Study plan advice

[rg2o3]

It's just a few weeks out from the beginning of classes and with that, I want to get my study plan somewhat down. I want to use either FC or Zanki from day 1 in order to make sure I am learning the relevant board material. However, I do believe that my exams are professor made. So, how would you all suggest that I best utilize my time and studying?

Thanks.

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[Scrubb]

Relax

 

[rg2o3]

Relax

Okay. I am relaxed, I’m drinking a beer on my deck. Delicious DDH IIPA by Evil twin. Highly recommended. I’m also just trying to prepare, and having a general idea isn’t unreasonable.

 

[SurgDoc95]

Are you going into first or second year?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[rg2o3]

Are you going into first or second year?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

First year.

 

[SurgDoc95]

First year.

Lol I know that my bad Nothing wrong with snagging a copy of first aid (2016 or newer) and using it in conjunction with whatever class you're on in first year. As far as anki goes, I kind of experimented with it off and on first year, primarily making my own cards for different blocks, but am going to be using it extensively in the lead up to boards. I'd say get anki, download the zanki deck and try to do questions pertaining to each individual block, but only after you've made a few passes through the material provided by the school for each subject.

Have so much fun with the basic sciences! They're not tedious and boring at all

 

[rg2o3]

Lol I know that my bad Nothing wrong with snagging a copy of first aid (2016 or newer) and using it in conjunction with whatever class you're on in first year. As far as anki goes, I kind of experimented with it off and on first year, primarily making my own cards for different blocks, but am going to be using it extensively in the lead up to boards. I'd say get anki, download the zanki deck and try to do questions pertaining to each individual block, but only after you've made a few passes through the material provided by the school for each subject.

Have so much fun with the basic sciences! They're not tedious and boring at all

Hah! Thanks for the input. Sounds good! Was thinking about focusing mainly on course material at first, especially for the basic sciences and supplementing that with whatever zanki cards complement the course. I’ll snag a copy of FA and also read through that along with the course material of the block.

Yes, so excited for these basic science courses of first semester, lol.

 

[gensurghopeful]

Lol I know that my bad Nothing wrong with snagging a copy of first aid (2016 or newer) and using it in conjunction with whatever class you're on in first year. As far as anki goes, I kind of experimented with it off and on first year, primarily making my own cards for different blocks, but am going to be using it extensively in the lead up to boards. I'd say get anki, download the zanki deck and try to do questions pertaining to each individual block, but only after you've made a few passes through the material provided by the school for each subject.

Have so much fun with the basic sciences! They're not tedious and boring at all

Can you tell me what the difference is between anki and zanki?

 

[gensurghopeful]

It's just a few weeks out from the beginning of classes and with that, I want to get my study plan somewhat down. I want to use either FC or Zanki from day 1 in order to make sure I am learning the relevant board material. However, I do believe that my exams are professor made. So, how would you all suggest that I best utilize my time and studying?

Thanks.

You & I both blood!

 

[rg2o3]

Can you tell me what the difference is between anki and zanki?

Anki is a spaced repetition flash card program. Zanki is a pre-made deck of flash cards that covers FA, sketchy, and some other high yield step 1 resources.

 

[gensurghopeful]

Anki is the program. Zanki is a pre-made deck of flash cards that covers FA, sketchy, and some other high yield step 1 resources.

Lol ok finally - makes sense. Thx.

 

[rg2o3]

Lol ok finally - makes sense. Thx.

You’re welcome. Good luck with th upcoming year.

 

[gensurghopeful]

Anki is a spaced repetition flash card program. Zanki is a pre-made deck of flash cards that covers FA, sketchy, and some other high yield step 1 resources.

So anki is free - but zanki decks are purchased?

 

[rg2o3]

So anki is free - but zanki decks are purchased?

Nope. Both free. The zanki deck can be found on reddit.

 

[Pokedoc]

.

 

[rg2o3]

Congrats on starting! I just finished up my first year so I can give you advice based on what I did but, disclaimer, it might not work for everyone.

