For visual learners

[vandyam]

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A kid in my class discovered this really awesome website that I couldn't help but pass on to those of you who are very visual learners, like I am. It has about 3000 facts (over 300 pictures/cards) of these diseases/antibiotics/bacteria/etc that are insanely easy to remember once they provide you with the visual aid. A lot of us are excited about it (I just ordered it and love it already), so I thought some of you might be too.

www.picmonic.com

For an example of how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nLbunhSi4lQ

-Skip to 55 seconds and see if this is a way you might like to learn stuff too. (I don't personally like the first 55 seconds b/c I'm not a fan of the "story" explanations as much as the straightforward ones).

For the rest of this month they are giving 40% off - so it makes it much more affordable.

Apparently it was made by some med students. Hope this helps someone out there.

 

[projectlogic]

Ridiculously expensive.

$250 for a 6 month subscription. Even with the coupon it's still $150.

Why such high prices for a brand new product? Especially for just some flash cards. I was expecting more along the lines of it being $50-60 tops.

Look at Pathoma - 12-Month subscription for $99.95. Much better value and more high-yield.

 

[hrain]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with the poster above me. It would be one thing if it had more cards, I suppose, or even shorter subscriptions. I'd definitely consider doing a 1 or 2 month subscription for 30 or maybe even 50 bucks. But the cards take about 3 minutes top to go through, and there are only about 300 cards...why on earth would you need 6 months to do it? If you have a month, putting in 30 minutes/day would get you through all 300 cards easily. The only reason that I can think of is that the people behind it want more money, so they're charging more for longer when that amount of time is definitely not necessary.

 

[OneMoreRound]

New product. Always comes out at a ridiculous price. When they only get a few users within 6 months the price will cut in half.

 

[vandyam]

I agree that the price is too high, but they help me a whole lot. With 50% off (I signed up for the free trail before they launched, so they sent us a promo code for an additional discount), I think it's do-able. I have pathoma and I like it as well, but this is more than just pathology. Plus, they are really apples and oranges -- this is a different style/type of learning than pathoma is.

 

[HockeyDr09]

Definitely looks interesting, but i'd have to agree. The $150 price tag is far too steep. I can appreciate that it must have taken hours upon hours to create those cards, but after spending ~$1200 on COMLEX I/USMLE I + First Aid + Qbanks +Pathoma, $150 is too much. I would have dropped $50 for a 3 month to test it out. Oh well.

 

[FIREitUP]

i actually looked at a few cards several days ago to refresh my memory and I still remember what the cards looked like because they were so preposterous. whatever works, I guess. It's still way overpriced; maybe at like 50 bucks I'd try it.

 

[Beets]

I looked at the sample video they posted and I just really wasn't a fan. I could see this working for someone who just wants to connect certain buzzwords together, but I personally prefer more "understanding"/traditional type learning methods, rather than the silly little stories they use to help you remember things. I just don't think my brain works that way. Plus, I've never been much for flash cards, so there's that, too. I could see this maybe being useful to people who like this kind of thing as a quick review closer to step for memorizing factoids that don't tend to stick in the brain for long, but I think doing practice questions would be a better use of time for me, personally.

 

[madskillz1358]

1

 

[HockeyDr09]

I looked at the sample video they posted and I just really wasn't a fan. I could see this working for someone who just wants to connect certain buzzwords together, but I personally prefer more "understanding"/traditional type learning methods, rather than the silly little stories they use to help you remember things. I just don't think my brain works that way. Plus, I've never been much for flash cards, so there's that, too. I could see this maybe being useful to people who like this kind of thing as a quick review closer to step for memorizing factoids that don't tend to stick in the brain for long, but I think doing practice questions would be a better use of time for me, personally.

I actually caved and gave them a try. They do a pretty good job explaining the reasoning behind each factoid. They also have a full explanation in text form if you "flip" the card, and apparently they are adding a "test" feature in the near future. That being said I can definitely agree that questions are always a good way to go. However, I can't say I've been able to come across a good set of micro questions. COMBANK is meh and I'm not willing to crack open my UWORLD quite yet. Anyone know of a good source of solely micro questions?

