How to study for preclinicals at a school with Nbme exams?

[magician7772222]

I'm an incoming M1 who had lots of trouble studying for my classes during undergrad but really enjoyed how straight forward the MCAT process was with easy to follow guides of review, then uworld, then practice exams along with daily anki. I'm hoping to figure out how to more efficiently study in for classes in M1. Is there a similar tried and true method/set of resources that can be utilized in a similar way to the Mcat? Im starting at an MD school with NBME exams. I've heard of sketchy and uworld as well as scholarrx which is provided for us as a substitute for lectures. Looking at all of this is pretty overwhelming but I'd really like to make sure I don't struggle as much as I did with my undergrad classes and can make this process much more Mcat study like.

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

- download a STEP deck you like and watch some vids about how to set it up and approach it during your orientation week. Find whoever The Anki Guy is at your school and pick their brain. Do whatever you think is a reasonable number of cards a day.

- Pathoma, Sketchy, and BNB are the big ones imo for actually learning stuff. Most of this will likely be "freely available" to you from upperclassmen. Not everyone likes all of these so just pick the stuff you like and use it instead of of beating your head against the wall.

- buy the AMBOSS student life subscription, lasts til Step 3 for a flat fee. Do a problem set a day until you're done preclinical. I'm finishing the entire S1 bank in September having started it a few months ago. You can go through the stuff you sucked at a second time if you have time.

- your school will prob give you UWorld subs a few months out from your Steps. Use those codes at that time and treat this more like you're taking mock section exams

 

[magician7772222]

- download a STEP deck you like and watch some vids about how to set it up and approach it during your orientation week. Find whoever The Anki Guy is at your school and pick their brain. Do whatever you think is a reasonable number of cards a day.

- Pathoma, Sketchy, and BNB are the big ones imo for actually learning stuff. Most of this will likely be "freely available" to you from upperclassmen. Not everyone likes all of these so just pick the stuff you like and use it instead of of beating your head against the wall.

- buy the AMBOSS student life subscription, lasts til Step 3 for a flat fee. Do a problem set a day until you're done preclinical. I'm finishing the entire S1 bank in September having started it a few months ago. You can go through the stuff you sucked at a second time if you have time.

- your school will prob give you UWorld subs a few months out from your Steps. Use those codes at that time and treat this more like you're taking mock section exams

What kind of anki deck should be used? Is anking good?

Also are those third party resources good for school exams as well, or is that mainly for step and would other stuff be necessary for class exams?

 

[Goro]

You can never do enough practice questions

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

What kind of anki deck should be used? Is anking good?

Also are those third party resources good for school exams as well, or is that mainly for step and would other stuff be necessary for class exams?

I use AnKing and like it. Took probably an hour to play around and configure it then tweak it now and again if the interval isn't working for me.

You said your school uses NBME exams. They're basically Step questions. So yeah, third party would be ideal for you.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Ignore your school’s curriculum and just study for boards.

My school has a similar setup and the people who paid attention in class got lower grades…..

 

[AJS59]

I will advise that it depends a little bit on what "NBME exams" mean. Are they actually published by the NBME, or just in house questions styled like NBME? My school its the latter and that has burned people who've elected to ignore lectures.

 

[Tomiee]

- download a STEP deck you like and watch some vids about how to set it up and approach it during your orientation week. Find whoever The Anki Guy is at your school and pick their brain. Do whatever you think is a reasonable number of cards a day.

- Pathoma, Sketchy, and BNB are the big ones imo for actually learning stuff. Most of this will likely be "freely available" to you from upperclassmen. Not everyone likes all of these so just pick the stuff you like and use it instead of of beating your head against the wall.

- buy the AMBOSS student life subscription, lasts til Step 3 for a flat fee. Do a problem set a day until you're done preclinical. I'm finishing the entire S1 bank in September having started it a few months ago. You can go through the stuff you sucked at a second time if you have time.

- your school will prob give you UWorld subs a few months out from your Steps. Use those codes at that time and treat this more like you're taking mock section exams

For amboss can we start practice Q’s day one or wait a bit? I’m not really sure on the timeline.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

For amboss can we start practice Q’s day one or wait a bit? I’m not really sure on the timeline.

You can start whenever but don't take it as a confidence buster if you totally suck. Just do learn mode, try to reason through it with whatever you have, then read every answer option and you'll learn through osmosis.

 

[magician7772222]

I will advise that it depends a little bit on what "NBME exams" mean. Are they actually published by the NBME, or just in house questions styled like NBME? My school its the latter and that has burned people who've elected to ignore lectures.

NBME provided questions picked by teachers

 

[AJS59]

NBME provided questions picked by teachers

Then in that case, I think your best scenario is to just do 3rd party