It can be difficult and demoralising to study effectively without knowing what you're working toward, or what timeline you're on. When starting a new year or new block, identify your study goal (e.g. end of term exams or the USLME part 1) and consider creating a study plan that works toward this. Planning in this way will ensure that you're steadily working toward your end goal, rather than floating along to begin with and cramming before exams.

Before you start each study session, try to take some time to plan the session. Decide on your goals, what tools you'll use and how long you plan to study for. Are you studying cardiology? Will you be watching recorded lectures and making notes, or reviewing your flashcards with last week's content?

Use chunking to avoid feeling overwhelmed at the amount of information that you have to learn - break your learning goals into manageable chunks and focus on each chunk one at a time. For example, focus on neuroanatomy before moving onto neurophysiology.

It is important to set up a clearly designated space for study, and make sure that you have all of the materials you need close at hand. Everyone learns optimally in a different way, and over time you'll come to find what works best for you in terms of study environment.

Interestingly, a study on light temperature showed that students were more creative under warm light (3000 K) and concentrated better under cool light (6000 K).

Before delving deep into the details of a topic, ensure that you understand the overall structure and key topics first. Once you comprehend the underlying 'architecture' of a topic it will be much quicker to fit in the details around this and understand how everything fits together.

Good ways of quickly gauging the overall structure are by reading the objectives at the start of lecture slides, or checking the table of contents of a textbook.

Traditionally, the approach to study has been to study for long hours and attempt to absorb as much information as possible during a set period of time - this is known as a focused study mode.

There has been a switch in thinking over the past decade, and it is now felt that taking breaks is just as important as focused study. These breaks, known as diffuse mode, have important effects on comprehension and retention of information by allowing the brain (in neutral gear) to form connections between pieces of information. As a result, new insights can appear that may not have otherwise materialised.

The best way to do this is the pomodoro technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes of focused study, and then follow this with a 5-minute break with a reward. This reward can be anything - a song, a video, a snack, or mindfulness. This cycle can then be repeated for as long as you need to study for.

Once you've finished reading about a topic or taking notes, try to recall the key points that you've learned - even just forcing yourself to remember can help to cement a concept in your mind.

Use the Feynman technique - try to explain the topic to a twelve year-old child in your head. Use the simplest possible language, with metaphors and analogies as illustration. This will force you to focus on the key aspects of the concept. If you're not able to explain something, then take that as a trigger to go back to the source material and go over that part again.

Alternatively, try to imagine that you are explaining a disease to a patient who has just been diagnosed with it.

Such recall slows down the rate of forgetting, so that you'll be more likely to remember it next time.

Unfortunately, it's not enough to read information once and then retain it forever. It's also not enough to read the same piece of information over and over again! 

Long term retention of information can be achieved by learning something and then actively recalling it. In a study of students learning foreign language vocabulary, repeated study had no effect on delayed recall, while repeated testing had a significant positive effect.

There are many ways to test yourself. 

Creating your own questions can also help with recall.

Consider using the MedSchool MyQuizzes and Flashcards sections to create your own questions / flashcards and start testing yourself.

Your university may create a study group for you. If not, then consider creating your own study group. This can be to study for a specific assessment, practice practical skills or to generally learn together.

The benefits of study groups are many - if you're having issues with motivation then a group can hold you to task and push you to keep up with your learning schedule.

Explaining a concept to others significantly improves your understanding of the topic. In fact, this benefit occurs even when you simply expect to teach a concept. In a Washington University study, 56 students were asked to learn written material; half were told that they would then take a test on the topic and half were told that they would go on to teach the topic to others. Those who believed that they were going to teach demonstrated improved recall compared to the other group.

Teaching can occur in many different ways. Universities often have problem-based or team-based learning sessions where students have the opportunity to teach topics of interest to their colleagues. Medical schools also often have peer tutoring systems where higher year medical students teach early year students. Hospital teams often have journal clubs where students present recent papers. 

More simply, consider using the Feynman technique and pretend to teach a topic that you've just learned to a twelve year old, in the simplest language possible.

No matter the opportunities that are available, try to find ways to teach others as it will benefit you as well.