The All-Night Revision

 

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) and his friend were revising the course just the night before the exam. When the bell sounded at 2.00 am for the library to close, Dr. Dev picked up his books and turned towards the hostel. His friend started walking in the opposite direction. Dr. Dev asked his friend, ‘Where are you going? His friend replied, ‘I am going to the 24-hour open staff canteen. I still have a large part of the course to revise. I will sit in the canteen and study there till the course revision is completed.’

Dr. Dev countered, ‘Even my course revision is incomplete but I am still going to sleep as I am mentally exhausted and need a good sleep to recharge my brain before the exam. I will risk going to the exam in the morning with a partially revised course but with a fresh mind. All the best to you.’ With that, they parted way and continued towards their respective destination.

The next day, Dr. Dev went to give the exam after sleeping for 5-6 hours but with an incompletely revised course. His friend stayed up studying till early morning and went to the exam with just 2-3 hours of sleep. After the exam, they compared how their performance was.

Dr. Dev was satisfied as his performance was not great but it was not terrible either. In all, it was slightly better than average. But his friend was crestfallen. He lamented that even though he had revised the course completely before the exam yet his performance was far below his expectation. He was not able to recall and write even the answers to questions which he had studied just a few hours ago. He committed few blunders and got confused between answers.

Regular study is the key to success in any exam. A common occurrence with many students who do not study regularly is to aim to revise the complete course at least once on the day before the exam. If they are not able to finish it in the day they continue studying late at night and sometimes even in the morning.

But these students forget a very important fact; you don’t mark for studying for the exam. You get marks for the answers you write in the exam on recalling / remembering from your memory. For that, you need a well-rested fully functional mind. If you go to the exam without proper sleep and mental rest, most probably you will not be able to write even things you have studied before. 

This does not apply to just school and college exams but also to job interviews, important meetings, presentations, etc.

So before staying awake studying all night just before the exam, consider its effect on your mental performance in the exam. A fresh smooth functioning mind is as important as a revision of course for scoring good marks in the exam.

— ND

(Based on an allegedly true incident.)

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.

Follow the Finger

 

You must have watched the small kids while they are first learning to read and must have noticed that they use their pointed fingers as a guide. They keep the finger below the word they are reading and move the finger to the next word when they want to read it and so on. As an adult, you must have long discontinued this habit consider it unnecessary.

But it turns out following the words you are reading with a finger, capped pen, or some other pointer is a useful technique even for adults. Many speed reading coaches recommend that this method as a means to improve your reading speed and concentration.

Keeping the finger beneath the word you are reading helps in keeping your attention focused on the reading material. Your eyes can involuntarily move from your book and your attention gets diverted. But a finger kept below the sentences you are reading is not likely to move on its own unless you are direct it. 

A stationary finger will serve as a warning that you have stopped reading so that you can again direct your eyes at your pointing finger and start reading once more. So better concentration and focus results with this ‘follow the finger’ reading method

Many of us are overconfident regarding our reading speed. With the finger moving along with our reading, we get an accurate visual indication of our reading speed. If the finger is moving slower than we are reading slowly. Only if it is moving fast that we are reading fast.  

We can use this method to also increase our reading speed.  By keeping our finger moving slightly faster than our usual reading speed, our brain and eyes will be forced to work faster than usual to keep up with the moving finger. Gradually your brain and eyes may get accustomed to this new faster reading speed. You may then again increase the speed of the finger’s movement to train your brain and eyes to read faster and so on.

Caveat: Although many persons have found this technique useful, not all experts recommend it. So give it a try and find out if it is useful for you or not. In the end, it’s up to you and whatever works best for you.

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.

Paper Books vs. e-Books

 

From the previous posts (Links given below) you must be aware of the importance of reading. In this digital age, the next big question is whether to read paper or e-books. E-books can be in various formats such as pdf files, epub or Mobi files, kindle books, or even material available on websites.

https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-basic-key-to-success.html 

https://agnipathdoctors.blogspot.com/2021/06/video-lectures-vs-reading.html 

Some of the advantages of e-books are: 

They are very portable, depending on the storage space available on your mobile, tablet, or laptop you can literary carry thousands of books with you. 

They are usually cheaper than their print version as the cost of paper, printing, transportation, distribution, and storage, etc. is saved in e-books.  Additionally, there may be a lot of free reading material related to your topic available on the internet. Many online teachers provide free digital reading material with their courses. 

You can easily search for something using the search function in e-books. 

They are usually up to date and have the latest information, as they can be easily updated electronically. And they are environmentally friendly as they save paper which saves trees.

So with so many advantages why have printed paper books not become extinct?

One is that paper books are distraction-free. It is easy to become distracted while using an e-book. You may be tempted to use the device on which you are reading the e-book for surfing the internet, chat with online friends or check on Facebook or WhatsApp messages.

