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Dr. S.K. Roy Chaudhary

Retd. Principal & Dean of a Govt. Institution

Prof. Emeritus of Forensic Medicine

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On Self Study Skill

Making of a Real Physician

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"I seek a method by which teachers teach less and learners learn more."

Johann Comenicus- 1630

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NOTE -TAKING�Most Important Learning Step

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Trust no future, How ever pleasant. Let the dead past, bury its dead. Act-act in the living present. Heart within and God over head

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My dear students you must always remember that your own life is the highest of values, too high to give up without a fight.

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Most Important Aspects of Self Growth

Physical
Intellectual
Moral

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Physical Culture

A healthy Body

Regular Exercise- Sports, games, aerobics, Gym.
Good Nutritional food
No to Tobacco, Alcohol, & Drugs – First Time, Every Time.

Proper ventilation
Adequate Sleep- 6 to 8 hrs: Get up in morning

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Physical Culture

Grooming of body

Daily Bath
Clothing, shoes,
Manner of standing, sitting, talking, & walking
Hair Style & Shaving

Find out your best physical outfit and stick with it
Threat to Good Health- Tobacco, Alcohol & Drugs

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Intellectual Culture

Sharpen your sensory apparatus by practice

Eyes, ears, touch by finger and also smell

Observation of Facts

Difference between good & not so good doctor
Avoid one sided observation & hasty conclusions
Capacity for Accurate Observation & Proper Reasoning more important than Theoretical knowledge.

Movements systematic & organised
Radiate Confidence

Quite frequently the observer has a feeling of incompetence

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Intellectual Culture(Cont.)

Time Table of Study- Minimum ½ hr x4 a Wk

2 hours for each hour in class

Read books written by well known authors/ publishers
Develop the capacity to identify the most important aspect of a problem & try to solve it by

Clarity of thought

Try to simplify the idea in a simple & logical form
Find out the missing link
Sleep over it

Memory

No use collecting treasure if not retained. Memorise.

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Studies have shown that people who have a well-designed schedule achieve a greater amount of success than those who don’t

If there is problem in explaining ideas in simple layman’s language then it means that some links are missing. Go over facts and try to find the missing link. Some times things are clear if you sleep over your problems

A Time table for study should be prepared for entire course Make Week a unit of study More demanding subjects given more time If you allot ½ hr on days when you have class of forensic medicine it is OK Not less than ½ hr ime allotted at one sitting, more demanding subjects should be allotted 1 hr per sitting . Relaxation should be change of subject. Leaving a buffer time in between two subjects is not desirable. You need to devote 2 hours at home for every hour in class.

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Memory

Improved by Exercise
Helps to a weak memory

Distinctness, vividness & intensity of the impression
Classification & a logical chain of event
Repetition-Practice effect- less than 10 days

Management of Memory

Causality

Analyse what is on the page, as thoroughly and deeply as possible
Artificial bonds of association (mnemonic system); Acronym
you can't rush learning. Repetition required

Written Record. Writing makes a man perfect

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An acronym is a word or phrase made from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term (acronyms can be created by students to remember a specific item, such as the planets in our solar system in sequence (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Taking the first letter of each word, you would have m, v e, m, j, s, u, and n. Make up a nonsensical phrase to help you remember the exact order, such as, "My very elegant mother just served us noodles.“)

Happily of all the mental faculties memory can be improved most easily by exercise

Classes are few individuals many. Class tells us about the most important property of a specimen

Memory can't be altered, but one can definitely make a more efficient and purposeful use

Short term memory is replaced by long term memory by repetition. Repetition at short interval is more effective for retention. A subject taught in class if revised the same evening creates better memory than revising later

People with very good memory are usually intellectual parrots where as those with poor memory tend to develop causal connection of facts. This improves their retention capacity and also creates far greater insight and understanding of the phenomenon

Though dependence on written record enfeebles the memory rather than strengthening it but it helps to store vast amount of accumulated material to be used as and when required

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Home Work

Starting to Study the Most Difficult Part
When & Where to Study: Place & Time- Habit Forming

Not the most comfortable position
Not the most uncomfortable position
Position where the body is forgotten
Environment for study should be conducive

Certain Amount of Mental Tension Required For Study

Preparation for Examination.
Expecting questioning by Teachers
Challenges from peer group
Develop self-motivation or for loved ones

Except for tea & coffee all other drugs are harmful

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The environment should be neither very hot nor very cold not noisy or disturbing.

Some say that you should treat your body severely and put it into an uncomfortable position, then only your mind will concentrate. The other view is that the body should be as comfortable as possible so that the mind is free to work. Neither view can be pushed to extremity.

A point that often comes up is can you relax and study at the same time. Many students share the positive view and it is not uncommon to see students lying comfortably on a Dunlop couch with a pack of chips in one hand, a cold drink in the other, and eyes on the book. Our answer would be probably no. A study involves a certain amount of tension and up to a level, the degree of performance is related to the degree of the tension. Reading and re-reading a page is not important. What matters is analyzing what is on the page, as thoroughly and deeply as possible. This is known as the level of processing. The more deep processing you do, the better you are likely to remember. This requires a deliberate effort and time. Always remember that there are no shortcuts to learning- you can't rush learning.

