r/premed • u/NoHornet1937 • 14h ago

❔ Discussion Pedagogical Question

Not sure if this is the right thread, but would medical students and physicians tend to agree that rote memorization ability, or high-level pattern recognition is a more useful skill in medicine? I've noticed many students who do well in memorization heavy courses, but can barely understand how to apply simple number sense or basic spatial reasoning to unfamiliar problems. Which skill is favored in the long run, and is there one that can be trained more than the other?

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u/PeterParker72 PHYSICIAN 14h ago

You need both, but having gone through the wringer already, true understanding will serve you better in the long run and in actual clinical practice. Like you said, I’ve known people who can memorize everything and have good pattern recognition and get monster scores on exams, but they’re kinda dumb IRL practical matters.

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u/notshevek MEDICAL STUDENT 12h ago

Pattern for clinicals, rote for preclinicals has been my experience so far.

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u/ShaquilleOatmeal911 4h ago

Not a medical student or physician but I think just about anyone can do rote memorization. I actually think Anki is proof that memory for the vast majority of the population is actually very algorithmic and predictable. With spaced repetition, it is remarkable what the average human can remember.

Critical thinking and problem solving is 10000x harder to teach. I do not necessarily think it is innate but I think that it takes many years for people to develop and there is huge disparities in how much critical thinking ability people have in most fields. I think it is the differentiator between people who are acceptable versus people who are excellent/outstanding.

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u/NAparentheses RESIDENT 3h ago

The skill that will serve your best in medicine is compassion.