During your PASS/L.AS year and throughout your medical studies, it will be impossible for you to miss out on physiology. This subject is essential in your field, since it simply deals with the functioning of the human body. Very interesting, it is a bit of a common core for all the other teaching units that you will see during your first year: you have to revise it regularly. Here are 4 tips for learning physiology lessons in PASS/L.AS in order to get the best grades in competitions!
1. You will understand before you learn
Doubles and former students of PASS will always say it: teaching units in medicine require a lot of “by heart”. However, those who are really successful insist on understanding before they even focus on memorization. Once you have integrated this nuance, you will already be much more rehearsed to succeed in your first year.
How to optimize your chances of understanding all the concepts? It’s simple, start by adopting an appropriate attitude in the auditorium. In theory, your lectures at university will always be as complete as possible… If not TOO complete! It is therefore tempting to take notes in “scribe” mode without paying attention to what the teacher is saying. This is a mistake, since the aid to understanding begins as soon as notes are taken in the auditorium. Adopt a dynamic and critical attitude: ask questions around you if you don’t understand, try to put information into context, look for answers to questions asked by the teacher… This is called active listening.
To increase your chances of assimilating your course, remember to take as many notes as possible. It can be overwhelming to listen and write down at the same time, but the simple act of writing will already help you memorize the information. And believe us: it’s always taken when it comes to thinking about the day’s lessons once you get home. 😉
Are you struggling to keep up and are you falling behind? Don’t hesitate to leave gaps that you will complete later thanks to your personal research or the help of other students. Always focus on the essential real-time explanations of the teacher, rather than on a notion that you could not note at the beginning of the course. It’s not lost, you can come back to it later.
💡 Need tips to optimize your grades?
– The Cornell method is a super effective method of taking notes to always go further and anticipate the questions that fall in the competition.
– Bet on abbreviations to always optimize your time.
– Do not hesitate to use a dictaphone if you know that you will need to listen to certain passages of the course again (but be careful, it does not replace the notes in real time!)
2.You will make “by heart” your best ally
Come on, now that you have information that makes sense and that you understand, we can finally address the question of “by heart”. This is largely what will help you pass this EU, given the load of information in the program and the type of exam in the competition (MCQ or questions where you will have to restore your knowledgeYou’ll have plenty to do! 😉
Adapt your methods to your type of memory
To learn by heart, there’s nothing like relying on what works for you . It’s a bit obvious! What we mean by this is that there is no point in looking for revolutionary methods or miracle pregnenolone pills to boost your cognitive abilities. You can start by finding out about your type of memory and adapt your revisions accordingly. As a reminder, here are the 3 types of memory:
A good way to practice the 3 types of memory is to make flashcards. The principle is simple: on one side of your card, you will write a question ( for example: what is the hormone that keeps us awake? ) and on the other, the answer ( adrenaline ).
What’s the point ?
👉 First, you stimulate your visual memory by combining two concepts on one and the same card: by turning it over, it will end up coming in! Then you can ask yourself the questions on the front out loud before answering them out loud too. In addition to having the impression of being in a TV game, it will work your auditory memory. Finally, the simple fact of doing this type of playful exercise will make your kinesthetic memory work. It is therefore three big advantages in one that are available to you to properly revise physiology.
💡 We recommend our FLASH 2.0 flashcards since they are compatible with SCRIBZEE ®, our super handy app. Thanks to the scanning functionality, your flashcards will always be at hand and available anywhere, anytime on your smartphone. You will be able to train directly from the app thanks to the REVISION mode which will scroll through your flashcards one by one on the screen. You just have to find the correct answer and swipe right to let the app know. If you made a mistake, don’t worry, you can swipe left: the algorithm will take it into account for the next few times. Yes, the flashcards that you master the least will be offered to you more often during your next sessions, allowing you to learn at your own pace and fully adapted to your needs. You can even follow your progress thanks to the progress curve, which will take shape as you progress through your sessions.
3. Cards you will make
True allies of first-timers and PASS students who succeed, the cards are an essential part of medical studies. If you don’t do it to revise physiology, believe us, you have to get started.
But beware, not just anyhow! Cards have a few golden rules: