How much material do you study per day?

[Gurby]

How many new cards + reviews are you doing a day? I do 50 new from my cards, then 50 from the Zanki deck. Then review the same amount per day, so that's 200 cards/day. It literally only takes me an hour to 1.5 hours at most, so it kind of worries me that I'm not doing enough.

I also don't really do anything on weekends except for do the cards that are due for the day, unless it's the weekend before a Monday test. I guess we're pretty much in the same mindset, so I'll try not to get caught up in feeling guilty when I go home and I see so many people still here ha.

EDIT: made the decision today to up my new cards from my own deck to 100 new ones per day, so 100 reviews per day as well. That should make me feel like I’m getting more done lol

You don't do all your reviews every day then? Seems to kind of defeat the point of Anki, but you do you. Doing 100 new cards per day should have you swimming in reviews very quickly if you do all of them every day as scheduled.

What do you plan on doing once you’ve covered everything? I imagine you’ll have zanki matured well before dedicated period

I hope so! My pre-dedicated game plan is to finish Zanki, and also get through the Kaplan/Rx qbanks while adding cards for every piece of minutiae I can pull out of the explanations. I feel like that will keep me plenty busy, we will see!

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[fldoctorgirl]

Yeah, I'd say we're pretty much doing the same thing at this point. The only difference I make is that I just do whatever cards are due for the day, I don't set a cap on it. At least, that's what I tell myself I'll do each day.. but I currently have 600 cards due today and that is just not happening, hah. Ideally, I do every card that is due in the morning, then make new cards for that day's lecture and complete them + all reviews the following day. I've been pretty bad about it this week though because we just have too many lectures...

You don't do all your reviews every day then? Seems to kind of defeat the point of Anki, but you do you. Doing 100 new cards per day should have you swimming in reviews very quickly if you do all of them every day as scheduled.

No, my bad! I do set my limit to 100 new reviews per day, but then if I see that there are still more due I go into custom study and increase the limit so that I do all of them. I definitely do all of my reviews due every day-- it just hasn't amounted to much because I haven't added in Zanki until this block, so I've suspended everything from old blocks from class because it's just a bunch of minute PhD details. Now that I'm starting Zanki, I'm not going to suspend it even after the block is over, so I'm sure my review counts will go up since I'll essentially be studying the cards until they mature, then adding on cards from my next block, then adding on the next Zanki deck.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

@Gurby You mentioned you do ~50 new cards per day from Zanki, correct? This is basically what I'm doing, + reviews for the day, so I'm assuming that should be on track to go through the deck and mature most of the cards by dedicated (I'm an M1 currently). Has that held true for you?

 

[Knight in shining armor]

For my first pass through a lecture (after attending lecture), I spend about 1 hour studying it per lecture hour. So if I had 5 hours of lecture on a day, it would take me 5 hours that night to cover the material (give or take). I try to keep up with material throughout the week. Then on non-exam weekends, I make sure I have the material down before Monday. On exam weekends, I cram as much as I can to memorize details, high yield concepts, and memory tricks. I try to never learn new things on weekends. (Try is the key word).

 

[DubbiDoctor]

You don't do all your reviews every day then? Seems to kind of defeat the point of Anki, but you do you. Doing 100 new cards per day should have you swimming in reviews very quickly if you do all of them every day as scheduled.




I hope so! My pre-dedicated game plan is to finish Zanki, and also get through the Kaplan/Rx qbanks while adding cards for every piece of minutiae I can pull out of the explanations. I feel like that will keep me plenty busy, we will see!

Do you spend any time on lecture material?

 

[Gurby]

Do you spend any time on lecture material?

I don't go to class, don't watch the lectures. During M1 I would look at the lecture powerpoints, but now I don't even do that. I just do Zanki, then when I hit stuff that's over my head conceptually I read the wikipedia article. Finish Zanki for the block then start in on Kaplan questions to fill in knowledge gaps that might be there. Only scoring around the median on class exams but >80% correct on Kaplan so far... I worry a little bit that my Kaplan and Rx scores are inflated because Zanki draws heavily on the same resources. About to go take my first ever NBME practice so I might end up adjusting strategy if that doesn't go well.

My school is a traditional Normal anat/phys M1, abnormal M2, so I think this approach works well enough since I already have most of the "big picture" in place. This might not work as well in an organ-systems type of curriculum, and it wouldn't work as well during M1 I suspect.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

About to go take my first ever NBME practice so I might end up adjusting strategy if that doesn't go well.

Curious how it goes, would love to hear about it. You can PM me if you don't want to post about it here.

