Gunner Training?

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A

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

Wow. that's definitely intense and more power to you! It makes sense too, I think I'm avoiding the actual act of sitting down and reading FA cover to cover and GT is an outstanding alternative.

I'll let you know if I find a middle ground that works. Thanks for all your help!

All the best, Hippocrates! Find that balance.

 

[21385]

Anyone change the customize your review schedule thing? If so, what do people change it to?

Thanks!

 

[Bernoull]

For ppl reading primary sources (BRS, RR etc) and annotating FA, do u annotate during ur first reading or do u just read then annotate later (or during a 2nd pass)?

For those that read primary sources but don't annotate FA, do u take notes separately somewhere or do u just read/review (BRS/RR) as needed?

Just trying to get different viewpoints on this..

thx

 

[washingtondc]

Anyone change the customize your review schedule thing? If so, what do people change it to?

Thanks!

I changed it once before an exam block (rescheduling non-block systems to a date post-exams), and I regret doing it. GT clumps questions you've seen by their similar ratings and time since last review and I think my doing it in a one-off fashion threw off my algorithm for awhile.

My vote is to do what GT asks when it asks. It took me an extra week of catching up in a most awkward way.

That said, if there is a more nuanced way, I'm all ears.

 

[soccerboy2288]

I use it pretty often actually. Sometimes I have questions/concepts that I answer correctly easily at the time, but if I give it a score of 3 or 4, GT schedules that question to re-appear way later (like 30-60 days later or something; especially if its an old card that i looked at multiple times in the past). However, if I think that card has concepts I will forget easily, I will schedule that card to come up much sooner (like in 15 days or whatever).

Basically, I dont want certain cards to re-appear two months later... I'll definitely have forgotten it by then.

 

[soccerboy2288]

Anyone change the customize your review schedule thing? If so, what do people change it to?

Thanks!

I use it pretty often actually. Sometimes I have questions/concepts that I answer correctly easily at the time, but if I give it a score of 3 or 4, GT schedules that question to re-appear way later (like 30-60 days later or something; especially if its an old card that i looked at multiple times in the past). However, if I think that card has concepts I will forget easily, I will schedule that card to come up much sooner (like in 15 days or whatever).

Basically, I dont want certain cards to re-appear two months later... I'll definitely have forgotten it by then.

 

[Melkor]

I've been using GT since the beginning of this semester (OMS-1) and have found it to be a very useful tool in retaining what I have learned in my classes. Unfortunately I am still only doing lite mode (trying to maintain top 5-10% in class) which I know means I am forgetting a lot of information I once new.

I was wondering then if it was possible to switch to comprehensive mode maybe twice a week, do a few more questions (around 30-40 and not the 200-300 that it would give me), then switch back to lite mode. Would those 30-40 questions I did stay in my bank and continually come back up in lite mode or would they only show up again if I switched back to comprehensive?

I'm just trying really hard to find a balance between getting new cards from comprehensive (that I will see over and over again in lite mode) without having to spend 3-4 hours per day on GT. If this is not currently possible I think it would be a nice addition that would basically just give you more control over how long you are spending per day on questions.

 

[lrkoehle]

I've been using GT since the beginning of this semester (OMS-1) and have found it to be a very useful tool in retaining what I have learned in my classes. Unfortunately I am still only doing lite mode (trying to maintain top 5-10% in class) which I know means I am forgetting a lot of information I once new.

I was wondering then if it was possible to switch to comprehensive mode maybe twice a week, do a few more questions (around 30-40 and not the 200-300 that it would give me), then switch back to lite mode. Would those 30-40 questions I did stay in my bank and continually come back up in lite mode or would they only show up again if I switched back to comprehensive?

I'm just trying really hard to find a balance between getting new cards from comprehensive (that I will see over and over again in lite mode) without having to spend 3-4 hours per day on GT. If this is not currently possible I think it would be a nice addition that would basically just give you more control over how long you are spending per day on questions.

I hope I am understanding you correctly, but if not, sorry. No, doing questions from comprehensive mode and then switching back to lite mode does not then add those questions into the lite mode schedule. Lite mode and comprehensive mode each have their own set of questions (technically, lite mode is actually just a subset of the comprehensive mode questions, I believe).

I personally do not like the lite mode at all. I figure there is no lite version of Step-I, so you may as well prepare for everything in depth. I know that means more daily questions, but as a first year, you should have plenty of time to be mastering topics and therefore see them less frequently (i.e. less questions/day). If you're talking about spending 3-4 hours a day just doing questions, I fear you may be taking the wrong approach to this program, unless you're somehow ending up with like 600-800 questions per day. I don't want to take the time to address how you can make this program work more efficiently for you, because we just had a discussion on this very topic in the previous 2 pages. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out that conversation, because the tips we had for each other helped me go from around 150 questions/hour to now doing 200 questions per hour and not really feeling very rushed.

I hope that helps answer your question.

 

[Alvarez13]

I hope I am understanding you correctly, but if not, sorry. No, doing questions from comprehensive mode and then switching back to lite mode does not then add those questions into the lite mode schedule. Lite mode and comprehensive mode each have their own set of questions (technically, lite mode is actually just a subset of the comprehensive mode questions, I believe).

I personally do not like the lite mode at all. I figure there is no lite version of Step-I, so you may as well prepare for everything in depth. I know that means more daily questions, but as a first year, you should have plenty of time to be mastering topics and therefore see them less frequently (i.e. less questions/day). If you're talking about spending 3-4 hours a day just doing questions, I fear you may be taking the wrong approach to this program, unless you're somehow ending up with like 600-800 questions per day. I don't want to take the time to address how you can make this program work more efficiently for you, because we just had a discussion on this very topic in the previous 2 pages. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out that conversation, because the tips we had for each other helped me go from around 150 questions/hour to now doing 200 questions per hour and not really feeling very rushed.

I hope that helps answer your question.

I can't wait till you streamline things and come back with 500 cards/hr. Then it will be banking other people's cards and blowing up the server. "You're mine Step I...bwah!!!

 

[lrkoehle]

I can't wait till you streamline things and come back with 500 cards/hr. Then it will be banking other people's cards and blowing up the server. "You're mine Step I...bwah!!!

Haha, no doubt. My goal is to be able to do all of GT in a single day. That's when you know you've hit the big time! Anyways, I hope that the 200 questions/hr didn't come across as bragging, I was just trying to point out that with some streamlining, it is very possible to move quickly and efficiently through your daily GT questions. Believe me, I used to be very slow with my daily GT, especially early on, so if I can get that 150-200 Q/hr pace I think most people can. 😀

In other news, I FINALLY registered for step-I after people at my school were shocked I had waited so damn long without registering. I'll be taking that bad boy in 93 days...I better get studying!

 

[jumpdiscontinui]

For ppl reading primary sources (BRS, RR etc) and annotating FA, do u annotate during ur first reading or do u just read then annotate later (or during a 2nd pass)?

For those that read primary sources but don't annotate FA, do u take notes separately somewhere or do u just read/review (BRS/RR) as needed?

Just trying to get different viewpoints on this..

thx

I read RR/BRS/HY when I'm hunting for something (usually for confirmation about something I see in class/GT/qbanks).

