The number one thing is to focus on LEARNING and NOT memorizing. For the most part, I really did try to do this. But sometimes it gets down to crunch-time the night before an exam and you just have to memorize a bunch of stuff. All of the things that I just memorized the night before an exam left my brain a few days later.
Medicine is all about building knowledge. Yes, there is a lot to just commit to memory, but it is so much easier to do so if you understand it first. It can be really hard first and second year because you have not had all of the systems yet. It can be hard to see how everything fits together. You learn about lab values associated with certain diseases without having another system that helps you understand what those lab values even mean. If I could do it differently, I would look things up more than just memorizing them and actually understand them. I would also try to put things in a clinical context as much as possible.
Other than that, find the study method that works best for you. Don’t spread your resources too thin. It can be tempting to see people doing really well on exams and finding out they used a specific resource that you didn’t use. That resource might work for you, but it might not. Everyone learns differently so always remember that. And have fun!
