Yep, this is a frustrating issue that I also experienced. I've banked about 70%, so naturally most of my cards are in the past category. The way I solved it is to keep current content to an absolute minimum. I don't use the urgent feature at all. This way I get 200 daily quesions with 100 from my current category (which I try to keep at 500) and 100 questions from my past category (which at this point is around 10000 questions). While not optimal, this works decently for me. I guess what I would really like is for there to be an option to do questions based on my risk of forgetting them as indicated in the "prioritization" section. Most of my questions are at a 1 risk of forgetting, while almost half of my daily review comes from questions I'm at a 0.3 risk of forgetting. Seems broken to me.
I would wait for a month or two before adding extra resources such as FC. I started midway through M1 which I think is more than sufficient.
I'd start it day 1. Use the free trial and use it religiously with classes and see if it works for you. When first starting out it'll probably only take you an hour, not even every day.
Most certainly. I've put almost 1000 hours in total into FC, so I suppose the real question is whether I would have been better off had I done something else with those hours. I honestly don't know. However, FC is so ingrained in my everyday life I hardly think of it as studying anymore. I doubt I would have made the effort to lets say read 1 hour of FA everyday instead.
First day, flag what you learn. If you can flag even 50 questions/day you will have a lot done by the time winter break rolls around. Then you can use your breaks to get ahead essentially. If you learn about brachial plexus, flag brachial plexus and upper limb muscles. When you do biochem, flag glycolysis, krebs cycle, electron transport, etc. Your classes might not cover everything so make sure you try to keep up and get ahead when you can. Use the search function to find topics that might be hiding in other organ system etc.
I have yet to start my dedicated prep. NBME 11 had me at 251 a few months ago.
I know this wasn't directed at me but I feel like most medical students have the capability to think through a problem if they know all the first order info. All it takes to answer a third order question are three pieces of first order info.
Oddly enough I felt like it helped me a lot with boards questions just because as I read a question stem, all these buzzwords would have all these firecracker questions popping up in my head and I usually knew the answer before looking at the answer choices. A lot of it though is just relative to knowing the material well.
This will be quoted exclusively due to the truthful nature of what is stated.
Flagging ahead is always better if you can do it. I've flagged a decent bit ahead, I have 88% banked, hoping to finish up in the next 2-3 weeks. Having more time for pure review will be precious. Plus, when you have everything marked as past, you'll finally start seeing a lot of the older questions you haven't seen in awhile.
I've never done it
Did it 2-3 times when I felt the material was REALLY lacking but it was generally too tedious.
I did this regularly for things from qbanks and first aid. Kind of annoying but not that time consuming.
If you do it regularly and from an early time it shouldn't take more than 2-2.5 hours/day. If you're cram-flagging late in the course than yeah, it's gonna take awhile.
You realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "just 2 hours per day."
That 2 hours a day replaced a lot of my normal studying for school, and kept me up on old material. If you find it ineffective and a waste of time, no one is forcing you to use it. I found it very useful for school as well as boards. The time spent feels like a small sacrifice now as I approach applying for residencies and know I don't need to worry about "overcoming" my board scores. Friends of mine said the same things and now are saying "wow I wish I had put in more time studying for boards." (actual words said to me by multiple people just over christmas break). Figure out what study method works for you and run with it!
I mean, yeah it's a decent chunk, but it's med school lol. Considering most medical students are awake 16+ hours, 2 isn't that much with the benefits. Yeah I could read First Aid for 2 hours a day instead or do something else for boards, but the reality is I probably wouldn't.
I remember one time they emailed me telling me how many reviews I've done, so I'm sure they know. You can probably email them. It would be helpful if it was visible though
It doesn't seem like it's changed to me but I don't particularly pay attention to it, so it could have!
Also, how's everyone doing on banking progress??
You're doing really well! I started early m1 but I wasn't do diligent back then. Ended M1 at 35% and didn't bank much over summer (got to maybe 40). I think the biggest thing is to keep at it. If you flag even a couple topics per day during summer you will be way ahead of the game. make sure you know the stuff you're doing in class, and if you're doing well on exams, it should be fine. If you're doing worse on exams, don't bank so fast. 48% is already on a good track. Even if you got to 70% by early summer, you'd be great. The more the better, just make sure to keep up with your review or it's all for nothing.
