MD Boards and Beyond vs. Class Lectures

[Huggy]

M1 here at a non-ranked P/F school scoring in the top ~10-15% of the class. Seriously considering stopping watching/attending lectures entirely and only using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Firecracker, and First Aid.

We just started biochemistry today, where we will now have around 4 hours of lecture every day, with PowerPoints containing no notes. There is a "notes exchange" available where students from previous years have outlined the lectures and passed them down to us, but I don't know how I feel about learning from another students' notes or wasting time on making my own.

Does anyone have experience doing this, or any other suggestions for an M1 interested in doing very well on boards.

 

[BacktotheBasics]

What M1 isn't interested in doing very well on the boards? Your medical school curriculum is like a ship, don't jump go overboard until the ride is over. There's plenty of time during dedicated.

 

[imtheman25]

I utilized Board and Beyond for my lectures and I did just fine! My school has exams that are somewhat difficult but Dr. Ryan does a good job of covering the important information and highlighting the important concepts. No minutiae. God Bless!

 

[deleted244469]

Ditched my Physio lectures (professor is terrible) for B&B for our cardio block and got a “B” on the exam.

I’m going to continue to use B&B and am not looking back. It is a godsend.

 

[Shams al Deen]

So there's plenty of time during dedicated for UWorld, and some review of FA. There is not, however, plenty of time for Pathoma, BB, Sketchy AND UWorld during dedicated. Thus, you must gain all you can from those non-UWorld sources during your first 2 years (before dedicated). Most of it can be gained during MS-2. The only things I would say benefit an MS-1 would be Sketchy and BB videos in relevant topics.

That said, don't stop watching class lectures now, it's way too early for that. Watch BB to supplement but not to replace your class materials.

 

[BacktotheBasics]

What M1 isn't interested in doing very well on the boards? Your medical school curriculum is like a ship, jump go overboard until the ride is over. There's plenty of time during dedicated.

 

[Goro]

M1 here at a non-ranked P/F school scoring in the top ~10-15% of the class. Seriously considering stopping watching/attending lectures entirely and only using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Firecracker, and First Aid.

We just started biochemistry today, where we will now have around 4 hours of lecture every day, with PowerPoints containing no notes. There is a "notes exchange" available where students from previous years have outlined the lectures and passed them down to us, but I don't know how I feel about learning from another students' notes or wasting time on making my own.

Does anyone have experience doing this, or any other suggestions for an M1 interested in doing very well on boards.

How are you doing in your classes? I'm generally a believer in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy of teaching.

One of the problems I see posted multiple times in this forum is that MD faculty in particular like testing in minutiae, or on their own research.

So tread carefully!

What on earth is on slides with no notes? Videos? Mere pathways??? I've had Pathology colleagues who gave nothing but slide images of gross and and histo sections, but am curious as to what you're dealing with.

 

[deleted244469]

So there's plenty of time during dedicated for UWorld, and some review of FA. There is not, however, plenty of time for Pathoma, BB, Sketchy AND UWorld during dedicated. Thus, you must gain all you can from those non-UWorld sources during your first 2 years (before dedicated). Most of it can be gained during MS-2. The only things I would say benefit an MS-1 would be Sketchy and BB videos in relevant topics.

That said, don't stop watching class lectures now, it's way too early for that. Watch BB to supplement but not to replace your class materials.

I guess I should’ve clarified. I DO go through the ppts, but only for any other testable topics/material that I didn’t see on B&B (aka minutae concepts).

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

M1 here at a non-ranked P/F school scoring in the top ~10-15% of the class. Seriously considering stopping watching/attending lectures entirely and only using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Firecracker, and First Aid.

We just started biochemistry today, where we will now have around 4 hours of lecture every day, with PowerPoints containing no notes. There is a "notes exchange" available where students from previous years have outlined the lectures and passed them down to us, but I don't know how I feel about learning from another students' notes or wasting time on making my own.

Does anyone have experience doing this, or any other suggestions for an M1 interested in doing very well on boards.

How do you use First Aid? Legitimate question, sounds silly, I know. I've been trying to incorporate it into my studying, but it's just a book with a bunch of condensed facts, idk, am I missing something here lol

 

[deleted244469]

How do you use First Aid? Legitimate question, sounds silly, I know. I've been trying to incorporate it into my studying, but it's just a book with a bunch of condensed facts, idk, am I missing something here lol

B&B is literally a video version of First Aid. If you struggle reading textbooks, I'd HIGHLY recommend it. Each video even posts the relevant FA pages.

 

[GodComplex]

How do you use First Aid? Legitimate question, sounds silly, I know. I've been trying to incorporate it into my studying, but it's just a book with a bunch of condensed facts, idk, am I missing something here lol

You're right. FA isn't meant to teach for the most part, and instead is meant more as a review prior to Step 1. I benefited most from it in my preclinical years by using it as a jumping off point for what my school curriculum didn't cover in a particular block and then did some self-study on those topics when time permitted towards the end of that block. I feel that having at least seen 95% of things that were in FA before even starting dedicated prep time was a huge time saver as I wasn't learning new diseases for the first time.