You may get distracted by the e-books themselves. With the vast numbers of e-books or the reading resources available on your device or online you may get easily confused and end up reading few pages from here and there rather than in-depth study from a single standard textbook.

Paper books generally are up to some standard. All the e-books available may not be up to the mark. There is a substantial cost involved in printing and distributing a paper book. Therefore the publishers try to assess and try to publish and print only those books they are convinced that will be bought and read by a large number of readers. There are obviously many exceptions and some authors may not get published by the established by publishers due to this high barrier to paper books. Remember, even J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter was rejected first by 12 publishers.

Printed books are easy on the eyes. Although the screen display technology has vastly improved from the time when there were only Black-n-White CRT monitors (like the old box type TV) to read e-books, reading paper books still cause less eye strain than reading e-books.

Paper Books are invaluable for revision and last-minute preparation. Printed books are easy to revise, skim, and flick through. It is easy to get a rapid idea of the material while going through a printed book than an e-book. You can more easily speed read a printed book than an e-book. Remember Warren Buffet’s around 500 pages of reading every day? Most of this reading he does from printouts taken by his staff of the material available digitally.

Most importantly – Better memory and recall. One big advantage I find in paper books as compared to e-books that you have better recall of the things you have studied from a printed paper than from a screen. There is better long-term memory retention with printed material. 

If you are just reading for pleasure or fun like a novel, e-books may be good enough. But if you are doing the reading for academic purpose, serious about learning some subject and want to score great marks in exam then studying from paper books should be your primary or preferred method of study.

But in the end, it’s up to you and whatever preferences you have.

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.

Video Lectures vs Reading

 

I visited my friend’s home for some work. I was surprised to see his son watching YouTube on the computer who had an exam the next day. I asked my friend, ‘Why is your son watching YouTube instead of studying when he has an exam tomorrow?’ My friend replied, ‘He is indeed studying for his upcoming exam. This is the modern method. He is doing it by watching videos related to the topics of his upcoming exam.’

Slowly and surely many students in the present time are spending more time watching video lectures and online classes than actually studying textbooks. This has become more with the Covid-era with no option but to shift to online study for most schools and colleges.

Live or recorded lectures and classes do have many advantages like you can study with the best teachers without geographical constraints. A student sitting in her house in the USA may learn from an expert teacher in Australia and vice versa. It saves you time and money going to and fro from your house to the school or college. It is safer also, with no chances of catching Covid or other infections from fellow students or while commuting, no road accidents, no mugging, etc. By the use of color graphs, animation, and actual demonstration by the experts doing a particular thing you may easily understand the concepts. This may be invaluable in learning skills such as cooking, dancing, sports, or even surgery.

But it is my personal feeling that video lectures should be used sparingly. Studying from textbooks should be the main method of studying for any serious student.

Due to the theatrical nature, teachers with less knowledge but dazzling presentation skills, glib tongue, charisma, magnetic personality, and great SEO strategy may come across as the best teacher in the world of video lectures and online classes. Teachers even with great in-depth knowledge may not be as popular as they may not be good speakers or presenters.

A video class may also have some filler material like the teacher making jokes, sharing personal experience, etc. to make the talk more interesting. But this can compromise the actual study material covered in the allotted time. You may cover more study matter while studying from textbooks. For this same reason, your learning may be actually slowed down by spending most of your time on video lectures.

By neglecting to study from written material, on seeing the written question paper in the exam you may have trouble comprehending what is being asked. You may also write the wrong spellings, especially of technical terms.

Again it is my personal feeling but long term memory, ability to recall and write the answer in exam is better with studying standard textbooks than video lectures.

If you have to study from video lectures or online classes please consider the following:

·    Use the biggest size of screen available. Use laptops and desktops with large high-quality monitors instead of mobile phones with small screens.

·    Use the 80:20 principle; spend only 20 to 30% of study time on video lectures and 70 to 80% reading or making notes.

·  When studying from video lectures or online classes, use the sandwich technique. First, read the topic from a textbook and then watch the lecture. After finishing watching the lecture again read the topic from the textbook to get the maximum benefit from the video class.

·  Use video lectures for a minimum time before exams. If possible watch only that video which summarises or reviews your topic from an exam point of view.

· For last-minute preparation, study preferably from your standard textbooks or better still from your own personal notes.

 — ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms. 

The Basic Key to Success

 

In this internet era, there is a flood of advice on how to become successful. But one of the most basic keys to success is now often disregarded or overlooked.

What do successful people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey, and many others have one thing in common? The answer: Reading.

Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors of all time. Warren Buffett has featured in each of the Forbes 400 richest Americans since its start in 1982. In 2008, he was ranked the richest person in the world. He has managed to stay in the top 10 richest people in the world since then. This had been possible even when he had estimated to have donated more than $41 billion to charity, (approximately 3000 Arab or 300,000 Crores in Indian rupees). The latest estimate of his wealth is around $100 Billion.

