🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - skl.sh/2UOx68x TIMESTAMPS 01:17 - Use your seniors 03:18 - Keep the exam in mind 05:03 - Understand the big picture 07:43 - Use Active Recall and Spaced Repetition 10:07 - Do a bit of work each day 12:49 - Avoid flashcard overload 14:54 - Pre-read for lectures 16:33 - Textbooks are overrated 19:30 - Recommended resources for each subject - Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology 29:12 - Work together 31:50 - Wrap-up
All your work here has been spot on. You are a natural teacher and I am sure that will translate to what kind ofa doctor you will be. I am a doctor, a neurologist in practice in New York City, having graduated medical school in 1982. Clearly the experience has changed to a significant degree but your advice in this episode is brilliant. In many ways, I wish I could start the life experience of going to medical school once again, especially with all the available resources through the internet that was never available when I went through this. The bottom line I have discovered is that it doesn’t matter what medical school one goes to but rather the kind of person you are, your personal motivation and hope that you have the one thing that really cannot be taught, but must be part of the substance of the person one is... and that is empathy. With empathy , you are essentially guaranteed to make a difference in patient’s lives and also that you will continue to love your life’s work. I will continue to watch this series with joy and interest and I thank you for all your fine work.
Dr. Dustyn Williams says, "Most, if not all, successful medical students succeed in spite of their institution...not because of it." Medicine is self-study. Medical school gives you a checklist and a focused/biased view, then the students go out to find more efficient resources and teach themselves the content.
The advice about not overusing Anki and looking at past exams early is absolutely GOLDEN! I started learning anatomy for the first time last week (still undergrad) and have 800 flashcards just on the upper and lower limb and released yesterday I don't understand any of the bigger concepts. Thank you so much for this :)
My Takeaways: * Use your seniors, know what you do not know and ask for help * Understand the concepts * Ask “Why is this bad?” * Active recall * Spaced repetition * Just a little bit of work “each” day (20 mins each day such a difficult task??) * “Doing an hour a day is pretty good” Be efficient with it ### `Consistency is king` * Pre-reading for lectures > Textbooks are overrated > Use them when you are looking for something specific
The last point is my favourite! I’m gonna start pre med in a few days and my parents are already pressuring me not to tell others about how I study and really feel disgusted about their mindset. It really makes me happy that you’re telling us to enjoy studying with others rather than just alone.Thank you so much for all the advice you gave in this video! You just lifted my spirits!😊
@universal Well keep your hobbies, they do help you in the long run. Just tone it down to a few hours per day. And it's best if you start revising your 11th and 12th grade human organ systems. It really really helps in the 1st year is Medschool. And it's your choice if you wanna start studying 1st year syllabus. It's for the best though, so that you can catch up easily with the lectures. They teach you a lot in a very short amount of time.
@Nithyasree Sathyanarayanan hello.i am doing premed course now (but I am also reading anatomy simultaneously on my own).any advice for me?should I start reading physiology and biochemistry? I do play some game like clash of clan, Should I stop playing games when I start my MD?
@Srishail S Pujar I finished premed a few months ago and just enrolled in medical school. And what you’re saying is true. But finding a studying partner can be just someone who has a lot of knowledge and is at or maybe above your level. Discussing topics, questions and doubts are a good thing in my opinion. And I’m not telling you to stick with a few people, you can just find anyone who studies well and talk with them. Longterm friendships are hard to find, they just come to you naturally. You just have to be yourself and enjoy your activities. I personally separate my study life from my personal life, which makes it easier. Study partners are different from real friends for me because finding a person in both categories is definitely rare. Help others in any way you can and some grateful people will definitely help you in trouble. No worries, you’ve got this. I do study alone, because self study is very very important in medschool. But be sure to discuss with people who love studying as much as you do sometimes, to get new perceptions and questions. It’ll broaden your horizons and studies do show that teaching others helps you absorb and remember information really well.
For my first lecture of Biology class in freshmen year of college, my professor taught us long term potentiation (essentially active recall), spaced repetition, memory palaces, and organisers. Organisers include the lecture topic, main concepts, main sub-concepts, an organiser (I.e a way to sort such concepts with details examples of sorting includes flowcharts, mind maps, hypothesise/diagnose, table, etc), key words in each sub-topic, 3 boxes for check marks (if you decide to re-do those organisers, and the last is how the sub-topic relates to the bigger picture. We do these for every lecture and it’s really useful for finals.
You are SO amazing and one of the few people on the internet whom I really appreciate and look up to. It's so rare to find someone whose every idea is just so well-formulated and explained in a way that you need absolutely zero effort to get your head around what that person is trying to say (which is GREAT because it's all this really easy flow of ideas that you find yourself eager to just keep on watching). I could hear you rumbling for hours and it'd add so much to my knowledge on how to study/how to approach medicine and how to just be a really nice, kind and well-rounded person. I'm guilty of being one of those first years on instagram bombarding you with questions and it's so lovely of you to answer us and give us a bit of your time. Looking forward to all you upcoming videos and have a lovely day xx
I do almost all of the stuff above and now that i am in year 3 i prefer video lectures over Harrison's and then i just passively read through Harrison's looking for points i missed in the video lectures , i used to think im not doing enough considering how everyone in india says we need to study 8-9hrs from the text book , but now that i know a doctor from cambridge suggests otherwise , i feel really confident in my way of studying , thanks buddy 💪
On the note of pre-reading for lectures- that technique is called 'flipped classrooms'. I'm studying teaching and we are required to do this (and thats how i know what it's called lol) BUT it's a really, really great way of gaining a deeper understanding of a topic, even if you use it to figure out what you don't understand and know what to ask when you are in class. Plus, it kind of works like spaced repetition too ;)
Heyy you are amazing!! I’m starting med school in a week and thanks to you I can already see my first class ♥️😭 Can you try to make a video on writing essays and structuring them? And pleaseee carry on this series I’ve been binging your whole channel this past week and it’s been an amazing journey ♥️ Thank you soo much for your content ♥️
How to use Anki properly would be really good. I struggled a little with the magic spreadsheet but I found it useful for concepts, and Anki for facts (like Pharmaco). PD: the audio sounds great 🙌🏼
Useful advices for this first year of medical school. Still learning how to apply active recall and spaced repetition to my studies but working on it. Massively grateful Ali :)
The audio quality is so damn good! PS. Thanks for the timestamps, your attention to detail/quality is one of the reasons you are my go to channel for study tips content.
Peace be to you (AsSalama'laikum)! I'm a new subscriber. Greetings from America!😊🇺🇸 I have been a medically licensed Physician Assistant for almost two decades and currently work as a Hospitalist Physician Assistant in Washington, D.C. where I live with my wife and four children. I am also an erstwhile PA program instructor and admissions committee member! I found you're information INCREDIBLY valuable! I wish I had known this information whilst in school. I was the "Carry my BIG text book and make volumes of 3x5 cards" guy!😅 I probably wasted weeks worth of time! I would add to your video that some of the information found in text books may even be antiquated. It takes about 4 to 5 years to compile and publish the information (I know, I wrote one😥). Thus, by the time the student gets it, the information may be out-dated (esp. concept like "HIV regimens"). I look forward to more of your videos and shall tell my colleagues about your channel! Peace!😁
I have a competitive exam at the end of my first year and I do have to worry about being the best because only 10% of the year group continues to the next grade 😔 Thank you for your videos though they’re so instructive and helpful ❤️
Don't have the time to watch this right now but I've added it to my watch later :) Thanks for making videos like this - I'm starting medical school next year and it's great to hear the experiences of past students and get some advice!
Hey Ali! I love your videos especially because of the amount of content you cover. You answer so many questions that I can't ask anybody else. I am currently going through my GCSE's and I was wondering if you could make a video on GCSE'S, covering advice, tips, etc. Please make this video as I want to go into a career in medicine. Thank you for all your videos and support. Hope I see you one day, face-to-face!...
Thanks a lot for your words !! I'm a first mediacal student and so far nothing is going in the right direction but I am hoping to figure things out and get the results i need
I wish I watched this video 8 years earlier... but I’m sure these are transferable skills and will help me in other ways in the future, thank you very much Ali, you are amazing ☀️
Hello, Ali. I’m in my last year of high school and has been planning to go to medical school since I was young, but lately my passion has been decreasing and I’m having different thoughts. Mainly, because most people say that “medicine is too demanding” and “it needs sacrificing” and “if you entre medical school you can’t do ANYTHING ELSE not reading not drawing NOTHING only you and medical school FOREVER ” and I don’t think I can do that, I can’t really focus on one thing, I always combine two projects so I can procrastinate the first by the other and vice versa. I don’t wanna study medicine if that’s all I’d ever do, i still wanna do other things like read fictional books and learn other languages and I don’t know if I’d be able to do that, can you please tell me if that’s possible or at least your general thoughts about this ?
I know I'm late but I loved this! This was extremely helpful. I hope you did not forget about those other 19+ videos though, especially ones related to research publications. Nonetheless, this was packed with gold. First year medical student from India :)
Hi Ali, I'm really looking forward to this series of videos. Will it be available on your itunes podcast? So I could listen to it on my way to school. I also found your video on the active recall really helpful. It got me back into anki and helped me to restructure my study habits. Thanks a lot
Hi Ali. I'm starting medical school in some days and I'll be watching your videos from time to time till I finish all of them.. I have a long way to go, but people like you motivate me. I'll be back to this comment in 6 years. Thank you💫
Pre-med student here. I was kinda excited about buying medical textbooks for next semester because I'm going to take Anatomy, Histology, and Pharmacology but after this video I think Im just going to stick to slides and lecture notes :D
Im currently using Anki for my A levels and my first biology test after starting with the program is this week -- excited to see if the new method paid off! Would really appreciate the video on anki techniques you mentioned. Thanks
I wish I had seen this when at the start of last year. Well done Ali, just binge-watched almost all of your videos. I'm a 2nd year Medic down the 'road' in Buckingham and I am cheering you on man :)
Hi Doc!! Medical textbooks can really be overrated but in the medical school i'm in, we're required to read pages and pages a day. Ebooks or textbooks? Textbooks can get really expensive, but i'm not sure if i should go digital instead. I've read studies saying we learn better studying printed books. What are your 2 cents regarding my dilemma? I'm a great fan of yours and i would love to hear from you.
