MD & DO Stressing about balancing Mandatory Lecture and Anki as an M1

[Rei02sDinnerParty]

Hi all, I'm writing because I'm super freaking stressed about having mandatory lecture as an M1 in the form of flipped classroom curriculum. After years of struggling to figure out how to study as an undergrad, I came to the conclusion as a post bac that I need to spend the time writing up notes at a big white board in order to feel confident with the material. Idk if that makes me a kinesthetic learner as I really like getting to move around and not being able to "transcribe" directly from the lecture because I have to turn away from my computer and put things in my own words on a whiteboard.That being said, I've heard from others that learning styles are sort of bull**** and that anki (and the premade anki decks) are the key to doing well in the preclinical years and especially on step 1. I almost feel like I'm missing out by neglecting these resources. My mandatory lecture is around 15 hours a week + the flipped classroom online materials which we are responsible to peruse independently.

The first solution I've thought of as an answer to this conundrum is to do my usual white board stuff but then also do zanki on the side for a couple hours a day, completely separate from Lecture. However, I feel that this is impractical the more I look at my schedule and have seen how others edit the existing cards in order to make connections and internalize these cards. I've also looked into doing LY with boards and beyond but again, time is not on my side 🙁

An alternative solution could be to also just do whiteboard stuff from online lecture but then to take pictures and make image occlusion anki cards. I sort of like this idea as time is of the essence but I am again worried that I'm missing out on the premade decks that are tried and proven for step 1. Meanwhile, my school's newly implemented flipped classroom curriculum is not tried and true.

My long term goal is to match into a prestigious academic psych residency. Along the way, i would really like to do at least average in the classroom and score above a 240 on step 1 (scored at the 90th percentile on MCAT). My curriculum is P/F btw if that matters, but I'm hesitant to be a P=MD sort of guy.

Lastly, just to explain why I want to use anki, I've had other people tell me (whether in my job or my close family and friends) that my memory is not great. I've always responded sarcastically by saying that i must not really care about what they're telling me but truthfully it does concern me that I might have trouble retaining things (and this is certainly a hard career to have this difficulty in). My hope is that anki will be a solution for me for step 1.

tldr: I'm stressed please halp

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[Newyawk]

1. Chill
2. Do whatever you think allows you to absorb the information. Period. If its not working out, change it up. Youll have the time.

 

[Rei02sDinnerParty]

1. Chill
2. Do whatever you think allows you to absorb the information. Period. If its not working out, change it up. Youll have the time.

Last time I chilled, I had to apply to med school with a sub 3.3 GPA.. ;__; i want to avoid the same heartbreak for residency.

Do you think I'm missing out by not using the premade decks? They seem like the new First Aid.

 

[Newyawk]

Last time I chilled, I had to apply to med school with a sub 3.3 GPA.. ;__; i want to avoid the same heartbreak for residency.

Do you think I'm missing out by not using the premade decks? They seem like the new First Aid.

Let me tell you a little story about first aid. The weekend before my step 1 i decided to cram some of first aid after reading online that you must know every word in first aid to do well on the exam. I then decided to look at some of the other pages to see if i remember stuff (i had done 2 passes at that point). I then realized i didnt know >50% of first aids facts. I proceeded to cram my face off for the entire weekend, up until the morning of my exam. Result? 99th percentile. All that cramming was useless.
Dont listen to what people say is the most important source. The key is use what YOU believe is effective for you. Sure, find the proven source for you. But dont persist with a source because everyone tells you to.
As an aside, i had many friends who didnt do well despite knowing first aid very well. They didnt have very good foundational knowledge, however. Building a good foundation is key. Work hard and work smart throughout preclinicals and youll be fine.

 

[Goro]

Let me tell you a little story about first aid. The weekend before my step 1 i decided to cram some of first aid after reading online that you must know every word in first aid to do well on the exam. I then decided to look at some of the other pages to see if i remember stuff (i had done 2 passes at that point). I then realized i didnt know >50% of first aids facts. I proceeded to cram my face off for the entire weekend, up until the morning of my exam. Result? 99th percentile. All that cramming was useless.
Dont listen to what people say is the most important source. The key is use what YOU believe is effective for you. Sure, find the proven source for you. But dont persist with a source because everyone tells you to.
As an aside, i had many friends who didnt do well despite knowing first aid very well. They didnt have very good foundational knowledge, however. Building a good foundation is key. Work hard and work smart throughout preclinicals and youll be fine.

This. Different people learn in different ways, and you have to find what works for you.

@Rei02sDinnerParty , if you're in a flipped curriculum, then it's not lectures that are mandatory, but some sort of exercise. There's data that shows this actually helps you retain info longer than classic didactic lecturing. I think that the people at Wright State claim that it's raised Board scores. U VM tells us that it's too early in the game for them. The latter was the first school to go all in on lectureless curricula.