 

[JoshSt]

I gave the free trial a shot after watching the youtube video. I did not intend on signing up past the free trial but I did after the trial stack helped me get a couple of Qbank questions correct. It doesn't replace FA, pathoma or your question banks. It's a good supplement if you are more than 3-4 months out from your test and liked CMMRS. Picmonic helps with remembering some of the minutia like pathology classical appearances and SE of drugs. A plus which I don't believe they emphasize in advertising or in the free trial cards is they use recurring characters and themes in multiple cards.

If you liked CMMRS, try the free trial. At this time, it is too early to predict whether or not this will improve my Qbank scores but I will try to post a followup in a few weeks.

 

[WilliamsEph]

I did the free trial and went ahead and subscribed. Yeah, its very pricey even with the discount but it works. Its actually fun to go through these crazy visuals and they stick in your mind. Like someone said, if you liked CMMRS you'll like these.

 

[OneMoreRound]

This is interesting, but it really goes back to not thinking and just memorizing.

Think about how a program like Pathoma is created, it's based upon reasoning why things work how they work. If you always use a picture mnemonic, then your relying on that tool which isn't applicable to any of your other learning - Step 2 - residency - etc. The learning never ends. You need to have tools to learn details of info that can be used not only for Step 1 but for the future.

I think it's a good tool but I think it's very short term thinking.

 

[frickengeniusMD]

Wow, do you realize how stiff you sound?

 

[johnstoops2005]

I decided to go ahead and buy it after the trial pack too. I liked it and I think its effective. I generally just search whatever topic I'm reading in First Aid, and if they have it in picmonic, I'll do the corresponding picmonic. It works and it sticks.

However, I have to agree that some of the mnemonics do seem completely mindless, and I think they would be more effective if they used "smart mnemonics" that made you think a little bit about the pathophys or used pathoma teaching techniques. Not so much an issue with the micro/pharm where you do just need to know a whole bunch of associations, but sometimes, for the path cards, I realize after doing the card that I know all the associations....but I still don't really know/understand the disease.

Overall, overpriced, but worth it because it works (especially for micro)

 

[vandyam]

Haven't been on in a few days but I'm glad this thread got some attention. I was hoping for just a couple of people who are super visual like me to see it, because it's definitely helping me now on my exams for my coursework, and I expect it to continue to be a great supplement come time for boards.

 

[BooRadley85]

I've been using Picmonic for the past few months as part of a trial group (possible bias acknowledged), but this has helped me a ton. I used it during our infection and immunity block to see how much it could actually help. I performed better in that block than any other block so far and have retained most of it (rare for me). It's definitely not for everyone but I'm planning on having the 300+ HY cards memorized before Step 1 study "starts". I also have been using pathoma and Picmonic been helping me retainthat stuff better as well.

*no conflicts of interest

 

[Gavanshir]

Way too expensive. As former students themselves, it sucks that they chose the greedy route.

 

[Brathmore]

For "visual learners," there are also other alternatives that are much less expensive than Picmonic. I won't enter into the debate of whether picmonic is better or worse than these alternatives, but each of these products can be purchased used off of amazon and then resold - so you'll be out $5 dollars are so per product after reselling due to unavoidable shipping costs. The products are:

--PharMnemonics Flash cards (black in white)
--MicroMnemonics Flash Cards (excellent - in color...)
--The "Ridiculously Simple" Books (Micro, Pathology, etc. are all very good).

These might be good options for people on a tight budget. I actually am not a fan of any of these products that make up weird stories to help you memorize things - one reason I don't think picmonic would be good for me.

 

[DearScience]

Just from a medstudent-consumer perspective, I really believe your company would land a significant amount of customers if the price for the USMLE pack was dropped. I was discussing Picmonic with other several other students in my class after we've finished the trial pack. We were definitely impressed with the amount of detail and illustrations. However, if we compared the value between Picmonic and Pathoma, then we realized how over-priced your product is.

Pathoma - $100 for 200+ hours of material
Picmonic - $250 for ~10 hours of material?

