How to be Successful First Year and what are the best Resources?

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Dhooy7

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I was just accepted to medical school on Friday. I want to be successful on boards and would appreciate any tips starting out to be successful. I am motivated and will stay on top of my studying. I know it is very important to study every day and not get behind. Also what resources (Anki, Zanki, First Aid) did you find most helpful? Any other tips?
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completely depends on your curriculum.
B&B + Zanki is good. IMO light year has too many repeats and zanki has more material in it. FA is a nice reference material that I didn't find helpful for first year. Buy USMLE-RX and use it along side your classes. You can study the material all you want, but until you see practice questions and how the material will be asked, you probably don't know it as well as you think you do. IMO you should save Uworld until dedicated.

Things to keep in mind:
1) don't forget to focus on yourself. You really shouldn't be sacrificing sleep for studying unless its the night before an exam or something crazy happened earlier and you couldn't study. Even then more sleep > cramming for 3 hours before the exam after waking up at 3 am.
2) Come up with a realistic schedule and stick to it. Schedule in off time and time to exercise. You probably will have more time than you thought, make sure you have time for hobbies. Do you play video games? Great, totally acceptable to play for an hour or two a night if you are caught up on studying. Golf? Rock climb? Swim? Perfect, go do it. Studying for 15 hours a day every day in 1st year is the best way to burnout in a month and destroy your mental health.
3) don't compare yourself to others. people will probably talk about how they're disappointed they "only" got a 92%, or constantly say "I didn't study at all and like omg i'm going to fail" when you know for a fact they spend 10 hours a day in the library. Ignore it.
4) Try to meet as many people as you can. It's kind of like freshman year of college all over again. Except much smaller. These are the people you're going to go through hell with for the next 2 years. It *really* helps when you have close friends, study partners, and people to go do things with on a friday/saturday night. I know for a fact I couldn't have made it this far without my friends
5) Have fun. Medical school sucks some times, but I've really had an amazing time so far.

Before anyone replies with "AKSHUALLY porkchopsog, you're wrong" and completely refutes everything I've said, note that it's all personal preference and you have to do what works for you. I'm someone that needs more sleep and off time: I sacrified some study time for that, and I'm really glad I did. once you find what works for you, stick to it!
 
PorkChopsOG said:
completely depends on your curriculum.
B&B + Zanki is good. IMO light year has too many repeats and zanki has more material in it. FA is a nice reference material that I didn't find helpful for first year. Buy USMLE-RX and use it along side your classes. You can study the material all you want, but until you see practice questions and how the material will be asked, you probably don't know it as well as you think you do. IMO you should save Uworld until dedicated.

Things to keep in mind:
1) don't forget to focus on yourself. You really shouldn't be sacrificing sleep for studying unless its the night before an exam or something crazy happened earlier and you couldn't study. Even then more sleep > cramming for 3 hours before the exam after waking up at 3 am.
2) Come up with a realistic schedule and stick to it. Schedule in off time and time to exercise. You probably will have more time than you thought, make sure you have time for hobbies. Do you play video games? Great, totally acceptable to play for an hour or two a night if you are caught up on studying. Golf? Rock climb? Swim? Perfect, go do it. Studying for 15 hours a day every day in 1st year is the best way to burnout in a month and destroy your mental health.
3) don't compare yourself to others. people will probably talk about how they're disappointed they "only" got a 92%, or constantly say "I didn't study at all and like omg i'm going to fail" when you know for a fact they spend 10 hours a day in the library. Ignore it.
4) Try to meet as many people as you can. It's kind of like freshman year of college all over again. Except much smaller. These are the people you're going to go through hell with for the next 2 years. It *really* helps when you have close friends, study partners, and people to go do things with on a friday/saturday night. I know for a fact I couldn't have made it this far without my friends
5) Have fun. Medical school sucks some times, but I've really had an amazing time so far.

Before anyone replies with "AKSHUALLY porkchopsog, you're wrong" and completely refutes everything I've said, note that it's all personal preference and you have to do what works for you. I'm someone that needs more sleep and off time: I sacrified some study time for that, and I'm really glad I did. once you find what works for you, stick to it!
Click to expand...

