When to start Zanki?

[ExplodingUlcers]

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MS1 here. I am having trouble keeping up with Zanki on top of keeping up with the vast amount of material that my school is throwing at me. I currently find myself making Anki cards for lecture material then strictly reviewing those everyday to prepare for the weekly assessments which has been working out pretty well. Just to give some background, our current block is just basic sciences with some pathology, immunology and pharm thrown in.

I am hoping to unsuspend the relevant Zanki cards once we hit systems and maybe it will get easier but for the basic sciences block, it just seems like it is very impractical to keep up with Zanki. Does anyone else feel this way? I talked to second years at my school and they recommended starting zanki day one but I honestly don't even know how to do that while still keeping up with lecture material. Any suggestions would be helpful!

 

[Mariokart101]

MS1 here too. I started using zanki day one. For additional material covered in lecture I make extra Anki cards. n=1, but doing this helped me alot on first exam.

 

[wanderingorion]

At the beginning it feels like random facts thrown at you with no context, but as time goes on, you'll make connections with your coursework and it'll all come together.
My approach was to add any facts you feel aren't covered by your zanki deck (by searching for the term) to your deck, and watching the lectures to get the background. B&B are also useful to give you a 10+ minute overview of a concept so you don't feel like your cards are without context.

It's also totally normal to feel overwhelmed at this point.

 

[slowthai]

We actually have a thread discussing this on the second page.

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

I wouldn't just randomly memorize cards. You need context. Knowing that sillicosis produces eggshell calcification on the lymph nodes and fibrotic nodules on the upper lobes is good and all, but if you can't tell me how silicosis differs from asbestosis, that's an issue. Have you tried to group terms together using the close-overlapper? That might help bring the picture in together and less like memorizing random facts? Also, start out with the topics your school explicitly covers, and then add more and more as time goes on. For example, if your school is covering cystic fibrosis, only do the CF related cards for now, not the entire respiratory deck.

 

[7331poas]

you need to start zanki day 1. Stop doing class material if you are in a P/F grading scheme and/or there is no class rank.

 

[teenyfish]

How many news do you guys do a day? Are you at a set amount or going along with lecture? I've been going through Zanki but only unsuspending as they go appear in lecture - some days it could only be 10 others it's close to 100.

 

[Ho0v-man]

MS1 here. I am having trouble keeping up with Zanki on top of keeping up with the vast amount of material that my school is throwing at me. I currently find myself making Anki cards for lecture material then strictly reviewing those everyday to prepare for the weekly assessments which has been working out pretty well. Just to give some background, our current block is just basic sciences with some pathology, immunology and pharm thrown in.

I am hoping to unsuspend the relevant Zanki cards once we hit systems and maybe it will get easier but for the basic sciences block, it just seems like it is very impractical to keep up with Zanki. Does anyone else feel this way? I talked to second years at my school and they recommended starting zanki day one but I honestly don't even know how to do that while still keeping up with lecture material. Any suggestions would be helpful!

I found first semester way too overwhelming to do Zanki. I was literally beyond my max level of stress just trying to keep up with class alone. I didn’t start it until systems at the beginning of second semester. The trade off ended up being that the stuff from first semester I didn’t cover in Zanki I did over the summer and on the side during third semester. It super sucked, but it all worked out in the end I guess.

 

[7331poas]

How many news do you guys do a day? Are you at a set amount or going along with lecture? I've been going through Zanki but only unsuspending as they go appear in lecture - some days it could only be 10 others it's close to 100.

Do as many as is necessary. You will get the hang of it as you go. A good anki-er could probably get 1000 done a week without having too much stress.

 

[watermelon master]

MS1 here. I am having trouble keeping up with Zanki on top of keeping up with the vast amount of material that my school is throwing at me. I currently find myself making Anki cards for lecture material then strictly reviewing those everyday to prepare for the weekly assessments which has been working out pretty well. Just to give some background, our current block is just basic sciences with some pathology, immunology and pharm thrown in.

I am hoping to unsuspend the relevant Zanki cards once we hit systems and maybe it will get easier but for the basic sciences block, it just seems like it is very impractical to keep up with Zanki. Does anyone else feel this way? I talked to second years at my school and they recommended starting zanki day one but I honestly don't even know how to do that while still keeping up with lecture material. Any suggestions would be helpful!

For what it's worth I did some zanki first year and stopped doing it over the summer from ms1->ms2. I restarted zanki and finished it by the end of MS2. my school does two passes of the material though

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

you need to start zanki day 1. Stop doing class material if you are in a P/F grading scheme and/or there is no class rank.

This is definitely my situation but how do I ensure I pass the block if I go balls deep in Zanki and disregard class lectures completely?

 

[ExplodingUlcers]

I think I'll feel better once I get to metabolism because it's a bit more organized and structured but for the time being they're throwing a bunch of stuff at us that I'm having difficulty identifying the overlap with Zanki. For example, one week we'll get hammered with genetics and molecular bio, then signal transduction, embryo, pharm, path etc

Another M1 here. Perhaps my situation is unique, but I've found Zanki really helpful for remembering the things covered in lecture. There are very few things in lecture that are not covered by Zanki, and if there are, I try to get a sense of whether it will actually be tested or if it shows up in FA. If it's neither, I let it go. If it's not in FA but will be tested, I'll make flashcards to dispose of after the exam. But on the whole, it's been very helpful. They pretty much threw the entirety of human metabolism at us in like 4 lectures and I felt incredibly overwhelmed but am actually feeling decently confident after chugging through the Zanki cards. Just remember to not memorize random crap, only do cards for things covered in lecture to start building those connections.

