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- Sep 26, 2010
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Hey guys,
As I just wrap up M1, I honestly give me 110% props to gunner training (an online FA in my opinion) and just digital prep in general...Call me crazy, but I've completely resorted to it as my prime source for Step 1 Prep. One premise I think should be accepted off the bat is that FA and GT don't teach the stuff (you do that in your courses), but most importantly when it comes down to it:
Major reason-
-> Step 1 is the biggest exam, implication-wise, that you'll take in med school, and i think it goes without saying long-term careful prep is helpful...it doesn't mean don't get hammered, not workout etc...it just means if you're shooting for a top specialty, then killing Step 1 merely requires work upfront. And I hear the chatter of "oh it'll all come back to you," but what if it doesn't and why take the risk.
-> The simple idea of incessantly quizzing of yourself (conveniently on your phone, laptop, ipad) with GT, rating questions, and hammering in essentially FA material consistently home helps you focus in on your weaknesses...such that by the time you're doing real Step 1 prep, it's pretty nice that you have an avenue to purely focus in on your weaknesses for review, while giving yourself a lot of time to hit up all the Qbanks down the road. You know the stuff well, give it a 5 and don't see the question in a month or two, if you don't know it, give it a 1 and see it in 2 days...it's plain simple.
Minor Reasons-
I think the minor reasons below help me just further support an venue of -active, -organized, and -integratie learning.
1.) Annotating First Aid sucks...there's too much to WRITE especially when there's a lot of omission and first aid can't teach; why not just TYPE, much easier, it in the notes section of GT. Sure it's a little box but there's not much to add since GT is relatively comprehensive already. And by typing, you can rapidly jot down your thought process, helping you learn it better.
2.) Gunner training encompasses literally MOST of FA AND has an anatomy section.
3.) Gunner training is VISUAL...If the picture is not there, you can reference, copy/paste links of path diseases, youtube clips, google image, etc...on the notes section. For example, how many of us referenced kaplan, shotgun histo, pathoma, or blue histo or webpath or other websites at times? While you absorb the words FA teaches, it's helpful to reference the VISUAL and teaching aspects of that knowledge. The notes option of essentially annotating a visual/interactive reference/link/video to TEACH you the stuff (since afterall, a major error that people make is memorizing and not really learning FA). It's sweet to type on the side "oh just look at this kaplan vid" as a note on the side if say im doing a qbank and forgot a concept and just load it up all on my comp. I think this is the best way for you to get the best of both worlds- the straight up memorizing aspect (what FA and GT emphasize) and the teach-yourself-all over in case you forgot (coursework in med school vs. GT + review vids/the entire internet).
==> For example, this is coming from someone who tried to use Micro Made simple and MicroCards for Micro...the knowledge of pure "words" and silly photos was awesome, but I simply did not know what these stains, morphology, agars, imaging, clinical manifestations, of all these bugs and diseases I was voraciously memorizing and reading about simply looked like or forgot. Medicine's not black and white, simply put. I think the time put memorizing and learning these visual black and white tidbits would've been better served actually learning what it really looks like-histologically, radiographically, etc...
The only disadvantage of GT is that you can't DRAW stuff, i.e. if a picture helps you remember something and the notes section may not be super fancy but I anticipate there will be upgrades down the road. Also, I'm not sure if how much strain it'll cause on your eyes.
This goes without saying, however, I do cross-reference FA with GT but its mostly to pick up on the mneumonics FA offers and stuff to add, but for the most part, I'm not adding much to GT. I'll also probably just integrate Pathoma with GT/ use Goljan auido + RR as a sole source, and maybe BRS phys, + an excel error log, but that's about it. I think, in general, when reviewing for the boards, it's good to have your set of "teaching tools"-DIT, kaplan, Goljan audio stuff on the side and the stuff you need to review- an annotated GT. It's honestly awesome just to have a shared resource on the touch of my phone, laptop, or ipad.
In general, it is super time consuming (and it is, so it's great to integrate it with your coursework) as I am annotating stuff from my microcards that both FA nor GT, but I think the hard work pays off provides a narrow, organized, consolidated, efficient approach so when you get to Step prep or even rotations and Step 2 (which contains a ton of Step 1 stuff), you're not hedging your bet on "peaking" or "stuff coming back to you" ...just my 2 cents.