What do you recommend for a traditional curriculum?
 
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tsmleague said:
What do you recommend for a traditional curriculum?
Click to expand...
No clue. I had organ systems, not traditional so I could just do one zanki deck at a time. Sketchy for pharm/micro, boards/beyond for whatever class you're in, and use zanki and unsuspend the relevant cards.
 
Start Zanki from day 1. Get up every morning and do 40 new cards and all the reviews. If you do this then your reviews will only be like 200 or so and you can do all of that in 1.5 hours. After that just hammer class material, but here is the kicker: you have to do those cards every day. Even when you don't want to, still do them. BnB, Sketchy micro and pharm are great resources to supplement your class material with. Start practice questions in the beginning of second year for material that you have already seen. Personally I think Kaplan is better than Rx but I've done both. You need to do as many practice questions as possible.

Personally I wouldn't wait until dedicated for UWorld as every single person I know that did that seriously regretted it. It is such a valuable resource for boards and there are a ton of questions in it. However, don't do it until the spring before boards. Doing it before that is also a waste of its true potential.

Buckle down and study. Many people talk about how much they study when most of there time is actually spent wasting time, don't be one of those people. Actually go and study that much.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Start Zanki from day 1. Get up every morning and do 40 new cards and all the reviews. If you do this then your reviews will only be like 200 or so and you can do all of that in 1.5 hours. After that just hammer class material, but here is the kicker: you have to do those cards every day. Even when you don't want to, still do them. BnB, Sketchy micro and pharm are great resources to supplement your class material with. Start practice questions in the beginning of second year for material that you have already seen. Personally I think Kaplan is better than Rx but I've done both. You need to do as many practice questions as possible.

Personally I wouldn't wait until dedicated for UWorld as every single person I know that did that seriously regretted it. It is such a valuable resource for boards and there are a ton of questions in it. However, don't do it until the spring before boards. Doing it before that is also a waste of its true potential.

Buckle down and study. Many people talk about how much they study when most of there time is actually spent wasting time, don't be one of those people. Actually go and study that much.
Click to expand...
TBH I don't know anyone who has regretted saving uworld until dedicated.
 
Neopolymath said:
Do: listen to sdn
Don't: listen to anyone at your school or affiliated with your school unless it directly pertains to an example like "so and so always tests on this one table" or very specific advice like that *this does not mean be a dick or not make friends*
Click to expand...

Seriously though. It still blows me away some of the stuff I hear my classmates spout and I am always sitting there like 😵

"Do you want to not match? Because this is how you don't match."
 
Dhooy7 said:
I was just accepted to medical school on Friday. I want to be successful on boards and would appreciate any tips starting out to be successful. I am motivated and will stay on top of my studying. I know it is very important to study every day and not get behind. Also what resources (Anki, Zanki, First Aid) did you find most helpful? Any other tips?
Click to expand...
Read this:
Goro’s guide to success in medical school
 
Complete noob question here, so please go easy on me; but is there a difference between Anki and Zanki?
 
Norwood-Sano said:
Complete noob question here, so please go easy on me; but is there a difference between Anki and Zanki?
Click to expand...
Yeah, so anki is the program. Zanki is one of the many pre-made decks available to enterprising medical students who want to go down that pathway of preclinical. There are other decks too like Lightyear and the OG Bros deck.
 
Neopolymath said:
Yeah, so anki is the program. Zanki is one of the many pre-made decks available to enterprising medical students who want to go down that pathway of preclinical. There are other decks too like Lightyear and the OG Bros deck.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I downloaded something off of a Reddit page which I thought was Zanki but the program icon on my desktop says "Anki" so I think thats where the confusion came from.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Start Zanki from day 1. Get up every morning and do 40 new cards and all the reviews. If you do this then your reviews will only be like 200 or so and you can do all of that in 1.5 hours. After that just hammer class material, but here is the kicker: you have to do those cards every day. Even when you don't want to, still do them. BnB, Sketchy micro and pharm are great resources to supplement your class material with. Start practice questions in the beginning of second year for material that you have already seen. Personally I think Kaplan is better than Rx but I've done both. You need to do as many practice questions as possible.

