Mi método de estudio desde BACH/EVAU hasta MEDICINA

Hello, girls. Well, today I bring you a

video that you have asked me for a lot,

which is how my study method is.

For those who don't know me, I'm Mercedes,

I'm studying sex education for medical school,

well, I'm two weeks away from graduating and

finishing, and many of you who follow me have always asked me

what my

study method is, so I want to make

a video that will be useful for all

courses. So I'm going to divide

this video into my study method for

high school entrance exams, my

study method for medicine, and my

study method now for the MIR exam, although

that last part will be shorter because

I'm just starting out, but anyway. Okay, let

's start with the first part, which is my

study method in secondary school, high school,

and university entrance exams. Actually, I've used

the same study method for

high school as for middle school. I think it

happens to very few people, but I honestly

started with that study method

without really knowing why, and I just kept it

. I used to take notes on

biology, chemistry, physics, and math

theory. Well, actually, of all the

humanities subjects except for, I

mean, geography

, history, language, etc., which

the teachers gave me, okay? the

topics. Well, when I say that I mean

bachi ratón, right? When I had the book.

So, what I did was

basically take notes by hand.

This is something I have continued to pursue throughout my

career. If I don't copy the

entire text in my own handwriting, I'm not able to

learn it, even in language or

history, even if I were given the notes.

Sometimes I copied them by hand and it didn't stick

or whatever. Nothing, that's

regarding the topic of notes, which I think

is important to know where to get

the notes from. In high school, I did

n't make outlines or

summaries; I studied everything exactly as it was

because I don't know why I thought that if I

summarized, for example, the

history text for the university entrance exam, it might seem

short and I might forget

things that the examiner

considered important. So I

studied it exactly as it was written, I trusted

the teachers 100%, and well, I trusted my

teachers and myself in my work, and I did

very well in the university entrance exams. Now I'm

going to explain exactly how I studied,

but step by step. A very

important part of how I studied was doing

this, okay? Well, I used to organize my

month, I'd take my month off, but this is going to

change over the years with

university and you'll see that this

differs, but in reality we come back to the

same thing, it's a sheet of paper or a folio. I would pick myself up

and make a calendar, okay? And

then he would put the days of the week. In my

first year of high school, I did a lot of

these school activities; I didn't miss

anything. In my second year of high school, I did drop out

partly because of COVID and partly

because, during Holy Week, I did

n't have enough time to study,

have a social life (which I had very little of), and also get

good grades because I

wanted to get into medical school and for that you

needed a very high grade, and if I could get it

in

high school, all the better. So I would make

a calendar and what I would do was

review what I studied. I never,

ever, girls, never, neither in the first year of

high school nor in the second, stopped

reviewing everything I had studied

in preparation for the university entrance exams. Well, from the

first to the second year of high school,

obviously with the summer in between,

yes, but apart from the summer I always

reviewed what I had studied.

Always, always, okay? I only

retained things well by knowing them, from beginning

to end, and by having confidence in myself

if I repeated them out loud 300 times.

What was happening? Obviously, doing it

every day wasn't possible, I mean, it was

impossible because there was so much

material to cover. So, imagine the

first topic, history, well, I was going to study it on

this day, okay? And on this day I

studied it, I said it out loud, I

said it out loud. When I was already

exhausted, I would tell my mother and my

mother would say, "Hey, well, you've

forgotten," and that would help me or

explain it to me. So, topic one of

history. The next day after I

had studied it, that is, on the

second day, I said it to myself again out loud.

