Welcome to the STATMed podcast, where we teach you HOW to study in med school and HOW to pass boards-style exams! Your hosts are Ryan Orwig and David LaSalle — learning specialists who have decades of experience working with med students and physicians.
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STATMed Alumni Share the Worst Advice They Received As Struggling Med Students
Not all advice is created equally. And bad advice can come from good intentions, as many of our former students can attest. In part three of this miniseries, Ryan is back with six recent STATMed Study Skills Class alumni. In this episode, they share the worst advice they received about how to study and succeed in med school.
"That goes back to the bad piece of advice I'd alluded to was to memorize everything. And this was said to me by the same individual who told me that my previous medical experience doesn't matter, so I didn't necessarily trust the advice, but this goes back to this idea that it's possible to somehow work in a fifth or a sixth pass. And really, all that's doing, and we talked about this in this podcast before, but all it's doing is giving you this idea, this allure, this facade of familiarity. It's not actually giving you that experience, that touchpoint with the material."
Study Skills Class Debrief Part 2
Season 2 · Episode 20
Friday, June 24, 2022 • Duration 46:13
From mapping to memory palaces, STATMed Alumni share the skills that have transformed their studying habits
If you’re struggling in medical school (or a related field), the tools you’re using may be working against you. If you’re relying on reading and re-reading material or continually listening to lectures but not getting the results you’re looking for, the issue could be your tools and strategy. In part two of this miniseries, Ryan is back with six recent STATMed Study Skills Class. In this episode, they share which of the skills learned in the Class have most impacted the way they approach studying.
“After going through the homework sets you’ve been giving us and diving into the maps and memory palaces, I, personally, have seen my brain change and be able to store and retrieve information more quickly and easily than I ever have in my entire academic career. And I think that’s the biggest game-changer. I’ve seen that I have way more potential than I think I do, and that’s what makes it most exciting about using this as one of the tools.”
Study Skills Class Debrief Part 1
Season 2 · Episode 19
Friday, June 17, 2022 • Duration 33:13
The struggle is real. Not for all med students (or vet, Pharm D, or PA students). But for the students we work with, medical school can be tough — sometimes it's even the first time a student has struggled academically. In our newest podcast miniseries, recent STATMed Study Skills Class alumni share the events that led them to take the Class and how it transformed their approach to studying.
In this episode, Ryan sits down with six recent STATMed Study Skills Class students from different schools, different regions and at different points in their careers who all had one thing in common: they were struggling in med school, PA school, or on the boards. In part one, we meet each of the students who share their reason for taking the STATMed Study Skills Class.
“I was on the brink of failure. I sat through two meetings on my performance and issues within the classroom. The first was patently unhelpful. On the second, I took command and decided to discuss a leave of absence instead of going through the specificity of that course. I found STATMed after doing a thorough search of what’s available within the marketplace. ...I had emailed a couple of them for information and got back quotes that were absolutely outrageous on the hourly fees. And I thought well, I don’t really want to spend $5,000 on a contract for tutoring when I know that I don’t need to be taught what’s going on in the classroom, I need to be helped with what’s not sticking for me. …I typed portions of vignettes of my story directly into Google and found a testimonial of one of your former students that was my story on the page. I thought okay, I could have written this story, so this is the place I need to start.” -Elise, a first-year medical student
Creating Systems to Navigate Test-Taking on Medical Boards and In the Classroom Part 2
Season 2 · Episode 18
Friday, June 3, 2022 • Duration 31:58
More Strategies for approaching test-taking on medical boards and in the classroom the STATMed way
You know that a lot rides on your med school tests and board exams. The pressure can be immense, and it only gets worse if you have test anxiety. But bad test-takers don't have to give up the dream of med school (or vet school, a Pharm D program, or a related career). STATMed Learning can help.
In this episode, host Ryan Orwig is back with Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. They dig into test-taking on medical boards and in the classroom. In part two of this two-part podcast, Ryan and Dr. Culhane examine test anxiety and the psychology of behavior changes for bad test-takers.
"This is a fact of human nature. Behavior change is hard. It takes time. It might take one person five days, and it might take somebody else 15 days, it might take somebody else 30 days. It might take somebody five hours of concentrated practice, and it might take somebody 30 hours of concentrated practice. You just don't know. But this is why it's so important to have the knowledge, and have access to the practice questions, to be able to actually train." - Ryan Orwig
Navigating Test-Taking on Medical Boards and In the Classroom
Season 2 · Episode 17
Thursday, May 12, 2022 • Duration 40:01
Strategies for approaching test-taking on medical boards the STATMed way
It goes without saying that a lot rides on your medical board exams. And before you even get to the point of taking the COMLEX, NAVLE, (or the exam for your field), you have to pass your med school exams. That’s a lot of pressure, especially for self-professed bad test-takers.
