I don’t suppose any of you are in Hong Kong? My wife is learning anatomy for her medical course. It’s utterly overwhelming and we need professional help!
I’m familiar with some techniques, but she doesn’t listen to me. But to be fair, the truth is that she’s much, much better than me already. She’s already memorised 800 words in a couple of weeks for the pre-anatomy course, which is far more than I could manage. The way I approach things just doesn’t fit her. She sub vocalises a lot and visualises. Lots of verbal mental rehearsal. Mnemonic stories don’t work for her; she finds the mnemonic itself harder to remember than the actual goal. Did you run into a situation like this?
While there are mnemonic friendly resources out there for medical students, they’re very hit and miss. A bit here, a bit there, nothing is reliable. An example is the insertion points for muscles attaching to the bone; very little mnemonics out there.
The other issue is the LAYERS. You may memorise the top layer, using your own body as a memory palace, but there are deeper layers. Each insertion point can have multiple muscles connecting. It’s hard to even visualise. We have a 3D app, but that app has no Spaced Repetition to test with; it’s just a 3D app, so you have to make your own notes and test yourself.
Where to start? She’s working on the foot anatomy at the moment. I’d love to give some details, but it’s her mind.
She got through it. At one point she learned about 500 new words in less than a week.
There were a few mnemonics, but pretty irregular. Probably only helped for 20%. The mnemonics tended to be a random words using the initial letters to recall technical terms rather than a proper system.
I came up with the idea of getting a skeleton for her and she put plasticine on it, layering out each layer of muscle. I think this helped a bit too.
Again though, still mostly a lot of sub vocalisation. This really wouldn’t have worked for me.
And she crammed a lot before the exams. I’ve noticed that she doesn’t have good retention of the words.
So there’s still a lot of opportunity here for someone to generate materials for this and sell it online. Especially if those materials can be comprehensive. For example, entire hand anatomy terms.
I’m really not sure why you think subvocalization is a bad thing? It’s very normal, and likely helps with comprehension while reading.
To get the most out of mnemonics your wife has to treat it like a skill instead of a trick. It takes time and effort to discover how to encode different types of information, and the types of imagery (including non-visual) that work for you.
Just cram before surgery!
I’ve always struggled with terminology, no matter how well I comprehend the underlying theory. If that’s her weakness, then I hope she discovers memorizing terms with mnemonic images is as valuable as I have.
I recommend the usual learning of the art of memory, to understand the basic concepts of how to memorize information that is: method of loci, the logic of association of visualizations and ideas, use reference to recall to (a location you can place in your mind, this could also be another image or even an idea itself).
Memory Champion Alex Mullen has some tips to offer for general mnemonics and medicine (his field):
I teach basic anatomy and suggest students use a combination of chunking and mini mind maps with images. You could also incorporate mnemonics and mehod of loci/memory palaces. Use the chunked material of the map branches. This helps reduce cognitive overload.