 

[mehc012]

I finally switched away from studying based on my school's curriculum and instead just using FA as a syllabus to make sure I learn everything in its chapters for the organ systems my school says it's covering. It's funny, but their exam stick to FA-based topics more than not, and FA does a way better job of organizing it all. I use textbooks to learn the stuff in FA well enough to easily go through the chapter and Anki the whole thing.

 

[Scrubs101]

Love B&B but I only supplement with it, don’t think I’d do nearly as well on one of our professor written exams if I didn’t spend most of my time on professor notes. However if I could just use outside sources (pathoma, B&B, sketchy, etc), I totally would.

 

[HumbledHuman]

Does anyone know a rough estimate of how many hrs to complete B&B?

 

[Huggy]

Does anyone know a rough estimate of how many hrs to complete B&B?

113 hours, 4 minutes on 1x speed

 

[pbrocks15]

113 hours, 4 minutes on 1x speed

I feel like it takes much more time than that especially if you're annotating and pausing here and there. I know that's the actual length but I'm curious to ask - do people just watch or do people actually pause and annotate? Still trying to figure out what's best myself.

 

[imtheman25]

I feel like it takes much more time than that especially if you're annotating and pausing here and there. I know that's the actual length but I'm curious to ask - do people just watch or do people actually pause and annotate? Still trying to figure out what's best myself.

Everything 2x speed

 

[pbrocks15]

Everything 2x speed

You don't annotate anything?

 

[HumbledHuman]

You don't annotate anything?

Too time consuming. Fastest way to raise score is to selectively focus on weak areas and constantly hitting high yield resources.

Everything 2x speed

Yep, pretty much. Debating B&B vs DIT during dedicated with strictly UW/FA/NBME.

 

[pbrocks15]

Too time consuming. Fastest way to raise score is to selectively focus on weak areas and constantly hitting high yield resources.

Yep, pretty much. Debating B&B vs DIT during dedicated with strictly UW/FA/NBME.

Hm...I have been annotating a lot and perhaps that isn't necessary. I guess we'll see but not annotating would save a ton of time.

 

[HumbledHuman]

Hm...I have been annotating a lot and perhaps that isn't necessary. I guess we'll see but not annotating would save a ton of time.

It depends where you are on your studies. I'm reviewing for boards, so I just reference with First Aid and review my Anki deck. But if you are studying for classes, the approach is different.

 

[pbrocks15]

It depends where you are on your studies. I'm reviewing for boards, so I just reference with First Aid and review my Anki deck. But if you are studying for classes, the approach is different.

I am using them to study for class during the specific block. Where do you make your Anki cards from?

 

[HumbledHuman]

I am using them to study for class during the specific block. Where do you make your Anki cards from?

Specific subdecks from bro's. No time to make cards. Most of the time they don't test you on low yield anyway. It's better to understand the material than just straight up memorize, so my approach is to use all my resources together on specific blocks and do questions to apply the concept before an exam. I had a battle plan for each subject - i.e. draw out pathophysiology, sketchy/fa for bugs and drugs, and as many questions as possible.

 

[NotYou20]

M1 here at a non-ranked P/F school scoring in the top ~10-15% of the class. Seriously considering stopping watching/attending lectures entirely and only using Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Firecracker, and First Aid.

We just started biochemistry today, where we will now have around 4 hours of lecture every day, with PowerPoints containing no notes. There is a "notes exchange" available where students from previous years have outlined the lectures and passed them down to us, but I don't know how I feel about learning from another students' notes or wasting time on making my own.

Does anyone have experience doing this, or any other suggestions for an M1 interested in doing very well on boards.

I completely stopped watching lecture videos at the start of M2 and I'm glad I did. I think its worth trying if you can accept that it might hurt your grades significantly and that you'll have a plan to fix it if that happens. If it works, you should be able to learn more efficiently than you would while watching lectures. For me, that benefit is worth the risk of doing poorly on the next test.

 

[sab3156]

I am debating getting this resource. If it is simply a video version of FA as stated earlier in this thread... is it even worth it if I am already using Firecracker/FA? Is BB a medical school curriculum on its own? Could someone use it to home study along with Firecracker/FA/UWorld and crush the boards?

 

[eatkalteenbars]

I am debating getting this resource. If it is simply a video version of FA as stated earlier in this thread... is it even worth it if I am already using Firecracker/FA? Is BB a medical school curriculum on its own? Could someone use it to home study along with Firecracker/FA/UWorld and crush the boards?