Personally I wouldn't wait until dedicated for UWorld as every single person I know that did that seriously regretted it. It is such a valuable resource for boards and there are a ton of questions in it. However, don't do it until the spring before boards. Doing it before that is also a waste of its true potential.

Buckle down and study. Many people talk about how much they study when most of there time is actually spent wasting time, don't be one of those people. Actually go and study that much.
Click to expand...
When you say do zanki, you mean unsuspend cards for the class your in and do those right?
 
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Does it matter which version on zanki I use? I've seen some updates decks.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Personally I wouldn't wait until dedicated for UWorld as every single person I know that did that seriously regretted it. It is such a valuable resource for boards and there are a ton of questions in it.
Click to expand...

100% true.

PorkChopsOG said:
TBH I don't know anyone who has regretted saving uworld until dedicated.
Click to expand...

Every single one of my friends who scored 260+ (including 270+) at top schools did UWorld two times prior to dedicated and attributed their success to exactly that (a couple of them did Rx and Kaplan 2x before dedicated, as well). Not sure who you spoke to, but I know lots of people who regretted sticking only to Rx/Kaplan pre-dedicated, and then having to learn material through UWorld during dedicated. In fact, their advice to me was literally this: "Don't save UWorld until dedicated, that is a huge waste." UWorld isn't an assessment tool.
 
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Dr.RIckandMorty said:
When you say do zanki, you mean unsuspend cards for the class your in and do those right?
Click to expand...

No. I mean start from the beginning and go through the whole thing. Sure you can then also do the decks for whatever system you are in if you like, but make sure you keep up on the reviews if you do this.
 
sab3156 said:
100% true.



Every single one of my friends who scored 260+ (including 270+) at top schools did UWorld two times prior to dedicated and attributed their success to exactly that (a couple of them did Rx and Kaplan 2x before dedicated, as well). Not sure who you spoke to, but I know lots of people who regretted sticking only to Rx/Kaplan pre-dedicated, and then having to learn material through UWorld during dedicated. In fact, their advice to me was literally this: "Don't save UWorld until dedicated, that is a huge waste." UWorld isn't an assessment tool.
Click to expand...
anecdotal evidence is anecdotal dude. this is all personal preference. I also have friends at "top schools" who did uworld once through in their 4-6 weeks and got 250's-260's. Then again, those people go to top 5 med schools, they were most likely going to do well no matter what they did.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Start Zanki from day 1. Get up every morning and do 40 new cards and all the reviews. If you do this then your reviews will only be like 200 or so and you can do all of that in 1.5 hours. After that just hammer class material, but here is the kicker: you have to do those cards every day. Even when you don't want to, still do them. BnB, Sketchy micro and pharm are great resources to supplement your class material with. Start practice questions in the beginning of second year for material that you have already seen. Personally I think Kaplan is better than Rx but I've done both. You need to do as many practice questions as possible.

Personally I wouldn't wait until dedicated for UWorld as every single person I know that did that seriously regretted it. It is such a valuable resource for boards and there are a ton of questions in it. However, don't do it until the spring before boards. Doing it before that is also a waste of its true potential.

Buckle down and study. Many people talk about how much they study when most of there time is actually spent wasting time, don't be one of those people. Actually go and study that much.
Click to expand...
Is there a tutorial on YouTube or something? I’m going through the Biochem section a bit just to get a feel for the program but not sure if I’m doing it all right.
 
PorkChopsOG said:
completely depends on your curriculum.
B&B + Zanki is good. IMO light year has too many repeats and zanki has more material in it. FA is a nice reference material that I didn't find helpful for first year. Buy USMLE-RX and use it along side your classes. You can study the material all you want, but until you see practice questions and how the material will be asked, you probably don't know it as well as you think you do. IMO you should save Uworld until dedicated.

