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I guess they figure if you rated something a 5, then you must absolutely know it cold. For instance the fact that epineurium covers the entire neurovascular bundle is not something that will leave me any time soon, even in 60-90 days. Perhaps they should change their discription of what makes a 5 to "you knew it without any effort and will remember it in 60 days without seeing it again."
SDN doesn't allow folks to post codes (they delete them and suspend the posters).
Yes, we offer all interested students a free 2-week free trial. We give our current members free 1-month trials that they can send to their friends so ask your friends and ask them to invite you to get a free 1-month trial. Or, you can simply go to one of these forums to see if people will send you a free 1-month trial. There are other great resources at these forums as well!
From the tGT website:
Now, if SDN suspends folks for doing what GT has asked, there's something screwed up here.
Let me repeat the question asked earlier -- will someone be willing to send us the code please? The promo code that's automatically filled in is for 2 weeks, not one month. Would someone be willing to share the one-month code?
Having just read this entire thread, I will try to very succinctly sum up what I've gathered about it. It doesn't seem to be a replacement for FA or UWorld, but is an adjunct to them. The purpose seems to be to keep the material you learn in class fresh, so you don't waste time learning stuff in class then forgetting it. While doing this, the repetitions lead to the material being committed to long-term memory. So it's kind of similar to reading and reviewing FA with class, but they also have questions to go with your reviewing.
This is probably true overall. In most sections I thought GT was doing a very good job of representing all the material FA had on the subject while adding a good amount of high yield points - but there are exceptions. I thought their neuro section was woefully inadequate (it only seemed to have about 1/3 the material of the FA neuro chapter). Some basic science sections, however (like micro) are awesome.
About how long does going through all of the cards/questions in GT take? Everyone says that is really time consuming and I am wondering how long it would take to get through if I put in about 2 hrs/day?
It all depends on how fast of a reader you are. I'm a pretty fast reader and on average i can get through 100 questions in an hour. And there are 6000 questions. Just start early and use it as to passively learn. Don't rely on it for more than 2 hours a day.
The reason why GT's neuro section looks terrible compared to the others is because it hasn't been majorly revised. When GT first started, all the sections were like that and it was a very cursory overview of FA. As months went on, sections get slowly updated (sometimes you have to rebank the questions/cards). I assume the Neuro section will get revised in the near future as well.
What happens when they revise stuff? Does it make you rebank the cards or at least let us know that stuff was updated? I've already gone over 97% of neuro, and I don't plan on going though all of it again (just reviewing stuff if I don't recall it).
Agree with what is being said about the wacky timing of the cards. This happens to me as well. If I use the "power analytics" graphs to check my progress, it looks like someone on meth drew the graphs. I think this is reflective of not only the program, but with what kind of mood I am in when I grade myself.
One way to circumvent (or at least reduce) this is to make sure you don't let the percentage of cards covered get too far away from your mastery. The going is very slow, but if you do this, the instances of WTF cards are more spaced out than if you get too overzealous. Also, if the program says "we recommend that you do questions, and stop banking cards", it is a good idea to heed their advice. At least this is what has worked for me thus far.
I was at ~ 11% mastery and 13% cards banked about a month ago, and after doing about 1.5 hours a night for the past month I am a little over 15% mastery and 17% banked. This is with finals for MS1 going on, and so right now I am in a holding pattern and just maintaining. Hopefully I can surge over the summer a bit.
Maybe if enough of us chime in, they will reformat things.
You spend hour and a half in this per day in addition to studying for your regular classes?
Yes, and here is how I find the time:
1. As a general rule, I don't go to lecture.
2. I attend a pass/fail school.
3. I set a threshold of performance on our exams. I made a deal with myself during first year that I would study outside material only as long as it didn't hurt my grades...well, my grades actually increased after using GT.
4. I immediately complete and turn in any extracurricular BS our school mandates we do; e.g. essays on our feelings or culture competency. I do that stuff ASAP and without thought.
5. I'm not doing Euler derivations or anything; most of it is raw memorization.
To be candid though, I am pretty intense with my studies. At least I am up front about it. Super industrious people that are in the closet need to kick rocks.
I think my school is probably an "easier" program compared to what I hear others going through (which frankly scares the crap out of me). So, I compensate. Sucks being me I guess.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but from what I understand about M1, the vast majority of stuff is extremely low yield for the USMLE (assuming a standardish cirriculum of anatomy, biochemistry, etc first year)....spending an extra 1.5 hours a day seems like a lot of extra hours to spend on stuff that's barely relevant? Second year stuff from what I hear is very high yield so it makes sense to me.
