Is anyone using or did use Picmonic in their Step 1 prep?

[shigella123]

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How was your experience with it and how did you use it? I'm still weak in biochem and micro. I was thinking about trying picmonic for those subjects and maybe for pharm too. Where can I get a discount code from if there is one? Can we pick a subject we want or do we get all 368 cards? Is it possible to get it for only 1 month?

I have few more questions.. I'm sorry, I went through their website and it was not clear to me.

How are you using it? How many cards do you go over per day? Do you listen to the story too?

 

[Brain Bucket]

How was your experience with it and how did you use it? I'm still weak in biochem and micro. I was thinking about trying picmonic for those subjects and maybe for pharm too. Where can I get a discount code from if there is one? Can we pick a subject we want or do we get all 368 cards? Is it possible to get it for only 1 month?

I have few more questions.. I'm sorry, I went through their website and it was not clear to me.

How are you using it? How many cards do you go over per day? Do you listen to the story too?

Contact them for the first set of questions, and let us know how it goes (especially with the discount code). I need to renew soonish.

For the second set, search for 'picmonic' on the forums.
My opinion on the second set of Qs...
Usage: More or less random. Whenever I feel like it, or if I'm having trouble getting something to stick.
Cards/Day: Varies by how much free time I have. Varies from none to 30.
Story: Yes. There are some things in the story that sometimes help some of the picture stick in your head. If you can recreate that picture in your mind without their story, that works as well.

 

[shigella123]

Contact them for the first set of questions, and let us know how it goes (especially with the discount code). I need to renew soonish.

For the second set, search for 'picmonic' on the forums.
My opinion on the second set of Qs...
Usage: More or less random. Whenever I feel like it, or if I'm having trouble getting something to stick.
Cards/Day: Varies by how much free time I have. Varies from none to 30.
Story: Yes. There are some things in the story that sometimes help some of the picture stick in your head. If you can recreate that picture in your mind without their story, that works as well.

Hey Brian,

Thanks for the info, I did search the web for the Picmonic reviews by other students and didn't find much as it is a new program. So, I will call them soon, but I don't know if it's really worth it to purchase it.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I meant just on these forums. There are plenty of opinions. Are you new to using a pc, or just looking up stuff in general?

I'd say value is relative. I got it when there was a discount going, but at this stage I'd likely only renew it if there were another discount (at least 30%). I am able to remember a few details only because of it, but if I'd spent more time with a micro text, I would have probably known those details. I have two friends at school who swear by it. 3 who cancelled their subscriptions. Try the sample cards they have and decide for yourself.

 

[shigella123]

I meant just on these forums. There are plenty of opinions. Are you new to using a pc, or just looking up stuff in general?

I'd say value is relative. I got it when there was a discount going, but at this stage I'd likely only renew it if there were another discount (at least 30%). I am able to remember a few details only because of it, but if I'd spent more time with a micro text, I would have probably known those details. I have two friends at school who swear by it. 3 who cancelled their subscriptions. Try the sample cards they have and decide for yourself.

"Are you new to using a pc, or just looking up stuff in general?" loll....

Yes, I also looked up all the forums on here as they show up when you are about to post a questions about certain topic and also did search this forum. But I didn't find info on the questions I had.

And I saw their 10 free trial cards so I wanted to just see how helpful the remaining will be.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[AlexB]

So expensive, hard to say if worth it. I think taking that money and getting some high-quality review books like FA, high yield series would be a better use of your hard earned $$$ and give more "bang for your buck" towards score improvement

 

[001100010010011]

Well, it depends on your learning style. How much is it now? I picked it up for $99.

I literally still remember the details of the trail cards I checked out during first year. Ask me anything about a giant cell tumor and I can list it off for you.

If you are drowning in lysosomal storage diseases or are really struggling to remember a topic then it's the perfect antidote. The investment you make right now will pay off in the future--highly rated test prep materials are nothing to be stingy about.

 

[shigella123]

Well, it depends on your learning style. How much is it now? I picked it up for $99.

I literally still remember the details of the trail cards I checked out during first year. Ask me anything about a giant cell tumor and I can list it off for you.

If you are drowning in lysosomal storage diseases or are really really struggling to remember a topic then it's the perfect antidote. The investment you make right now will pay off in the future--highly rated test prep materials are nothing to be stingy about.

Thanks for the info... I went ahead and purchased it. It's $24.99 for a month. Lets see how it goes... Hope it works for me too as it did for others. I'm going through Biochem, but I don't understand why it keeps showing "skip intro" after every slide? Is there anyway to not have that keep coming up?

 

[001100010010011]

So, each slide is going to have a quick overview. I know it seems like a pain but sometimes it's worth it to read their synopsis of the card in paragraph form when you don't really know much about the item in question.