On a side note, has anybody noticed that GT's started randomizing the order of the answer choices on the multiple choice questions? Don't know if it's just because I haven't been paying attention to the order before, but I noticed this just now with a question I had this morning and thought to myself -- wow, this tricky GT!
What a great idea though! All qbanks should do this by default.

 

[Alvarez13]

Haha, no doubt. My goal is to be able to do all of GT in a single day. That's when you know you've hit the big time! Anyways, I hope that the 200 questions/hr didn't come across as bragging, I was just trying to point out that with some streamlining, it is very possible to move quickly and efficiently through your daily GT questions. Believe me, I used to be very slow with my daily GT, especially early on, so if I can get that 150-200 Q/hr pace I think most people can. 😀

In other news, I FINALLY registered for step-I after people at my school were shocked I had waited so damn long without registering. I'll be taking that bad boy in 93 days...I better get studying!

1) I've been going for 15 min spurts now and the record is 46 questions. However, I don't have the attention span to go a full hour to try and hit 200. I aim on breaking that 444/2 hrs one day though! Rawr!

2) Yah, I got June 28 as the test day thru the school, but haven't shelled out the $535 or whatever. Absurd.

 

[amaprez]

How often do you guys submit feedback (reporting errors on cards,etc)?

I find that I do it 2-3x every week. It's kinda annoying but gratifying when they reply and fix it.

 

[Chirurg]

How often do you guys submit feedback (reporting errors on cards,etc)?

I find that I do it 2-3x every week. It's kinda annoying but gratifying when they reply and fix it.

about twice per month. Only if I see something contradicting Pathoma or Rapid Review.
I don't like doing it but I figure other people are doing it for my benefit, so should I.

 

[lrkoehle]

I've gone back and forth on whether or not to post this, but I figured why not. Reading everyone talk about there progress and what they needed to get done to finish GT in time (mid-April for most of us) helped motivate me to really buckle down and start finishing up banking cards. I figure if I share my progress others may share theirs and we can help motivate each other to keep at it strong.

Over the past 10 days I have banked 129 new cards, which isn't where I want to be, but I did miss 3 days of GT out of town for a wedding during that time, so it's not bad. I'm now up to 56.8% complete (604/1064) with 32.7% mastered.

I'm hoping I can step up the pace a bit over the next couple weeks (let schoolwork slide) and finish this thing off. If I can hit like 20-25 cards banked/day I could be finished by early April. I figure if I do that, even if I have like 500-600 questions/day for a couple weeks until I master more of it, it won't be too bad if all I am doing is my daily questions and not being bogged down with banking new cards.

Hopefully everyone else is progressing as planned! Post an update if you feel like it; I know it motivates me to see all the other "gunners" going at it.

 

[loveoforganic]

Well, I'm barely into it (1 mo, 1st yr), but will share current + plans

Currently at 7.7% banked (82/x), 4.3% mastery. Plan to bank the rest of second semester content before shelf to get to 19% banked (204/x). Over summer, hope to knock out first semester stuff (anatomy, embryo, histo) + behavioral science + micro to get to 53% banked (564/x). Honestly, it seems (currently) like it shouldn't be much of a time commitment over summer to get that done, but we'll see. Not touching any of the path, pharm, etc.

 

[Bernoull]

I've gone back and forth on whether or not to post this, but I figured why not. Reading everyone talk about there progress and what they needed to get done to finish GT in time (mid-April for most of us) helped motivate me to really buckle down and start finishing up banking cards. I figure if I share my progress others may share theirs and we can help motivate each other to keep at it strong.

Over the past 10 days I have banked 129 new cards, which isn't where I want to be, but I did miss 3 days of GT out of town for a wedding during that time, so it's not bad. I'm now up to 56.8% complete (604/1064) with 32.7% mastered.

I'm hoping I can step up the pace a bit over the next couple weeks (let schoolwork slide) and finish this thing off. If I can hit like 20-25 cards banked/day I could be finished by early April. I figure if I do that, even if I have like 500-600 questions/day for a couple weeks until I master more of it, it won't be too bad if all I am doing is my daily questions and not being bogged down with banking new cards.

Hopefully everyone else is progressing as planned! Post an update if you feel like it; I know it motivates me to see all the other "gunners" going at it.

Great work buddy!

I'm down with motivating one another, staring down hundreds of cards day after day is definitely corrosive to one's motivation!! We actually have similar objectives and time windows!

BTW, thanks for reminding me that these batardes (as the french would say) have added 2 more cards! This is another reason I want to finish soon, the stream of new cards is like swimming against against the tide...

So I did set out with quite lofty goals for SB and surprise, surprise, I fell short .

So i've averaged 23.6 cards over the last 6 days with a range of 0-42 cards/day [I plan to crank out ~30/day over the next few days b4 school resumes]. Keeping up with daily Qs was quite challenging, I've been staring at ~1100 Qs/day for the past few days (1/2 of it rolled over from the previous day). I finally cleared my schedule today (spread it over 7days) and now 500Qs/day looks like such as relief !!

I'm now at 67.6% completed & 19.2% mastery 🙂eek:, i don't pay attention to this, I've rated a bunch of blocks super low & i had long stretches where I didn't keep up with daily reviews)

I'm hoping to wrap GT up by 1st week in April, and I'm also gonna let classes slide a bit to make that happen.

We can do it, just gotta keep :: through cards!

 

[loveoforganic]

I've been staring at ~1100 Qs/day

Hoooly crap. Also, 42 cards in a day is intense

 

[Bernoull]

Hoooly crap. Also, 42 cards in a day is intense

Yeah 1100 Qs is freakin nuts!! I wish I was disciplined enough to go slow n steady like ipizzy et. al.. But I've been an undisciplined, lifelong procrastinator extraordinaire 😉

42 is cards in a day is also crazy, I pretty much cherry-picked short cards n knocked them out...

 

[lrkoehle]

Great work buddy!

I'm down with motivating one another, staring down hundreds of cards day after day is definitely corrosive to one's motivation!! We actually have similar objectives and time windows!

BTW, thanks for reminding me that these batardes (as the french would say) have added 2 more cards! This is another reason I want to finish soon, the stream of new cards is like swimming against against the tide...

So I did set out with quite lofty goals for SB and surprise, surprise, I fell short .

So i've averaged 23.6 cards over the last 6 days with a range of 0-42 cards/day [I plan to crank out ~30/day over the next few days b4 school resumes]. Keeping up with daily Qs was quite challenging, I've been staring at ~1100 Qs/day for the past few days (1/2 of it rolled over from the previous day). I finally cleared my schedule today (spread it over 7days) and now 500Qs/day looks like such as relief !!

I'm now at 67.6% completed & 19.2% mastery 🙂eek:, i don't pay attention to this, I've rated a bunch of blocks super low & i had long stretches where I didn't keep up with daily reviews)

I'm hoping to wrap GT up by 1st week in April, and I'm also gonna let classes slide a bit to make that happen.

We can do it, just gotta keep :: through cards!

That sounds like some pretty solid progress.

