How Do Medical School Students Manage To Memorize Such A High Volume Of Information?

How do medical school students manage to memorize such a high volume of information in their first two years of medical school?


This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Habib Fanny, I play doctor at the hospital.

1. Nothing I had done before med school could have prepared me for the sheer volume of information there was to be learned. If you had actually shown me what I would have to study on a weekly basis, I would have deemed it impossible. But, since ignorance is bliss, I applied and got admitted to med school, with the assumption being that if I were smart—and I believed I was—then I could study pretty much anything and do well.
2. By the time I found out just how much of a challenge it would be, my options were limited:
   1. Quit. If I did this, I would see myself as a coward and a failure. I would disappoint myself and my parents. And I would also be giving credence to people who believed I had only been admitted because of affirmative action. There was also the pesky matter of my student loans.
   2. Remain:
      1. Remain and fail: in which case, I might as well have quit and spared myself the pain.
      2. Remain and pass: in which case, I was just going to have to study however much I needed to study to continue passing.

It really was that simple. What it meant was that med school was my full time job. It wasn’t something you did in the morning, only to have the afternoon off. It wasn’t like college at all. You had to just spend most of your time either in class (you could also skip class and watch recorded lectures) or studying. Every week, there was a test that contained about the same amount of information as an undergraduate midterm.

The third year of med school isn’t any easier either. In a way, it’s harder. You have to spend all day at work, then go home and study. As someone who craves me time, it was really hard to feel that I had much of a life of my own.

Some people say they have fun in med school. Some even look back on those years with fondness. I wish I could say the same. What I did was survive as best I could because the only alternative was not surviving.

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I remember feeling the same way, but in fourth year everything changes.... everything gets better from then onwards