How to avoid social media distractions when studying

STUDY TIP: Focus is the key when studying. You just need your mind and study materials. No gadgets, no internet, no music. Just you and your diligent self!

There are too many distractions for students and if you're weak, it is so easy to fall into these traps. If you're using gadgets when you study and you have an internet connection, sometimes it is very tempting to log into your social media and entertainment apps.

The GOOD and BAD Rules of Studying

There's a joke among students that studying really means stuDYING and after doing your studies you stuDIED. We have been studying for so many years from preschool to grade school, high school and college. And by the time we enter medical school, we have been students for 15-18 years of our lives! Although we are students for that long already, sometimes we feel that we still do not know how to study efficiently and effectively. We still search for the best methods of studying — what will work for us and what won't work for us. If we cannot claim that we are good students, perhaps we are breaking the rules of good studying.

Since it is exams week again, I'm sharing this article excerpted from A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel in Math and Science (Even if You Flunked Algebra) by Prof. Barbara Oakley Penguin, July 2014, with emphasis added. I only injected some annotations to tailor it for medical students. Check whether you follow the good rules or the bad rules of studying.

Mastering the ART of MEDICINE

Reference books for Physical Diagnosis. Bates' Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking (left) and DeGowin's Diagnostic Examination (right).

Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to smell. Know that by practice alone you can become an expert.  ~ Sir William Osler ~

The Physical Diagnosis (PD) course is sometimes taken for granted by the medical students, but it is actually one of the most important courses we have in medical school.

What does PD teach us? 

7-Day Review Plan for the Comprehensive Exam

The heavy rains yesterday signaled that the summer vacation is over. I'll be back to school soon. I guess the downpour was a reminder that I should start reviewing for our comprehensive exam (compre exam). Or maybe the sky also wept for me because I forgot some of the things I studied. The compre exam is on the first week of June. 

There is only one week left to review! And I should be panicking right now.

Done with 1/8 in Medical School and Now It's Sembreak

We're through with our first semester. But that's only 1/8 of our medical education. Seven semesters to go. But for now, it is our sembreak!

5 Reasons Why It is a Not-So-Ordinary Wednesday

Wednesday is the "most relaxed" day in our week because we have more free time compared to the other weekdays wherein our only break is at lunchtime. But before I enumerate the reasons why this day is not-so-ordinary, here is what a typical Wednesday for me:

And It's Already October

Sometimes when we are busy with so many things especially with studies, we do not realize that time goes fast. So fast that we think that it runs away from us! And the more we tend to be busy, the more we feel that it runs faster and faster away from us.