You say it faster this time. You might

forget a paragraph or two and

repeat it two or three times until it

sticks. And depending on how

that topic had sounded to me, that is, how I

had said it out loud and my

feelings, I say, well, I'll leave it for a

day. So, obviously, if I had

remembered it well, I hadn't forgotten

anything important, no

important date, then I would have to review it

the next day, because I wasn't going to leave it for

another day, so I would set it aside for a

day and after that day I would say it out

loud again, just like that, or I would say it

in my mind, it doesn't matter,

or I would write it down. So when I was

already studying, imagine if the subject of

history, I remember the

brief concepts, the things they ask in the university

entrance exam, I studied them in

September. Maybe by the time

Easter came I had already separated them for about

a month, so I repeated them every

month. At most, I would leave a month, a month and a

half already. It is true that I did

n't leave it for three months because then I would

forget. So, I would tell them that

approximately every month. So, once

a month, it was my turn to review so many

historical concepts. So,

I reviewed it, and even though you might think, "Wow,

but high school has a huge amount of

material." How do you find the time? It gives you

time because you acquire a kind of

speed. I remember that I would

sit like this after dinner with my

mother and I could tell her about five topics in

history. In other words, it really is

acquired as a natural ease. When

you acquire the ability to tell and

explain it to someone, I promise you that's

when you truly understand the subject. I didn't

feel confident about the topic. unless I

explained it to someone. That's how I

reviewed all the theoretical subjects,

except, obviously, chemistry and math, which I did

n't really do by

saying the whole paragraph because

the theoretical questions you could

get in physics and math

weren't nearly as important as the

history ones. So, I would maybe

review those every 2 months, I would

read them from time to time when I had the time.

The ones that are a little more different and

special are the practical subjects

I had: chemistry, physics, and

mathematics. I was great at math and physics

. They were doing exercises, and

except when I was absentminded and I'd forget things

and maybe put 1.5 on top

and then 15 on the bottom. The whole

exercise was

ruined because I was absent-minded. Except that

on those two occasions I was

good at it, I understood it and did the

exercises, I liked

doing them. They were typical

subjects that I usually left until the

end of the day. I mean, I did my

math homework, physics homework, everything, I especially loved

physics, because physics is, uh, ABC ABC.

I loved doing the

problems, the drawings. Mate. It is

true that I had to pay a little more

attention for the reasons I mentioned, but I did the

exercises. The best thing I did was keep a

separate notebook with the university entrance exam exercises I was

doing, and just keep

reviewing, reviewing, reviewing by doing

exercises. I used a similar method,

more or less what I did in the

theoretical classes, but adapted to

practical exercises, that is, matrices, because from

time to time I would do a

matrix exercise, another integral exercise, because the university

entrance exams include an

exercise from each block. So, what I did

to review was maybe

once a week, every two weeks,

do a

whole university entrance exam in mathematics and I would leave

format A for one week and

format B for the following two weeks. And that way I would

do exercises, I would review and I would

review the theory, as I

told you before. As for chemistry,

girls, it was really hard for me. In

other words, there were parts of chemistry that I was

very good at, but there were parts of

chemistry that I didn't quite

understand in class. I mean, my

teacher explained things really well, but I just couldn't do it

. So I got a

private tutor,

honestly, the best thing I ever did. I don't know why

I feel like sometimes there's a taboo

about saying you go to private lessons. To be

honest, they were great for me. It

was extra support that I needed

because in the end I got into a cycle where, since I was

n't as good at chemistry with her

as with the others, I would quit. And that's the

worst thing you can do because if you give up you'll

never be able to improve. So, I was doing

chemistry half-heartedly, I saw that even though I

studied, I didn't do well on

exams, so I signed up for classes,

reinforced my chemistry and it ended up being one of my

best university entrance exam scores, so it's

the best thing I did, I would do it again

3,000 times. And the great forgotten subject,

English, I don't know about your

autonomous community, but in Extremadura, which is

where I'm from, where I

did the university entrance exams, knowing English is not the

same as getting a good grade in the

English section of the university entrance exams. I realized

that the English university entrance exams

followed a pattern, you know?

Some standard questions, but they weren't really

questions. I had a C1 level of English at that

time. So it was like,

why don't I get as good a grade in English

as the level I have outside of

school? A friend and I

both started saying, and if you're

watching this, I love you. A friend and I

spent every day, one day a

week, I think it was Wednesday

nights, imagine from 9 to 10, doing

bits of English exams thanks to

IMA and doing exercises every day

and doing all the exams we

saw. Ask the

teacher about any doubts you have, such as why this was the case, or why that

was the case. Thanks to that I got a really

good grade on the university entrance exams and I wouldn't have

gotten it if I hadn't done this

with Imma because in the end, as I'm telling you, there's

a lot of material to cover, you prioritize other

subjects and in the end you leave out a

subject like English that is easy, it's not as much about

memorizing as the others and you can

get a very good grade because it's

very mechanical. You don't need to know

English, it's very mechanical. Thanks to that,

I got a good grade. What I've

explained to you, even though I've included some things about university entrance exams