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For Concentration

Place of study

Should have :

Good lighting, Ventilation, A comfortable chair, (but not too comfortable), A desk large enough to spread out your materials

Should not have:

A distracting view, that you want to be involved in ; Mobile telephone, A loud-stereo, A television, A roommate or friend who wants to talk a lot, A refrigerator stocked with eatables

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Improving Home Work

Boredom & Fatigue

Brain is indefatigable
Mind is prone to fatigue
Deep interest reduces fatigue

Recitation- Practice Effect

Creates Interest
Motivates
Evaluation of learning and understanding
Helps in Retrieval later

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After an honest work, you ought to be tired Drowsiness and other symptoms of fatigue are nature's way of warning that rest is needed. If that warning is neglected, nature removes the symptoms and allows work to go on but at a price. The work may not suffer but you may. A distinction must be made between boredom and fatigue. Boredom only comes when you lack interest although you are fresh and can do anything except reading that particular subject. In such cases, changing a subject is often as good as a rest period. Don't change it too frequently-

As you sit down to study, your effectiveness initially declines. This is because you are busy fighting all other interests that clamour for your attention. This phase is crucial and should not be confused with boredom otherwise you will end up changing subjects and books but not gaining anything meaningfully. Once you settle your account with matters that occupy your mind, effectiveness steadily increases. This goes on till fatigue counter balances your efforts and then again a fall starts.

You should recognize what is known as practice effect and make full use of it. It is a common experience that once you start reading a new book, you find it uninteresting and difficult. On your second reading, it does not seem so difficult. This is practice effect. It has been scientifically proven that it persists for about 10 days. Therefore, sessions should be scheduled as frequently as possible to make full use of practice effect. Recitation is an age-old method for improving retention. It is one of the reasons, why most of us can still recall "Twinkle Twinkle little star" or "Baa Baa black sheep" because as children we used to recite them many times.

Don't regard tiredness as something to be avoided. After an honest work, you ought to be tired; but be conscious of fatigue. Drowsiness and other symptoms of fatigue are nature's way of warning that rest is needed. If that warning is neglected, nature removes the symptoms and allows work to go on but at a price. The work may not suffer but you may. It is just like ignoring the reserve signal of a scooter and then end up walking all the way to the petrol pump. At the same time, don't keep on looking for the symptoms of fatigue-you may find them too easily.

A distinction must be made between boredom and fatigue. Boredom only comes when you lack interest although you are fresh and can do anything except reading that particular subject. In such cases, changing a subject is often as good as a rest period. Don't change it too frequently- you must learn to face the uninteresting in order to attain what is interesting.

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Time Scheduling

Have a regular study time and a place for Study
Time Schedule Strategies

Long Term(Semester); Intermediate(Weekly); Short term (Daily): 2 hours per lecture class assigned daily
In order of importance, Take up the most Important First
Divide and conquer
Set milestones and reward yourself for reaching those

Suggestions for scheduled study

Plan for weekly review
Leave some unscheduled time for flexibility/ free time

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SQ3R Technique

Survey

Give a quick glance to the topic.
Find out areas discussed or omitted

Question

Whether sufficient as per the class note or other books needed

Read

Try to understand what you read and find out what really matters
Meaning of words and phrases. Keep Dictionary.
Try to understand the idea with clarity
Should include some note taking

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Recitation:-It leads to better understanding, lasting associations, and better memory, Enhances concentration, Provides feedback, Aids memory by deep processing, Practices retrieval of information

A related technique for better retention and an exercise in deep processing is SQ3R. It is especially useful when reading a topic for the first time. It leads to better understanding, lasting associations, and better memory. Essentially, it consists of the following steps:

Survey: Give a quick glance to the topic/book to find out what it deals with, what is it's level of discussion, which areas have been discussed satisfactorily and which areas will need recourse to another book.

Question: When you survey, you will find yourself asking basic questions like why this topic has been given so much importance; why such and such aspect has been skipped; how much can I depend on this book; which areas can be skipped because I have already read them and so on.

Read: Having prepared yourself with this basic information set down to read. Try to find the meaning and organization of the material and do some deep processing.

Recite: After reading, close the book and try to recite what you have learnt.

Review: Go through the book again to check whether you could recite correctly. Go through the weak areas and then follow the cycle of read-recite-review till you have perfected the material.

Law of overlearning states that you should not stop at the first perfect performance but continue to learn beyond that. If it took you 10 attempts to recite a paragraph correctly then recite it at least 15 times (i.e. 150% over learning) to remember it for a longer time. This law explains why we can still recall the story of Alice in Wonderland or some other fairy tale learnt in our childhood because we continued to hear them even after we remembered them.

Before concluding, we want to give you one more example that is from a movie, Gigi. There is an elderly couple celebrating their marriage anniversary. They recall their first meeting. She says that dinner was at 9, he was late and she wore a gown of gold. He says that dinner was at 8, he was on time and she wore blue. This sequence has been pictured in the song, I remember it well. There is no way of knowing who is right but they are in full agreement on what really counts- that the meeting led to a lifetime of happy affection. This is how your memory should be- not bogged down by unnecessary details yet accurate on what really matters.

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SQ3R Technique

Recite

After reading close the book and try to recall not the detail
It leads to better understanding, lasting associations, and better memory, , Enhances concentration, Provides feed

Review

Go through the chapter to find out if you recited correctly
Repeat ‘Read, Recite, Review to perfect weak spots
There is a law of over learning

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