+Ali Abdaal our school doesn't really have lectures. They call it problem-based learning curriulum so they give us topics to study about a day before the group study session. Basically it's like practicing active recall everyday. We can't bring notes so we make sure to know the concepts well so we could discuss it with other medical students. One doctor is assugned per group and we are grades according to how well we knoe the concepts, most of the time we are given medical cases as we discuss it basing on the concepts we have learned the night before the session. At the start of year, medical students are divided into study groups and we guys meet everyday for our study session. At the end of the week, we are given 'wrap ups' by our professors who basically explain the most important stuff since they already expect us to learn the bulk of the topics after our group study sessions. Yeah. That's why we really need books here.
Hi Ali, thank you very much for taking some time off to make this video (and the Active Recall/Spaced Repetition videos you made previously), it was really useful! Big fan of your content. I would just like to check with you on the following specifics (which I think will help quite a number of us on your channel): 1) At what point in your studies do you usually begin using Anki? Do you use it while learning and understanding content for the first time / as a "final revision tactic" of sorts used before exams / something else? 2) I understand that Anki automatically schedules questions at varying time intervals according to how difficult you perceive them to be. However, I find that this irregular frequency will often clash with your Medical Spreadsheet method where you go by specific topics and not subject as a whole. Personally, how do you synchronise the schedules of these two platforms together during your studies? Do you mix them together, or separate them? 3) I also noted that you mentioned 3 active recall methods which you used in your studies: Anki flashcards, making notes without referring to textbooks or lecture material, and writing questions for yourself during lectures and testing yourself when you get back home and over time via spaced repetition. Which method worked best for you, and in what kind of scenarios would you use each method for? Would greatly appreciate it if you could provide some insights into this. Thank you Ali!! :)
Resources: (19:30) -instant anathomy (web site) -anki (for pharmacology) -medical pharmacology at a glance (book) -wikipedia -the big red text book: rode's(hepatology)
i came across your videos when i started the whole application process and now im starting first year Med so thanks for your great videos they have been SO helpful!
First year med student from South Africa , and I must say Ali you are truly the best guide for all medical student INTERNATIONALLY, you simply our life😘😘
Hey brother Your advices are really helpful. 😍Pray for me too. And yes I m from Pakistan 🇵🇰and professors recommend us this and that textbook but from now to onward surely I will try the pattern of active learning.😊 May Allah bless you with success and happiness ameennn.
Bro u r so good u just made me so sure of my vision I'm a third year Algerian med student and it's really messed up here I always had almost same ideas of yours but seeing all of colleagues doing the inverse made me confused now I feel confident and stopped looking for that thank u so much and may Allah protect you.
well maybe other schools isnt like ours? but in our med schools here, it is actually highly important to recognize and have effort for your grades in the first year, because it is like a first pre-year to calculate your grades, and then just by what grade you have, you will be transformed to department and study there. for example, there's pharmacology department, biology, and radiology, and depending on what grades you have by the end of the year, it let you in a department you choose, so it is kinda important
since i want to achieve a specific department, then i consider the first year to be sort of important, and the others, sort of a person or a student trying to go and achieve their goals
Hey, thank you for all your videos. I'm about to start vet med at Cambridge so I'm stealing all your advice as I reckon it'll be very similar, so thank you so much! One question though, do you have any vet friends who could give advice on resources for vet students?
I would love to see not only revision methods video but "how to learn material first". Are you making questions (with your spreed-sheet method or anki) right away, or you use different method for learning? :D
Hi Ali, can you share links to some of the papers on the effectiveness of active recall you mention? Nothing will make me take up the strategy like examining the data first-hand and I am struggling to find any particularly relevant articles on Google Scholar, save for 1 which found no difference between active and passive techniques in vet students.
This video is really full of knowledge! I've been trying to research for an insightful vid like yours that informs the topics in this KZclip video. 🥼 👩⚕️Your video for sure is similar to the channel of Doctor Ethan! Ethan's videos are knowledgable and he really helped me a lot on my finals. I suggest you see his KZclip out and give the doc a like! ➡️ #DrEthanNews
I have watched your video and followed your channel since I was still in Y.13 struggling with BMAT exams and now I'm here, a first year medical student ! Thank you soooo much, your video really helped me a lot :)
at first it seemed that video is too long but the way you explain things and give advices keeps people engage!! thank you so much that was very informative
Hey, Ali. Thanks for posting such a great video. Anyway, can you please make a video about 'how to study Pharmacology' in medical school with effective strategy... maybe some other time if you are free?
