Tips to organise your studying:

• Have a timetable with clear exam dates and other commitments so you can visualise when you will be 1) learning the content 2) revising the content and doing practice papers
• Have a spreadsheet to keep track of all the lectures in each module (for pre clinical years) and all the conditions in each specialty (for clinical years where you don’t have lectures) and tick them off as you go
• Keep all your study resources organised: have clear folders for your notes in your computer, keep your flashcards in one place, organise your notes by modules and by topics…
• Make some protected time in your calendar for studying so other things don’t take over, if you say “I’ll study when I’m free/ don’t have other activities” your calendar will be filled by other things

Where is the best place to study?

Get a study set up that works for you and get to know where and how you study best: go to the library if that helps you get in the study zone, stay home if you are more comfy and productive there, go with friends if that makes you hold yourself accountable, go without friends if they distract you (everyone is different!), eliminate distractions (phone off etc)

Studying in clinical years:

For clinical years I think the hardest part is knowing what you need to learn, because there is no set list of lectures.

How to go about this:

• Some universities have lists of conditions that will be tested on, so this is great to use as your list of topics to cover. Make this list into a spreadsheet and tick them off as you go.
• You can use notebanks or notes made by older years as your primary source of studying- I do not recommend making your own notes at least not for all conditions as you will not have time! You can make your own notes for tricky conditions or make mind maps instead-these really get your brain working and thinking about what you are learning! The worse thing you can do is copy from a textbook without thinking about it!
• The other way to go about this is use textbooks for each specialties then you will know you have covered all the conditions needed- no need to purchase textbooks, you can borrow them from the library!