Gunner Training?

[hope2bpaindoc]

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[failureatlife]

Would you folks say there is anything from UWorld/Step1 that wasn't covered in GT?

Thinking about focusing on GT almost exclusively.

Also how do you achieve 100% mastery in a subject? I just did all the questions in a subject with 4's and 5's, all cards banked, but didn't get 100%.

 

[Alvarez13]

Would you folks say there is anything from UWorld/Step1 that wasn't covered in GT?

Thinking about focusing on GT almost exclusively.

Also how do you achieve 100% mastery in a subject? I just did all the questions in a subject with 4's and 5's, all cards banked, but didn't get 100%.

I was annoyed about this when I "mastered" biochem. I had a 4 on every card an a 5 on a couple and was stuck at like 52%.

100% mastery = 5 on all questions. All 4's ends up being only 50%. Gotta go to the next level!

 

[Alvarez13]

I really can't wait to see this thread after June. To see if this system really works out as well as we think it is. Hopefully we'll all be writing testimonials for our +250 scores.

 

[WarriorMD]

7 months is more than enough time to use GT. If you bank ~5 cards/day you'll be done in 7 months. In my experience, 5 cards/day would probably take 20 min to an hour to bank (depending on the length of the card, your comfort level with the material, and the number of associated questions). If you bank the cards slowly and consistently over time, and if you don't rank all your review questions at 1's or 2's even when you know the answer (which some people do), you will not be accumulating 300-500 questions to answer every day. The highest I got to was about 380 questions in a day, and that was after a few catch-up weeks of banking 10-20 cards/day. I would say the average number of questions I was getting was closer to 200 (I was pretty much banking 10 cards/day consistently throughout fall semester of MS2).

After getting used to GT, I was able to get through ~100 or so questions in 30 minutes. The key is to just go through as quickly as possible so your recall gets faster. Also, if you're not a fan of sitting down to do hundreds of questions at once, you always have the option of doing 10 questions here and there throughout the day whenever you find yourself with some free time (e.g. waiting in line somewhere, on the bus, whatever).

Give the 1 month trial a shot!

Hi, thank you for your input. I signed up last night and am just waiting for a confirmation code. Maybe I'll try signing up again.

If you need a free month just PM me the link and I'll sign up through your link since you did take the time to help me out.

 

[Bernoull]

I really can't wait to see this thread after June. To see if this system really works out as well as we think it is. Hopefully we'll all be writing testimonials for our +250 scores.

From ur mouth to God's ears..

 

[DoctwoB]

I was annoyed about this when I "mastered" biochem. I had a 4 on every card an a 5 on a couple and was stuck at like 52%.

100% mastery = 5 on all questions. All 4's ends up being only 50%. Gotta go to the next level!

Ah, so that explains it. I've been stuck at ~50% mastery for a while despite having ~90% added and knowing my stuff pretty well. It must be pretty user dependent, as I tend to put 4 as my answer for things I know unless its like painfully obvious, in which I'll throw down a 5.

That being said, GT is the ****. I've been doing it since first year and now when I've started to go over first aid, I feel like I already know everything in there (+ a lot more detail that isn't in first aid) and am just reminding myself. Hopefully this will translate into a good score (been pulling ~82% on kaplan Qbank so far).

 

[WarriorMD]

Since I sent this in a PM to someone I thought I'd post it up here too.

I have about 7-8 months left until my exam, just began prep right now and am RE-LEARNING alllll the concepts from scratch so I have to commit a good portion of my day to videos and reading, but I would also like to commit some time to GT.

Would you say it's just as helpful for every course? Or would I be better off using it for subjects which FA is known be good in and subjects that require a lot of memorization.

I feel like Micro, Pharm and Biochem are very well written in FA so if I knew those sections cold using GT I feel like I'd be pretty well off in them. I feel like this would require less of a commitment to GT as well and allow me to have more time to just understand concepts from path/phys.

For physio and path I feel like if I just understand the concepts I'd be better off using questions to learn to apply them, but you guys probably know better then me when it comes to this.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

[bassvp]

I really can't wait to see this thread after June. To see if this system really works out as well as we think it is. Hopefully we'll all be writing testimonials for our +250 scores.

Seriously, I'm not even in school, but you guys have me pumped about this.

