GAP year preM1 study material

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SteyrFWB

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Accepted to Med school one year ago (BS-MD), but took a GAP year and delayed start to next fall.

After reading romantic novels and traveling for the past half a year, I guess it is time to prepare and get into the mood for joining this medical school pirate ship.

i am wondering what material will give me most bang for the time/effort.

Not too gun-ho, LOL I took a gap year, should I buy Board and Beyond and watch those video? Not all topics, but just watch some high yield ones. And. by the way, what are those high yield topics?

Or should I buy Sketchymedical, and just go through micro, pharmacology, and pathology via those cartoons?

Or something else, for the best bang of the time/effort?
 
Most people will say to not do anything since this is the last time you will be free in who knows how long....however I always tell folks to read up on physiology since having an awesome foundation in that makes BioChem, Path and Pharm that much easier
 
SteyrFWB said:
Not too gun-ho, LOL I took a gap year, should I buy Board and Beyond and watch those video? Not all topics, but just watch some high yield ones. And. by the way, what are those high yield topics?

Or should I buy Sketchymedical, and just go through micro, pharmacology, and pathology via those cartoons?
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Ya thats gonna be a no for both of those, it will just be a waste of time. Learn how to use Anki and enjoy your free time
 
What are the Boards and Beyond high yield videos? All of them, that’s kind of the point of the resource...

I agree with all of the above posts: don’t do anything to prepare. You won’t retain it anyway.
 
Do not do this to yourself.

If you’re insistent, grab an anatomy atlas and familiarize yourself with body parts. That is about it.
 
You could start the Boards and Beyond videos that correspond to the first class modules and do Zanki. Wouldn't be a bad idea to do like a couple a week. J
 
It’s not a “waste of time” to study ahead like many people claim it is. You mostly study on your own once in school anyway, and you’ll remember the concepts better the second time while going through it. I think people just think you’re better off doing something more fun since the vast majority of students don’t prestudy and do fine. If you’re deadset on doing it, I wouldn’t study more than 1-2 hours a day.
 
Don’t buy any resources except maybe first aid. Everyone learns differently and we have plenty of people in our class who bought something they ended up hating or not using at all. Wait until you get past the first foundational block (if your school does that) and into the actual medical stuff then do free trials to see which resources fit your learning style, then you can buy those. You will save money and time that way.

Learn how to use anki. It is gold.
 
Don’t buy any of the video subscriptions. Even once you get to school. Literally every single video series. B&B, sketchy, pathoma, physeo all of the videos are all floating around. Even first aid if you can stand reading it via pdf.
 
Get into good meal prep, sleep, and exercise habits. This will save you literally, at the bare minimum, 10x more time than ANY pre-studying will do. I also agree with learning anki if you think you'll use it (meaning watch videos on how to mess with the settings and stuff). But as far as actual material, no.

For me at least (I went to a low tier UG and go to a med school with a very shortened curriculum), med school pace is so intense and the type of studying is so different that I don't think it would have been possible for me to really grasp what I needed to do. I would've saved maybe 1 day of studying per 1 week of time I spent pre-studying. It's just not a good trade-off. I see no reason to prolong the pre-clinical years for even more by pre-studying.
 
You shouldn't do anything. If you do feel like you need to do something, a pretty high yield but chill option would be watching a couple Boards and Beyond videos every few days. They're short and very well organized for learning big picture stuff for the first time
 
Don’t waste your time. Really. Just enjoy your time before school starts.
 
efle said:
You shouldn't do anything. If you do feel like you need to do something, a pretty high yield but chill option would be watching a couple Boards and Beyond videos every few days. They're short and very well organized for learning big picture stuff for the first time
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See Schwifty's response above. Honestly, I think time and energy would be better spent on hobbies outside of the structured medical School curriculum because the skills you learn can be easily transferred in other areas. Maybe a foreign language, an instrument, basic python/r, carpentry, knitting, sewing, getting swole literally anything else because you're definitely going to have your fill of the basic sciences once you start.

If I had to recommend something, you may get the most utility learning anatomical directions and terminology but that's about it.


Sent from my SM-G955U using SDN mobile
 
Yeah, I disagree w/ the "don't do anything mentality." I had that preached to me by so many people that I assumed it must be true. It simply wasn't. Those who pre-prepped had a massive advantage once "real" classes started and were able to have some reasonable life balance while the rest of us scrambled like rats trying to gulp down the material.

My advice is to spend a couple of hrs per day watching boards and beyond videos for a high-level overview of stuff so that when you see it in school it won't be the 1st pass. Two hrs per day won't destroy your life and unless you have anterograde amnesia you will retain at least some of it.
 
esob said:
Yeah, I disagree w/ the "don't do anything mentality." I had that preached to me by so many people that I assumed it must be true. It simply wasn't. Those who pre-prepped had a massive advantage once "real" classes started and were able to have some reasonable life balance while the rest of us scrambled like rats trying to gulp down the material.

