Looking for advice on what to do next/when to start q banks

[tealeafexplorer]

1st year here, and in a couple months I will be through all of BnB phys and Zanki phys, and don’t know exactly what avenue to take once I finish zanki phys.

Options:
1)Start a q bank (usmlerx or Kaplan) and do all phys questions
2)Start Pathoma and Zanki for organ systems
3)Start Sketchy micro with lolnotacop anki deck

I am hoping to complete all of zanki, zanki pharm, and lolnotacop microbio, as well as complete 2 Qbanks (USMLERX/Kaplan) and UW.

I just don’t know if I want to be doing a little bit of q bank questions throughout my zanki, or to learn everything with zanki, and then tackle the Q banks once I have a decent foundation of everything.

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[FindersFee5]

So I thought starting physiology q bank questions after taking physio would make sense... but it doesn't. So many of them require path or pharm knowledge for one part of the reasoning that most of them didn't make much sense to me.

How does your school schedule everything? Sketchy micro/sketchy pharm are definitely great learning resources, usually better than what most schools offer. But try to time them so they're around the same time.

You could also try to do the other step subjects that often aren't covered well in school (biochem, biostats, genetics) so that you don't need to learn these all at the beginning of study block.

 

[tealeafexplorer]

So I thought starting physiology q bank questions after taking physio would make sense... but it doesn't. So many of them require path or pharm knowledge for one part of the reasoning that most of them didn't make much sense to me.

How does your school schedule everything? Sketchy micro/sketchy pharm are definitely great learning resources, usually better than what most schools offer. But try to time them so they're around the same time.

You could also try to do the other step subjects that often aren't covered well in school (biochem, biostats, genetics) so that you don't need to learn these all at the beginning of study block.

Hey thank you so much for the response, this was exactly the kind of insight i was hoping to acquire from some of the Vets.

My school is organ system, phys first year of all organ systems, followed by path second year of all organ systems, with little bit of micro and pharm, sprinkled in along the way.

I am following along with classes, but am trying to get ahead of class and hit all the major board prep recourses and not have to wait for my classes.

I have another question if you dont mind providing insight; Is there a specific order of subjects that make more intuitive sense? Like obviously you need to learn the phys before the path, but can i do for example pharm before micro and path, or does pharm require micro and path knowledge? I hope my question makes sense.

 

[Save a life]

In general: Physiology-> Path -> Pharm.
You have to understand the normal to understand the abnormal in order to treat the abnormal....
Micro is typically a separate block but will also continue to come up.

 

[FindersFee5]

Hey thank you so much for the response, this was exactly the kind of insight i was hoping to acquire from some of the Vets.

My school is organ system, phys first year of all organ systems, followed by path second year of all organ systems, with little bit of micro and pharm, sprinkled in along the way.

I am following along with classes, but am trying to get ahead of class and hit all the major board prep recourses and not have to wait for my classes.

I have another question if you dont mind providing insight; Is there a specific order of subjects that make more intuitive sense? Like obviously you need to learn the phys before the path, but can i do for example pharm before micro and path, or does pharm require micro and path knowledge? I hope my question makes sense.

If you have a lot of free time built into your schedule, I would try to get through all of sketchy micro now along with the corresponding anki decks. Then potentially over the summer you can do sketchy pharm. Both of these are really good teaching resources. The pharm deck also reinforces a lot of physiology. Once you have physio, micro, pharm, biochem, stats, and genetics done, you can start doing Rx questions with those fields checked. There will still be about 10-20% questions on stuff you haven't seen before, but the rest you should be able to reason through. Also, if it's something you haven't seen before and it doesn't seem like it's specifically path related, make anki cards for what you didn't know about it.

For instance: if I got a question requiring specific knowledge about the pathology of Crohns disease, I wouldn't try to make cards for what I didn't know, because I knew I'd learn it eventually. However, if I got a question about a drug or bug I had never seen, or some side effect I didn't know, I would make cards about everything I didn't know about it.

 

[tealeafexplorer]

In general: Physiology-> Path -> Pharm.
You have to understand the normal to understand the abnormal in order to treat the abnormal....
Micro is typically a separate block but will also continue to come up.

Awesome! Thank you so much! I guess then I’m gonna do path next

 

[tealeafexplorer]

If you have a lot of free time built into your schedule, I would try to get through all of sketchy micro now along with the corresponding anki decks. Then potentially over the summer you can do sketchy pharm. Both of these are really good teaching resources. The pharm deck also reinforces a lot of physiology. Once you have physio, micro, pharm, biochem, stats, and genetics done, you can start doing Rx questions with those fields checked. There will still be about 10-20% questions on stuff you haven't seen before, but the rest you should be able to reason through. Also, if it's something you haven't seen before and it doesn't seem like it's specifically path related, make anki cards for what you didn't know about it.

For instance: if I got a question requiring specific knowledge about the pathology of Crohns disease, I wouldn't try to make cards for what I didn't know, because I knew I'd learn it eventually. However, if I got a question about a drug or bug I had never seen, or some side effect I didn't know, I would make cards about everything I didn't know about it.

Thank you for the advice! Any reason why you think micro and pharm before path?