I think it's wise to start going through and annotating FA during M1. At least some of the biochem sections (genetics, cell bio, metabolism) and the physio sections for the systems. Not the end of the world, but does anybody else wish they would have done this?
Anybody else wish they would have started FA during M1?
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6
68PGunner
No. It's stupid to annotate stuff on FA. If you want to be a super gunner, you should hit Bros deck and USMLErx qbank now.
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I had the same feeling before dedicated time for step 1. After taking step 1 however, I was kinda glad I didn't. FA had everything I needed already written inside of it. Had I been proactive enough during my first two years to actually annotate, I know I would have added a bunch of info that would have been very low yield or useless for step. I think the only benefit to annotating FA is if you add memory hooks or anything else which helps you better understand what's already written in FA, not necessarily more information. But if that's what you originally meant by annotate then forget everything I said haha. I've just seen a lot of my classmates annotate their review books with loads of superfluous info
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M1 here. Just now starting Brosencephalon's Anki deck. I wish I had started since day 1 and focused less on professors' lecture notes since we're pass/fail...Oh well, better late than never.
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No, it's all in there and nothing is necessary for annotation. When you do Uworld you'll make the connection and then the FA pages will start to jog your memory. There's no point dirtying your first aid with minutiae from your biochemistry classes.
6
68PGunner
Also first year here
I had the bright idea of annotate my FA for a few days during a random weekend. When I had realize that about 10-20% of my ppt slides were outdated info that weren't applicable to a clinical setting, I stopped immediately. Thank god that I was only a dummy for a few days.
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This is literally me.
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I wish I had just taken a look at it. I don't write notes generally.
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It was a waste of 30 bucks (or however much it was) buying it at the start of M1. Looked at it a couple times and realized its just a big study guide, not some magic book with all the answers.
S
ssciegienka
Test
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No, but only because I wouldn't want to have a 2-year-old FA. There are a surprising number of updates with each edition.
I take Step 1 in a couple weeks and I'm very glad I didn't waste time annotating FA; but I'm also glad I worked hard during my courses as it made my boards studying infinitely easier.
If I could do it again, I would focus more on physio. There's a shocking number of Step 1 questions you can answer with a good understanding of physio, even if you don't remember anything in the question stem. I'd say most med schools fall very short in this area (mine did for sure), so don't just assume your classes are enough -- dig deeper.
If I could do it again, I would focus more on physio. There's a shocking number of Step 1 questions you can answer with a good understanding of physio, even if you don't remember anything in the question stem. I'd say most med schools fall very short in this area (mine did for sure), so don't just assume your classes are enough -- dig deeper.
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M1 here. I only use it to kind of clue me in to what I can more or less "ignore" from lecture...
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I only wish I had looked at it a little for Neuro, which seems pretty heavy on step. Otherwise, don't do it. It's a pain in the butt because you'll end up having to buy the newest version in January and then you would have to transfer all your notes over.
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Most people recommend only annotating UWORLD into FA. If you annotate too much the book losses its purpose.
I did the same thing. There were a few questions on my exam where I wished I had paid attention to lecture more. Learn all you can during first year.
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I just use it to review for NBME's. Not enough detail to use on my in-house exams.
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cellsaver
First Aid by Tao Le is a pyramid scam. I would roll my eyes when I would see the long list of names of medical student "contributors" who submitted edits for newer editions. I had to wonder if any of them used those entries as part of their CV. Cracks me up
USMLE Rx qbank was awful. Kaplan Qbank was awful. Step Up, DIT, all awful...and yeah, I bought all of them legitimately. Huge mistake. Wish I hadn't listened to all of the advice by other medical students who basically did not want to do the work.
Just curious, what do you wish you did instead?
C
cellsaver
I wish I had done the right thing from the beginning and ignored the sexy, entitled messages from MD students (they all feverishly, including me initially, downloaded illegal torrents of dated review books and spread the lie that they were the ticket to high scores). I should have trusted and listened to faculty from Day 1, read the textbooks recommended by the admins from Day 1, avoided "short cuts", marketing gimmicks and sales reps / brochures and from USMLE Rx, First Aid, Kaplan (I did the whole shabang), DIT, Becker, etc. I should have avoided ideas that sounded too good to be true because they were....
Once I started talking to my Deans and the faculty I admired, plus after purchasing Pathoma and watching Dr Sattar lectures...I was hooked. I told myself I wanted to be like Dr Sattar. Dr Conrad Fischer from Kaplan is funny but medical school is to do what few others can do. Live in the library with textbooks, write notes and suck it up
Uworld was a great equalizer.
If you can not teach the content, you do not know it. That was my standard. Choose yours and be at peace with the results.
