u/FocusSensei

You might have seen my post about my journey from burnt out med grad studying alone to passing my medical licensing exam. I helped as many students/ professionals in the comments and private messages as I could. Now I want to make it more specific to the issues I've seen the most.

Do you feel like you are constantly revising because its feels like you keep forgetting everything you learn? There is a learning concept called spaced repetition. You remember by repeating in a certain way.

Your brain is always getting new information. And it has to decide what to keep and what to throw away. So that's why most things get thrown away. Its only when you try to remember it and can't , you're brain thinks: "oops, im sorry I wont throw that away again."

This probably hapened to you before: you forgot someone's name and got embarrassed when they realized you forgot their name. But after that embarrassing situation you never forgot it again. Spaced repetition is about using that concept that your brain already uses in everyday life. But I will teach you how to use it in studying in the email letter coming out tomorrow morning (May 12th). Subscribe so you don't miss it:.

Share your experience in the comments after reading the article and the other answers, I'll help as many as I can!

Procrastination is a trap I fall into regularly, but I learnt how to beat it everytime.

I built a solid study system that helped me pass my first medical licensing exam. But even months into following that study system, every once in a while I fall into procrastination.

Falling into it is not the issue. Its knowing the step by step thought process and actions to get out of it consistently.

You are going to have days where you fell into the trap but one unprofuctive day doesnt have to turn into a week of not studying/working.

This is the step by step pdf guide for free. Click to have it delivered to your email: thestudentcomeback.substack.com

Intro: I graduated medical school, moved to a different country and had to sit for my medical licensing exams. I wasn't enrolled somewhere with classmates. Most my classmates from med school were doing different things.

I knew deep inside something felt off. I wasn't really learning. And when I asked the few people that did it before: how they studied but I quickly realized they knew how to describe what they did but not what went on in their heads as they learned. So I just powered through. I was just mindlessly going through the motions for longer hours and continuously got disappointed with the practice tests. (This is the equivalent of someone not knowing how to build a house so they just got the equipment and stayed out in the blazing sun all day without making any progress). No wonder I got burnt out.

I had to grapple with the fact that maybe I didn't know how to learn. It was a scary realization but also freeing. I was relying on study habits that I have been picking up since grade school and I didn't know which were working and which weren't, because I didn't know what learning was scientifically-speaking (kind of Ironic that I study evidence-based medicine but I didn't know what learning was from a scientific point of view).

I learnt several well researched learning concepts: Encoding and Spaced repetition were the main ones. And how to apply them. I sometimes reference them in other posts and comments, but I go into good detail in my weekly email letter Click here to get the weekly email

A few guidelines for the questions:-

1. Read through the other answers, you might find the answer you were looking for
2. You can also private message me to ask
3. I might take a few hours or a day to respond. I'll do my best to answer as quickly as I can