Hiya! I’m Kallie, and I’m a second year student on the 5-year programme. I thought I would share a little bit about study methods at vet school, as it can be difficult to know where to start!
Before starting vet school, I gave a lot of thought to how I was going to cope with the step up from school to university- in particular, how I planned to go about note-taking, study methods, and revision. Throughout A-levels, I spent hours creating beautiful pages of notes, which, when it came to revision, I almost completely ignored! I knew I needed to find a new, more time-efficient, and more effective method to cope with the increased workload of vet school; however, I wasn’t quite sure what the ‘correct’ study method was.
I thought I would write this post to show that there is no ‘correct’ way, and give an insight into many of the different ways which students find effective. Within my circle of friends at vet school, no two people use the same methods, and everybody is unique in what they find effective!
Initial notetaking during the lecture
The pace and interaction with teaching staff during live lectures has been proven to aid understanding and engagement with the content, in addition to allowing students to ask questions throughout or after lectures. Lectures sometimes include digital quizzes, and many lecturers like to ask questions directly to students throughout- lectures really are a two-way interaction! Lecture slides and printed summary notes are uploaded onto our student platform prior to lectures, allowing students to download and familiarise themselves with content before attending.
At Edinburgh, most lectures are recorded, which allows students to opt to study at home, after the live delivery of the lecture. Some students find it easier to be able to self-direct the pace of the lecture, and pause the recording to make notes, or at any point they feel may take longer to process and understand.
Some students choose to purchase printed books of summary notes, which they annotate with additional information whilst the lecturer explains the content, while others choose to digitally annotate the lecture slides. Furthermore, some students choose to type or handwrite notes during lectures, and insert or draw diagrams and graphics, respectively. On the other hand, a special breed of students like to both understand the concepts and make flashcards during lectures, as the lecturer speaks, however, I personally find I can only use this method for animal husbandry lectures, where the delivery is slower, and the concepts are simpler!
Personally, I chose to digitally annotate lecture slides during 1st year, and type up notes at a later point, however, I now find that typing notes in lectures and returning to any points I’ve missed is more time-efficient. The transition from one study method to another is incredibly common, with most people changing technique multiple times throughout the degree, until they find what personally works best.
After the lecture
As much as I would love to say I comprehensively understand every component of the lecture immediately, I definitely do not, and by no means is it committed to my long-term memory! During lectures, it can be helpful to time stamp and note down any concepts which are more difficult, or which it may be beneficial to return to. This allows me to use lecture recordings to recap specific sections of a lecture which I may have missed (concentration lapses do happen!) or that I am less confident about, before cross-referencing the learning outcomes with my notes. Following the completion of a lecture sub-series, whereby we may receive several lectures centered around one larger concept, I reformat my typed notes into digital flashcards- this is a very quick process, and allows me to recap content again. Other students choose to make physical, handwritten flashcards, and others choose to make digital flashcards using their lecture notes or slide annotations simply as a reference. These cards can be reviewed throughout the semester, with many online applications prompting card reviews at strategic time intervals.
A different learning technique involves using written notes or annotations to create a summary sheet: some students learn by answering each learning outcome in a large, typed document, while others prefer to summarise the learning outcomes using a mind map. Some students choose to simply read and recite annotated notes or slides until they feel the content is sufficiently memorised.
Irrespective of other study methods used, it can always be helpful to draw complex figures and multi-step processes out on paper, digitally, or on a whiteboard- most concepts can be simplified when they can be visualised!
Small group tutorials and practical classes are essential tools in the learning process. Getting hands-on with specimens and cadavers, asking teaching staff questions, visualising organs, tissues and microbiology, and obtaining experimental results are all crucial in fully understanding concepts. What may seem difficult in a lecture may be simple after seeing a different perspective, or gaining a second explanation! Most students tend to incorporate images and additional resources from practical classes into their study resources. Additionally, some lecturers set short optional quizzes on our student platform, which are a great tool for checking understanding of individual lectures.
Revision
Teaching finishes a week prior to exams, which allows a week to be purely dedicated to revision. During this week, some students further condense content into more concise summary sheets and mind maps, while others focus on further flashcard review. I tend to traffic light score the learning outcomes at this stage and use a mixture of techniques, depending on my confidence and colour rating of each topic. Furthermore, most learning objectives can easily be used as short-answer examination-style questions: it can be helpful to answer difficult learning outcomes in this way, to prepare for an examination question on the topic. Some students opt to re-read and review previously made summary sheets and notes, and simply further highlight and annotate.
One of the most effective study methods I have found is group revision. Unlike high school, there are no grade curves, which allows for a collaborative environment and approach to learning and revision. My friends and I share flashcard decks, summary sheets, and mind maps, and quiz each other on content. We are even able to book group study rooms, where we can work together to discuss topics and create large mind maps: a gap in one person’s knowledge is usually another person’s area of expertise!
All in all, there are dozens of combinations of study techniques used at vet school. Every student has a unique combination of methods, which may change from module to module- finding that combination may just be a process of trial and error!
