Disciplined Studying & Photographic Memory

I just spent four hours going over my physiology notes from today's one hour and fifteen minute lecture and turning them into flashcards (I know it is incredibly dorky, but I really do learn best by making and reviewing flashcards in my experience). It is hard to force myself to sit still for that long and focus, especially late at night when I am tired and just want to socialize or go to bed.

However, I know that if I can review the entire lecture before I go to sleep it will stick much better than if I do it another day. I discovered this my first year in college, when I was culled, along with a dozen or so other students, out of a class of 400 for the advanced introductory chemistry class our first semester. Not much of a gift in my classmates' eyes, it meant that instead of sitting in on an easy lecture with everyone else, I was competing against the other top students selected by their scores and high school course work in a course that was basically quantum mechanics (though at that point in my career I was much less into competing than the other students, who were mostly pre-med, whereas I was interested in research). I found quickly that if I reviewed my notes for just a few minutes after every class I could tap into a photographic memory. Exams were much easier when I could flip through my notes in my head. Saved me in that class for sure, though there was also lots of critical thinking (I still have nightmares about my first exam where our very first question was "Prove that orbitals are symmetrical"-- yeah, try to dredge up your calculus after a long summer break and a year abroad before starting college).

Since completing my bachelor's I've been pretty lazy about studying, and I wasn't even sure if I still had the ability to access a photographic memory until my first physiology exam, where I found myself flipping through pages of the book in my head (pretty neat, huh-- it certainly made my day). This physiology class is the first class I've taken in ages that has been graded on a curve, meaning I am competing with my classmates (who seem quite bright I might add), and also has an enormous volume of material. So I am forcing myself to be disciplined in my studying. The crappy part is I don't get out of class till almost seven pm, and I don't get home till close till eight, so Tuesdays and Thursdays are quite late nights, and then I have to be up around six am to get to my 8:30 am genetics class. Not exactly the most fun schedule, but I think the hard work will pay off in the amount of material I retain.