In this episode, host Ryan Orwig is back with Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. They dig into test-taking on medical boards and in the classroom. In part one of this two-part podcast, Dr. Culhane details the process of exam creation while Ryan shares STATMed’s meticulous approach to test-taking.
“If you’re going to do the Boards Workshop, we’re not going to fix your test-taking. I’m not going to go in and plug holes. We’re going to tear your system down to the ground. We’re going to bulldoze that sucker and build in its place our very rigid, very meticulous system.” - Ryan Orwig
Strategies to Prep for Medical Boards Pt 3
Season 2 · Episode 17
Friday, April 22, 2022 • Duration 31:55
Strategies bad test-takers can use to prep for medical boards
Just like you wouldn’t practice basketball drills to improve your soccer skills, it’s important to approach prep for medical boards so you can “train the way you want to play.” In this episode, host Ryan Orwig is back with Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. They dig into more strategies students can use to prepare for medical boards, including using practice questions and the partial true/partial false strategy to prep for medical boards.
“But if you're hurrying, picking the first answer that looks right, if you're missing key words, if you know that you're that kind of test-taker because all through pharmacy or medical school or veterinary school, you're constantly complaining to your professors, ‘I picked the first answer that looked right’, or’ I missed this important phrase in the question’, you're the type of person that better slow down a little bit and utilize your time resource a little bit more effectively.” - Dr. Culhane
Preparing for Medical Boards Pt 2
Season 2 · Episode 16
Thursday, April 14, 2022 • Duration 31:15
The STATMed Way to Approach Medical Boards Prep
In this episode, host Ryan Orwig is back with Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. They dig into strategies students can use to prepare for medical boards. Here, they discuss strategies to implement when preparing for medical boards.
“You've got two real tracks or approaches to board prep. You've got the study component to it, where you're interfacing with the materials that your school provided or that you purchased. And then, you've got the practice question side where you're actually, going to mimic the exam or in the test-taking environment, in that way. And they cross over, they overlap, but they are two separate entities.” - Dr. Jim Culhane
Insights for Medical Boards Prep Pt 1
Episode 15
Friday, April 8, 2022 • Duration 17:25
Strategies to Avoid When Preparing for Medical Boards
With so much riding on your medical boards, studying the same way you always have can seem like a good idea. Why rock the boat? But if you're not getting the results you need, it may be time to reassess.
In this episode, Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy, flips the script and interviews STATMed host Ryan Orwig. In this multipart miniseries, they dig into strategies students can use to prepare for medical boards. Here, they discuss strategies to avoid if you're looking to get the most out of your study sessions.
"Being strategic with your exam preparation and following a process that utilizes good productivity skills, time management skills, study skills and the approaches that are going to get you the best results versus the mentality that you're just going to plow through the material. You're putting in long days, you're doing a lot of hard work, but you're getting very little return on your investment." - Dr. Culhane
Establishing Lecture-Based Learning Survival Skills in Med School
Season 2 · Episode 14
Friday, April 1, 2022 • Duration 01:01:07
Use these strategies to get the most out of lecture-based learning Between the speed of lectures, the excessive cognitive load it requires, and the possibility of disorganized learning materials, lectures in med school can be tough — even for smart students. On this episode of the STATMed Podcast, host Ryan Orwig is back with Dr. Jim Culhane, Assistant Dean for Student Academic Success Programs and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy. They dig into some of the factors that can make lecture-based learning in medical school so difficult – and discuss some “survival skills” students can implement. “You can't control the type of material that they're giving you, or how they're presenting it, or the speed at which they're presenting it at. But what you can control is how you interface with that material. And that's really why I like a lot of the techniques and approaches that you teach.” - Dr. Jim Culhane
Test-Taking Misses or Knowledge Misses — What’s Derailing Your Scores on Medical Boards?
Season 2 · Episode 13
Friday, March 18, 2022 • Duration 27:24
For the Ask STATMed podcast miniseries, we dig into the most common questions we get asked about studying and board-style test-taking in medical school. In Part 2, we look a little deeper into the nature versus nurture discussion and determine how to tell if a missed question on a test or medical board exam is from a test-taking miss or a knowledge miss. In this episode, we explore specific test-taking issues like working memory limitations and the binary test=taking mentality.
“My view is test-taking methods, won't cover or bridge these knowledge gaps. Test-taking does not hack the test. Test-taking is about cleaning up the user interface so you can clearly show what you know, but you have to know enough. And that's addressed, through augmented streamlined study methods.” - Ryan Orwig
