How to Study for Premed Classes and Succeed in Difficult College Courses

Studying for premed classes can be difficult, especially when you first arrive in college and realize that the methods that helped you succeed in high school may not be enough for general chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and other demanding science courses. The amount of information increases quickly, professors move through material faster, and exams often ask you to apply concepts in ways that look very different from the examples you saw during lecture.

I remember how overwhelming it felt to try to determine which study methods were actually effective because there were hundreds of strategies being recommended, and every successful student seemed to have a completely different routine. One person might rewrite all of their notes, another might spend hours in a study group, and someone else might use flashcards for almost everything. You have probably heard that no single study strategy works for everyone, and there is some truth to that, but there are still several approaches that consistently require you to engage with the material more deeply.

My own study habits evolved throughout my four years of college as I gradually discovered which methods helped me learn efficiently and which ones consumed precious time without producing the improvement I wanted. I did not begin undergrad with a perfect study system, and I definitely spent plenty of nights trying to force information into my memory through sheer repetition. Over time, however, I became much more intentional about active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, accelerated lecture review, and practice that required genuine mental effort.

Becoming more efficient did not only help me academically. It also created enough room in my schedule for me to participate in more extracurricular activities, become involved in research, pursue clinical experiences, take on leadership responsibilities, and still have a life outside of studying. That is one of the reasons I believe learning how to study effectively is so important for premed students. Your goal is not simply to survive one chemistry exam. You are trying to build a sustainable routine that protects your GPA while leaving enough time for the other experiences that will help you grow and eventually prepare for medical school.

Why Premed Classes Require a Different Study Approach

Many premed prerequisite courses are difficult because they require both a large amount of knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in unfamiliar situations. You may understand a physics equation when your professor works through it on the board, but that does not necessarily mean you will recognize when to use it on an exam. You may be able to follow a biological pathway while looking at a diagram, yet struggle to recreate it or predict what would happen if one enzyme stopped functioning.

This difference between recognizing information and producing it independently is where many students run into trouble. Rereading a chapter or reviewing lecture slides can make the material feel familiar, but that feeling can be misleading. When the answer is sitting in front of you, it is easy to believe that you know it. The real test is whether you can retrieve, explain, or apply the information when your notes are closed.

The study strategies that helped me most were generally the ones that required the greatest intellectual effort. They were not always the most comfortable methods, and they sometimes made me feel less confident during the study session because they exposed what I did not know. However, that discomfort gave me an opportunity to fix my weaknesses before the exam rather than discovering them while I was taking it.

Speed Up Recorded Lectures and Review Videos

One of the simplest ways I improved my efficiency was by increasing the playback speed of recorded lectures, Khan Academy lessons, and YouTube videos. I was afraid to do this during my earlier years of college because I assumed I would miss important information or fail to retain what the speaker was saying. I did not begin using it consistently until my later undergraduate years, but once I became comfortable with it, I realized how much time I had previously spent watching familiar material at normal speed.

I am not suggesting that you stop attending class. I attended almost every lecture during undergrad, and being present helped me understand what the professor emphasized, hear explanations that were not written on the slides, and keep up with the pacing of the course. Accelerated videos were most useful when I was reviewing a lecture I had already attended or using an outside resource to reinforce a topic.

You do not have to jump immediately to two-times speed. You can begin at 1.25x or 1.5x and gradually increase the speed as your brain adjusts. Some professors speak slowly enough that 1.75x or 2x still feels comfortable, while other lectures may require a slower pace because the material is complicated or unfamiliar.

As I watched these videos, I tried to remain mentally engaged rather than allowing the faster playback to turn into passive review. I repeated important information aloud, paused when I needed to make a connection, and thought about how the material related to something I had already learned. Sometimes I wrote down a detail, but because I had usually taken notes during the original lecture, I was not trying to copy the entire presentation again. I was trying to strengthen the connections between the ideas.

You may be surprised by how much information you retain once you become accustomed to the faster pace. More importantly, saving time on each video can allow you to review several additional lectures or explanations without adding hours to your day.

Use Active Recall Instead of Only Rereading

Perhaps the most powerful change I made was incorporating active recall into my studying. Active recall means trying to produce an answer from memory before looking at the information. This can include answering a flashcard, explaining a concept aloud, labeling a diagram without help, solving a problem without notes, or writing everything you remember about a topic on a blank sheet of paper.

The key is that you must make a genuine attempt to retrieve the answer. Looking at the answer immediately and thinking, “Yes, I knew that,” does not create the same challenge.

