Shelf Exams
18 Amazing Med School Study Tools & Resources You Should Know About
Struggling to find the right med school study tools? Discover amazing resources that will change the way you study and retain information.
Jun 25, 2024
Are you struggling to find the right med school study tools to ace your exams? How long are shelf exams? This guide overviews the best resources available to help you with your studies and master your shelf exams. Whether you're a seasoned student or just starting a med school journey, this article offers advice to help you crush your exams, reduce stress, and enjoy the journey!
If you're looking for additional support, Otio's solution is a powerful AI research and writing partner that can provide valuable recommendations on medical school study tools and resources to make your studying experience a little bit easier.
Table of Contents
How Study Tools Aid Your Studies
Organizing and Managing Study Time
Study tools are indispensable for medical students to effectively organize their study schedules and allocate their time efficiently. These are:
Calendars
Planners
Apps
These tools enable students to divide their study time into manageable blocks, ensuring they cover all necessary topics thoroughly without feeling overwhelmed.
By planning ahead and setting specific study goals for each day, students can maintain a consistent routine and avoid last-minute cramming sessions that often result in information overload and decreased retention rates. The ability to track progress, set milestones, and adjust study schedules as needed gives students a sense of control over their learning process, fostering a proactive and disciplined approach to studying.
Enhancing Learning Efficiency
Med school study tools like flashcards, particularly those that employ spaced repetition algorithms, help students optimize their study time and enhance memory retention. Apps like Anki leverage the spacing effect, a psychological phenomenon demonstrating how long-term memory is reinforced through repeated exposure to information at gradually increasing intervals.
By reviewing flashcards at strategically timed intervals, medical students can reinforce their memory of complex concepts, medical terminology, and other essential information, ensuring they retain knowledge effectively over the long term. This spaced repetition improves recall accuracy and reduces the time required for studying, making it a valuable tool for busy med students juggling numerous responsibilities.
Practicing and Assessing Knowledge
Question banks and practice exams are indispensable study tools for medical students preparing for shelf exams and other assessments. Platforms like UWorld and AMBOSS provide a vast array of practice questions that mimic real test scenarios, helping students gauge their level of comprehension and identify weak areas that require further review. The detailed explanations accompanying each question are invaluable for enhancing understanding, as they provide insights into the underlying concepts and reasoning behind each correct answer.
The immediate feedback students receive after completing practice questions allows them to:
Track their progress
Adjust their study focus as needed
Build confidence in their test-taking abilities
Question banks boost students' preparedness and reduce test anxiety by simulating the exam experience and providing real-time performance metrics.
Interactive Learning Tools
Medical students can leverage innovative study tools to enhance their learning experience:
Immersive learning experiences
Virtual simulations and 3D models create engaging environments that cater to various learning styles, fostering deeper understanding.
Interactive anatomical exploration
Platforms like Complete Anatomy provide interactive 3D models, allowing students to:
Explore the human body in detail.
Interact with structures and systems dynamically.
Visually understand spatial relationships within the body.
Enhanced understanding of complex topics
By manipulating virtual organs, tissues, and landmarks, students can:
Gain a deeper grasp of physiological processes.
Strengthen their knowledge of anatomical structures.
This hands-on approach to learning fosters a deeper appreciation for anatomical structures and their functions, providing a solid foundation for clinical practice and future medical studies. As technology advances, interactive learning tools are poised to revolutionize how medical students engage with complex subjects, making learning more engaging, interactive, and effective.
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13 Med School Study Tools & Resources You Should Know About
1. Otio
Today, knowledge workers, researchers, and students suffer from content overload and are left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen.
Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them
1. Collect
A wide range of data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos.
2. Extract key takeaways
With detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat
3. Create
Draft outputs using the sources you've collected
Otio helps you go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features loved by researchers: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing.
Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!
2. MSD Manual
With 3D anatomy models, case studies, quizzes, and all the latest medical news, the MSD Manual is a fully comprehensive online medical resource for students. Beginning as a small reference book for physicians in 1899, it has evolved over the last 100-plus years into one of the most widely used, trusted, and best free online resources for medical students. The free videos, photos, and animations are worth a look and help bring medical theory to life.
3. Acland Anatomy
Excelling in anatomy is essential for any medical student. This series of amazing three-dimensional anatomy videos uses human cadaver specimens to help you brush up ahead of your anatomy exams. With expert dissection covering the full scope of the human body, you’ll be an anatomy expert in no time.