It's never good to be staring at a 4-digit number for your daily questions. I've had that happen a few times. I just try to bust out a few hundred that day and then spread the rest out over the next week. Unfortunately, now that I am banking so many cards, similar to you, if I miss even a single day it really explodes my question count. I have actually be trying to make sure I bank like half of my cards as ones that I know I have more or less mastered already, so that on first pass I can rank it as a 4 and not see it for 10 days (which really helps keep my daily questions down). Unfortunately, I did all of nephritic and nephrotic syndromes yesterday and I had intentionally repressed all memories of renal, so that stuff will be bogging down my daily questions some the next few days until I can keep it all straight...MPGN, FSGN, minimal change, Alport Syndrome...bleh.

Well, I better finish these last 250 questions, so I can actually start banking new stuff today. Keep up the good work everybody! Someday we can all be a 100% banked!

 

[894rty]

Do any of you people have a problem giving feedback through your account?...Whenever I try to submit the feedback (or even email) from my account, it says "invalid email"???..I'm not sure what's going on. Does it have anything to do with the fact that I'm in my trial period?

thanks.

 

[amaprez]

Do any of you people have a problem giving feedback through your account?...Whenever I try to submit the feedback (or even email) from my account, it says "invalid email"???..I'm not sure what's going on. Does it have anything to do with the fact that I'm in my trial period?

thanks.

Nope I submitted feedback while in my trial period a ton.

 

[WarriorMD]

Yikes, 1100q is insane haha!

I've slacked off past couple weeks with adding new info, my daily count has gotten very low since most of my stuff is ranked very high. I think I'm going to bank all of physio in the next week, hopefully my daily count doesn't get too crazy. The physio sections don't seem to be very heavy or tough at all, just the GIT section seems to have a lot of questions.

Anybody have any idea where all these new cards are coming from? I remember seeing 1058 and not its 1064... are they adding new info or just splitting up some cluttered cards?

 

[ipizzy]

they added a few new cards to micro and neuro mostly

 

[ipizzy]

Anyone else not getting notifications for when new questions are added to cards? I used to get green-boxed messages on my Topics page when there were new questions for me to do on a card I had already banked...but it appears this no longer happens for me (for example: just clicked through the biochem section and found 5 or 6 cards with new questions for me to add...no notifications about these at all on the home page or Topics page!). Thanks 😎

 

[Alvarez13]

they added a few new cards to micro and neuro mostly

Rawr!!! I just finished those not too long ago. I also had 100% in biochem a month or two ago and it dropped to 94%.

Hard to complain about them adding more material, but I really like seeing those 100%s!

 

[894rty]

which areas do you think GT is weak in and/or not strongly corresponding to material content with regards to board prep. For example, I hear that the anatomy is waaayyy tooo much in depth. So, as a result, I'm not going to do/bank anatomy GT flashcards. How are the pharm and biochemistry sections? I was thinking about potentially skipping these sections as well if their content doesn't strongly correlate to what we need to know for step 1. If this is the case, I will likely use other resources. I love how GT is set up though (w/ questions and all). I just wish that we could either change the text (with potentially adding more Qs) or at the least enter/save personal notes as "sticky notes" so that they could be easily viewable along with the answer text during Q/A quizzes. That way we can incorporate First Aid/Pathoma/Uworld details as necessary. thanks.

 

[lrkoehle]

Anyone else not getting notifications for when new questions are added to cards? I used to get green-boxed messages on my Topics page when there were new questions for me to do on a card I had already banked...but it appears this no longer happens for me (for example: just clicked through the biochem section and found 5 or 6 cards with new questions for me to add...no notifications about these at all on the home page or Topics page!). Thanks 😎

I haven't been paying close enough attention to re adding new information that they add as I am just trying to get through all the new stuff. Sorry I can't be of help on this. I know they were doing a really good job of notifying about new stuff for a while there. It would suck if they for some reason stopped doing that.

which areas do you think GT is weak in and/or not strongly corresponding to material content with regards to board prep. For example, I hear that the anatomy is waaayyy tooo much in depth. So, as a result, I'm not going to do/bank anatomy GT flashcards. How are the pharm and biochemistry sections? I was thinking about potentially skipping these sections as well if their content doesn't strongly correlate to what we need to know for step 1. If this is the case, I will likely use other resources. I love how GT is set up though (w/ questions and all). I just wish that we could either change the text (with potentially adding more Qs) or at the least enter/save personal notes as "sticky notes" so that they could be easily viewable along with the answer text during Q/A quizzes. That way we can incorporate First Aid/Pathoma/Uworld details as necessary. thanks.

I agreed with your suggestions for GT. It would be nice to be able to personalize things a little more, although I have no idea how hard that would be for them to do. Plus, storing each person's individual notes and extra questions might eat up a ton of storage space.

As for weak/excessive sections, I can't really help you right now...maybe someone who has started doing some question banks can give us an idea? I remember people saying last year that neuro was kind of weak, but they have since added a bunch of cards to neuro, so maybe that is better now?

 

[MotoMD]

so now that some time has passed, how do people like GT overall? To me it looks like a really good review course for individual classes. The thing is that I'm a M1 student (almost M2) and want to find something I can start now while saving UWORLD qbank for the end. And obviously I want to try to limit my sources and just stick to one thing I can do everyday. I was thinking of using USMLERX and FA now but GT is pretty cheap and I like its online layout, any thoughts?

thanks!

 

[iCY]

so now that some time has passed, how do people like GT overall? To me it looks like a really good review course for individual classes. The thing is that I'm a M1 student (almost M2) and want to find something I can start now while saving UWORLD qbank for the end. And obviously I want to try to limit my sources and just stick to one thing I can do everyday. I was thinking of using USMLERX and FA now but GT is pretty cheap and I like its online layout, any thoughts?

thanks!

focus on finishing M1. & maybe before M2 starts look over subjects that you never really understood too well.

I'm not a big fan of using GT all year. I started using it back in september for my first organ system & GT worked great for drilling the points in for that system, & I even did well on that exam (& became really excited about the program & paid for a full year membership). But as the months went on, the cards REALLY piled up, & it became a big chore.

I do believe in spaced repitition, i just don't think you have time for spaced repetition throughout the year. I think the best approach to M2 is to learn the stuff really well when you're studying it so that when you have to go over it again for finals, it won't take long. There are topics that i studied WITHOUT using Gunner T that I remember BETTER than topics i just tried to forcefully memorize using GT over the course of a few months.

I remember I became really frustrated when I had finished a bunch of cards in cardiovascular, & I had "learned" them pretty well enough that the schedule pushed them off for almost 2 months. Well 2 months later, all the cards came back for review, & i BARELY REMEMBERED any of them. It kind of pissed me off that i was going to have to spend another few hours going over all these cards, when instead I could be focusing on the current subject that was being tested.

Long story short, I think GT is a good idea, however it does not seem practical to me anymore. If you have time to do 1-2 hours of GT cards every day, well then you are spending 7-14 hours a week not studying what is going to be on your next exam.

 

[JackShephard MD]

focus on finishing M1. & maybe before M2 starts look over subjects that you never really understood too well.

I'm not a big fan of using GT all year. I started using it back in september for my first organ system & GT worked great for drilling the points in for that system, & I even did well on that exam (& became really excited about the program & paid for a full year membership). But as the months went on, the cards REALLY piled up, & it became a big chore.

I do believe in spaced repitition, i just don't think you have time for spaced repetition throughout the year. I think the best approach to M2 is to learn the stuff really well when you're studying it so that when you have to go over it again for finals, it won't take long. There are topics that i studied WITHOUT using Gunner T that I remember BETTER than topics i just tried to forcefully memorize using GT over the course of a few months.