One of the easiest ways to use active recall after a lecture is to close your notes and ask yourself what you just learned. Try to explain the major ideas in your own words. Write down the equations you remember, reconstruct the pathway that was discussed, or answer the learning objectives without looking at the slides. Once you have made an honest attempt, reopen your notes and identify what you missed.

This method can feel frustrating because it reveals gaps that rereading allows you to overlook. That frustration is useful. You would rather discover during a study session that you cannot explain the difference between competitive and noncompetitive inhibition than discover it while answering an exam question.

Active recall does not need to involve a complicated system. You can practice it while walking across campus, driving home, waiting for a class to begin, or explaining a topic to a friend. The important part is that you are asking your brain to retrieve the information rather than simply exposing yourself to it again.

Use Anki for College and Premed Courses

Anki was one of the most powerful study tools I used because it combines active recall with spaced repetition. A card presents you with a question, term, image, or incomplete statement, and you must attempt to produce the answer before revealing it. You then tell Anki how difficult the card was, and the program uses that information to determine when you should see it again.

This allows you to spend more time reviewing material that you are at risk of forgetting and less time repeatedly reviewing information you already know well. Instead of going through every flashcard every day, the cards are spaced according to your performance.

I found Anki especially helpful for information that needed to be remembered accurately over a longer period, such as biological terminology, pathways, enzymes, amino acid properties, physics equations, psychology concepts, organic chemistry reactions, and other details that would eventually appear again in later classes or on the MCAT.

However, Anki should not replace every other form of studying. A flashcard can help you remember an equation, but it cannot guarantee that you will recognize when the equation applies. It can help you memorize the steps of a pathway, but you should still be able to explain the purpose of that pathway and predict what happens when part of it changes.

I recommend using Anki alongside practice questions, diagrams, conceptual explanations, and problem-solving. You can learn more in my guide to what Anki is and how to use it for college and medical school and my newer article explaining why you should use Anki to study in college.

Keep Your Anki Cards Focused

One mistake students make with Anki is placing too much information on a single card. If the back of every flashcard contains an entire paragraph, your daily reviews can become slow and discouraging.

Try to make each card test one clear idea. Rather than asking yourself to describe every aspect of glycolysis at once, you might create separate cards about its purpose, cellular location, inputs, outputs, rate-limiting enzyme, and regulation. You can then use a larger blank diagram or verbal explanation to test whether you understand how those details fit together.

You also do not need to spend hours making every card visually perfect. The point is to create a useful retrieval prompt, not to design a miniature textbook. A simple question that consistently makes you recall the correct information is more valuable than a beautiful card that takes several minutes to create and contains too much information to review efficiently.

Use Spaced Repetition to Remember Material Longer

Spaced repetition involves reviewing information over increasing periods of time rather than repeatedly studying it during one long session. Anki performs this process automatically, but you can also use the same principle with practice questions, handwritten prompts, diagrams, or scheduled review sessions.

For example, imagine that you are trying to remember Snell’s law. You might ask yourself for the equation immediately after learning it, answer it again several minutes later, and then revisit it later that evening. If you continue recalling it correctly, you might review it the next day, three days later, and one week later. When you forget it, you shorten the interval and bring it back sooner.

The exact timing does not need to be perfect. The important idea is that the interval gradually increases when you remember the material and decreases when you struggle.

This gives your brain enough time for the answer to stop sitting in your immediate working memory. When you retrieve it again later, you are strengthening your ability to access it after a delay. That is particularly important for premed students because the material does not disappear after one exam. General chemistry concepts return in organic chemistry and biochemistry, biology reappears on the MCAT, and many of these foundational ideas will continue appearing in medical school.

Cramming may help you temporarily hold information long enough to complete a test, but spaced review gives you a much better chance of remembering it when you need it again several months later.

Mix Topics Through Interleaving

Interleaving means mixing different concepts or problem types during a study session rather than completing one category in a predictable block. This strategy was especially helpful for me in math and science classes because it trained me to recognize which approach a question required.

During my earlier math courses, I often studied one chapter at a time. I would attend the lecture for chapter one, complete a set of chapter-one problems, and then move to chapter two. While studying for the exam, I often followed that same order. The problem was that when the actual test arrived, all of the chapters were mixed together.

Suddenly, I had to determine which equation applied, which chapter the question came from, and what kind of problem I was looking at. That was much more difficult than completing a worksheet where every question used the same method.

Interleaving helps you practice that decision. Instead of completing fifteen identical equilibrium problems, you might mix equilibrium, thermodynamics, kinetics, and acid-base questions. You must identify the relevant concept before solving each one, which is much closer to the way an exam is structured.