 

[Scrubs101]

I don't go to class, don't watch the lectures. During M1 I would look at the lecture powerpoints, but now I don't even do that. I just do Zanki, then when I hit stuff that's over my head conceptually I read the wikipedia article. Finish Zanki for the block then start in on Kaplan questions to fill in knowledge gaps that might be there. Only scoring around the median on class exams but >80% correct on Kaplan so far... I worry a little bit that my Kaplan and Rx scores are inflated because Zanki draws heavily on the same resources. About to go take my first ever NBME practice so I might end up adjusting strategy if that doesn't go well.

My school is a traditional Normal anat/phys M1, abnormal M2, so I think this approach works well enough since I already have most of the "big picture" in place. This might not work as well in an organ-systems type of curriculum, and it wouldn't work as well during M1 I suspect.

I envy you lol if i didnt read my profs ppts at least 3 times to get the minutiae down id bomb every exam lol

 

[djtallahassee]

No, my bad! I do set my limit to 100 new reviews per day, but then if I see that there are still more due I go into custom study and increase the limit so that I do all of them. I definitely do all of my reviews due every day-- it just hasn't amounted to much because I haven't added in Zanki until this block, so I've suspended everything from old blocks from class because it's just a bunch of minute PhD details. Now that I'm starting Zanki, I'm not going to suspend it even after the block is over, so I'm sure my review counts will go up since I'll essentially be studying the cards until they mature, then adding on cards from my next block, then adding on the next Zanki deck.

Ive been doing Zanki through ~2.5 blocks and I have at least 500 reviews at least a day with about 70 new/day. Its a rough life but am above average on inclass quizzes and was over a deviation away on the nbme thing we took.

Looks like you added a bunch of your own cards and doing about equal amounts...If I were you I would shoot for a more Zanki heavy ratio. Especially once you add in the Anatomy deck, Zanki Pharm and Lolnotacop micro things get tough real quick. I think this week I admitted my main form of studying is Zanki on the pure fact I cant retain anything if I dont zanki it a bit. Also never resuspend and no review limits.

 

[Gurby]

Curious how it goes, would love to hear about it. You can PM me if you don't want to post about it here.

It was only 150 questions, and they had apparently been vetted by our profs so probably it wasn't a good representation since they would have weeded out any left field questions. I thought it was actually relatively easy for the most part, definitely a handful I guessed on and a handful of math/graph ones that I likely could have figured out but was too lazy since we won't get to see our answers anyways...

I was surprised to see that actually the NBME does ask those annoying questions about which way a vascular function curve will shift under certain circumstances, etc. I always brushed off those cards in Zanki because I thought they were stupid, but I guess I'll have to learn them now... Same goes for knowing formulas about clearance, loading / maintenance dose, volume of distribution... I didn't realize that stuff actually came up on Step and have been lazy about studying it.

Won't find out how I actually did until some later date sadly - apparently they're going to tell us our overall percentile, and what the class performance was like overall, something like that. But it pretty much felt just like Kaplan, a little bit harder than Rx probably.

I do feel more comfortable about going full steam ahead with Zanki now, having seen what the NBME questions are like.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Ive been doing Zanki through ~2.5 blocks and I have at least 500 reviews at least a day with about 70 new/day. Its a rough life but am above average on inclass quizzes and was over a deviation away on the nbme thing we took.

Looks like you added a bunch of your own cards and doing about equal amounts...If I were you I would shoot for a more Zanki heavy ratio. Especially once you add in the Anatomy deck, Zanki Pharm and Lolnotacop micro things get tough real quick. I think this week I admitted my main form of studying is Zanki on the pure fact I cant retain anything if I dont zanki it a bit. Also never resuspend and no review limits.

I can't go full Zanki because our exams are all professor written. I'm doing 50 new Zanki cards per day + whatever reviews are due for the day. Like I said, I just started Zanki this block, so I don't have too many reviews yet-- I'm sure it'll build up soon. If I feel like I need to ramp up Zanki, I'll do it during M2. If I didn't make my own cards based on our lectures, I don't think I would pass my exams-- seriously, they throw some really random tiny details on there.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Anatomy deck, Zanki Pharm and Lolnotacop micro

Which anatomy deck are you using? I already have Zanki Pharm and Lolnotacop micro, but haven't found an anatomy one yet

 

[djtallahassee]

Which anatomy deck are you using? I already have Zanki Pharm and Lolnotacop micro, but haven't found an anatomy one yet

Im using the dope anatomy deck. It may be floating around here but is also on the reddit medicalschool sidebar. Works pretty well but we have a systems based curriculum and anatomy has been extremely easy with just cardiac and respiratory under our belts.