I remember I became really frustrated when I had finished a bunch of cards in cardiovascular, & I had "learned" them pretty well enough that the schedule pushed them off for almost 2 months. Well 2 months later, all the cards came back for review, & i BARELY REMEMBERED any of them. It kind of pissed me off that i was going to have to spend another few hours going over all these cards, when instead I could be focusing on the current subject that was being tested.

Long story short, I think GT is a good idea, however it does not seem practical to me anymore. If you have time to do 1-2 hours of GT cards every day, well then you are spending 7-14 hours a week not studying what is going to be on your next exam.

Beginning to agree with this in some ways. To each his own, everyone has their own style of learning.

 

[zebalong]

You have to be disciplined.. i do GT inbetween everything in order to finish my daily questions and do cards... in 15 minute breaks between classes, over lunch... in between studying different lectures... It doesn't sound hard but to do it day after day takes a lot of will power. But im almost finished with it and I think it has really paid off.

 

[lrkoehle]

focus on finishing M1. & maybe before M2 starts look over subjects that you never really understood too well.

I'm not a big fan of using GT all year. I started using it back in september for my first organ system & GT worked great for drilling the points in for that system, & I even did well on that exam (& became really excited about the program & paid for a full year membership). But as the months went on, the cards REALLY piled up, & it became a big chore.

I do believe in spaced repitition, i just don't think you have time for spaced repetition throughout the year. I think the best approach to M2 is to learn the stuff really well when you're studying it so that when you have to go over it again for finals, it won't take long. There are topics that i studied WITHOUT using Gunner T that I remember BETTER than topics i just tried to forcefully memorize using GT over the course of a few months.

I remember I became really frustrated when I had finished a bunch of cards in cardiovascular, & I had "learned" them pretty well enough that the schedule pushed them off for almost 2 months. Well 2 months later, all the cards came back for review, & i BARELY REMEMBERED any of them. It kind of pissed me off that i was going to have to spend another few hours going over all these cards, when instead I could be focusing on the current subject that was being tested.

Long story short, I think GT is a good idea, however it does not seem practical to me anymore. If you have time to do 1-2 hours of GT cards every day, well then you are spending 7-14 hours a week not studying what is going to be on your next exam.

I will offer up a contradictory view point just for good measure, since everyone is different. 😉

First, depending on the curriculum set up at your school, reviewing stuff from MS-I while still in MS-I isn't necessarily a bad idea. My school has everything integrated, so once we saw cardio in MS-I that was basically it for cards physio, path, histo, etc. If I hadn't been reviewing that stuff over the past year, then it would've been over a year since I had seen in by the time I started my dedicated step-I study time. Neuro would've been even worse, as it would've been over a year and a half since I had seen it in school. Honestly, waiting until the summer for some of this like iCY suggests isn't a bad idea either, but I think doing some reviewing over the summer is not a bad idea. Don't go crazy of course, but I have never felt "burnt out" because I did some reviewing over last summer.

Cards piling up does happen from time to time, but as we discussed in this thread a page or two ago, "piling up" is subjective. It depends a lot on your efficiency moving through questions For instance, are you doing 100 questions/hour or 200 questions/hr? I move quickly, so having 300 questions in a day means I am looking at an hour and a half of work (not too bad).

I'd also like to add that the hour and a half of questions in a day doesn't mean that I am spending an hour and a half doing something not at all related to class, because I add the cards that correspond to my class subjects (i.e. lectures on restrictive lung disease, add cards on restrictive lung disease). That way it helps hammer home the same stuff you're seeing in class.

Another thing impacting the number of cards you have daily is where your level of mastery is at. Obviously, the point of the program is that you will see things you rate as a 1 or 2 more frequently than things that are a 4 or 5. That's part of the reason why starting this program earlier is better, so that you can slowly add cards as you get things masted and they get pushed 60 days out. Theoretically, with ~6000 questions in GT, if you had 100% banked and 100% mastery everything evenly spread over 60 days would give you ~100 questions per day to keep everything fresh...hardly overwhelming. Of course if you bank things quickly before you have it mastered and up to 60 days out, you'll have more questions.

The thing about forgetting stuff after 60 days, I don't know what to say, it happens, but I feel like by the time something gets to 60 days out in my schedule, I've seen it enough times to remember it. And if I don't remember it, it's no biggie, I just rate it as a 1 and I'll see it again with a higher frequency and pretty quickly it will stick in my mind again.

I don't disagree that some of the stuff covered in GT is more easily remember from a different source, but usually once I consult a different source GT does a good enough job with most things that it serves as a good refresher to allow me to keep it all in context.

Anyways, I'm obviously a fan of GT. It certainly takes a long-term commitment to do it right, and over that time, you will certainly sink a lot of time into it. It's not for everyone, which is why the 1 month free trial is great (plus they occasionally give out a free month too). It may be best for the poster who asked the question to try it over the first month of summer and see if they like it and could see themselves doing it during MS-II.

 

[lrkoehle]

Beginning to agree with this in some ways. To each his own, everyone has their own style of learning.

Sorry to hear that, I thought things were going better for you with GT, JackShephard...

 

[iCY]

Beginning to agree with this in some ways. To each his own, everyone has their own style of learning.

Glad to hear that! I can go on & on about areas where I think GT really dropped the ball. I guess i'll list some things that come to mind...

*Edit* I should probably mention that I signed up with GT in august-September, & used it religiously for 1-2 hours a day up until about January where I had to abandon it because it was taking too much time. However, like the previous posters above have stated, to each his own. Try the 1 month trial to see if it works for you, but personally, I am going to find a better way to learn FA & perhaps still find some use for my GT account. I'll report back here after my step 1 in June with how this has helped & if I decided to use it again during my dedicated step 1 review!

1) I think GT took a bad turn sometime after it was released. I remember when it was still new, the flash cards had similar topics as first aid. Now it seems like they took first aid, & added in a **** ton of accessory information from outside sources. Not sure how high yield this is. Its especially painful when they give a LONG explanation to some of the answers. If i'm gonna spend 1-2 hours a day drilling myself till it hurts with flashcards, i would prefer to do it with high yield information only. Maybe the "light mode" would be better suited for GT

2) Is it just me or has the wording in the flashcards become a little more "technical". I prefer study guides to be slightly dumbed down & easier to understand, which makes for faster learning. If I read a flashcard & it feels like i'm reading another one of my PhD lectures, it really slows down the process of assimilating the information...

3) its NOT PRACTICAL to use!!!!! The flashcards never show you your personal notes, you have to click on 1 link then a tiny ass box each time you do a flash card to check if there are even notes written for that card, because you have no way of knowing. (if you do 100 flashcards a day, you're gonna be clicking 300 times on the screen just to check to see if you have annotations). I feel like the people who made the interface for GT never bothered to actually use it. This issue has been around since this program was made & it still has not been addressed. BAD!!!! & WHY THE IS THE X BOX TO EXIT OUT OF A FLASHCARD SO SMALL. I use a pro-gaming mouse from my pre-medical school days, & i still have troubling clicking the damned box. I've complained about this before but they haven't done anything about it!

