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HOW TO EXCEL AT YOUR COLLAGE OF MEDICINE New thoughts for medical students to get better studying outcome This presentation is made through pomodoro techniq
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Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

Dec 23, 2014

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Ahmad Alnajar

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Page 1: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

HOW TO EXCEL AT YOUR COLLAGE OF MEDICINE

New thoughts for medical students to get better studying outcome

This presentation is made through pomodoro technique

Page 2: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

HOW TO EXCEL AT YOUR COLLAGE OF MEDICINE

• Dr. Barbra Oakley has enriched me with new ideas in this summer, I would like to share with my colleague and the junior students

• My book [How to Excel in Your Medical Collage] has many ideas, discussed in details, and here you will find the summary of them all.

• My own experience came throughout my 6 years of excellence at the collage of medicine, University of Gezira, Sudan.

• I’ve been reviewing the latest books and courses on human development and better learning fields.

• I’ve learned a lot from my own mistakes, my friends and professors.

• So, thanks all for your support during these years, I’d love to spread the word, there would be a major 3 topics to go through during this presentation.

Page 3: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

OBJECTIVES

• Finding a rewarding method, that make you start early and consolidate your Knowledge, doctors need a solid background to be more valuable to the society.

• You will be aware of the most healthy actions in your daily studying life, and how to schedule yourself to work productively for long term.

• Knowing about how your brain work and react, in fact, is the easy way to avoid bad habits to be happier in your life.

Page 4: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STUDENTS

• If you go to the lectures, labs, cafeterias, you will find all types of students, all of them, but how can you differentiate between major types?

• When the exams come to doors, it’s when you can see only two different types of students, the stressed and the relaxed.

• Now you are getting the idea, which types I’m talking about!

• The stressed students of course are the dominant group, and here I would like to make you aware of that, BE CAREFUL! Don’t be one of them.

Page 5: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

THE STRESS BEFORE THE EXAM

Page 6: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

THE STRESS BEFORE THE EXAM

• The only way to show your obtained knowledge is by exam.

• When the exams come, the students are running out of time because each moment is valuable and can make a difference, sometimes this difference make you one of the excellent students, and often save you from a flunk!

• It’s usual to see students in just two days early lifting bunch of notebooks, sheets and references. I myself wonder how they will manage to review all of that! You may say so, unless you became one of them!

• There’s no worse than student who get cramp just before the exam. (Goljan 2009)

Page 7: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

THE RELAXED GUY

• You will notice for sure that guy (if you looked carefully) laughing and enjoying his time, till the last minute before the exam, what does he has between his hands? It’s only one notebook.

• Why people are stressed? Does any one has his own reason?

• Unfortunately, yes, everyone has their own reason. But whatever the reason is , NOTHING is leading to the pre-exam stress except procrastination, face it !

• To tackle procrastination there are a lot of tricks that you can easily master and make you a better student, a relaxed one.

Page 8: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

Topic A : Procrastination

A common behavior of putting off important or high value activities is called procrastination, that is putting things off that you should be doing right now.

Some common causes of procrastination are:

feeling overwhelmed by the task you are supposed to be doing;

feeling unconfident about your ability to do the task, and so getting on with something you can do well;

waiting until you feel ‘in the mood’ to tackle the task;

fearing you will fail (or succeed) at the task;

feeling you don’t know how to organize the task.

Page 9: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

Procrastination (Continue)

However, researches find that one who procrastinate something, he think that it’s painful and that may cause real pain in the brain (insula). Thus, procrastinator shifts his attention to something he thinks it’s more pleasant.

Page 10: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

Procrastination (Continue)

Often procrastinators can’t see the difference between urgent activities and important activities.

The reality is that we all have to do things we sometimes find difficult, boring or stressful and it’s helpful to use some tips so you no longer become a procrastinator.

The worse outcome you will have, is not remembering important information that may save someone life.

RMEMBER, studying medicine starts from the day 1.

Page 11: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

Procrastination (Continue)

It’s helpful to make a daily ‘to do’ list to help you keep focus on what needs doing.

Also, we all respond well to rewards, so perhaps part of your personal strategy could be the promise of a swim, bubble bath, night out, watching TV or game of football at the end of a complete task.

The reward is better to come while applying the pomodoro technique, this awesome technique constitute of the following:

25 minutes of focusing while processing a task

No interruptions ( Switch of your phone and stay away from the laptop)

Then a reward!

Practicing on this technique will solve a big problem you may face later, so keep practicing as “practice make it permanent”.

Page 12: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

TOPIC B: FOCUSED AND DIFFUSE MODES • It’s well known that learning something new can takes time. However, in

medicine, it’s a very big area where you learn new things everyday throughout your journey within it.

• You need to stay focused in order to learn new concepts, but you may feel overwhelmed and exhausted, then tend to procrastinate while you face the huge amount of knowledge, especially if you aren’t used to concentrate for a long time, but don’t worry, I’m here to help.

• It’s not only the focus mode what make you learn, by learning the basics about how your brain works, you can learn more easily and be less anxious if you get to know the diffuse mode and how to shift to the focus mode, and how important they are in the learning process!

Page 13: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

FOCUSED AND DIFFUSE MODES (CONTINUE)• Focusing, it's when you concentrate intently on something you're trying to learn

or to understand.

• While diffuse thinking is more relaxed thinking style, which is related to a set of neural resting states.

• We are using this diffuse mode while we are working on new ideas or approaches, to get concepts we haven't thought of before.

• In this diffuse mode of thinking, you can look at things broadly from a very different, big-picture overview, so we can make new neural connections traveling along new pathways.

• You can't focus in as tightly as you often need to, to work on any kind of understand the finest aspects of new concept, as you can be in either thinking in the focused or in the diffused mode at a time.

Page 14: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

FOCUSED AND DIFFUSE MODES (CONTINUE)• From the most famous scientists, well known of their using of the focused and diffused modes; theyre

Thomas Edison, and Salvador Dalí.

Page 15: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

• If you want to see a LIVING example of alternating these mode, head to the radiology department, and there you will find how the radiologist make their finest diagnosis, they look closely in the details then take a step back, closing their eyes for a while, and taking another look from another prospective and from a different angle at the same plane film!

• Using the pomdoro technique will make you able to shift between these modes by taking a small gab between each 25 min and then come to focus again.

• Researches found that anyone can focus for at least 25 minute, so you can do it for sure. Afterward you should stop focusing and do totally different thing for 5 minutes in order to be in the diffuse mode.

FOCUSED AND DIFFUSE MODES (CONTINUE)

Page 16: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

DIFFUSE MODE

• So deep, slow breathing and periods of relaxation are important for all of us and we need to practice how to do them well. Relaxation needs to happen regularly during your study.

• You can also do better if you go for sport, at it allows new neurons formation in the hippocampus area, where your emotion and memory are.

• When you get frustrated with some concepts, take a break so that another part of your mind can take over and work in the background.

Page 17: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

DIFFUSE MODE (CONTINUE)

• Take a long breaks, It is common to become unable of figuring out concepts in medicine or science for the first time you encounter them. A little study everyday is much better than a lot of studying all at once.

All at onceLittle by little

Page 18: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

FOCUSED MODE• Have you ever seen someone asleep over (or under) a book?

• In focus mode, you should study actively to grasp the material, not to necessarily to put it in the brain.

• Speed reading make you conscious the whole time you are reading, and eliminate the boring feeling and stop passive reading.

• Asking yourself “WHY” is a very important question that will make you understand the depth of the idea, and most importantly, make you remember.

• Taking notes is one of the most important methods used to be actively studying medicine, as the medical knowledge is unique by its need to be remembered accurately and applied, so taking notes while studying make you more focused and alert!

Page 19: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

FOCUSED MODE (CONTINUE)• SQ3R is a useful principle that make you reading around a subject and actively

thinking about what your learning needs to give you will make your learning active, provide you structure in your learning, and should help you to build new learning on top of your prior knowledge.

