BOTH Bros Anki Deck - I can't Decide what to do! Please help.

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surfguy84

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I've done plenty of searching and reading on here, and still can't decide how to proceed. I'm an M2, will be taking the exam mid-June. I started Bro's deck a few weeks ago going through the corresponding systems I have already covered.

I just don't know if I should keep plowing on with this. It's not too much work, but I just want to make sure it's going to help me. If I continue on with Bro's deck on the intervals Anki sets for me, should I see a real benefit when it comes time to hit the Qbanks (and eventually the real thing?)

I feel like I'm memorizing loads of discreet facts...which I'm sure is helpful, but I just don't know if it'll all come together when I hit actual questions. FWIW, I plan to start doing USMLERx questions late November, and starting UWORLD early spring semester. Anyone with experience able to comment on this?

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I've done plenty of searching and reading on here, and still can't decide how to proceed. I'm an M2, will be taking the exam mid-June. I started Bro's deck a few weeks ago going through the corresponding systems I have already covered.

I just don't know if I should keep plowing on with this. It's not too much work, but I just want to make sure it's going to help me. If I continue on with Bro's deck on the intervals Anki sets for me, should I see a real benefit when it comes time to hit the Qbanks (and eventually the real thing?)

I feel like I'm memorizing loads of discreet facts...which I'm sure is helpful, but I just don't know if it'll all come together when I hit actual questions. FWIW, I plan to start doing USMLERx questions late November, and starting UWORLD early spring semester. Anyone with experience able to comment on this?

Hey man, this is exactly what I did and it hurt me.
Please don't make the same mistakes I did.

Step 1 prep is very simple in strategy, but very difficult in execution. Always remember that.

All you need to do is start UWorld (NOT A WASTE) once your school starts Pathology Systems (assuming your curriculum is traditional normal abnormal). Do it concurrently with your systems and keep adding as each organ system gets taught making your exam more mixed as the year goes on. #spatialrepetition

Then, do Pathoma in conjunctions to lectures. Keep first aid in front of you during UWorld and school notes but don't make huge efforts to memorize stuff.

Other than that, you need to grind yourself as hard as possible against your school material. It's not easy and stop caring if you honor or not. Performing poorly on school work is not what screw students over. Abandoning school work to "focus on step" when they become discouraged is what screws over students. Don't be one of them. As long as you put in the effort in class, you're learning what you need.

Then come time for dedicated if you did Uworld 1x, you should be hitting 210s-260s (take a lower NBME, they're all the same predictive value but the lower ones are less representative of difficulty of the exam). Now you have 6-8 weeks to COMFORTABLY re-do UWorld and you'll easily get through 80 questions in 8 hours. Spend the other 4-8 (depending on your stamina) with first aid through reading it and WATCHING USMLE videos which dramatically improved in 2016 but if you like DIT, that also does a solid job lecturing first aid to you while making connections the book doesn't make. At this point First Aid/Videos will boost your score 10-60 points plus the UWorld repeat. You should finish UWorld at the end of the 4th week. Then spend more time finishing up watching the First Aid videos (DIT or express), re-stream Pathoma if you want, and then re-stream any weak areas of first aid. Do any hard areas of UWorld (for most people this is mixed Pathology of possibly biostats and repro) again.

This is probably the simplest, most chill, yet most effective method to guarantee you a 240 at the least.

Once you have your 250 in hand, you'll be eligible to pick anything you want to do for the next 30-50 years.
--------


Don't dick around with Rx, Brosephelon (everyone says it's awesome just because it's the only known complete set but his cards aren't truly made well and it takes a lot of time to get to something you don't know). First Aid, Secrets, Kaplan, after-school step prep, pre-made ANKI decks, Lange's flash cards, etc. The school period is way more important than dedicated.

Also don't worry if you feel like you're not retaining enough from UWorld on your first pass. Your job is to just answer the questions, read and understand the explanations, and keep moving...don't try to dictate all of UWorld into written or electronic notes and for the your sake, don't annotate into FA unless it's literally 4-5 words and it's screwed your over multiple times on UW. Huge time waste. Your notes are unreliable and I guarantee you won't read them again. The reinforcement will come in the spatial repetition UWorld offers by continually adding sections to your daily question routine.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
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Hey man, this is exactly what I did and it hurt me.
Please don't make the same mistakes I did.

