need anki help please

[futuredoc1297]

Hi all

I’m a current M2 and I’m planning on taking USMLE this June. During first year, I didn’t know how to use anki correctly (tried making my own cards, didn’t keep up, used custom study instead of the algorithm, etc.). At the start of M2 I started to do it correctly (kind of) - I did my cards every day and used Anking, but I stopped doing my cards after I took the exam.

Flash forward to now. I started up again about 2 weeks ago and I’m pretty much starting fresh. I wasn’t keeping up with last semesters cards like I should’ve, so I wound up suspending them. The problem now is that I’m 6 months out from STEP. I started going back and reviewing/unsuspending cards from first year. My goal was to watch videos and unsuspend the cards so that my May (start of dedicated) I’d have the entire deck unsuspended.

This is quickly becoming overwhelming. I have been doing over 1000 cards per day (probably 500ish reviews and 250ish new). Note: this is with also unsuspending and reviewing cards for my current semester - I’m basically doubling my workload by starting fresh on old stuff and current stuff. Each day, the reviews pile up. I have no idea if this is going to be sustainable or if I’ll be able to finish the deck in time for boards.

What do I do?!? I don’t want to stop anki completely because I can’t see myself remembering all of this without it. I’m getting really anxious and don’t know how to go about this.

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[iforget2]

A couple of my classmates had this issue as well last year. As you said, 250 new/day is unsustainable and will definitely be overwhelming after a month or two. It may be best to just pick and choose different cards you feel will be more HY than others and be okay with not finishing the entire deck. There are certain systems/topics that are more HY than others (Pathoma chapters 1-3 come to mind) and I remember different sdn/reddit discussions on which ones are more HY. In terms of logistics of actually doing anki, if you don't already have a remote you can search on amazon "vr remote" and it's like the $11.99 one. Having a remote was nice since you could be in a more relaxed position while doing cards and you're not glued to your keyboard all the time. I also found my speed increased as well when I started using one. Do your reviews in chunks and not all 1000 in one sitting and try to find pockets of time to do cards on your phone like waiting in line for food or walking from building to building, even if it's just 20-30 cards it'll really add up at the end of the day. The grind definitely sucks and I definitely don't miss those days lol but you'll look back after Step and be glad you worked as hard as you did.