 

[Ho0v-man]

It was only 150 questions, and they had apparently been vetted by our profs so probably it wasn't a good representation since they would have weeded out any left field questions. I thought it was actually relatively easy for the most part, definitely a handful I guessed on and a handful of math/graph ones that I likely could have figured out but was too lazy since we won't get to see our answers anyways...

I was surprised to see that actually the NBME does ask those annoying questions about which way a vascular function curve will shift under certain circumstances, etc. I always brushed off those cards in Zanki because I thought they were stupid, but I guess I'll have to learn them now... Same goes for knowing formulas about clearance, loading / maintenance dose, volume of distribution... I didn't realize that stuff actually came up on Step and have been lazy about studying it.

Won't find out how I actually did until some later date sadly - apparently they're going to tell us our overall percentile, and what the class performance was like overall, something like that. But it pretty much felt just like Kaplan, a little bit harder than Rx probably.

I do feel more comfortable about going full steam ahead with Zanki now, having seen what the NBME questions are like.

Thanks for this post. Did your school not wreck you on those vascular function curve questions? Mine did. I find myself blowing off ridiculous conditions my school never even covers like pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. Need to probably learn it. Probably need to learn to fumble through an EKG too

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Probably need to learn to fumble through an EKG too

If you know cold the ones in FA you are probably solid for EKGs. I have yet to encounter anything in a q bank that isn’t one of those. The only one that is easily missed is the WPW delta wave. I’ve had a few questions where it looked normal but they wanted you to catch the small delta wave and if you go too fast you could easily skim over it.

 

[ReticentPoster]

Premed here. I’m curious how fast one needs to move through material in med school (let’s assume worst-case amount of material). I feel that I can move through material pretty easily in undergrad, but obv med school is a very different environment.


I’ve heard numerous times that it is, of course, far more material vs undergrad, but I’ve never seen any specific preal life examples of exactly how much material is covered per day (at maximum difficulty/effort).


Thanks!

Here's a correlate for you: we covered 2 semesters of undergrad biochem in 3 days.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

Are there any other resources that go hand-in-hand as well at the BB/LY deck? Or is this the only one?

Well, if you're looking for a text, Lippincott's illustrated biochemistry is good. My school teaches biochem based on it (as I said, the entire book in two weeks), and it provides good visuals and more detail than BB. I don't really use it because I don't enjoy studying using textbooks. I'd rather lay in bed watching videos, doing anki, or solving practice problems than sit at my desk studying from a book.

 

[Chibucks15]

My God, how am I suppose to survive that pace? Seriously... I used the same book for undergrad but we crawled through the material.

you get used to it pretty quick. Its daunting but doable, or else the thousands of people you see as doctors and on here wouldn't be where they were. You got this

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

for the record, NBME practice tests are 4 blocks of 50 questions. Not trying to be a smarta$$, just wasn't sure you knew

I’ve seen full length NBME tests (approx 200 questions long). I’m not sure if they’re still offered anymore, but they certainly are still online

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

My God, how am I suppose to survive that pace? Seriously... I used the same book for undergrad but we crawled through the material.

You make it a full time job. In UG I took 15 credits, worked 24 hours a week, did research, and I have a family with two kids. Medical school is the exact same time commitment as UG except instead of doing all those different things the time is spent on two things: school and family. I do some research on the side but it is very casual during the semester.

 

[676188]

You make it a full time job. In UG I took 15 credits, worked 24 hours a week, did research, and I have a family with two kids. Medical school is the exact same time commitment as UG except instead of doing all those different things the time is spent on two things: school and family. I do some research on the side but it is very casual during the semester.

I’m curious about how you manage your time now, because we will have 3 kids still at home when I matriculate. Ours will be 12, 15 and 16 with one driving, so that will be a help.

Does your wife work? How often are you able to attend Dr appts, sports/school events, help with homework/school projects?

I’m in grad school now and working 20 hours a week, and I run the errands, do the dr appts, practices, sports events, awards ceremonies, volunteer, etc. I know that I’m going to have to miss some of those things once I start medical school, but I know I don’t have to give up everything like some people claim. I’m looking for a more realistic picture.

 

[7331poas]

Would you say that this (link below) is representative of one lecture’s worth of material?

How many classes do you take per block?

Boards and beyond > gojan

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Does your wife work?

No.

How often are you able to attend Dr appts, sports/school events, help with homework/school projects?