Imagine annotating something into your first aid, & then it magically disappears & you never see it again, unless you remember that you annotated that specific section, in which case you can make it reappear! Thats what GT is like currently! Its NOT a review source that you can personalize as you learn more & understand more. You guys should see my goljan RR path book, almost every page has annotations as I get through my courses/qbanks.

4) the best thing they did was introduce a commenting feature for every flashcard. Now the students can do the work of making up mnemonics for them! Too bad you wouldn't know where the new mnemonics are, unless you plan on scrolling through all 1000 flashcards every day looking for updates.

5) I think I'll stop here.

6) edit- also I HATE the qbank style questions they throw into the reviews. I used GT for rapid fire flashcards, not to read a long clinical vignette with a long answer that basically restates the information their flashcards have. If I wanted to do vignettes, I would go with more than a decade worth of proven qbanks/qbooks that offer a different perspective on the information. I think you're really limiting your learning if you only see the information from the point of view of GT.

-- I'm not saying that GT is bad. If there is a will, there is a way, & i'm sure you can figure out a way to make GT work for you. The problem that I have with GT is that I can think of more efficient ways of studying the topics that GT teaches.

 

[lrkoehle]

Glad to hear that! I can go on & on about areas where I think GT really dropped the ball. I guess i'll list some things that come to mind...

*Edit* I should probably mention that I signed up with GT in august-September, & used it religiously for 1-2 hours a day up until about January where I had to abandon it because it was taking too much time. However, like the previous posters above have stated, to each his own. Try the 1 month trial to see if it works for you, but personally, I am going to find a better way to learn FA & perhaps still find some use for my GT account. I'll report back here after my step 1 in June with how this has helped & if I decided to use it again during my dedicated step 1 review!

1) I think GT took a bad turn sometime after it was released. I remember when it was still new, the flash cards had similar topics as first aid. Now it seems like they took first aid, & added in a **** ton of accessory information from outside sources. Not sure how high yield this is. Its especially painful when they give a LONG explanation to some of the answers. If i'm gonna spend 1-2 hours a day drilling myself till it hurts with flashcards, i would prefer to do it with high yield information only. Maybe the "light mode" would be better suited for GT

2) Is it just me or has the wording in the flashcards become a little more "technical". I prefer study guides to be slightly dumbed down & easier to understand, which makes for faster learning. If I read a flashcard & it feels like i'm reading another one of my PhD lectures, it really makes slows down the process of assimilating the information...

3) its NOT PRACTICAL to use!!!!! The flashcards never show the images, they never show you your personal notes, you have to click a tiny ass box each time you do a flash card to check if there are even notes written for that card, because you have no way of knowing. I feel like the people who made the interface for GT never bothered to actually use it. This issue has been around since this program was made & it still has not been addressed. BAD!!!!

Imagine annotating something into your first aid, & then it magically disappears & you never see it again, unless you remember that you annotated that specific section, in which case you can make it reappear! Thats what GT is like currently! Its NOT a review source that you can personalize as you learn more & understand more. You guys should see my goljan RR path book, almost every page has annotations as I get through my courses/qbanks.

4) the best thing they did was introduce a commenting feature for every flashcard. Now the students can do the work of making up mnemonics for them! Too bad you wouldn't know where the new mnemonics are, unless you plan on scrolling through all 1000 flashcards every day looking for updates.

5) I think I'll stop here.

6) edit- also I HATE the qbank style questions they throw into the reviews. I used GT for rapid fire flashcards, not to read a long clinical vignette with a long answer that basically restates the information their flashcards have. If I wanted to do vignettes, I would go with more than a decade worth of proven qbanks/qbooks.
-- I'm not saying that GT is bad. If there is a will, there is a way, & i'm sure you can figure out a way to make GT work for you. The problem that I have with GT is that I can think of more efficient ways of studying the topics that GT teaches.

You make some valid points, including things that I have issues with as well. There are times I wonder about how high yield all the information is, but I guess that's why it's called GUNNER training...I guess they figure the hardcore gunners want to know everything possible, so there are no curve balls on the real step-I. That makes sense. I've seen a crap load of people come on SDN and say they had this or that on their test that came out of no where that they never saw in FA, so maybe GT hits on those things that can push you from a 250 to a 265? Still, if you don't have the time to put in, everything just becomes a jumbled mess and you can lose sight of the HY stuff that will get you from a 200 to a 225...

The technical nature of the program is mixed for me. On the one hand, like you said, the K.I.S.S. approach is preferred for a quick review. On the other hand, I understand that gunner training is intended for those gunners who really truly want a "gunner" level understanding of things.

As for annotating to the program, no doubt that would be a great feature for them to add. For me, there are certainly times I want to add a clarification or word something in a way to help myself understand something better, but can't. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening by the time those of us taking Step-I this summer take the exam, so I guess it is what it is. Maybe future users will have that option.

They started including thumbnails of images on the review cards when you do your daily questions now. You can right click it and open it in a new tab. That, along with adding a lot more images, has been one big upgrade from when I started.

I don't mind the qbank style vignettes. They slow things up a little, but they do force some integration of topics too. They're not the best, but I'd say the negatives of them are counter-balanced by the positives to me, so I feel neutral about them...

It's certainly not a perfect program, but for the things it tries to do, I have found it to be the best. It helps me hammer home things to make sure I actually understand them more than just reading things and going, "yeah, I remember that," (which I have a tendency to do, since reading something jogs my memory of it and I feel like I know it better than I do). Adding a way to personalize it is something lots of us are clamoring for, so I'm sure they're working on it.

What other methods have you found that are more efficient? Are you mostly using an annotated FA with qbanks? I know that's seemed to yield pretty good results around here for the most part.

 

[JackShephard MD]

I thought things were going better for you with GT, JackShephard...

I don't want to criticize the program because I like the company, I like their model, and I think it's high quality. The only struggle I've had is the daily time I need to devote to it. I'm at about 30% banked (added 10% in a short period of time) and I've been stuck at 200+ Q's a day. I move at a pace of ~120 Q's hr, which puts me at 2 hrs Q's and 1 hr for banking.

I'm not shooting for a super competitive specialty and just want a quality Step 1 score, which I think I can use the Taus Method to achieve in much less time.

Glad to hear that! I can go on & on about areas where I think GT really dropped the ball. I guess i'll list some things that come to mind...

*Edit* I should probably mention that I signed up with GT in august-September, & used it religiously for 1-2 hours a day up until about January where I had to abandon it because it was taking too much time. However, like the previous posters above have stated, to each his own. Try the 1 month trial to see if it works for you, but personally, I am going to find a better way to learn FA & perhaps still find some use for my GT account. I'll report back here after my step 1 in June with how this has helped & if I decided to use it again during my dedicated step 1 review!

1) I think GT took a bad turn sometime after it was released. I remember when it was still new, the flash cards had similar topics as first aid. Now it seems like they took first aid, & added in a **** ton of accessory information from outside sources. Not sure how high yield this is. Its especially painful when they give a LONG explanation to some of the answers. If i'm gonna spend 1-2 hours a day drilling myself till it hurts with flashcards, i would prefer to do it with high yield information only. Maybe the "light mode" would be better suited for GT

2) Is it just me or has the wording in the flashcards become a little more "technical". I prefer study guides to be slightly dumbed down & easier to understand, which makes for faster learning. If I read a flashcard & it feels like i'm reading another one of my PhD lectures, it really makes slows down the process of assimilating the information...

