Gunner Training....my personal tips

[Elbowstoopointy]

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Personally, I decided to start using gunner training about 6 weeks out from MS2. Some start earlier, some later- but one thing I will say is that this is NOT the program to learn new info from, rather it is something that is very useful in relearning high yield concepts from class you have ALREADY HAD.

That being said- here are my tips

1) Never use the flashcards to learn things you have never seen before. They will not make as much sense and you will lack depth. This is literally like trying to use FA the first time you are learning something. Bad idea

2) DO use it along with your classes, after you have a good grasp on a chapter. Doing renal phys? After you have a decent foundation, grind through the renal flash cards. Continue to review all the renal questions EVERY DAY while you are in the class. This cements it

3) Do not fully trust the schedule it makes for you. Some days it tells me to do 400 questions, other days like 5? Wtf...use your own judgment. If you know you suck at GI and its not giving you enough GI, they give you the option to practice more GI q's on your own. Do it.

4) Do not start this during your dedicated study period. This program is about long term repetition...

5) Finally, don't rush through anything on here. You are already being smart and studying for the step early by using this program, no need to blaze through flash cards. If something isn't making sense, go look it up online and understand it. Always focus on understanding vs memorizing.

6) Hit F11, you are now in fullscreen mode and will be less distracted to go on facebook or some other stupid website


That being said, my advice means nothing since I started MS2 like last week....but I have been using GT for about 6 weeks and am able to recall some pretty high yield stuff many likely forgot going into M2.

Good luck...

Edit: In before

 

[Goober11]

I appreciate the advice. Thinking of starting GT after my first block in M1.

 

[Ortho Guy]

If most of M1 is crammable during 2nd year, then why dedicate time to study for it during M1+M2. Why not just study for boards when the time comes?

It seems like a large time commitment and a distraction from coursework.

 

[AestheticMed]

What is that?

 

[armybound]

If most of M1 is crammable during 2nd year, then why dedicate time to study for it during M1+M2. Why not just study for boards when the time comes?

It seems like a large time commitment and a distraction from coursework.

maybe it's crammable because you've learned it before

 

[Fleur de Me]

Nice! Thanks for this post- I just started using it although at the moment I'm rushing through it a bit and don't really have the method down.

Start a new block soon, so I will try your approach and see how it works. It definitely seemed overwhelming when I hadn't seen any of the material before- and having to do straight recall for the questions (no multiple choice? ever?), made me feel like I didn't know anything.

But, I'm going to stick with it, it seems like an excellent resource once I figure out how to use it correctly.

 

[Elbowstoopointy]

If most of M1 is crammable during 2nd year, then why dedicate time to study for it during M1+M2. Why not just study for boards when the time comes?

It seems like a large time commitment and a distraction from coursework.

Lol at thinking coursework is more important than boards....

 

[shadowfox87]

Personally, I decided to start using gunner training about 6 weeks out from MS2. Some start earlier, some later- but one thing I will say is that this is NOT the program to learn new info from, rather it is something that is very useful in relearning high yield concepts from class you have ALREADY HAD.

That being said- here are my tips

1) Never use the flashcards to learn things you have never seen before. They will not make as much sense and you will lack depth. This is literally like trying to use FA the first time you are learning something. Bad idea

2) DO use it along with your classes, after you have a good grasp on a chapter. Doing renal phys? After you have a decent foundation, grind through the renal flash cards. Continue to review all the renal questions EVERY DAY while you are in the class. This cements it

Thank you. Someone understands that this just passive memorization. I got a subscription to gunner training too, but I still haven't used it. I want to get my foundations down first in M2, then I'll do FA and Gunner Training. Most people are looking for shortcuts which is why they go straight to the flashcards, but that never sticks.

 

[Elbowstoopointy]

Thank you. Someone understands that this just passive memorization. I got a subscription to gunner training too, but I still haven't used it. I want to get my foundations down first in M2, then I'll do FA and Gunner Training. Most people are looking for shortcuts which is why they go straight to the flashcards, but that never sticks.

exactly...call me old fashion, but i read from textbooks then distill the info

 

[BushidoBrown]

Thanks for the info elbow, but thank you even more for the awesome gif 👍

 

[Ortho Guy]

Lol at thinking coursework is more important than boards....

So during M1, boards are more important than coursework?

 

[Nasrudin]

Great thread topic for those of trying to hone our use of the program.

My notes so far add little to the OP except a few things:

If you get bored quickly reading and flipping through slides this program has a lot to offer you.

Also. I will read review book chapters. Watch some instructional test prop videos and then go straight to GT.


So far this seems to work for me.

However keeping the GT program to track your studies without excessive review on material your not working on in class takes some finesse. And practice. Easier, I imagine when my curriculum starts to track systems pathology. But for an integrated curriculum in an introductory phase. This is slightly elusive.

i've already made some mistakes with that and have been bludgeoned by stuff not going on in class.

