Study with me + The Magic of Categorisation - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #38

2018-06-12 · Study with me · Ali · recording, 8:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Learning and studying (also: Medicine and his doctor years) · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: Aimed at students

In a study-with-me vlog filmed the day before his final OSCE exams, Ali, a Cambridge medical student, calls categorisation the third most important exam technique after spaced repetition and active recall, links the items of a list and makes mnemonics instead of trusting his memory, and practises cases with friends so that everyone does active recall.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The day before the final OSCE exams: breakfast and coffee with Callum

★ Ali's day before the exams starts around 9 a.m. with his usual breakfast of three Weetabix, eaten with just milk because the squeezy honey has run out, and coffee with his friend Callum. — 00:00:00 · Callum

00:00:29 — Replying to emails, then history taking and the systems review

★ In history taking, Ali explains, the systems review comes once the patient has said what they want to say: a series of closed questions, such as about chest pain or shortness of breath, that screen for other problems. — 00:00:29 · History taking

00:01:13 — Categorisation as an exam technique; linking a list of questions; mnemonics while making notes

★★★ Ali calls categorisation a magical technique and, after spaced repetition and active recall, probably the third most important exam technique: categorise anything you can, whenever you can. (hedged) — 00:01:13 · interleaving, spaced repetition, active recall

“categorizing anything you can whenever you can”
★★ For his neurological systems review Ali grouped the eight or nine questions he needed to ask into four categories, so that he only had to learn four things rather than nine. — 00:01:13 · interleaving, History taking
★★ Ali constantly asks himself which topic he would be least happy to see come up in the next day's exam, and asks it more and more often as the exam approaches. — 00:01:42
★★ For a possible sexual health case, Ali learns the numbered list of questions by linking them: vaginal discharge cues a question about itchiness, which cues pain, and itchiness cues skin changes around the vagina and then rashes elsewhere on the body. — 00:01:42
★★★ Ali says linking the items of a list of seven connects them, so you do not need to memorise a list of seven: you weave the items together in a connected way. — 00:02:11
★★★ Ali says a mistake people sometimes make, and one he used to make, is thinking that the act of making notes puts the material into your brain. — 00:02:11
★★★ Ali advises making a few mnemonics and active links between topics while making notes: they increase the cues available for recall and strengthen the memory, so you are more likely to remember it in an exam. — 00:02:40

00:03:21 — Active recall on paper or iPad; "categorise or die" and the causes of small bowel obstruction

★★ Working through role-play cases in an OSCE preparation book, Ali writes possible diagnoses roughly on his iPad: the aim is active recall, not notes, and writing makes categorising easier than doing it in his head or out loud. — 00:03:21 · active recall, interleaving
★★ On Ali's first surgical rotation a registrar said that surgery and medicine have a phrase, "categorise or die": nobody wants to hear you read off a list, they want to hear you categorise it. — 00:03:50 · interleaving

“categorize or die”
★★ Asked for the causes of small bowel obstruction, Ali would now give the common ones, adhesions and hernias, then group the rest by the bowel being a hollow tube: blocked from the outside, by a problem in the wall, or by something in the lumen. — 00:04:19 · interleaving

00:04:49 — Not trusting your memory: the CBT MSG mnemonic for the confusion screen

★★ While revising Ali often tells himself not to trust his memory to keep what he has written down, so he makes mnemonics as he writes. — 00:04:49
★★ For the confusion screen, the tests run to find why a patient is confused, Ali rearranged its components into the mnemonic "CBT MSG", because he likes three-letter acronyms of things already known, such as cognitive behavioural therapy and monosodium glutamate. — 00:05:18

00:05:47 — Group practice of history-taking cases; the evening's sushi and role plays

★★ Ali says not to rely too much on mnemonics or make them for everything, since much can be worked out from first principles, but having a mnemonic as an option adds recall cues. — 00:05:47
★★★ Practising history-taking cases in a group with Seb, Ali and his friends read out a patient's presentation, fall silent while everyone thinks or writes down possible diagnoses, then discuss: everyone practises active recall and nobody is spoon-fed, since each will take the exam alone. — 00:06:16 · active recall, History taking
★★ By 5 p.m. on the day before the exam Ali's group had been through all the history cases in the OSCE preparation book, and he felt there were no more holes to plug. — 00:06:16
★ In the evening, over a pre-exam sushi dinner, Ali's group talks through more scenarios and runs quick role plays with Jake and with Katherine. — 00:06:46 · Jake, Katherine

00:07:15 — The night before the first OSCEs: five stations, nerves as excitement; sign-off

★★★ The night before, Ali says the first of his final OSCE exams is the next day: five stations, four of them history taking and one challenging station that will be a mystery; he feels quite relaxed about it. — 00:07:15 · History taking
★★ Before an exam Ali tries to tell himself that the feeling in his stomach is excitement rather than fear or stress, which he read online is a legitimate way to trick the brain into thinking it is having fun. — 00:07:44

Threads in this video

refine · How do you study effectively for exams? — Ali calls categorisation a magical technique and, after spaced repetition and active recall, probably the third most important exam technique: categorise anything you can, whenever you can. (00:01:13)
restate · How do you study effectively for exams? — Ali constantly asks himself which topic he would be least happy to see come up in the next day's exam, and asks it more and more often as the exam approaches. (00:01:42)
restate · How should you take notes when studying? — Ali says a mistake people sometimes make, and one he used to make, is thinking that the act of making notes puts the material into your brain. (00:02:11)
refine · How should you take notes when studying? — Ali advises making a few mnemonics and active links between topics while making notes: they increase the cues available for recall and strengthen the memory, so you are more likely to remember it in an exam. (00:02:40)
refine · Should you study alone or with other people? — Practising history-taking cases in a group with Seb, Ali and his friends read out a patient's presentation, fall silent while everyone thinks or writes down possible diagnoses, then discuss: everyone practises active recall and nobody is spoon-fed, since each will take the exam alone. (00:06:16)
refine · How do you reduce stress? — Before an exam Ali tries to tell himself that the feeling in his stomach is excitement rather than fear or stress, which he read online is a legitimate way to trick the brain into thinking it is having fun. (00:07:44)
milestone · Ali's final year at Cambridge medical school (2017) — The night before, Ali says the first of his final OSCE exams is the next day: five stations, four of them history taking and one challenging station that will be a mystery; he feels quite relaxed about it. (00:07:15)

Mentioned

Central: interleaving

Also: active recall · Callum · History taking · Jake · Katherine · spaced repetition

Only in the description or credits: University of Cambridge

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