MD Using boards materials to study during M1

[Calc93]

Incoming M1 here! Given that Step 1 will be P/F for us, would you guys think it would still be worthwhile to study using board review materials like BnB? I have previously heard that even for in-class exams, it is often better to first study using board materials since many of the lectures in med school are quite horrible. Is this actually the case? If so, what kind of study materials would you recommend? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

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[Billiam95]

Depends whether your exams are NBME or in-house; mine are NBME, allowing me to generally disregard in-house lectures.

 

[wondervisions]

I would say yes because BnB, pathoma, and sketchy are probably better for learning the material than your in house lectures. First Aid also solid for review.

 

[Kardio]

Starting M2 soon (also P/F boards). Used almost exclusively boards material all of M1. So far, I wouldn’t do it any differently and will continue doing this for M2.

 

[deleted1079620]

Boards & Beyond and Sketchy are worth purchasing for 1st year, in my opinion. If your school does normal 1st year and pathology 2nd year, save Pathoma for 2nd year. A copy of first aid can be useful for review, charts & mnemonics but I personally didn’t use it a ton 1st year.

 

[El-Rami]

First Aid, Sketchy, Pathoma, and Boards and Beyond are worthwhile study resources for M1 and M2. I would not recommend actually prepping for boards until your second year, though.

 

[IWishIWasBuff]

Depends if you have in-house.

I’m still trying to figure out how to do this. I use step materials but if I only rely on them I’d fail every single exam. Only about 40% of the content of my in-house exams are covered by Anking/BnB

I wish I could cut out the in house lectures

 

[Calc93]

Starting M2 soon (also P/F boards). Used almost exclusively boards material all of M1. So far, I wouldn’t do it any differently and will continue doing this for M2.

Great! Can I ask what your study schedule using those materials looked like (in general)? And were your exams NBME or in-house?

 

[Calc93]

Depends if you have in-house.

I’m still trying to figure out how to do this. I use step materials but if I only rely on them I’d fail every single exam. Only about 40% of the content of my in-house exams are covered by Anking/BnB

I wish I could cut out the in house lectures

I am fairly certain I have in-house exams for most of the M1 blocks, but I need to confirm. So do you tend to first study the materials using boards resources then review class sides right before exams? Trying to figure out how much effort I should put into reviewing the in-house slides.

 

[Billiam95]

I am fairly certain I have in-house exams for most of the M1 blocks, but I need to confirm. So do you tend to first study the materials using boards resources then review class sides right before exams? Trying to figure out how much effort I should put into reviewing the in-house slides.

Even with in-house exams, I'd try learning from BnB & Anki before reviewing in-house slides. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to put my head through a wall trying to learn from in-house slides that was later perfectly explained by one 10-minute BnB video.

 

[djiboutiman]

What helped me most was to use an outside resource with the related Anking Anki cards as a first pass of the material and then watch lectures at 1.5-2x speed as a second pass. You can take note of important concepts from your lecture that weren’t mentioned in your outside resource and that way you cover all of your bases. As mentioned, the board prep resources often explain things much better than the professors.

I would try out different outside resources to see which teaching style you like most. If you sign up for the AMA, you get a free Boards and Beyond 9 month membership. Sketchy and Pathoma are great. Another favorite not mentioned in this thread is the textbook Physiology by Linda S. Costanzo (also BRS Physiology by the same author). Your school‘s library probably has a copy.

 

[iqe2010]

Sometimes board prep materials explain things way better than professors do.

I’ll never forget how wonderfully first aid laid out female repro. My professor was so terrible at explaining it.

Sketchy is great for micro.

 

[IWishIWasBuff]

I am fairly certain I have in-house exams for most of the M1 blocks, but I need to confirm. So do you tend to first study the materials using boards resources then review class sides right before exams? Trying to figure out how much effort I should put into reviewing the in-house slides.

Yes, but I personally find it hard to study for 50-60% of my inhouse a day or two before the exam.
Again, I REALLY wish I had a way to chuck inhouse lectures out the window but they have too much material not covered by BnB and Anking. Too hard to only dedicate.l 1-2 days to it.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Yes, but I personally find it hard to study for 50-60% of my inhouse a day or two before the exam.
Again, I REALLY wish I had a way to chuck inhouse lectures out the window but they have too much material not covered by BnB and Anking. Too hard to only dedicate.l 1-2 days to it.

What kind of stuff are they including in lectures that aren’t in boards material?

 

[IWishIWasBuff]

What kind of stuff are they including in lectures that aren’t in boards material?

Mix of research topics, new therapeutics, drug side effects not covered by Anki cards, drug indications not covered by Anki cards, 'clinical' cases mentioned in lecture, some fine detail molecular processes, "what would happen if (insert special scenario)?", distinguishing between different diseases (this is probably reasonable clinical knowledge to know? but not in Anking). Some of it just seems so curate to be anti-Anki, for example, a drug side effect mentioned in Anki will either never show up on an exam or it would be a tempting, but wrong, 'gotcha' answer.

Much of it are related to BnB material but go broader an deeper, basically more in depth concepts and questions than anything covered by BnB or Anking. Some of this is minutiae. Step material will cover the big picture (Apple vs Orange) but exams would ask fine detail questions (differentiate between all the species of oranges grown in Texas).

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Mix of research topics, new therapeutics, drug side effects not covered by Anki cards, drug indications not covered by Anki cards, 'clinical' cases mentioned in lecture, some fine detail molecular processes, "what would happen if (insert special scenario)?", distinguishing between different diseases (this is probably reasonable clinical knowledge to know? but not in Anking). Some of it just seems so curate to be anti-Anki, for example, a drug side effect mentioned in Anki will either never show up on an exam or it would be a tempting, but wrong, 'gotcha' answer.

Much of it are related to BnB material but go broader an deeper, basically more in depth concepts and questions than anything covered by BnB or Anking. Some of this is minutiae. Step material will cover the big picture (Apple vs Orange) but exams would ask fine detail questions (differentiate between all the species of oranges grown in Texas).

So basically they are being intentionally obtuse. Got it. Sad that some schools are like this.

 

[Nugester]

Most of my M1 exams were in-house, except for some classes they had a final NBME. In all honesty, you can probably get away with in-house material but some lectures/topics are taught poorly so BnB and AnKing can help fill in the gaps. Personally, I used board material but to cover my bases I still skimmed/looked at the lectures. There were less than a handful of questions that came straight from the PowerPoints and not board material and those can make or break an honors/high pass if your school still does that like mine does/you care about that sort of thing lol.

 

[El-Rami]

Just studying from powerpoint slides might let you pass (70-low 80s) but if you want to do really well you need to add in third-party resources that will focus on high-yield information and allow you to study more efficiently if you know how to use them.

 

[drducky.]

So basically they are being intentionally obtuse. Got it. Sad that some schools are like this.

I had a pharm professor like this too where he would make us memorize every small contraindication/adverse effect. When i got to board time, i couldn’t even remember the major action of those drugs anymore.