Gunner Training?

[hope2bpaindoc]

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[dontFREToverit]

my own experience, just to add to this collection of info for potential users:
I started August 1st, and am currently 87.1% complete, 48.9% mastery. I have been adding 4-5 cards per day for a long time now, since I have determined that to be my 'steady state' - any faster and I'll have too many daily Q's, any slower and I won't finish when I want to finish (early April). I have between 220-260 questions per day. I'm not certain exactly how long that takes, since I often do it during mandatory small group sessions, but I would estimate 2.5 hours. My test is in mid June, and I feel that once I have finished banking, I will have more than sufficient foundation of content knowledge to do nothing but q-banks for the 8-10 weeks leading up to the test. The time I have put into GT has restricted me from doing any q banks, so I am hoping to do Uworld 2x, Kaplan 1x, and Rx 1x in that time. My school has classes until early May, but I have used pathoma, RR, and GT to teach myself the last two blocks so that I can use that time solely for Q-banks. I feel GT has been excellent for retention of facts. I would strongly recommend adding cards slowly if you are starting as a first year.

 

[ThrusH]

Basically, thoroughly learn all the material as you go, then let it go until the final 6-10 weeks. Then, you would quickly review all the details and do lots of questions for each subject area. The focus on learning would not be memorizing, as much as learning it so well that when you review it, it can be picked up very rapidly.

If you really learn the material thoroughly the first time through, GT is designed to keep it fresh, and readily accessible. By rating cards 4-5 and seeing them every few months, you are emphasizing the main idea behind GT - spaced training. The more you see it, the better it gets cemented, and the less maintenance required.

I think the true flaw of GT, which I didn't really notice until now, is that it requires you to memorize material way too far in advance. Being able to recite every enzyme in the glycolytic pathway isn't necessary 1 year before the exam day.

Again, while knowing all of the enzymes of the glycolytic pathway may not be necessary to have constantly available a year before the exam, it's the fact that you are perpetually seeing the information and recalling as much as you can about glycolysis. What you miss you read quickly on the back of the card and move on. When it comes down to crunch time, you'll spend far less time relearning the information. I assume for people who have been doing GT throughout MS1/2 know the information better than if they were just relearning it for the 'first' time since biochemistry during MS1.

I've banked 100% of the cards and I don't spend longer than 1 hour on GT per day for my maintenance review schedule quizzes. .... It's absurd to think that the minimum amount of time for a 100% bank-er would be 3+ hours. If it takes you that long, you're thinking too hard about the cards and you need to be ranking them at 1's or 2's so you see them more frequently and get faster at remembering.

I'm not sure if this has been posted or not, but GT is based on SuperMemo. Decreasing the amount of time spent has a lot to do with rating the cards properly. As far as rating goes, SuperMemo states:
REMEMBERING
Bright (press 5), excellent response
Good (press 4), correct response provided with some hesitation
Pass (press 3), answer recalled with difficulty; perhaps, slightly incorrect
FORGETTING
Fail (press 2), wrong response that makes you say I knew it!
Bad (press 1), wrong response; the correct answer seems to be familiar
Null (press 0), complete blackout; you do not even recall ever knowing the answer

While we don't have access to the 0, I think it's still important to realize that cards should be rated higher than what you'd expect. I believe that you shouldn't bank a card if you do not understand it. This would cut down on the number of 1s and 2s, and lead to more effective review. I have a piece of paper next to my laptop where I write down topics I need to lookup after my daily review. This helps me avoid spending too much time with my daily quiz. For people getting 300+ cards a day, I'm assuming they have frequently rated the cards too low.

Also, a big part of the SuperMemo philosophy is that under no circumstances should you need to spend more than 30 seconds on a card. Long response times call for review of information. The original program had a cutoff built in at 30 seconds per card.

I feel like GT has been more effective for me since I've started rating cards more appropriately, and blazing through them. Hopefully this is on track with some of the MS2s who have been using GT along with their coursework and have 60%+ banked.

 

[JackShephard MD]

I think I was misusing GT.

Before I would work at 50-80 Q's an hour, I would:

-look up every answer I wasn't 100% clear on
-find images when GT didn't have them
-try to answer perfectly (like being able to perfectly recall entire lists)
-rarely rate above a 3 and always rate 2's even if I was 90% correct

I was treating GT Q's like I would study for a med school exam.

After everyone's recommendation, I tried today and successfully worked at a pace of around 130-150 Q's/hr and also instead of looking up information on iffy cards, I am keeping a list of cards to review on weekends or less busy days. Also, I using the 4 rating a little more liberally now. My new focus is much like the advice in the Penn Method's 1st pass, "don't try to memorize, just try to understand the concepts." I admittedly was beginning to be overwhelmed by trying to add cards on top of 2+ hrs of daily Q's and only ~20% banked, which made me doubt the long-term feasibility of the program at 80%+ banked.

This new pace allows me 300 Q's a day in < 2 hours, which I should never exceed(?) even at 80-90%+ banked. I always like GT and I'm glad I raised somewhat of a storm, because the advice on this thread has helped me become more efficiently.

 

[loveoforganic]

I'm going to try and stick with GT.

I figure if I can bank 50-70% before the start of M2, combined with working closer to 120Q's/hr, then I can possibly keep review to less than 2 hours per day, which was my only major issue with the program.

Thanks everyone for the tips.

How exactly are you thinking its feasible to bank 70% before MSII? You're planning on prestudying that much material?

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

A good chunk of the basic sciences can probably be banked in MS1. I don't know if it is 70%, but something approaching 50% or so sounds pretty reasonable. Some of the organ system subject areas have quite a bit of anatomy and physiology as well.

 

[lrkoehle]

How exactly are you thinking its feasible to bank 70% before MSII? You're planning on prestudying that much material?

Depends on his school's curriculum. I estimated that my school covered ~2/3 of GT in the first year (e.g. neuro, MSK, cardio, respiratory, renal, general pathology stuff, a good chunk of GI, derm, etc.). The biggest block we've had in MS-II was probably our I & I block (immunity and infection), but otherwise we finished up GI & endocrine and did a block called "life cycles" (reproductive and some developmental, but not really embryo because we covered the corresponding embryology throughout the other blocks). If I had been more efficient over the summer I could've been way ahead of the game. Hell, I could've banked all of MS-I and probably just done micro too, because that is just straight up memorization that doesn't take much conceptualization to grasp.

I frankly think GT can serve as a good "teacher" for a lot of the crap we have to memorize (which is the vast majority of med school IMO), so I see no reason why JSMD couldn't bank upwards of 70% of GT by the start of MS-II depending on his school's curriculum.

