Lightyear vs zanki

[penicillinman]

I am trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use towards step prep and also for a school that uses NBME exams. Will lightyear sufficiently work for these? I am reading that zanki may be a little too in depth? Or is lightyear missing a lot of Info? I will be an MS1 this fall so trying to determine which one is best. Thanks.

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[M&L]

I am trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use towards step prep and also for a school that uses NBME exams. Will lightyear sufficiently work for these? I am reading that zanki may be a little too in depth? Or is lightyear missing a lot of Info? I will be an MS1 this fall so trying to determine which one is best. Thanks.

i am using cheesy lightyear (you can find it on reddit). it is over 27000. It is lightyear that was pumped up with pathoma, sketchy, and HYI from zanki. I wonder what ppl think about it too.

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

I used ZANKI, it worked out pretty well.

HOWEVER, you should pick a deck EARLY and stick with it.

LY or ZANKI just stick with one. It is enough. I’d say one strength of LY is it’s ability to fit a workflow with B&B videos very nicely.

ZANKI has a bit longer stems. More like mini UW Qs sometimes, though not always.

The only necessity is adding lolnotacop’s deck if you do Sketchy. You can use Zanki/LY micro drug decks, but the organism decks in lol’s are amazing.

Good luck.

-Newly minted M3 yearning for simpler times

 

[esob]

I was onboard with the hoopla deck, which is the USMLE RX flashfacts in an external deck, but now that our step score is likely going to be masked I've stepped down to using cheesy LY. That change has cut a significant amount of time off my anki studying. Our school takes NBME tests and I was scoring in the 90th+ percentile using hoopla and have been hanging out in the 85th percentile (national average on NBME) using LY, but since we are P/F I'll take the P and enjoy the 3 extra hours I have every day since moving to an easier deck. I feel like zanki is the same thing. You might learn more but the question is do you want to, given that step will be P/F and you'll never see your score.

 

[deleted1005514]

I like cheesy LY because I prefer the question/answer style of LY. I tend to memorize the buzzwords on close deletion cards which defeats the purpose.

 

[Yhwach]

Thoughts on ANKING?

I heard that will be the new meta king

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I was onboard with the hoopla deck, which is the USMLE RX flashfacts in an external deck, but now that our step score is likely going to be masked I've stepped down to using cheesy LY. That change has cut a significant amount of time off my anki studying. Our school takes NBME tests and I was scoring in the 90th+ percentile using hoopla and have been hanging out in the 85th percentile (national average on NBME) using LY, but since we are P/F I'll take the P and enjoy the 3 extra hours I have every day since moving to an easier deck. I feel like zanki is the same thing. You might learn more but the question is do you want to, given that step will be P/F and you'll never see your score.

What is this hoopla deck you speak of?

 

[Medical_studies]

You can get a good score with any of the decks. I really liked zanki/anking because you don't have to think at all on the cards, they are just fill in the blank, you can be half asleep with a 4 second timer set and just do the reviews. The con is that there are a lot of cards, so you will be able to do less questions, and questions are what gets you points.

With lightyear you really have to think, but atleast you know you can just watch a video then unlock the cards.

The lol deck is a must, that is really great.

USMLE Rx flashfacts is the best to really learn the material instead of just trying to hack a test. These are professionally made cards and it shows. Very good if you combine with the Duke Pathoma w/pics deck. The con is the rx algorhytm which is not as good as anki.

I used zanki/lolnotacop, because we had mandatory attendance classes 8-5 everyday so I could just mindlessly do the cards and still listen to lecture, but if I were to do it over, I would have done flash facts, lolnotacop, the pathoma deck, zanki pharm and the newest anatomy deck based off of the 100 facts pdf.

With all that being said, the deck you choose really doesn't matter at all, choose whichever one you feel you can complete the fastest so you can do more questions.

 

[esob]

What is this hoopla deck you speak of?

hoopla is the USMLE-RX Flash facts (their own flashcards) that have been exported into an external Anki deck. The flash facts are essentially FirstAid cards that are created by the FirstAid authors (read; gunners) and they often ask higher-order questions instead of just rote memorization. That being said, it takes significantly longer to mow through your cards because they aren't simply cloze deletion cards.

An example hoopla card would look something like:

A 42-year-old woman takes 2,4 DNP for weightloss and ends up in the ED with hyperthermia. What is the mechanism of the hyperthermia?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

hoopla is the USMLE-RX Flash facts (their own flashcards) that have been exported into an external Anki deck. The flash facts are essentially FirstAid cards that are created by the FirstAid authors (read; gunners) and they often ask higher-order questions instead of just rote memorization. That being said, it takes significantly longer to mow through your cards because they aren't simply cloze deletion cards.

An example hoopla card would look something like:

A 42-year-old woman takes 2,4 DNP for weightloss and ends up in the ED with hyperthermia. What is the mechanism of the hyperthermia?

I have the qmax but I’ve heard a lot of people in my class say they like the flash facts. We only have 2 modules left before rotations but maybe I’ll try it.

 

[7331poas]

Do the shortest, comprehensive deck. Chances are your step 1 exam will be pass fail.

 

[esob]

I have the qmax but I’ve heard a lot of people in my class say they like the flash facts. We only have 2 modules left before rotations but maybe I’ll try it.

You can always just download the hoopla deck over at reddit and try it out

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

You can always just download the hoopla deck over at reddit and try it out

Yeah that’s what I meant.

 

[Butters Stotch]

Do the shortest, comprehensive deck. Chances are your step 1 exam will be pass fail.

Any suggestions on which deck?

 

[slowthai]

Any suggestions on which deck?

Probably the latest version of Bros. It was the gold standard before Zanki

 

[Yhwach]

thoughts on Anking?

 

[deleted1005514]

Probably the latest version of Bros. It was the gold standard before Zanki

Isn’t the original lightyear deck just bros with better tagging?

 

[slowthai]

Isn’t the original lightyear deck just bros with better tagging?

No, they're completely different decks. /u/Lightyear2k made his mainly based on BnB and /u/Brosencephalon made his based on FA and Pathoma.

 

[slowthai]

I am trying to figure out what would be the best anki deck to use towards step prep and also for a school that uses NBME exams. Will lightyear sufficiently work for these? I am reading that zanki may be a little too in depth? Or is lightyear missing a lot of Info? I will be an MS1 this fall so trying to determine which one is best. Thanks.

At this point, both decks are comprehensive, with Zanki being a little more so. It doesn't really matter, as long as you keep up with your reviews. The main thing affecting your decision should be which card style you prefer. Cloze (Zanki), or basic (Lightyear)? Cloze cards are fill in the blank. Basic cards are your traditional question on the front, answer on the back.

You can break 250 with either deck. It's all about what works for you at the end of the day.