Speaking to students in an investing class at Columbia University, Warren Buffet himself explained that one of the secrets of his success is reading. “Read 500 pages like this every day,” Buffett said to the students while pointing toward a stack of manuals and papers. “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

And he practices what he preaches, right from a young age.

"By the age of 10, I’d read every book in the Omaha public library about investing, some twice," says Warren Buffett. It is perhaps because of this early start to reading that he bought his first stock (share) at the age of 11 years and filed his first income tax return at the age of 13 years.

In the early days of Buffett’s investment career, he would read 600-1000 pages in a single day. Nowadays, he still dedicates 80% of his day to reading, a minimum of five to six hours every day.  He reads five to six newspapers and around 500 pages of corporate reports daily. When a textbook is around 1500 to 2000 pages, this is like he is reading a complete textbook in three to four days.

Bill Gates, who had been number one on the Forbes list of the richest person in the world for 13 consecutive years, is also an avid reader. He reads about 50 books in a year that too nonfiction ones. This is equal to reading a new book every week.

Mark Zuckerberg, also completes reading one book every two weeks. Ironically, the world is wasting their time reading the messages and comments on Facebook and WhatsApp while their owner is busy reading books and increasing his knowledge.

So, read a lot. Read every day. Read about your subject. Read about your profession. Like Warren Buffet, complete reading all the books related to your career or profession in your college or public library. Read about self-improvement, read about human values, read books filled with wisdom, read books filled with humor, read good fiction. Very importantly, read this blog.

In short, read, read and read and have an amazing journey on the path to success.

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.

The ‘Boss’ Professor

 

In most colleges, the senior students are respected by their juniors. Sometimes this respect is carried forward even when they have finished college and started their respective jobs and careers.

In medical colleges of Rajasthan, India, the senior students are respectfully called as ‘boss’ by their juniors. This persists even when they have finished their medical education and become renowned doctors in their own right.

One medical officer working in a government hospital from the rural area was sent for a refresher course in CPR (cardiopulmonary-resuscitation) and advanced Medical treatment to the Regional Medical College. The Medical Officer (MO) attending this training program was delighted when one of his senior from his medical college days turned up as the training faculty member, whom he had lost touch with after finishing his medical education. The MO was quite friendly with his senior in their college period and he fondly recalled those memories on seeing him.

When the lecture was underway, the MO had some doubts. Interrupting the lecture, the medical officer (MO) asked the professor, ‘Boss, what about this condition…?’ The professor looked angrily at the interrupting MO and waved with his hand to keep quiet.

After doing his MBBS while the junior doctor had languished in a government job as a medical officer, his senior had done specialization in Internal Medicine and had risen rapidly in the medical field and became Professor of Medicine in the medical college. Unknown to him his senior had also developed the poise, grace, and reserved dignified behavior, suitable for a Professor and senior doctor. Additionally, he had developed a very strong distaste for the word ‘boss.’ When out of habit if any of his junior doctors used the word ‘boss’ while referring to their senior colleagues in front of him, he used to immediately reprimand them saying, ‘are you in a criminal gang that you are calling him boss?’

The MO had committed the double sin of interrupting him while he was speaking and addressed him as ‘Boss’ in front of so many people. The MO didn’t quite understand the situation, felt confused at his senior’s response to his query but yet kept quiet that time. After some time, he again had some doubt and again he interrupted his senior, who was now the Professor, ‘Boss, you have still not clarified my doubt.’

The patience of the professor was now at a bursting point. With a sarcastic tone he replied, ‘Boss, I will clear all your doubts at the end of the lecture.’ For a senior to call his junior ‘Boss’ was almost sacrilege. The medical officer now realized that things are not the same as they were when they both were medical students in the same college.

He kept quiet for the rest of the lecture and afterward he addressed his former senior as ‘Doctor’ and ‘Sir’ which he noticed that others were doing.

Tip: It is never a good idea to interrupt a lecture or presentation in between. The presenter may cover your doubt later in the lecture making your interruption superfluous. At the least, his ‘flow’ will get interrupted and the rest of the audience may think that you are wasting their time. It is better to make a note on a paper and ask any doubt or questions at the end of the presentation or lecture. This is especially true when the presenter is senior to you by position or designation.

Tip: More importantly, when meeting with your former friends, batchmates, seniors from your school and college times, don’t expect them to behave the same way they used to behave in the past. Keep in mind your relative present position and behave suitably. If and only if your old friend behaves informally like he used to in the past, that you can think of relaxing around him. But even then be very careful, stay in the limit as your past friend but presently your superior can suddenly starting acting like your chief and may take offense at your informal behavior. Never forgive your relative positions. Boss is always boss no matter what was your past relationship.

 NB: This does not apply to my school and college friends. They are all welcome with the same informality of the past school and college days.

— ND

(Based on an allegedly true incident.)

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purposes. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use the information herein is at your one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal, and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board norms.