 

[hrain]

yeah, agreed, my program will definitely have finished at least around ~60-70% by the end of M1. We have an in depth basic sciences portion that essentially covers all of the Basic Sciences portion for most of the year and then finish up with Neuro+Psych and Cardio before the summer. If I had the efficiency to bank all the basic sciences during summer (I'm doing cardio and neuro with my modules), that would be baller....but I know I don't haha. too bad!

 

[lrkoehle]

I think I was misusing GT.

Before I would work at 50-80 Q's an hour, I would:

-look up every answer I wasn't 100% clear on
-find images when GT didn't have them
-try to answer perfectly (like being able to perfectly recall entire lists)
-rarely rate above a 3 and always rate 2's even if I was 90% correct

I was treating GT Q's like I would study for a med school exam.

After everyone's recommendation, I tried today and successfully worked at a pace of around 130-150 Q's/hr and also instead of looking up information on iffy cards, I am keeping a list of cards to review on weekends or less busy days. Also, I using the 4 rating a little more liberally now. My new focus is much like the advice in the Penn Method's 1st pass, "don't try to memorize, just try to understand the concepts." I admittedly was beginning to be overwhelmed by trying to add cards on top of 2+ hrs of daily Q's and only ~20% banked, which made me doubt the long-term feasibility of the program at 80%+ banked.

This new pace allows me 300 Q's a day in < 2 hours, which I should never exceed(?) even at 80-90%+ banked. I always like GT and I'm glad I raised somewhat of a storm, because the advice on this thread has helped me become more efficiently.

I'm glad to see the new tweaks to your approach are helping. One thing you said above kind of stuck out to me was not approaching GT like you would cramming minutiae before an exam. That is a good idea, and also not ANSWERING questions like you would on an exam. No reason to slowly and meticulously think about the answer to a question, just do your best and if you don't get it, mark it a 1 and you'll see it again.

It was great you brought up some of the points you did, because it seemed to help me with my GT too. I had an anomaly happen where somehow it seems many of my banked questions coincidentally got dumped onto today, so I had 444 questions for today. I managed to bust that out in 2 hours and 9 minutes. It was unreal. Now onto banking more cards...

 

[Alvarez13]

I think I was misusing GT.

Before I would work at 50-80 Q's an hour, I would:

-look up every answer I wasn't 100% clear on
-find images when GT didn't have them
-try to answer perfectly (like being able to perfectly recall entire lists)
-rarely rate above a 3 and always rate 2's even if I was 90% correct

I was treating GT Q's like I would study for a med school exam.

After everyone's recommendation, I tried today and successfully worked at a pace of around 130-150 Q's/hr and also instead of looking up information on iffy cards, I am keeping a list of cards to review on weekends or less busy days. Also, I using the 4 rating a little more liberally now. My new focus is much like the advice in the Penn Method's 1st pass, "don't try to memorize, just try to understand the concepts." I admittedly was beginning to be overwhelmed by trying to add cards on top of 2+ hrs of daily Q's and only ~20% banked, which made me doubt the long-term feasibility of the program at 80%+ banked.

This new pace allows me 300 Q's a day in < 2 hours, which I should never exceed(?) even at 80-90%+ banked. I always like GT and I'm glad I raised somewhat of a storm, because the advice on this thread has helped me become more efficiently.

I've been feeling similar after reading this last series of posts. I tend to use the built in wiki/medscape links on each card constantly and am always google imaging for pictures. My rate has been around 80/hr and makes for long GT sessions.

Decided to try going through faster yesterday and today. Set a 30 min timer on my phone and tried the 1 questions < 30 sec approach. Got 63 questions/30 min on the first try and 68 questions/30 min on the 2nd try. I'm digging having a time limit that I'm trying to beat, a goal. I don't think I can do 2 hrs straight like this to knock out 240 questions, but I can break it up though the day. 30 min GT session, break, lecture, GT, etc.

Also tried the GT workout routine yesterday. Do 10 reps of whatever weight, knock out 5-10 questions, more lifting, more questions, etc. I ended up getting like 60 questions done and am actually starting to look more like my future ortho self. Extrapolate this out 10 years and I'll be breaking bones and throwing up the FUSEDCARS/MUDPILERS list all over the place

 

[JackShephard MD]

444 questions for today. I managed to bust that out in 2 hours and 9 minutes. It was unreal. Now onto banking more cards...

That's pretty impressive. I think using the program faster at first, until you are at the final stretch (~3-4 months) is probably the best for those that have more than 1 year to use the program. I've definitely improved my efficiency by consolidating all the advice here.

I've been feeling similar after reading this last series of posts. I tend to use the built in wiki/medscape links on each card constantly and am always google imaging for pictures. My rate has been around 80/hr and makes for long GT sessions.

Decided to try going through faster yesterday and today. Set a 30 min timer on my phone and tried the 1 questions < 30 sec approach. Got 63 questions/30 min on the first try and 68 questions/30 min on the 2nd try. I'm digging having a time limit that I'm trying to beat, a goal. I don't think I can do 2 hrs straight like this to knock out 240 questions, but I can break it up though the day. 30 min GT session, break, lecture, GT, etc.

Also tried the GT workout routine yesterday. Do 10 reps of whatever weight, knock out 5-10 questions, more lifting, more questions, etc. I ended up getting like 60 questions done and am actually starting to look more like my future ortho self. Extrapolate this out 10 years and I'll be breaking bones and throwing up the FUSEDCARS/MUDPILERS list all over the place

Interesting idea, the GT workout.

 

[secants]

I wish they had a anki like mobile version where you just touch your phones screen to get the answer and tap to rate. This makes running and doing cards so much easier. Two birds with one stone!

So if my exam is say three months out and I'm only 55% banked, do you think I should make banking more of a priority instead of spending most of my time with the daily reviews? Also has GT made a way to see which new cards they keep adding without going through all the systems manually/subjects manually?

 

[hqt331]

Having finished the bulk of my MS1 material (biochem, physio, anatomy, embryo), I'm thinking of starting up GT. But sometimes I feel like I'll want a slow paced review of old things, since I felt like I had to race through them during classes, ie take the time to read through Lippincott's or BRS Physio carefully. Does GT leave any time for you guys (at least other MS1s) to look through other resources?

 

[Bernoull]

hahaha thanks Bernoull & lrkoehle! It was a little anti-climactic to hit 100% because that same day they added some new cards and I had to go back and re-hit 100%

I'm taking the exam in June. Slow and steady hopefully wins the race? When are you guys taking the test? Hope to see you guys at 100% too

I wish they had a anki like mobile version where you just touch your phones screen to get the answer and tap to rate. This makes running and doing cards so much easier. Two birds with one stone!

