Studying for classes using only board materials?

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We have found at our school that our worst performing students use only Board prep materials to study. Board prep is for Boards prep, period.


Foot Fetish said:
My school is true pass/fail, and I feel like I'm wasting my time focusing on my professors' powerpoints and lecture notes. I am at the top of my class (based on exam averages), but apparently that doesn't count for anything since we don't have pre-clinical ranking, and AOA is based only on 3rd year clerkship grades...I want to hear from people who were in similar situations and decided to transition to using board materials as their primary study resource.

I'm thinking I'll read Kaplan USMLE lecture notes or a highly regarded textbook chapter on the subject to lay a foundation, do a pass through FA, memorize the corresponding Brosencephalon deck, and then do as many practice questions as possible. For better or for worse, I have an all-or-nothing mindset in life, so I can't do half lecture-material, half board material. I need to hone in on a single study paradigm in order to maximize my efficiency.

I've already decided to overhaul my study strategy, so please don't try to dissuade me. I'm just looking for any suggestions or advice from people who have done something like this. Thank you.
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If you are at or near the top of your class, don't change anything. It is far more important to master the material in your classes than it is to memorize a board review book. Keep your resources to a minimum. Toward the beginning of MS2 is a good time to start adding a basal level of board review (maybe 1 hour of firecracker per day, titrated up as you move throughout second year) but always prioritize crushing your classes. Don't try and pull from too many sources. I promise you if you are that good of a student and you can consistently add a resource like FC or Anki to rememorize everything, you will crush boards. Another reason for learning the details now is that you're building a foundation. Only idiots and haters will tell you that memorizing everything for step 1 is some kind of one-and-done deal. This will be the same foundation for step 2, step 3, and all your MS3 shelves.

Ignore the friend-of-a-friend type anecdotes (oh I know a guy who scored 265 and only read FA 5 times through and that kind of stuff). Also, ignore the exceptions and focus on the rule. There are probably some people who take an odd path to excellent scores but the majority of people use the same recipe: do well in class, study consistently and within reason to avoid burnout, sleep well, stay healthy, and don't be afraid to ask for help in any of the above areas.

I too was near the top of my class (junior AOA) and this was the pattern I followed. Many of the guys in my group of friends were also junior AOA or did well. Our step 1 scores ranged from 249 - 267, step 2 were similar but higher overall, 3rd years shelves mostly or all honors. We all followed this basic formula with some minor differences.
 
Pardon my ignorance, but is the general consensus to save FA,bros,Rx, and other FA like stuff for systems based classes? I start systems next spring, and path, pharm, biochem, micro, etc this fall so ill definitely be supplementing course packs with sketchy/pathoma. Just wondering if i should hold off and wait for the next version of FA to come out for spring/save on subscriptions like Rx etc.

Thanks in advanced, and sorry to be slightly off topic.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
For sure during the 2nd half of year 2, study mostly for step 1 and use the last week before the prof's test to review his/her powerpoints.
 
We were true P/F MS1-2. I went to lecture and mainly studied from lecture notes. I didn't crack FA until dedicated study time, and during that time I only used FA/UWorld with various reference books for topics I was confused on. Maybe my school was board oriented, but my goal was to immerse myself in the material and just enjoy the process. Which I did. Ended up >250 on step I.

Everyone is different. Some people may attend a school where every lecture is more what the speaker is currently investigating in the lab rather than the basic science it should be. Some people may not be able to stomach holding off on using board review material until their dedicated study time.

My point is do what you're comfortable with. If you are going by the lectures and doing well on the NBME exams at the end of the courses you're probably fine. If you just can't stand the idea of not studying for step I in August of your MS1 year then go for it. You do you. Don't let an SDN thread derail whatever good thing you have going. Pick something and stick with it, otherwise you're going to be trying all these different study styles and you'll end up worse off.
 
