2016 - Do people still like DIT?

[jack.jaret]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Microbiology: A few years ago, it was all about Clinical Microbiology Made Simple. Now everyone recommends Sketchy or Picmonic.
Pathology: A few years ago, everyone recommended Goljan. Now more people recommend Pathoma.

Resources change over time. I see a lot of threads form a few years ago recommending DIT. Is it still useful, or are there better ways to use your time? Thank you for your help 🙂

 

[Pacna]

I don't know any M2s who uses DIT. Though my PI keeps trying to give me like 34gigs of DIT videos... It's probably a very good resource. Just gotta pick 1 review book (FA), QBank, and 2-3 big resources (sketchy, pathoma, gol, kap, DIT, etc). No time for additional shiot.

 

[jack.jaret]

I completely agree. I'm using UWorld, Pathoma, FA, and Sketchy. Wasn't sure if I wanted to add in DIT. My dedicated study time begins in a few weeks so I'm trying to finalize my sources rather than having to figure that out once dedicated study time comes.

 

[Donald Juan]

I'm not sure if DIT was ever highly recommended. It's a huge time sink, very expensive, mostly passive learning, and from what I saw on the videos 2-3 years ago it was a lot of a guy telling you facts to know for step and saying mnemonics that you can find in first aid, not really teaching things conceptually like pathoma.

 

[sliceofbread136]

I watched it prior to my dedicated, and IMO it is not something worth starting in your dedicated study time. It is much quicker to just go through FA.

 

[deleted158872]

DIT is like reading FA to you. very simplified, very short. for review purpose only.

 

[ortnakas]

I'm using DIT. I find the videos helpful. Some are just an overview of the highlights, but some do a great job of explaining the concepts (the brain stem primer videos were particularly clutch), and even in the ones that are more of a highlights reel, I've caught things in the videos that I would have missed on my own.

UFAP should definitely be the base of any boards study plan, but I was worried I'd miss things just going through it completely on my own, so if you're like me and want one "guided pass" it might be useful, but I get that it's not for everybody.

 

[metopic]

Nobody who does well goes through the whole DIT course during dedicated. It's passive learning. Maybe earlier on, if that's your learning style, but not late in the process. Questions, questions, more questions, first aid, and when you are tired at the end of the day pathoma.

 

[tantacles]

Nobody who does well goes through the whole DIT course during dedicated. It's passive learning. Maybe earlier on, if that's your learning style, but not late in the process. Questions, questions, more questions, first aid, and when you are tired at the end of the day pathoma.

Well, I can't say nobody, but I certainly followed this pattern. Did DIT to get myself through first aid and annotate my first pass through it before my dedicated time, but for dedicated time, I really only did Uworld, FA, and Pathoma. I occasionally brought out a couple of the DIT videos for sections of FA that were difficult for me, like parasites.

 

[ortnakas]

Nobody who does well goes through the whole DIT course during dedicated. It's passive learning. Maybe earlier on, if that's your learning style, but not late in the process. Questions, questions, more questions, first aid, and when you are tired at the end of the day pathoma.

Chicken or egg, though? Admittedly, I'm a pretty average student. I think students who are struggling or just less confident are more likely to use a program like DIT than A-students who were more likely to do well with or without it.

I absolutely agree with you about the importance of questions. That can't be replaced with anything.

 

[jqueb29]

With unlimited time, DIT may be helpful. But time is obviously a huge constraint. If you're going to add another source, it needs to be worth the time it takes away from other sources. For me, I could quickly tell that time spent on DIT would be much much better spent on FA, UW, Pathoma, or Sketchy.

 

[Dave89]

Pathology: A few years ago, everyone recommended Goljan. Now more people recommend Pathoma.

I strongly recommend both.

 

[medic4lyfe]

I found DIT quite useful, but I learn better by doing more than just reading. They have a study guide that goes with the series to take notes and answer questions. DIT then UWorld with first aid to supplement the UWorld phase. Liked it well enough to use it again for step 2. And I guess everyone has a different definition of "well", but by my definition I did well.

 

[cyanide12345678]

What DIT doesn't get appreciated for is that it actually makes going through FA significantly easier. FA is a beast. The amount of information packed in there is ridiculous. Most people haven't done DIT, it's $800. But people who have actually done it will probably all say that it's pretty helpful before dedicated time to get throguh the material. People say it just reads FA to you, but maybe 20% of the time they do go ahead and explain some diagrams which makes things much easier to comprehend. They break down FA even further and highlight the most important things in FA, which I think is valuable as well. During dedicated time I'd recommend NOT doing DIT. But if you have >6 weeks and an extra 20 days, then DIT can be a good addition. Though, it is expensive. I personally wouldn't pay $800 for it. Having done it, I would place the worth of the videos around 200-250 dollars.

