When I was in undergrad, I used to be able to read something, take an exam a few days or weeks later, and recall everything that I read. Then, I got to graduate school. While in my first master’s program, pharmacology & toxicology at Michigan State University (GoGreen!), I discovered that there was just TOO MUCH to read while trying to effectively study. I mean, sometimes, we’d be assigned 60-80 pages in a week in the Intro to Toxicology class and that was on top of 100+ PowerPoint slides. I had to rapidly learn to extract the “high yield” stuff from the readings/PowerPoints and figure out a way to make it stick.
I went back to something that I used to love to do as a child: Draw. I don’t know what it is about drawing that helps with my memory retention and recall but even now, to this day, 40 years later, I can draw that P-51D Mustang or 1970 Chevelle SS from muscle memory as if it were a Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1981. When I started drawing during my master’s degree, I started remembering and retaining more, especially when I would draw things multiple times. I still have notebooks full of receptor pharmacology drawings and I can draw any of them to this day AND explain what is going on.
So, pro tip: Get a white board and some dry erase markers. If you have an iPad with an iPencil, that will work just as well. Using the whiteboard will promote:
- Active recall
- Help to remind you that you need to study
- Enable group collaboration
- Help to do quick cramming before an exam, sort of like a cheat sheet. Before an exam, try to write down everything that you remember.
- And if you can’t afford an iPad or other tablet, they are cheap and easy to install.
