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Read my post on success for medical students.Hi all,
I'm 4 months in and and I still feel like I haven't adjusted to med school very well. I have no clue how to study really, truly efficiently and focus/motivation/discipline is at an all time low. I lost a parent two months ago and things haven't felt spectacular since then. After talking with my dean, two counselors (academic and personal), some friends, and family, I decided taking an LOA isn't necessary. I'm pretty emotionally stable now, but jsut lost all discipline I had when I first started.
On my first two block exams (systems based), I've managed to squeeze out 84% on both, but I know I can do so much better. I feel like my true understanding of the material is much lower than my score represents and I'm slipping into the bottom quartile. I also only feel motivated to study about 2-3 hours outside of lecture a day and focusing on lectures themselves feels difficult. Cardiology is really kicking my ass right now and I'm not sure I'll even be able to pull a B grade here.
I'm not going to include my current study plan because, frankly, it's embarrassingly bad.
If anyone has some tips/resources on how to improve focus or study strategies (beyond "Anking bruh"), I'd greatly appreciate it.
I'd love to hear it.
I hope you're enjoying USUHS. I think about it a lot!
Okay so my learning style is a little different and I’ve had a few people tell me they could never do it this way, so take that for what it’s worth.
I basically use Zanki and questions as my primary learning sources. I do my anki cards and review first thing unless there’s something mando early. I used to just do reviews and new cards mixed, but I’ve been doing reviews first lately. I do not unsuspend things as I go through the block. I literally unsuspend the whole block at the beginning and then do however many new cards per day I need to in order to finish them with a 4-5 days before the exam (so I can see the ones I finished last a few more times). A lot of people hate that, but it doesn’t bother me.
I basically don’t watch lecture at all. I go through my school PowerPoints and search zanki to make sure what they are hitting is in there. I do that for each lecture. Takes maybe 10 mins a lecture and I add maybe 3-5 cards depending. Sometimes none, sometimes more if it’s a topic HY for my school but not nbme (military, so TBI is big).
Then I watch the BnB videos for the topics covered that day. I do the BnB questions after each video. I will watch sketchy videos on 2x for the micro ones if I have time. I like sketchy but if I’m pressed for time, I’ll just look at the end sketch. I do the sketchy cards in anki anyway.
Then I do Robbins questions and osmosis questions throughout the block. Not every day, but when I have time. I try to do them a couple days per week. I save Rx for the last 3-4 days before the exam, since I find they are harder and more representative. So I use them as a test of how much I know for the exam and then review the stuff I’m getting wrong.
And that’s basically it. I spend about 60-90 mins on anki every day. When we don’t have a ton of mando stuff, I probably study from 9 until 3. Maybe 4.
It's crazy how so many people are like "If you don't watch BnB first you're gonna die!!! You're just memorizing cards without context!!! asdfdjdkfgh!!" Like I learn DIRECTLY from Anki, I don't give a CRAP lol
Thanks!
I think it's time I finally buckle down with Anki and just do a consistent amount of cards a day. Do you have a target number of new/review cards to get through? Or just whatever it gives you for the block?