Ah. Immuno, path and pharm are all second year courses though (at least the traditional curriculums I looked at). But of course if you're a second year, it makes sense to use gt for that long. Approx. how much (per day) do you use gt the first year?
There really should be a way to "focus" on one section to "master" it 100% before other sections. This would've been useful during MSII classes, before the final for cardio, for ex.
I don't know what I'm complaining about tho', since I'm only going to be using it a few wks more lol.
Also, anyone know anything about the "new" GT that's supposedly in dev? I hear there might be a version for Step 2 ?! That would be sweet.
I've been trying to get through most of the first year material before school starts again at the end of July. Some of it is already done because I started GT last semester... however, there's still a lot of material left to go. I just finished biochem and I only have 3 more weeks of summer - still have pharm, half of micro and 4 or 5 systems to comb through.
How important do y'all think it is to finish up the first year material? Will I be kicking myself in a few months if I don't get through it? I'm trying to balance "plenty of time off" with "sufficiently prepared going into second year," which is especially hard since I'm doing research.
I do it every morning... calculate the number of flash cards you have to do- and just do it. try your best to focus while doing it but don't kick yourself over missing small points on the questions. Just try to learn from them, this is a long term retention tool and anything you miss will be shown again to you... over and over... until you do it get it.
The problem with adding stuff quickly isn't adding the material, its the massive accumulation of questions you get in your daily bank. I've been adding a lot this summer, and am averaging around 300 questions a day (not including new ones I add from cards).
here's what i don't get (and maybe i'm an idiot): i'm trying to use it to direct my studying. so today is biochem, so i'd like to do all the biochem cards and get them done first. but when you do the complete all questions for "biochem" option, it doesn't take that into account in your daily schedule. so pretty much i just did 100 review cards for no reason. very frustrating.
I don't know if this isn't possible or something, but it would be worth your while to update this in the next iteration. being able to focus the review questions each day before doing the other randoms would make it really marketable to those using FA in addition to this program. my two cents (again).
so im gonna start my second year in about a month.
i wanna start this up. I'll have to do about 12 cards/day until the year starts to be all caught up. will this be too much?
Depends on how well you retained stuff from first year. If you look at the cards and know essentially all the details, then 12 is easy. If you or your school glossed over details from the cards, then it will take more time. Still, 12 cards a day should be reasonable with 2-3 hours of time dedicated each day.
thx for the reply. ya i started it up. its cool and seems useful.
are you doing the lite more or comprehensive? im thinking comprehensive for now, but lite as soon as school starts
I'm really starting to like this program. I've only been doing all the physiology for the past week and reading BRS Physio along with it has been the perfect combo. FA has also been a great supplement.
I think Kaplan and Rx Qbanks have references to FA sections on each question. Would it be possible to do this with GT? I realize that this would be a time consuming request, but man would that be cool.
Check PMAny kind soul want to send me a 4 month trial code? I believe I read somewhere that you get a free month once it's redeemed too.
Consider it done.You should totally write to GT about this because they are very amendable to changing their program to better suit the needs of the students.
Any kind soul want to send me a 4 month trial code? I believe I read somewhere that you get a free month once it's redeemed too.
Any kind soul want to send me a 4 month trial code? I believe I read somewhere that you get a free month once it's redeemed too.
wow, there is a 4 month trial code?
Oh damn. It's for a 1 month trial, sorry. In my excitement at becoming one of the cool kids, I totally missed the fact that everyone was telling me there was a typo.I hope this is a typo. Is there really a FOUR month trial code? My one month code is about up; I would've loved to have had four months...
How does the free month thing work if someone signs up with the code you give them? Say one of my friends signs up for a GT account, thus giving me a free month, would I get a refund if I had signed up for a 10 month subscription? Does it only apply to the monthly recurring subscription? If so, that would suck, because it is more expensive to do month to month and I already know I will be using this program for almost a year...
I don't think I have the time to do the whole RR Biochem. I can't retain this subject to save my life.I only used GT and World for biochem and I felt very prepared for the questions that showed up on the exam. Goljan is pretty good, but if your issue is trying to memorize the tiny details I'd concentrate on GT. Although Goljan is well written, 5 minutes after you read the page you will probably forget half the names etc. Just my opinion
I don't think I have the time to do the whole RR Biochem. I can't retain this subject to save my life.
If the problem is retaining then I definitely recommend GT over RR biochem
I feel the boards are also much more about integration and application than learning rote facts. I guess its good for an initial refresher/exposure but I don't think its comprehensive Step prep.