In researching evidence-based learning, we’ve encountered an avalanche of books, papers, blogs, and podcasts about learning how to learn effectively. It can seem overwhelming at times. A great place to begin is by picking a book and reading it cover to cover. Here are Alex’s favorites.
Read moreSpatial Memory in 2D: A Case for Taking Nonlinear Notes.
Are you someone who always remembers where on the page you wrote something? A simple note-taking method can harness that instinct to jumpstart your recall of new information.
Read moreLearning anatomy: a strategy for memorizing muscles
What's the best way to memorize the muscles of the arm? Cathy discusses her two-step approach to developing adaptive expertise in anatomy, which will play a big role in our future careers—scroll to the bottom to find out where we're headed next year!
Read moreMemorizing Drug Trade Names
Learning trade names (or brand names) of medications poses a classic memorization challenge for medical students transitioning from preclinical to clinical medicine. We learn all manner of generic drug names as first- and second-year students, only to find that doctors and patients throw around trade names far more frequently. Knowing these trade names can be invaluable. Here’s how Alex tackles it!
Read moreThe Body Palace: Memorizing the Review of Systems
A key tool in the physician’s arsenal is the review of systems, or ROS—a run-through of pertinent symptoms while taking a patient history. To the novice clinical student, it can feel overwhelming. Medical students often first learn the ROS as Alex did—as a giant, inscrutable list of symptoms. Here’s how he uses a memory technique to tackle it painlessly.
Read moreIt's in the Genes: How to Memorize Tricky Number/Letter Associations
Our newest question comes from a reader who’s a medical student in Italy: “I use a lot the memory palace for my studies but I was wondering if you can help me to memorise in an easy way the genes, because they are made with letters and numbers for example: BRCA1, FGFR1, HLA, Cn3D.... something like this! I hope this can be helpful for all the other medical students.”
Read moreHow to Memorize the Entire Facial Nerve Using a Memory Palace [Video]
In this 20-minute video, Alex walks through how to memorize the entire facial nerve (cranial nerve VII) using a memory palace. The facial nerve is a key player in neuroanatomy and pops up during gross anatomy in medical school.
Read moreFighting Palace Fatigue with Interleaved Practice
Interleaved practice is great for keeping things interesting and making sure you can do a quick mental jump to the relevant locus. Research has shown that training this way can improve learners' problem solving abilities.
Read moreHow to Use Memory Palaces to Learn Pharmacology: Tetracyclines [Video]
In this video, I discuss my memory palace-based mnemonics for learning high-yield facts about the antibiotic class tetracyclines, as taken from the medical student review book First Aid. Here's how to make pharm really stick. (18:09)
Read moreWhy Double-Encoding Is a Double-Edged Sword
I often run into scenarios in which the same piece of information pops up in different contexts. Here's why encoding info multiple times might not be the great idea it seems.
Read moreDo Memory Palaces Hinder Learning? Our Top 3 Don't-Miss Tips
If you're someone struggling to apply memory palaces, look no further. Here I discuss my top 3 realizations about memory techniques as they pertain to learning—the ones that took my approach from frustratingly ineffective to invaluable.
Read moreHow to Keep a Clean Memory Palace: What to Do When You've Got Too Many Arms & Legs
Memory palaces getting congested? Using lots of people, so your palaces are full of arms, legs, blood, and urine tanks? Here's what to do.
Read moreNever Forget What You Learn: 4 Reasons You Should Be Using Anki in Medical School and Beyond
Anki, powered by spaced repetition, is a powerful tool for making things stick long-term, and I can't imagine learning without it—even with the aid of memory palaces. Here's why you should be combining spaced repetition with memory palaces to get the most from medical school and beyond.
Read moreHow to Use Memory Palaces to Learn Pharmacology: Opioid Analgesics [Video]
Alex offers ready-made memory palace images for memorizing First Aid's high-yield points about opioid analgesics. Here's how to make those pharm details really stick. (19:05)
Read moreHow to Use Memory Palaces to Learn Pathology: Acute Pyelonephritis [Video]
We cap off the Step Up series by doing a real-life example in real time, showing how we each use a memory palace to memorize the acute pyelonephritis section from the First Aid medical student review book. Here's how to lock in the tricky, nonintuitive details of diseases. (16:24)
Read moreHow to Learn the Branches of the Trigeminal Nerve with a Memory Palace
The Trigeminal Nerve: a beast of a nerve if there ever was one. It no doubt gives most medical students headaches. Luckily, memory palaces work really well for this type of thing. Here's how to do it.
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