Preparing for the UBA medicine entrance exam is sometimes not an easy task for students. It usually generates anxiety and stress due to the considerable amount of content to learn, memorize and remember.

That is why, in this article, we offer you some study techniques and methods that will help you pass your final exams as well as in the preparation of midterms.

What do you have to do to pass the UBA medicine entrance exam?

First of all, the time you have to prepare for the exam is very important.

You should know that there are no magic solutions to prepare for an exam. But we have tips that help improve the performance and process of assimilation and appropriation of content.

How to do it?
Preparing for the UBA medicine entrance exam requires the acquisition of a lot of content and this is achieved with long-term memory and real learning.

Learning is a progressive process and by which we acquire knowledge; which is vital when studying as well as memory to remember what we want to learn.

It is important to carry out the content learning process first:

Organize the materials: This is vital, since having the program of each subject that you must take helps guide you in the search and selection of content.

This allows you to have a general notion of what you have to study.

But, how to learn everything I have to study?
Sometimes when the content is too much, we tend to get desperate.

In these cases it is effective to remain calm (which seems obvious); and as I explained above, organize the materials.

Later, you must put into practice the different study techniques that you will find in this article and they will make it easier for you to learn the topics of each subject and exercise attention, comprehension and long-term memory. And in this way pass your entrance exam.

 

Some of these techniques are:

“Pomodoro” technique.

It is one of the most popular techniques among students. But what does it consist of?

 

Step 1: Choose only one task to complete, eliminating multitasking that makes our productivity inefficient.

 

Step 2: Work on that task for 25 minutes, without stopping and with intensity. This is known as (Pomodoro). Here you can do an intense reading, summary, outlines, annotations, etc.

 

Step 3: Rest 5 minutes, but do not do activities that completely distract you from your work area.

You can walk around your house for a while, clean your work area, drink water, etc. Do activities that relax you.

Step 4: Repeat this step 3 more times and complete the 100 minutes of work.

Afterwards, take a 15-minute break, doing activities that are not related to that task.

If you do not finish with the development and reading period of the contents; repeat the 4 Pomodoros session.

And you can adjust the reading intensity and rest time according to your criteria and the process of developing your comprehension, attention and memory.

 

 

SQ4R method for medicine:

It is a method that serves to increase reading comprehension. Likewise, it organizes and covers a large amount of information such as the contents in Medicine.

This method, in its acronym in English translates: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Rewrite and Review. And each of them proposes:

 

Survey: In its Spanish translation it means (Survey) it is a phase to make a global vision of the text. You must identify titles, subtitles and key ideas (in the case of medical books, they sometimes come with bold writing).
Take a 5 to 10 minute read superficially but reading everything. Look at the schemes and drawings that you have in the book; to get an overview of the topic.

 

Question: Translates as (Ask); here you should ask yourself initial questions such as; What do I know about the text? What things do I not know?
And from there, ask questions in relation to the title or subtitle of the topic.

In the case of a medical degree (without specifying a topic or subject) What is scientific thought good for? or, How is a diagnosis made? Why and what is it for?, etc.

 

R1-Read: (Read). At this point you should do some active reading. You must identify concepts. Emphasize which terms are new to you and which terms are important. It is essential to read the entire text and respond with the information obtained; all the questions asked in the previous phase (Question).
This step is important, because on this, a scheme is made on which a faster and more effective review is made.

 

R2-Recite: (Recite). A reading aloud is necessary because hearing and vision combine and strengthen memories in memory.
Then you should try to answer the questions out loud with simple words, as it is more useful.

 

R3-Rewrite: (Rewrite). Rewrite questions and answer with key words (short); with drawing, with logical relationships writing acronyms and remembering their meaning.

R4-Review: (Review of notes made). You must review the note, complete the confusing information, you can resort to other sources that are not only the one given by the chair that you are preparing; solve doubts and finally “reread”
So, we review two or three times a week or before the exam

Self-assessment technique.
Once you read the texts, it is important that you summarize, take notes or make outlines. Identify what the concepts, data and key notes are. And ask yourself questions about what you just read.

This helps to self-assess in relation to how we are appropriating the content.

A good abstract, notes, or outline should have:

Organized ideas.
Be translated in your own words (without distorting the essential content).
It must be simple.
And make it easy to review.

Flashcards or review card.

It is a very useful study technique, to exercise the memorization of the studied topics.

When you finish reading and understanding content; You can use flashcards to help you remember by focusing on important questions.

On one side of the card you place questions related to the topic. And on the other side, you place the short or long answers but argued.

In this way, you review the questions with answers on each card.