4. Amboss
Quizzes are a great way to sharpen your medical know-how and keep your knowledge current. Amboss is a great website for medical students and practicing professionals alike, offering an extensive bank of multiple-choice questions. The interlinked content and clever image overlay mean you can brush up on definitions and practice diagnoses using charts and X-rays while you quiz. The app can also link with your Anki account, so you can get additional Amboss pop-up explanations alongside your Anki flashcard decks.
5. Healthline
As a medical student, you must access information from many medical journals. Healthline saves you time and hassle by collating articles from all of the top medical journals into one convenient place. Covering a huge range of topics from Alzheimer’s to breast cancer and depression to sexually transmitted diseases, it’s a must for any medical student to maximize their study time and avoid trawling through many different websites.
6. Anki
Tipped by many students as one of the most effective learning methods, Anki is one of the best study tools for medical students. It can take a little practice to get the most out of it, but the clever use of active recall and spaced repetition is one of the most efficient and effective study methods. Use pre-made flashcard decks covering different medical specialties or make your own deck to help you ace that exam.
7. OnlineMedEd
Discover free resources split by clinical medicine, basic sciences, and even preparing for your medical residency. Created by medical professionals who hated the style of resources they saw at medical school, this resource is a forward-thinking hub of knowledge.
8. UWorld
UWorld provides thousands of practice test questions for many different exams and, more specifically, as a first-year medical student, the USMLE Step 1. By practicing reading and answering board-style questions in your first year, it’ll be second nature when you take Step 1. Plus, these questions ask you to recall information differently, which will deepen your understanding of the material.
9. Medmastery
This platform helps medical students hone their clinical skills through case-based teaching and quizzes. You can study wherever you like as Medmastery adapts to all devices, including iOS and Android cell phones.
10. Radiopaedia
Need some help or extra practice interpreting medical imaging? Radiopaedia is an open-edit resource for all things radiology. With around 50,000 patient medical cases and expert reports, it’s an extensive online medical resource that can really help improve your radiology knowledge. There are also some fun quizzes you can do to test how much you’ve learned and compare your diagnoses and understanding against case findings.
11. Osmosis
With more than 100 medical and nursing expert content creators, the Osmosis platform is a trusted health education platform for students and practicing physicians. The online medical resource condenses 1-hour lectures into digestible 10-minute videos. Coupled with study notes and self-assessment questions, it provides a comprehensive learning experience and is one of the best apps for medical students.
12. American Medical Association
From up-to-date medical articles and research to podcasts, fellowship opportunities, and leadership training, the American Medical Association (AMA) is an incredible free resource for medical students and professionals who want to continue their learning journey.
The AMA Ed Hub is a particularly useful tool for helping you find and track online courses and accredited programs in one place. It offers courses in various formats, so you can read, watch, listen to, or interact with course content in the way you need to to learn best.
13. Human Anatomy Atlas
The Human Anatomy Atlas offers thousands of models to help you understand how the human body works and the names of its myriad muscles, bones, arteries, organs, and more. Used by medical students and professionals, this medical app includes textbook-level terminology, dissection models, microanatomy, and animations. It’s a great study reference for pre-med and medical students and a lot lighter to haul around with you than an anatomy textbook!
Med School Study Techniques & Tips To Enhance Your Studies
Spaced Learning
Spaced learning is a way to learn sizable pieces of information by spacing between each review of a previously learned material. This technique allows medical students to ensure that they are not only gaining and retaining new knowledge but also bringing up concepts learned a while ago and ensuring the information is encoded into their long-term memory.
Interleaving
Interleaving involves varying or mixing up related concepts being taught or learned instead of studying them in a blocked fashion. This practice teaches students how to tackle a problem and when to utilize the knowledge and skills they have learned. While blocked studying might seem faster and easier, it is less beneficial overall.
Dual Coding
Dual coding stimulates two processing routes, helping students achieve better results from studying. Engaging the brain's verbal and visual information pathways facilitates more effective knowledge transfer and retention. Dual coding can include using different media types when studying a concept, incorporating images into flashcards, and drawing images for review purposes.
Active Learning
Active learning involves participating in the study process instead of passively watching videos or multitasking. Before studying, students should establish what they are about to learn and what they already know about the subject. While reviewing, they should ensure they understand how the material fits into the bigger picture and make notes of keywords for future review. After the study session, students should take notes on what they need to review or further study the next time they approach the topic.
Study Tips for Medical Students
Review Material Regularly
Regularly reviewing material can help medical students prepare for exams, especially big ones like the USMLE. Understanding the material in real-time can reduce the need for last-minute cramming before an exam.
Write Things Down
The old-school note-taking method is an excellent way to commit information to memory. Handwriting information helps encode it into memory and triggers the brain regions responsible for encoding memory.