 

[lodestar]

FWIW...a positive report on DIT...
I know a couple (S.O.'s at a top medical school for competitive entry) who both used and liked DIT as a way to slog thru FA. It might well depend upon your learning style...they both made top 5-7% on Steps 1 and 2, so hard to complain about the results. It might well be worth the cost. Different strokes for different folks.

You do read here that not more than 3 tools/sources does make sense...and some such as the famous Aussie MD/PhD "Phloston" (262 on step 1?) never looked at Pathoma.

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

Nobody who does well goes through the whole DIT course during dedicated. It's passive learning. Maybe earlier on, if that's your learning style, but not late in the process. Questions, questions, more questions, first aid, and when you are tired at the end of the day pathoma.

My 258 and my girlfiend's 253 beg to differ. UFAP + DIT*

*What might be right for you may not be right for some. This post is not a sweeping endorsement of DIT.

 

[jack.jaret]

What DIT doesn't get appreciated for is that it actually makes going through FA significantly easier. FA is a beast. The amount of information packed in there is ridiculous. Most people haven't done DIT, it's $800. But people who have actually done it will probably all say that it's pretty helpful before dedicated time to get throguh the material. People say it just reads FA to you, but maybe 20% of the time they do go ahead and explain some diagrams which makes things much easier to comprehend. They break down FA even further and highlight the most important things in FA, which I think is valuable as well. During dedicated time I'd recommend NOT doing DIT. But if you have >6 weeks and an extra 20 days, then DIT can be a good addition. Though, it is expensive. I personally wouldn't pay $800 for it. Having done it, I would place the worth of the videos around 200-250 dollars.

My dedicated study time is about 5-6 weeks. That period begins for me in 3 weeks :/

 

[metopic]

My 258 and my girlfiend's 253 beg to differ. UFAP + DIT*

*What might be right for you may not be right for some. This post is not a sweeping endorsement of DIT.

You did all of DIT during dedicated? How much time did you have?

It seemes impossible to me to do UFAP properly and DIT in 5-6 weeks (standard US grad time frame). But I guess there's always someone who can pull off the impossible. Congrats on your good scores 🙂

 

[KinesiologyNerd]

You did all of DIT during dedicated? How much time did you have?

It seemes impossible to me to do UFAP properly and DIT in 5-6 weeks (standard US grad time frame). But I guess there's always someone who can pull off the impossible. Congrats on your good scores 🙂

Yes I am at a USMD school and had 5 or 6 weeks of dedicated studying. First 2ish weeks were DIT.

It's really not hard to do it all when you're studying 12 hours a day.

 

[cyanide12345678]

You did all of DIT during dedicated? How much time did you have?

It seemes impossible to me to do UFAP properly and DIT in 5-6 weeks (standard US grad time frame). But I guess there's always someone who can pull off the impossible. Congrats on your good scores 🙂

DIT can definitely be knocked out in 14 days easily with a read through of FA at the same time. 14 videos a day at 1.5x isnt that bad.

 

[Tajima]

Boards and Beyond >>>>>>>>>>> DIT

 

[LabMonster]

Microbiology: A few years ago, it was all about Clinical Microbiology Made Simple. Now everyone recommends Sketchy or Picmonic.
Pathology: A few years ago, everyone recommended Goljan. Now more people recommend Pathoma.

Resources change over time. I see a lot of threads form a few years ago recommending DIT. Is it still useful, or are there better ways to use your time? Thank you for your help 🙂

Resources for study evolve over time, and I thought Goljan was AWESOME for board review. I was traveling 2-3 hours to see my parents throughout the year and my whole family listened to it - I attribute my sons nerdiness to it also. I have no idea what DIT is. Here's the short note: if it works, do it. Goljan probably earned me a few extra points on the boards, awesome, and those sessions may have gotten me into my residency.

Whatever works. Boards are a beeeatch. Kill them, especially steps 1 and 2. Whatever works.

 

[TheLesPaul]

DIT can definitely be knocked out in 14 days easily with a read through of FA at the same time. 14 videos a day at 1.5x isnt that bad.

I did DIT + FA with UWorld with 4 wks of study time, ended up high 250s.

