Resources Confusion

[Meowster007]

Hey guys I am incoming OMS-1 but super confused on what resources I should use or not use.. I want to use a Q bank to slowly start prepping for boards as well as for my in house exams. I also want to use certain resources but I have no idea how to use or when to use certain things and I feel like theres wayyyy too many resources. I would love yalls opinions!



Sketchy- Is this only useful for their micro and pharm? Should I get this in first year or when they start micro/pharm (pharm is sprinkled in each section like cards then GI and so on...)

BnB- heard these are super useful but like do you watch after the in house lecture? Do you do this first year? Is this as a supplement for own lecture or can it replace?

First Aid- I plan to follow this along forever I suppose xD

Pathoma- When to start?

Zanki- thoughts on it? My class has sections of the cards separated by our blocks.

Kaplan Q bank vs AmBoss- thoughts vs each? I may do both.. not sure just want something to slowly start firing up my brain

USMLE rx- do I use??? Heard yes and no so not sure.



Theres so much and I am overwhelmed- would love yalls knowledge and wisdom thank you guys

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[_med21_e]

I'm an incoming student as well, so I can't offer that much insight but I would start with 1) does your school offer any of these subscriptions for free? Some cohorts will even have a drive of videos such as Sketchy and BnB so you won't need to pay. If so, then you can utilize accordingly based on the subject you need outsides resources for and 2) hit up some of your upperclassmen and see what they suggest. With some schools, it's really easy to follow the curriculum using board resources and other times it's not. It really depends on your school. For my school, everyone recommended Amboss, while my friends at other DO schools were like it wasn't useful for them and no one utilized it.

 

[Butters Stotch]

It depends on how your schools curriculum is set up. My school did normal first year and abnormal second year so bnb was the only helpful boards resource first year. For anatomy I used umich, netters, brs, greys anatomy and for physiology costanza, brs, pretest and guyton hall. For abnormal pathoma, sketchy micro/pharm was clutch, bnb was hit or miss. For q banks rx, robbins, amboss.

 

[Kardio]

My flow for M1/2:
1. Skim school material to learn what I need to know (normally just the title of the lectures)
2. Learn the material from BnB, Pathoma, Sketchy pharm/micro videos. If it was a BnB video, I did the practice Qs associated with the video.
3. Unsuspend relevant Anki cards by tag. Do all of my Anki.
4. Work through the relevant USMLERx qbank. Skip questions covering material I haven’t learned at all yet.
4.5 (if the exam is coming up in 2-3 days): read the school lectures or summaries from my classmates looking out for high yield bits of testable information.

Wash, rinse, repeat every day. If I could go back in time, I may have used Amboss instead of USMLERx for my Qbank. Also, I would have started UWorld earlier (like 6 months before my exam rather than 3 months before).

It’s easy to get resource overloaded. You’ll find a system that works for yourself soon enough. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as everyone around you. There is no one perfect way to do this.

 

[Meowster007]

It depends on how your schools curriculum is set up. My school did normal first year and abnormal second year so bnb was the only helpful boards resource first year. For anatomy I used umich, netters, brs, greys anatomy and for physiology costanza, brs, pretest and guyton hall. For abnormal pathoma, sketchy micro/pharm was clutch, bnb was hit or miss. For q banks rx, robbins, amboss.

I have this same set up for curriculum!

 

[Meowster007]

My flow for M1/2:
1. Skim school material to learn what I need to know (normally just the title of the lectures)
2. Learn the material from BnB, Pathoma, Sketchy pharm/micro videos. If it was a BnB video, I did the practice Qs associated with the video.
3. Unsuspend relevant Anki cards by tag. Do all of my Anki.
4. Work through the relevant USMLERx qbank. Skip questions covering material I haven’t learned at all yet.
4.5 (if the exam is coming up in 2-3 days): read the school lectures or summaries from my classmates looking out for high yield bits of testable information.

Wash, rinse, repeat every day. If I could go back in time, I may have used Amboss instead of USMLERx for my Qbank. Also, I would have started UWorld earlier (like 6 months before my exam rather than 3 months before).

It’s easy to get resource overloaded. You’ll find a system that works for yourself soon enough. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as everyone around you. There is no one perfect way to do this.

Thank you for your schedule!!!

 

[hellosnd]

Not sure what USMLERx but Uworld/Amboss are the two q-banks you should be using. Kaplan is hot garbage.

BnB is overkill a lot of the time, just watch it for concepts you really do not understand

 

[DarkBluMage]

Hey guys I am incoming OMS-1 but super confused on what resources I should use or not use.. I want to use a Q bank to slowly start prepping for boards as well as for my in house exams. I also want to use certain resources but I have no idea how to use or when to use certain things and I feel like theres wayyyy too many resources. I would love yalls opinions!



Sketchy- Is this only useful for their micro and pharm? Should I get this in first year or when they start micro/pharm (pharm is sprinkled in each section like cards then GI and so on...)

BnB- heard these are super useful but like do you watch after the in house lecture? Do you do this first year? Is this as a supplement for own lecture or can it replace?

First Aid- I plan to follow this along forever I suppose xD

Pathoma- When to start?

Zanki- thoughts on it? My class has sections of the cards separated by our blocks.

Kaplan Q bank vs AmBoss- thoughts vs each? I may do both.. not sure just want something to slowly start firing up my brain

USMLE rx- do I use??? Heard yes and no so not sure.



Theres so much and I am overwhelmed- would love yalls knowledge and wisdom thank you guys

I would wait to look at resources until you know your curriculum and what resources your school provides. They can be really expensive and you may not need to purchase them for yourself if they’re provided. You’ll also be able to better orient yourself to when it would be helpful for you as far as curriculum.

