Shadowing Practice: How to Study Effectively in Medical School | Study Smart (UK) - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Today we're answering a long -waited and requested video by some of you guys.
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I'd love to see a video about study tips and how you study in med school.
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Please share more of how you actually study, which resources you use for your exam, how can you manage all the medical information without forgetting them.
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I replied to these comments and promised that I would do a video about it, so this is it.
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And these are the timestamps if you want to skip to a specific part of the video.
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Hello if you're new here I'm Zeyha and I'm a fourth year medical student studying in the UK.
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So through these three years of medical school
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that I have completed I have changed the way I studied a fair amount of times.
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It's okay to change your study method and discover what works best for you.
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I'm doing this video so you can actually learn from my mistakes
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and start one step ahead and this would be the guide I'd want
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if I could go to the day I started med school
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so that I could start using these study methods from day one.
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Recording voice notes.
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This is the most underrating study method ever in my opinion but it's my favorite one.
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My auditory intelligence is a lot more dominant than my visual intelligence.
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I find it easier to learn and remember information through listening.
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I found that out through my own trialing and error
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and also I took an intelligence test when I was in primary school
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which my school offered to all their students at the time.
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That's why I do voice notes.
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These recordings include facts that comes up the most in questions
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and also sometimes if there is a rhyme or a silly story
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that helps me remember that information or learn that fact then I add those into the voice recordings as well.
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Here's a snippet of a recording I took last year.
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This was on oncology so cancer medicine.
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Breast cancer tumor marker, most important one
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that came up it's ca153 three looks like breasts pair of
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breasts basically i do these voice notes on my iphone on voice memos app
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and when i listen to it to save time i choose skip silence
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and i increase the playback speed to two times or four times
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and the biggest advantage to voice notes is
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that you can listen to it wherever and while you do other stuff
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so you don't have to focus on it and read like you would for visual notes.
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I usually listen to it when I do my skincare before I go to sleep
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or when I'm on the bus on my way to placement.
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It's actually extra helpful if you get car sick like me
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when you read stuff on the bus because with voice notes you don't have
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that issue it doesn't cause car sickness and you can listen to it when you exercise or wherever and whenever you want.
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It's amazing, it's my favourite one.
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Do you not buy textbooks?
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I know this might sound controversial and maybe you're used to using textbooks
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and highlighting them when you were at school
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while you were preparing for your A -levels or any university entrance exams
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but save your money on that because most medical schools
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and universities actually provide you a free library account in
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which there are electronic and physical versions of any medical book you would need and that is if you would need any.
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To be honest, I'm in my fourth year of medical school
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and I don't remember the last time I used my library account to look up something in a medical book.
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Most medics actually save their money on those textbooks and use it for their subscription of question banks, which have their own textbooks.
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Which also brings us to our next point.
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Subscribing to question banks.
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This depends on how your medical school tests your knowledge.
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So whether they do short answer exam questions or multiple choice exam questions, and most of the time, like 99 % of the time,
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that is multiple choice exam questions.
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I know that through my own experience from my own medical school, but also from my other friends who go to different medical schools.
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So for that reason, I've subscribed to two different question banks, which have their own online textbooks, which are PassMed and PassTest.
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For each of them, I paid £25 yearless subscription fee.
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There are also the question banks
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that I know some of my other medic friends use such
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as a popular one is Quizlet In the online textbooks of those question banks you find information about the diseases
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that you learn So everything starting from symptom of a disease to management of a disease
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And if you get a question wrong, they have the explanation of the answers just below the question as well
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Which is very helpful and what i'm going to say now is a cliche I know
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but it's true The more you do practice questions, the more you see different styles of questions It will stick better to your head
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and you'll actually learn to apply that medical knowledge into questions
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Because you might know a medical fact and if the question asks you
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that fact in a simple way You'd get it right medical school exams.
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They ask you that fact in such a weird way in questions It literally feels like a puzzle
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you don't even realize that's what they're asking.
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That's why it's important to get used to different styles of questions.
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For example, they usually give you a symptom of a disease
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and ask you to identify that disease through the symptoms and then ask you the management of that.
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So it's like double question in one.
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So they want straight away give you the disease and ask you the management of that.
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That's too simple.
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My next point is note taking is a waste of time but not voice notes.
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I don't use paper notebooks or take notes anymore.
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I've been there before.
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I literally made my own textbook which looked like a work of art
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but I realized once I stopped that and used that time to practice questions and focus on only high yield testable information,
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I scored a lot higher in exams because I had
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so much more time to focus on what I actually needed to focus.
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It can be scary at the start and you can get FOMO
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when you see your other medic friend having all that pages
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and pages of study notes but actually this is the most time effective decision I've ever made and I stand by that.
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I know it can feel tempting to write everything down and make it your own, make it pretty and I know it's a big change but I'd like to challenge you to stop writing your notes down,
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use that time to do practice questions and if you want to read notes, use notes that is already made for you, for example from the textbooks in question banks.