, is a mix of what I

did in high school, because

high school really prepares you for the university entrance

exams, pau, ebau, [clears throat] as you

call it in your community. I'm going

to tell you about some of the things I did in preparation for

the university entrance exams. I took my university entrance exam

the year of COVID, so it

was delayed I think by about two weeks,

one or two weeks, but oh well, it doesn't really matter

. I remember that I

studied that Easter week, I did a

general review, not so much of the theory

because I had already mastered it quite a bit

, so I had to

review some topics that were

a little more difficult for me, but I had to

review math and chemistry very heavily,

because although I had done exercises

throughout the course, obviously I hadn't mastered them as much

as I had the

theory. I did a general review

of everything that week. I focused mainly

on the things I hadn't had

time for in the previous months:

language syntax, oh, well,

biology exercises, genetics, uh,

what else were there to do,

biology drawings, which I sometimes did too. I

left those for things I'd forgotten, and I'm really

grateful for that because it was a great way to

review everything that came

later in May. I'm so glad

because I was less

stressed about not making it to May and

saying, "I don't remember anything." Instead, I thought, "

Okay, we'll make it to May, but don't worry,

I've

reviewed most of the material because

the syllabus was almost

finished by then." So, I was able to calmly

review everything several times and even

review things I'm not

so good at. The school year ended, and I had about

three weeks before the university entrance exams

. I remember those three

weeks fondly, and I got sick during

that time—I think I was

sick for about four days. I remember that

period with a lot of emotion. Honey, I wasn't

overwhelmed at all, and I'm so grateful for that

. I mean, even now, when I look back on it, I do

n't remember it as a

traumatic few days like, "Oh my god, I

had my university entrance exams, no way!" I kept

Instagram, even though it might seem that way now. In

fact, my TikTok era started here

because I deleted Instagram, well, everything. I

only kept Musical.ly, which later

changed to TikTok, okay? But I deleted

all my social media and decided to

focus on my goal, which was getting

into medical school, okay? And I'm going to show you what I

did. I'm going to do it in a

bad way, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I'm

not going to get the photo back, girls.

So, I'm going to pretend to

fake it. Basically, I did this

for each subject. I put, I think,

three squares and a fourth square, and for the

practical ones, I put

squares for theory and squares for

exercises. So what I wanted

was for all the material that I could fit into my study plan.

For me, the university entrance exams... I had to have

looked at them at least three times, because

remember, I had three weeks before the

exam. So, on those

three days—I mean, the first

day, you had one set of subjects, the

next day another—those afternoons I just

wanted to review my mistakes. So I would start

reviewing, like I had been doing

all year, and anything I forgot that

was important, like, something really

important, like a date you can't

forget, World War II

, or something like that, the Treaty, I don't know,

those things you couldn't forget,

I would write them down, underline them in red. When

night came, my mother would take my

notes and ask me about the things I

had gotten wrong, like, "What's the

name of the treaty?" I don't know, I don't know, and I would

try to remember

because these were things I hadn't

forgotten once, twice, or three times. Keep

in mind that I had been reviewing this material for

months; I had been forgetting things

from the beginning, and so on. I managed to

solidify them. One very important thing that almost made

me panic was reviewing

the headings because many times I would say

things from memory, like, "Topic two

of Spanish, uh, the Generation of '27,"

but I was still thinking it was topic

two, not the Generation of '27. And even though it might

seem silly, the

process of abstracting from reading the heading on

the university entrance exam, saying "Generation of

'27," and then having the whole paragraph come out for you, is

difficult. So I recommend

that you review the headings by saying,

"This goes with this, this goes with this,

this goes with this." I'm not saying anything

silly. Well,

I don't think so. I think it's

a very silly mistake to be asked

one thing and say something else. And

basically, that's how I reviewed

every week. My schedule, for anyone who's

interested, I think I got up at

7:30, because I'm always a

morning person, and the first thing I did was study

chemistry and... Mathematics. Why?

