I was an engineer in undergrad and as such really had no idea how to study this kind of material coming in. I've been through every iteration of using study guides and anki/FC, and I'll give my humble opinion, with the strong caveat that while humans are overall pretty similar, some people really do study more effectively using different strategies, and it really is about what's best for you.
Study guides for each lecture: Good for bigger picture, but time consuming and ultimately bad for details, and med school is big on details. Using this strategy I scored below average (we are a true P/F school).
Making anki cards for lecture: IMO this is inefficient and fails to capture the bigger picture because you spend so much time on flashcards. People tend to look at 2 or 3 nit-picky questions on the test and say, "wow, they really want you to know every detail." Probably though, if there were 100 questions on that test, and you got 10-15 wrong, more of that was due to poor understanding than not knowing the side detail in the lecture notes. If you employ this strategy, really just look at each slide/paragraph and ask yourself, "will this be on the exam, realistically?" If yes, make one card that encompasses the greater take away, include the slide in the extra section of the card so you can passively absorb the other details. For high yield slides (e.g. a table with characteristics of various diseases, bugs, drugs, etc...), anki is the best way to learn.
Using FC: Massive waste of time and money IMO. I bought it and regret it. I don't know anyone in real life who has claimed to have used it successfully, and have only ever even heard it advocated for online.
Bros/Premade decks: Awesome for use along with class, and amazing for long term retention. 3-4 months after covering a deck though, the information will get fragmented, and you will lose the bigger picture. Unless you form strong mneumonics, you will not remember individual, no-context details like genetic inheritance or inhibitors/activators of biochemical pathways. However, I know that the daily time commitment is low for those decks (e.g. my biochem deck had 4 cards due today), and it keeps me thinking about and seeing these pathways. When this material comes up again in systems (e.g. gout, lactic acidosis due to alcohol, etc...) it is very easy to slip back into it and remember the full pathway. I anticipate that I will have a much, much easier time rebuilding my knowledge come dedicated study time because I've kept up with the deck.
If you can't tell, I ultimately chose to go with pre-made decks, and I'm a few months into M2 doing a little above average. Last year I made class decks and did significantly better than average. However, I'm able to pull 80%+ on Qbanks, so I'm probably learning something extra somewhere. You can't keep up with the number of anki cards necessary to do very well in class, so while you'll learn those extra details, do you really think you'll be able to recall them any better on step 1 test day than if you had studied them without the cards? I doubt I could. I personally have a tough time getting questions right reliably unless I really know a concept, not just remember some random association (though it does happen). Ultimately, I take that extra time I would have spent on making cards and spend it on Qbanks and making sure I'm completely done all studying by 9 pm at the latest. Usually I'll catch a drink with friends at that point, hang out with the GF, or just relax for a few hours before going to sleep.