SQ3R

Scan (Speed

Reading)

Question (Why?)

ReadRe-Read and note

Review

Page 20: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

TOPIC C: SLEEP• “TO DO” LIST IS HELPFUL TOOL TO OVERCOME PROCRASTINATION, MOST IMPORTANTLY, IS HOW TO DO IT RIGHT, AND BY THAT IT MEANS THAT YOU SHOULDN'T SLEEP UNLESS YOU’VE FINISHED YOUR DAILY TASKS.

• HOWEVER, “QUIETING TIME“ SHOULD BE ONE OF THE IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF YOUR LIST, BECAUSE IT’S AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

• SCHEDULING YOUR QUIETING TIME ACCURATELY WILL GIVE YOU THE PROPER TIME TO SLEEP ADEQUATELY LATER, AS SLEEPING IS IMPORTANT TO REMOVE THE TOXINS ACCUMULATED DURING AWAKE TIME.

• DURING SLEEP, THE BRAIN CELLS SHRINK IN SIZE, THAT ALLOW WASHING THE TOXINS OUT. ONLY BY THAT YOU CAN KEEP YOUR BRAIN CLEAN AND HEALTHY.

Page 21: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

SLEEP (CONTINUE)

SLEEP KEEPS YOUR BRAIN CLEAN AND HEALTHY

Page 22: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

SLEEP (CONTINUE)• BE CAREFUL TO ENSURE YOU ARE EATING AND SLEEPING PROPERLY AND HAVE EIGHT HOURS A NIGHT SLEEPING, SO YOU CAN BE COMPLETELY RELAXED.

• ONE OF THE AMAZING FACTS THAT SLEEPING RIGHT AFTER FINISHING YOUR STUDY, CAN MAKE YOUR BRAIN HAVE THE CHANCE TO GLUE INFORMATION TOGETHER, AND HELP YOU WITH YOUR LEARNING PROCESS.

• EXERCISE EVERY DAY TO COMBAT STRESS AND INACTIVITY, ALSO IMPORTANT FOR YOUR HEALTHY BRAIN AND T WILL HELP YOU SLEEP BETTER AT NIGHT.

• THE BEST TIME TO MAKE YOUR “TO DO” LIST IS RIGHT BEFORE YOU SLEEP, THAT WILL GIVE YOU THE CHANCE TO REVISE WHAT YOU’VE DONE THIS DAY AND WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO TOMORROW.

• SO GO TO BED AT A REASONABLE TIME AND GET ENOUGH SLEEP. REVISING INTO THE NIGHT CAN BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.

Page 23: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

SUMMARY

• Medicine, is a simple but a science with an enormous amount of information, in order to excel you have to start early.

• Procrastination has devastating outcome, in order to beat it you can organize your self, which is easy and more valuable than you think.

• Alternating between focus and diffuse mode of thinking can make you produce a lot and keep your mind active and smoothly thinking.

• Keeping your body healthy lead to a healthier brain and more productive, in order to keep that, you have to sleep.

Page 24: Learning how to learn, to excel in medical collage

IMAGE CREDITS

• The night before exam in medical school https://www.facebook.com/MedicalVideos.us/photos

• Pomodoro timer, Autore: Francesco Cirillo rilasciata a Erato nelle sottostanti licenze seguirà OTRS, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Il_pomodoro.jpg

• Thomas Edison, courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Thomas Edison National Historical Park

• Salvador Dalí with ocelot and cane, 1965; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Salvador_Dali_NYWTS.jpg From the Library of Congress. New York World- Telegram & Sun collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c14985; Author: Roger Higgins, World Telegram staff photographer; no copyright restriction known. Staff photographer reproduction rights transferred to Library of congress through Instrument of Gift.

• Building strong neural structures, ©Kevin Mendez, 2014. Without permission.

• Djonlagic, I., A. Rosenfeld, D. Shohamy, C. Myers, M. Gluck, and R. Stickgold. "Sleep Enhances Category Learning." Learning & Memory 16, no. 12 (Dec 2009): 751-5.