If we haven't emphasized the usefulness of Sketchy enough, I'll do so again now because I believe it's the one resource truly worth the investment out of all available resources. This likely stems from how well it aligns with my learning style. Sometimes, stepping outside the conventional study realm helps in understanding and developing the most effective study methods. For instance, I love stories. I'm the type of person who boards a full airplane and wonders about the reasons dozens of others are traveling to and from the same destinations. Or, when driving home from work at 1 a.m., I ponder what brings others out on the road at that hour. I also share a seemingly trivial talent with my dad: we can recall, word for word, hundreds of movie quotes. I remember most movies or TV shows I've watched and enjoy re-watching them to catch new lines or nuances missed before. Thus, I knew Sketchy would be foundational to my learning. Sketchy crafts its own stories related to medical content with visual representations. In some videos, it also incorporates pop culture references, adapting them to fit medical concepts. The stories, details, and visual representations have been central to my memorization technique. However, Sketchy might not cover everything in your lectures, which led me to develop my own method and create my own sketches.
Creating Associations with Known Characters
When trying to memorize information about a disease with several keywords and facts, I first try to relate it to a familiar story or character. I found it faster to attach a known character or situation to the medical content than to create my own. For example, to memorize information about I-cell disease—caused by an enzyme deficiency needed to phosphorylate mannose on lysosomal enzymes, resulting in improper delivery to lysosomes, associated with macromolecule accumulation in the lysosome, leading to corneal clouding, restricted joint movement, coarse facial features, and intellectual impairment—I associate "I-cell" with the word "Ice." One of the first thoughts that comes to mind is the movie "Frozen." From there, I develop a story and make associations based on this movie.
I would write down on an Anki card: Elsa is the ice daughter, but her parents saw it more as a disease and made her conceal her powers. At Elsa’s coronation, you can see Anna who got tied up meeting Prince Hans. Anna thought to herself “I really have to go fast for I’m late because of a man.” Later Elsa ran away after setting off an eternal winter where snow accumulated massively in the city. Olaf looks so happy under his personal cloud. has coarse facial features and limited joint movement because his arms are sticks, and people think he is intellectually impaired at first because he doesn’t understand snow melts in the winter. When Anna tried to get her sister back to the city, she kept getting pushed away by the snow monster.
Then I would write my key for what the components represented: Ice daughter with disease = I-cell disease, fast for I’m late because of a man = deficiency in being able to phosphorylate (fast-for-I’m-late) mannose (man), snow accumulated in city = macromolecule accumulation in lysosomes, Olaf under his cloud = corneal clouding, Olaf’s characteristics = limited joint mobility, intellectual impairment, Anna cannot get sister back to the city = lysosomal enzymes cannot be delivered to correct location.
Although the association may seem quite lengthy, once I had written it down and assigned a representation to all the facts, it became easy for me to recall, especially because I created the associations myself. I noted that I wrote this down on an Anki card. I wanted to emphasize that using Anki in combination with this memory technique was extremely beneficial for me. It provided the opportunity for active recall in the context of my memory association, and then I could reference it again if needed. However, I rarely needed to because I could easily recall the story. Additionally, I would spend a few minutes adding pictures to the Anki card. For this example Anki card, I added a picture of Elsa as a child, Olaf under a cloud, the city covered in snow, Anna with Prince Hans, and the snow monster. I believe that enhancing the story and associations with pictures only made my recall quicker. I considered this a fail-safe because if I could remember the pictures, then I remembered the associations, or vice versa.
As stated in my previous post, I always tried to link a story or character that I know to new information. When you're trying to commit a significant amount of new information to memory, I believe it's easier to do so by building on information that is already cemented in your brain. Stories, characters, or situations that you already know serve essentially as an anchor in your mind—ensuring a path that is securely in place. Now, you may add links to the chain connected to this anchor. The anchor in my previous example was the movie Frozen, highlighting the characters and various scenes upon which I would build.
Creating Associations Using Real Life
Another option is by using a situation or person in your life rather than characters or stories. The key is to build upon something rooted in your memory if possible. I did not need to do this frequently, but it was a useful tool in my toolbelt. The purpose of this method is to maximize memorization without compromising efficiency. Thus, if you can think of an association within 30 seconds and build it from there, go with it whether it is a movie character or something related to your real life.
For instance, I wanted to memorize the following: Common secondary causes of Minimal Change Disease include NSAIDs, Lithium, and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Taking the first letter from each of these gives you “NHL” which is also known as the national hockey league in the US. I thought to myself, what reminds me of the NHL? My boyfriend played hockey while growing up, but he had to stop playing due to injuries. On my anki card, I wrote “there has been minimal change within the NHL ever since [my boyfriend’s name] quit ice hockey.” This implies that he was pushing the boundaries of hockey and what was possible (which in reality may or may not be true). Regardless, my anchor in this example is my boyfriend’s participation in ice hockey, and I linked together the letters NHL with the words minimal change. Therefore, later while doing the anki card I would have to recall what are secondary causes of minimal change disease. My thought process would be: minimal change diseaseà minimal change in the NHL after my boyfriend quit hockey à NSAIDs, Hodgkin Lymphoma, and Lithium.