Thank you , which points can I take away from for a level? Like the textbook part , do you think I can just use the Spec/Syllabus and make sure I cover all points ? Thanks man :)
For pharm I recommend downloading a list of the major CYP450 enzymes and drugs that are metabolised by them, inhibit or induce them. Helps to cope with the whole polypharmacy thing
I realy enjoyed this, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this in my subsequent years in medical school. Thanks a lot for all the advices and techniques.
Where can I find a list of the videos from "How to survive medical school"? There doesn't seem to be a separate playlist for it or anything. Thanks for the video! Really helped me stop feeling guilty for never opening a textbook during my undergrad. :D
23:58 Let's talk about Pharmacology As medical students and as doctors we have to learn a list of a ton of drugs, and by far the best way of doing that is by using them.
Wahey, your boy Matticus get's a mention haha. This is brilliant Ali! Not even a medical student but nevertheless still looking forward to this series. These tips will carry over for Physio Students and any other student for that matter.
This was so helpful..my lectures here also make us buy this big textbooks n tell us about how a medical student should be studying 24/7...well I did all that n still not doing well...thanks🤗🤗
Well honestly at the beginning of the year, I just skipped this video because it is too long but I came back again before my second term starts. I should have listened to it at the beginning. This is so useful and you will not regret watching this. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Greetings from Turkey.
Thanks :D Does anyone have tips that would help me do active recall whilst making "summarries questions, with correct answers" during the semester, so I don't have to go over it again during exam period?
I hope you talked about how to memorize lectures you take everyday. I go home and understand each lecture and then i have this tempting feeling to memorize and save everything written in the lecture with the same Grammar and then write it on a notebook. this takes me hours and hours, and i wanted to know if it is really helping me or not. what do you think?
🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - skl.sh/2UOx68x
TIMESTAMPS
01:17 - Use your seniors
03:18 - Keep the exam in mind
05:03 - Understand the big picture
07:43 - Use Active Recall and Spaced Repetition
10:07 - Do a bit of work each day
12:49 - Avoid flashcard overload
14:54 - Pre-read for lectures
16:33 - Textbooks are overrated
19:30 - Recommended resources for each subject - Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology
29:12 - Work together
31:50 - Wrap-up
Bro kindly suggest good pharmacology book/resources fpr clinical practice and for basic understanding
This is my best video . Im a 4th yr med student . Much love from Nigeria
All your work here has been spot on. You are a natural teacher and I am sure that will translate to what kind ofa doctor you will be. I am a doctor, a neurologist in practice in New York City, having graduated medical school in 1982. Clearly the experience has changed to a significant degree but your advice in this episode is brilliant. In many ways, I wish I could start the life experience of going to medical school once again, especially with all the available resources through the internet that was never available when I went through this. The bottom line I have discovered is that it doesn’t matter what medical school one goes to but rather the kind of person you are, your personal motivation and hope that you have the one thing that really cannot be taught, but must be part of the substance of the person one is... and that is empathy. With empathy , you are essentially guaranteed to make a difference in patient’s lives and also that you will continue to love your life’s work. I will continue to watch this series with joy and interest and I thank you for all your fine work.
Dr. Dustyn Williams says, "Most, if not all, successful medical students succeed in spite of their institution...not because of it." Medicine is self-study. Medical school gives you a checklist and a focused/biased view, then the students go out to find more efficient resources and teach themselves the content.
Holy ..
NEURO BIBLIOPHILE 🙏🏽
wow
Eloquently stated, Doctor! You are awesome!
THIS GUY IS JUST THE TOP ADVISOR FOR MED STUDENTS IN KZclip
THANKS MAN
And Dr Jubal
On youTube not in
I strongly agree ❤️
The advice about not overusing Anki and looking at past exams early is absolutely GOLDEN! I started learning anatomy for the first time last week (still undergrad) and have 800 flashcards just on the upper and lower limb and released yesterday I don't understand any of the bigger concepts. Thank you so much for this :)
My Takeaways:
* Use your seniors, know what you do not know and ask for help
* Understand the concepts
* Ask “Why is this bad?”
* Active recall
* Spaced repetition
* Just a little bit of work “each” day (20 mins each day such a difficult task??)
* “Doing an hour a day is pretty good” Be efficient with it
### `Consistency is king`
* Pre-reading for lectures
> Textbooks are overrated
> Use them when you are looking for something specific
The last point is my favourite! I’m gonna start pre med in a few days and my parents are already pressuring me not to tell others about how I study and really feel disgusted about their mindset. It really makes me happy that you’re telling us to enjoy studying with others rather than just alone.Thank you so much for all the advice you gave in this video! You just lifted my spirits!😊
@Nithyasree Sathyanarayanan I needed this❤️
@Nithyasree Sathyanarayanan ok thank u verymuch
@universal Well keep your hobbies, they do help you in the long run. Just tone it down to a few hours per day. And it's best if you start revising your 11th and 12th grade human organ systems. It really really helps in the 1st year is Medschool. And it's your choice if you wanna start studying 1st year syllabus. It's for the best though, so that you can catch up easily with the lectures. They teach you a lot in a very short amount of time.