So if my exam is say three months out and I'm only 55% banked, do you think I should make banking more of a priority instead of spending most of my time with the daily reviews? Also has GT made a way to see which new cards they keep adding without going through all the systems manually/subjects manually?

I also have similar thoughts, I'm at 54% and ~ 3mos out just like you. I really want to finish by mid April, this way I can cycle thru the cards a few times and reach a manageable steady-state during dedicated study time.

Spring break's next week for me and I have a lull of 1 month b4 my next school exam (courtesy of spring break). My plan, which is admittedly uber, duper crazy , is to bank 20 cards/day throughout this week and during springbreak, bump it up to 40cards/day (i'm willing to spend ~6-8hrs/day on GT, alone, during my break). So the idea is to go through primary sources (pathoma, brs books etc) and then bank the associated GT cards (~40cards/day); a secondary goal is then clear as much of my daily Qs as possible.

On a side note, the recent discussion on this thread has been quite serendipitous, I too have been approaching review Qs like exam questions, reasoning through Qs and wasting time. I'm now going through Qs in "rapid fire mode" and I'm averaging ~180Qs/hr!! This new approach should help me clear a good portion of my daily reviews, which will increase exponentially in the coming days/weeks.

If I follow through, I should clear 453 cards in 2 weeks eek:..gasps for air) and be ~97% completed. At that point the main battle, will be clearing review Qs and I'm pretty sure I'll have to use the "clear calendar fn" a bunch of times. After my break I can sacrifice and put in ~ 4hrs/day just clearing Qs until things are back to manageable levels (<300Qs/day, hopefully by mid-April). After that I'll resume Qbanks and just do GT maintenance...

I'll be the first to admit that this is quite ambitious but even if I fall short, I will still make a big dent into GT ("Aim For The Stars, Even If You Miss, You'll Land on The Moon" type thing)..

what do you guys think?

 

[lrkoehle]

I also have similar thoughts, I'm at 54% and ~ 3mos out just like you. I really want to finish by mid April, this way I can cycle thru the cards a few times and reach a manageable steady-state during dedicated study time.

Spring break's next week for me and I have a lull of 1 month b4 my next school exam (courtesy of spring break). My plan, which is admittedly uber, duper crazy , is to bank 20 cards/day throughout this week and during springbreak, bump it up to 40cards/day (i'm willing to spend ~6-8hrs/day on GT, alone, during my break). So the idea is to go through primary sources (pathoma, brs books etc) and then bank the associated GT cards (~40cards/day); a secondary goal is then clear as much of my daily Qs as possible.

On a side note, the recent discussion on this thread has been quite serendipitous, I too have been approaching review Qs like exam questions, reasoning through Qs and wasting time. I'm now going through Qs in "rapid fire mode" and I'm averaging ~180Qs/hr!! This new approach should help me clear a good portion of my daily reviews, which will increase exponentially in the coming days/weeks.

If I follow through, I should clear 453 cards in 2 weeks eek:..gasps for air) and be ~97% completed. At that point the main battle, will be clearing review Qs and I'm pretty sure I'll have to use the "clear calendar fn" a bunch of times. After my break I can sacrifice and put in ~ 4hrs/day just clearing Qs until things are back to manageable levels (<300Qs/day, hopefully by mid-April). After that I'll resume Qbanks and just do GT maintenance...

I'll be the first to admit that this is quite ambitious but even if I fall short, I will still make a big dent into GT ("Aim For The Stars, Even If You Miss, You'll Land on The Moon" type thing)..

what do you guys think?

I like that approach, and it mirrors what I am planning on doing (although my spring break is actually this week). Banking a boatload of cards quickly makes for a **** ton of daily questions, so maybe on the days you are banking upwards of 40 cards you should try to stick to the topics you are stronger in. That way on your initial pass you can rate more things as 4, which I think means you won't see it for 9 days. I'm actually just getting around to banking cardio pharmacology, which should be easy for me so that should be a quick 9-10 cards gone. Once I get to like endocrine pathology though, I anticipate moving at a snails pace.

453 cards in 2 weeks would be a great. I hope I can get somewhere near that. I figure powering through now and getting things banked quickly will give me more time throughout April to just focus on doing daily questions and solidifying my weak areas.

Now back to my marathon GT session...

 

[Bernoull]

I like that approach, and it mirrors what I am planning on doing (although my spring break is actually this week). Banking a boatload of cards quickly makes for a **** ton of daily questions, so maybe on the days you are banking upwards of 40 cards you should try to stick to the topics you are stronger in. That way on your initial pass you can rate more things as 4, which I think means you won't see it for 9 days. I'm actually just getting around to banking cardio pharmacology, which should be easy for me so that should be a quick 9-10 cards gone. Once I get to like endocrine pathology though, I anticipate moving at a snails pace.

453 cards in 2 weeks would be a great. I hope I can get somewhere near that. I figure powering through now and getting things banked quickly will give me more time throughout April to just focus on doing daily questions and solidifying my weak areas.

Now back to my marathon GT session...

Great to hear that I'm not the only crazy one around here

I also think going through primary sources first, especially on weaker topics, will help my recall. It goes both ways too, being quizzed on what I've read will definitely improve retention in the long haul... But it's gonna be brutal... On the bright side, I won't have school interfering with my GT education

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

Wow 40 cards/day. The best I've done is 25/day, and those are on post-exam dates when I am freed up to bank with impunity.

 

[loveoforganic]

Interesting. Seems weird to me that such a large percent of GT is 1st year, when the bulk of step 1 is 2nd year material.

Do you all redo the questions you score 1s and 2s on like GT recommends, or do you uncheck that and just let them pop back up when they do?

 

[tima]

How long does it take to go through UW a second time for quick review? 2-3 weeks?

 

[Alvarez13]

How long does it take to go through UW a second time for quick review? 2-3 weeks?

Nice avatar.

 

[couldabeenadoc]

Nice avatar.

 

[lrkoehle]

Interesting. Seems weird to me that such a large percent of GT is 1st year, when the bulk of step 1 is 2nd year material.

Do you all redo the questions you score 1s and 2s on like GT recommends, or do you uncheck that and just let them pop back up when they do?

I've never agreed with the traditional mantra on here that MS-I is only a small portion of step-I and that the vast majority of information comes from MS-II. Obviously I am a bit biased, given that I come from a school with a non-traditional curriculum (i.e. organ system based so in MS-I we cover ALL topics related to cario, neuro, renal, etc, etc and don't see it again in MS-II), but it seems like it would be stupid for schools to just back load the didactic years with everything important in MS-II. It seems even the traditional schools start covering pathology of certain organ systems at the end of MS-I (see JackShephardMD's post on the previous page where he mentions this at his school). It just seems like the idea that "MS-II covers what matters for step-I, not MS-I" has been repeated so much on SDN that it has become widely regarded as truth, even in light of changing med school curricula. Anyways, I may be wrong about this, but I don't care. The only thing I cared about was n=1, where that sample size of 1 was my school and we had covered a lot of very important stuff in MS-I, so starting step-I review earlier made sense.