Things to keep in mind:
1) don't forget to focus on yourself. You really shouldn't be sacrificing sleep for studying unless its the night before an exam or something crazy happened earlier and you couldn't study. Even then more sleep > cramming for 3 hours before the exam after waking up at 3 am.
2) Come up with a realistic schedule and stick to it. Schedule in off time and time to exercise. You probably will have more time than you thought, make sure you have time for hobbies. Do you play video games? Great, totally acceptable to play for an hour or two a night if you are caught up on studying. Golf? Rock climb? Swim? Perfect, go do it. Studying for 15 hours a day every day in 1st year is the best way to burnout in a month and destroy your mental health.
3) don't compare yourself to others. people will probably talk about how they're disappointed they "only" got a 92%, or constantly say "I didn't study at all and like omg i'm going to fail" when you know for a fact they spend 10 hours a day in the library. Ignore it.
4) Try to meet as many people as you can. It's kind of like freshman year of college all over again. Except much smaller. These are the people you're going to go through hell with for the next 2 years. It *really* helps when you have close friends, study partners, and people to go do things with on a friday/saturday night. I know for a fact I couldn't have made it this far without my friends
5) Have fun. Medical school sucks some times, but I've really had an amazing time so far.

Before anyone replies with "AKSHUALLY porkchopsog, you're wrong" and completely refutes everything I've said, note that it's all personal preference and you have to do what works for you. I'm someone that needs more sleep and off time: I sacrified some study time for that, and I'm really glad I did. once you find what works for you, stick to it!
Click to expand...
3) don't compare yourself to others. people will probably talk about how they're disappointed they "only" got a 92%, or constantly say "I didn't study at all and like omg i'm going to fail" when you know for a fact they spend 10 hours a day in the library. Ignore it.

this^ lol
 
Dhooy7 said:
I was just accepted to medical school on Friday. I want to be successful on boards and would appreciate any tips starting out to be successful. I am motivated and will stay on top of my studying. I know it is very important to study every day and not get behind. Also what resources (Anki, Zanki, First Aid) did you find most helpful? Any other tips?
Click to expand...

Note that all of your classmates were "A" students in their university... in a class of 200 someone will become the 200th rank... does not mean that you were bad.. it just means that everyone with you are just as smart as you are some even more. As far as resources, go to the first day of class. every curriculum usually starts off with review of undergrad cell bio, genetics and biochem....
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
No. I mean start from the beginning and go through the whole thing. Sure you can then also do the decks for whatever system you are in if you like, but make sure you keep up on the reviews if you do this.
Click to expand...

I'm also an upcoming student so you definitely know more than me. But would it not be better to do the Zanki cards that follow along with my curriculum (systems based)? Starting from the very beginning seems to imply that I should be doing cards with information I haven't been exposed to yet.
 
Winafy said:
I'm also an upcoming student so you definitely know more than me. But would it not be better to do the Zanki cards that follow along with my curriculum (systems based)? Starting from the very beginning seems to imply that I should be doing cards with information I haven't been exposed to yet.
Click to expand...
You’ll inevitably do loads of cards from nowhere in your curriculum. That’s just what is. You just blindly memorize and eventually it comes together.
 
Winafy said:
I'm also an upcoming student so you definitely know more than me. But would it not be better to do the Zanki cards that follow along with my curriculum (systems based)? Starting from the very beginning seems to imply that I should be doing cards with information I haven't been exposed to yet.
Click to expand...
The key to doing well is studying *more* than what your curriculum teaches. Most new students don't realize that when people bitch about their school curriculum they are complaining about professors going too far in depth over something stupid but then also completely blowing off something else so suddenly the uninformed student is in dedicated learning something completely new. The more subtle version of this is when the curriculum just mentions concepts (as if checking them off their list) but not actually teaching about it.

The long and short of it is that even if you do the cards corresponding to each section of your school's current topic you will absolutely be doing extra cards and learning extra. Do not neglect this or put it off. If you got 15 cards about pulsus paradoxus and your school is on cardio, do them. It is going to irritate you because it really highlights the shortcomings of your curriculum but it also shows you that it's worth making the initial leap of faith to just straight up ignore your school's lectures.

Also, if you are smart you have time to do extra parts of decks a little at a time while doing your regular coursework. This means you can get ahead in some subjects and gives you more time for questions later in your didactics. Going at the school's pace is a big mistake IMO if you don't have to. You leave a lot of time on the table that you will wish you had second year instead of studying stuff you could have mastered already.
 