I'm kind of shocked by some of the people on here saying they killed boards by only using UFAP materials + sketchy without really using lecture material, I've never heard anyone ever say they did well with that method before reading this thread. I'll give the advice that literally everyone I've talked to has said about FA: It's not enough by itself to be an effective tool. If you use FA with your classes and take notes in the margins, it's a great resource, but otherwise it's basically a skeleton of what you should know going into boards and requires supplemental materials to fill in all the gaps. Imo, pathoma was great for concepts and figuring out how to identify the pathology, but was missing some critical minutiae in certain areas and also just skipped some topics altogether. Qbanks on the other hand were money, and I wished I spent more time using them during 2nd year and dedicated and less time with FA. Do what works for you though regardless of what people here say. Tbh I wish I had used SDN's advice less and did my own thing more during boards studying, as I seem to be a different kind of learner than most people giving advice are.
 
Jeeze people. NOBODY is advocating using only board materials. The kids in my class who do that fail because they do not understand the concepts. What is being discussed is using a different primary source other than lecture--ie Robbins, Costanzo, etc...in combination with the board review materials. This is effective. Its working for me, it has worked for others, and it will continue to work. Lecture is fine but it is NOT the end-all be-all resource.

Edit: I realize some people are advocating using only board materials (its the title of the thread). But seriously nobody really thinks this is a good idea :beat:
 
Stagg737 said:
I'm kind of shocked by some of the people on here saying they killed boards by only using UFAP materials + sketchy without really using lecture material, I've never heard anyone ever say they did well with that method before reading this thread. I'll give the advice that literally everyone I've talked to has said about FA: It's not enough by itself to be an effective tool. If you use FA with your classes and take notes in the margins, it's a great resource, but otherwise it's basically a skeleton of what you should know going into boards and requires supplemental materials to fill in all the gaps. Imo, pathoma was great for concepts and figuring out how to identify the pathology, but was missing some critical minutiae in certain areas and also just skipped some topics altogether. Qbanks on the other hand were money, and I wished I spent more time using them during 2nd year and dedicated and less time with FA. Do what works for you though regardless of what people here say. Tbh I wish I had used SDN's advice less and did my own thing more during boards studying, as I seem to be a different kind of learner than most people giving advice are.
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I guess it depends on your class content, but I'd be very wary of filling FA with content from school lectures.
 
mcloaf said:
I guess it depends on your class content, but I'd be very wary of filling FA with content from school lectures.
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I guess if your professors are mostly PhDs who care more about presenting their own projects to the class than actual medical material, but at least at my school we used big Robbins as our path book and were taught specifically out of that, our pharm professors focused on material that was clinically relevant and need to know for boards, and our clinical lectures were all from MDs/DOs whose goal was to teach us diagnostic and treatment modalities. Idk if that's what most schools are like, but I'd like to think that they're mostly teaching material that's relevant to boards and clinical practice instead of niche areas of research...
 
Stagg737 said:
I wish I had used SDN's advice less and did my own thing more during boards studying, as I seem to be a different kind of learner than most people giving advice are.
Click to expand...

Yea having all these posts is great and all but they seem probably more angst-inducing than helpful. "Oh no, I'm not doing the exact same study method as libertyyne."

What are your thoughts on the pros/cons to staying on SDN during school? After all, time is the currency of the living.
 
sullen-burger said:
Yea having all these posts is great and all but they seem probably more angst-inducing than helpful. "Oh no, I'm not doing the exact same study method as libertyyne."

What are your thoughts on the pros/cons to staying on SDN during school? After all, time is the currency of the living.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, SDN is a great place to ask about resources, find out what other people find to be manageable, and just generally ask questions. My personal problem was that I didn't take what actually works for me into account as much as I should have and used the "proven" methods that are constantly promoted on here (UFAP or bust). SDN is a great resource for general advice, but you've got to remember to stick to what works for you.

I do think SDN is useful during school, you'll likely just have less time to spend here. I've found a lot of the info in the shelf exam forums to be amazing and they've helped me find the right resources to use. Plus having access to more attendings and residents to find out what they did/look for in candidates is great. I'd say it's just about balance, like everything else in med school.
 
sullen-burger said:
Yea having all these posts is great and all but they seem probably more angst-inducing than helpful. "Oh no, I'm not doing the exact same study method as libertyyne."