@Nithyasree Sathyanarayanan hello.i am doing premed course now (but I am also reading anatomy simultaneously on my own).any advice for me?should I start reading physiology and biochemistry? I do play some game like clash of clan, Should I stop playing games when I start my MD?
@Srishail S Pujar I finished premed a few months ago and just enrolled in medical school. And what you’re saying is true. But finding a studying partner can be just someone who has a lot of knowledge and is at or maybe above your level. Discussing topics, questions and doubts are a good thing in my opinion. And I’m not telling you to stick with a few people, you can just find anyone who studies well and talk with them. Longterm friendships are hard to find, they just come to you naturally. You just have to be yourself and enjoy your activities. I personally separate my study life from my personal life, which makes it easier. Study partners are different from real friends for me because finding a person in both categories is definitely rare. Help others in any way you can and some grateful people will definitely help you in trouble. No worries, you’ve got this. I do study alone, because self study is very very important in medschool. But be sure to discuss with people who love studying as much as you do sometimes, to get new perceptions and questions. It’ll broaden your horizons and studies do show that teaching others helps you absorb and remember information really well.
For my first lecture of Biology class in freshmen year of college, my professor taught us long term potentiation (essentially active recall), spaced repetition, memory palaces, and organisers. Organisers include the lecture topic, main concepts, main sub-concepts, an organiser (I.e a way to sort such concepts with details examples of sorting includes flowcharts, mind maps, hypothesise/diagnose, table, etc), key words in each sub-topic, 3 boxes for check marks (if you decide to re-do those organisers, and the last is how the sub-topic relates to the bigger picture. We do these for every lecture and it’s really useful for finals.
I’m starting as a first year medical student in 2 weeks. These 33 mins were so valuable thank you! Can’t wait to get started!
How is it? I’m in year 1 sem 2 and oh my days
I'm a first year too and I'm crying rn
How are all of you guys doing?
Good luck to all of you. Believe me,it will be intense but just keep going and hit those books hard!
Sebastian Lister same here! Starting next semester
You are SO amazing and one of the few people on the internet whom I really appreciate and look up to. It's so rare to find someone whose every idea is just so well-formulated and explained in a way that you need absolutely zero effort to get your head around what that person is trying to say (which is GREAT because it's all this really easy flow of ideas that you find yourself eager to just keep on watching). I could hear you rumbling for hours and it'd add so much to my knowledge on how to study/how to approach medicine and how to just be a really nice, kind and well-rounded person. I'm guilty of being one of those first years on instagram bombarding you with questions and it's so lovely of you to answer us and give us a bit of your time.
Looking forward to all you upcoming videos and have a lovely day xx
This was 30 minutes of my life well spent. Looking forward to this series!
I do almost all of the stuff above and now that i am in year 3 i prefer video lectures over Harrison's and then i just passively read through Harrison's looking for points i missed in the video lectures , i used to think im not doing enough considering how everyone in india says we need to study 8-9hrs from the text book , but now that i know a doctor from cambridge suggests otherwise , i feel really confident in my way of studying , thanks buddy 💪
On the note of pre-reading for lectures- that technique is called 'flipped classrooms'. I'm studying teaching and we are required to do this (and thats how i know what it's called lol) BUT it's a really, really great way of gaining a deeper understanding of a topic, even if you use it to figure out what you don't understand and know what to ask when you are in class. Plus, it kind of works like spaced repetition too ;)
Heyy you are amazing!! I’m starting med school in a week and thanks to you I can already see my first class ♥️😭
Can you try to make a video on writing essays and structuring them?
And pleaseee carry on this series
I’ve been binging your whole channel this past week and it’s been an amazing journey ♥️
Thank you soo much for your content ♥️
How did it go?
How to use Anki properly would be really good. I struggled a little with the magic spreadsheet but I found it useful for concepts, and Anki for facts (like Pharmaco).
PD: the audio sounds great 🙌🏼
In which video is the magic spreadsheet explained?
Useful advices for this first year of medical school. Still learning how to apply active recall and spaced repetition to my studies but working on it. Massively grateful Ali :)
Ali, I truly appreciate these videos. You really have a way of making medical school appear less daunting. You’re awesome! Cheers!
The audio quality is so damn good! PS. Thanks for the timestamps, your attention to detail/quality is one of the reasons you are my go to channel for study tips content.