I've been lurking around and reading everything, but I'm starting to swim in all the "external resources" that people are posting. Is there a list of them I can look at? Like, I don't even know what to google, that's how lost I am right now. Can anyone help?
 
Lovelygreenhue said:
I've been lurking around and reading everything, but I'm starting to swim in all the "external resources" that people are posting. Is there a list of them I can look at? Like, I don't even know what to google, that's how lost I am right now. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...

Anki- flash card system predicated on the idea of spaced repetition. Zanki deck (use this across the entire first two years).

UWorld- question bank don't start this until spring of second year

First Aid- Board Review bible. Only use this as a review source. Good for pneumonics.

Sketchy- Lecture system based on visual learning. Micro is a must, personally I think Pharm is too, and path is very meh

Pathoma- Pathology lecture review for boards. Very High Yield, is also good for using as a first pass of the material for class as to get a good grasp of the overarching picture.

Boards and Beyond- Honestly you can use this as a primary resource for class. Absolute gold for biochem, biostats, and neuro. Includes all the material from Pathoma and I honestly think BnB will supplant Pathoma as the "go to" board resource over time. Also includes all the pharm and physiology.

My recommendation: start the Zanki deck from day 1 and do 40 new cards and all the reviews every single morning. Shouldn't take you longer than 1-2 hours tops. Just start at the beginning of the deck and go through the whole thing. For the rest of the day crush class material, start by watching BnB for whatever topic/system you are on in school, supplementing with Sketchy Micro and Pharm as needed. Do these resources over and over until the test rolls around. The few days before the test review class lectures to make sure you get all the nitty gritty details.

If I had to do it all over again I would do this.

Edit: one note, there are a million resources and there will be people swearing to you that each one will be the silver bullet. Personally I would stick to the standard UFAPS and Zanki (basically UFAP in flash card form) and hammer those for 2 years. It's better to know 2-3 resources cold than it is to get bogged down trying to use 10.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Anki- flash card system predicated on the idea of spaced repetition. Zanki deck (use this across the entire first two years).

UWorld- question bank don't start this until spring of second year

First Aid- Board Review bible. Only use this as a review source. Good for pneumonics.

Sketchy- Lecture system based on visual learning. Micro is a must, personally I think Pharm is too, and path is very meh

Pathoma- Pathology lecture review for boards. Very High Yield, is also good for using as a first pass of the material for class as to get a good grasp of the overarching picture.

Boards and Beyond- Honestly you can use this as a primary resource for class. Absolute gold for biochem, biostats, and neuro. Includes all the material from Pathoma and I honestly think BnB will supplant Pathoma as the "go to" board resource over time. Also includes all the pharm and physiology.

My recommendation: start the Zanki deck from day 1 and do 40 new cards and all the reviews every single morning. Shouldn't take you longer than 1-2 hours tops. Just start at the beginning of the deck and go through the whole thing. For the rest of the day crush class material, start by watching BnB for whatever topic/system you are on in school, supplementing with Sketchy Micro and Pharm as needed. Do these resources over and over until the test rolls around. The few days before the test review class lectures to make sure you get all the nitty gritty details.

If I had to do it all over again I would do this.

Edit: one note, there are a million resources and there will be people swearing to you that each one will be the silver bullet. Personally I would stick to the standard UFAPS and Zanki (basically UFAP in flash card form) and hammer those for 2 years. It's better to know 2-3 resources cold than it is to get bogged down trying to use 10.
Click to expand...

I have watched several videos of BnB and think it’s gold; really matches my learning style. I will be using the the LY deck because the idea of doing cards that match videos eases my mind (even if some would argue it lacks compared to Zanki.)

How compatible is BnB with traditional curriculum (not systems)? I honestly only want to use BnB, Anki, and Sketchy (for second year.) I’m only looking for a step score that’s respectable, nothing insane... The organization of BnB/LY really gives me peace of mind, and I really want to use it day 1.
 
WhereMyLiberalsAt said:
I have watched several videos of BnB and think it’s gold; really matches my learning style. I will be using the the LY deck because the idea of doing cards that match videos eases my mind (even if some would argue it lacks compared to Zanki.)