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Watching lectures can be useless.
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I usually don't watch lectures in medical school anymore guys because I don't find them super helpful.
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There were times that I would do pre -reading before lectures and go through the lecture content ahead of time.
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I did do that in the first two years of medical school but I don't do that anymore.
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There's no time to do that and I realise it's not worth my time anymore.
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I first started watching lecture recordings in two times speed
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and now I completely stopped watching them because with the time
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that I watch lecture recordings I can do practice questions
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and I realize lectures do not really help me increase my exam score.
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In the first two years of med school all I did was watching lectures over
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and over again and writing notes from the powerpoints
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and my scores weren't as good as it is right now
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because it just took so much time and in the end I realized it's just not worth that time.
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Sometimes but rarely they can be helpful.
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That is only for you to put the knowledge into concepts.
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For example if the teaching professor is talking about a patient
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that they treated themselves and how they did it then it sticks better with real -life stories.
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But you can make an information stick to your head by testing yourself as well.
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It's a quicker way to do it than watching an hour -long lecture
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but you know you be the judge of that yourself and see if it's a good use of your time.
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And finally the last point is anki cards, making anki cards.
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Guys I started recording this video at 7am in the morning and now it's half past one I think.
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Yeah it's half past one.
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If there are light changes and stuff in between clips you know why.
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So I said writing notes is a waste of time for me
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but making anki cards is an easy and effective way to write a sentence
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or two and make a question out of it.
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Usually how I make Anki cards is that I split my laptop screen into two, I have the Anki app on one side and PassMed on the other.
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To keep the Anki card to minimum I only make cards
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if I get a question wrong or on the most testable information to remember that I make a question out of it.
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Typically whichever block that we're in at med school at the time, for example let's say
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I would do questions specifically on pediatrics block on the question bank then I would make Anki cards simultaneously.
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I have a specific tag for each block like cardio, respiratory, urology as you can see on the screen.
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Then ideally I review cards every day so I don't have any do cards left by the end of the day.
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Obviously this has not been the case since I started my summer holidays
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but I'm hoping to catch up on all of them before the start of the next academic year
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and also organize my Anki cards as well.
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Some extra resources for you guys.
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There are usually links to videos about
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that disease on the side of the questions on Parsmed but
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if there isn't any then I go on YouTube
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and watch a video on it just to get a concept of that information and actually understand it.
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I especially like osmosis and xerotofinals just to supplement my understanding
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or I use electronic textbook of clinical medicine by Clark and Kumar.
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So I hope you found this useful.
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Please consider subscribing.
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I'd be so happy to have you here.
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Until next time, take care of yourself and I'll see you in the next one.
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Bye!
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Why This Video Is Perfect for English Speaking Practice
This video is a goldmine for English learners—its conversational tone, clear pacing, and real-world context make it ideal for shadowspeak (or shadow speak), a technique where you mimic a speaker’s rhythm and pronunciation. The speaker, Zeyha, uses everyday language mixed with specific terms, creating a natural flow that mirrors how native speakers talk. Plus, her personal anecdotes keep the dialogue relatable, so you’ll stay engaged while practicing.
Breaking Down Natural Speech Patterns
Let’s look at a few lines that showcase natural English:
- “I’d love to see a video about study tips and how you study in med school.” This uses a casual structure (“I’d love to see”) and connects ideas with “and,” which is common in spoken English. Notice how “how you study” is short and direct—no extra words!
- “It’s okay to change your study method and discover what works best for you.” The phrase “it’s okay to” is warm and encouraging, a great example of conversational empathy. The use of “and” to link actions (“change… and discover”) keeps the sentence flowing smoothly.
- “Do you not buy textbooks? I know this might sound controversial…” Starting with a question (“Do you not…”) and then addressing the listener’s possible reaction (“I know this might sound…”) creates a friendly, interactive tone—exactly how people chat in real life.
A Simple Shadowing Routine to Try
Ready to practice? Use this english speaking practice loop with the video:
- Watch a 30-second clip and listen closely to Zeyha’s pronunciation, stress, and pauses.
- Hit pause, then repeat the clip immediately, mimicking her tone and rhythm—this is shadow speak in action! Focus on matching her “uh”s and “um”s too—they make speech sound natural.
- Record yourself using a phone or shadowing app. Compare your recording to the original. Notice differences in vowel sounds (like “a” in “cancer”) or word stress (e.g., “ONcology” vs. “onCOLogy”).
- Repeat with a new clip, gradually increasing to 1 minute. Over time, you’ll start to internalize her natural flow, boosting your own pronunciation and fluency.
Remember, mistakes are part of learning—keep going, and you’ll see progress! This routine works because it trains your mouth and brain to work together, making English feel more intuitive.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have completed · I've subscribed · I've been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | banks, which have · friends who go |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are PassMed · is already made |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.