 

[Jack is Back]

Guys, if you aren't even in med school get the hell out of a step 1 forum. The earliest I would start this is end of 1st semester. Let yourself adjust to school. Also, I think I speak for most of us, Step 1 is a means to an end. It's not something to obsess about before or even during med school. I want to do well enough so that it's a positive on my app, that's all.

Getting excited about GT 6 months before your white coat ceremony is scary.

 

[Jack is Back]

Seriously, I'm not even in school, but you guys have me pumped about this.

Wow bro. Go do something else please.

 

[LaCasta]

I really like GT but I started kind of late and I am only at 10% of cards completed.

It's getting to the point where I haven't been able to do any new cards or review questions at all for a couple weeks.

I don't want to give up on it, but it's come down to either spending 30 min to an hour or so a day adding new cards or doing the review questions, but I don't think I can do both. So I thought that I might just try to finish as many cards as possible in the next couple months or so.

My question is, what happens if you just complete cards without doing your daily review questions? Are they going to pile up to a ridiculous number that would make it hard to get through later on?

 

[ashik33]

what do these numbers in the personal study plan mean? like i do have 0 for today 2 for tomorrow and 7 for day after tomorrow?
(I am on the third day of my first month (just got it) and things look interesting, at least for now...)

 

[DoctwoB]

I really like GT but I started kind of late and I am only at 10% of cards completed.

It's getting to the point where I haven't been able to do any new cards or review questions at all for a couple weeks.

I don't want to give up on it, but it's come down to either spending 30 min to an hour or so a day adding new cards or doing the review questions, but I don't think I can do both. So I thought that I might just try to finish as many cards as possible in the next couple months or so.

My question is, what happens if you just complete cards without doing your daily review questions? Are they going to pile up to a ridiculous number that would make it hard to get through later on?

If you add cards and then don't do review Q's, you will get a ridiculous # of Q's piled up, and eventually those Q's will enter your "forgotten" bank and be removed from your review schedule, in which case you'll need to add those cards again.

Honestly the daily review is the main reason to use gunner training, and most of the info on the cards can just be read from first aid or other sources, so I highly recommend using it, even if you need to go lite mode for now.

If you have a basic understanding of the info, you can just add the cards also after a quick once over and then use repeated questions to learn the material instead of staring at the flashcards until you memorize them.

 

[WarriorMD]

Just looked through the Anatomy sectino of GT... WOW they don't leave out a single detail.

GT actually has more details than the Kaplan Anatomy book does surprisingly.

 

[jhamaican]

Seriously, I'm not even in school, but you guys have me pumped about this.

... This is why I minimize contact with my classmates.

 

[bassvp]

Guys, if you aren't even in med school get the hell out of a step 1 forum. The earliest I would start this is end of 1st semester. Let yourself adjust to school. Also, I think I speak for most of us, Step 1 is a means to an end. It's not something to obsess about before or even during med school. I want to do well enough so that it's a positive on my app, that's all.

Getting excited about GT 6 months before your white coat ceremony is scary.

Or I could be the person who asks if GT works 2 months before they take Step 1. I'm just trying to see some of the available study methods so that I don't have to go searching for resources while I'm stressing out about a test. As I recall, several on here have said to start using GT even when they start anatomy. Funny, how would someone start GT at the beginning of school unless they'd ventured here and found out about it? I am NOT excited about Step 1, but I AM excited about a possible method to retain information over the long haul. Apparently everyone in this thread obsesses about Step I at least a little, otherwise they wouldn't be using GT more than 2nd semester of second year. Back off. (thank you, kindly)

 

[Chirurg]

Just looked through the Anatomy sectino of GT... WOW they don't leave out a single detail.

GT actually has more details than the Kaplan Anatomy book does surprisingly.

nice!
I havent started anatomy yet, but good to know!
anyone else agree with the above?

 

[Jack is Back]

Or I could be the person who asks if GT works 2 months before they take Step 1. I'm just trying to see some of the available study methods so that I don't have to go searching for resources while I'm stressing out about a test. As I recall, several on here have said to start using GT even when they start anatomy. Funny, how would someone start GT at the beginning of school unless they'd ventured here and found out about it? I am NOT excited about Step 1, but I AM excited about a possible method to retain information over the long haul. Apparently everyone in this thread obsesses about Step I at least a little, otherwise they wouldn't be using GT more than 2nd semester of second year. Back off. (thank you, kindly)

You're the high school kid learning how to take the MCAT.

