this video is brought to you by Skillshare. If there was one subject I struggled with during medical school, it definitely was microbiology. And you see, the problem was that up until micro, medicine had a mold. And no, I'm not talking about that type of mold. I'm old in the sense that most topics fit into the same pattern: when you first learn how things normally work, then all the ways they can stop working, then how they present, and finally how to fix them. And almost everything fit perfectly into this mold. And it was also usually the case that if you learned really well the first part or the first couple of parts, all of the others kind of made sense. And thus, medicine was more about understanding and deducing than memorizing. But that's not the case with micro, isn't it? Microbiology actually feels like the total opposite, like the science that studies a bunch of random facts about a bunch of random bugs that for some reason you have to memorize. And I hated that because I don't know about you, but

My memory sucks, and I spent hours and hours on end trying to memorize what seemed to be these random facts just to forget everything in a couple of months. The problem: I lacked the system. In a nutshell, I didn't know how to approach micro, and it wasn't until I figured out how to do so that I started to make sense of the subject. And not only that, with the passive time, I actually fell in love with the subject, with microbiology, to the point that now infectious diseases is my specialty of choice. And so, that's precisely what I'm gonna share with you today: the method that made me figure out microbiology and not die trying. Okay, so let's get right into it, shall we? I realized that the thing with micro is that everything around us tells us that stuff that matters are the details, stuff like toxins, enzymes, genes, stains, and so on and so forth. And the problem is that the average student sees, Oh, the details seem to be what matters, and thinks, Well, that's what I'll do then.

I'll focus on the details, and then everything goes downhill. But why exactly? Well, easy enough. It's because, although the details are the end goal, it doesn't mean that the best way to learn them and to memorize them is to focus on them first. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the key to mastering the details is first to master the base or the theory that grounds those details in place. Just think of it like this: think of a series or a series of movies you really like a lot, like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I don't know, whatever you happen to like. And think of their characters. Think about some specifics about them: how they look, what their personalities are like, their complex histories, issues, strengths, weaknesses. You can probably do that for a bunch of characters in a series like Game of Thrones and end up with dozens and dozens of pages filled with a bunch of random details about a bunch of random characters that you don't seem to have an issue remembering. But ask yourself

this question. If before watching the series of the movies, you were to read a list of all those characters and their details in a few dozen pages or so, but without any history at all, like just the characters and their details in a list, do you think you'd be able to memorize them as well as you do now? Chances are you wouldn't, and the reason for that is because there is no grand theory that embeds those details. In a sense, the details feel kind of isolated, ungrounded, arbitrary, and random, and thus you forget them easier. But when you learn the grand theory that embeds those characters, like the plot in the movie with the different families and their dynamics, the information starts to feel grounded. And you don't even realize it, but when you start to comprehend a bit of the plot and a bit of the families, the information about the characters kind of starts making sense. It sort of sticks for some reason. And I realize that the same thing happens with micro. If you really want to learn the tiny details about the tiny bugs, the most

intelligent move is not to start at the level of the details, but instead to master the system that grounds those details in place. But instead of memorizing the families like in Game of Thrones, you memorize the classification of microbes. But how exactly? Well, simply enough by reviewing the names and categories as many times as needed until they become second nature to you. What I personally did back then was grab my good old whiteboard and every day repeat at least a couple of times the names and groups from all bacteria, like quite literally just the names. Then when I passed through the viruses, the names and the groups of all the viruses, then the parasites, then the fungi, and etc., etc., etc. And this is honestly the most knocking part about the whole process, and it sort of feels like the first days when you're trying to learn a new language where every word feels sort of weird, arbitrary, and random. But don't worry because you'll quickly get the hang of it, and once you have all the names and groups ingrained in your

head. You'll quickly start to build on top of them the actual details that do matter. By the way, a quick heads up regarding this phase of the method. When learning a classification of microbes, you realize that there is more than one way to categorize bugs. My advice is that at first, you just focus on memorizing the most common ways doctors use to organize microbes. And then, once you have mastered all of them, you move on to understand all the other ways that microbes can be reclassified. But make sure to create the basic map with the common categories first, otherwise you'll just be all over the place, reading a lot but retaining actually nothing. Now, I'm going to leave a few of the classification schemes of bugs I personally created back then when learning micro, in case you don't know exactly where to start. Because I do know that it can be quite confusing finding out which classification scheme is correct and comprehensive. Okay, once you've mastered the classification, then you can start plugging in the details. And here, I just have a couple of tips.