3) its NOT PRACTICAL to use!!!!! The flashcards never show the images, they never show you your personal notes, you have to click a tiny ass box each time you do a flash card to check if there are even notes written for that card, because you have no way of knowing. I feel like the people who made the interface for GT never bothered to actually use it. This issue has been around since this program was made & it still has not been addressed. BAD!!!!

Imagine annotating something into your first aid, & then it magically disappears & you never see it again, unless you remember that you annotated that specific section, in which case you can make it reappear! Thats what GT is like currently! Its NOT a review source that you can personalize as you learn more & understand more. You guys should see my goljan RR path book, almost every page has annotations as I get through my courses/qbanks.

4) the best thing they did was introduce a commenting feature for every flashcard. Now the students can do the work of making up mnemonics for them! Too bad you wouldn't know where the new mnemonics are, unless you plan on scrolling through all 1000 flashcards every day looking for updates.

5) I think I'll stop here.

6) edit- also I HATE the qbank style questions they throw into the reviews. I used GT for rapid fire flashcards, not to read a long clinical vignette with a long answer that basically restates the information their flashcards have. If I wanted to do vignettes, I would go with more than a decade worth of proven qbanks/qbooks.
-- I'm not saying that GT is bad. If there is a will, there is a way, & i'm sure you can figure out a way to make GT work for you. The problem that I have with GT is that I can think of more efficient ways of studying the topics that GT teaches.

😕 Not sure why you're glad to hear I agree with some of your criticisms, nor am I overly excited about your desire to "go on and on about how GT dropped the ball." I think they are a great company and their program is effective for some.

Each person has a different learning style.

You make some valid points, including things that I have issues with as well. There are times I wonder about how high yield all the information is, but I guess that's why it's called GUNNER training...I guess they figure the hardcore gunners want to know everything possible, so there are no curve balls on the real step-I. That makes sense. I've seen a crap load of people come on SDN and say they had this or that on their test that came out of no where that they never saw in FA, so maybe GT hits on those things that can push you from a 250 to a 265? Still, if you don't have the time to put in, everything just becomes a jumbled mess and you can lose sight of the HY stuff that will get you from a 200 to a 225...

The technical nature of the program is mixed for me. On the one hand, like you said, the K.I.S.S. approach is preferred for a quick review. On the other hand, I understand that gunner training is intended for those gunners who really truly want a "gunner" level understanding of things.

As for annotating to the program, no doubt that would be a great feature for them to add. For me, there are certainly times I want to add a clarification or word something in a way to help myself understand something better, but can't. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening by the time those of us taking Step-I this summer take the exam, so I guess it is what it is. Maybe future users will have that option.

They started including thumbnails of images on the review cards when you do your daily questions now. You can right click it and open it in a new tab. That, along with adding a lot more images, has been one big upgrade from when I started.

I don't mind the qbank style vignettes. They slow things up a little, but they do force some integration of topics too. They're not the best, but I'd say the negatives of them are counter-balanced by the positives to me, so I feel neutral about them...

It's certainly not a perfect program, but for the things it tries to do, I have found it to be the best. It helps me hammer home things to make sure I actually understand them more than just reading things and going, "yeah, I remember that," (which I have a tendency to do, since reading something jogs my memory of it and I feel like I know it better than I do). Adding a way to personalize it is something lots of us are clamoring for, so I'm sure they're working on it.

What other methods have you found that are more efficient? Are you mostly using an annotated FA with qbanks? I know that's seemed to yield pretty good results around here for the most part.

I agree some of this stuff has become overly detailed. I became frustrated when I repeatedly missed the cytokine questions, "what are the cytokines that B cells release?" or "what cells release IL-X?" Followed by a list of 3-5. I checked FA to see if it was that detailed and it wasn't, they had a much simpler description, like MP's release these 5 things, T cells release these 3 things, GT asks me to list all the exceptions and special situations for cytokines. Here I am, 17 months before my exam trying to really master these details... not important. People have criticized anatomy for being overly detailed, and I did 100% of anatomy in all sections, so maybe that's why I've been more hammered with details. In the end, my personal approach will be to thoroughly understand each review book during the courses I take, then to do the Taus Method in the final 6-12 months alongside Qbanks like UWorld, USMLERx, and Kaplan. GT has made me realize I can spend 3 extra hours per day in medical school on board prep only to sacrifice 5-10% in classes. What if I spent 100% of this time just reading FA sections + review books for only the course I'm taking at the time? Not to memorize, but to deeply understnad every concept. For me, this approach combined with Qbanks will be effective enough. In the end, the test is about application of knowledge, and that skill is practiced best via Qbanks.

I wonder if GT was a better program when they only had high yield facts (only FA and not additions from RR or BRS physio, or whatever). 1/2 the questions but all high yield? Then I'd probably stick with it.

One thing that gave me pause about GT was this, the courses I've honored from last semester, I know little from them. I learned the material very well and then knew it on test day. It's gone now. I've spoken to M3's that have 250+ scores, they had the same experience. So maybe it's not about knowing everything all the time, maybe it's just about peaking at the right time. But what do I know.

 

[lrkoehle]

I don't want to criticize the program because I like the company, I like their model, and I think it's high quality. The only struggle I've had is the daily time I need to devote to it. I'm at about 30% banked (added 10% in a short period of time) and I've been stuck at 200+ Q's a day. I move at a pace of ~120 Q's hr, which puts me at 2 hrs Q's and 1 hr for banking.

I'm not shooting for a super competitive specialty and just want a quality Step 1 score, which I think I can use the Taus Method to achieve in much less time.


I agree some of this stuff has become overly detailed. I became frustrated when I repeatedly missed the cytokine questions, "what are the cytokines that B cells release?" or "what cells release IL-X?" Followed by a list of 3-5. I checked FA to see if it was that detailed and it wasn't, they had a much simpler description, like MP's release these 5 things, T cells release these 3 things, GT asks me to list all the exceptions and special situations for cytokines. Here I am, 17 months before my exam trying to really master these details... not important. People have criticized anatomy for being overly detailed, and I did 100% of anatomy in all sections, so maybe that's why I've been more hammered with details. In the end, my personal approach will be to thoroughly understand each review book during the courses I take, then to do the Taus Method in the final 6-12 months alongside Qbanks like UWorld, USMLERx, and Kaplan. GT has made me realize I can spend 3 extra hours per day in medical school on board prep only to sacrifice 5-10% in classes. What if I spent 100% of this time just reading FA sections + review books for only the course I'm taking at the time? Not to memorize, but to deeply understnad every concept. For me, this approach combined with Qbanks will be effective enough. In the end, the test is about application of knowledge, and that skill is practiced best via Qbanks.

I wonder if GT was a better program when they only had high yield facts. 1/2 the questions but all high yield? Then I'd probably stick with it.

One thing that gave me pause about GT was this, the courses I've honored from last semester, I know little from them. I learned the material very well and then knew it on test day. It's gone now. I've spoken to M3's that have 250+ scores, they had the same experience. So maybe it's not about knowing everything all the time, maybe it's just about peaking at the right time. But what do I know.