You can also use interleaving for information-heavy courses. If you were studying virology, for example, you might spend some time reviewing HIV entry, switch to enterovirus replication, move to the Baltimore classification system, and then return to the genetic components of HIV. During your next study session, you could change the order again.

This may feel extremely frustrating at first because you leave each topic before reaching the comfortable feeling of complete fluency. Our natural tendency is to stay with a concept until it feels easy, but repeatedly completing the same type of question can create an artificial sense of mastery. You may simply be following a rhythm rather than independently identifying what to do.

Try interleaving for at least one week or one exam before deciding it does not work for you. The method may feel harder during practice, but that additional mental effort can make you more adaptable when the questions are presented in a random order.

Begin Practice Questions Before You Feel Completely Ready

Many students wait until they believe they have mastered every lecture before beginning practice questions. I think practice should begin much earlier because questions are not only a way to measure what you know. They also teach you how the course expects you to use the information.

Practice questions help you identify whether you understand a concept, whether you can select the appropriate equation, whether you are making mathematical errors, and whether you can interpret unfamiliar wording. They also reveal which details your professor considers important.

You do not need to begin with an entire timed practice exam. After reviewing a lecture, complete a few related questions without your notes. Once you become more comfortable, begin mixing those questions with material from earlier lectures.

When you miss a problem, do not simply read the explanation and move forward. Determine why you missed it. You may have forgotten a fact, misunderstood a concept, selected the wrong equation, missed a unit conversion, misread the question, or run out of time. Each of those problems requires a different correction.

I would avoid describing every error as a careless mistake. Sometimes mistakes really are accidental, but repeated “careless” mistakes usually point to a pattern that can be addressed. You may need to slow down, write your units more clearly, underline what the question is asking, or develop a consistent sequence for approaching calculations.

Explain Difficult Concepts Out Loud

Explaining a concept aloud is one of the fastest ways to determine whether you truly understand it. You do not need another premed student sitting across from you. You can explain the material to a family member, a friend, an imaginary student, or simply to yourself.

Try to describe what the concept is, why it matters, how it works, what variables affect it, and how it might appear on an exam. When you reach a point where you cannot continue without looking at your notes, you have identified a weakness that deserves more attention.

I often repeated information aloud while reviewing videos because speaking forced me to organize the material rather than merely listen to it. This also made it easier to form connections between the current lecture and something I had learned previously.

Your explanation does not have to sound sophisticated. In fact, being able to explain a complicated idea in simple language is often a better sign of understanding than repeating the professor’s exact wording.

Take Notes With a Clear Purpose

Taking notes can be useful, but copying every sentence from a slide is rarely the most efficient way to study. During lecture, try to focus on the professor’s explanations, examples, repeated points, and anything that is not already available in the posted materials.

Your notes should help you understand or retrieve the information later. After class, you can convert them into flashcards, practice questions, diagrams, comparison tables, or short explanations. This makes the notes an intermediate step in the learning process rather than the final product.

It is easy to spend hours rewriting and organizing notes because the finished pages look productive. However, an exam will not ask you to admire the notes. It will ask you to use what they contain.

When deciding whether a study activity is worth your time, ask yourself what you will be able to do after completing it. If the answer is only that you will have a cleaner copy of material you already possessed, there may be a more active way to use that hour.

Take Short and Intentional Breaks

I spent many evenings during undergrad sitting in the library or my room for hours without moving because I felt that stopping would waste time. I wanted to keep pushing through the material, especially when an exam was approaching or I felt behind.

However, I would often notice that my concentration began declining after approximately 30 to 45 minutes. I was technically still looking at the material, but I was processing much less of it. Eventually, I started building short breaks into my study sessions, usually after about 30 minutes to an hour of focused work.

My breaks were often around ten minutes. Sometimes I thought through what I needed to accomplish later that evening or over the next few days. Other times, I caught up on texts, sent an email I needed to complete, stood up, ate something, or briefly looked at Instagram reels when I felt comfortable with my progress.

Your break can involve whatever helps you mentally reset, as long as it does not become so absorbing that you never return to the study session. Social media, television, and games can easily turn a short pause into an hour, so setting a timer may help.

The exact ratio of studying to resting is not important. You do not have to follow a rigid Pomodoro timer if you are deeply focused and working productively. The larger lesson is to notice when your concentration has declined and give yourself permission to reset instead of measuring productivity by how long you remained seated.

Choose the Study Method That Requires More Mental Effort

A pattern connects nearly all of the strategies that worked best for me. They required me to make a greater mental effort to produce an answer.

Answering an Anki card required more effort than rereading a sentence. Completing a practice problem required more effort than watching someone solve it. Mixing several chapters required more effort than completing ten identical questions. Explaining a pathway from memory required more effort than looking at a labeled diagram.