 

[7331poas]

This is definitely my situation but how do I ensure I pass the block if I go balls deep in Zanki and disregard class lectures completely?

Talk to your upperclassmen. Chances are they have a person in their class who anki's religiously. See if he/she was able to pass comfortably with just zanki.

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

I started at the beginning of summer after M1 and have been going strong ever since. I am doing Zanki + lolnotacop micro/sketchy.

Here's how my day looks in order to finish by dedicated:

New Cards:
~100/day of my current organ system
~32/day from the decks which we don't have a dedicated block for
~20/day associated with whatever sketchy video I watched that day over lunch

Reviews:
~ All current block reviews, every day. Takes about 30-60 min depending on the load (no load-balancer add-on)
~ All lol/sketchy reviews every day. Takes about 10 minutes
~ 100-200 Reviews from the MASSIVE pile I have from cramming all of M1 organ systems over this past summer. Takes about 30 minutesSlowly working through a stack of about 1700 cards and hope to be caught up by next month or so.

Total Time: ~2 to 3 hours

I manage to do decently well in the curriculum by previewing and then attending lectures. On exam weeks I do only reviews for the current block we are on and study class material. It lets a lot of reviews pile up, but I usually just spend Saturday after the exam catching up and then drinking heavily that night before Sunday when the cycle starts all over again...

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

...On exam weeks I do only reviews for the current block we are on and study class material...

For those reading, avoid this.

 

[initialize]

New user of Zanki here... does anyone know if there’s any embryology cards in the deck? I tried searching for some but I couldn’t find any. (I’m currently in the embryology block at my school)

 

[Ho0v-man]

New user of Zanki here... does anyone know if there’s any embryology cards in the deck? I tried searching for some but I couldn’t find any. (I’m currently in the embryology block at my school)

It’s peppered throughout each deck as it pertains to that system. There’s also a deck in the obgyn section titled “the embryology that shouldn’t exist” which has all the pharyngeal arch nonsense and whatnot.

I’d learn it how your school wants you to for now and memorize the embryo cards with each system as they pop up.

 

[watermelon master]

For those reading, avoid this.

What's the problem with reviewing class material during exam weeks? OP still wants to pass, no?

 

[Thesimplelifeofamyloid]

What's the problem with reviewing class material during exam weeks? OP still wants to pass, no?

Nothing is wrong with that. Skipping out on the reviews is the killer. You're not using it right if you do that.

 

[watermelon master]

Nothing is wrong with that. Skipping out on the reviews is the killer. You're not using it right if you do that.

OHH that part got past me. Yes to people who are reading, do ALL of your reviews. Not just the reviews for the current block. Or else you're gonna have a huge load of reviews you're gonna have to get through when you're done, and that's not fun

 

[4thtimeretaker]

We recently started out Neurology block and I'll be starting Anking/Zanki for that. I wanted to know is there a way I can also start un-suspending cards from subjects I've already completed like MSK, Biochem, Immuno, Gen Path, Basic Pharm, etc? Would my reviews get mixed all together in that ill have a biochem cards mixed in with my neuro cards? My understanding is that most people don't individually do sub-decks (just un-suspend cards and do parent deck) since you can prime yourself that you'll be seeing cards from a particular topic.

 

[Chelsea FC]

We recently started out Neurology block and I'll be starting Anking/Zanki for that. I wanted to know is there a way I can also start un-suspending cards from subjects I've already completed like MSK, Biochem, Immuno, Gen Path, Basic Pharm, etc? Would my reviews get mixed all together in that ill have a biochem cards mixed in with my neuro cards? My understanding is that most people don't individually do sub-decks (just un-suspend cards and do parent deck) since you can prime yourself that you'll be seeing cards from a particular topic.

Create a parent deck call it wadeve you want. Mine is called (THE BIG MOMMA) and then move all the reviews for old classes into that deck while you work on neuro. I like keeping the reviews for the class im actively doing in its subdeck and keep it from my master review deck until I am done with it.

 

[Chelsea FC]

We recently started out Neurology block and I'll be starting Anking/Zanki for that. I wanted to know is there a way I can also start un-suspending cards from subjects I've already completed like MSK, Biochem, Immuno, Gen Path, Basic Pharm, etc? Would my reviews get mixed all together in that ill have a biochem cards mixed in with my neuro cards? My understanding is that most people don't individually do sub-decks (just un-suspend cards and do parent deck) since you can prime yourself that you'll be seeing cards from a particular topic.

Also the Neurology deck is the spawn of satan so if you can get through it you can prob do all of zanki. Just dont make it discourage you its def one of the worst decks with weird details.

 

[4thtimeretaker]

Also the Neurology deck is the spawn of satan so if you can get through it you can prob do all of zanki. Just dont make it discourage you its def one of the worst decks with weird details.

Yeah I'm having a hard time figuring out how I should go about attacking it, since its from Kaplan and miscellaneous resources it's hard to preview those prior to doing the cards. I may just try to do 50 new cards a day as I learn the material for class. I heard people say to combine the neuroanatomy and neuroscience deck.

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

I do great on Q-banks and the questions I miss are either information I have never seen or just an error in thought that no amount of single line facts could have prevented. Perhaps that

Create a parent deck call it wadeve you want. Mine is called (THE BIG MOMMA) and then move all the reviews for old classes into that deck while you work on neuro. I like keeping the reviews for the class im actively doing in its subdeck and keep it from my master review deck until I am done with it.

Power move right here.