What are your thoughts on the pros/cons to staying on SDN during school? After all, time is the currency of the living.
Click to expand...

Allo is marginally better than pre-allo. There are pearls hidden here and there, but if you aren't careful you'll cross the event horizon and think you can only match gen surg with a 260+, 3 NEJM pubs, and AOA.

View every thread with a critical eye.
 
There's some published data on top Boards scorers. They use a wide variety of study sources, with PPT files from classes being least used.


Stagg737 said:
I'm kind of shocked by some of the people on here saying they killed boards by only using UFAP materials + sketchy without really using lecture material, I've never heard anyone ever say they did well with that method before reading this thread. I'll give the advice that literally everyone I've talked to has said about FA: It's not enough by itself to be an effective tool. If you use FA with your classes and take notes in the margins, it's a great resource, but otherwise it's basically a skeleton of what you should know going into boards and requires supplemental materials to fill in all the gaps. Imo, pathoma was great for concepts and figuring out how to identify the pathology, but was missing some critical minutiae in certain areas and also just skipped some topics altogether. Qbanks on the other hand were money, and I wished I spent more time using them during 2nd year and dedicated and less time with FA. Do what works for you though regardless of what people here say. Tbh I wish I had used SDN's advice less and did my own thing more during boards studying, as I seem to be a different kind of learner than most people giving advice are.
Click to expand...
 
I don't know if this study is one of the ones @Goro is referring to, but I found this study about the board prep of Einstein students to be interesting before I took step 1: https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/Are Questions the Answer PPT 11-6-12 10PM.pdf.

They found that the strongest predictor of step 1 score was preclinical grades. Total number of practice questions was also correlated. It does state that only 2% of students used class notes as a resource, but I believe it only looked at what they used during their dedicated study period.
 
doyouhaveaflag said:
I don't know if this study is one of the ones @Goro is referring to, but I found this study about the board prep of Einstein students to be interesting before I took step 1: https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/Are Questions the Answer PPT 11-6-12 10PM.pdf.

They found that the strongest predictor of step 1 score was preclinical grades. Total number of practice questions was also correlated. It does state that only 2% of students used class notes as a resource, but I believe it only looked at what they used during their dedicated study period.
Click to expand...
so one pass through uworld=~10 point increase.
 
i am still waiting for the thread that argues that a Step 1 Score of 260+ can be achieved by using the Twitter feed of First Aid online....less than 144 characters per week

If you really are deadset on being anti textbooks, anti lectures and anti handwritten notes from UWorld and personal readings, maybe you do deserve to be an indentured servant for CMS, Third Party Payers and Hospital Corporation of America.
 
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DatInterviewDood said:
@Foot Fetish which resources did you end up going with / prioritizing?
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I still study the professors' lecture notes extensively. I make it a point to know them inside and out before every exam, which is what allows me to stay at the top of the class. However, very recently (last 2 weeks or so), I started adding Step 1 prep into the mix, in the form of Pathoma and Brosencephalon Anki deck. On top of making my own Anki cards based on professors' lectures for each block exam, I now watch Pathoma and do the corresponding Bro's cards. I am learning A LOT of material that we haven't gone over in class. I am now realizing that I wish I had gone to a systems based school because it makes so much more sense to me to learn the abnormal along with the normal. I've decided that I'm going to keep up with the Bros cards into the summer at a rate of ~150 new cards/day, which will allow me effectively learn most of M2's material before M2 even begins. Then I will do q-banks on timed, random mode starting on Day 1 of M2. I want to complete USMLE-Rx, Kaplan, UWorld, plus all of the NBME's before dedicated.
 
