The ‘Learning Curve’ and the ‘Gut Feeling’

I just completed my postgraduate exam in surgery. Thank God, I passed and I am happy that I could perform well in the exam. But the exhaustive preparation that has been going on for the last two months revealed me some realities of academic life.

 I have been in the field of medicine for last ten years. For a surgery exam, one has to be well versed with all the related topics starting from anatomy. Anatomy was my favorite subject during the first year of medicine and I had learned in pretty well. I used to look up the etymologies and tried to learn a little more elaborately than just mugging up. After five years, I had to revise anatomy in detail for my pre postgraduate entrance examination. Now again, I had to do a detailed revision before exam. But the thing I realized was that, even after repeated revisions, when I tried to recollect, it was difficult. It was not that, I don’t remember things; rather things were getting messed up in the head. There was an explosion of several things or feeling of mining out something from depth.

Second thing, there was no more surprise questions. During the undergraduate time, it was common to see new terms or diseases, in the exam question paper, that haven’t heard off. Later we had to search through the textbooks to find them. But now, it is rare to come across a new term. But this does not mean that I know what that term means. I know I have read about it, but I find it difficult to recollect about it.

While reading a book, I have started to appreciate things that are mentioned in subtle way, but have a greater meaning. For example, while describing a surgery, the author may have mentioned things like where to cut, what direction to cut, where to hold etc., which did not make much of sense in early years of medicine learning. More depth of knowledge is felt while reading the same lines that I read some years ago.

I wonder, what was the purpose of all those hard-core physics and higher mathematics, which I learned in the pre medicine classes. I was fond of solving those problems and used to feel authoritative on those things at that time. During that time, I thought I would never forget those theorems and formulas, because those were so thorough and I could do calculations at flick of my thumb. But now, I even find it difficult to calculate BMI, without a calculator.

My aim is not to point the inadequacies of the education system, but to look, deep to my own brain activities. Has it reached its memory limit? Why cannot I recollect things, when I need, at least those which I spend time to memorize? I had a feeling some years earlier that everybody had the same capacity to memorize and learn. But now I recognize, everybody have different capabilities, the reason why some find it difficult to learn things the traditional way. I can say this, because working in a premier institute of the nation has given me the opportunity to meet people, some of whom are extraordinarily brilliant. I have considered myself an average intelligent person and I know, when I work for a thing and when I don’t work for a thing. I have seen how these people simply drift through situations, which I have to struggle to.

I am not at the brim of a nervous break down or anything of that sort, but definitely now I can imagine how things can go wrong if someone tries too hard on themselves. Said this, taking an exam is about strategy and one don’t have to be a super computer to pass any normal competitive exam. The basic thing for good exam preparation is to know one’s own limitations and plan accordingly. Also brilliancy and intelligence are not above compassion and common sense, qualities that are really required for a successful happy life.

It is true that one have to read multiple massive books on their way to become a specialist or super specialist in medicine. But it is not necessary to remember all that stuff all the time. It is not humanly possible. During the early periods of practice, it will take a little time to recollect the important things that has to be taken care off, while treating a patient. As time passes by, all those steps come as a reflux, rather than reasoning out the logic behind it, and the time required to attain that capability is called the ‘learning curve’. This is the reason why the ‘gut feeling’ of the professor is always better.