I can't say that I "crushed" the boards and I didn't use Firecracker but I will say that BnB is excellent for filling in the blanks of FA. Following along with BnB makes FA much more palatable. There are definitely some details that aren't in FA and are actually straight out of UW: there were some UW questions that I could answer only because of BnB (hadn't seen the info anywhere else.) First NBME I took a month out I got a 175. In the following month I did all of UW, watched all of BnB, and scored 60 points higher on the real thing. (I will say though that I am a chronic crammer and have a pretty strong short term memory.)

In terms of replacing class lectures with BnB, it really depends on your school. It might work for topics like biochem or physio, but if your professors are big on minutia it won't work. For instance, path at my school is annoyingly detailed and the profs love testing on random details from Robbins, so Pathoma alone wouldn't cut it. At my friend's school, Pathoma was all she needed to pass.

 

[sab3156]

I can't say that I "crushed" the boards and I didn't use Firecracker but I will say that BnB is excellent for filling in the blanks of FA. Following along with BnB makes FA much more palatable. There are definitely some details that aren't in FA and are actually straight out of UW: there were some UW questions that I could answer only because of BnB (hadn't seen the info anywhere else.) First NBME I took a month out I got a 175. In the following month I did all of UW, watched all of BnB, and scored 60 points higher on the real thing. (I will say though that I am a chronic crammer and have a pretty strong short term memory.)

In terms of replacing class lectures with BnB, it really depends on your school. It might work for topics like biochem or physio, but if your professors are big on minutia it won't work. For instance, path at my school is annoyingly detailed and the profs love testing on random details from Robbins, so Pathoma alone wouldn't cut it. At my friend's school, Pathoma was all she needed to pass.

Ah, so it's not simply a video version of FA? I was worried about that, because I already bought Firecracker which is basically a more comprehensive version of FA. Are there some things NOT in BB? Or is BB pretty comprehensive?

 

[Mr. D.O.five]

Ah, so it's not simply a video version of FA? I was worried about that, because I already bought Firecracker which is basically a more comprehensive version of FA. Are there some things NOT in BB? Or is BB pretty comprehensive?

I got B&B. If you already have FC, I don't think you would need B&B. I'd save the money and use it on pathoma next year.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I have B&B, FC, and Pathoma. I would highly recommend getting both B&B and Pathoma.

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

I have B&B, FC, and Pathoma. I would highly recommend getting both B&B and Pathoma.

You don’t recommend FC?

 

[IslandStyle808]

You don’t recommend FC?

Sorry mean to answer the statement made above about not getting B&B, but instead pathoma. You should definitely get both.

To answer your question, I also think FC is good and I recommend it. However, if you have Zanki or Uslmerx, you don't necessarily need FC.

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

Sorry mean to answer the statement made above about not getting B&B, but instead pathoma. You should definitely get both.

To answer your question, I also think FC is good and I recommend it. However, if you have Zanki or Uslmerx, you don't necessarily need FC.

Yeah going to NBME exams this next semester. Have First Aid 2018, Pathoma (provided by school), and was going to invest in B&B (using Zanki), I have given up on school lectures. Especially since our exams will be NBME now, was curious of your response. Thank you!

EDIT: Also paying for USMLErx for practice problems

 

[Jojos]

did this (not with BB but that is not relevant, if your comfortable with BB than go for it) for several classes where my lecturer was ****. Saved me a lot of time and effort. So yes, i would go for it.

 

[Huggy]

did this (not with BB but that is not relevant, if your comfortable with BB than go for it) for several classes where my lecturer was ****. Saved me a lot of time and effort. So yes, i would go for it.

Yeah, since this thread was started a month and a half ago I have changed up my study habits since.

I do not use any school provided material. I use exclusively Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, Sketchy Micro/Pharm, and Firecracker. I use the topics in Firecracker to guide my learning and I ensure that I have every single topic marked and answered for whatever block we are on.

I truly don't see any valid argument in using school material over other more time-efficient, boards related resources.

 

[pbrocks15]

How do you guys all use BnB though? Do you guys annotate into FA or annotate/follow with the ppt slides?

Curious how everyone uses BnB.

 

[Medin2017]

How do you guys all use BnB though? Do you guys annotate into FA or annotate/follow with the ppt slides?

Curious how everyone uses BnB.

.

 

[pbrocks15]

.

What was your post...?

 

[Medin2017]

What was your post...?

was saying how I was studying it and asking for advice but realized it wasn't very helpful

 

[pbrocks15]

was saying how I was studying it and asking for advice but realized it wasn't very helpful

I'm in the same boat.

 

[Medin2017]

I'm in the same boat.

yea currently just running through each section and taking notes, planning on reviewing sections as wholes (like all of neuro), and then zanki'ing the rest for active learning and spaced repetition. But with the neurology lectures being like 160*6 slides idk how I can learn it all before flash carding.