Completely depends on what section we are in. Sometimes I am never around, and others I have time to take them to the zoo, and non exam weekends I spend a good chunk of time with them.

Everyone needs to be prepared to not see you that much, and for you to not be super involved. Make sure the times you are around to be meaningful. It's not about quantity of time, it's about the quality.

 

[Gurby]

Curious how it goes, would love to hear about it. You can PM me if you don't want to post about it here.

Got our scores back today for the practice NBME... Was 1.5 std above the mean for all Step 1 takers (on the questions selected, so it's a little bit unfair in my favor). If I did the math right, that translates to ~96th percentile. Praise be to Zanki.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

Got our scores back today for the practice NBME... Was 1.5 std above the mean for all Step 1 takers (on the questions selected, so it's a little bit unfair in my favor). If I did the math right, that translates to ~96th percentile. Praise be to Zanki.

Congrats, Gurby! But what do you mean by 1.5 SDs above the mean for step 1 takers? Aren't you being compared to people who took the NBME? Are the NBME questions taken from actual step 1 exams?

 

[Gurby]

Congrats, Gurby! But what do you mean by 1.5 SDs above the mean for step 1 takers? Aren't you being compared to people who took the NBME? Are the NBME questions taken from actual step 1 exams?

The way it's explained is really confusing but...
My impression is that the test we took was comprised of retired questions from Step 1. The test was scaled based on answers from people who had gotten these questions on their actual exam. The scale was set such that a 70 is the mean, with a STD of 8. We then we got a "total test scaled score" which I think can be compared to the mean of 70 to see how you stacked up.

In the score report at one point it also says, "Mean item difficulties are also provided based on performance of a Step 1 reference group (first-time takers from LCME-accredited schools)."

So I think we're being compared with first-time takers from LCME schools, not being compared with other NBME takers. There are obviously a lot of potential issues with this (ie maybe those people took the test 5 years ago, etc).

 

[kinglygrace]

Don't go to lecture and stopped watching lecture recordings (unless the lecture notes/powerpoints are poorly organized). My daily routine mainly consists of prereading lecture powerpoint/lecture notes, making anki cards, and doing anki cards, all of which usually takes up on average 3-4 hours (of actual studying and not browsing reddit lol) of my day (I try to study 7 days a week) though I was studying a bit more starting out as I tried to optimize my methods. A week before exams, I'll start rereading all lectures (while doing anki cards daily) and doing practice questions. We get most of exam week off so I usually study 7-8 hours a day during that time. I try my best to be as efficient as possible, so even though I may only study 4 hours in a day, I don't waste time on doing things that I feel dont help with retention (for me) like making outlines. I'm only 3 months into M1 but I've gotten mid to high 90s on my unit exams so far but we'll see how my approach holds up in neuro which I have almost no prior exposure to.

 

[Eye-eye]

My God, how am I suppose to survive that pace? Seriously... I used the same book for undergrad but we crawled through the material.

You do enough work based off the lecture material to get the pass in your course and do a bunch of FA and QBanks to learn how to think like you'll have to for boards, and what sort of material is more important for that. At least, that's what I'm hoping will get me through.

 

[libertyyne]

Boards and beyond > gojan

 

[libertyyne]

The way it's explained is really confusing but...
My impression is that the test we took was comprised of retired questions from Step 1. The test was scaled based on answers from people who had gotten these questions on their actual exam. The scale was set such that a 70 is the mean, with a STD of 8. We then we got a "total test scaled score" which I think can be compared to the mean of 70 to see how you stacked up.

In the score report at one point it also says, "Mean item difficulties are also provided based on performance of a Step 1 reference group (first-time takers from LCME-accredited schools)."

So I think we're being compared with first-time takers from LCME schools, not being compared with other NBME takers. There are obviously a lot of potential issues with this (ie maybe those people took the test 5 years ago, etc).

Did your school give you a FL NBME already or was this a subject one ? Congrats dude!

 

[Gurby]

Did your school give you a FL NBME already or was this a subject one ? Congrats dude!

Subject test, only 150 questions, all picked by our professors, taken right after we finished the relevant block lol. So probably not the best indicator, but still encouraging that this plan of attack should work pretty well if I can keep the momentum going for another 7 months...

 

[libertyyne]

Subject test, only 150 questions, all picked by our professors, taken right after we finished the relevant block lol. So probably not the best indicator, but still encouraging that this plan of attack should work pretty well if I can keep the momentum going for another 7 months...

yeah, i always wondered how they did the sd's for instructor selected questions. I think they break down each question in terms of answered correctly. Congrats thats an excellent score.