 

[Rei02sDinnerParty]

This. Different people learn in different ways, and you have to find what works for you.

@Rei02sDinnerParty , if you're in a flipped curriculum, then it's not lectures that are mandatory, but some sort of exercise. There's data that shows this actually helps you retain info longer than classic didactic lecturing. I think that the people at Wright State claim that it's raised Board scores. U VM tells us that it's too early in the game for them. The latter was the first school to go all in on lectureless curricula.

Ah thanks for the reassurance @Goro.. I guess i'm just a little anxious as I have been reviewing the most recent Step 1 threads and felt like the curriculum was pigeonholing me into not doing as well as others. my curriculum essentially comes down to 15 hours of mandatory in person things a week on top of lectures they give us to do independently at home and... it just seems like a whole heck of a lot. I feel like I won't get to be much of an independent learner and use more proven resources to their fullest extent.

my post was definitely a vent. I have a month before school starts and I can't think of anything to do but freak out about finally starting medical school... the thing I sacrificed so much of my life to work towards, and I don't want to mess it up like I feel I did in college.

 

[libertyyne]

i would take it easy, get settled into medical school and find out what works for you, and once you have done that you can incorporate premade decks or whatever. Try a bunch of things out. Your school is probably teaching the same stuff so focusing on school and doing well is board prep.

 

[atomi]

I never heard of Anki and definitely didn't study for the USMLE as an M1.
All you need to do well on USMLE is Uworld and first aid.
Keeping up with class will keep you busy enough M1. Try to stay happy and healthy and deal with USMLE in M2.

 

[atomi]

There's data that shows this actually helps you retain info longer than classic didactic lecturing. I think that the people at Wright State claim that it's raised Board scores. U VM tells us that it's too early in the game for them. The latter was the first school to go all in on lectureless curricula.

As somebody who went to a school with one of these supposedly "improved" curricula, I can tell you that the data is baloney. Everything is fudged and metrics are designed so that they get the results they want (because their careers ride on it). The curriculum is b.s. and everyone knows it.

 

[coldcase331]

This. Different people learn in different ways, and you have to find what works for you.

@Rei02sDinnerParty , if you're in a flipped curriculum, then it's not lectures that are mandatory, but some sort of exercise. There's data that shows this actually helps you retain info longer than classic didactic lecturing. I think that the people at Wright State claim that it's raised Board scores. U VM tells us that it's too early in the game for them. The latter was the first school to go all in on lectureless curricula.

I would have some apprehension about this. Although I don't go to a school with a flipped curriculum, our didactic years leave a lot to be desired. However, our board scores have steadily risen. The school likes to claim that it's the curriculum changes that caused it. However, the reason we score better is because the student body slowly has grown to ignore the school curriculum and base our studying on high yield step 1 resources (pathoma, FA, B&B, sketchy).

 

[Goro]

I would have some apprehension about this. Although I don't go to a school with a flipped curriculum, our didactic years leave a lot to be desired. However, our board scores have steadily risen. The school likes to claim that it's the curriculum changes that caused it. However, the reason we score better is because the student body slowly has grown to ignore the school curriculum and base our studying on high yield step 1 resources (pathoma, FA, B&B, sketchy).

I'm thinking that we could lecture in Korean and you kids will still do well.

 

[ciucia53]

I was in a similar situation as you OP when I started M1! I had read all this information about Anki and people were saying it was the only way they were able to pass Step. When I read that, I was like well, guess I gotta use Anki now. And I tried so hard to get it to work for me! But it was taking me so long to make cards, that I barely had time to study them. So, I tried to use pre-made decks, but I didn't like the format of the questions! Ultimately, I realized that using Anki this way just wasn't working for me. I switched to typing up my notes in a Word document and then using practice questions to test myself on the material. If there was information that just wasn't sticking in my head, then I would make an Anki card for it, but otherwise I just kind of gave up on it.

At the end of first year, I ended up finding Firecracker and I liked it a lot more than Anki. I know this option isn't for everyone because the program is expensive. However, I liked it because the flashcards were asking information in a format that I used when I made my own cards (so it was like my cards were pre-made for me!) and they had practice questions that I could use to study for my exams.

Don't feel like you have to do Anki just because other medical students have. There definitely are resources that are regarded as the core, most important resources to use (UWorld, First Aid, and Pathoma) when studying, but beyond that I would experiment with various resources and see what works for you. 🙂 I hope this helps and best of luck to you as you start this new chapter in your life!