Sketchy micro/pharm: A life saver since most of micro and pharm is really just memorization

BNB/First aid: I use the bnb videos to quickly go through high yield videos. I use it as a supplement for lectures. I use first aid to reference when doing practice questions.

Kaplan/Amboss: both great question banks. People usually have a preference for one or the other. Some people feel amboss can be a little out of scope depending on curriculum. Questions are also very challenging which is why I like using it. I use both Kaplan and amboss.

Usmle RX: lots of people swear by it for the questions but I don’t use it since I’ve found success with my current resources.

Anki: I use anki in conjunction with Sketchy pharm/micro. I don’t learn well from just memorizing stuff cause I’m better with remembering from connecting dots with concepts. Some people like anki for remembering small important details or just stuff that’s pure memorization like micro/pharm. Some people use anki for all of their material. Just depends on how you learn.

 

[Goro]

Hey guys I am incoming OMS-1 but super confused on what resources I should use or not use.. I want to use a Q bank to slowly start prepping for boards as well as for my in house exams. I also want to use certain resources but I have no idea how to use or when to use certain things and I feel like theres wayyyy too many resources. I would love yalls opinions!



Sketchy- Is this only useful for their micro and pharm? Should I get this in first year or when they start micro/pharm (pharm is sprinkled in each section like cards then GI and so on...)

BnB- heard these are super useful but like do you watch after the in house lecture? Do you do this first year? Is this as a supplement for own lecture or can it replace?

First Aid- I plan to follow this along forever I suppose xD

Pathoma- When to start?

Zanki- thoughts on it? My class has sections of the cards separated by our blocks.

Kaplan Q bank vs AmBoss- thoughts vs each? I may do both.. not sure just want something to slowly start firing up my brain

USMLE rx- do I use??? Heard yes and no so not sure.



Theres so much and I am overwhelmed- would love yalls knowledge and wisdom thank you guys

You have to find the one that works best with your learning style. Some students swear by yankee, others find it a waste of time. All of my students love sketchy micro though. How they interpret all those hieroglyphs is beyond me, but it works for them!
I also believe you can never have enough question banks. UWorld is the standard, Amboss is pretty good, and I also like BnB

 

[hellosnd]

You have to find the one that works best with your learning style. Some students swear by yankee, others find it a waste of time. All of my students love sketchy micro though. How they interpret all those hieroglyphs is beyond me, but it works for them!
I also believe you can never have enough question banks. UWorld is the standard, Amboss is pretty good, and I also like BnB

When residents and I talk in terms of sketchy and the attending is just looking at us all confused. How does an outdoor hockey field get you to azithromycin???

 

[h23]

I would honestly ask the second years at your school as to what works for them. Its definitely true that people all learn differently and one person's methods might not work for you as well as it did for them, but I feel like every school presents material differently. Some schools hardly test board relevant material and some professors just love testing their own research work without any clinical relevance, making it more difficult and stressful to study the material if you primarily use board prep material to study. Not saying that board prep material like sketchy, BnB isn't helpful or anything like that. All I recommend that you do is ask 2nd years about how your professors test students, what style of questions they use, whether they emphasize high yield board material or not, if they mainly pluck material from their powerpoints, or if they use board style questions. I personally know of some professors who hate the fact that resources like sketchy micro exist and go out of their way to pick questions that they know sketchy doesn't go over. I personally hate teachers like that, but that's why you gotta ask around and see how things are at your school specifically.

 

[Goro]

When residents and I talk in terms of sketchy and the attending is just looking at us all confused. How does an outdoor hockey field get you to azithromycin???

I swear I should write a Sketchy Anatomy book. I'll use the NYC subway system to explain the circulatory system, and the menu from a 3-star restaurant for the hepatic portal system.

 

[PandaBaer]

I would hold off until you start classes to start buying resources. I started early and bought too many. Sometimes your school will provide some and your class/SGA should be organizing discounts for popular ones.

My opinion on the ones I've used:
Sketchy - I bought this and didn't use it, some/most students love it, but it doesn't fit my thought process/style.
Amboss - great resource for quick, simplified explanations, also has a good qbank. Most topics/conditions are quickly summarized.
BnB - only seen classmates watch the videos, I find them a little dry/boring, but gives all the details. imo there's better resources on youtube.
Osmosis - similar to Amboss and BnB, I've enjoyed their videos as they are a mix of BnB and Sketchy style. Okay qbank.
NinjaNerd/MedEdOnline/DirtyUSMLE/etc - there's lots of youtube creators that all offer good summaries of topics/conditions. If I'm stuck I will google/youtube the topic, you learn which channels fit you after a few views.
First Aid - haven't touched it, but plan to start for dedicated. On skimming through, it appears to be a condensed reference of high yield, seems useful.
Pathoma - I don't have it, but classmates use it. Have heard good things.
USMLE-RX - heard about this, never used, often each school has a subscription to a qbank, ours offers Truelearn, so hold off on qbank purchases.
UWorld - don't have it yet, will buy as we're organizing a class discount. Heard it is the gold standard for Step prep.
Anking (anki) - I rarely use it, but classmates swear by it. I would probably stick to pre-made decks, but there's a lot of tutorials out there.
Others - for each topic there's probably one resource you'll gravitate towards, i.e. I listen to Goljan lectures during my long commutes. For anatomy I'll use different websites like Kenhub, TeachMeAnatomy, UMich, Radiopaedia, etc. You're better off trial and erroring once class starts. Most offer a trial period and best to use it as you're tackling the material to get a real sense for how it fits your learning style.
Not mentioned - there's a lot of other resources that don't get mentioned: pixorize, bootcamp, Dr. Najeeb, so many others.

 

[Meowster007]

Thank you all for the advice!

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

You need sketchy, BnB, pathoma for sure, and pixorize is also very good I'd recommend it