Medical school study resources: 4 great resources to make learning easier

I don’t find lectures particularly helpful or effective. Just not my cup of tea. Which means I need to learn the material on my own. Fortunately, the ever growing School of YouTube has a video for almost everything. There are several amazing content creators that provide high quality lecture material. They’ve been a game changer for me and make learning easier, which makes it enjoyable. And vice versa. Here are my current favourite medical school study resources on YouTube.

Catalyst University

Catalyst University has been a go-to study resource during the neuro block. Especially his videos for the cranial nerves and ascending/descending pathways. I absolutely love the diagrams he makes for the nerve pathways. He doesn’t draw them in real time. Instead, he uses illustrations that he made electronically.

The illustrations are so clear and concise, and go perfectly with his explanations. This makes it so much easier to understand what’s going on. For example, Cranial Nerve V, the Trigeminal Nerve, is relatively complicated because it has several divisions and both sensory and motor components. But his illustrations make it digestible in 2 videos that total less than 20 minutes. Absolutely incredible.

When I made some of my own Anki cards for the Cranial Nerves, I took screenshots of his diagrams and included them in the “Additional resources” field. I like having a visual component because it provides more context if I start to forget the material with later reviews. And sometimes, when I didn’t want to use words to describe the pathways, I used the Anki Image Occlusion feature on his diagrams. I blanked out the various components of the pathways and studied by recalling what was happening along different levels of the spinal cord, brainstem etc.

Overall, can’t recommend this channel enough for neuro.

Dirty Medicine

Out of all the medical school study resources, Dirty Medicine was my favourite during the Digestion & Metabolism (DM) block. He has a video for every biochem pathway I needed to learn.

He uses clear and simplified visuals for the biochem pathways so it’s easy to follow what’s happening. He focuses on the most high yield information. And I love that he always includes the disorders that are related to the metabolic pathway. It’s nice to have all the relevant information in one video, so I don’t have to spend time searching for that separately.

And perhaps the best part is that he likes to provide mnemonics whenever possible. This was especially helpful for the lysosomal storage disorders. We had to know the defective enzyme, the accumulating substrate, the type of inheritance (autosomal recessive, X-linked, etc.). The mnemonics really helped differentiate the disorders, since there are a lot of them and many have similar details.

Medicosis Perfectionalis

Medicosis Perfectionalis is one of my go-to study resources for all things physiology and biochemistry. He has a dry sense of humour and uses these strange but hilarious voices, which sets his videos apart. He makes learning both enjoyable and memorable.

I love that he incorporates nice flow charts in his videos. This puts the topic into perspective by showing how it fits into the big picture and therefore, why it matters. Essentially, this helps with making connections. And that deeper level of understanding allows for better learning and retention.

I also appreciate that he often provides mnemonics, which are always helpful. Anything to make it easier to remember the material, since there is so much of it.

Sam Webster

Sam Webster is one of the best medical school study resources for anatomy. He uses an array of skeletal models and also uses his own body to demonstrate various muscles and actions when he can. Which makes it easier to identify on ourselves and making those connections really helps retain the information.

He also has a quirky style so his videos are quite entertaining. They’re fun to watch and it makes learning enjoyable. His videos carried me through the MSK module in term 1. And they’re really helpful in other blocks too since we learn the anatomy of the organ system in its respective module. I’m using his videos these days too as I review last term’s material for our cumulative Year 1 exam in a few weeks.

So those are some of my current favourite medical school study resources. I’m sure this list will continue to grow as I learn new topics, especially next term when we start immunology.

What are your go-to study resources?

-M

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