Peace be to you (AsSalama'laikum)! I'm a new subscriber. Greetings from America!😊🇺🇸 I have been a medically licensed Physician Assistant for almost two decades and currently work as a Hospitalist Physician Assistant in Washington, D.C. where I live with my wife and four children. I am also an erstwhile PA program instructor and admissions committee member! I found you're information INCREDIBLY valuable! I wish I had known this information whilst in school. I was the "Carry my BIG text book and make volumes of 3x5 cards" guy!😅 I probably wasted weeks worth of time! I would add to your video that some of the information found in text books may even be antiquated. It takes about 4 to 5 years to compile and publish the information (I know, I wrote one😥). Thus, by the time the student gets it, the information may be out-dated (esp. concept like "HIV regimens"). I look forward to more of your videos and shall tell my colleagues about your channel! Peace!😁
I have a competitive exam at the end of my first year and I do have to worry about being the best because only 10% of the year group continues to the next grade 😔
Thank you for your videos though they’re so instructive and helpful ❤️
Don't have the time to watch this right now but I've added it to my watch later :) Thanks for making videos like this - I'm starting medical school next year and it's great to hear the experiences of past students and get some advice!
Just started my own med school journey and this video was incredibly helpful! Thank you!
Hey Ali! I love your videos especially because of the amount of content you cover. You answer so many questions that I can't ask anybody else. I am currently going through my GCSE's and I was wondering if you could make a video on GCSE'S, covering advice, tips, etc. Please make this video as I want to go into a career in medicine. Thank you for all your videos and support. Hope I see you one day, face-to-face!...
Thanks a lot for your words !! I'm a first mediacal student and so far nothing is going in the right direction but I am hoping to figure things out and get the results i need
This advice works perfectly for law school too!
I’m a law school student and I agree 100% with all the Ali’s strategies!!!
I'm SO excited for this series! Thank you so much! I'm in my first year of med school so this is GOLD for me ❤️
I wish I watched this video 8 years earlier... but I’m sure these are transferable skills and will help me in other ways in the future, thank you very much Ali, you are amazing ☀️
Hello, Ali. I’m in my last year of high school and has been planning to go to medical school since I was young, but lately my passion has been decreasing and I’m having different thoughts. Mainly, because most people say that “medicine is too demanding” and “it needs sacrificing” and “if you entre medical school you can’t do ANYTHING ELSE not reading not drawing NOTHING only you and medical school FOREVER ” and I don’t think I can do that, I can’t really focus on one thing, I always combine two projects so I can procrastinate the first by the other and vice versa. I don’t wanna study medicine if that’s all I’d ever do, i still wanna do other things like read fictional books and learn other languages and I don’t know if I’d be able to do that, can you please tell me if that’s possible or at least your general thoughts about this ?
I know I'm late but I loved this! This was extremely helpful. I hope you did not forget about those other 19+ videos though, especially ones related to research publications. Nonetheless, this was packed with gold. First year medical student from India :)
This guy is a truth preacher, doesn’t just apply with med school but way of life...
I’m soooo lucky to watch this video on 1st year of med school right before my exams. Ali you’re literally saving our lives ❤️
Sameeee
Exactly the video I was looking for while I'm entering the med school as a 1st year. Thanks a lot! ❤
Me also
Your videos on study tips makes me more excited to learn and study!!! Thanks for all the tips! From a first year medical student here ✌🏻
Hi Ali, I'm really looking forward to this series of videos. Will it be available on your itunes podcast? So I could listen to it on my way to school. I also found your video on the active recall really helpful. It got me back into anki and helped me to restructure my study habits. Thanks a lot
Hi Ali. I'm starting medical school in some days and I'll be watching your videos from time to time till I finish all of them.. I have a long way to go, but people like you motivate me. I'll be back to this comment in 6 years. Thank you💫
In my fourth year in Pakistan Medical school and yet i learned so much from these 33 minutes. Very excited for the series!
You’re a wonderful person Ali, wish more people were like you.
Pre-med student here. I was kinda excited about buying medical textbooks for next semester because I'm going to take Anatomy, Histology, and Pharmacology but after this video I think Im just going to stick to slides and lecture notes :D
Im currently using Anki for my A levels and my first biology test after starting with the program is this week -- excited to see if the new method paid off!
Would really appreciate the video on anki techniques you mentioned.
Thanks
About to start med school in 2 weeks so really needed this! Thanks Ali :D
He died;He didn't survive medical school .
How did it go?
goincrazy11 How did your first year go?
I wish I had seen this when at the start of last year. Well done Ali, just binge-watched almost all of your videos. I'm a 2nd year Medic down the 'road' in Buckingham and I am cheering you on man :)
Hi Doc!! Medical textbooks can really be overrated but in the medical school i'm in, we're required to read pages and pages a day. Ebooks or textbooks? Textbooks can get really expensive, but i'm not sure if i should go digital instead. I've read studies saying we learn better studying printed books. What are your 2 cents regarding my dilemma? I'm a great fan of yours and i would love to hear from you.