Foot Fetish said:
I still study the professors' lecture notes extensively. I make it a point to know them inside and out before every exam, which is what allows me to stay at the top of the class. However, very recently (last 2 weeks or so), I started adding Step 1 prep into the mix, in the form of Pathoma and Brosencephalon Anki deck. On top of making my own Anki cards based on professors' lectures for each block exam, I now watch Pathoma and do the corresponding Bro's cards. I am learning A LOT of material that we haven't gone over in class. I am now realizing that I wish I had gone to a systems based school because it makes so much more sense to me to learn the abnormal along with the normal. I've decided that I'm going to keep up with the Bros cards into the summer at a rate of ~150 new cards/day, which will allow me effectively learn most of M2's material before M2 even begins. Then I will do q-banks on timed, random mode starting on Day 1 of M2. I want to complete USMLE-Rx, Kaplan, UWorld, plus all of the NBME's before dedicated.
Click to expand...

Is bros deck still public?
 
Foot Fetish said:
I still study the professors' lecture notes extensively. I make it a point to know them inside and out before every exam, which is what allows me to stay at the top of the class. However, very recently (last 2 weeks or so), I started adding Step 1 prep into the mix, in the form of Pathoma and Brosencephalon Anki deck. On top of making my own Anki cards based on professors' lectures for each block exam, I now watch Pathoma and do the corresponding Bro's cards. I am learning A LOT of material that we haven't gone over in class. I am now realizing that I wish I had gone to a systems based school because it makes so much more sense to me to learn the abnormal along with the normal. I've decided that I'm going to keep up with the Bros cards into the summer at a rate of ~150 new cards/day, which will allow me effectively learn most of M2's material before M2 even begins. Then I will do q-banks on timed, random mode starting on Day 1 of M2. I want to complete USMLE-Rx, Kaplan, UWorld, plus all of the NBME's before dedicated.
Click to expand...
I'd warn against doing all of the NBMEs before dedicated. They're more valuable for seeing where you stand than to learn content, so you may want to save them for while you're on dedicated time to monitor your progression. Also, learning the bros cards will help you in second year. Some things you will see and understand, others you'll just be memorizing words. The yield effort wise won't be good, but that doesn't mean the result will be bad. You'll just spend 2x as long as you'd have to to learn them ahead of time and it won't really click until you've truly learned it the first time. But it very well could lead to saving you time in your dedicated time and helping you score where you'd like.
 
Foot Fetish said:
I still study the professors' lecture notes extensively. I make it a point to know them inside and out before every exam, which is what allows me to stay at the top of the class. However, very recently (last 2 weeks or so), I started adding Step 1 prep into the mix, in the form of Pathoma and Brosencephalon Anki deck. On top of making my own Anki cards based on professors' lectures for each block exam, I now watch Pathoma and do the corresponding Bro's cards. I am learning A LOT of material that we haven't gone over in class. I am now realizing that I wish I had gone to a systems based school because it makes so much more sense to me to learn the abnormal along with the normal. I've decided that I'm going to keep up with the Bros cards into the summer at a rate of ~150 new cards/day, which will allow me effectively learn most of M2's material before M2 even begins. Then I will do q-banks on timed, random mode starting on Day 1 of M2. I want to complete USMLE-Rx, Kaplan, UWorld, plus all of the NBME's before dedicated.
Click to expand...

For the most part exactly this, may save the "Holy Grail" Qbanks until a bit later into M2...but LOVING the BROS deck. Extremely easy to do...A big input of time at the beginning of each block as you are trying to get a bulk of the cards done early so you aren't doing new ones the day before the test...But being able to breeze through the previous block's set of cards in 30 minutes daily and feel like I still have a solid grasp on material I learned months ago is amazing. Unfortunately my memory is amazing like some people's, so being able to see certain facts and cards over and over again really hammers it home for me to where a fact I couldn't get right twice in a row to save my life becomes second nature

95% sure we are at the same school, and I really I couldn't agree more about wishing our curriculum was different (and much better -__-)
 
So for a systems based curriculum, would doing bros deck during M1 as we progress be worthwhile for staying sharp on high yield topics? Or would most of you all say just hold off until the summer between M1/M2?
 