As for redoing questions I scored a 1 or 2 on, I only did that a few times in the beginning. I figure if it really is a 1 or 2 I will see it soon enough again anyways. For me, repetition over time seems to work better than repetition back to back to back.

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

I like letting 1's and 2's rotate back around on a later date as well. No point in doing the set again when I've just read the explanations and still have everything in short-term memory.

 

[loveoforganic]

I've never agreed with the traditional mantra on here that MS-I is only a small portion of step-I and that the vast majority of information comes from MS-II. Obviously I am a bit biased, given that I come from a school with a non-traditional curriculum (i.e. organ system based so in MS-I we cover ALL topics related to cario, neuro, renal, etc, etc and don't see it again in MS-II), but it seems like it would be stupid for schools to just back load the didactic years with everything important in MS-II. It seems even the traditional schools start covering pathology of certain organ systems at the end of MS-I (see JackShephardMD's post on the previous page where he mentions this at his school). It just seems like the idea that "MS-II covers what matters for step-I, not MS-I" has been repeated so much on SDN that it has become widely regarded as truth, even in light of changing med school curricula. Anyways, I may be wrong about this, but I don't care. The only thing I cared about was n=1, where that sample size of 1 was my school and we had covered a lot of very important stuff in MS-I, so starting step-I review earlier made sense.

As for redoing questions I scored a 1 or 2 on, I only did that a few times in the beginning. I figure if it really is a 1 or 2 I will see it soon enough again anyways. For me, repetition over time seems to work better than repetition back to back to back.

Thanks for the opinion. I'm in a traditional curriculum, and we definitely cover some pathology, but I'm not going to touch those sections in GT til 2nd year. Think I'll try to knock out physio/embryo/neuro/anatomy this summer and tack on micro if I can. In looking at that though, it does seem to be a very large portion of the cards, even without micro. I guess I'll see where I end up at the end of the summer.

I'm going to stop repeating the 1s and 2s as well - they just take so long on "Name these 10 things" cards. Would rather get it wrong for 5x than stare at it for 15 minutes one day. Really hurts the rhythm. Thanks!

 

[JackShephard MD]

Thanks for the opinion. I'm in a traditional curriculum, and we definitely cover some pathology, but I'm not going to touch those sections in GT til 2nd year. Think I'll try to knock out physio/embryo/neuro/anatomy this summer and tack on micro if I can. In looking at that though, it does seem to be a very large portion of the cards, even without micro. I guess I'll see where I end up at the end of the summer.

I'm going to stop repeating the 1s and 2s as well - they just take so long on "Name these 10 things" cards. Would rather get it wrong for 5x than stare at it for 15 minutes one day. Really hurts the rhythm. Thanks!

The courses you've mentioned would cover at least 50%+ (add biochem/embryo/behavioral science/micro). We touched over path, pharm and micro through our PBL curriculum also. I think we will be 50-60% coverage after M1.

I don't repeat 1's and 2's.

 

[lrkoehle]

Thanks for the opinion. I'm in a traditional curriculum, and we definitely cover some pathology, but I'm not going to touch those sections in GT til 2nd year. Think I'll try to knock out physio/embryo/neuro/anatomy this summer and tack on micro if I can. In looking at that though, it does seem to be a very large portion of the cards, even without micro. I guess I'll see where I end up at the end of the summer.

I'm going to stop repeating the 1s and 2s as well - they just take so long on "Name these 10 things" cards. Would rather get it wrong for 5x than stare at it for 15 minutes one day. Really hurts the rhythm. Thanks!

Sounds like a good plan. Sorry for going on a little bit of a rant earlier.

 

[loveoforganic]

The courses you've mentioned would cover at least 50%+ (add biochem/embryo/behavioral science/micro). We touched over path, pharm and micro through our PBL curriculum also. I think we will be 50-60% coverage after M1.

I don't repeat 1's and 2's.

Woops, yes, tack on biochem for me as well. That's actually very good, I was worried about being able to keep up with banking over second year, but if that much gets knocked out early on, it should definitely be possible

Edit: And rants are fine, lol

 

[tima]

Please.

How long does it take to go through UW a second time for quick review? 2-3 weeks?

 

[lrkoehle]

Please.

How long does it take to go through UW a second time for quick review? 2-3 weeks?

Depends on a number of things. Are you re-doing all of UW, or just the questions you marked? How many hours per day are you willing to work on it? Since this is your second time through, are you planing on spending more or less time reviewing the questions you missed? Are you doing anything other studying during this time, or just UW (since you asked this in the GT thread, can I assume you're trying to do GT with it too?)? How long has it been since you did your first pass of UW?

Anyways, it's up to you. There is like 2000-2500 questions in UW IIRC, so if you 250 questions/day you could theoretically finish all of it in less than 10 days. Then again, that's a **** ton of questions/reviewing per day, unless you're a machine. That brings up another question, are you a robot? JK, but I'm sure you can tell we need A LOT more information than just knowing you want to do UW for a second time before we can really help you determine how long it may take you to re-do it. All that said, I do feel like I've seen people say the second pass of UW goes quicker, so 2-3 weeks doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility; however, I, like most people in this thread, am not taking Step-I until summer and have not completed a first pass of UW, let alone a second pass, so I don't exactly have personal experience with this.

Also, glad to see you were able to re-size your avatar. I don't think you had any chance of getting your question answered with that giant thing...I didn't even realize you had posted a question.

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

Shouldn't take very long at all on your second run through -- a month at max, assuming you do about two sets of 46q's a day. Plenty of time to do your regular routine on the side. On the other hand, if you did nothing but review UW all day, I think it wouldn't last more than a week.

 

[Gunneria]

Hey guys,

I read almost the entire thread here just to gauge what everyone here thinks about GT and how to use it. I signed up for the GT program and like it. I think there are several doubts on my mind which are still yet hard to dismiss mostly because of conventional wisdom of how to study for Step 1 based on my siblings experience, my med school superiors, and what the forums have advocated over the years of Step 1. This being of course using a popular method (Tau's or Penn's) which in some way or another involves having the core set of books (annotated FA, RR Path Goljan w/audio lectures OR/and Pathoma, BRS phys + the big 3 QBanks-uworld,rx, kaplan). The annotated FA from other books alone is something that takes time (annotated with High Yield Embryo and High Yield Anatomy and Rapid Review Biochem) while perhaps watching Doctors in Training (DIT).