How compatible is BnB with traditional curriculum (not systems)? I honestly only want to use BnB, Anki, and Sketchy (for second year.) I’m only looking for a step score that’s respectable, nothing insane... The organization of BnB/LY really gives me peace of mind, and I really want to use it day 1.
Click to expand...
Completely compatible
 
Medical school can be challenging. Inbox me I have no problem answering any questions, congratulations btw
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Anki- flash card system predicated on the idea of spaced repetition. Zanki deck (use this across the entire first two years).

UWorld- question bank don't start this until spring of second year

First Aid- Board Review bible. Only use this as a review source. Good for pneumonics.

Sketchy- Lecture system based on visual learning. Micro is a must, personally I think Pharm is too, and path is very meh

Pathoma- Pathology lecture review for boards. Very High Yield, is also good for using as a first pass of the material for class as to get a good grasp of the overarching picture.

Boards and Beyond- Honestly you can use this as a primary resource for class. Absolute gold for biochem, biostats, and neuro. Includes all the material from Pathoma and I honestly think BnB will supplant Pathoma as the "go to" board resource over time. Also includes all the pharm and physiology.

My recommendation: start the Zanki deck from day 1 and do 40 new cards and all the reviews every single morning. Shouldn't take you longer than 1-2 hours tops. Just start at the beginning of the deck and go through the whole thing. For the rest of the day crush class material, start by watching BnB for whatever topic/system you are on in school, supplementing with Sketchy Micro and Pharm as needed. Do these resources over and over until the test rolls around. The few days before the test review class lectures to make sure you get all the nitty gritty details.

If I had to do it all over again I would do this.

Edit: one note, there are a million resources and there will be people swearing to you that each one will be the silver bullet. Personally I would stick to the standard UFAPS and Zanki (basically UFAP in flash card form) and hammer those for 2 years. It's better to know 2-3 resources cold than it is to get bogged down trying to use 10.
Click to expand...

Pretty much these. There's a million resources and you'll hear people praise others, but if someone threatened to shoot me with a gun that doubled my debt if I was wrong, I would STILL swear by these. Especially Sketchy. Here's what you do: 1) Buy it the SECOND you see a bacteria lecture on the horizon. 2) Tell everyone about it after your professor just fire-hoses the lecture hall with what looks like arbitrary garbage. 3) ??? 4) Get all the ladies Become the popular kid that saved everyone's careers. Optional 5) Ride that momentum and apply to be Class President!
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Anki- flash card system predicated on the idea of spaced repetition. Zanki deck (use this across the entire first two years).

UWorld- question bank don't start this until spring of second year

First Aid- Board Review bible. Only use this as a review source. Good for pneumonics.

Sketchy- Lecture system based on visual learning. Micro is a must, personally I think Pharm is too, and path is very meh

Pathoma- Pathology lecture review for boards. Very High Yield, is also good for using as a first pass of the material for class as to get a good grasp of the overarching picture.

Boards and Beyond- Honestly you can use this as a primary resource for class. Absolute gold for biochem, biostats, and neuro. Includes all the material from Pathoma and I honestly think BnB will supplant Pathoma as the "go to" board resource over time. Also includes all the pharm and physiology.

My recommendation: start the Zanki deck from day 1 and do 40 new cards and all the reviews every single morning. Shouldn't take you longer than 1-2 hours tops. Just start at the beginning of the deck and go through the whole thing. For the rest of the day crush class material, start by watching BnB for whatever topic/system you are on in school, supplementing with Sketchy Micro and Pharm as needed. Do these resources over and over until the test rolls around. The few days before the test review class lectures to make sure you get all the nitty gritty details.

If I had to do it all over again I would do this.

Edit: one note, there are a million resources and there will be people swearing to you that each one will be the silver bullet. Personally I would stick to the standard UFAPS and Zanki (basically UFAP in flash card form) and hammer those for 2 years. It's better to know 2-3 resources cold than it is to get bogged down trying to use 10.
Click to expand...
/thread haha
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Anki- flash card system predicated on the idea of spaced repetition. Zanki deck (use this across the entire first two years).

UWorld- question bank don't start this until spring of second year

First Aid- Board Review bible. Only use this as a review source. Good for pneumonics.

