Customer Reviews

How to Study in Medical School

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Armin's How to Study in Medical School is one of the shortest books I ever read on how to study, which is great because that means it focus on what works. The book should be read early in medical school, preferably even before medical school, because it focus on continuous work and it may be hard to keep up with Armin's strategy if you are in third year and want to catch up.

Although the book is very good there are some areas that could be improved. For example, he emphasizes that you should use your own notes with your own note-taking style. At this point, however, it would be helpful to explore different note taking styles and strategies to help guide those of us who haven't found out their style yet.

If you are trying to excel in medical school this is the book to get. Follow Armin's strategy and you are sure to ace not only your tests but the USMLE. On the other hand, if you want to breeze through medical school and prefer fun over great grades, the strategy is probably too much trouble for you.

Very short read, which makes the price a little steep, but the advice and information given more than makes up for that. A must-read for med students before starting medical school. It helped me pull my grades up after struggling the first semester. And as they always tell you in medical school, what's another $15 in light of the rest of your loans? A great investment!

The author, apparently a star in medical school (Ross University if it makes a difference), lays out his strategy for success in this slim book. He explains that he was asked so often for his secret to acing med school exams that he decided to write a book. However, a blog post may have been more appropriate given the paucity of content. The equation for success boils down to "Take excellent notes" + "Don't go to sleep until your notes are complete" + "Study these condensed notes on weekend" + "Tutor others if possible" = Top of your class. While this is sound advice (if a bit simplistic), you can almost sense the author stretching to reach 100 pages when the meat of the book could be easily distilled to 10 pages.

Bottom line: This book is worth reading but leaves you feeling that you didn't get your money's worth.

I bought this book before starting med school. Sadly, I didn't use his techniques except for one of his classes (inadvertently). I did the best by far in that one class on my exams. I now use his method for all my classes and I'm retaining the info at a much greater level. It works, but it takes time. This book is a small price to pay considering how much one invests into the medical degree.

I met Dr. Kamyab at a recent med school information seminar in Chicago. He's currently a surgery resident at a very prestigious institution, and I found him to be very helpful to us prospective students. And so when he mentioned he wrote a book on how to study in med school, I had to check it out.

Long story short, this book illustrates how he studied in med school, and generally speaking, what works and what doesn't. He did a great job of convincing me that I should start taking notes, as well as what my schedule should look like during weekdays and weekends. It's a very easy read, and it's a great book for anyone who will soon start medical school.

To be honest, what is written in the book is really nothing special (or worth spending money on) if you already possess very good study habits. For instance, taking good notes (some accomplish "studying" by writing out what they are studying, some read to themselves, but whatever works for you, you know?), having a life besides just studying the whole day, teaching others (if you truly understand your material, you should be able to explain it to someone else), and so on. There are some bits that are useful to me, but not significantly, life-changing-ly so.

Nothing that can't be found out by doing a google search on good study habits, imo. To his credit, this book probably isn't geared for people who already possess study habits that work for them. You should probably borrow this (not buy it) if you intend to memorise the entire textbook as your way of reviewing before a test (meaning, if your study habits are terribly inefficient and you have no idea how to change it without first doing a Google search).

Buyer beware this is the first edition! The second edition is already out!
My advise - if you're struggling with med school or want to do better, pay the $15 and see if it helps. Its not Kaplan ($1500) so why not run the experiment; its a quick skim, so you won't waste too much time either.
This book has been extremely helpful to me and my gut instinct is that if you're looking at this page, you probably need to go ahead and buy it.

I'm in graduate school and this book helped so much! The advice he provides saves times and really helps you retain information. Truely should be a part of every graduate and/or medical school orientation required readin material!

Armin did a good job keeping the book simple and easy to read, while providing good examples and continually attempting to reinforce his strategy. Essentially he tries to convince his audience that you have to discipline yourself to stay up to date with your material and that procrastination is too dangerous in med school. Armin also presented his study method and though it may work better for some over others, the KEY point is to quickly find your best study method, don't be afraid to change it when necessary, be honest with yourself, and discipline yourself to do what you have set out to do and do it well.

Ironically I started half-*ssing this method during my last semester in undergrad and it worked very well and that was BEFORE I read this book... So I can only imagine how great it will work when I don't bloke around this upcoming year.

Because of the repetitive nature of "How to Study in Medical School" I'll give it 4 stars. I also agree with some of the others - this book should have been $5-$7 cheaper and/or should have been a blog.

I'll post an update in about 6 months or so...

I like this book simply for the reason that it shows you how to study(like the title suggests) instead of what to study. For it is a fact that one will be provided with the abundant amount of material that must be mastered.The real praise for this book goes into the mentality that the author displays; he clearly shows the commitment that one must have to succeed(excel) in medical school. This is a no non-sense approach for success.