Basically, there's so much out there and its been bit unnerving as I design an appropriate gameplan long term (I'm only a first year) for how I want to tackle this beast. Planning for Step 1 (I realize its early) has called to evaluate my habits and commitments until the actual exam with the goal of being relatively sane and balanced. This is in light of when people say "oh just enjoy summer and relax"...but the sad fact of matter is, I forget stuff and things take time for me to have it second nature (i.e.- I'm worried I may have to reopen a Lippincott to relearn biochem in spite of doing well for my exams). So this is where I feel GT works for me and keeps me regimented daily...

In light of this lengthy post, what are your thoughts about GT VERSUS all the conventional ways of prepping for the USMLE. I mentioned a ton of successful ways/books/videos above that so many 240+ scorers have used to study for Step I. I know its hard to find a wrong path or course but I think my values are now solely focus on Step 1 (all i wanna do is just pass my courses without worrying about half of the non-board testable material) but I also want to know what works if you use GT without being swamped with so many resources.

Personally for me, I don't like having so many books (I'd rather read one condensed, annotated thing a bazillion times then different books) and would ultimately just like to do First Aid, BRS phys, + Pathoma and/or Goljan + GT (which will I assume be continuously done up until the completion of 2nd year). But there is so much time in the day and we have to be practical so I guess for 2nd years and even 1st years who use GT, how do you integrate/disintegrate (or not use) these other widely used and reputed sources along with GT when you are dealing with everyone's major general goal of "high retetion and comprehension with concision"?

 

[JackShephard MD]

You use the other sources less but you can consult them whenever.

I've had the same feelings as you and I determined I'd rather have everything in my long term memory ideally 6 months before the exam, followed by a lot of qbanks. I think focusing on using all the right books is only natural but it's the wrong approach. From what I understand, First Aid has everything in it and I trust GT to cover most if not all of FA.

The plan dontFREToverit had sounded interesting: 100% banked by January then 2x UW, 1 Kaplan, 1 Rx. I don't know exactly what I'll do, but I've noticed that I'm starting to form a better base of medical knowledge/understanding with GT and that's great (i.e. it's not only to help you for Step 1).

Cramming it all in the last few months works for a lot of people though, so I think you can find success no matter what path you chose. I read this post and though it was great when I was trying to decide what to do:http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=8819063&postcount=6

 

[Anamnesis]

Hey guys,

I read almost the entire thread here just to gauge what everyone here thinks about GT and how to use it. I signed up for the GT program and like it. I think there are several doubts on my mind which are still yet hard to dismiss mostly because of conventional wisdom of how to study for Step 1 based on my siblings experience, my med school superiors, and what the forums have advocated over the years of Step 1. This being of course using a popular method (Tau's or Penn's) which in some way or another involves having the core set of books (annotated FA, RR Path Goljan w/audio lectures OR/and Pathoma, BRS phys + the big 3 QBanks-uworld,rx, kaplan). The annotated FA from other books alone is something that takes time (annotated with High Yield Embryo and High Yield Anatomy and Rapid Review Biochem) while perhaps watching Doctors in Training (DIT).

Basically, there's so much out there and its been bit unnerving as I design an appropriate gameplan long term (I'm only a first year) for how I want to tackle this beast. Planning for Step 1 (I realize its early) has called to evaluate my habits and commitments until the actual exam with the goal of being relatively sane and balanced. This is in light of when people say "oh just enjoy summer and relax"...but the sad fact of matter is, I forget stuff and things take time for me to have it second nature (i.e.- I'm worried I may have to reopen a Lippincott to relearn biochem in spite of doing well for my exams). So this is where I feel GT works for me and keeps me regimented daily...

In light of this lengthy post, what are your thoughts about GT VERSUS all the conventional ways of prepping for the USMLE. I mentioned a ton of successful ways/books/videos above that so many 240+ scorers have used to study for Step I. I know its hard to find a wrong path or course but I think my values are now solely focus on Step 1 (all i wanna do is just pass my courses without worrying about half of the non-board testable material) but I also want to know what works if you use GT without being swamped with so many resources.

Personally for me, I don't like having so many books (I'd rather read one condensed, annotated thing a bazillion times then different books) and would ultimately just like to do First Aid, BRS phys, + Pathoma and/or Goljan + GT (which will I assume be continuously done up until the completion of 2nd year). But there is so much time in the day and we have to be practical so I guess for 2nd years and even 1st years who use GT, how do you integrate/disintegrate (or not use) these other widely used and reputed sources along with GT when you are dealing with everyone's major general goal of "high retetion and comprehension with concision"?

If you are in your first year, I suggest not using Gunner Training at all because you have plenty of time to make your own resources and input it in much cheaper software that will serve you better in the long run. The main benefit of GT is that it saves you the time of making your own cards.

GT is based on spaced repetition, and the grand daddy software using that is SuperMemo. Most people don't use it because the user interface sucks and has quite a few kinks.

GT; however, doesn't follow best practices with its flashcards, making it imo more inefficient in the long run: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm

Creating your own cards, using FA, Pathoma, etc...is more beneficial in the long run because you can construct the cards better than what is used in Gunner Training.

The software I'd recommend is either Anki or FullRecall.
Anki is free and FullRecall is $35.

Anki because it is free has more users and a larger community; however, I think the FullRecall because it uses an artificial neural network has the best algorithm for modeling your learning patterns. I also find it faster to enter cards into FullRecall.
Both let you add images/sound and support unicode; however, only Anki lets you use LaTeX. Both can be synced across different computers and android phones.

 

[CielloStelatto]

If you are in your first year, I suggest not using Gunner Training at all because you have plenty of time to make your own resources and input it in much cheaper software that will serve you better in the long run. The main benefit of GT is that it saves you the time of making your own cards.

GT is based on spaced repetition, and the grand daddy software using that is SuperMemo. Most people don't use it because the user interface sucks and has quite a few kinks.

GT; however, doesn't follow best practices with its flashcards, making it imo more inefficient in the long run: http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm

Creating your own cards, using FA, Pathoma, etc...is more beneficial in the long run because you can construct the cards better than what is used in Gunner Training.

The software I'd recommend is either Anki or FullRecall.
Anki is free and FullRecall is $35.

Anki because it is free has more users and a larger community; however, I think the FullRecall because it uses an artificial neural network has the best algorithm for modeling your learning patterns. I also find it faster to enter cards into FullRecall.
Both let you add images/sound and support unicode; however, only Anki lets you use LaTeX. Both can be synced across different computers and android phones.

