So keep taking notes. Keep them messy, keep them honest, keep them human. The tests will end. The patients will stay. And your notes will be the thread connecting who you are now to who you’re becoming.
Let’s break down the ecosystem of med student notes. Stage 1: The Transcriptionist (Pre-clinical years) You sit in a lecture hall (or watch at 2x speed from your desk). Every word from the professor feels sacred. You write everything . Your notes are 80+ pages per exam block. You use six colors of ink. You draw the Krebs cycle from memory. Then you realize you’ve been passively copying, not learning. The first wake-up call. med student notes
Moleskine, Leuchtturm, or a $1 spiral from the campus store. They swear by physical retention. Their notes have coffee stains and torn corners. They experience the unique terror of losing their bag (and thus, their entire brain). But they remember things differently — spatially, tactilely. So keep taking notes