This post is a review of one of the best medical mnemonics books you can use as a medical student especially if you have issues with remembering facts.
One of the major challenges faced by medical students all over the world is that they have so much to read at every point in their medical school journey.
Cramming medical details and remembering at least some of them during important moments like your medical exams is a very challenging task. But this is where mnemonics for medical students have played an important role among medical students to help them remember important details.
Some of these medical school mnemonics can be very simple or complex to code/remember, but for most medical students, the easiest to remember is the “dirty medical mnemonics”.
Before we jump into the review of the medical mnemonics book, let us first analyze the role of mnemonics for improved memory.
Table of Contents
Medical School Mnemonics: Do They Really Work?
I have been prepared and written 3 professional exams in medical school and now I am currently preparing for my finals. And I can still remember vividly during my first year in medical school that I was among the “NO MNEMONICS GANG”.
Yeah! I never really saw the need for using any of the mnemonics for medical students. This was because I thought to myself that if I could make effort to remember the facts as they were, then what was the need for the medical mnemonics?
I continued this way through the first few weeks of taking anatomy classes. But as the weeks pass by, there were more facts to remember, and a lot more to read.
It was worse when we started learning about nerve roots, the brachial plexus, and all those topics in anatomy that sounded like they fell from the sky for first-year medical students.
Meanwhile, I had friends in medical school who had codes for nearly everything. Ask them to list any nerve roots, branches of blood vessels and see them rattling them out using a medical school mnemonic they have learned from where I do not know.
It was then that I needed to do something urgently because it seemed like I lagged far behind. That was when I found a medical mnemonics book that was popular among most of my colleagues and started using it in order to improve my memory for facts.
And trust me, since then up till this moment, I have switched from the “No mnemonics gang” in school to the “pro mnemonics gang”…lol.
I know that there are still some medical students in my class who have no need for using any medical mnemonics book and they still do very well in remembering facts and tiny details. But this is now a moment of truth. If you are being honest with yourself, you must have figured out by now if you have problems with remembering facts or not.
And if you do, you will find that using a medical mnemonics book will be very helpful to you in medical school.
Scientific Evidence on the Importance of Using Mnemonics in Learning
For some medical students who may be doubting the relevance of mnemonics for medical students, I did a little research before writing this post to find out if the role of mnemonics in memory has any scientific backing. And what I found was not disappointing at all.
All the evidence I found suggests that here a psychological role which using mnemonics while studying plays for people who have issues with memory.
Nikola Tesla who was regarded as one of the most renowned scientists of the 20th century used some memorization techniques to boost his mind. And he is not the only prominent scientist in history who has used this learning technique to enhance their mind and memory. No wonder, mnemonic techniques are now adopted as a standard in the pedagogy of top CBSE schools in Noida.
On the other hand, even though mnemonics are good for learning. many medical students still misunderstand its purpose and they end up using it the wrong and getting very poor results.
We are meant to understand that mnemonics are not the ultimate solutions to all kinds of learning problems as it is being sold to be. There are different learning problems which we will make out time to talk about later. However, if you precisely understand the effectiveness and usefulness of mnemonics, that would be amazing as you will understand what they do and how they are to be used.
What mnemonics do is enhance your short-term memory for some time. And you should know that having a fact in your short-term memory means that you are going to forget that fact soon enough or else you keep repeating it often or if you actually put it into practice.
This is where the concept of spaced repetitions using flashcards comes in. Once you keep repeating these medical school mnemonics often, it becomes part of you, and you will hardly forget them again.
So if you manage to review the lessons you have acquired from a medical mnemonics book by performing some actions specific to that knowledge, you will make massive progress.
So quickly let us review the medical mnemonics book which I recommend for any medical student who is struggling with memorization.
Medical Mnemonics Book Review
After looking through the net to find a good medical mnemonics book to recommend for medical students, the one I was able to lay my hands on is a book written by Khalid Khan.
This medical mnemonics book prides itself to be the first-ever UK first conceptualized medical mnemonics book.
Khalid Khan who is the author holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and also an MBBS degree from the UK. He is a family physician in Surrey, UK.
This book is very user-friendly and those medical school mnemonics that are easier to assimilate are given the priority. Some of the popular, old favorite mnemonics are also included and there is a special guide on how to study effectively and create your own memory aids.
You will remember many of these mnemonics forever with little effort. This book actually covers all the topics for all the medical school subjects. And will be your personal companion right from your first year till your final year.
This medical mnemonics book has 209 pages, with an appendix included for easy reference.
Contents of the Medical Mnemonics Book
- SECTION I BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCES
- 1 Anatomy Anatomy
- 1.1 The upper limb
- 1.2 The thorax
- 1.3 The abdomen and pelvis
- 1.4 The lower limb
- 1.5 The head and neck
- 1.6 Neuroanatomy and neuroscience2 Biochemistry
- 2 Physiology
- 3 Pharmacology
- 3.1 Receptor revision
- 3.2 Pharmacology and therapeutics
- 4 Microbiology and infectious diseases
- 1 Anatomy Anatomy
- SECTION II CLINICAL SPECIALTIES
- 5 Chemical pathology
- 6 Medical specialties
- 6.1 General medicine and pathology
- 6.2 Cardiology
- 6.3 Chest medicine
- 6.4 Dermatology
- 6.5 Endocrinology
- 6.6 Gastroenterology
- 6.7 Haematology
- 6.8 Neurology
- 6.9 Renal medicine and urology
- 7 Paediatrics
- 8 Surgical specialties
- 8.1 General surgery
- 8.2 Orthopaedics
- 8.3 Ear, nose and throat
- 8.4 Ophthalmology
- 9 Obstetrics and gynaecology
- 10 Psychiatry
- 11 Radiology
- SECTION III STUDY TIPS AND MEMORY BITS
- 12 Miscellany of memory tips
- 13 Making mnemonics
- 14 Learning to link
- 15 The power of pegs
- 16 Spatial mnemonics
- 17 Revise at the movies!
- 18 Nootropics
- 19 Motivational bits, quips and study tips
- 21. Appendix
How To Get The Medical Mnemonics Book
There are many online stores where you can get this medical mnemonics book from. But we strongly recommend that you get it from Amazon, not just because if you order from the button below you will be getting it through our affiliate link, but also because of copyright issues.
Amazon already has that reputation of fighting piracy of people’s books. And to be honest, we found some websites with pirated copies of this book some of which are free to download, but we strongly recommend that you get the real and original version of the medical mnemonics book.
The full name of the medical mnemonics book is Medical Mnemonics and Study Tips For Medical Students” and it is sold for just USD$22.95 on Amazon. (This is so that you will be guided well on the right one to buy as there are many other medical mnemonics books on the market).
By clicking the link below, you will be redirected to the order page for this book on Amazon.
Get the Medical Mnemonics Book PDF
The medical mnemonics book has a PDF version (Medical mnemonics book PDF), which you can pay for and download directly on Amazon Kindle. Or you can get a hard copy version which will be way-billed to your location after you make payment.
Some Reviews From Students In the United State:
Also, Read; Tips for studying anatomy in medical school
Final Words!
There are many mnemonics for medical students to use and improve memory. The truth is that no book can ever contain all the possible medical school mnemonics. So in as much as you are using this medical mnemonics book as your study guide, you can as well be creative enough to find other links and patterns while studying and try to use them to remember things that seem difficult to remember.
Finally, remember that mnemonics are meant to just booster short-term memory, but with spaced repetition and the integration of flashcards into your learning, you will find that a lot of things will be made easier for you to remember.
I wish you the very best in the rest of your medical school journey!
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