Step 1 prep is very simple in strategy, but very difficult in execution. Always remember that.

All you need to do is start UWorld (NOT A WASTE) once your school starts Pathology Systems (assuming your curriculum is traditional normal abnormal). Do it concurrently with your systems and keep adding as each organ system gets taught making your exam more mixed as the year goes on. #spatialrepetition

Then, do Pathoma in conjunctions to lectures. Keep first aid in front of you during UWorld and school notes but don't make huge efforts to memorize stuff.

Other than that, you need to grind yourself as hard as possible against your school material. It's not easy and stop caring if you honor or not. Performing poorly on school work is not what screw students over. Abandoning school work to "focus on step" when they become discouraged is what screws over students. Don't be one of them. As long as you put in the effort in class, you're learning what you need.

Then come time for dedicated if you did Uworld 1x, you should be hitting 210s-260s (take a lower NBME, they're all the same predictive value but the lower ones are less representative of difficulty of the exam). Now you have 6-8 weeks to COMFORTABLY re-do UWorld and you'll easily get through 80 questions in 8 hours. Spend the other 4-8 (depending on your stamina) with first aid through reading it and WATCHING USMLE videos which dramatically improved in 2016 but if you like DIT, that also does a solid job lecturing first aid to you while making connections the book doesn't make. At this point First Aid/Videos will boost your score 10-60 points plus the UWorld repeat. You should finish UWorld at the end of the 4th week. Then spend more time finishing up watching the First Aid videos (DIT or express), re-stream Pathoma if you want, and then re-stream any weak areas of first aid. Do any hard areas of UWorld (for most people this is mixed Pathology of possibly biostats and repro) again.

This is probably the simplest, most chill, yet most effective method to guarantee you a 240 at the least.

Once you have your 250 in hand, you'll be eligible to pick anything you want to do for the next 30-50 years.
--------


Don't dick around with Rx, Brosephelon (everyone says it's awesome just because it's the only known complete set but his cards aren't truly made well and it takes a lot of time to get to something you don't know). First Aid, Secrets, Kaplan, after-school step prep, pre-made ANKI decks, Lange's flash cards, etc. The school period is way more important than dedicated.

Also don't worry if you feel like you're not retaining enough from UWorld on your first pass. Your job is to just answer the questions, read and understand the explanations, and keep moving...don't try to dictate all of UWorld into written or electronic notes and for the your sake, don't annotate into FA unless it's literally 4-5 words and it's screwed your over multiple times on UW. Huge time waste. Your notes are unreliable and I guarantee you won't read them again. The reinforcement will come in the spatial repetition UWorld offers by continually adding sections to your daily question routine.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Thanks a ton for your reply. I have to admit, I'm now completely stuck and unsure what to do. I've put about a month into the Bros deck and I do feel like I'm retaining good amounts of info. I started with cardio and respiratory and I can flip through these sections of FA and feel like I know pretty much everything there.

FWIW, anki and flashcards in general are what have helped me do so well in my first 1+ years of school. We started systems first semester of first year and I've definitely made staying on top of that coursework a priority - I'm sitting around top 25% right now. That said, do you think I'm wasting my time if I keep trucking on the Bros deck? I absolutely plan to do UWORLD once before dedicated. Based on what you said, maybe I'll skip Rx and just start doing UWORLD end of November and really hit it hard over winter break and into spring. I just thought I might get more benefit out of it if I essentially had FA memorized before doing so. Any additional thoughts with this in mind?
 
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Just to throw in a different opinion. Can't thank Bro enough, where ever he is. I started off studying with Firecracker but found it to be to much. I was sold on the idea of spaced repetition learning. I looked around and found Bros deck. I believe its some 15,000 cards in total if i recall. I went through most of them in about 9 months. By the end most old cards had very large intervals (1-3 months) and i didn't see the purpose anymore but i had already done its magic. Bros deck (especially if you can find the edited decks) is very valuable tool in learning FA and Pathoma. It will definitely help with questions, really any source learned seriously will. My best time spent during prep was definitely Bros´ deck and UWorld.
 
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I used Bros cards during my 7 week dedicated study time and I found it to be super helpful.

I am not a note taker, so I basically would breeze through a chapter of FA just to get my brain going and then do all the bros card for that chapter. I changed my intervals so that my easy option put cards at like 10 wks. When I came across a card that was poorly worded, or I knew cold already, i would easy it.