My advice is to spend a couple of hrs per day watching boards and beyond videos for a high-level overview of stuff so that when you see it in school it won't be the 1st pass. Two hrs per day won't destroy your life and unless you have anterograde amnesia you will retain at least some of it.
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This 1000x. This is the advice you should take above all others. Screw everything else.people told me not to review ahead and I’m getting rammed every single day because of it. I would maybe even start doing the light year deck not specifically to study for boards but to help you remember what you saw. Again this is very based on the amount of time you have. Don’t strain yourself to do it. But if you have free time, then definitely. My wife is in a gap year and this is what she’s doing.
 
esob said:
Yeah, I disagree w/ the "don't do anything mentality." I had that preached to me by so many people that I assumed it must be true. It simply wasn't. Those who pre-prepped had a massive advantage once "real" classes started and were able to have some reasonable life balance while the rest of us scrambled like rats trying to gulp down the material.

My advice is to spend a couple of hrs per day watching boards and beyond videos for a high-level overview of stuff so that when you see it in school it won't be the 1st pass. Two hrs per day won't destroy your life and unless you have anterograde amnesia you will retain at least some of it.
Click to expand...

But if everyone does it then it becomes the “new normal”, and people ain’t trying to prestudy for class
 
Trolling aside, I could see prestudying with sketchy micro Zanki if micro is covered first semester and you just HAVE to do something.

if I watched BnB before school and knew every word on every slide was high yield I’d probably get scared and not go.
 
No studying at all... you have 4 years and residency and the rest of your life to do it.. None of the studying now will ever help you.
 
Sleepingdoc said:
No studying at all... you have 4 years and residency and the rest of your life to do it.. None of the studying now will ever help you.
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It might transiently help you in the first module until everyone catches up with everyone else. Not really worth that time that you could otherwise be doing something fun.
 
Thank you all for your input.

While most say, don’t touch med school materials, they did not die for not touching those stuff, a few contrarians kicked themselves for not doing it while having the time.

If I do it, in reality, i would probably not know whether it help Or not. But if I don’t do something, I know I will kick myself for not do something. So, as you guys advised, I will learn Anki, will watch just heart and lung of BnB. Those heart and lung stuff, whether I like it or not, will need to be learned one way or the other.

Will also continue my beauty sleep and romantic novel readings for my growth gap.
 
Just as a note, the potential downside of prestudying, in addition to wasting time, is early burnout. Just something to keep in mind.

I personally didn’t prestudy, and I never regretted that choice. Undergrad was preparation enough.
 
differentiating said:
Just as a note, the potential downside of prestudying, in addition to wasting time, is early burnout. Just something to keep in mind.

I personally didn’t prestudy, and I never regretted that choice. Undergrad was preparation enough.
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Just out of pure curiosity because more than likely, regardless of the recommendation, I still will probably just travel and catch up on tv shows, do you think that some form of cursory pre-review would be beneficial to those who came from nonstem backgrounds+ had a year gap between ugrad and matriculation to med school ?
 
Ak09 said:
Just out of pure curiosity because more than likely, regardless of the recommendation, I still will probably just travel and catch up on tv shows, do you think that some form of cursory pre-review would be beneficial to those who came from nonstem backgrounds+ had a year gap between ugrad and matriculation to med school ?
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I really doubt it - you’re not going to know what’s relevant and what’s not. The point of med school is to teach you, so imo, that’ll be sufficient. A good friend of mine was a nontrad humanities major and did just fine with the coursework.
 
CidHighwind said:
But if everyone does it then it becomes the “new normal”, and people ain’t trying to prestudy for class
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Everyone won't do it however, that is the nature of the beast. Also, I don't care about everyone else, I would like to be done by 3 o'clock everyday like the people who prestudied, lol
 
My own two cents, but I’m gunna call a hefty bull**** on the whole “you’ll have zero time in medical school for yourself, so don’t even THINK about studying before you get there.

Nonsense. I played way more video games and had way more free time in medical school than undergrad (granted I was very involved in undergrad and took hard courses). I’m AOA with all the nice juicy board scores. People get in their heads too much about medical school. it’s not hard, it’s just a lot of information.

learn how to use spaced-repetition programs (like Anki) and how to make effective cards. You can start making some cards in subjects you’ll hit in first year (look at first aid, make some cards from the biochem section to get your feet wet). Other than that, I’m not sure diving into anatomy will be useful bc they have a certain way to learn it. Unsure what other first year courses you take but if they’re not too hard hitting use some step1 review books to make anki cards. gl
 
I echo the sentiment about how “ridiculous” medical school is. IMO undergrad was a good deal harder than the first two years of medical school were (I went to a school that grade deflated). I could routinely slack off in medical school until a week before the test and still pass comfortably. Couldn’t do that as a ugrad.
 
You are free to do whatever you choose.. It is rediculous to think you can cram years worth of material in the matter of few months and not be tired/burnt out., you dont get cookies once you are burnt out. Go on a vacation.. you wont get this time back...
 