 

[asdf123g]

DIT can definitely be knocked out in 14 days easily with a read through of FA at the same time. 14 videos a day at 1.5x isnt that bad.

is this actually realistic for the average medical student? I cant picture myself watching 14 videos, learning all the stuff I forgot or missed, then reading FA afterwards and learning that. How many pages of FA could you expect to read on a day like that anyways?!

 

[sliceofbread136]

is this actually realistic for the average medical student? I cant picture myself watching 14 videos, learning all the stuff I forgot or missed, then reading FA afterwards and learning that. How many pages of FA could you expect to read on a day like that anyways?!

DIT is basically FA in video form, by reading FA you are basically going over what you watched earlier. This is what makes doing DIT and ufap feasible.

Imo though I still think dit is better to do prededicated time and just reading FA and doing uworld is better for dedicated

 

[TBV]

One of the weirdos who learns better from reading than watching videos and lectures and stuff. I guess we'll see how I do.

 

[FiveOClock]

Microbiology: A few years ago, it was all about Clinical Microbiology Made Simple. Now everyone recommends Sketchy or Picmonic.
Pathology: A few years ago, everyone recommended Goljan. Now more people recommend Pathoma.

Resources change over time. I see a lot of threads form a few years ago recommending DIT. Is it still useful, or are there better ways to use your time? Thank you for your help 🙂

Goljan is dramatically superior to Pathoma

 

[cyanide12345678]

is this actually realistic for the average medical student? I cant picture myself watching 14 videos, learning all the stuff I forgot or missed, then reading FA afterwards and learning that. How many pages of FA could you expect to read on a day like that anyways?!

For the average medical student, probably not. But for the extremely motivated one who can put in 14 hrs a day, likely yes. Also, FA is full of so much information that the trick to learning it is going through the information as many times as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Really if you think about it...The average DIT video (atleast in their 2013 series) is around 20 mins and 2.5 pages of FA. At 1.5x it should take about 20-30 mins to go through a 20 minute video. The extra time is for pausing multiple times and replaying anything that you dont understand. That leaves 15 minutes per page for FA. DIT gives the big picture. Reading FA then fills in the gaps. You wont be able to perfectly master the material, but Even if you spent 2 hrs on a page, you'll likely not remember 3 days later. The whole point is to repeat again and again. 14 vids = 14 hrs of comprehensive studying. It is the most important exam of your life, I think it deserves it 😛

 

[asdf123g]

For the average medical student, probably not. But for the extremely motivated one who can put in 14 hrs a day, likely yes. Also, FA is full of so much information that the trick to learning it is going through the information as many times as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Really if you think about it...The average DIT video (atleast in their 2013 series) is around 20 mins and 2.5 pages of FA. At 1.5x it should take about 20-30 mins to go through a 20 minute video. The extra time is for pausing multiple times and replaying anything that you dont understand. That leaves 15 minutes per page for FA. DIT gives the big picture. Reading FA then fills in the gaps. You wont be able to perfectly master the material, but Even if you spent 2 hrs on a page, you'll likely not remember 3 days later. The whole point is to repeat again and again. 14 vids = 14 hrs of comprehensive studying. It is the most important exam of your life, I think it deserves it 😛

is it realistic to go through USLMLErx and DIT during first semester MS2 or is that not close to reality (give classes to pass as well). If you dont think it is, and you had to pick one, USLMErx vs DIT to do 1st semester MS2 which would you pick? (obviously just an opinion)

 

[cyanide12345678]

is it realistic to go through USLMLErx and DIT during first semester MS2 or is that not close to reality (give classes to pass as well). If you dont think it is, and you had to pick one, USLMErx vs DIT to do 1st semester MS2 which would you pick? (obviously just an opinion)

Truth be told, I bought USMLE rx to go through second year of med school (second semester). Probably did 5 blocks of questions in total, did not have time during the school year for it. Though during the winter break between first and second semester, I actually beasted through DIT. This allowed me to maintain a 4.0 during the preclinical years as well as get a head start on step studying.

 

[ortnakas]

is it realistic to go through USLMLErx and DIT during first semester MS2 or is that not close to reality (give classes to pass as well). If you dont think it is, and you had to pick one, USLMErx vs DIT to do 1st semester MS2 which would you pick? (obviously just an opinion)

Technically, the main part of DIT for the current exam year doesn't come out until early March (part 1 questions are available in January and primer videos are available as soon as you purchase) but I suppose there's nothing to stop you from either buying the previous year, or "acquiring" a previous year from other sources to make a pass during first semester of MS2.

I like DIT so far, but I haven't used USMLERx so I can't compare the two.