How to Study in Vet School

How are you supposed to study in vet school? Is it different than undergrad? What are proven study tips and habits that I can use to be successful in studying?

Vet school is another animal (pun intended) when it comes to studying, so to avoid the first-year fright, I want to debunk two big myths that may be discouraging you, and give you some advice about what worked well for me.

Myth #1. The habits you’ve developed to get you to this point in your career have worked well, but throw them all away because none of them will work in vet school.

It’s naive to make a blanket statement and say everything you’ve used to study won’t work because that is just not true. The reality of the situation is this: you will need to focus on figuring out what works and what doesn’t. The quicker you can figure this out the better. The information you will learn in vet school is separated into categories, and most curriculums follow the same basic pattern. Year 1: Normal animals. Year 2: Sick animals. Year 3: Treating sick animals. Year 4: Putting it all into practice. When you look at your game-plan for developing study habits, put into perspective what you’ll be learning your first year. The information is NOT overly complicated, it is NOT impossible to understand and it is NOT something you’ve never imagined before. It is just A LOT. The volume and speed of information you’ll be taking in is the most difficult part of getting into the groove of things. You’ll hear this during orientation, but vet school is like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself and practice how you will best absorb all of this information.

Myth #2. You have to follow other peoples’ study habits or you won’t make it. It’s worked for them so it will work for you.

It’s helpful to explore what has worked for others, but don’t convince yourself that you must follow their (or my) advice. You should give all of them a chance, but if it doesn’t work for you, move on and experiment with another method. Here are some of the study tips I’ve been presented with that have NOT worked for me.

Group Study

This method did not work for me because my mind needs to see information through individually the first time around. By the time I did that (if I was able to get through all the material) it would be exam time. That being said, group study was extremely valuable for me in reviewing things after I had studied the material individually. One of my favorite things to do just before an exam would be to sit down with one other person and quiz each other.

Rote Memorization

Memorization is helpful in certain aspects, but not for everything. My mind doesn’t do well to remember numbers without meaning or reason. For example, I was always terrible at history because I could never associate specific events with the years that they happened in, because there is no reason for the number. Well… welcome to pharmacology. To understand the why of every single dosing scheme is an unrealistic expectation, so these numbers, drug names and mechanisms of action are difficult to memorize. There is an awesome technique for memorization that I used to help me figure out all of these drugs. Here is the link to a fascinating Ted Talk by Joshua Foer where he explains the method of memorization that helped me through pharmacology.

https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do?language=en

Tables

Making charts and tables for diseases and drugs works for lots of people. For me, it was a bust. I could never keep them organized in my head and I always felt like I was just trying to memorize them without fully understanding why and building a story in my head. The helpful things about tables is their ability to quickly allow yourself to check your progress. I did utilize tables in this aspect, as a quick reference whenever I had a doubt about something.

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My Top Performing Study Tips

Sleep

Sleep as much as you need to; most adults need anywhere from 7 to 9 hours a night. This is number one on my list because it is absolutely critical. The game you play with sleep during school is a dangerous one, and abusing your body and mind by starving it of sleep may make the difference in your academic success. I highly recommend you read the book “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, PhD. It dives deep into the scientific benefits of sleeping and really lays out just how important sleep is for cognitive ability and overall health.

Write Things Down

Research has proven that writing things down helps you learn new information. When you physically write something down, you activate a different part of your brain and you are reproducing the material in a different form, creating and strengthening neural connections with this information which is basically all learning is. It took me a year and a half to figure this out. First year I tried writing notes in a blank notebook; that lasted two days… I just couldn’t keep up. Then I tried to print out the lectures and annotate them—that didn’t work because I was using a lot of ink and paper (#studentbudget) and the size and quality of the notes weren’t great. I then moved to annotating things on my laptop. Quick bust, because I had to rewrite ALL of my notes afterwards which is an impossible task. Finally, my saving grace appeared before my eyes: Apple iPad Pro + Notability. This combo allowed me to annotate my notes directly, while writing them down and was cost effective over the life of the iPad. Notability also allows you to back everything up to Google Drive so you can easily access your notes from multiple platforms.

Review Often

Easier said than done, but extremely valuable. Find time every single day after lectures to go through the material you’ve learned that day, once. During this time, don’t focus on ‘learning’ or memorizing it but make sure you UNDERSTAND it. Reviewing the relevant material daily and working through any gaps in your understanding of it early will have an enormous impact on your success in learning.

Start Studying Early, But Not TOO Early

Timing your studying before exams is more of an art than a skill. Start too early, you’ll forget the early material. Start too late and you’ll only know the early material. If you review daily, you can comfortably begin your studying about two weeks before an exam. This way you won’t feel rushed, you’ll have time to re-review if needed, and you should have time to get through everything. I realize the wonderful world of vet school exam scheduling doesn’t always allow you this time, but do your best.

Test Note-Taking and Studying Strategies Early

If you’ve already been accepted to a vet school, ask the student services contact if you could access any recorded lectures from previous years so you can get a taste for what to expect. If you go through one or two, you’ll be able to see the speed and volume of information dissemination and prepare yourself for what’s to come.

I really hope these tips help at least one of you be more successful and find your potential as you begin or continue this journey through vet school. I can always be reached on Instagram @alexandrupoppy or via email apopbm@gmail.com for any questions. If it’s 3AM and you’re stressing over an exam, reach out. I will help you. I can’t wait for more of you to execute on this advice and get on the path to finding happiness and success in your education.

Happy studying!