The best thing you can do optimize your studying is learn how to do it effectively. Our brains have insane capabilities and coming from someone who works in a neuro lab and majored in a cognitive neuroscience field, I know how to help you maximize your potential. My list for most effective studying habits go as follows:
1. Study, Sleep, Study
Lot’s of science has recently come out that outlines the effect of sleep on learning. Sleep helps lock information into your brain, and surprisingly, without it, you cannot do as well as possible. Take it from me, a retired insomniac who spent all her sleepless nights drilling flashcards into her head. I discovered for myself that the science works. I cut my study time to 1/10th of what it used to be just by sleeping 8 hours a night.
I also developed a personal cheat-code strategy to use sleep and science to my advantage. I study a set of flashcards or review information before my mid-day naps (around 20 mins) because EVEN that small amount of time sleeping can significantly improve memory and information retention. The science proves it, and I can personally vouch for this method.
2. Notes Don’t Work
For me and many other pre-med students, re-reading notes does not work to retain information. Use flashcards, problem sets, self-made quiz questions and games to help you memorize the information much faster! Active learning is scientifically proven to be the most effective, so use it to your advantage. There are AI agents that can turn your notes into flash cards, so I would also recommend using those if you don’t want to do it manually.
My friends and I used to call each-other at random times in the day and “pop-quiz” one another, just to gamify the experience and make the learning more consistent. Absorbing information doesn’t have to be boring, you can make it fun by including socializing, making it into activities and watching entertaining videos.
If you are going into medicine or any learning-intensive field, I recommend you choose to enjoy it, and find a way to incorporate it into your daily life so that it is not a tedious task, but one which is almost second nature.
3. Socialize
This one was really important for me because I am very extroverted. I think it’s important for introverts too because many people can get lost in their books and find themselves weeks into a cycle where they haven’t spoken to a single soul or seen the sun.
Spend time with family and friends and forget about your studying for an allotted time. Keep studying time as 100% studying time and socializing and free time as 100% free time. As long as you get back to work, you need to allow yourself to disconnect from it for periods of time. This is also a scientifically proven method to maximize learning. Disconnecting prevents “over fixation” which is essentially, when we over focus on a matter and it becomes harder to find the solution. Have you ever noticed that the harder you think about something, the more difficult it is to find the answer. Then when you step away for some time, the answer just comes to you? This is what happens when you take breaks.
4. Get Off Tiktok (and youtube shorts, and instagram reels)
Please stop scrolling! I know you have heard it a million times, but this is coming from someone who used to scroll 6+ hours a day AS A PRE-MED student. Kind-of ridiculous, but once I stopped scrolling, studying became easier. The dopamine issues, the attention issues, and the time that doom scrolling takes are NEVER worth it if you are studying for something. I can make another blog post about how I quit this, and a few other addictions on another post, but for now, good luck and remember, it is possible!
5. Find a Hobby
This goes back to the over fixation thing. Studying for long periods of time can kill your patience and, at times, joy. When I was studying for the MCAT, I was constantly irritable, constantly hungry, and constantly anxious. Hobbies help with this because you get to take a step away and do something you actually enjoy. This helped me lose some of the self-loathing I gained from choosing to endure the medical school pathway.
I played piano, figure skated, went to the gym, took up painting, and honestly, did it all horribly. It’s good to remind yourself you don’t have to be perfect! Do it and don’t do it to show anyone progress or to become good at something, just do it because it’s fun! I think we all need that sometimes.
Hopefully, these five tips will help you all develop better study strategies, and save some time! I have linked a helpful book below which has helped hundreds of people maximize their brains’ potential.
Click here for a book that has changed many lives and remains highly reviewed and relevant.
Good luck! And please leave a comment if you have any questions about any of these. Also, let me know what you would like to read about next!
Best,
Med Girly
Simply Girly 
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