Sketchy- Lecture system based on visual learning. Micro is a must, personally I think Pharm is too, and path is very meh

Pathoma- Pathology lecture review for boards. Very High Yield, is also good for using as a first pass of the material for class as to get a good grasp of the overarching picture.

Boards and Beyond- Honestly you can use this as a primary resource for class. Absolute gold for biochem, biostats, and neuro. Includes all the material from Pathoma and I honestly think BnB will supplant Pathoma as the "go to" board resource over time. Also includes all the pharm and physiology.

My recommendation: start the Zanki deck from day 1 and do 40 new cards and all the reviews every single morning. Shouldn't take you longer than 1-2 hours tops. Just start at the beginning of the deck and go through the whole thing. For the rest of the day crush class material, start by watching BnB for whatever topic/system you are on in school, supplementing with Sketchy Micro and Pharm as needed. Do these resources over and over until the test rolls around. The few days before the test review class lectures to make sure you get all the nitty gritty details.

If I had to do it all over again I would do this.

Edit: one note, there are a million resources and there will be people swearing to you that each one will be the silver bullet. Personally I would stick to the standard UFAPS and Zanki (basically UFAP in flash card form) and hammer those for 2 years. It's better to know 2-3 resources cold than it is to get bogged down trying to use 10.
Click to expand...

Thank-you! This is really helpful! I'll start looking into these right now before classes start, especially Zanki. Thank-you again!
 
Using Pepper Micro and Pepper Pharm deck to start?
Also use Zanki to cover FA and Pathoma?

Sound right to you seasoned anki users?
 
Neopolymath said:
Lolnotacop is THE microdeck. Zanki pharm is argued regularly to be better than Pepper.
Click to expand...
Ok I will DL lolnotacop for micro (but I deleted the pharm bits and other random sections, so it's spec for micro).
I will DL zanki for pharm.

As for pathoma and first aid deck - what do you suggest?
 
hungrydoc710 said:
Ok I will DL lolnotacop for micro (but I deleted the pharm bits and other random sections, so it's spec for micro).
I will DL zanki for pharm.

As for pathoma and first aid deck - what do you suggest?
Click to expand...
Supposedly the anking zanki overhaul combines notacop with zanki where it overlaps for ch. 3 neoplasia and a few other spots. The notacop deck overall is great. Don't delete any part of it.

Use Zanki for pathoma and all the other stuff. It is comprehensive and easy to use. You don't need like a pathoma deck, FA, deck sketchy deck etc. You need anking zanki overhaul (if I'm remembering his deck right). It has zanki+ lolnotacop. That covers pharm, micro, pathoma, FA, costanzo physio (the goat of phys) etc. It is all inclusive.
 
Neopolymath said:
Supposedly the anking zanki overhaul combines notacop with zanki where it overlaps for ch. 3 neoplasia and a few other spots. The notacop deck overall is great. Don't delete any part of it.

Use Zanki for pathoma and all the other stuff. It is comprehensive and easy to use. You don't need like a pathoma deck, FA, deck sketchy deck etc. You need anking zanki overhaul (if I'm remembering his deck right). It has zanki+ lolnotacop. That covers pharm, micro, pathoma, FA, costanzo physio (the goat of phys) etc. It is all inclusive.
Click to expand...
OK, I just thought it makes more sense from an organization standpoint, to have i seperated by source so you can quiz urself based on that.

So you're saying just get AnKing deck (overhaul), and that covers EVERYTHING?
Can you link this deck?

Thx!
 
Neopolymath said:
Zanki pharm is argued regularly to be better than Pepper.
Click to expand...
Personally I liked Pepper better, but that's probably because I did it in dedicated and it was much shorter lol
hungrydoc710 said:
So you're saying just get AnKing deck (overhaul), and that covers EVERYTHING?
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm convinced if someone simply hammered Zanki and did every practice question they could get their hands on they would absolutely smash boards.
 
I’m kind of confused. People recommend just doing 50 new cards a day plus all reviews. So I figured I’d take a look, but the cards are all over the place content wise.

It feels like I’m just memorizing random facts that have nothing to do with course material.
 
WoundupKnight said:
I’m kind of confused. People recommend just doing 50 new cards a day plus all reviews. So I figured I’d take a look, but the cards are all over the place content wise.