By the end of the year my study plan was just making 3-4 passes through the PowerPoint material before the exam came around. That's it. One of these passes included watching the lectures at 2x speed (this took a bit of getting used to) and only attending lectures that were mandatory, while the other 2-3 passes were just going through the PowerPoints and quizzing myself along the way. It could be different for each school I guess, but all the material you need for the exam should be on the PowerPoints so if you know these cold you'll be good. At least for me, it didn't matter for which class, by the time I made that 4th pass through the material that **** was ingrained in my brain for the exam. This makes it real easy to use a calendar and draw up a study plan leading up to your exams (finish x number of lectures each day).

If you wanted to incorporate Zanki early on (which I wish I did) I would personally recommend waiting to start a specific deck until AFTER you've taken the exam for that subject. Some people like to use it as a learning tool alongside classes, but at my school there was too much specific information in lecture that wasn't in Zanki to where just using those decks would have screwed me (or I at least would not have done as well in classes as I ended up doing). If you start using the decks after you've been tested on the material in class then it's much easier to cement that material in your brain for boards. I ended up having a lot more free time than I thought I would each day when I finally got into my groove (even with weekly exams) so doing Zanki alongside your classes shouldn't be too taxing.

I recommend going HARD until you're through your first round of exams. I probably don't have to tell you that since most people come in prepared to study their asses off, but not everyone does and they're stuck playing catch-up at the beginning which would suck. Once you've taken your first round of exams you can gauge where you're at and back off from there where you can. I started off going to all of my classes, going through all of the PowerPoints and making a ton of Anki cards based off of these, and then I would study the cards until the exam. I had never used Anki before and it amazed me how well this worked. This didn't last though because making my own cards would take forever and I ended up having to ditch Anki for the most part throughout the year because of this.

Once you figure out what works you can start to relax a bit on studying all the time. I ended up having plenty of time for the gym each day, and unless an exam was the next day I would usually stop studying by 8 or 9 to hang with my wife. The point of me saying this is that the first year doesn't have to be as bad as some people say it is if you study smart instead of just super hard. I ended undergrad with a 3.4 overall GPA, reevaluated my study habits while waiting to get started in medical school, and finished this last year with about as close to a 4.0 as you can get. I say that because I'm not an inherently smart guy. If I can do well, then honestly anyone can.

Thank you so much for the in depth response. How you studied your first year was exactly how I studied in undergrad. 4-5 passes of ppts. I did fantastic, but did not retain much in the long term. That’s why I wanted to begin early with zanki, to really get the board relevant material stuck in my mind. It seems like my classes will also be stuck with a lot that’s not in zanki. So, im thinking I’ll do as you suggest and not touch the zanki cards until the course is complete.

 

[Pokedoc]

Thank you so much for the in depth response. How you studied your first year was exactly how I studied in undergrad. 4-5 passes of ppts. I did fantastic, but did not retain much in the long term. That’s why I wanted to begin early with zanki, to really get the board relevant material stuck in my mind. It seems like my classes will also be stuck with a lot that’s not in zanki. So, im thinking I’ll do as you suggest and not touch the zanki cards until the course is complete.

No problem. Yea you don't even have to wait until the course is complete, once the unit is done for whatever course you're in you can add those cards and start getting at it. I started up Zanki this summer and am going to stick with it throughout my second year, but if you start earlier on you should be golden. Just make sure to keep up with your reviews or else you get screwed and won't retain anything.

 

[rg2o3]

No problem. Yea you don't even have to wait until the course is complete, once the unit is done for whatever course you're in you can add those cards and start getting at it. I started up Zanki this summer and am going to stick with it throughout my second year, but if you start earlier on you should be golden. Just make sure to keep up with your reviews or else you get screwed and won't retain anything.

Will do! Thanks again. Goodluck in second year and boards!