Don't worry about criticizing GT, I don't think you've ever been overly harsh. Just good thought provoking concerns on your end, that many of us also have. As we've both said, somethings work for some and other things for others, and I'm sure you've helped some people decide one way or the other on what was right for them.

Those stupid cytokine questions drives me crazy. I try to just focus on the main points from cards that are overly detailed and then move on from it (i.e. rate it like a 4).

Honestly, if you're not shooting for a competitive specialty and you're not as concerned with getting a really good score, more power to you. I wish I was in that boat. I mean, I know everyone wants to do good just for the sake of doing their best, but I have found my greatest interest is in Orthopedics. Lucky for me, that happens to be one of the more difficult ones to get into. On top of that I have a wife and son, so I would like to stay in state where both my family and my wife's family are located. That competitive residency plus regional restriction puts the pressure on (although not as bad as some as my wife is willing to relocate with me where ever I go, if we have to), so here I am training like a gunner to be an ortho-gunner with gunner training...🙄

I agree with the peaking at the right time, but I guess I am just trying to start my ascent to the peak at a slightly higher elevation base camp. I hope GT can help me with that, because dumping it and starting a totally new approach probably isn't super practical 89 days out from my exams anyways...

Sounds like you're doing a good job of being diligent in your approach to preparing for Step-I, which, regardless of the study method you end up choosing, will most certainly benefit you, especially over those who wait until 6-8 weeks out to figure out what they're doing.

 

[Chirurg]

Glad to hear that! I can go on & on about areas where I think GT really dropped the ball. I guess i'll list some things that come to mind...


3) its NOT PRACTICAL to use!!!!! The flashcards never show you your personal notes, you have to click on 1 link then a tiny ass box each time you do a flash card to check if there are even notes written for that card, because you have no way of knowing. (if you do 100 flashcards a day, you're gonna be clicking 300 times on the screen just to check to see if you have annotations). I feel like the people who made the interface for GT never bothered to actually use it. This issue has been around since this program was made & it still has not been addressed. BAD!!!! & WHY THE IS THE X BOX TO EXIT OUT OF A FLASHCARD SO SMALL. I use a pro-gaming mouse from my pre-medical school days, & i still have troubling clicking the damned box. I've complained about this before but they haven't done anything about it!

-- I'm not saying that GT is bad. If there is a will, there is a way, & i'm sure you can figure out a way to make GT work for you. The problem that I have with GT is that I can think of more efficient ways of studying the topics that GT teaches.

I'm a big fan of GT and have banked more than 50%.
But the above is totally on the money. it is incredibly annoying that I forget some cards all the time, every time! Because I can't annotate the review questions with an mnemonic or something that will help me remember it better.
And I agree, this issue has been raised time and time again, even in their support forum.
It is very disappointing that they don't seem to be willing to offer that option. 👎

 

[FIREitUP]

as others have stated it's not a perfect resource but I challenge you to find another similarly all encompassing resource for long term USMLE studying. I can assure you that you will find none. I personally like it a great deal and while others have noted the fact that not all material is high yield, I personally like the additional material because it oftentimes further elaborates upon the high yield material, making it stick better.

 

[secants]

I definitely think that GT is a really neat innovation with their spaced repetition learning style. Now you have USMLErx also dishing out flash cards based on FA so I definitely think they should really hone down on a good spaced repetition algorithm. In a way, you're paying them to basically do what Anki does but make it look prettier.

Anyway the big issues for me were not getting notified about new cards, what cards people were commenting on, no "pause" button--I don't want to do 200qs before my class exams, not being able to see your notes while doing the respective question and the increasing verbosity they use for the flash cards. Not to mention, one flash card can have 15-20 questions with too many different topics.

They seem to be a receptive company so let's see how they do with their Step 2 program. I've had to scale back on using GT as well due to time issues and I try not to spend more than an hour on review questions

 

[FIREitUP]

I definitely think that GT is a really neat innovation with their spaced repetition learning style. Now you have USMLErx also dishing out flash cards based on FA so I definitely think they should really hone down on a good spaced repetition algorithm. In a way, you're paying them to basically do what Anki does but make it look prettier.

Anyway the big issues for me were not getting notified about new cards, what cards people were commenting on, no "pause" button--I don't want to do 200qs before my class exams, not being able to see your notes while doing the respective question and the increasing verbosity they use for the flash cards. Not to mention, one flash card can have 15-20 questions with too many different topics.

They seem to be a receptive company so let's see how they do with their Step 2 program. I've had to scale back on using GT as well due to time issues and I try not to spend more than an hour on review questions

Agreed on those 3 counts. They should either automatically include those new questions in your bank if you reviewed the entire section or somehow notify you of the new cards. The program does still need some polishing but I like it more than FA and it has been a great investment so far.

 

[Alvarez13]

I'm a big fan of GT and have banked more than 50%.
But the above is totally on the money. it is incredibly annoying that I forget some cards all the time, every time! Because I can't annotate the review questions with an mnemonic or something that will help me remember it better.
And I agree, this issue has been raised time and time again, even in their support forum.
It is very disappointing that they don't seem to be willing to offer that option. 👎

Lol...cytokines and what chromosome oncogenes/tumor suppressors are on for me.

Also, anything with the name of a drug on it.

 

[JackShephard MD]

Don't worry about criticizing GT, I don't think you've ever been overly harsh. Just good thought provoking concerns on your end, that many of us also have. As we've both said, somethings work for some and other things for others, and I'm sure you've helped some people decide one way or the other on what was right for them.

Those stupid cytokine questions drives me crazy. I try to just focus on the main points from cards that are overly detailed and then move on from it (i.e. rate it like a 4).

Honestly, if you're not shooting for a competitive specialty and you're not as concerned with getting a really good score, more power to you. I wish I was in that boat. I mean, I know everyone wants to do good just for the sake of doing their best, but I have found my greatest interest is in Orthopedics. Lucky for me, that happens to be one of the more difficult ones to get into. On top of that I have a wife and son, so I would like to stay in state where both my family and my wife's family are located. That competitive residency plus regional restriction puts the pressure on (although not as bad as some as my wife is willing to relocate with me where ever I go, if we have to), so here I am training like a gunner to be an ortho-gunner with gunner training...🙄

I agree with the peaking at the right time, but I guess I am just trying to start my ascent to the peak at a slightly higher elevation base camp. I hope GT can help me with that, because dumping it and starting a totally new approach probably isn't super practical 89 days out from my exams anyways...

Sounds like you're doing a good job of being diligent in your approach to preparing for Step-I, which, regardless of the study method you end up choosing, will most certainly benefit you, especially over those who wait until 6-8 weeks out to figure out what they're doing.

Currently interested in general surgery (mean = 227), so I would be very happy @ 240+. Anyway, I agree with others that the annotating should be done on each card.

It sounds like you've been focused on GT and that should produce a great score. I know that it works, as I mastered anatomy via GT, better than I did in my actual anatomy course.

 

[Chirurg]

Lol...cytokines and what chromosome oncogenes/tumor suppressors are on for me.

Also, anything with the name of a drug on it.

yeah, cytokines, toxins, anti-arrythmics, AICA, PICA.
I think what I'm going to do about those ards now is:
locate those things in First Aid and mark it and star it and pay attention to them closer to the test with the aid of mnemonics . also, I will rate them as perfect on GT so that I don't see them again. If I think about it, I wasted so much time on those few cards over and over again. talking about you AICA, PICA, cytokines!