Also, I would do a whole section in a half day (like all the Cardio cards) but then leave it until I did a second pass at that chapter.

Overall, I think it was a big part of my success (+270 Step 1) and would definitely recommend it
 
I used Bros cards during my 7 week dedicated study time and I found it to be super helpful.

I am not a note taker, so I basically would breeze through a chapter of FA just to get my brain going and then do all the bros card for that chapter. I changed my intervals so that my easy option put cards at like 10 wks. When I came across a card that was poorly worded, or I knew cold already, i would easy it.

Also, I would do a whole section in a half day (like all the Cardio cards) but then leave it until I did a second pass at that chapter.

Overall, I think it was a big part of my success (+270 Step 1) and would definitely recommend it

+270 :whoa:
 

Sorry for the casual drop :) But I really think the bros cards were super helpful. Started each study day doing 100-200 Microbio, biochem, Path, and Immuno cards so I drilled those chapters hard, then basically did the FA chapters as I went.

Didnt find a lot of the Pathoma decks all that useful, but I did those as well
 
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Sorry for the casual drop :) But I really think the bros cards were super helpful. Started each study day doing 100-200 Microbio, biochem, Path, and Immuno cards so I drilled those chapters hard, then basically did the FA chapters as I went.

Didnt find a lot of the Pathoma decks all that useful, but I did those as well

Congrats on an excellent score! Very well done. I can only dream of achieving such a high score :) Did you also complete all 3 qbanks?
 
Congrats on an excellent score! Very well done. I can only dream of achieving such a high score :) Did you also complete all 3 qbanks?

I went hard on UWorld, did 2 full passes through. Made a fresh Anki card for every question I missed and reviewed those every afternoon. Did about 200 USMLERx, but think those are pretty low yield
 
I went hard on UWorld, did 2 full passes through. Made a fresh Anki card for every question I missed and reviewed those every afternoon. Did about 200 USMLERx, but think those are pretty low yield

I am trying to give anki a shot, but I'm an MS2 and have a while a to go before i take step. The biggest thing deterring me is the review cards piling up with bros deck. Did you change the interval or use different "ease" percentages when using his decks. If so, let a sista know which percentages used. Tbh i'm thinking about changing the easy interval to like 10 weeks or something.
 
I can't recommend Bro's deck enough.
Yes, you're mostly learning random facts, but if you follow along with Pathoma (maybe sketchy for micro) and use google for whatever does not make sense to you, you should be okay.

I'm very good at procrastinating, so creating a habit of doing flash cards daily (hard rules make it harder for me to talk myself out of them) was a life saver. Also, having a kind of daily "learning minimum" meant that I got some quality studying in every day, even if I didn't have time for anything else.

I used Rx and UW to integrate the factoids I already knew from anki cards during/just before my dedicated period, which worked really well for me.
 
it keeps you in line. For me i did 100-300 new cards a day and whatever i had to review. I incorporated picmonic and sketchy in each thing and other pictures . so far its working well .
 
I used Bros cards during my 7 week dedicated study time and I found it to be super helpful.

I am not a note taker, so I basically would breeze through a chapter of FA just to get my brain going and then do all the bros card for that chapter. I changed my intervals so that my easy option put cards at like 10 wks. When I came across a card that was poorly worded, or I knew cold already, i would easy it.

Also, I would do a whole section in a half day (like all the Cardio cards) but then leave it until I did a second pass at that chapter.

Overall, I think it was a big part of my success (+270 Step 1) and would definitely recommend it
What resources did you use? Thanks in advance
 
it keeps you in line. For me i did 100-300 new cards a day and whatever i had to review. I incorporated picmonic and sketchy in each thing and other pictures . so far its working well .


How long did it normally take for all those cards?
 
Does anyone know how to adjust the review interval in anki card? Some of my cards has 1 min, 15 days, and 3.5 months... but, I like to have the interval to be 10 min, 1 day, and 10 days.... How do I change the setting. Easy instruction will be very appreciated since I am very new in using anki in ipad?
 
Does anyone know how to adjust the review interval in anki card? Some of my cards has 1 min, 15 days, and 3.5 months... but, I like to have the interval to be 10 min, 1 day, and 10 days.... How do I change the setting. Easy instruction will be very appreciated since I am very new in using anki in ipad?

Go to Settings (Top right gear icon) ---> Review ---> Scheduling , that should do it
 
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