tips for the new semester

Try the Crash Course and At a Glance series' as revision aids. I've found some of them invaluable. I'd especially recommend CV and Respiratory AAG and Metabolism and Endocrine + Repro for Crash course. They're the one's i've used and liked so far anyway.

It sounds like your working flat out... Work smarter not harder. It's really really important to go out and enjoy yourself. Mainly to give yourself a rest (and it sounds like you need it). Your brain won't take anything in after a certain point and thats when you need to go and do some sport/ go and join some friends for coffe/ SU bar.

Sorry can't help more but i'm still a fresher and trying to work it out myself

Just to second that I really like the crash course books really really good

basically i am looking for some learning tips. i am a 1st year at liverpool which is all PBL. we dont have any proper lectures, and the ones we do have are optional, dont go into alot of detail and are sometimes completely useless. i am finding the work load very difficult but i am convinced i am doing something wrong. i only spend about 5 hours a week in uni a week and i spend the rest of my time at home working and i mean all week until 10ish at night (i dont usually do much at weekends though) but i dont feel like ive retained information at the end of the module. the other people in my group seem to go out alot, which i cant or i wouldnt get all the work done and they still seem to have done far more detail than me and remember much more of it.
this is really getting me down because i dont go out in the week any more and i feel i cant do any of the uni activities as well as feeling i am going to fail the exams because i cant remember anything which i have never had a problem with in the past. however i dont think the problem is the fact that it is PBL because in college i found listening to a teacher so boring my brain just switched off and i had to do the work on my own anyway but the workload wasnt half as much and i always found past paper questions useful which i cant use now because there is no set syllabus so we dont no what will be on the exam. i really need to find a more efficient way of learning because it will be much more dufficult when we start patient contact in the 2nd year. so anybody out there have any useful tips which will help me learn faster and retain more or even any good books that resemble revision books used at school and college? sorry about the essay and thanx in advance

The 3rd editions are out in September.

I expect everyone to by a copy of Cell Biology and Genetics

Hey, I'm also a first year at Liverpool and although the workload is large it IS manageable. Every PBL tutor knows roughly what objectives you should be doing so they will steer you in the right direction. Just read the relevant chapters in Martini and then do a bit extra if you can. I tend to spend my days doing work and go out in the nights. You need to prioritise your learning to what is necessary (ie. cover at least your learning objs) then go over and add more detail later on.

Anatomy and physiology colouring books and colourful notes are essential. What I do is read the information in Martini or other source, then go back and make notes (bullet points, coloured in diagrams etc) for my objectives (usually at the beginning of the week) and then on Sunday night I reread my notes. If I feel I haven't absorbed everything I usually go over my notes again before my final session.

I think you'll find that by doing the exams you know what they are looking for a bit more. I found it helpful and constructive anyway. I hope that helps...