Out-there learning methods?

January 30, 2018 11:21 AM

Hello! I'm in the middle of studying for a medical board exam. (Step 2, for those interested.) I am already doing the regular stuff--practice questions, flashcards, outlines--but would like suggestions of more bizarre learning techniques that people employ.

For example, when I am listening to a boring lecture, I sometimes pretend that I am an entirely different person who is extremely interested in this topic. Or I pretend that it's happening in one of my favorite college lecture halls (a long time ago for me now!). Or when I'm in bed at night, I pretend that I'm floating above a graph or a figure.

What kind of offbeat stuff do you do? The stranger, the better. Thank you!

posted by 8603 to Education (16 answers total)

Response by poster: I should add--non-wacko ideas are also welcome. Thank you!
posted by 8603 at 11:25 AM on January 30, 2018

See that you're already using flashcards, but I have had great success learning things using Anki https://apps.ankiweb.net/
posted by ejfox at 11:42 AM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: In high school I read the material aloud to my leprechaun and he sat on my desk and recited it back to me during tests. (N.b. he was a professorial looking gent in a tweed jacket who smoked a briar pipe, not the cartoonish modern type.) We never got caught!
Is that bizarre enough?
posted by Botanizer at 11:46 AM on January 30, 2018 [15 favorites]

An old musicians' trick for memorization is to start memorizing a piece at the end. First learn the last measure. Then learn the last two measures. Then learn the last three. That way, when you're playing it, it gets more and more familiar (and you get more and more confident) as you go on.

I've also used it for poems and stories, and I imagine it works just as well for other things that come in linear order. (Travel directions? Algorithms? Long proofs? Historical eras?)
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:03 PM on January 30, 2018 [14 favorites]

Put things you have to memorize, to music. For example, if you have a sequence to memorize, try this to "Yankee Doodle". It won't scan properly, but that's not really necessary. The association between the music and the content matters more.

First I have to do the Whatsit,
Then apply the thing-y,
Then I do this other action,
And check to see the result.

If it's under 34,
Ihe patient is unwell;
If it's over 48,
I have to prescribe This Drug.
posted by angiep at 12:12 PM on January 30, 2018 [7 favorites]

GNU tool for mental model and organization: Freeplane

Taxonomy and note taking is a whole lot more fluid when I can also let my mind wander where it needs to - and I can quickly snap back to the root if I find myself overly stuck on a path.
posted by Nanukthedog at 12:14 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I agree with puting memorization to music. I still remember the preposition song I learned in school 35 years ago!
posted by bendy at 12:34 PM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had a Fine Arts teacher in high school who would compose lyrics incorporating the material we were studying into songs from Disney movies. I can still remember a Titian-themed "Be Our Guest".
posted by kevinbelt at 12:38 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Memory Palace?
posted by gregr at 1:07 PM on January 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

An old musicians' trick for memorization is to start memorizing a piece at the end. First learn the last measure. Then learn the last two measures. Then learn the last three. That way, when you're playing it, it gets more and more familiar (and you get more and more confident) as you go on.

This is called back-chaining and it's a thing! Google turns up results related to both foreign-language-learning and dog training but not much else, which seems like two oddly specific use-cases for a broadly-applicable technique. I know about it from dog-training.

OP, how about clicker training yourself for M&M rewards?
posted by soren_lorensen at 1:23 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Gregr, I'm afraid this is more the brutalist apartment building of memory!
posted by 8603 at 3:28 PM on January 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

At high school we made plasticine models of human anatomy. It really helped with recall, (even if I do still envisage the prostate as a small purple doughnut!)
posted by embrangled at 3:47 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

When I studied for Steps 1 & 2, it was a lot of Goljan. I would put it on my mp3 player and play it while jogging. Even now, years later, I can still associate certain disease entities with specific locations along my running route. So, study while doing routine outdoor activities, like jogging or mowing the lawn.

I would also color-code notes. During the exam, I could recall the exact page from First Aid or Step Up. Those visual aids help.

Hide flash cards in weird places, so you find Fun Facts while, say, brushing your teeth. I find that out-of-context recollection helps retention.

I don't have much more advice, unfortunately. Med school, as you know, is a bunch of pounding info into your head rote. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Oh, and dirty mnemonics (there's a reason there are so many around - they REALLY work).
posted by aquamvidam at 3:50 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mnemonics. They are the only reason I still know which of the cranial nerves are motor and which are sensory.

Depending on how much time you have, I only really got to grips with the finer points of the complement activation pathway when I was asked to run a CPD session about HUS/TTP. So maybe make a mini-presentation on your most difficult topics? (You need more than just revision notes - you need notes detailed enough to teach from).
posted by tinkletown at 4:01 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I found it effective to write pornographic fanfiction using vocabulary words I was studying for the GRE. Maybe you can figure out some medical scenarios for your favorite characters to find themselves in....naked.

Changing the scenery helps a lot too. I remember where I was when I studied a lot of things. Try unusual places like mall food courts, hotel lobbies, and laundromats.
posted by lakeroon at 6:33 PM on January 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

Currently tutoring students a year below me. It forces me to rethink everything I am learning in new ways and to explain it to someone who has yet to grasp the physiological material being presented. Also, I partnered up with another loner student who is studying for a similar-but-different program who is taking the NCLEX at the end of this term. We have a running Google Doc with scenarios, interactions, result ranges, and random anatomy/physiology-related questions. We comment it with material from lectures and add links for quality youtube explanations or scans of textbook material. Seems baseline, but accountability with a fellow studious partner can really activate something within you to get this knowledge down. When I was working, I had co-workers who were EMTs or former Medics surprise me with on-the-fly questions during our shift. I feel I did better on exams as a result of those interactions.

And, my learning style skews heavy on the kinesthetic and written so my fancy butt draws illnesses and injury all over my body. During the day, looking down to my sternum for notes about subclavian steal syndrome is a little weird but also pretty helpful for my memorization needs.
posted by missh at 7:26 PM on January 30, 2018 [1 favorite]