How to take advice like a medical student!

"I got a 240~" a resident I was speaking to let on. My eyes perked up, I need to know what books he used. I made him illuminate his studying method and his resources.  "I read through the book only once. blah blah blah." Wowww...! Hold up! "One time." This advice was not for me.

Advice is great. I am always willing to lend an ear to things that help me improve. However not all advice bears relevance to me or my situation. This is not to say that these same recommendations are nonsensical. It might have worked for the advisor and so is relevant to him.

I remember during pharmacology II during my basic science spiel on Sint Maarten. I created questions from the lecture slides and supplemented those with questions from Benji's website. (if you are considering AUC as your path in medicine make sure you check out his website. really insightful.) I used these questions as my sole studying material. Needless to say I did extremely well in that exam. A friend of mine that missed the exam asked me how to study for the exam. I gave her my list of questions (the same ones i used to study), a couple hundreds. She tried using them for a few days but soon after she gave up on that method. I'm not certain what method she used but I believe she did well too.

In that scenario, my method of studying worked for me but not for her. This is because we all have different strengths, weaknesses, preferences, different things that we consider tedious, and different ways we assimilate information. As a result some study methods  work well for others and might not work well for their friends.

Before you receive advice you have to know yourself. You have to know your strengths, your weaknesses, your preferences. For example if you know there is no way under this sun that you would wake up at 5 am in the morning starting your studies at 5 am in the morning would be equivalent to self deception.

Next find someone that has similar issues in assimilating information as you do, and seems to have similar strengths and weaknesses as you do and try following his advice and see if it works. If it does not ask someone else for help or try something else.