tip number one: use the right resources to learn what really matters because I'll be the first one to tell you it is a far better strategy to try to learn the few essentials that medical students are actually expected to know than trying to absorb everything about microbiology all at once because it is usually the case in micro that the more you try to grab the least you actually end up holding and that's a big issue because in my experience the average microbiology book actually reinforces this behavior of trying to absorb everything all at once and in my opinion that's because the average micro book is written with a dedicated microbiologist in mind you know someone who has to know a lot of fancy details about a lot of uncommon bugs not with a medical student or medical doctor in mind and yes even if your medical school wants you to know very very in-depth microbiology I would still argue that the best way forward is first to build some solid foundations with the basic essentials and then add the required layers of complexity on top not

to just cram the whole system overnight all at once. Now, which book is best to do this? Hard to say. There are plenty of great ones out there, but in my experience, the best book I've personally encountered to learn micro was actually a USMLE book called Crush for the USMLE. To be honest, that book single-handedly built my microbiology foundations, and I just wish I had used it sooner. But as I said, I'm sure many micro books could work just as well as long as they focus on the important stuff. Now, what is exactly that important stuff? Well, the following three things: number one, how does this microbe cause disease? Basically, what is the mode of transmission, the life cycle, and the virulence factors? Number two, what diseases does it cause? Here, keep in mind that there will always be case reports of a given bacteria or virus causing a very typical infection that in 99% of times it is caused by other microbes. Be careful with that because if you go down

that rabbit hole of I want to know every disease associated with every bug in every way. You pretty quickly realize that most microbes can cause hundreds of weird atypical diseases given the right scenario, but again, that's just not helpful knowledge, especially at first. So, my opinion is that you should focus first on learning the heart by heart, which are the most common diseases associated with each microbe, how they present, and the usual risk factors that make you think that x or y bug is most likely to be responsible for a given infectious syndrome. And number three is how to treat the bugs. If you master those three, believe me, you're set. Now, tip number two is don't try to memorize concepts you haven't really understood, and this actually applies to learning medicine in general, not just to micro, but I see it more commonly happening in micro. And I think that's the case because students are sort of predisposed to micro being this memory-dense subject. And so, every time they cut, they come across a given fact like, I don't know

the fact that stuff is catalyst positive. They just make a flashcard out of it, like they're just pretty supposed to make flashcards out of everything and move on. And sure, they can repeat that fact endlessly until they have it memorized, but the problem is that they don't really have a clue about what they're actually memorizing, and so they're not really learning. And the real issue with that approach is that in the short term, studying like that can actually work, can give you an A in your exam, and so you can think, Hey, I actually do know a lot, I learned, but in reality, you haven't. And so when you come across a real challenge that actually tests your in-depth knowledge about the subject, like the USMLE or any other residence exam for that matter, or that requires an in-depth knowledge about the subject to comprehend a new piece of information, then you will realize that the couple of minutes you saved by skipping the study of the basic concept are the couple of hours it takes you to relearn a bunch of

partially learned material from the past, so don't make that mistake and take a couple of minutes to do a quick Google search to make sure you at least know what the hell you're putting in your flashcards. By the way, in case you don't know, flashcards are a way to remember difficult micro details, but you probably already knew that. But anyways, if you like this video and want to continue learning evidence-based strategies to improve your life and productivity, I suggest you use the one-month free trial I have waiting for you and hop on Skillshare. For those who don't know, Skillshare is an online learning platform packed with thousands of creative classes on a bunch of topics like illustration, productivity, lifestyle, and web development. That not only gathers experts from every field to teach you, but it also facilitates your learning process by having an ads-free platform. One class I especially recommend to every single student watching this video is Real Productivity: How to Build Habits That Last by Thomas Frank. In this class, Thomas takes you

through 10 lessons that help you set reasonable goals and build habits to achieve them. And this is honestly the most important skill I think a medical student should have if they want to succeed in medical school. And Thomas just hits the nail with his practical advice on how to actually do it. For example, there was this one thing he said towards the end of the fourth lesson about the importance of tailoring your environment to encourage the habits you wanna build. As someone who has been changing his study setup for the past year and seeing the huge influence that has had over my study efficiency, I just wish I had seen that type of advice earlier. Now, the great thing is that if you want to watch these or any other Skillshare class, you actually don't have to spend a single dime to do so. Quite literally, all you need to do is click the link in the description and join the community. The first thousand subscribers that click the link below before the end of the month will get a one month free.

trial of Skillshare so that YouTube can start exploring your creativity today. But anyways, thanks again to SteelSear for sponsoring this video. To you for tuning in, and as always, I'll see you guys in the next one.

How to Learn Microbiology and Not Die Trying

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