 

[Obscure]

The first solution I've thought of as an answer to this conundrum is to do my usual white board stuff but then also do zanki on the side for a couple hours a day, completely separate from Lecture. However, I feel that this is impractical the more I look at my schedule and have seen how others edit the existing cards in order to make connections and internalize these cards. I've also looked into doing LY with boards and beyond but again, time is not on my side 🙁

An alternative solution could be to also just do whiteboard stuff from online lecture but then to take pictures and make image occlusion anki cards. I sort of like this idea as time is of the essence but I am again worried that I'm missing out on the premade decks that are tried and proven for step 1. Meanwhile, my school's newly implemented flipped classroom curriculum is not tried and true.

I felt that Anki was not the best source to learn material. It's a way to complement what you learned in class, not replace it. I can't speak to your curriculum, but I attended lectures and made an effort to learn the material as presented in class because this allowed me to have a good foundation. That's really the most important thing you could have for STEP 1 in my opinion.

Yeah, there's inevitably going to be brute memorization that doesn't have a lot of understanding. But I've always learned better by listening and following some sort of narrative and that is why class worked well for me.

That's not to say that every class is equally useful. I've ignored certain lectures due to poor presentation. But I found that I ended up having a worse understanding of a certain disease when I focused on only learning "high-yield" material when initially learning it. Zanki is useful after you've covered the stuff in class and you can try and get down random facts you might need.

Ultimately, it's going to be how you study best. Don't try and force something that doesn't work for you. Doing Zanki helps, but don't rely on it too heavily if it's not working.

 

[deleted645092]

I tried probably a dozen different methods first year and was a pretty mediocre student. I tried those "mind maps", whiteboards, word documents, everything you could think of. I started using Anki second semester and everything turned around, so I stuck with it. I tried Zanki but didn't stick with it because I didn't like the format. It doesn't work for everyone though. I have friends who only draw out pathways over and over, and others who write it all on a whiteboard and just read it every day, brute force.

Ultimately Anki should only be used for memorizing facts, not concepts. But if if doesn't work for you, then don't use it. Don't be afraid to experiment with methods until you find something that works.

 

[Goro]

I tried probably a dozen different methods first year and was a pretty mediocre student. I tried those "mind maps", whiteboards, word documents, everything you could think of. I started using Anki second semester and everything turned around, so I stuck with it. I tried Zanki but didn't stick with it because I didn't like the format. It doesn't work for everyone though. I have friends who only draw out pathways over and over, and others who write it all on a whiteboard and just read it every day, brute force.

Ultimately Anki should only be used for memorizing facts, not concepts. But if if doesn't work for you, then don't use it. Don't be afraid to experiment with methods until you find something that works.

Can you enlighten me as to the difference between Anki and Zanki?

 

[Prehealth1011]

Can you enlighten me as to the difference between Anki and Zanki?

Anki is the flashcard app. Zanki and Brosencephalon are famous pre-made flashcard decks that you run on Anki. Both include info from literally all step 1 resources and the idea is to improve retention by space repetition. That poster probably preferred his own made cards on Anki over Zanki.

 

[Obscure]

Can you enlighten me as to the difference between Anki and Zanki?

Anki is the popular flash-card spaced repetition app that lots of students use to memorize STEP relevant facts. Zanki is the name of a pre-made deck that has essentially compiled First Aid, Pathoma, some Boards and Beyond, and a smattering of UWorld into I think around 18,000 cards.

 

[Shigaliketoxin]

oh my god calm down.

I did not use Anki one single day, and have done just fine so far (MS3). I used Osmosis with a group of classmates after I learned what my style of studying is towards the end of MS1 (some flashcards for lecture-specific info + all the usual resources out there for stuff that was lecture + Step material -- especially in MS2).

you need to accept the fact that you have this flipped classroom style with some mandatory lectures (I had mandatory stuff, too!) and make peace with it. once you've done that, actually use that time to learn instead of sitting there fuming and being bitter about having to be there. I guarantee you will learn more - even if not your ideal style of learning - if you are active and positive about the flipped classroom than if you sit there thinking about how you'd rather be doing 100 other things.

 

[deleted645092]

Can you enlighten me as to the difference between Anki and Zanki?

They pretty much covered it again. I was on my phone writing on the road so my writing was all over the place. What I meant was that I downloaded the premade Zanki deck with pretty much everything on it, but I didn't like the way the cards were designed, so I stuck with the ones I made myself.

 

[ed*26]

I’m in a similar boat. Roughly 20 hrs of required in-class time per week, a good bulk of that lectures, which I figured out pretty quickly into undergrad do absolutely nothing for me.

I was pretty angsty about it for the first half of M1 because it sucks being forced to spend so much time on something that doesn’t help you, and then I realized I needed to get over it and make the time work for me. I now use lectures as time to read through the material (and, yes, do Anki, but it really suits my learning style). Bottom line is you need to figure out what works for you and then just go with it. What works for other people is a good starting point to get new ideas, but it doesn’t mean it’ll work for you! Clearly, since somewhere along the way someone decided that lectures were the best way to teach...