Everyone learns differently, but my approach was...
Time: make a schedule of how many study hours you now have between now and the exam. Have a rough idea of how much you can do in an hour, be very conservative in the estimate.
Prioritise: Narrow down what you actually need to learn, what is more important to learn and what you find hard learning. Focus on the areas you know you are bad at.
Read it all three times: Reading the data three times, with some space between each reading lays a good foundation.
Use your natural memory making abilities: When reading be VERY aware of making mental links between facts. If mineral 'x' is pink and is formed from fossilised dinosaur bones. Everytime you read of minersl 'x' imagine a pink dinosaur with a huge 'x' on it. It is very hard to undo this kind of word association so don't be sloppy and make a mistake. Also force yourself to think of the image everytime you see the minerals name.
When I am learning I try to engage all the senses and make as many neural connections as possible. I imagine it all forwards, backwards, sideways, I imagine visualising it, smelling it. I play with the words and names ALOT for memory purposes and make mneumonics as Cofty said.
Eventually you find that you know things without realising it, because you learned it so well first time around, 4 years later when asked or when needed, the memory simply comes forward......often
Test Yourself: go online, ask your tutor, by some test books. This is what revision is supposed to be, not learning. With time you will manage your workload so that you learn all year and revise before exams. But in the early days this is often not realised. Revising, i.e. testing your lesrning is vital before an exam. It tells you what you don't know and what you know well. Prioritise some final learning based on this testing. This last step is often skipped by people who fear testing themselves. People that do well..... never miss this step. Overcome feeling crap about finding out what you don't know. Every extra mark counts, finding out what you dont know before an exam is the keyM Not what you already know.
Trust that it works, you will be amazed how much you can consume. I will admit all doctors have forgotten an awful lot, because they are human, but it is astounding what you can learn and remember. There is no limit really. The only issue is not using the information for so long that you forget it.
It is a lie that person 'x' is cleverer than person 'y'. Studies show that children are all very similair in ability at an early age. Over time we fall into categorisation and fall for the false perception of 'I'm not very academic' or 'I can't do maths'. It is true some peoples genetics will make them somewhat better at some things, but, by far the biggest deciding factor in how you do is.....EFFORT. That is the ultimate truth in academia. If someone beats you in an exam, they worked harder or more efficiently.
Learning anything is simply effort .....be it a fact about minerals or a fact about football stats or about heart attacks. It is JUST information and the effort to learn it.
So if you want to smash the exam, smash the revision. There is no shortcut.
snare x
Oh and academia 101, never trust another student. They will tell you they found it hard, couldn't revise and did no work.....then get 98% for something that took 4 weeks of slaving over for you to get 75%. Don't be fooled.... they slogged. It is still as yet impossible to download information to your brain without effort! It is however, easy to lie. It is a common thing, so ignore it x They want to give the impression they can know things without learning it, it speaks of their immaturity, ego and pride. Maybe it is more of a competitive medic issue, but look out for it.
