The study zone

I love getting together with a study group. There’s something about going over the material together that encourages and motivates me. I don’t feel like I’m struggling alone, because there are things that no one else understands either. We can bounce ideas off each other, explain things to each other, and come up with ridiculous mnemonics to memorize something. Sometimes I study more effectively just by getting out of my apartment and being in a different setting. It’s nice to be able to get a study room, spread out our notes and Netter’s all over the table, and learn new things together.

The best part is that sometimes I get to a place where I actually enjoy studying. This usually occurs when learning becomes more than just memorizing information and turns into a desire to really understand what’s going on. This happened for me yesterday for neuro. I wouldn’t say I like neuro exactly, but finally understanding some of the things that happen in the brain is truly amazing.

For instance, we’d been talking about the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid in class. I learned that it’s produced in the choroid plexus, that it circulates in the ventricles, and that it eventually winds up in the subarachnoid space, where it’s reabsorbed by the arachnoid granulations. But I couldn’t understand how the CSF got back to the choroid plexus, or why it was reabsorbed into a dural sinus (which contains blood). I had a light bulb go on in my head when I finally realized that there’s CSF in blood! Suddenly everything made sense. The choroid plexus “makes” CSF by filtering substances from the blood. When the subarachnoid granulations reabsorb CSF, it goes into the venous system and the cycle continues. Before this, I usually thought of CSF as a static fluid surrounding the brain, but now I realize there is SO much more going on.

I had another “aha” moment when I learned that female fetuses already have all the oocytes they’re ever going to produce. Before they’re born, females have already started the first steps of reproduction. Crazy, but kind of fascinating! Another revelation occurred when I realized that the embryo develops only from the epiblast layer of the bilaminar disc. The list of new mental discoveries goes on, but I won’t give any more boring details. Suffice it to say, I was in the study zone.