There's a proper time for everything. Patience...

 

[jpudge12]

Does anyone know in what topics they are adding the new cards to??

 

[ipizzy]

Does anyone know in what topics they are adding the new cards to??

They did an overhaul of biochem (they added a few new cards, but the bulk of the updating was adding new info to existing cards). Recently, they've also added a few cards to pulmonology and GI. However, it looks like they just pulled out a bunch of cancer facts from existing cards, made separate cards for cancers, and added a few details here and there. Other than those three subjects, I can't think of any subject in particular that has seen a great deal of attention; mostly it seems like random cards have been added here and there all over the place

 

[gravitywave]

They did an overhaul of biochem (they added a few new cards, but the bulk of the updating was adding new info to existing cards). Recently, they've also added a few cards to pulmonology and GI. However, it looks like they just pulled out a bunch of cancer facts from existing cards, made separate cards for cancers, and added a few details here and there. Other than those three subjects, I can't think of any subject in particular that has seen a great deal of attention; mostly it seems like random cards have been added here and there all over the place

true, and what's kinda funny is that i had gotten frustrated with the spareness of the Biochemistry section and put a lot of notes in there from RR Biochem... and then they revised it with more questions and i was able to go back and delete about half the notes i took, lolz

 

[DoctwoB]

Does anyone know in what topics they are adding the new cards to??

Brand new entire anatomy section. As a second year who took anatomy first thing first year, this has been pure gold.

 

[JackShephard MD]

That's one of the things I like about GT, they adapt well.

 

[FIREitUP]

Free 1 month trial for anyone interested:

http://www.gunnertraining.com/free_trial/1251176

thanks for the link. Just started it and I really like how it's organized. I'm really considering using this and when I get a tablet this will work really well on it. Good luck all

Edit: Does anyone find the anatomy to be a little too detailed or is it just me?

 

[WarriorMD]

I think I'm with you on that one.
It seems to cover everything my kaplan book covered + More.

 

[FIREitUP]

I think I'm with you on that one.
It seems to cover everything my kaplan book covered + More.

It actually seems to go to as much depth as an M1 course in anatomy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing...

 

[WarriorMD]

It actually seems to go to as much depth as an M1 course in anatomy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing...

Yeah for now I am going to skip the anatomy portion.
Eventually what I might do is start marking questions as a 5 if I feel that information is too in depth and stick to the main points for anatomy.

Seems like if you know everything in GT and you know how to apply it you will definitely have one of those top scores on the usmle. Only problem is sometimes I wonder if I might try to absorb a bit too much a bit too fast and end up having mediocre knowledge in everything vs. great knowledge in only some things (aka high yield stuff).

 

[DoctwoB]

Yeah for now I am going to skip the anatomy portion.
Eventually what I might do is start marking questions as a 5 if I feel that information is too in depth and stick to the main points for anatomy.

Seems like if you know everything in GT and you know how to apply it you will definitely have one of those top scores on the usmle. Only problem is sometimes I wonder if I might try to absorb a bit too much a bit too fast and end up having mediocre knowledge in everything vs. great knowledge in only some things (aka high yield stuff).

FWIW, i've done a lot of kaplan/UW questions, and they love the "you have this injury, what is the motor/sensation deficit. They're really easy questions to write and are automatically 2nd degree as you have to know the anatomy to know what is likely to get injured and know the innervation patterns to determine the effect. Some are classic presentations that you can memorize (Erb-duchenne, klumpke's, etc.) but some are tricky that require good knowledge of anatomy.

 

[secants]

I was kind of surprised at this but they added a separate Derm section under organ system.

 

[seaotter1]

Pretty bummed, 700 questions tomorrow without missing a day..... nooooooo!!!!

 

[gammaknife]

can anyone pm me the code for a free month please? Just starting my step1. Thank you

 

[Bernoull]

Pretty bummed, 700 questions tomorrow without missing a day..... nooooooo!!!!

That's depressing!! R u banking a ton of cards or rating things 1-2? How far along are you?

This semester, I'm rating things in my current block 1-3 and i've been getting 250-350 cards/day... nothing as crazy as yours, but it's a big jump from my norm and it's tough to keep up with... On the plus side, my retention is definitely improving!

