I realize there is a step 1 thread, would this be able to be moved or should I repost there?
Everyone’s different. Very few people do that much. But I think most people who aren’t amazing like most of sdn seems to be, will need to either do multiple Qbanks or sell their soul to Anki for >1 year to get much higher than 235-240.
To do well, both quality and quantity of your studying are important. Mindlessly doing Qbanks without adequate review or mindlessly flipping through Anki cards may not be as fruitful. Your baseline test taking skills also play a role. Personally I started studying 6 months prior to my exam: watched all of BnB and annotated FA in my pre-dedicated. During dedicated, watched Sketchy/Pixorize in the morning, read through FA chapters in the morining - early afternoon, did 120 non-random, timed UWorld questions in the afternoon-evening with thorough review afterwards. Ended up scoring 250-255 in the real deal.
one of my friends didnt use anki at all and scored 260+. no photographic memory or something like that, average MCAT, average undergrad GPA. just put in a lot of work. So anki is not a requirement by any means.
Instead of anki she used a “table” method . I can tell you more if you PM me.
Haha I had a friend who was a flashcarding and qbank zealot. Starting practice score was already 255 and his final was ~5 points higher. If you're truly on top of UFAPS for all of M2 I don't even think you need a dedicated.
Dude a 250 vs 260 don't even significantly differ. 255 vs 260 is a p value >0.5, it's mostly luck for these kinds of differences. He should've taken it immediately and had a two month vacation, which test form he was randomly assigned to take probably had more influence than his dedicated.
Wayyyyyyyy more knowledge and recall.
I know of multiple people with 100th percentile MCATs who had initial practice scores in the 210s-220s. Way, way more emphasis on encyclopedic knowledge, they aren't kidding when they say people try to memorize every thing in First Aid.
I'm aware but like, the majority of the ways people use it were not any better for me than the study strategies I successfully employed and enjoyed significantly more. To turn anki into something that did that for me would have been way more work than just sticking with those strategies
Average score is shifting upward because people are studying better with Qbanks.
Duuude 3500 hours on boards prep is way excessive
I agree with this. I but in 3-4 months of hardcore, 8 hour a day study with saturdays off and got a 249. I still remember questions that made me think “if only I had studied this one subject a bit more.” But I’m perfectly happy with a 249.
I may not be the most ambitious, but 500 hours during dedicated was plenty to go from 215 starting to 255 final. Very diminishing returns after you've already done a good pass through UFAPS. I cannot imagine doing 7 dedicateds worth of studying over a year like that...that's almost two full-time labor-years of prep.
I accept that photographic memory thing is a myth. Are there proposed explanations for why some people can see things fewer times and remember them better than most? I hesitate to believe they are simply and exclusively just better at focusing.
I never thought I was that great at short-term memory, but apparently faculty and even some of my classmates at school pointed it out that I pick up on things a lot quicker than the average student. Idk why. I will say Sketchy works absolute wonders for me - watching the video one time, and just doing the associated cards is enough. I don't even remember the pictures that well after about a week but my % correct on mature cards is 91% for micro/pharm sections
Amount of time it takes to get from 190 to 250 is equal in time it takes to get from 250 to 260+. At least that was in my experience.
And no one says you have to. Nor did you. But 255 is more than solid. Yes.
People have differences in recall ability and retention, yes. That's life.
A 250 and 260 dont differ (p ~0.25). 3000 more hours to achieve something that happens by chance a quarter of the time seems a bit much
Extra study is always stored as potential energy regardless. But if the guy/gal in MS1 wants to do 3000 hours less, score 5-9 fewer points, and then trek around Cambodia and Laos, that too is a good outcome.
I think it is worth it. The videos are longer but thats because they have to tie in some anatomy and pathology. So if you are cool sitting through a 10-30min video initially and then making up that time in the long run with quick and easy flashcards then do it
How long would you say Sketchy Pharm takes to get through in its entirety, there about 13 hours of Sketchy Micro but like 27+ hours of Sketchy Pharm and prolly like 45+ hours of Sketchy Path lol.
I haven't done Sketchy Path much, pathoma/boards and beyond is what I use for that pretty much. For the sketchy pharm videos I don't watch them near 2x speed (like I regularly was able to do with Micro). More like 1.3-1.5x speed. So probably around 22 hours
I always recommend straight, rote methods for students (i.e., Anki variants, FA). I watched 30 seconds of one video and thought I was on a kindergarten field trip and on salvia. Not my learning style at all. I like dry and boring and quiet.