@needcoffee That sounds really hard. Who came up with that. Would give me a nervous breakdown after about a week. 😳🙄
+Ali Abdaal our school doesn't really have lectures. They call it problem-based learning curriulum so they give us topics to study about a day before the group study session. Basically it's like practicing active recall everyday. We can't bring notes so we make sure to know the concepts well so we could discuss it with other medical students. One doctor is assugned per group and we are grades according to how well we knoe the concepts, most of the time we are given medical cases as we discuss it basing on the concepts we have learned the night before the session. At the start of year, medical students are divided into study groups and we guys meet everyday for our study session. At the end of the week, we are given 'wrap ups' by our professors who basically explain the most important stuff since they already expect us to learn the bulk of the topics after our group study sessions. Yeah. That's why we really need books here.
Hi Ali, thank you very much for taking some time off to make this video (and the Active Recall/Spaced Repetition videos you made previously), it was really useful! Big fan of your content. I would just like to check with you on the following specifics (which I think will help quite a number of us on your channel):
1) At what point in your studies do you usually begin using Anki? Do you use it while learning and understanding content for the first time / as a "final revision tactic" of sorts used before exams / something else?
2) I understand that Anki automatically schedules questions at varying time intervals according to how difficult you perceive them to be. However, I find that this irregular frequency will often clash with your Medical Spreadsheet method where you go by specific topics and not subject as a whole. Personally, how do you synchronise the schedules of these two platforms together during your studies? Do you mix them together, or separate them?
3) I also noted that you mentioned 3 active recall methods which you used in your studies: Anki flashcards, making notes without referring to textbooks or lecture material, and writing questions for yourself during lectures and testing yourself when you get back home and over time via spaced repetition. Which method worked best for you, and in what kind of scenarios would you use each method for?
Would greatly appreciate it if you could provide some insights into this. Thank you Ali!! :)
Ali Abdaal Sure thing, thanks Ali (: Looking forward to your next video!!
Thank you so much! Lets make this world a better place together. No crab mentalities, no vanities. Just service and love.
Resources: (19:30)
-instant anathomy (web site)
-anki (for pharmacology)
-medical pharmacology at a glance (book)
-wikipedia
-the big red text book: rode's(hepatology)
Thank you
THANK YOU
i came across your videos when i started the whole application process and now im starting first year Med so thanks for your great videos they have been SO helpful!
This is just what the doctor ordered. I'm starting med school in 4 months and this is definitely going to help!
On my 2nd month of my 1st year of Medical School. Its very hard and fast paced. I hope I could make is someday! Thank You for the tips ☺️
Thank you so much for sharing! Informative as always, really feeling lucky to receive all these tips from you early on in my med school journey!
I am loving this serious. 30min of my time well spent. Thanks so much Ali.
this was a really helpful video :) currently struggling with microbiology
First year med student from South Africa , and I must say Ali you are truly the best guide for all medical student INTERNATIONALLY, you simply our life😘😘
Hey brother Your advices are really helpful. 😍Pray for me too. And yes I m from Pakistan 🇵🇰and professors recommend us this and that textbook but from now to onward surely I will try the pattern of active learning.😊
May Allah bless you with success and happiness ameennn.
For a student entering into medschool this year ... This is a must need... Thank you Ali abdal...
@Jatee you're welcome!
web md thank you so much! I really appreciate it
Good luck guys. Believe me,you can do it! It may be hard,but if it wasn't hard ,everyone would do it.
Bro u r so good u just made me so sure of my vision I'm a third year Algerian med student and it's really messed up here I always had almost same ideas of yours but seeing all of colleagues doing the inverse made me confused now I feel confident and stopped looking for that thank u so much and may Allah protect you.
I'm a pharmacy student but I find your videos are relevant to any health professions student. Thank you!
well maybe other schools isnt like ours? but in our med schools here, it is actually highly important to recognize and have effort for your grades in the first year, because it is like a first pre-year to calculate your grades, and then just by what grade you have, you will be transformed to department and study there. for example, there's pharmacology department, biology, and radiology, and depending on what grades you have by the end of the year, it let you in a department you choose, so it is kinda important
since i want to achieve a specific department, then i consider the first year to be sort of important, and the others, sort of a person or a student trying to go and achieve their goals
Great tips! I wish I had this for my first year in medical school.
Ali you should make a video on essay writing at med school and give one of your essays as an example...your videos are amazing btw
Hey, thank you for all your videos. I'm about to start vet med at Cambridge so I'm stealing all your advice as I reckon it'll be very similar, so thank you so much!
One question though, do you have any vet friends who could give advice on resources for vet students?
I would love to see not only revision methods video but "how to learn material first". Are you making questions (with your spreed-sheet method or anki) right away, or you use different method for learning? :D
Thank you for this video! It has given me so much insight on studying in general! This channel keeps getting better and better! Thanks again :)
Straight facts!!! Love and agree with these tips so much 👏
What a beautiful video,everything is just well said.
I used some of the tactics to sturdy at my 12th grade.
about to sit for my second term exam this august, wish me all the best! thanks Dr for the tips!