Life is short. You are (presumably) young, healthy, and have a future career lined up. These next few months of your life can be the best of your life if you have the right mindset. When people say you won't have time to do all the things you want, they aren't exaggerating. I got in off of a waitlist in late march, and wish I had more time to do certain things. Luckily I had some money in the bank from working so I made trips to the middle east, south america, europe.

Talk to normal people around the world that have normal careers. Many of them seem happy. Many of them don't spend days per week toiling in the hospital or doing 1500 flashcards per day. Get that perspective. Get addicted or readdicted to that videogame you gave up in high school because you needed the best scores in your class to get into medical school. Stop saying no to the gym. Or your diet. Learn how to cook correctly. Get to the doctor if you have any health concerns. Search or spend time with a boy/girlfriend. Spend time with your family. You won't be seeing as much of them in the future as you are used to. Learn a new language (spanish if you had to pick one).

But do not, I REPEAT, do not, study before medical school. Why? Because I know if I had, I would've come in frantically afraid and maybe have even thought long and hard about my decision to go to medical school in the first place. Maybe I would've decided not to do it. Why? God I hated anatomy, it was the bane of my existence. That was my first semester. I have no regrets now about choosing this career, but the advice I got here not to prestudy was excellent advice.

Enjoy your bliss.
 
Good ol' sdn...

OP: Wut to prestudy?
most replies: "just don't"

Reminds me of middle school English when the teacher asked us to write about a wild dream coming true. I wrote about becoming a celebrity--teacher actually failed the people who wrote "i'M haPpY tHe WaY mY LifE IzzZZ"

Pardon the salt. I don't know what to make of it, I'm also tempted to prestudy, on the interview trail a prof told me specifically to prestudy because she recognized that I might be someone who could benefit from it (for whatever reason). She said that whether its in a month or in a few years, anything you see for the second time will be that much easier to understand and take less time. My take is that people who don't prestudy just want you to appreciate your time off, and people who do want you to be prepared. To me these aren't mutually exclusive.

Ultimately I do want to get in shape and in a good workout/diet routine in these next 6 months, and work on my hobbies like piano, etc., but I'm in a position where I don't have to work much and with my spare time I do enjoy looking ahead and will probably brush up if not dedicated-study some things; thanks for the post I'll probably take some of the advice about materials posted here.
 
Gonzalo de Montalvo said:
Good ol' sdn...

OP: Wut to prestudy?
most replies: "just don't"

Reminds me of middle school English when the teacher asked us to write about a wild dream coming true. I wrote about becoming a celebrity--teacher actually failed the people who wrote "i'M haPpY tHe WaY mY LifE IzzZZ"

Pardon the salt. I don't know what to make of it, I'm also tempted to prestudy, on the interview trail a prof told me specifically to prestudy because she recognized that I might be someone who could benefit from it (for whatever reason). She said that whether its in a month or in a few years, anything you see for the second time will be that much easier to understand and take less time. My take is that people who don't prestudy just want you to appreciate your time off, and people who do want you to be prepared. To me these aren't mutually exclusive.

Ultimately I do want to get in shape and in a good workout/diet routine in these next 6 months, and work on my hobbies like piano, etc., but I'm in a position where I don't have to work much and with my spare time I do enjoy looking ahead and will probably brush up if not dedicated-study some things; thanks for the post I'll probably take some of the advice about materials posted here.
Click to expand...

I mean I don’t think anyone really thinks you absolutely cannot prestudy a little. The point is just don’t turn down other things to prestudy because it really won’t help you that much. Go out and have fun. Learn a new hobby. Travel. Etc. And if you do have extra time and want to watch some BnB, go ahead.

Really though, I would wait to buy any resources just because you don’t want to waste money on something you might not use.
 
Gonzalo de Montalvo said:
Good ol' sdn...

OP: Wut to prestudy?
most replies: "just don't"

Reminds me of middle school English when the teacher asked us to write about a wild dream coming true. I wrote about becoming a celebrity--teacher actually failed the people who wrote "i'M haPpY tHe WaY mY LifE IzzZZ"

Pardon the salt. I don't know what to make of it, I'm also tempted to prestudy, on the interview trail a prof told me specifically to prestudy because she recognized that I might be someone who could benefit from it (for whatever reason). She said that whether its in a month or in a few years, anything you see for the second time will be that much easier to understand and take less time. My take is that people who don't prestudy just want you to appreciate your time off, and people who do want you to be prepared. To me these aren't mutually exclusive.

Ultimately I do want to get in shape and in a good workout/diet routine in these next 6 months, and work on my hobbies like piano, etc., but I'm in a position where I don't have to work much and with my spare time I do enjoy looking ahead and will probably brush up if not dedicated-study some things; thanks for the post I'll probably take some of the advice about materials posted here.
Click to expand...
Just dont man. You just dont have a clue
 
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