Because I needed to be fresh. The

other stuff came automatically to me, and what I

needed to focus all my brainpower on was

physics and math, on the

problems, that is, on chemistry and

math. Not so much physics because, like I

said, it was just a matter of going back and forth and nothing. And I have to say

that the day before the university entrance exams

started, I reviewed the mistakes in the

subject I had next, which I think

was Spanish Language and History, and I didn't do anything

else. I watched a movie, relaxed, and that was it.

So now, let's move on to my

study method during university. I used to

study, as I've told you, by reciting the

topics from memory. What happens? You get

to university and the syllabus is

like a university entrance exam every semester. You don't have enough

time. No, no, at least for me, I don't have

time to have a social life and then

do the topics the way I did in

high school. What did I do? Change my

method, which is fine, it's good.

In the end, I recommend that you... and well, I

tell you from experience that the The

study method you use in your first year of

medical school won't be nearly the

same as the one you use [sigh] in your

sixth year. In other words, you'll

refine it and it will change; you'll

find what works best for you. It

's a matter of trial and error; just

because my method works for me doesn't mean it will work for you.

You have to find what works best for you, based on your own

abilities. For example, you might say, "I have a

great visual memory," or "I prefer

flashcards." It's up to you. I'm just

telling you what worked for me in case

you think it's a good method. In my

first year of medical school, I simply

reviewed the material, but by reading, because

the exams were mostly multiple choice

, although I did have some essay questions

. So you don't need as much

memorization as you would

in high school subjects like

history. What I did was

read, read, and read carefully.

Obviously, there were things you had to

memorize, so I would repeat them

two or three times and review them. I went through the

syllabus two, three,

four times, but then I'd do the same old

questions from previous years. And there were

things that, especially in the

first year, were incredibly boring

, like a third year of

high school, biochemistry, biology. I think

my method wasn't bad. The thing was,

sometimes it was more about

reading comprehension than trying to

cram. So, of course, and I wasn't really

thinking about it either, because in high school,

as I said, it was all

pure memorization. I mean, you know, the Generation

of '27, the authors and their works, you can't

reason about them in any way. That's just

memorization. Of course, I'd been studying so much by

rote that I'd kind of forgotten how to

reason, which is what's most important in multiple-choice

tests. To be honest, the

first term wasn't hard for me, and neither was the second

, but I did

notice the change, thinking, damn, I

came from getting this in high school and

now this is university. But then came the

third year... Medicine. Third year of medical school

was full of super theoretical subjects, super

dense, super memorization-heavy. I

also had to take essay exams again,

and I started developing what

became my method for the entire

degree, a method that stayed with me for those three

years and I never let go of it,

which is my notebook method. I think

many of you know me because of my

notebooks. I don't know, it sparks

curiosity because I don't like loose

sheets of paper; I prefer these

notebooks. During that time, starting in

third year, I began to realize that

if I wrote things down, made summaries of the

material, it worked much better for me. I retained

the information, and then when it came time to

review, I didn't have to pick up those massive

tomes, which was impossible. So I

started making summaries, not of all

the subjects, just the most

important ones that I had time for

, because there were semesters when it

was impossible. I don't have summaries for all

the subjects, I wish I did. But Yes, I

always wrote, whether it was

rough or neat, I always did some

writing, even if it was just on a piece of

paper in list form. Why

notebooks? I think that's a good question

to start with, because I always

organize myself with sheets of paper. I've

always done it that way to save money, or

for whatever reason. This way

seems much more convenient to me. It seems like

less, even if the amount of writing is the same, it

seemed like less to me, so I

preferred it that way. Also, for going to the

library, since I have

back problems and I have an iPad so I don't have to

carry paper notes,

these little notebooks were obviously much better

. I'm going to show you this one I've

taken, which is Gine's, and I think it's only

Gine's. Sometimes the subjects were

short and I shared them, but anyway. Uh,

this is the subject. Hm.