 

[Ho0v-man]

Some folks in my class got overwhelmed at the beginning and just procrastinated until the week before the first test. Not great results. Don’t do that. They had to spend most of the semester digging themselves out of a hole.

Don’t get obsessed w class rank. You all got into the same school for a reason. What separates you from your classmates is just a razors edge most of the time. You really have to compare extremes of class rank to make it more reliable than random chance.

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

Zanki is overrated and straight up garbage. The only thing that you need to do right now is commit Sketchy Micro and Sketchy Pathology to memory. If you know everything in Sketchy for these two subjects, you’re like 30-40% done with board prep.

Use Uworld and Pathoma for everything else. Thank me later when you crush boards.

I wish that I didn’t spend so much on Zanki. The entire Step 1 deck is full of redundant and unimportant cards. The entire 15,000 cards could have been cut down to 7,000-8,000 cards and be much more informative.

Disclosure:

I spent on average 5-6 hrs a day every day in 2nd year doing new Zanki cards on top of reviewing old Zanki cards. My dedicated period started the first week of May. I took my first assessment of the third week of May and scored a whooping predicted 188 despite my time and effort in Zanki. I had a panic attack then. I had to push both my Comlex and Step 1 back by 2-3 weeks for both exams. I then ditched Zanki and literally did 160 UW quests every day. I read my right and wrong questions and made Anki cards based on UW concepts. I spent about 3-4 hrs a day reviewing my made Anki cards based on UW. My assessment score jumped from 188 to 234 in 4 weeks.

The bottom line is that you don’t need to sell your soul to Zanki to do well on board. Zanki cards are poorly made, with no emphasis on association of diff concepts. On the real exam, you need to recognize what the question is asking. When you know that, you are like 70-80% through with knowing the right answer. The best thing that I ever did was commit Sketchy Micro to memory and think modify my upperclassmen Micro deck with stained pics of diff microbes. The new test will not hit you with buzz words. They will hit you with stains. You need to spend your time recognizing what they look like under a microscope slide.

 

[Pokedoc]

Zanki is overrated and straight up garbage. The only thing that you need to do right now is commit Sketchy Micro and Sketchy Pathology to memory. If you know everything in Sketchy for these two subjects, you’re like 30-40% done with board prep.

Use Uworld and Pathoma for everything else. Thank me later when you crush boards.

I wish that I didn’t spend so much on Zanki. The entire Step 1 deck is full of redundant and unimportant cards. The entire 15,000 cards could have been cut down to 7,000-8,000 cards and be much more informative.

Disclosure:

I spent on average 5-6 hrs a day every day in 2nd year doing new Zanki cards on top of reviewing old Zanki cards. My dedicated period started the first week of May. I took my first assessment of the third week of May and scored a whooping predicted 188 despite my time and effort in Zanki. I had a panic attack then. I had to push both my Comlex and Step 1 back by 2-3 weeks for both exams. I then ditched Zanki and literally did 160 UW quests every day. I read my right and wrong questions and made Anki cards based on UW concepts. I spent about 3-4 hrs a day reviewing my made Anki cards based on UW. My assessment score jumped from 188 to 234 in 4 weeks.

The bottom line is that you don’t need to sell your soul to Zanki to do well on board. Zanki cards are poorly made, with no emphasis on association of diff concepts. On the real exam, you need to recognize what the question is asking. When you know that, you are like 70-80% through with knowing the right answer. The best thing that I ever did was commit Sketchy Micro to memory and think modify my upperclassmen Micro deck with stained pics of diff microbes. The new test will not hit you with buzz words. They will hit you with stains. You need to spend your time recognizing what they look like under a microscope slide.

At risk of high jacking the thread, did you do Qbank questions throughout your 2nd year alongside Zanki or did you just do Zanki?

 

[rg2o3]

Zanki is overrated and straight up garbage. The only thing that you need to do right now is commit Sketchy Micro and Sketchy Pathology to memory. If you know everything in Sketchy for these two subjects, you’re like 30-40% done with board prep.

