Resources

Student Affairs Resources

Career Advising – Provides support with career planning, resources, and activities to support your medical specialty exploration and career decision-making.

  • Residency Application Questions
  • Specialty Interests Questions
  • Personal Statements and Interview Questions

Proactive Advising – Provides support with schedule planning, concurrent degrees, leaves of absence, clinical expansions, academic performance, Step exams and independent study.

  • Leave of Absence Questions
  • Expansion Questions
  • Concurrent Degree Questions

Financial Aid – Provides support with the financial management of medical school.

  • Debt Management Questions
  • FAFSA Questions
  • Scholarship Questions
  • Loan and Repayment Questions

Counseling & Wellness Services – Provides support designed to address the needs of medical students and is for you or your partner/spouse for free and is completely confidential.

  • Test Anxiety
  • Depression & Anxiety Management
  • Grief and Loss
  • Academic Difficulties
  • Career Choice/Residency Match

Health Sciences Library Resources

Testing Taking Tips & Strategies

Navigating course content often requires the use of specific skills and strategies related to learning and test taking. See our list of skills and strategies below:

  1. Skills and strategies for succeeding in medical school
  2. Test-taking tips for multiple-choice exams
  3. Test Taking Errors – Analysis Worksheet

Test Anxiety Tips

Managing worry related to test taking is something that can be accomplished with practice. Watch our presentation on Test Anxiety facilitated by Academic Support and Counseling & Wellness Services:

  1. 2021 Test Anxiety Talk recording
    1. 2021 Test Anxiety Talk Slides
  2. 2020 Test Anxiety Workshop

Retrieval Strategies

  1. Mnemonics – Use existing mnemonic devices (e.g. acronyms or expression mnemonics) or create your own. Practice recalling what the acronym or expression stands for.
  2. Mind maps / diagrams – Practice redrawing a mind map or picture diagram from memory, and compare this to your notes.
  3. Questions – Use questions to prompt retrieval of information that you’ve already learned.
  4. Flashcards – Use existing flashcard decks or make your own.*
  5. Link Method – You choose interesting images to represent items on a list, then link those images together in memorable ways.
  6. Story Method – Using a story to connect all the items on the list or a general concept.

*If you’ve used Anki then you know it can be a bit overwhelming. If you don’t know where to start or how to use Anki, watch our tutorial here: Anki Tutorial

Learning Strategies

There are a number of ways students learn information. Six commonly used learning strategies include: Retrieval Practice, Spaced Practice, Concrete Examples, Dual Coding, Elaboration and Interleaving.

These can be used on their own or in combination with one another. Learning strategies can all be adapted to a wide variety of settings, and subject areas to promote effective learning. Watch our learning specialist have to say about learning strategies here:

Time Management Tips & Strategies

  • Create some structure in your day by having a schedule you can adhere to. This will help you establish a true study routine throughout the week that will maximize your time each day.  
  • Consider how much time you will need to cover the content for the day. 6-8 hours might be enough time; some days you might need more.  
  • Divide your studying into a series of short tasks so you don’t feel so overwhelmed, and so you don’t feel the need to wait until you have 2 or 3 hour block of time to study. Make every minute count. 
  • Use small bits of time you might have throughout the day (waiting for clothes to dry, cleaning, etc.) for active studying tasks (self quizzing, drawing diagrams, etc.). 
  • Use all the extra time you can to get caught up in lectures or pre-class work because the courses (blocks) are short and there is much to cover. Staying ahead, if possible, can significantly help. 

 School/Life Balance

Figuring out how to balance medical school and daily life can be challenging. The Academic Support Team is here to help. The following resources may be a good starting point in creating a balanced plan that works for you:

Study Plans

Having a study plan is an effective way to navigate coursework, manage your time, stay on top of important task and provides accountability. Take a look at some of our example study plans or create your own and review with your Learning Specialist: