A Strategy for Studying Pathology and Some Flashcards

[achamess]

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Hey all,

I've been wanting to write about my ideal way to study Path and other 2nd year stuff. I just wrote a blog post for the class under me at my school. I'd love to get a discussion going here. Also, I've uploaded all of the flashcards I've made. There are over 10K. I'm making them available for public use.

Enjoy! Good Luck.

 

[Phyozo]

Hey all,

I've been wanting to write about my ideal way to study Path and other 2nd year stuff. I just wrote a blog post for the class under me at my school. I'd love to get a discussion going here. Also, I've uploaded all of the flashcards I've made. There are over 10K. I'm making them available for public use.

Enjoy! Good Luck.

This is really a step 1 question, but you don't realize it. Also, you don't want to care about path and other 2nd year stuff...you want to care about step 1. Obviously it's best to do amazing on both, but if you had to choose one, you'd pick step 1.

Now having said that, what's the best way for learning the path you need to crush step1? Do questions. Do USMLErx, do kaplan, do usmleworld twice. Then you won't need flash cards and you'll be well on your way to doing amazing on your 3rd year wards and NBME exams.

 

[achamess]

This is really a step 1 question, but you don't realize it. Also, you don't want to care about path and other 2nd year stuff...you want to care about step 1. Obviously it's best to do amazing on both, but if you had to choose one, you'd pick step 1.

Now having said that, what's the best way for learning the path you need to crush step1? Do questions. Do USMLErx, do kaplan, do usmleworld twice. Then you won't need flash cards and you'll be well on your way to doing amazing on your 3rd year wards and NBME exams.

I agree about doing the questions 100%. I'll be doing that too. But what I'm suggesting is that rather than having to cram content review, you can do it spaced out over time and not have to go back and relearn everything. This way, my dedicated Step 1 study time will be almost all questions and very little plowing through First Aid. From what I can tell, most people think - yourself include - that doing questions is the best use of one's time. So I'm trying to free up the most time possible for that and have to do almost no content review.

Maybe my memory just isn't as amazing as others', but the cards give me a systematic way to read, review and remember. I don't think it's for everyone. I just wanted to put it out there. I'm trying to build long-term knowledge. I'd like to remember most of what I learned in the preclinical years. Although some may disagree, I don't think that info is something to be forgotten, or 'not clinically relevant'.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[secants]

With so many decks and questions, how much time does it take you to do your daily reviews? Have you taken Step 1 already or planning to? I recently started using Anki, but also use GT and Uworld but all this is becoming a big time sink when you add classes as well. Just curious how you're managing everything.

 

[Mattchiavelli]

Step 1 is really very path heavy so studying for it is high yield
http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/EXAM/QUIZ/QUIZIDX.html
This is free and pretty good

 

[achamess]

With so many decks and questions, how much time does it take you to do your daily reviews? Have you taken Step 1 already or planning to? I recently started using Anki, but also use GT and Uworld but all this is becoming a big time sink when you add classes as well. Just curious how you're managing everything.

I did GT once upon a time too, but then I realized that my cards were (1) better (2) my own (3) the same thing. GT is fine for people who don't make their own cards, but it's mostly clips from First Aid. My Anki decks are made from First Aid. So doing GT and Anki is redundant.

The UWORLD I save for the weekend. I spend like an hour or two every day doing card maintenance, i.e. reviewing old cards. It's a significant time investment. But if you have a mobile device, you can pick up time you never thought you had before. Walking to class. At the supermarket. Waiting on line. I get like an hour or two just like that.

But yeah, it can be tough. Best advice. Don't do too many new cards at once. No more than 100/day. This way you don't get a ton piling up on you all at once when they all come due together. Be realistic about your goals. If you make cards only for the highest yield stuff (like maybe 20 for an entire chapter of reading) you can easily manage that.

Good luck.