Use Uworld and Pathoma for everything else. Thank me later when you crush boards.

I wish that I didn’t spend so much on Zanki. The entire Step 1 deck is full of redundant and unimportant cards. The entire 15,000 cards could have been cut down to 7,000-8,000 cards and be much more informative.

Disclosure:

I spent on average 5-6 hrs a day every day in 2nd year doing new Zanki cards on top of reviewing old Zanki cards. My dedicated period started the first week of May. I took my first assessment of the third week of May and scored a whooping predicted 188 despite my time and effort in Zanki. I had a panic attack then. I had to push both my Comlex and Step 1 back by 2-3 weeks for both exams. I then ditched Zanki and literally did 160 UW quests every day. I read my right and wrong questions and made Anki cards based on UW concepts. I spent about 3-4 hrs a day reviewing my made Anki cards based on UW. My assessment score jumped from 188 to 234 in 4 weeks.

The bottom line is that you don’t need to sell your soul to Zanki to do well on board. Zanki cards are poorly made, with no emphasis on association of diff concepts. On the real exam, you need to recognize what the question is asking. When you know that, you are like 70-80% through with knowing the right answer. The best thing that I ever did was commit Sketchy Micro to memory and think modify my upperclassmen Micro deck with stained pics of diff microbes. The new test will not hit you with buzz words. They will hit you with stains. You need to spend your time recognizing what they look like under a microscope slide.

Thanks for the response. I will be using sketchy micro and pharm. I really wanted to utilize Zanki to just keep basic knowledge in my mind. During second year, i was going to switch mainly to questions, with Zanki just again used to keep the basic factoids fresh. What do you think about that?

 

[Black Coffee 24/7]

At risk of high jacking the thread, did you do Qbank questions throughout your 2nd year alongside Zanki or did you just do Zanki?

I did about 1000 Kaplan and 1000 UW questions by systems during 1st semester. I ditched Kaplan and went straight to UW my second semester.

Zanki isn’t a bad deck to build your foundation if your school doesn’t do a good job teaching the materials. The Physiology portion of the deck is really good.

However, it’s not possible to keep up with the reviews of Zanki.

Looking back, I would utilize FC instead of Zanki bc the system would present diff # of cases every day to make your force review materials. On the real USMLE, it would be in cases themselves and not factoids.

I would highly advise people against destroying your free time to keep up with reviews just to bring a 1,000 cards deck to under 150 a day for each subject. It’s not worth it for your health and board scores.

Honestly, the best learning resource is to do UW quests by random and just make up your own Anki flash cards from there.

Sketchy Micro and Pharm should be memorized period. There isn’t a single question on both Comlex and USMLE that isn’t found in these resources. I really regret not doing Sketchy Pathology.

 

[rg2o3]

I did about 1000 Kaplan and 1000 UW questions by systems during 1st semester. I ditched Kaplan and went straight to UW my second semester.

Zanki isn’t a bad deck to build your foundation if your school doesn’t do a good job teaching the materials. The Physiology portion of the deck is really good.

However, it’s not possible to keep up with the reviews of Zanki.

Looking back, I would utilize FC instead of Zanki bc the system would present diff # of cases every day to make your force review materials. On the real USMLE, it would be in cases themselves and not factoids.

I would highly advise people against destroying your free time to keep up with reviews just to bring a 1,000 cards deck to under 150 a day for each subject. It’s not worth it for your health and board scores.

Honestly, the best learning resource is to do UW quests by random and just make up your own Anki flash cards from there.

Sketchy Micro and Pharm should be memorized period. There isn’t a single question on both Comlex and USMLE that isn’t found in these resources. I really regret not doing Sketchy Pathology.

I’m still undecided on Zanki or FC. I liked FC when I looked at it, I just wasn’t sure how much the cards would help me keep things memorized. I seem to easily forget things once the exam is over. Also, as you mentioned, I’m pretty sure my school may do a poor job at teaching board relavent material.