The easier option often feels better in the moment because it allows you to move quickly and experience fewer mistakes. However, that comfort can hide the fact that you are not practicing the skill you will need during the exam.

This does not mean every moment of studying should be miserable. It means that at some point, you need to close the notes and see what you can actually do.

How to Study for Biology and Biochemistry

Biology and biochemistry require a combination of factual memory and conceptual understanding. Anki can be extremely helpful for vocabulary, enzymes, pathways, structures, and regulatory details, but I would also spend time drawing processes from memory and explaining how the components interact.

Begin with the larger purpose before becoming lost in individual details. When learning a metabolic pathway, understand where it occurs, what it accomplishes, what enters, what leaves, and how it is regulated. Once that framework makes sense, the intermediate steps become easier to organize.

You should also ask what would happen if part of the pathway changed. If an enzyme were inhibited, which molecule would increase? Which product would decrease? How would the cell compensate? Those questions move you from memorization toward the kind of application that often appears on exams and eventually on the MCAT.

How to Study for General Chemistry and Physics

General chemistry and physics require repeated independent problem-solving. Watching your professor solve a question can help you understand the method, but you must eventually complete problems without seeing the steps.

When approaching a calculation, begin by identifying what the problem is asking, listing the information you were given, and deciding which concept applies before inserting numbers. Keep track of your units and ask whether the final answer is reasonable.

Interleaving is particularly helpful for these courses because an exam will not tell you which equation to use. Mixed practice forces you to identify whether you are looking at an equilibrium problem, a kinematics problem, a circuit question, or a thermodynamics concept.

When you get a question wrong, redo it later without looking at the solution. Recognizing the correct steps while reading an explanation is not the same as being able to reproduce them independently.

How to Study for Organic Chemistry

Organic chemistry becomes much more manageable when you understand the patterns behind reactions instead of treating every reagent and product as an unrelated fact.

Focus on electron movement, acid-base behavior, nucleophiles, electrophiles, steric effects, resonance, and functional groups. When you understand why a reaction occurs, you have a better chance of predicting unfamiliar products rather than relying entirely on memorization.

Anki can still help you remember reagents and reaction patterns, but drawing mechanisms and completing synthesis problems should remain central. Practice working in both directions by predicting the product from the reactants and identifying possible starting materials from a target molecule.

Organic chemistry can feel impossible when every reaction appears to be an isolated item on a long list. It usually becomes easier once you begin seeing the shared principles underneath those reactions.

Review New Material Soon After Class

One of the best ways to prevent a course from becoming overwhelming is to review each lecture soon after it occurs. This does not need to involve hours of work. A focused review may include closing the slides, recalling the major concepts, checking what you missed, creating several Anki cards, and completing a few practice questions.

Reviewing within the same day or the following day allows you to identify confusion while the lecture is still recent. You can then ask a professor, teaching assistant, tutor, or Supplemental Instruction leader before the class has moved several topics ahead.

Allowing six or seven lectures to accumulate creates a much larger problem because you are no longer reviewing the material. You are essentially learning it for the first time immediately before the exam.

Use Office Hours, Supplemental Instruction, and Tutoring

Office hours are not only for students who are failing. They can help you clarify difficult concepts, understand how your professor approaches problems, review missed exam questions, and build relationships with faculty members who may eventually become mentors or letter writers.

Bring a specific question whenever possible. Instead of saying that you do not understand an entire chapter, show the professor where your reasoning breaks down. This makes it easier for them to identify the actual misconception.

Supplemental Instruction and tutoring can also be particularly useful in difficult premed prerequisites because they provide additional ways to hear the material explained and opportunities to work through questions with other students. I have written a newer guide on using office hours, Supplemental Instruction, and tutoring in college that also discusses why these academic relationships and teaching experiences can become valuable parts of your development.

You can also read my guide to choosing the best professors and college classes because the quality and structure of a course can influence how you need to prepare.

Build a Weekly Premed Study Routine

A sustainable study routine should spread learning throughout the week rather than place nearly all of it before an exam. Before a lecture, briefly preview the learning objectives, major headings, or unfamiliar vocabulary. Your goal is not to master the material in advance, but to make the lecture easier to follow.

After class, recall what you learned without immediately reopening the slides. Fill in the gaps, make targeted flashcards, and complete a few practice questions. During the following days, review the cards and mix the new questions with material from previous lectures.

At the end of the week, complete a more cumulative review. Revisit your mistakes, redraw important pathways, write equations from memory, and identify topics that still require help. This gives you time to address weaknesses before they become part of a much larger backlog.