I don't know about everyone else, but I sure as heck have better things to do than essentially re-write all of FA into a modified question bank format. If you have the time/energy/patience to do that, then more power to you, I suppose. But if someone is finishing up first year now, they'd have to spend the summer making cards from all of first year, right? Maybe that would work if you've been a flash card go-to kind of person all along and do it with every exam for all your classes; at least it would be more spread out that way.

Also, if you're capable of making a vastly improved flash card set that follows all those rules n stuff and doesn't miss any high yield information, you should totally just market it, or sell it back to GT or something. No use having every medical student try to do this themselves!

 

[lrkoehle]

I don't know about everyone else, but I sure as heck have better things to do than essentially re-write all of FA into a modified question bank format. If you have the time/energy/patience to do that, then more power to you, I suppose. But if someone is finishing up first year now, they'd have to spend the summer making cards from all of first year, right? Maybe that would work if you've been a flash card go-to kind of person all along and do it with every exam for all your classes; at least it would be more spread out that way.

Also, if you're capable of making a vastly improved flash card set that follows all those rules n stuff and doesn't miss any high yield information, you should totally just market it, or sell it back to GT or something. No use having every medical student try to do this themselves!

100% agree. I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a pencil than make a bunch of flash cards over everything on Step-I.

 

[Chirurg]

100% agree. I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a pencil than make a bunch of flash cards over everything on Step-I.

lol, agree.
I rather pay GT 250$ to do the cards for me. It would take me far more than 100 hours to do that many questions and I value my time higher than 2$/hour.

 

[Bernoull]

I don't know about everyone else, but I sure as heck have better things to do than essentially re-write all of FA into a modified question bank format. If you have the time/energy/patience to do that, then more power to you, I suppose. But if someone is finishing up first year now, they'd have to spend the summer making cards from all of first year, right? Maybe that would work if you've been a flash card go-to kind of person all along and do it with every exam for all your classes; at least it would be more spread out that way.

Also, if you're capable of making a vastly improved flash card set that follows all those rules n stuff and doesn't miss any high yield information, you should totally just market it, or sell it back to GT or something. No use having every medical student try to do this themselves!

100% agree. I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a pencil than make a bunch of flash cards over everything on Step-I.

lol, agree.
I rather pay GT 250$ to do the cards for me. It would take me far more than 100 hours to do that many questions and I value my time higher than 2$/hour.

this.
this
&
this.

why re-invent the wheel? Also, there's no reason to believe that u can make a better one!

 

[lrkoehle]

this.
this
&
this.

why re-invent the wheel? Also, there's no reason to believe that u can make a better one!

Most importantly, no reason to believe you can make a better program by YOURSELF. GT wasn't just some lone wolf gunner sitting around making cards, it was built by a team of people coming together to integrate information from a wide variety of sources (a wider variety of sources than any one of us has time to go through and put into a program).

Also, there is over 6000 questions, so if you do write a question a minute into your own program, you are looking at 100 hours (as the above poster stated). I'd say that's an underestimate though when you consider looking up the information in different sources, writing it into a question, then writing the answer out, and saving it. Anyways, even if it only took 50 hours to complete, my time is still more valuable than that. Plus, this way I get the GT support team and whatever updates/improvements they come up with along the way.

Plus, GT has this super cool thread with super cool people here on SDN...

 

[Gunneria]

Ok im going to assume that guys post about making ur own cards was sarcasm...anyways, i was wondering what is the most efficient way to use GT if u wanna spend only an hour or two a day on it?

I mean is it half hour review half hour quizzing....1 day reviewing, 1 day quizzing? Additionally what is the most efficient way of rating yourself if you only want to see the questions once a week?

 

[Alvarez13]

this.
this
&
this.

why re-invent the wheel? Also, there's no reason to believe that u can make a better one!

This.

 

[Hippocrates33]

Hey guys,

So first of all, the advice on this thread has been super helpful and I was hoping to tap into your collective wisdom.

So I have just a little under three months to go. I love GT but have been trouble keeping up and am not using it as religiously as I want to. I am only ~35% banked with 15% mastered. Realistically, I'm not anticipating being able to get through all of it. I was shooting for 70% or so. I am shooting for 250+.

So here are my questions:

1. At this point in the game, do you think that it's still beneficial to start devoting more time to GT?
2. If so, what's a realistic goal of mastery / how much time would you recommend devoting to it?
3. Do you recommend using GT as a tool to get through FA / RR or just blitz through the questions?
4. As I move into dedicated step time, at what point should I stop using GT and focus on my primary sources (FA, RR, etc)

Thanks in advance!

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

Ok im going to assume that guys post about making ur own cards was sarcasm...anyways, i was wondering what is the most efficient way to use GT if u wanna spend only an hour or two a day on it?

I mean is it half hour review half hour quizzing....1 day reviewing, 1 day quizzing? Additionally what is the most efficient way of rating yourself if you only want to see the questions once a week?

I like splitting my time straight down the middle -- half for adding new cards and doing the quiz questions, then half for doing the review questions. I'll do review questions for an hour, switch to banking new cards and doing the quiz for an hour, then switch back to reviewing questions if I have more time. Works well -- you just have to keep yourself on a set schedule and you'll have no problems with pacing. My target is usually 6 new cards/hr during the banking hour, or 100-150 review questions/hr during the review hour. If you want to use half-hour increments, I imagine it'd work well also.

Hey guys,

So first of all, the advice on this thread has been super helpful and I was hoping to tap into your collective wisdom.

So I have just a little under three months to go. I love GT but have been trouble keeping up and am not using it as religiously as I want to. I am only ~35% banked with 15% mastered. Realistically, I'm not anticipating being able to get through all of it. I was shooting for 70% or so. I am shooting for 250+.

So here are my questions:

1. At this point in the game, do you think that it's still beneficial to start devoting more time to GT?
2. If so, what's a realistic goal of mastery / how much time would you recommend devoting to it?
3. Do you recommend using GT as a tool to get through FA / RR or just blitz through the questions?
4. As I move into dedicated step time, at what point should I stop using GT and focus on my primary sources (FA, RR, etc)

Thanks in advance!

Three months out isn't too late to shoot for 100% completion, but you'll have to gun like a rockstar -- 2 hours banking, 2 hours reviewing will get you to 100% in two months from where you are now. How badly do you want it?

I'm using FA/RR as auxiliaries to GT rather than the other way around, so I can't comment about when would be a good time to switch. I think it'd be better to just stick to one (FA/RR or GT) -- switching back and forth is a lot of wasteful duplicated effort, and they all serve essentially the same purpose anyway. Establish one "base" of info as your primary source, assimilate/annotate sources that make up for its blind spots, then stick to your guns and make sure you learn it cold.

 

[Hippocrates33]

Three months out isn't too late to shoot for 100% completion, but you'll have to gun like a rockstar -- 2 hours banking, 2 hours reviewing will get you to 100% in two months from where you are now. How badly do you want it?

I'm using FA/RR as auxiliaries to GT rather than the other way around, so I can't comment about when would be a good time to switch. I think it'd be better to just stick to one (FA/RR or GT) -- switching back and forth is a lot of wasteful duplicated effort, and they all serve essentially the same purpose anyway. Establish one "base" of info as your primary source, assimilate/annotate sources that make up for its blind spots, then stick to your guns and make sure you learn it cold.

Thanks for the perspective! So I've annotated RR and FA a decent amount from questions etc so those will remain my primary source. When you said stick to my guns, does that mean just do FA/RR (ie forgo GT) or still do GT but try not to read along with the books and blitz through it as an independent effort?

I'm not chasing 100% mastery. Respect to the people who did (and who came close) but I don't think I have that much time to devote to it.

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

Thanks for the perspective! So I've annotated RR and FA a decent amount from questions etc so those will remain my primary source. When you said stick to my guns, does that mean just do FA/RR (ie forgo GT) or still do GT but try not to read along with the books and blitz through it as an independent effort?

I'm not chasing 100% mastery. Respect to the people who did (and who came close) but I don't think I have that much time to devote to it.

There are probably different views out there about this but I like to have everything in one place for the sake of efficiency -- if you're set on using FA as the primary source, then stick to that and drop GT. FA's blind spots can be adequately covered with BRS Physio, BRS Path, and CMMRS, so it's crucial that you annotate those in as soon as possible. I've voiced my opinion earlier in the thread that there's no such thing as "reading FA" -- make sure to use something like USMLE Rx, and use it frequently to self-assess your knowledge. Use it religiously day in and day out, because trust me -- you'll start to forget stuff that you've reviewed even as recently as a few days ago. The coverage won't be watertight (because FA/Rx are blind to whatever you annotate in from BRS/CMMRS) so also make sure to devote one to two hours per day to reviewing your annotations (in the same spirit as GT's review questions). BRS review questions are far too simple (you could probably answer them without even reviewing) -- skip them, or you'll get a false sense of security. Last but not least, check out the FA 2012 errata thread. With that, you should be set. As usual , Kaplan and UW are a must. 250 is a high score. There really is no shortcut, but keep your eyes on the prize and you can do it. Good luck.

Edit:
Important: don't skimp on biochemistry and anatomy, or you'll miss a ton of questions. Maybe okay for 230, but not so for 250. Not sure what texts you would use to supplement FA with in this case though -- perhaps somebody else can comment.

 

[Hippocrates33]

There are probably different views out there about this but I like to have everything in one place for the sake of efficiency -- if you're set on using FA as the primary source, then stick to that and drop GT. FA's blind spots can be adequately covered with BRS Physio, BRS Path, and CMMRS, so it's crucial that you annotate those in as soon as possible. I've voiced my opinion earlier in the thread that there's no such thing as "reading FA" -- make sure to use something like USMLE Rx, and use it frequently to self-assess your knowledge. Use it religiously day in and day out, because trust me -- you'll start to forget stuff that you've reviewed even as recently as a few days ago. The coverage won't be watertight (because FA/Rx are blind to whatever you annotate in from BRS/CMMRS) so also make sure to devote one to two hours per day to reviewing your annotations (in the same spirit as GT's review questions). BRS review questions are far too simple (you could probably answer them without even reviewing) -- skip them, or you'll get a false sense of security. Last but not least, check out the FA 2012 errata thread. With that, you should be set. As usual , Kaplan and UW are a must. 250 is a high score. There really is no shortcut, but keep your eyes on the prize and you can do it. Good luck.

Edit:
Important: don't skimp on biochemistry and anatomy, or you'll miss a ton of questions. Maybe okay for 230, but not so for 250. Not sure what texts you would use to supplement FA with in this case though -- perhaps somebody else can comment.

So I've done most of my annotating in FA and Rapid Review Path and hopefully will be done with that in the next few weeks so I can start dedicated studying and qbanks.

I completely agree with you about "reading first aid". There are too many details that are easy to gloss over, which is why GT has been helpful because it actively forces you to appreciate those finer points. What are your thoughts about reading FA and RR and then using GT to quiz myself to make sure I'm learning the material (And then reading over my notes). Or is that not practical and will Rx be more feasible time-wise?

Re. your comment about biochem and anatomy, I've been using RR Biochem and picked up Roadmap Anatomy from the library. Seems like a quick read and has a lot of clinical correlations (I used RR Anatomy to study for the NBME last year and I really liked it. It's written by Moore but it may be too much for the Step)

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

So I've done most of my annotating in FA and Rapid Review Path and hopefully will be done with that in the next few weeks so I can start dedicated studying and qbanks.

I completely agree with you about "reading first aid". There are too many details that are easy to gloss over, which is why GT has been helpful because it actively forces you to appreciate those finer points. What are your thoughts about reading FA and RR and then using GT to quiz myself to make sure I'm learning the material (And then reading over my notes). Or is that not practical and will Rx be more feasible time-wise?

Re. your comment about biochem and anatomy, I've been using RR Biochem and picked up Roadmap Anatomy from the library. Seems like a quick read and has a lot of clinical correlations (I used RR Anatomy to study for the NBME last year and I really liked it. It's written by Moore but it may be too much for the Step)

I guess the best thing about Rx is that it follows FA closely and references it in the answers, which is very convenient because you're using FA as your primary source. It will definitely be more feasible time-wise. GT follows FA very closely as well, but also integrates quite a bit of RR/BRS/HY, which will be annoying because this makes for a content mismatch between primary source and assessment questions.

However if you wish, there probably is a way to integrate GT into FA. As you go through the quiz questions for newly banked cards, if you see something new and decide it is something you want to remember, you can then annotate it into FA. As you go through the questions, mark the questions as perfect recall so that they will never show up again. This spares you from having to do the daily maintenance review problems. Of course, the onus is then on you to actually spend the time to sit down and do the reviewing of your annotations daily.

 

[Hippocrates33]

I guess the best thing about Rx is that it follows FA closely and references it in the answers, which is very convenient because you're using FA as your primary source. It will definitely be more feasible time-wise. GT follows FA very closely as well, but also integrates quite a bit of RR/BRS/HY, which will be annoying because this makes for a content mismatch between primary source and assessment questions.

However if you wish, there probably is a way to integrate GT into FA. As you go through the quiz questions for newly banked cards, if you see something new and decide it is something you want to remember, you can then annotate it into FA. As you go through the questions, mark the questions as perfect recall so that they will never show up again. This spares you from having to do the daily maintenance review problems. Of course, the onus is then on you to actually spend the time to sit down and do the reviewing of your annotations daily.

