The dreaded Step is upon me...

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[mehc012]

If you still have Zanki sorted into subdecks, it's going to pull from them mostly in order. Anki sucks at dealing with subdecks. You're better off tagging everything, making a 'Current' deck, and moving cards in there as you cover the material/want it to start popping up.

 

[Chillbo Baggins]

At this point you want to do UWorld random.

 

[Osteoth]

When's your test?

 

[raiderette]

Great forum on SDN related to Step 1. You will be overwhelmed with advice, study techniques, etc.

 

[Goro]

Hello,

I am an MS2 and Step 1 is falling upon me like an avalanche. How does everyone approach Q-banks? Do you go by system or do you randomize?

Also, I am trying to find a way to use flash card apps (Zanki or Rx), but I have never done them before and currently I don't know how to have the Zanki deck randomize cards for me. So far, whenever I click on Zanki Step decks I have been getting mostly biochemistry and not much else.

To the Zanki experts: how do you fix this?
To all of you: how do you keep the old material fresh?

Any input is appreciated.

Excellent questions. I recommend starting on the material you'd be weakest in, such as MS1 material. You'll be freshest on MS2, especially this semester, naturally.

The key with going through the question banks is to find out what you knowledge deficits are. Knowing that is more important than knowing what you do know.

 

[Giovanotto]

Oh boy, not to be a dick, but damn are you late to the party...

As far as Anki goes, there is an option to allow you to either randomize or grab cards in order they were made. Look through the options after you click on a deck, it should be there. If you still can't find it, PM me and I'll screenshot you.

 

[Dare2Dream]

I am not sure if doing decks is the way to go now as those can feel fragmented starting out. They work for some but not everyone. You're probably better off just systematically reviewing material to solidify the fundamentals and doing UWorld questions which helps hammer in the significant points and critical thinking. If you have Qmax, i found their videos to be quick and nice for chapter by chapter review of first aid but then again a lot of this varies person to person so you should go with whatever works best for you.

 

[MedNation907]

UWORLD random. Nothing else matters.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Don’t do anki or any flash card crap at this point. The best thing right now would be to get your first pass or two of first aid out of the way and to do either uworld or usmlerx.

 

[Mad Jack]

It's mid June

Do random/timed 60+ questions a day

 

[mehc012]

Don’t do anki or any flash card crap at this point. The best thing right now would be to get your first pass or two of first aid out of the way and to do either uworld or usmlerx.

For some of us, doing a pass means going through a set of cards on each section.

 

[mistafab]

Uworld has 2400 questions and you need to have them all completed. Plus, you will want time to redo all the ones you missed. Divide 2400 by the number of days total you want to be finished with it by and start hitting the review books/pathoma on all the rest of your time.

For example, I do minimum 60 uworld q’s per day 6 days a week to guarentee i’ll finish when I want to (4 weeks now). After my questions for the day, I do a chapter of pathoma. I have already finished a first pass of FA and when pathoma is done (1.5 more weeks) i’ll start my second FA pass (and rinse/repeat as needed).

Not saying my technique or plan is the best, but what you can tell is that I have a plan. I’d go check out the step forum and then come up with a plan yourself or ask for one if you want to. Just stick to whatever you decide to do.

Best of luck!

 

[BluegrassBuckeye]

I'm not sure if it's a breech of etiquette or not, but I have a related question that doesn't warrant it's own thread so I'll ask it here. For anyone who's already taken Step 1/Level 1, I know that UWORLD is accepted as the best question bank by most, but how well do these questions actually compare to USMLE/COMLEX questions? Like are they actually a good representation of what we'll see or is it just the best that we have?

 

[831929]

Oh boy, not to be a dick, but damn are you late to the party...

As far as Anki goes, there is an option to allow you to either randomize or grab cards in order they were made. Look through the options after you click on a deck, it should be there. If you still can't find it, PM me and I'll screenshot you.

Why are they late? Still plenty of time to finish an accessory Q bank and do uworld during dedicated. Zanki might be too much to try to get through, but you can probably skip all the pharm cards and the material you have learned most recently. Focus on decks that require a lot of memorization (pathology such as leukemias RBC disorders, neuro path, etc). Best of luck!

 

[Giovanotto]

How long does it take you to get through 60 questions?

So, I'm struggling to see how one could do 60 Qs/day + review and still stay sane (unless you're in dedicated), but even then, when are you really learning/reviewing the Qs you did? I don't really see how that works. Going over your questions is great, but are you going to remember that one question you missed two weeks from now? Maybe. I'd say go 50/50 on Qs and anki (content review) even this late in the game.

60Qs + review I'm guessing should take about 5 hrs, as it takes me 1.5 hrs to do 20Qs + review.

 

[mehc012]

So, I'm struggling to see how one could do 60 Qs/day + review and still stay sane (unless you're in dedicated), but even then, when are you really learning/reviewing the Qs you did? I don't really see how that works. Going over your questions is great, but are you going to remember that one question you missed two weeks from now? Maybe. I'd say go 50/50 on Qs and anki (content review) even this late in the game.

60Qs + review I'm guessing should take about 5 hrs, as it takes me 1.5 hrs to do 20Qs + review.

Depends on the person and the subject. I did 60Qs tonight and it definitely took less than 5hrs. I haven't been keeping very close track, though...I'll pay more attention in the future. I also think that, at least for me, there's a certain amount of time that gets sunk into finding my groove, so doing 40Qs and reviewing would definitely take less time than 2 sets of 20Qs done separately.

 

[tantacles]

Haven't started UW yet, trying to finish Kaplan now (about 70% done). I will be starting UW shortly, and project to finish about 7-10 days before step to give myself time to have one more pass at FA.
I am just struggling with the fact that reading FA/watching vids is rather passive, and wanted to add another study method to facilitate recall. Hence my flashcard question. But yeah, Zanki is a lot to go through, maybe I won't see them all, but at least I can hit my weakest topics?
Any other advice on how to work on recall besides flashcards?

They're pretty comparable.

 

[Giovanotto]

Depends on the person and the subject. I did 60Qs tonight and it definitely took less than 5hrs. I haven't been keeping very close track, though...I'll pay more attention in the future. I also think that, at least for me, there's a certain amount of time that gets sunk into finding my groove, so doing 40Qs and reviewing would definitely take less time than 2 sets of 20Qs done separately.

"finding my groove" i.e. let's be honest, getting lazier and not spending as much time reviewing the Qs the further on you go.

 

[Giovanotto]

Unfortunately, this is often the case... that's why I actually prefer 2 blocks of 20 to 1 block of 40.


I am not hitting 60/day at this time, since I am not in dedicated yet. Right now I am doing about 40/day plus the school curriculum stuff and some zanki. Are you an MS2? How are you approaching it?

Yup, OMS2. Trying to do 20Q/day + 1.5 hrs of Anki. Before this week I was just doing either 20Q/day or 1.5 hrs of Anki, but the school load is slowly starting to give way to more board studying.