How To Lightyear/Zanki?

[DPTinthemaking15]

Hi everyone,

I have a question that you may be able to help with. A few months ago I asked how to incorporate Lightyear/Zanki studying into my daily schedule for med school. This was before the beast began, and I realize why most of you told me to wait until school began (especially with mandatory lectures). Saying that, after a month of classes, I feel like I have time to squeeze a small amount of LY/Zanki into my daily schedule. Oh! I am at a systems based school, if that helps.

Here is my question:

How the heck do I do it? We have two exams every week, sometimes three or four if they are feeling froggy. I am a HUGE fan of Lightyear, because the tagging system is amazing. I like watching Boards and Beyond/Pathoma/ or Sketchy videos, and unlocking the relevant Anki cards that go along with it. Here is my issue, most of the cards don’t go along with lecture material.

Here is an example: We have a biochem exam coming up and we are required to memorize the TCA Cycle, Krebs, Glycolysis, etc… If I watch a Boards and beyond video, it seems they cover more “big picture/clinical” ideas, and less memorizing the pathways (We hit a few clinical correlations, but that is about it). Should I wait until we finish a course and unlock the Anki cards afterwards? We just finished up with pathology and immunology, and I am debating on unlocking those and trying it that way. I know as the blocks go on it will be easier, because we are just learning basic info, but I want to get a head start on this information.

Any help would be appreciated.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hungrydoc710]

Zanki is King

 

[Hippocrates II]

There's more than one way to approach this, but this is what I've been doing and it's working well for me:

1) Spend the first few days of a block doing all of the zanki cards associated with that unit. I also watch pathoma or B&B/sketchy prior to doing the cards.

2) Watch the lectures and make a minimal amount of cards on whatever wasn't covered in sketchy/pathoma/whatever.

3) Do cards every day, slowly add in practice questions as I approach the test.

Doing this is earning me some solid above-average grades. Zanki or whichever deck you choose will never provide you every detail your professor may ask of you, but it's a good foundation to then fill the gaps in.

 

[DPTinthemaking15]

There's more than one way to approach this, but this is what I've been doing and it's working well for me:

1) Spend the first few days of a block doing all of the zanki cards associated with that unit. I also watch pathoma or B&B/sketchy prior to doing the cards.

2) Watch the lectures and make a minimal amount of cards on whatever wasn't covered in sketchy/pathoma/whatever.

3) Do cards every day, slowly add in practice questions as I approach the test.

Doing this is earning me some solid above-average grades. Zanki or whichever deck you choose will never provide you every detail your professor may ask of you, but it's a good foundation to then fill the gaps in.

Thank you for this! We just now started Micro, and I watched a few of the Sketchy videos. Long story short, looks like I’ll be incorporating your advice into most of my classes. I never realized watching high-yield info first and then throwing in the low-yield near the end makes learning easier.

 

[Cath Up]

There's more than one way to approach this, but this is what I've been doing and it's working well for me:

1) Spend the first few days of a block doing all of the zanki cards associated with that unit. I also watch pathoma or B&B/sketchy prior to doing the cards.

2) Watch the lectures and make a minimal amount of cards on whatever wasn't covered in sketchy/pathoma/whatever.

3) Do cards every day, slowly add in practice questions as I approach the test.

Doing this is earning me some solid above-average grades. Zanki or whichever deck you choose will never provide you every detail your professor may ask of you, but it's a good foundation to then fill the gaps in.

You... do >1000 new cards in a few days? WAT. Or are your units designed for ants?

 

[Hippocrates II]

You... do >1000 new cards in a few days? WAT. Or are your units designed for ants?

I do 3-400 new/day and finish most sections of zanki within a few days. Takes me a few hours each day and then I spend the rest of the block refining the details from lecture.

 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

I do 3-400 new/day and finish most sections of zanki within a few days. Takes me a few hours each day and then I spend the rest of the block refining the details from lecture.

Do you do them once and never touch them again? Your review deck is probably thick af

 

[Cath Up]

I do 3-400 new/day and finish most sections of zanki within a few days. Takes me a few hours each day and then I spend the rest of the block refining the details from lecture.

That is the strangest way of going through Zanki I have heard of. All the power to you if it helps. So you're going to get through Zanki in 3 months? And yes, second the reviews question above.

 

[Hippocrates II]

Do you do them once and never touch them again? Your review deck is probably thick af

With the exception of this weekend, because I went on a trip after our last course, I do every review each day. Usually takes me ~2 hours in the morning. As I said below, the 3-400 new cards I'm doing are only for whatever block I'm in, so maybe 3-4 days out of each multi-week block. I don't do that every single day.

That is the strangest way of going through Zanki I have heard of. All the power to you if it helps. So you're going to get through Zanki in 3 months? And yes, second the reviews question above.

Lol, I don't think it's strange at all. I don't do 3-400 new cards every single day, I do all new cards for each block and then I'm left with only reviews. For example, if you have 5 weeks for your GI course and there are 1,100 zanki path cards for GI, then I will do all of those new cards for the first 3 days of the block and have the remaining 4 and a half weeks to use as review + learning lecture-specific material. I just frontload the work rather than spreading it out, which works better for me to know what is covered vs. isn't covered in our lectures. I don't do 400 new cards every single day or else I would just be mindlessly doing cards for systems I hadn't yet learned.

 

[Cath Up]

With the exception of this weekend, because I went on a trip after our last course, I do every review each day. Usually takes me ~2 hours in the morning. As I said below, the 3-400 new cards I'm doing are only for whatever block I'm in, so maybe 3-4 days out of each multi-week block. I don't do that every single day.



Lol, I don't think it's strange at all. I don't do 3-400 new cards every single day, I do all new cards for each block and then I'm left with only reviews. For example, if you have 5 weeks for your GI course and there are 1,100 zanki path cards for GI, then I will do all of those new cards for the first 3 days of the block and have the remaining 4 and a half weeks to use as review + learning lecture-specific material. I just frontload the work rather than spreading it out, which works better for me to know what is covered vs. isn't covered in our lectures. I don't do 400 new cards every single day or else I would just be mindlessly doing cards for systems I hadn't yet learned.

Gotcha! Thank you for explaining. Sounds like a solid strategy.