I think I'll have to test Rx out to see if it will get me through all the material. GT was at least very helpful in that regard.

Maybe the best thing to do is to reset my banked questions, read a section, do those quiz questions at the end of the day to make sure I retained what I learned and then move on. And not stress too much on the review.

Can I ask what your approach is so far? Are you planning on tackling FA and RR later? which should ideally go quicker because your starting baseline is much higher.

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

My plan relies a lot on getting through and finishing GT by the end of the month. I'm artificially keeping my question ratings low to make the topics come around more frequently (ratings mostly 3's, rarely 4's) -- the downside (or perhaps the best part, in retrospect) is that I get riddled (pimped?) with 300-600 questions a day. GT takes up a large chunk of my allotted Step studying time -- 6 hours or so each day. However, I expect this number to drop to 3 hours when I am 100% banked (because I no longer have to bank new cards, which currently takes up half the time I spend on GT), and to drop off over time to a steady state of one or two hours as the mastery % increases. The 3+ hours that are freed up from banking will allow me to resume UW and Kaplan -- so those last three months will be GT+UW+Kaplan. This plan affords plenty of time for that 100% GT to really solidify, and mixes content study and qbanks in a good 50/50 ratio. Should also allow for second rounds of UW and Kaplan.

I plan to subscribe for USMLE Rx sometime towards the end of this month (when GT nears completion) and integrate it into the schedule -- two 46 question sets each day (once in the morning before class, and once sometime before bed). Again, for three months. Rx will be my only tour of FA. I started out by both doing GT and annotating FA -- after a while, I found GT to be much more effective and stopped using FA altogether. At best FA/RR will be used as references when needed, but I won't be blocking off time to sit down and read them -- I find it impossible to retain anything that way (and I'm not really sure how it would fit into the schedule anyway). That's about it. I don't really plan on using anything else. I listen to Goljan audio when I'm out on campus/subway/workouts, but I don't know if that really counts. NBME's come online in the last month when the end is near, and then it's off to the games.

 

[Bernoull]

Wow 40 cards/day. The best I've done is 25/day, and those are on post-exam dates when I am freed up to bank with impunity.

My plan relies a lot on getting through and finishing GT by the end of the month. I'm artificially keeping my question ratings low to make the topics come around more frequently (ratings mostly 3's, rarely 4's) -- the downside (or perhaps the best part, in retrospect) is that I get riddled (pimped?) with 300-600 questions a day. GT takes up a large chunk of my allotted Step studying time -- 6 hours or so each day. However, I expect this number to drop to 3 hours when I am 100% banked (because I no longer have to bank new cards, which currently takes up half the time I spend on GT), and to drop off over time to a steady state of one or two hours as the mastery % increases. The 3+ hours that are freed up from banking will allow me to resume UW and Kaplan -- so those last three months will be GT+UW+Kaplan. This plan affords plenty of time for that 100% GT to really solidify, and mixes content study and qbanks in a good 50/50 ratio. Should also allow for second rounds of UW and Kaplan.

I plan to subscribe for USMLE Rx sometime towards the end of this month (when GT nears completion) and integrate it into the schedule -- two 46 question sets each day (once in the morning before class, and once sometime before bed). Again, for three months. Rx will be my only tour of FA. I started out by both doing GT and annotating FA -- after a while, I found GT to be much more effective and stopped using FA altogether. At best FA/RR will be used as references when needed, but I won't be blocking off time to sit down and read them -- I find it impossible to retain anything that way (and I'm not really sure how it would fit into the schedule anyway). That's about it. I don't really plan on using anything else. I listen to Goljan audio when I'm out on campus/subway/workouts, but I don't know if that really counts. NBME's come online in the last month when the end is near, and then it's off to the games.

Just saw ur post from earlier, yeah 40 cards/day is crazy no doubt, but I figure it's better to slug thru it now (over spring break) with no exams or lectures getting in the way. Today's my first day with this game plan, I banked 20 cards in the morning in between readings and I'll bank another 20 b4 going to bed. I'll keep u guys posted tho..

How far along are u with GT? I'm also aiming to finish by March/early April (latest).

Regarding annotation, someone mentioned annotating GT into one's brain , which is so true; afterall that's the whole point of GT, keep hammering things til they stick.

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

53% banked. Funny that you bring up the last post -- I posted it a few days after one of my midblock exams, and had been doing 25/day for a couple days then. Soon after posting, I thought to myself -- what the hell, may as well continue with it. It's been over a week now -- if I can keep this pace, I'll finish before the month is out. Only major obstacle between now and the finish line at month's end is one block final -- in about a week or so. I might accelerate a bit after that, and see if I can bring this thing in ahead of schedule.

Let us know how 40/day goes!

 

[Hippocrates33]

My plan relies a lot on getting through and finishing GT by the end of the month. I'm artificially keeping my question ratings low to make the topics come around more frequently (ratings mostly 3's, rarely 4's) -- the downside (or perhaps the best part, in retrospect) is that I get riddled (pimped?) with 300-600 questions a day. GT takes up a large chunk of my allotted Step studying time -- 6 hours or so each day. However, I expect this number to drop to 3 hours when I am 100% banked (because I no longer have to bank new cards, which currently takes up half the time I spend on GT), and to drop off over time to a steady state of one or two hours as the mastery % increases. The 3+ hours that are freed up from banking will allow me to resume UW and Kaplan -- so those last three months will be GT+UW+Kaplan. This plan affords plenty of time for that 100% GT to really solidify, and mixes content study and qbanks in a good 50/50 ratio. Should also allow for second rounds of UW and Kaplan.

I plan to subscribe for USMLE Rx sometime towards the end of this month (when GT nears completion) and integrate it into the schedule -- two 46 question sets each day (once in the morning before class, and once sometime before bed). Again, for three months. Rx will be my only tour of FA. I started out by both doing GT and annotating FA -- after a while, I found GT to be much more effective and stopped using FA altogether. At best FA/RR will be used as references when needed, but I won't be blocking off time to sit down and read them -- I find it impossible to retain anything that way (and I'm not really sure how it would fit into the schedule anyway). That's about it. I don't really plan on using anything else. I listen to Goljan audio when I'm out on campus/subway/workouts, but I don't know if that really counts. NBME's come online in the last month when the end is near, and then it's off to the games.

Wow. that's definitely intense and more power to you! It makes sense too, I think I'm avoiding the actual act of sitting down and reading FA cover to cover and GT is an outstanding alternative.

I'll let you know if I find a middle ground that works. Thanks for all your help!