 

[JackShephard MD]

yeah, cytokines, toxins, anti-arrythmics, AICA, PICA.
I think what I'm going to do about those ards now is:
locate those things in First Aid and mark it and star it and pay attention to them closer to the test with the aid of mnemonics . also, I will rate them as perfect on GT so that I don't see them again. If I think about it, I wasted so much time on those few cards over and over again. talking about you AICA, PICA, cytokines!

This is the exact moment I became frustrated and started having second thoughts on GT. The cytokines.

Specifically because I missed them so many times, couldn't work out a logic to remembering them, then found FA's section on cytokines to have 1/2 the detail and a format that's easy to remember. This combined with the realization that I'm 1.5 years out from the exam and knowing these cold now is of no use. Maybe I mistakenly assumed this would happen for many other topics.

I felt like I was wasting a lot of time the last month on those cytokine cards, trusting the repetition and it wasn't working.

 

[lrkoehle]

Currently interested in general surgery (mean = 227), so I would be very happy @ 240+. Anyway, I agree with others that the annotating should be done on each card.

It sounds like you've been focused on GT and that should produce a great score. I know that it works, as I mastered anatomy via GT, better than I did in my actual anatomy course.

The last part is true for me to, although not for anatomy yet as I haven't made much of a dent in that section of GT, but there are some subjects that we did in school before I was doing GT and I feel like I now have a way better understanding/recall of those concepts.

This is the exact moment I became frustrated and started having second thoughts on GT. The cytokines.

Specifically because I missed them so many times, couldn't work out a logic to remembering them, then found FA's section on cytokines to have 1/2 the detail and a format that's easy to remember. This combined with the realization that I'm 1.5 years out from the exam and knowing these cold now is of no use. Maybe I mistakenly assumed this would happen for many other topics.

I felt like I was wasting a lot of time the last month on those cytokine cards, trusting the repetition and it wasn't working.

This is where I add in some of my own "personalization," and I just say screw the heavy detail on some cards. I just try to get a good general idea (i.e. what are the top 1-2 sources of this cytokine) and then move on with a rating of 4. There were some other overly detailed things that weren't sticking for me either that I just said screw it and marked as never see again, because they didn't really appear in other HY review sources. I know that will impair my quest to achieve maximum gunnertude, but so be it...I'll just deal with it if I am stuck with ONLY a 260...

 

[loveoforganic]

I think the worst thing with GT is definitely the lack of ability to pull up your notes from quizzing. I haven't had the issue too badly yet with incredibly detail-specific cards (i.e. cytokines), but when I start to get those I'll probably just check off perfect recall and recycle in all the too detailed "perfect recalls" like a month before I plan to start random-mode Qbanks. I shifted from reading and annotating repeatedly first semester to one read through -> anki repeatedly -> one final read through this semester, and grades have been... more than a little bit different, although some of that is definitely just normal adjustment to school. When I heard about what's essentially a premade anki step I prep, choirs of angels could be heard singing from the heavens. I'll see how I feel when the daily time commitment increases though

 

[iCY]

What other methods have you found that are more efficient? Are you mostly using an annotated FA with qbanks? I know that's seemed to yield pretty good results around here for the most part.

Step 1 questions have more to do with pattern recognition & understanding concepts, than being able to make lists of things. GT does NOT separate out facts that you need to have memorized from concepts that you need to understand. It treats everything as if it is a flashcard for you to memorize, & that is NOT how you should be studying. (even first aid understands the need to separate knowledge from brute memorization, hence the "rapid review" section @ the end of FA)

An example is a card that I just loaded up on my quiz - it asked to list some common etiologies of secondary hypertension. I guarantee you will never see a question like that on step 1. Instead you will be presented with a scenario where a person has hypertension + has some other symptoms resulting from whatever was causing the HTN, & they will ask you what caused the HTN (for example they have HTN + signs of excess adrenergic --> pheochromocytoma, or they have HTN + signs of atherosclerosis --> renovascular). You will NEVER be asked to make a list of the common etiologies, & if you spend all your time memorizing "what are the most common causes of secondary HTN" you will not have a chance to examine those causes in more detail & figure out what symptoms they cause, how to differentiate one from the other, & how they present in a patient or on the exam (i.e., you will probably see 2 of the common causes of secondary HTN in the answer choices, & you have to use your knowledge of how these 2 conditions present, in order to differentiate between them based on the vignette).

There are some questions which are basically 1st order type questions. E.g., most of microbiology, as long as you can recognize what bug is causing the problems, you know what the answer is. Even if the answer is another detail about the bug rather than the bug name, those still aren't true 2nd or 3rd order questions. They are just testing to see whether or not you have memorized all the details about a bug, they are not LINKING concepts across two different topics. For these 1st order type quesitons, flash card memorization works. But for topics where they require you to have a deeper understanding of the material (most of pathology) & how it relates to other disciplines, you need to study these through qbanks

 

[lrkoehle]

Step 1 questions have more to do with pattern recognition & understanding concepts, than being able to make lists of things. GT does NOT separate out facts that you need to have memorized from concepts that you need to understand. It treats everything as if it is a flashcard for you to memorize, & that is NOT how you should be studying. (even first aid understands the need to separate knowledge from brute memorization, hence the "rapid review" section @ the end of FA)

An example is a card that I just loaded up on my quiz - it asked to list some common etiologies of secondary hypertension. I guarantee you will never see a question like that on step 1. Instead you will be presented with a scenario where a person has hypertension + has some other symptoms resulting from whatever was causing the HTN, & they will ask you what caused the HTN (for example they have HTN + signs of excess adrenergic --> pheochromocytoma, or they have HTN + signs of atherosclerosis --> renovascular). You will NEVER be asked to make a list of the common etiologies, & if you spend all your time memorizing "what are the most common causes of secondary HTN" you will not have a chance to examine those causes in more detail & figure out what symptoms they cause, how to differentiate one from the other, & how they present in a patient or on the exam (i.e., you will probably see 2 of the common causes of secondary HTN in the answer choices, & you have to use your knowledge of how these 2 conditions present, in order to differentiate between them based on the vignette).

There are some questions which are basically 1st order type questions. E.g., most of microbiology, as long as you can recognize what bug is causing the problems, you know what the answer is. Even if the answer is another detail about the bug rather than the bug name, those still aren't true 2nd or 3rd order questions. They are just testing to see whether or not you have memorized all the details about a bug, they are not LINKING concepts across two different topics. For these 1st order type quesitons, flash card memorization works. But for topics where they require you to have a deeper understanding of the material (most of pathology) & how it relates to other disciplines, you need to study these through qbanks

So are you saying that GT basically just hammers home the facts without promoting enough integration of concepts across organ systems? I certainly agree that Step-I will never have a "list the causes of X," but for many things it is good to have a list readily accessible in your mind to then go through as you approach a question. You have to have the foundation of facts before you can start integrating, and for me that integration will be done with qbanks bringing everything together (hopefully). I'm not planning on utilizing GT as the end all be all of my study approach, I would never use only one resource for something this important. That would be like only using FA or DIT or something. However, past users have credited GT with helping give them the foundation upon which to build integrations across systems with qbanks like Kaplan and UWorld.