Of note, it’s important to recognize that I usually use the letters of the word to make associations. Sometimes I made associations more so in the context of what the word sounded like (I-cell and Ice). In my Minimal Change Disease example, I only used the first letters of the words which was enough for me to connect N to NSAIDs or L to Lithium.
Creating Associations Using Your Imagination
The last example I highlight might work better for individuals that are creative and enjoy the process of creating their own stories. This can present as a more time-consuming method, which is in part why I would utilize it after trying to use an already known character, story, person, or situation. Maybe you would prefer doing this every time. The beauty of it is that it is all up to you and I reiterate—what works best for you. Furthermore, you have the option of creating a completely brand-new story, encompassing all the information you are trying to connect and memorize. For instance, I wanted to memorize the following: Medullary thyroid cancer is a neuroendocrine neoplasm of parafollicular C-cells, approximately 70% of cases are sporadic, peak incidence is in 40s and 50s,associated with MEN2A and MEN2B syndromes, can be due to RET oncogene activating mutations, seen as sheets of neuroendocrine cells and amyloid stroma histologically which can be confirmed with a Congo red stain. From here, I created my own story.
I would write down on an anki card: A study was being conducted where men were dropped off on an island. In the experiment, they had to “mend thy car” with only seashells. Some did calculations, and 70% sporadically tried using the seashells in random places. They tried so many as 40 to 50 places in the cars. Then based on the results, the men were separated into two categories which was either MEN2A or MEN2B. Similar to the movie Mulan, a woman named Amy snuck into the competition and competed under the name of Ret. Her car worked so well that she could drive it off the beach and into the Congo rain forest.
Then I would write my key for what the components represented: mend thy car = medullary thyroid carcinoma, seashells = (parafollicular) C-cells, 70% sporadically tried seashells in random places = 70% of cases are sporadic, tried 40 to 50 places = peak incidence is 40s-50s, men separated into categories = associated with MEN2A and MEN2B, Amy snuck into competition = amyloid stroma, Amy participated under the name Ret = RET oncogene activating mutation, drive into Congo rainforest = Congo red stain.
My thought process in creating this started with the fact that medullary thyroid cancer is associated with MEN2A and MEN2B. Because the names of those two categories were so similar, and they start with the word "men," I first thought about a story involving an experiment with men. Next, the name medullary thyroid carcinoma could be derived from the phrase "mend thy car," which I interpreted as a competition where the men had to fix their cars. Then, I only allowed seashells for tools because I had to represent parafollicular C-cells. I kept building onto the story like this until I included all the information I needed. Even in the story I created, I referenced a movie because I could draw upon the premise of a story I knew to incorporate it into the one I was making. I did that because I recognized "Amy" and "Ret" are both names, and it was easy to make the connection to Mulan after recognizing the names. As you can see, this story truly makes no sense, but the reality is it does not matter. Oddly enough, the stranger and more outrageous the story is, the more likely you can remember it. For stories you create yourself, adding pictures was variable for the sake of efficiency. It certainly helped if I included it, but if I spent more time than I wanted weaving a story together, I moved on.
Final Thoughts
This whole process is not a guarantee for committing information to long-term memory. We know the best way to ensure that is through repetition. Therefore, in creating these stories and adding them to the corresponding Anki card, I was able to create an association tool for faster recall and incorporate repetition for maximal benefit. Even years later, I still remember facts because of my associations—perhaps not every detail, but I consider this better than nothing, which is what I almost expect from only trying to memorize content with repetition. Many students find it easier to simply focus on repetition, and that is wonderful if it is effective enough for your studies.
My last comment, which you can most likely attest to after reading this post, is that this method also opens a world of creativity. Being bogged down by hours of endless studying with limited free time may make the stressful and sometimes mundane pre-clinical years seem longer. I apologize for the length of these posts. I tried to explain this method as thoroughly and logically as possible so that you may understand and try this for yourself. If anything, after reading this novel-length post, you now have another tool in your toolbelt for studying. I hope you give it a try because it was truly a turning point in my studies. While it is vitally important not to lose who you are and to continue partaking in hobbies you enjoy, I love this method because it allows me to be creative in an academic setting. Every story or association I use allows me to be creative while also studying, and this provided me amusement and comfort during my studies. You can adapt this technique however you’d like to fit your learning style. Please reach out if you have any questions or comments, and I wish you the best of luck in your studies!