 

[ThrusH]

For those of you using GT alongside your coursework, what have you found to be the best strategy of integrating your coursework into GT? Are you adding cards while reviewing and purposely rating them lower to see them more frequently, or do you only add cards after you have learned the info for class? I am an MS1, and can tell GT will be invaluable for board prep, but I am trying to figure out if I can use it to help me rock my classes right now, and retain all the info I'm learning for next year.

 

[FIREitUP]

For those of you using GT alongside your coursework, what have you found to be the best strategy of integrating your coursework into GT? Are you adding cards while reviewing and purposely rating them lower to see them more frequently, or do you only add cards after you have learned the info for class? I am an MS1, and can tell GT will be invaluable for board prep, but I am trying to figure out if I can use it to help me rock my classes right now, and retain all the info I'm learning for next year.

just manually find the cards and study them.

 

[Alvarez13]

just manually find the cards and study them.

 

[Jack is Back]

Pretty bummed, 700 questions tomorrow without missing a day..... nooooooo!!!!

How fast are you guys going through cards? How many per hour?

Are you doing more than 100 Q's per hour? 400 Q's a day seems like a massive amount, 500+ seems like it would be impossible to do with course work.

 

[gravitywave]

How fast are you guys going through cards? How many per hour?

Are you doing more than 100 Q's per hour? 400 Q's a day seems like a massive amount, 500+ seems like it would be impossible to do with course work.

300 takes me about 4-4.5 hours. sometimes longer if i just banked a bunch of stuff the week before and it's coming up for the first review.

 

[Alvarez13]

How fast are you guys going through cards? How many per hour?

Are you doing more than 100 Q's per hour? 400 Q's a day seems like a massive amount, 500+ seems like it would be impossible to do with course work.

My pace is around 80 cards in an hour if I'm fairly focused for that hour. I try to keep my pile around 160/day. Starting to think I need to bump that number up and try to get done sooner. I'm projected to hit 100% banked by mid May and then was planning on using the month off to just do Uworld and nothing else.

 

[Jalopoo]

How fast are you guys going through cards? How many per hour?

Are you doing more than 100 Q's per hour? 400 Q's a day seems like a massive amount, 500+ seems like it would be impossible to do with course work.

I did about 70 cards per hour but 2-3 weeks ago I tried to keep a pace of 10 question per 5 minutes.
That kept me more focused if I had a little pressure on me. I have gotten used to doing it at that speed now so if it's not too many long questions I do about 160q in 1 hour.

 

[nopo18]

I did about 70 cards per hour but 2-3 weeks ago I tried to keep a pace of 10 question per 5 minutes.
That kept me more focused if I had a little pressure on me. I have gotten used to doing it at that speed now so if it's not too many long questions I do about 160q in 1 hour.

This.

Using a stopwatch when doing GT IMO greatly has helped my recall!

I go real slow when I bank stuff to make sure I understand it all, but if it's on the daily review, it's timed. Best way to do GT for me.

 

[amaprez]

300 takes me about 4-4.5 hours. sometimes longer if i just banked a bunch of stuff the week before and it's coming up for the first review.

holy smokes how do you keep up with class? Or do you not go & just watch lectures at home to free up time?

 

[gravitywave]

This.

Using a stopwatch when doing GT IMO greatly has helped my recall!

I go real slow when I bank stuff to make sure I understand it all, but if it's on the daily review, it's timed. Best way to do GT for me.

funny, i do it the other way around. read class notes/Goljan, chuck a few notes into the card if i think it's worth it, and take the quiz. i take a lot of 2s when it comes up for review the following week but i figure just let what sticks, stick. the rest will take care of itself as the system figures out that i'm not retaining it.

although: maybe we have different definitions for 'slow.' it takes me about 60-75 minutes to assemble a quiz when banking cards (20-25 qs). maybe that's slow, to you.

holy smokes how do you keep up with class? Or do you not go & just watch lectures at home to free up time?

see above. i get pretty good retention on a quick first pass; the rest requires a steady pounding. 300 is a big (painful) day, my daily average is about 225. but no, i don't go to class much.