XxThaDoggxX said:
For the most part exactly this, may save the "Holy Grail" Qbanks until a bit later into M2...but LOVING the BROS deck. Extremely easy to do...A big input of time at the beginning of each block as you are trying to get a bulk of the cards done early so you aren't doing new ones the day before the test...But being able to breeze through the previous block's set of cards in 30 minutes daily and feel like I still have a solid grasp on material I learned months ago is amazing. Unfortunately my memory is amazing like some people's, so being able to see certain facts and cards over and over again really hammers it home for me to where a fact I couldn't get right twice in a row to save my life becomes second nature

95% sure we are at the same school, and I really I couldn't agree more about wishing our curriculum was different (and much better -__-)
Click to expand...


Bro's deck is key. Also, I just want to say that, if we do indeed go to the same school and you happen to know I am, please don't take my SDN posts as a reflection of who I really am. I've made a lot of outlandish ****-posts on here that I would never say in real life. Like others on these forums (e.g. @failedatlife ), I've developed a sort of alter ego troll-persona. I promise I'm not a neurotic mega-gunner maniac irl, lol.
 
YoungDoc25 said:
So for a systems based curriculum, would doing bros deck during M1 as we progress be worthwhile for staying sharp on high yield topics? Or would most of you all say just hold off until the summer between M1/M2?
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I think Bro's is better for review than for learning. I had a long post about this somewhere on SDN, but basically, I tried to switch into Bro's to save myself time and I ended up not grasping the material nearly as well as when I made my own cards. I've gone back to making my own cards, and will likely use Bro's to review for boards. That said, I keep Bro's deck in my Anki so that I can search through it and steal cards to add to the deck I make myself if I want to. It's hella nice to have it as my Anki has basically become my own searchable database for everything in preclinical years.
 
Affiche said:
I think Bro's is better for review than for learning. I had a long post about this somewhere on SDN, but basically, I tried to switch into Bro's to save myself time and I ended up not grasping the material nearly as well as when I made my own cards. I've gone back to making my own cards, and will likely use Bro's to review for boards. That said, I keep Bro's deck in my Anki so that I can search through it and steal cards to add to the deck I make myself if I want to. It's hella nice to have it as my Anki has basically become my own searchable database for everything in preclinical years.
Click to expand...
Definitely can see using it as more of a review, especially after looking at the first couple of pages of FA. Seems like it would be very easy to memorize words vs memorize concepts. Hopefully I find what works for me quickly.
 
Affiche said:
I think Bro's is better for review than for learning. I had a long post about this somewhere on SDN, but basically, I tried to switch into Bro's to save myself time and I ended up not grasping the material nearly as well as when I made my own cards. I've gone back to making my own cards, and will likely use Bro's to review for boards. That said, I keep Bro's deck in my Anki so that I can search through it and steal cards to add to the deck I make myself if I want to. It's hella nice to have it as my Anki has basically become my own searchable database for everything in preclinical years.
Click to expand...

Definitely agree. I make sure to actually learn the physiology first, and go over the Pathoma/FA chapters so I'm not just memorizing cards. Additionally I add a large amount of info in the "extra section" of the cards
 
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YoungDoc25 said:
Definitely can see using it as more of a review, especially after looking at the first couple of pages of FA. Seems like it would be very easy to memorize words vs memorize concepts. Hopefully I find what works for me quickly.
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You'll be aiiight. You'll fumble around with either Anki or FC for a couple weeks, develop a strong preference for one over the other, then settle into a system. Neither is perfect, so beware that either way you go you'll have some frustration, but overall I think Anki has really served me well and I can't imagine medical school without it.
 
Affiche said:
You'll be aiiight. You'll fumble around with either Anki or FC for a couple weeks, develop a strong preference for one over the other, then settle into a system. Neither is perfect, so beware that either way you go you'll have some frustration, but overall I think Anki has really served me well and I can't imagine medical school without it.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a plan haha I appreciate the insight!
 
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