It feels like I’m just memorizing random facts that have nothing to do with course material.
Click to expand...


It all comes together, trust the process. It shouldn't be all random cards, it should start at the top of the deck and go down. Meaning you should only be getting cards from the biochem deck at the beginning, then it will transition to the next one, and so on.
 
WoundupKnight said:
I’m kind of confused. People recommend just doing 50 new cards a day plus all reviews. So I figured I’d take a look, but the cards are all over the place content wise.

It feels like I’m just memorizing random facts that have nothing to do with course material.
Click to expand...
Yep. Nothing is quite as funny as seeing your school finally get around to teaching you stuff a year after you memorize it.

Essentially, Zanki is put together by people trying to crush boards. Your school curriculum is put together by people wanting everyone to just pass boards. That’s the sad reality.
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
Personally I liked Pepper better, but that's probably because I did it in dedicated and it was much shorter lol


Yes. I'm convinced if someone simply hammered Zanki and did every practice question they could get their hands on they would absolutely smash boards.
Click to expand...
You think using LolNotACop for Micro; Pepper for Pharm; and Zanki for Phys/Pathoma will suffice for now?
 
AnatomyGrey12 said:
It all comes together, trust the process. It shouldn't be all random cards, it should start at the top of the deck and go down. Meaning you should only be getting cards from the biochem deck at the beginning, then it will transition to the next one, and so on.
Click to expand...

This is the one reason I’m going to do the LY deck... Nothing is wrong with this philosophy, but it for sure induced a level of anxiety doing it the “zanki” way. The idea of watching a BnB video (then unlocking those cards) that corresponds with what my class is going over really makes me feel at ease. The same goes with the lolnotacop and sketchy.

I’ma sucka for neat packaging... Which I think BnB+LY/sketchy+lolnotacop provides.
 
Right now I have Pepper Micro and Pepper Pharm downloaded.
Downloaded Zanki for Phys/Pathoma.

Should suffice for now.
I just bought boards material, got damn those UW Q's ain't cheap!
 
hungrydoc710 said:
OK, I just thought it makes more sense from an organization standpoint, to have i seperated by source so you can quiz urself based on that.

So you're saying just get AnKing deck (overhaul), and that covers EVERYTHING?
Can you link this deck?

Thx!
Click to expand...
Medicalschoolanki subreddit is where the magic happens
WoundupKnight said:
I’m kind of confused. People recommend just doing 50 new cards a day plus all reviews. So I figured I’d take a look, but the cards are all over the place content wise.

It feels like I’m just memorizing random facts that have nothing to do with course material.
Click to expand...
I have been meaning to type up a lengthy post about this topic but let me tell you this: learning more than your school's presented material (because they go over it later or never) is the key to having a more chill second year/dedicated. If you follow your school's schedule you will almost certainly be scrambling.

It was said a few posts up but I'll say it again. Your school would like nothing more than for everyone to pass Comlex by 10 points and no one do well than for a few people to fail and the top of the class to do really well. You cannot rely on your school, even if they are overall decent, for boards. People who realize this in M1 because of Reddit and SDN have a much less stressful time. SDN has a reputation for being hardcore geniuses or something stupid but truly most of the advice for year 1 and 2 actually makes your life easier.
 
WhereMyLiberalsAt said:
This is the one reason I’m going to do the LY deck... Nothing is wrong with this philosophy, but it for sure induced a level of anxiety doing it the “zanki” way. The idea of watching a BnB video (then unlocking those cards) that corresponds with what my class is going over really makes me feel at ease. The same goes with the lolnotacop and sketchy.

I’ma sucka for neat packaging... Which I think BnB+LY/sketchy+lolnotacop provides.
Click to expand...
I'm not going to tell you not to use LY but I will tell you that everyone that uses Zanki does not have problems with what you are describing once they start the deck. Topics are tagged and ordered. Sort by date created. Boom there is Ch1 pathoma. Unlock and do the cards. Rinse repeat. Most of us watched BB as well and unlocked pertinent cards along the way. It is something that sounds disorganized only in theory while in practice has been completely unnoticeable during the workflow of the decks.
 
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