By Chaz Roberts
When it comes to study habits and note taking in optometry school, it’s important to keep an open mind. There are many right ways to study and it’s important to find what works best for you. If you had good study habits during undergrad, those can for sure carry over to optometry school, but keep in mind that those habits may not be totally suited for the academic rigor that optometry school brings. With the significant increase in new material and the high frequency of tests, many students face a large learning curve and have to reevaluate how they study in order to succeed academically. Keep in mind that not only is getting good grades important, but retaining what you learn is crucial to the clinical setting and patient care. There are many factors to consider when it comes to study habits such as: location, background sound/music, with or without others, material used (white board, handwritten notes, typing, drawings, etc.), time management, eliminating distractions, etc. It’s also important to note that what may work well for one class may not necessarily work well for another class.
I will go over a couple of study habits; one that I needed to change and one that carried over well from undergrad. The biggest habit that I needed to change from undergrad was the way in which I took my notes. In undergrad, I would just annotate the lecture slides and call it good. I did this throughout my first semester in optometry school, and while it worked, I found that it was not the most efficient strategy for my way of learning, nor was it the best way to make notes that I would be able to refer to throughout my future career. I decided I would put the lecture presentations on my computer and take handwritten notes on my iPad in a simple lined-paper format. This way I could condense and organize the slides in a way that best fit me as well as be able to color coordinate, highlight, draw, etc. I found that I remembered the material much better this way and it was easier for me to refer to these notes.
The habit that carried over well was studying with another student. It’s nice to have somebody to talk through concepts with and ask questions. They can motivate you to stay on task and it is a healthy way to get to know your classmates better. Also, teaching others is a great way to really test if you know the material well. I would also recommend being comfortable studying alone because you may not always have a study partner available. Some students did well with studying in larger groups, but I always found it too distracting and led to too many off-topic conversations.
Overall, optometry school will seem very overwhelming for the majority of students, but it’s important to never limit yourself. Be sure to keep a positive mindset about yourself throughout this journey and remember that you are always capable of whatever may come your way. Having the right mindset will make day-to-day studying much more manageable. And remember, experiment with what works well for you and don’t compare your progress to that of others!