 

[DoctwoB]

For those of you using GT alongside your coursework, what have you found to be the best strategy of integrating your coursework into GT? Are you adding cards while reviewing and purposely rating them lower to see them more frequently, or do you only add cards after you have learned the info for class? I am an MS1, and can tell GT will be invaluable for board prep, but I am trying to figure out if I can use it to help me rock my classes right now, and retain all the info I'm learning for next year.

I try to add all the cards at the start of the class. Usually I can teach myself well enough that I understand things. By the end of the class, I've seen questions many times and mastered them, so that I know the information cold for the test.

 

[FIREitUP]

kind of a stupid question here...but if you due the quiz mode, do you rate your self based on your knowledge of the question (the red text) or that of the whole flashcard. Because sometimes I will know the questions but feel I want to see the card sooner because there are other things on it I need to know better. Thanks

 

[islandCrazy]

If you want to see the card sooner just click on "customize review schedule". That what I do for the cards I want to see sooner.

 

[anonymous56]

You guys are making me feel like I go through questions way too slowly. It takes me like 1-2 hours to do 40 questions, plus the restudy of the ones I rated 1 and 2's.

I expend a great deal of effort trying to get most of the details of the bulleted points, leading me to rate myself lower for missing details, but likely getting the overall picture. I also sometimes expect myself to know more than the question is directly asking

Further, restudying a card consists of me typing it out at least 3x.

Do you guys think I should lighten up on myself to get through stuff faster?

Also I'm an MS1 and have 20% banked currently if it matters.

 

[Alvarez13]

You guys are making me feel like I go through questions way too slowly. It takes me like 1-2 hours to do 40 questions, plus the restudy of the ones I rated 1 and 2's.

I expend a great deal of effort trying to get most of the details of the bulleted points, leading me to rate myself lower for missing details, but likely getting the overall picture. I also sometimes expect myself to know more than the question is directly asking

Further, restudying a card consists of me typing it out at least 3x.

Do you guys think I should lighten up on myself to get through stuff faster?

Also I'm an MS1 and have 20% banked currently if it matters.

Most of us started this as an MS2. To be 1/5 done as an MS1 is fantastic. If it's not hurting your class obligations and you feel like your really getting every last bit of these cards in your head, keep it up.

However, the pace will increase significantly come MS2 and you might not have as much time to work with this and may need to adjust.

It's too late for me, but it would've been amazing to been around 100% banked come end of Feb or so and then to just keep doing the cards over and over and get a lot of the qbanks done. Once you complete GT, you will have seen the majority of the info on step 1 and really just need to spend the time applying the info (qbanks). My goal is to be 100% banked and 80% mastery 1 month before my exam. I want that ENTIRE month to be just Uworld over and over without having to relearn anything.

 

[Jack is Back]

Most of us started this as an MS2. To be 1/5 done as an MS1 is fantastic. If it's not hurting your class obligations and you feel like your really getting every last bit of these cards in your head, keep it up.

However, the pace will increase significantly come MS2 and you might not have as much time to work with this and may need to adjust.

It's too late for me, but it would've been amazing to been around 100% banked come end of Feb or so and then to just keep doing the cards over and over and get a lot of the qbanks done. Once you complete GT, you will have seen the majority of the info on step 1 and really just need to spend the time applying the info (qbanks). My goal is to be 100% banked and 80% mastery 1 month before my exam. I want that ENTIRE month to be just Uworld over and over without having to relearn anything.

How would you be 100% banked in Feb?

You would just start learning material on your own before you covered the last 3 months of M2?

 

[CatFactorial]

How would you be 100% banked in Feb?

You would just start learning material on your own before you covered the last 3 months of M2?

some schools are done by then.

 

[Bernoull]

Most of us started this as an MS2. To be 1/5 done as an MS1 is fantastic. If it's not hurting your class obligations and you feel like your really getting every last bit of these cards in your head, keep it up.

However, the pace will increase significantly come MS2 and you might not have as much time to work with this and may need to adjust.

It's too late for me, but it would've been amazing to been around 100% banked come end of Feb or so and then to just keep doing the cards over and over and get a lot of the qbanks done. Once you complete GT, you will have seen the majority of the info on step 1 and really just need to spend the time applying the info (qbanks). My goal is to be 100% banked and 80% mastery 1 month before my exam. I want that ENTIRE month to be just Uworld over and over without having to relearn anything.

Are you doing, or have u completed, other things (RR Path, FA, Pathoma, BRS series etc) besides GT?