Premed students also have to balance studying with research, clinical experience, service, work, exercise, and other commitments. My Premed Weekly Schedule Planner and Time Budget Calculator can help you see how many hours you realistically have rather than building a schedule that looks impressive but cannot be maintained.

How to Tell Whether Your Study Method Is Working

Do not judge a study method only by how many hours you used it or how organized your notes look. Judge it by what you can do afterward.

Can you explain the concept without looking? Can you answer a new question that is worded differently? Can you select the right equation without being told which chapter the problem came from? Can you remember information from several weeks earlier? Are your practice-question scores improving?

You could spend six hours rereading and highlighting while learning less than you would during two focused hours of active recall and mixed practice. More time does not automatically mean more learning.

If your grades are not improving, review your exams and identify the type of problem you are having. If you remember facts but cannot apply them, you probably need more questions rather than more flashcards. If you understand the main ideas but repeatedly forget details, spaced repetition may help. If you know the material but run out of time, add timed practice. If you make frequent calculation errors, slow down and write each step clearly.

A disappointing grade should lead to a specific adjustment rather than a general conclusion that you are not capable of succeeding in science.

Common Premed Study Mistakes

One of the most common mistakes is confusing familiarity with mastery. Looking at an answer and recognizing it is easier than producing it independently, which is why active recall should be part of every study routine.

Another mistake is waiting until the exam is close before attempting practice questions. Questions should guide your learning throughout the unit rather than appearing only after you have finished reviewing everything.

Premed students also frequently overload themselves with activities and assume they can compensate by sleeping less or studying for extremely long periods. Your extracurricular experiences matter, but they should not repeatedly come at the expense of your grades, health, or ability to learn. My newer guide on whether premed students should work full time or focus on grades may help you think through that balance.

Finally, avoid comparing your number of study hours with someone else’s. Another student may study quickly, slowly, actively, passively, alone, or with a group. Their total tells you very little about what your own learning requires.

Frequently Asked Questions About Studying for Premed Classes

What is the best study method for premed students?

The best overall approach combines active recall, spaced repetition, practice questions, interleaving, and consistent review. Each method solves a slightly different problem, which is why I would not rely entirely on flashcards, videos, notes, or question banks alone.

How many hours should a premed student study each day?

There is no universal number because your needs will depend on your course load, academic background, upcoming exams, and other responsibilities. It is usually more helpful to plan specific tasks than to choose an arbitrary number of hours. Finishing two lecture reviews, completing a set of questions, and reviewing your scheduled Anki cards gives you a clearer target than simply deciding to study for four hours.

Is Anki good for premed classes?

Anki can be extremely helpful for courses that contain large amounts of information, including biology, biochemistry, psychology, sociology, and organic chemistry. It can also help you remember equations and definitions in physics and general chemistry, but it should be combined with calculation-based and conceptual practice.

Should I rewrite my notes after class?

Rewriting can be helpful when you are simplifying or reorganizing a difficult concept, but copying everything word for word is often inefficient. Try closing your notes and writing what you remember first. You can then compare your explanation with the original and focus on the parts you missed.

Should I study with a group?

A study group can be useful when everyone arrives prepared and spends the time explaining concepts, asking questions, and solving difficult problems. It becomes less useful when one person does all of the teaching or the meeting turns into several hours of unrelated conversation. I usually recommend learning the basic material independently first and using the group for application and clarification.

How early should I start studying for a science exam?

Ideally, studying begins when the material is first taught. Briefly reviewing each lecture, spacing it throughout the unit, and gradually increasing cumulative practice will usually be more effective than trying to relearn everything during the final weekend.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to study effectively was a gradual process for me. I did not enter college already knowing how to use Anki, active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, faster lecture review, and intentional breaks. I developed those habits as I learned which strategies improved my performance and which ones simply made me feel busy.

The most important lesson I learned was to choose methods that require me to do something with the information. When I had to recall an answer, explain a process, solve a problem, or decide between several possible approaches, I was much more likely to remember the material than when I simply looked at it again.

Those improvements helped me become more efficient, and that efficiency allowed me to pursue more of the extracurricular, research, clinical, and leadership experiences that became important parts of my premed journey. You do not need to adopt every strategy in this guide at once. Begin with one change, use it consistently, and pay attention to whether it improves what you can recall and apply.

You can continue with my freshman-year premed checklist, sophomore-year premed checklist, or junior-year premed checklist to see how academics should fit with the rest of your development. You can also explore my free premed and MCAT resource library for study schedules, Anki decks, error logs, trackers, and other tools I created or curated for students.