 

[vandyam]

I think they are AMAZING, but I'm also a very visual learner. I still remember the cards I learned from my micro classes last year and I plan on using it throughout this year and into board prep. If you head over to the Step I Experiences Thread you'll see several members swear by picmonics and put it up there with Pathoma, FA, and UWorld as their "must haves" for board prep.

Money is a huge issue for me though. If it is for you, see what discounts you can get. They are great when you contact them. I got it the first week they came out (the longest subscription they have...I think 18 months), but I got it for 50% off because I was a "beta user," so it was much more affordable. And they keep adding new cards every week, so the product you paid for only gets better and better.

 

[BlueArc]

I am a visual learner so picmonics works for me. But i have to repeatedly see the cards on a daily basis to drill in the points they talk about or recall the picture because there is so much going on in one card. They make studying fun but they have similar characters for a number of symptoms of different diseases which confused me a bit in the beginning. (fever beaver, king arthur etc) After i used the same card twice the intro option didn't come up. I prefer the classic audio to the creative one, that's easier to recall imho.

 

[Brain Bucket]

I am a visual learner so picmonics works for me. But i have to repeatedly see the cards on a daily basis to drill in the points they talk about or recall the picture because there is so much going on in one card. They make studying fun but they have similar characters for a number of symptoms of different diseases which confused me a bit in the beginning. (fever beaver, king arthur etc) After i used the same card twice the intro option didn't come up. I prefer the classic audio to the creative one, that's easier to recall imho.

Agree for the most part, but keeping characters consistent through a number of topics just helped reinforce them for me.

 

[shigella123]

Thanks everyone for your input, I appreciate it. It's been few days of doing at least 30 cards each day of picmonics, but I am not really feeling too strong about it. After going over them, I think not all cards are that good, only some of them. I feel drawn more to pathoma even though its not the same thing. I start feeling anxious like I'm not using my time wisely...lol, but I still go through them as I paid for them now. I feel I learn more with explanation and understanding the concept and looking at the real pathology than looking at random cartoon pictures.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, they don't even have all of the pharm drugs or other concepts and I got only 386 cards in total. Is that how many cards everyone else gets? And they are still working on adding cards?

One thing I find annoying is that it keeps popping up that skip intro part after each card and there is no way to stop it and then taking up few more seconds of downloading the card, which is time consuming. I wanted to go through them fast and move on to other things, but instead I have to patiently go through them. I think one month subscription is enough for me. I wish Dr. Sattar had other subjects than only path as I understand and learn better the way he explains it.

 

[WilliamsEph]

You can disable that intro in your settings under your profile. They just added 10 more cards today on Ovarian tumors, so the total is 396. I've found the cards very useful, but I've had to go over them multiple times to make them stick. Wish they had more pharm cards though.

 

[shigella123]

Wish they had more pharm cards though.

I agree with you... It would have been better if it was at least complete set of cards for at least some of the subjects if not all of them. I though I was getting complete set of Biochem, micro, or pharm cards before I purchased it and that was the surprise as they are still adding cards. Only God knows when they will have a complete set... lol

And thanks for letting me know how to disable the skip intro part... I will go and see if I can disable it.

 

[UCSFx2017]

I thought the reason why mnemonics work was because each linking word is uniquely and personally memorable. For example, "hypoglossal" makes me think of a hippo putting on lip gloss but the word might trigger something else entirely for some else. It just doesn't make sense to adapt to someone else's mnemonic image rather than to make a mnemonic that comes naturally and more memorably.

Method-of-loci kind of sucks when you have to recall info on the spot without any time to go through your mnemonic sequence.

 

[shigella123]

I thought the reason why mnemonics work was because each linking word is uniquely and personally memorable. For example, "hypoglossal" makes me think of a hippo putting on lip gloss but the word might trigger something else entirely for some else. It just doesn't make sense to adapt to someone else's mnemonic image rather than to make a mnemonic that comes naturally and more memorably.

Method-of-loci kind of sucks when you have to recall info on the spot without any time to go through your mnemonic sequence.

I was thinking the exact same thing while going through them.... It doesn't really work for me to memorize a concept that is not making sense to me or linking up in my brain, but did for someone else. I was also thinking while going through them how will I remember that some character had a particular meaning if its not coming to me naturally. I will have to sit there and memorize that. Also, for some of the cards, I felt I had better mnemonic that made more sense and more easily re-callable for me. But still Picmonic is a great tool for people who are having difficult time with some of the concepts.

 

[001100010010011]

I recommend that you try and chunk topics together. I think 30 a day is tough. I usually use them for the items I am having the most difficult time with.

 

[vandyam]

Just a quick update for those interested in Picmonics:

I received an e-mail from them that I thought worth sharing. If you sign up for their free trial from Dec 3 - Dec 18 and view at least 3 cards, you will have a one in ten chance to win a free 6 month subscription. They will announce winners daily.

Sounds like there is nothing to lose and you might get lucky and win 6 months use of a really awesome program. Good luck!

 

[ulikedaggers]

Are you guys finding this more useful than FC?