The Ultimate Study Guide for Undergraduate Healthcare Majors

 Picture this: You’re a high school student and you have a math or science test today. You most likely studied for a day or two and got a pretty good grade without stressing too much. Now, you’re an undergraduate healthcare major and want to go to medical school after graduation. Chances are you are a smart, driven, and caring individual which is why you chose a career in healthcare in the first place. You have a huge chemistry or psychology exam next week. You are feeling extremely nervous and not sure where to start studying. College exams make high school tests feel like a piece of cake. You realize you actually never learned how to study because you’ve never really had to before. So now what? 

Here are some helpful study tips from a former undergraduate healthcare major who excelled in high school, found themselves struggling freshman year of college, but went on to graduate with a high GPA and earned their doctorate degree in physical therapy: 

-First and foremost, find the learning method that works best for YOU. Are you a visual, auditory, reading/writing, or kinesthetic learner? Do you focus best with dead silence, music, or a crowded coffee shop? Does your brain retain information best with flashcards, pneumonics, repetition of reading information, practice questions, learning concepts, etc.? Each student finds success with different methods, so it is crucial to find what works for you to have efficient study sessions. I would recommend trying out various techniques to find the system that is the most effective for you personally. 

-The second largest key to passing your exams is to stay organized. Use a planner to keep dates and tasks in one space to easily reference. Personally, I used the monthly section to write out due dates of assignments or dates of exams and highlight them with a different color that correlated with each class, and then the daily/weekly sections to write my to-do list for the tasks I needed to accomplish each day. As someone who has studied for dozens of exams throughout undergraduate and graduate programs, I can confidently say I could not have done it without my planner. Whether you prefer a virtual or paper organization system, staying organized is so important for successful studying! 

-During study sessions, limit distractions. If you study with others, ensure your study partners are also going to study versus want to chat. If you like to listen to music, try listening to instrumental songs to avoid singing along to the lyrics. Put your phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, or better yet, shut it off or put it in another room so you are not tempted to spend time scrolling on your phone. Avoid studying in a space with excess background noise, people moving around, or windows with the possibility of distraction. Getting caught up in distraction is going to reduce the effectiveness of study sessions and cause you to spend more time trying to retain the information in return. 

-Another tip to passing exams to be en route to a career in healthcare is to prepare for the upcoming exam. Create your own study guide with the important topics you think will be on the exam and spend less time with the secondary topics. Often, professors will highlight topics if they will be emphasized on the exam, so take the time to predict some questions you will be asked to set yourself up for success. You can also take it another step further and anticipate the form of questions such as multiple choice, short answer, essay, or a mix to mentally prepare for the exam. 

-One of my favorite study tips when I was a pre-healthcare student was to utilize a reward system. Whether you have plans with friends or have a treat set aside to eat after a study session, sometimes you need external motivation to get you through your to-do list. Find something meaningful to you! 

-Time management, time management, time management! Not only is learning how to manage your time going to be helpful as an undergraduate healthcare major studying for exams to graduate college, but it is also going to be a skill you need to utilize in your future healthcare career. Figure out the most pressing things to study for first to make sure you get these completed in case you run out of time later. However, to ensure you do not have this problem, time block your study session to keep yourself on track. I always found it to be helpful to set a timer for a certain amount of time, then once my timer would go off I would reward myself with a small break, and repeat this method until the session was over. 

-Lastly, find ways to make studying fun! Studying isn’t the most exciting activity in the world, so adding little things to your study session can elevate your experience and make it a bit more enjoyable. Try studying with friends or classmates, light a candle, visit a new coffee shop, use colorful pens, or munch on a delicious snack. 

Now, picture this: You utilized these study tips and successfully passed those exams with flying colors, graduated, got accepted into your dream graduate program, and are ready to take on your future career in healthcare and help improve the lives of others.