Underlined topic. H, honestly, I only

underlined things in yellow and red,

which is what I still do now, things that

I was going to be asked about on the exam. The

rest of the colors that I wanted. I

have a very good visual memory, so it's

helped me a lot to see, imagine,

I don't know, I'm going to open something that has

colors and I'll tell you. Here, for example,

the topic of organic

endometrial pathology. I remembered that the

chart was pink, so this

helped me remember things later. Or,

for example, sarcoma. Do you see that I

have it in blue? These things, even though

they seem silly, helped me. As

you can see, this notebook, okay?, which is completely filled with

writing, what I have

mostly are, wait a minute, I'm not going

here, what I have mostly are

tables. Honestly, the study

that is most useful and helpful to me is

relational study, that is, seeing the

things that happen in one pathology and then, like, the

similar and

different things that happen in another that is

similar, in another that is similar, in another

that is similar. I don't know, I find

these diagrams much more visual. When do I

make them? I usually I go to class,

okay? Because I've always gone to

class during my degree, that's one of the

reasons I chose Mir

Asturias as my MIR academy. In

class, I pay attention and underline in yellow what

the professor says is important,

okay? Like, what's going to be on the exam, you know, if he

says it exactly like that or says it's

very important, then I underline it in

yellow. Then, when I get home that day

or the next day, I try to

consolidate what I've seen in class because

many times you leave with your head spinning

and you don't even remember what you've

seen. But I think it's

interesting to consolidate the knowledge you

learn that day, because that way,

at least for me, it seemed to help me, I mean, I

felt like I remembered it better and I was also

faster that day. I would read the

topic, understand it, and if there was any

pathophysiological mechanism I didn't

understand, I would look it up on the internet.

Well, now there's Chati who can

explain it perfectly for dummies.

What I didn't understand this, because if, while studying

something that required super memorization, I came up with a

mnemonic device, I wrote it down, and then,

on the second pass, I would reread the

whole topic and underline it. I counted

this as the second pass, but in

reality, it would be the third time I'd seen

the material. I made outlines by

reading the material and looking at the slides, and then I

started taking notes. What do I

write down? You often ask me, "

How do you know what's important or not?"

For me, it's by going to class. I mean, when you go to

class, you know what the professor has emphasized

most, and what they've emphasized least. Since it's

not the first time

you've seen the material, but the third time,

you already

more or less know what's important and

what isn't. Like, if something in the

notes is repeated 50 times, then it's probably

important. And the third way to

know what's important is by

taking multiple-choice tests. If you

see in past exams that there's a

concept that your professor... Repeat, repeat,

repeat, because maybe it's important, or

even if it's not important to you, it is important to your teacher

. So you write that down. I

always tried, and I think I've done it

in recent years, yes, always,

if the subject had a lot of multiple-choice

exams, I'd either take them or make

one myself, or skim through it to see

what I'd ask the teacher that wasn't

important, but that they would have considered

important, you know? A typical little detail.

The least you think, "Why are they asking

this when there are so many important things

?" Well, that's it. And I would make

summaries. Okay, as I said, the

underlining—I'd do it a bit however

I wanted, drawings, I'd do whatever it

took to remember, however I could,

but I'd do it. And well, here I'd go through the

whole syllabus. The third time around,

well, it would be the fourth

time around, the fourth time I looked at the

syllabus, what I do is read my

summary and underline it sometimes because there were

days, honestly, when I was so

tired I copied so much by hand that I'd say,

"I don't feel like underlining it." So,

since I didn't feel like underlining it, I'd

underline it the next time I went through it, and that way it would stick

. And then I'd

review it, review it. Something I

used, something I used in

high school, for example, as I

mentioned, was to underline in red the things I

forgot if I had an

essay exam. The rest, being multiple choice, didn't

count. And how many times did I read my

notebook? As many times as I could. I

think I usually read it once or

twice. When I was getting ready for

exams, okay? Imagine I had

an exam, okay? Imagine the exam was

this, okay? Well, then on that day I would do

all the past exams, I

mean, two days before the exam, and on that

day I would review all the material, which meant

reading my notebook. I would read it

faster, slower. If I saw there was

a lot of material, what I

often did was I'd read half of it,

then get up at 5 or 6 in the

morning, if the exam was at 10 or so,

have my coffee, and review it before going to the

exam. It gave me

tremendous peace of mind. You might ask,

why did you do this type of thing on this day and not that one

? Well, because I have a very good memory,

and I know that if I get something wrong, I won't forget it

even if a day goes by. There are some people who do

n't, and you think, "Ugh,

if I do it two days before, I'll

forget the ones I got wrong." So,

do them earlier. I also got

very anxious if I got everything wrong the day

before. It was like if I got everything wrong the day

before, I'd go into the exam without confidence, and you have to

go into exams with complete

confidence that you've studied and that you

know the material, even if it turns out to be a lie,

but you have to go in with confidence.

