studying. But one things still ring true. It was that I cannot keep up with my old studying habit. It was just not going going to cut it with this new class and exams. With an increase in lvl of memorization, my outline has become more and more ineffective. I realized that it is a defect in my studying habit.

Here is what I know.
1. I am a visual learning & auditory learner. It comes faster & stick longer
2. For brute straight memorized facts, making stories works great.
3. I cannot absolutely cannot start doing "brain studying" the nights before.
4. I need to stay organized of my information. The more organized I am, the better I can see the big picture & the small pictures.

So here are the key points to take home:
1. Absolutely No brain study 2 days before.
2. Organized information is important, but it does not secured info in my head (ex:Charts are great organizer. But terrible rememberizer.)
3. Straight memorized facts, chart aren't helpful. Making stories helps alot.

Thus, from what I have gathered, I realized this for my next upcoming exam:
1. Organizating information alone will not get me anywhere.
2. Make "End of Exam" schedule early on
3.  (a) put everything into necessary chart to keep organized
     (b) Synthesized the chart: (1) make story (2) make flashcard * have to go through it 2x
4. Relationships + route = need to draw it out
5. Reciting: when studying, need to recite. I realized that when I start to talk to myself the information, it works just as good as "brain studying" because I'm consciouly making sense of the story. And I'm also repeating that 1 more to keep solidate everything. This is the fastest route of understanding for me. It takes me 6 minutes to summarized, and another 3 minutes to occurs. It might be my best weapon yet, since it  put all the information I need to know into focus.

I know neuro is hard, and it is completely on a different level. From here, I still haven't figures out how to study yet but I know 3 main facts:

1. ABSOLUTELY NO brain study 2 days prior. (I will for sure fail)
2. Have 1 day gaps. Week of the test, Live 1 day forward.
3. Organization, outline (are no longer as effective to MEMORIZED brute facts).
4. Reciting = important factors + fast way to use time effect to recollect important info.

Now, I will classified Brain study:
1. Synthesized information & talk it through.
2. Making story that sticks
3. Small mneomic.
4. Brain learning: is testing your knowledge, anything that forces you to Recollect the information that has been learned it.