 

[cage92]

hey guys really reallly its a wonderful product and of course if you dropp you price you will be a competitve company and please add more card like molecular bio and behavioral.... plz

 

[doublejump]

I would like to point out that probably half the positive reviewers on this thread are sponsored by picmonic. With that said I actually have a copy of picmonic and I think the product is great. It helps for retention and provides a way to memorize complicated diseases, organisms, drugs, etc. that ordinarily would be impossible to remember using logic or diagrams. I totally support their site but also am in agreement that the price might be a little high compared to other prep tools. I can kinda empathize however in that lowering your product's price is easier on the current fanbase than raising it.

 

[rxconquistador]

This is very similar to the visual mnemonics series of books by Laurie Marbas.

A youtube lady turned the books into narrated draw-along videos (90+ of them) & posted them on youtube for FREE.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tamara419

 

[894rty]

Seems like a nice product but definitely will not be trying it cause it is waaaayyyyyy overpriced!!!! If it was $50 for the 6-month, then I'm petty sure I'd jump on the ship.

To the developers - You can still make good money if you lower the price (as you will have more subscribers)

 

[saalik786]

yeah, the price is ridiculous. Even, with their new discounts, pricing is still incredibly steep.

Here are some price comparisons:

12-month picmonic subscription (w/ 35% off discount) = ~$227
Pathoma = $99
Goljan Rapid Review Pathology = ~$40
FA 2013 = ~$40
USMLERx = $150 until you pass (I remember I got a $50 discount by joining one of the national organizations for free, this should still be available)
Kaplan qbank = $250 for the year (there may be an additional discount as w/ USMLERx)

So, there you have it. Picmonic is ridiculously overpriced. Any of the other resources definitely offer more content and worth for the buck. In addition, the amount of work put behind any of the other resources vs picmonic cannot be even compared. The developers definitely need to lower the price.

 

[saalik786]

Ronnie, please lower the price. Your product pricing is ridiculously steep. 😱

Given that your a 3rd year student, I'm sure you can refer and compare the pricing to the resources that you used last year. I know many ppl who would buy it if the price was much lower.

Hey everyone!

I’m Ronnie, a 3rd year med student and co-founder of Picmonic. I spent the last two years of my life helping create the Picmonic learning system for medicine and its my personal goal to make it available for all my fellow med friends.

I've tried pretty much every Step 1 prep tool on the market, and I am confident that you're going to find a lot of value in what Picmonic has to offer. Mastering the details of the drugs, bugs, and diseases has seriously never been easier.

We are currently offering campus-wide discounts to schools with Picmonic advocates who help us spread the word. If you're interested, get in touch with me! [email protected]

Good luck studying!

Cheers,
Ronnie

 

[DocDO2B]

Ronnie, please lower the price. Your product pricing is ridiculously steep. 😱

Given that your a 3rd year student, I'm sure you can refer and compare the pricing to the resources that you used last year. I know many ppl who would buy it if the price was much lower.

I second the lowering of the price suggestion! if you were to lower the price in the range of 40-50% you would have an increase in people buying your product that would greatly surpass the amount your loosing by the decrease....You'd make more money and since more students would be using the product this year it would have more exposure and more students using the product in future years ( then you could increase the price).

 

[DocDO2B]

make the total step 1 study package about $50 and ppl will buy it

 

[123880]

Looks like they're doing a $99 special on this right now. Thoughts on if it's worth it?

 

[hrain]

Looks like they're doing a $99 special on this right now. Thoughts on if it's worth it?

Yeah so I actually ended up getting it after the special started, and I have to admit that I really like it. There have been quite a few questions on UW (primarily in biochem) where I get the answer right solely because of Picmonic. That said, it depends on the person, because I'm especially bad in straight memorizing subjects like biochem and micro but I can look at a picture and recall it pretty quickly. So I see that the question is clearly about alkaptonuria and can very quickly remember the burning fumarate tire that represented failure of tyrosine conversion to fumarate. That may not be true for all people.

That said, I sadly didn't leave myself enough time to really put much into Picmonic. If it's a choice between that and UW, I'm always going to choose UW, so w my exam a week away I've still only gotten through 20-30 cards. But those cards have been really helpful,
So I'd say that if you learn well via pictures and mnemonics, and if you have time, you should definitely go for it n