I really do like to do most of my work with GT though. i am happy to have a general idea of a topic from board prep review studies and then go stright to prodding it with questions and cases. It keeps me interested and moving along. Passive learning is hard for me in large quantities.

And I agree with the OP. I stop all the time to look things up that I don't understand. Which really expands the GT format into your own ongoing problem-based learning curriculum.

But it is hella time consuming. And I haven't quite figured out how to do it well with everything else going on yet.

 

[lrkoehle]

4) Do not start this during your dedicated study period. This program is about long term repetition...

5) Finally, don't rush through anything on here. You are already being smart and studying for the step early by using this program, no need to blaze through flash cards. If something isn't making sense, go look it up online and understand it. Always focus on understanding vs memorizing.

6) Hit F11, you are now in fullscreen mode and will be less distracted to go on facebook or some other stupid website

Just a couple of my own quick thoughts based on what you said above.

Definitely don't start this during dedicated board study time, that would be a waste. Given the long-term repetition nature of this program, I would say don't start it any later than the first day of winter break after fall of MS2. That way you can bank enough stuff at a reasonable pace.

Next, I definitely agree with not rushing through this thing. That will come back to bite you in two ways: 1) you take longer answering/reviewing questions because it's not something you're familiar with, and 2) you rank those questions lower, so you see them more frequently meaning more questions/day. If you rank something a 4 or 5 a few times you may not see that question again for 60-90 days (another reason to start this program early, if you are a couple months out from Step-I and you rank something a 5 you may not be scheduled to see that again until after step-I).

As for the F11 tip, I did not know that, so that will be a big help. I usually do my daily questions in the evening while watching TV, so that's enough of a distraction (although I do still retain the information really well surprisingly). Actually, I feel this program lends itself nicely to studying with a game on TV, because you can answer a question, check it, look at the TV, then read over the review of that question, then more TV. In 2 hours of TV watching I can get through 100 questions pretty easily. Plus, I'm with my wife while I do it, so that's kind of family time too. Talk about multi-tasking...

 

[Ortho Guy]

Just a couple of my own quick thoughts based on what you said above.

Definitely don't start this during dedicated board study time, that would be a waste. Given the long-term repetition nature of this program, I would say don't start it any later than the first day of winter break after fall of MS2. That way you can bank enough stuff at a reasonable pace.

Next, I definitely agree with not rushing through this thing. That will come back to bite you in two ways: 1) you take longer answering/reviewing questions because it's not something you're familiar with, and 2) you rank those questions lower, so you see them more frequently meaning more questions/day. If you rank something a 4 or 5 a few times you may not see that question again for 60-90 days (another reason to start this program early, if you are a couple months out from Step-I and you rank something a 5 you may not be scheduled to see that again until after step-I).

As for the F11 tip, I did not know that, so that will be a big help. I usually do my daily questions in the evening while watching TV, so that's enough of a distraction (although I do still retain the information really well surprisingly). Actually, I feel this program lends itself nicely to studying with a game on TV, because you can answer a question, check it, look at the TV, then read over the review of that question, then more TV. In 2 hours of TV watching I can get through 100 questions pretty easily. Plus, I'm with my wife while I do it, so that's kind of family time too. Talk about multi-tasking...

Good advice.

As for the TV + studying, I think you'd find more success at focusing all your effort on each task separately. You'll get more out of each activity in less time.

 

[lrkoehle]

Good advice.

As for the TV + studying, I think you'd find more success at focusing all your effort on each task separately. You'll get more out of each activity in less time.

I agree, but it gives me time with my wife where we can talk some/just be together. If I lock myself in our office/guest room to study in isolation, she starts getting needy and wants me to come out and be with her anyways. It's not ideal, but the trade-off keeps her happy and I get enough out of it to make it worth it. I think it's because the format of being able to do a question (or a few), then do something else, then I can come right back to doing questions.

For single folks though, I'd recommend not doing it with the TV on.

 

[YoungMoneyMD]

When would you recommend starting gunner training? I am starting first year and dont know if that would be too early or whether I could start now and have it be useful

 

[C5toC9]

start a month or two after you begin first year

 

[clifftacopter]

I subscribed to GT at the start of summer in hopes of being able to review a good chunk of MS1 content before starting second year. Of course, summer being summer, I did about 5% of what I had planned and made it (barely) through the biochem section. I found it really difficult to use because all of the MS1 material was tightly coupled to MS2 material (biochem has tons of clinical correlations and pathology I never learned).

I plan on having a second go at it once we switch to systems based curriculum after our "foundations" blocks this year. Hopefully then I'll find the material more accessible and useful.

 

[lrkoehle]

start a month or two after you begin first year

Even waiting until after the first semester isn't a bad idea. That way you have gotten the hang of things, and you've covered enough material to make it worth paying to review it with GT (no sense spending good money just to do 5 review questions a day). If you do this, you can do the month free-trial in December, and then sign up for the 18 month subscription in January if you like it.