So, it made me feel

very insecure to get everything wrong the day before

the exam. So, I'd say, well

, two days before, which is

silly, but in my head I'm thinking that I

still haven't The die is cast,

you know. I don't know, it's silly, but that's what

worked for me. I'm 100% sure what I

told you: the day before, I'd

read everything, and the morning before, I wouldn't have

anything left to review. I mean, I

really had very little to review

for the next morning, unless it was

an essay exam, where there was

something I always forgot.

No, I didn't really review everything the

day before, but something I did on

the morning of the exam was look at the

questions I'd gotten wrong from the practice

tests I'd done two days earlier.

Why? Well, more than once I've gotten a question wrong, I've

missed a question the

day before that I might have

reviewed, and it came up on the exam, just like that

. So I know that if I hadn't

looked at it, I still would have gotten it wrong because I would have gotten

nervous, thinking, "Was it this one

or not?" So, oh,

I understand. It's strange that I only used this notebook

for gynecology, but No. I also

used them for genetics, since I have

all my problems right here. I've really

made use of all the notebooks; I

hate to throw them away. Someday I'll have to

. Although it's true that these

notebooks are really useful for

the MIR exam, and that's why I made them,

because in the MIR, as you know, it's like

a review of what you've already learned

; things are presented in a more

structured way. So, it's

true that I'm

not going to read all the material from my degree, but maybe I

have something here that will be useful. And

to finish up, because I

think I've been talking for half an hour or more. And

to finish up, to finish up, I'll tell you

how I'm preparing for the MIR. Well, I

'm at Mir, Asturias. I chose it, as I

've said, because of the classes,

because I've always been one to go to class

every day, and Mir Asturias is the

only academy that has classes every

day. So, how am I

preparing for the MIR? Well, with some

notebooks. I can't say whether it's

working for me or not because I'm

studying for the MIR exam right now, but anyway, I've

followed the same method I've used

throughout my degree, which is to make

notebooks with concepts I

forget, and so on. It's true that this one

isn't for everything, it's for concepts I

forget, but I divided them by subject.

So, here, when I take

exams, I jot down the

mistakes I make, things I

consider important, even if they aren't

mistakes, and so on. A lot of you have asked me

, I made them at Copy Fly and I

got the small size, but with all

the pages. And so far,

the notebooks are working well for me. I really like

this method because I can

review the subjects I want, and

then I'm also taking exams, I

mean, taking notes in

class because it's true that

to avoid losing concentration I

need to write or do something.

Here I have the ones for gastroenterology, here for

infectious diseases,

here I have nephrology, nephrology if you don't say

a page, here, uh, I have endocrinology,

gynecology, I have to say that I don't know when I'm going to

look at these notes, but I think they'll be

useful. I haven't

made them for all the subjects, I've only

made them for, I don't know, the ones I felt like taking

notes on, when I was focused and all that, and

that I thought would be useful for

future study sessions. And well, girls, I

have nothing more to tell you. That's

been my study method. I hope I've

explained myself well. It's true

that it was a bit difficult at the beginning,

but that's because high school is still about

6 years away. But anyway,

I'm very happy with my method. I wouldn't

change it for anything in the world, nor would I

change the process I had to

accelerate to get to it, because, I

repeat, the best method is to keep

perfecting and adapting it as the

years go by until you find the one that

suits you best. In fact, I speak With many

friends of mine who are studying medicine, we

all agree that we finally

found our study method around our

third or fourth year of university, and that it's the one that

has stuck with us for

the last few years. It's even

given us—I mean, I got

better grades in my fifth year than in my first

year because of it—because I've

refined the method over

the years. Thank you so much

for watching the video, and I hope to see you in the

next one, which is going to be very special

because it will be about my graduations.

Please subscribe, I don't know if I've mentioned it.