Test Yourself
Testing knowledge over time can help track advancements and identify areas for improvement. Online quizzes are a great resource for this purpose.
Improve Memorization (Mnemonics)
Mnemonics, catchy sayings in which the first letter of each word references the term being memorized, can help commit rote material to memory. This technique is beneficial for memorizing complicated information quickly.
Consider a Study Group
Studying in a group can provide medical students with moral support and an opportunity to collaboratively solve clinical cases and quizzes. Group study sessions can be an effective way to reinforce learning and understanding of complex medical concepts.
Otio: A Solution to Content Overload for Researchers
Today, knowledge workers, researchers, and students suffer from content overload and are left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Too many settle for stitching together complicated bookmarking, read-it-later, and note-taking apps to get through their workflows. Now that anyone can create content with a button, this problem will only worsen.
Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them
1. Collect
A wide range of data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos.
2. Extract key takeaways
With detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat
3. Create
Draft outputs using the sources you've collected
Otio helps you go from the reading list to the first draft faster. Along with this, Otio also helps you write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features loved by researchers: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing.
Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!
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The 5 Best Apps For Productivity And Time Management
1. Forest
Forest is an app designed to help you beat phone addiction and overcome distraction, making it an invaluable tool for students preparing for medical exams.
By rewarding you for leaving your phone alone, Forest encourages you to focus on more important tasks, like studying.
The app also tracks your focused moments, enabling you to build good habits and exercise willpower.
This newfound discipline can then be used to beat procrastination and ace your medical school coursework.
2. Todoist
Todoist is a popular to-do list app millions use to organize, plan, and collaborate on daily tasks. With Todoist:
Using widgets to track your progress towards daily and weekly goals, you can keep your achievements top of mind.
The app excels at breaking down large tasks into manageable pieces, allowing you to build momentum and succeed daily.
3. GoalsOnTrack
Goal setting is crucial for success, especially in medical school. GoalsOnTrack helps students:
Set realistic goals and stick to them.
You can set daily, weekly, and monthly goals and monitor your real-time progress to see how close you are to achieving them.
By breaking bigger goals into smaller chunks, GoalsOnTrack makes your aspirations more attainable.
4. The Milk
Staying organized and on track with your medical school assignments, quizzes, and tests can be challenging. The Milk is an excellent app that ensures you never miss an assignment deadline or quiz date again. By keeping track of all your upcoming tasks, The Milk helps you stay organized and focused.
5. Balanced
Medical school can be overwhelming, with students struggling to complete assignments, prepare for quizzes, and juggle extracurricular activities. Balanced is a great app for medical students seeking to balance their academic responsibilities and personal interests. By prioritizing your activities and setting reminders, Balanced ensures you make time for yourself, whether watching TV, hanging out with friends, or pursuing a hobby.
Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today
Research and writing are critical components of the journey for knowledge workers, researchers, and students. The overload of content they face can be overwhelming. In this scenario, Otio, an AI-native research workspace, acts as a savior. It simplifies the process by providing a centralized platform.
Collecting Information with Otio
Otio allows users to collect a wide range of data sources, from bookmarks to YouTube videos and everything in between. Traditional tools often fall short in this area, requiring users to use multiple platforms to gather information. Otio makes this process seamless and efficient.
Extracting Key Takeaways with Otio
Once information is collected, the next step is extracting the key takeaways. Otio does this through detailed, AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chats. This feature helps users quickly identify the essential aspects of their research, saving them valuable time and effort.
Creating Outputs with Otio
Otio helps users create by drafting outputs using the sources collected. This means going from a reading list to a first draft faster and more efficiently. This feature makes Otio a valuable tool for researchers and knowledge workers looking to streamline their writing process.
Enhancing Writing Speed with Otio
Through its top features, Otio further aids users in writing research papers and essays faster. For instance, AI-generated notes on all bookmarks, including YouTube videos and PDFs, help summarize content quickly. The ability to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, similar to ChatGPT, provides a dynamic and interactive workspace for users.
AI-Assisted Writing with Otio
One of Otio's standout features is its AI-assisted writing capabilities. This tool helps users generate content faster and with more precision. By leveraging AI technology, Otio enables smoother writing experiences and maintains consistency and coherence throughout the writing process.
Otio is a powerful tool for researchers, knowledge workers, and students looking to streamline their research and writing workflows. Otio is a game-changer in content creation and research by providing a centralized, AI-driven platform. If you're looking to supercharge your research and writing processes, Otio is the tool for you.
Give it a try today and experience the revolution for yourself!
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