As I just wrap up M1, I honestly give me 110% props to gunner training (an online FA in my opinion) and just digital prep in general...Call me crazy, but I've completely resorted to it as my prime source for Step 1 Prep. One premise I think should be accepted off the bat is that FA and GT don't teach the stuff (you do that in your courses), but most importantly when it comes down to it:
Major reason-
-> Step 1 is the biggest exam, implication-wise, that you'll take in med school, and i think it goes without saying long-term careful prep is helpful...it doesn't mean don't get hammered, not workout etc...it just means if you're shooting for a top specialty, then killing Step 1 merely requires work upfront. And I hear the chatter of "oh it'll all come back to you," but what if it doesn't and why take the risk.
-> The simple idea of incessantly quizzing of yourself (conveniently on your phone, laptop, ipad) with GT, rating questions, and hammering in essentially FA material consistently home helps you focus in on your weaknesses...such that by the time you're doing real Step 1 prep, it's pretty nice that you have an avenue to purely focus in on your weaknesses for review, while giving yourself a lot of time to hit up all the Qbanks down the road. You know the stuff well, give it a 5 and don't see the question in a month or two, if you don't know it, give it a 1 and see it in 2 days...it's plain simple.
Minor Reasons-
I think the minor reasons below help me just further support an venue of -active, -organized, and -integratie learning.
1.) Annotating First Aid sucks...there's too much to WRITE especially when there's a lot of omission and first aid can't teach; why not just TYPE, much easier, it in the notes section of GT. Sure it's a little box but there's not much to add since GT is relatively comprehensive already. And by typing, you can rapidly jot down your thought process, helping you learn it better.
2.) Gunner training encompasses literally MOST of FA AND has an anatomy section.
3.) Gunner training is VISUAL...If the picture is not there, you can reference, copy/paste links of path diseases, youtube clips, google image, etc...on the notes section. For example, how many of us referenced kaplan, shotgun histo, pathoma, or blue histo or webpath or other websites at times? While you absorb the words FA teaches, it's helpful to reference the VISUAL and teaching aspects of that knowledge. The notes option of essentially annotating a visual/interactive reference/link/video to TEACH you the stuff (since afterall, a major error that people make is memorizing and not really learning FA). It's sweet to type on the side "oh just look at this kaplan vid" as a note on the side if say im doing a qbank and forgot a concept and just load it up all on my comp. I think this is the best way for you to get the best of both worlds- the straight up memorizing aspect (what FA and GT emphasize) and the teach-yourself-all over in case you forgot (coursework in med school vs. GT + review vids/the entire internet).
==> For example, this is coming from someone who tried to use Micro Made simple and MicroCards for Micro...the knowledge of pure "words" and silly photos was awesome, but I simply did not know what these stains, morphology, agars, imaging, clinical manifestations, of all these bugs and diseases I was voraciously memorizing and reading about simply looked like or forgot. Medicine's not black and white, simply put. I think the time put memorizing and learning these visual black and white tidbits would've been better served actually learning what it really looks like-histologically, radiographically, etc...
The only disadvantage of GT is that you can't DRAW stuff, i.e. if a picture helps you remember something and the notes section may not be super fancy but I anticipate there will be upgrades down the road. Also, I'm not sure if how much strain it'll cause on your eyes.
This goes without saying, however, I do cross-reference FA with GT but its mostly to pick up on the mneumonics FA offers and stuff to add, but for the most part, I'm not adding much to GT. I'll also probably just integrate Pathoma with GT/ use Goljan auido + RR as a sole source, and maybe BRS phys, + an excel error log, but that's about it. I think, in general, when reviewing for the boards, it's good to have your set of "teaching tools"-DIT, kaplan, Goljan audio stuff on the side and the stuff you need to review- an annotated GT. It's honestly awesome just to have a shared resource on the touch of my phone, laptop, or ipad.
In general, it is super time consuming (and it is, so it's great to integrate it with your coursework) as I am annotating stuff from my microcards that both FA nor GT, but I think the hard work pays off provides a narrow, organized, consolidated, efficient approach so when you get to Step prep or even rotations and Step 2 (which contains a ton of Step 1 stuff), you're not hedging your bet on "peaking" or "stuff coming back to you" ...just my 2 cents.