In case of answering wrong or not remembering; you can focus on reviewing them and repeating the process.

Spaced Repetition:

It consists of reviewing in short blocks of time, with breaks.

Schedule short reviews throughout your week to strengthen the topics you just studied.

Thus avoiding falling into monotony and meaningless repetition of the themes learned.

 

Question and Explain:

Once you have read and understood the content, make questions, questions; that help to understand and understand the topics in depth.

For example, you can ask yourself:

Why is this true?

How do I check?

What does this mean to me?

What is it useful for or useful to me?

How do I relate this to what I already know.

This helps the memory to exercise the evocation of the contents and their understanding.

 

Feynman Technique:

There is no better way to study and understand a concept than to explain it to another person.

This allows you to put into practice what you have read and understood about the content.

In the case of medicine, science or mathematical calculations; translating into practice helps to exercise what has been learned theoretically and conceptually.

 

To carry out this technique we have to:

Step 1: Choose the topic to study. Locate the central ideas.

 

Step 2: Explain what you read in simple language. Reinforce what you read, making notes in a notebook. Explain again.

 

Step 3: Review what is difficult for you to remember or has not been clear to you, and go back to review, review and explain.

 

Step 4: Review and further simplify what has been learned.

In this way you will be able to explain the content, not only with simple and clear words, but it also allows the brain to execute solid connections that help to appropriate the different topics.

 

Mnemonics Rules:
Association is the rule of mnemonics that helps to remember content.

Mnemonics helps to memorize and not to study, therefore, we cannot speak of it as a study technique, but rather as a rule that helps to broaden the ways for the deeper incorporation of content.

You can associate the new with the already known. For example, associating names of authors with the name of a relative or acquaintance who has said or is similar, among other examples.
You can associate smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste with what is new to you.
It is associated with emotions, with the strange, the different, etc.
With this technique you can create stories, starting from a list of data that you want to memorize or with keywords of a topic.

Recreating stories with images, which makes it more memorable.

In the elaboration of your story you can include something extravagant, out of the ordinary, such as surprise, laughter, humor.
This helps to learn the subject in a more efficient and entertaining way. Since it displays creativity. For example: use the first letters of each word you want to memorize and put together a sentence or story.

You must keep in mind that even with associative study, review is necessary, since it increases the understanding and memory of what you want to learn.

Then:

 

When to use Mnemonics?

When you already understand what you want to learn.
When you have to learn a huge amount of data, although you deeply understand it; it is effective to secure in your memory with the mnemonics so that you create more paths to it.
When technical and complex vocabularies abound, as is often the case in career subjects such as medicine, for example. And using associations to remember will be easier for you.
When you must learn pure data, which are those that do not follow any logical sequence and, therefore, you cannot deduce it by reasoning either; the example of such raw data can be: dates, numerical lists, the periodic table, formulas, etc.

Recover of information:

It is appropriate to mention here the importance of the information retrieval exercise when we use any study technique.

Since this allows us to determine the degree of storage of the different topics, in our memory.

That is why exercise and constant practice in the use of these techniques are emphasized.

Because although they serve as study tools to learn new content, we must be able to be aware as students, “what and how” we are learning from the different techniques, it is crucial to understand how our brain learns to learn.

 

You should keep in mind that:

You must avoid falling into the monotony of the supposed “review” that becomes a “meaningless repeat” of the topics you are trying to learn.
When you reread and repeat without fully understanding what you study; long-term memory is not efficient.
Pay attention when you underline those that you consider important, since this method must be accompanied by annotations and diagrams that help increase the process of understanding and retention of content.

Suggestions:
When studying you should avoid everything that can distract you, such as cell phone, tablet, computer, television, etc.
Or if you use technological devices as a study tool, avoid the passage and explorations to videos or social networks that make you lose the focus of concentration.
Try to have a quiet and comfortable space so you can better concentrate on your tasks.

Now, remember that while there are endless study techniques, methods and rules for memorizing content.

You can choose which of all of them is more efficient for the incorporation of content.

You just have to keep in mind that no technique is universal to apply to all topics and content equally.

That is why you have to encourage yourself to explore these and other existing techniques and tools to cover topics of a nature that may require other ways of assimilating the content.

We know that the process of studying is sometimes difficult and you can even consider it impossible.

But with these tools that we have given you, I assure you that you will find meaning and meaning in what you should and want to learn.

And the most important thing is that with these techniques not only do you have a guaranteed pass in the exam, but you will also feel the pressure of studying new, complex and long content more pleasantly.

Come on you can do it!. put it into practice