Hey, guys! I’m really excited about today's post! I'm going to introduce you to a fantastic studying resource I myself got introduced to a few weeks ago, and that is Lecturio!
I received an e-mail from their team asking me to take a look at their webpage and see if it was of any help for me and my fantastic readership. Well, it hasn't disappointed me, certainly. Actually, I was rather surprised.
Since they offered me a full subscription in order to have access to all their content for my review, what I'm going to state here is my own opinion, truly and only.
I explored the website for a time and was really glad to discover that they also had an iPad and iPhone app. Don't fret, they're available for android users, too! The best thing about this is that your progress gets saved on all your devices, and you can keep working on your courses while commuting, for example, which is something I spend nearly an hour on every weekday, and it is really important for me to make the most of this time that can be so easily wasted.
Since I'm studying anesthesiology this term, I decided to give a look at the anesthesiology course available in Lecturio, and it was brilliant! It helped me revise my knowledge in a more interactive way, and since I'm not an English speaker (at least, not by my birthplace, but certainly I am one at heart) it is also a good way of making all of that knowledge stick in my brain in a more assured, imaginative way. Whenever I study the same thing in different ways, I always learn it better, since it helps with my understanding of said thing, so kudos to you for that, Lecturio.
I must admit I was really impressed with this online resource because I had been looking for something similar to this for a long time, without success. No online course caught my interest and so I never got past signing up and forgetting about it as soon as I had received my subscription confirmation e-mail. But Lecturio was different. It has an easy, intuitive interface and an appealing minimalistic look (kudos for that, too, you're doing it super duper right).
Now, let's see what Lecturio has to offer:
This view above is what you see once you enter the "all courses" option. You can see that on the left we have a column that divides the courses according to the year or health degree you're studying. You can choose to view all of the courses available, or instead, you can go for the MCAT/Pre-Med if that is what you're studying for right now. Basic and Clinical medical science are another option, as are courses for the USMLE Step 1 exams, or nursing. You can see that there's also a MCAT Question bank, which can be super helpful for those of you who are fretting over the MCATs. Since I'm not English based and study in Spain, this question bank can only function as a way of testing my knowledge, which is no small task, and I don't really care about this MCAT/USMLE distribution, but I think it will be useful for my English readers!
As I said before, I went for the anesthesiology course, since I'm studying that this term (among five other subjects that are driving me up the wall, but that's a story for another time). I found this course to be straight-forward, brilliantly structured and incredibly easily explained. Once you have a certain background on the subject, which you will probably have since this web page is directed to medical students, following all the explanations is really easy. The videos are short, not more than 15 minutes long, and this is the perfect time to grasp the main facts of each section. You can watch a couple of videos while you're on the bus, and it won't take you a long time to finish the course. Once you're finished with each section, you can check your knowledge and understanding of the material with a test. Quite useful, that. Great way of revising, too.
Each course is organized into different chapters and sections, so you can easily follow your own progress. Beside each video, you have a box like the one you see on the right on top of this paragraph, where you can take notes on the most important things said during the lecture, and download the slides that are used in the presentation. This way, you can access your material anytime.
If you have any question you don't have to worry. You can just pop it in the box you see on top of this line, which in your lecture will be right at the bottom, and the professor explaining the lesson will get to you and try to answer your question as best and fast as possible. You're not alone in this, mate.
Lecturio is constantly adding new material to their web page, which is turning it into a great, useful and trustworthy resource for medical students (I can't wait for the psychology & Sociology course to start, honestly). Implementing e-learning into our academic process is inevitable, what with living in the era of technology and all that, and I've never really liked that fact, being a paper and pen kind of girl (let's be frank, I would take my notes in a piece of parchment with a quill at the most Harry Potter-y style if I knew I could get away with it, but technology is always tampering the most Romantic desires of my heart) but Lecurio has managed to do it in an easy and likeable way, so it's not as draining as other online resources. At least, that's what I think.
And the best thing is: you can learn at your own pace. If you already know the material and just want to make a quick revision, you can just speed up your video and review everything in a heartbeat! You can watch a video each day, or all of them in a row. It all depends on you, and that's the way in which studying is less draining and stressing for me.
It is interactive, practical and straight to the point. You won't need to skip a single second of lessons, there's no useless material being taught as it happens with two-hours long sleep-inducing lectures.
Lecturio also offers free access to their resourceful online magazine, which is full of interesting articles accompanied by self-explanatory images. Keeping up in the medical field is essential, and there's no better way of doing that than reading as many medical journals as you can. Lecturio offers you that possibility.
If you're a pre-med student, then you will love the biology, chemistry and physics articles. I know I would have loved to have access to a mine gold like this one, my chemistry professor was awful. If you're already a medical student, resources such as anatomy, biochemistry, physiology of immunology, along much more material, are available for you. Once you're on your clinical placement, articles on most specialties are available too.
You will also receive updates, reminders, and interesting articles right into your e-mail inbox, but they're not too frequent, so it doesn't get annoying as it happens with other web pages spamming emails. They will inform you about your progress and encourage you to keep working hard.
The only bad thing about Lecturio: you have to pay for full access, but then again this is a business, so as soon as I'm a resident and get paid for my work, I know I will subscribe to have full access to their material. Learning never ends in the medical field, and if you can go through it with companions such as Lecturio, the path gets a little less bumpy. However, Lecturio pricing policies are quite appropriate for all the resources they give you, so you will get great value for your money. As I said, I can't keep paying for full access, since my financial situation is not at its best, but as soon as I start my residency, Lecturio will have one more faithful subscriber. I will have to do with the free access material for the time being!
----------------
What about you, guys? Will you think about subscribing to Lecturio?
If you do so, please let me and the Lecturio team know what you thought about it!
