How to form concepts?
As a teacher to the medical students, I have been able to understand the method lacuna in exam preparation prevalent among many of them. There is hardly a self-appraisal and studying becomes very difficult due to the multiple concepts and subjects that divert their attention throughout the years dedicated to become doctors. There is a thin line between brilliance and stupidity, the latter is for those who do not study smart, stay with books but nothing fruitful occurs with books open. Those who study by rote are using their potential to the maximum but it stays only to regurgitate in exams, after which they do not remember if they really know what they learnt or whether had clear concepts. They are doing the futile hard work, not brilliant allocation of time and attention.
A targeted hard work is essential and not a haphazard attempt to learn. What works for me, might help those who want to clear their concepts and really learn the text, which applies not only medical students, but also for people who are keen on learning at any age. So the learning process is as follows:
Do the scoping-Before we sit for the first lecture or class or an online source of learning pertaining to a theme like communicable diseases, decide how large it is. Buy the books relevant to the theme, or study material accessible online. Check whether your resources are complete and plan when can you give attention to this course, every day or every week? Do we need to attend lectures and classes to learn the topic? In case you decide to attend lectures, be prepared with the theme by scoping about the topic, for example, measles, and other exanthema. Start with your expectations from the class. Logically think what could be important to understand in the lecture? Is there a pattern or classification that might help you? Go through the sub-headings and become more oriented for the topic. This exercise should be followed religiously every day whenever you have time to plan the next day, next month’s topics and finally all the courses covered in a year in all the subjects being taught. Remember you cannot waste time; you have decided to learn something so structure it for best results and consequently lessen panic before exams.
Known to unknown introspection- To help remember and follow the concept, we need to recall the microbiology of exanthema (the known from previous class), then what you do not know, jot down in your notes like a checklist. Strike out what has been covered during the lecture or class in your list, clear doubts if you are unsatisfied about the known or unknown facts being taught. Or come back home and read the text to complete the known to unknown gap. If you have listened attentively, we need just half an hour to revise what was taught. Learn what is easy before what is difficult for you, but do not be satisfied with only the easy part, devote time to bask into the difficult sub-topics for better understanding and long-term learnings.
Pay attention to details- Allocate time for about 2 hours in a week to further your theoretical memory for the exanthema. Read your book in detail, add on to your lecture notes for that extra edge. Finalize your notes and secure them for your final exams.
Draw a mind map- To be sure of the topic, draw a flowchart of your learnings like agent factors responsible for measles, environmental triggers and host factors, comparing it with another exanthema. What are the signs and symptoms, pathology and finally management? This exercise takes only 10 minutes time.
Refer to the notes again- Find out how good is your mind map. Was there something missing, or something wrongly interpreted? Do you need to clear doubts from text or teachers? Then go about it.
Re-write what you missed in the mind map- Do not just read, create another flowchart including all details. You can scribble. The idea is to get the concept right and not to save these mind maps, your notes are already ready to revise later for exams. You can add a comprehensive mind map neatly placed at the end of your notes, if you think it would work when you decide to prepare the topic again in 1–2 years’ time. Remember repetition is necessary throughout to memorize anything with clear understanding. Some things might change, a few events and milestones, new research. Whenever you come across a novelty, add it to your notes. This helps build your knowledge further and you remember the story of measles, the journey of measles, for example.
Recall with or without writing- Keep revising in mind until you get it. All of it once or twice in a month along with other topics in different subjects that you need to cover. Use flash cards for 15 days, revise for 15 minutes in a day. Try the App Anki Pro to develop flash cards. This step is extremely important for setting a long-term memory about the learnt topic or concept.
Apply- Reflect for new insights, keep skimming for a month or teach the concept in the simplest language. Try to solve questions from past year exams, verbally or take a quiz online or solve objective questions, so that the concept is applied and learnt and absorbed thoroughly.
Try these steps for any kind of course, any school of thought and for any book that you may read. I am a proponent of quality not quantity. Never waste your formative years. If these steps become a habit, there will be no difficulty in doing the hard work in future when we apply what is learnt, and become better than others who never bothered to learn intelligently.
Studying is fun…when it becomes a habit!!