Hi Ali, can you share links to some of the papers on the effectiveness of active recall you mention? Nothing will make me take up the strategy like examining the data first-hand and I am struggling to find any particularly relevant articles on Google Scholar, save for 1 which found no difference between active and passive techniques in vet students.
lots linked in my AR video - How to study for exams - Evidence-based revision tips kzclip.org/video/ukLnPbIffxE/бейне.html
I believe this is going to be such a wonderful initiative.
Kudos!
I'm a first year med student and our uni starts this Monday! Thank u sm 4 the vid, i needed this a lot :) Keep up the good work!
I like your videos; they are very helpful.
I used the excel method you showed in another video and got A+ in that exam! :)
Thank you
This video is really full of knowledge! I've been trying to research for an insightful vid like yours that informs the topics in this KZclip video. 🥼 👩⚕️Your video for sure is similar to the channel of Doctor Ethan! Ethan's videos are knowledgable and he really helped me a lot on my finals.
I suggest you see his KZclip out and give the doc a like! ➡️ #DrEthanNews
I have watched your video and followed your channel since I was still in Y.13 struggling with BMAT exams and now I'm here, a first year medical student ! Thank you soooo much, your video really helped me a lot :)
at first it seemed that video is too long but the way you explain things and give advices keeps people engage!! thank you so much that was very informative
Hey, Ali. Thanks for posting such a great video.
Anyway, can you please make a video about 'how to study Pharmacology' in medical school with effective strategy... maybe some other time if you are free?
I am a first stage student and you helped me a lot , thank you doctor.
Im currently in my first year and the final exams are just around the corner. Thanks doctor!
Man! You learned superior extremity really well. You used quite a lot of examples from it.
Thank you , which points can I take away from for a level? Like the textbook part , do you think I can just use the Spec/Syllabus and make sure I cover all points ? Thanks man :)
For pharm I recommend downloading a list of the major CYP450 enzymes and drugs that are metabolised by them, inhibit or induce them. Helps to cope with the whole polypharmacy thing
Well what u said about working together is absolutely amazing man u r advices are priceless
You are a blessing for med students..... Your videos are so helpful. Keep it up
I realy enjoyed this, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this in my subsequent years in medical school. Thanks a lot for all the advices and techniques.
Where can I find a list of the videos from "How to survive medical school"? There doesn't seem to be a separate playlist for it or anything. Thanks for the video! Really helped me stop feeling guilty for never opening a textbook during my undergrad. :D
Marta Mitrofanovaitė May be He hasn’t yet finish working on the remaining videos
Omg I just can’t tell how great you are at analysing and explaining this
Thank you so much! This helps so much for a first year med student who has no idea what to do :)
23:58 Let's talk about Pharmacology
As medical students and as doctors we have to learn a list of a ton of drugs, and by far the best way of doing that is by using them.
The best way to do that is by doing them
The best way to learn is by doing
I am doing that right now *snorts and rubs nose*.
You are amazing !!!! Please never stop sharing advice !!! You have helped me a lot 😍😍😍😍
Finally a video giving actual practical advice rather than generic tips that never really help
Wahey, your boy Matticus get's a mention haha.
This is brilliant Ali!
Not even a medical student but nevertheless still looking forward to this series.
These tips will carry over for Physio Students and any other student for that matter.
@Matticus C ahaha thanks! Physiotherapy really helps seriously 😁 good luck to you guys and God speed!
Allu Sanchez Wow a Physio and A Doctor. Brilliant!
I love you guys! My pre med was physiotherapy and now im taking medicine here in the Philippines! Keep it up👌
All the things that he stated about anatomy have been clearly mentioned in Gray’s . Salute to that book !
This was so helpful..my lectures here also make us buy this big textbooks n tell us about how a medical student should be studying 24/7...well I did all that n still not doing well...thanks🤗🤗
Hey Ali
I really recommend you to teach in colleges 😂 you are an INSANE doctor
He does right? He was teaching Physiology in University of Cambridge.
YES YES YES !!! ALI FOR A PROF hehe
Well honestly at the beginning of the year, I just skipped this video because it is too long but I came back again before my second term starts. I should have listened to it at the beginning. This is so useful and you will not regret watching this. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Greetings from Turkey.
Thank you for keeping up with this channel and etc. Its very comforting and reassuring to know others share the same questions as I
Went from watching your how to get into medical school last year to this. Thank you!
Thanks :D
Does anyone have tips that would help me do active recall whilst making "summarries questions, with correct answers" during the semester, so I don't have to go over it again during exam period?
Hi Ali Abdaal! Thanks so much for this video, definitely sharing this with my colleagues 😃
I hope you talked about how to memorize lectures you take everyday. I go home and understand each lecture and then i have this tempting feeling to memorize and save everything written in the lecture with the same Grammar and then write it on a notebook. this takes me hours and hours, and i wanted to know if it is really helping me or not. what do you think?
Awesome video. Changed my view on textbooks. This video will clearly help me when I start in a few weeks 💪🏼😎
@Ali Abdaal thank you ❤️
Hi Sir, can you make a video on the books (you highly recommend) for medicine students?
It would be of great help!
Thanks..