Which boards resource is overrated?

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Which boards resource is overrated?

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I think BnB and Sketchy Pharm are about equal in terms of being overrated. Sketchy in general can be a good memory tool, but only when you are using it as part of an Anki deck. The videos themselves are not consistent and the mnemonics were often a stretch. And BnB is literally just powerpoints if I wanted more of that I would have paid more attention during class
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Goro said:
FA. Has a near cult following, yet is really just the bare bones basics and lacks stuff you do need to know,
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Spoken like a true professor of low yield information 😆. I don't think this is your lane Goro.

FA is without a doubt the greatest resource ever created in relation to board preparation. If something isn't in the Bible, it's because it didn't need to be there.
 
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metroidlonder said:
Spoken like a true professor of low yield information 😆. I don't think this is your lane Goro.

FA is without a doubt the greatest resource ever created in relation to board preparation. If something isn't in the Bible, it's because it didn't need to be there.
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I rest my case.
 
altblue said:
YMMV. The narrative aspect of the videos makes the cards a cakewalk for me and helps me retain them in the longrun
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Yeah, I mean the whole premise of the thread is that it's our own opinion. Watching the video is just other minutes I could be spending doing more active learning things.
 
They don’t mean it Dr.Ryan. They’re confused! Please forgive them.
 
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treatem-and-streetem said:
Pre-made anki cards are the most overrated.
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You want me to tell what I did with all that free time I had not figuring out what cards I wanted or making them?

We could make it a game like when you win a $20 bet off your friend and tell them every time you spend a single cent just to get the message across.
 
Neopolymath said:
You want me to tell what I did with all that free time I had not figuring out what cards I wanted or making them?

We could make it a game like when you win a $20 bet off your friend and tell them every time you spend a single cent just to get the message across.
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For real. Also makes it so much easier to blast through lectures on 2x or faster when you only have to make like 2-3 cards a lecture if any. Premade decks are underrated if anything.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
For real. Also makes it so much easier to blast through lectures on 2x or faster when you only have to make like 2-3 cards a lecture if any. Premade decks are underrated if anything.
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one of the smartest things I did before starting med school was becoming really really good at Anki. When you understand how it works and can utilize pre made decks as they should be there is no better way to study IMO
 
Cornfed101 said:
one of the smartest things I did before starting med school was becoming really really good at Anki. When you understand how it works and can utilize pre made decks as they should be there is no better way to study IMO
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Agreed. I am by no means an anki wiz, but I know how to do some helpful stuff quickly and I can blow through a lecture and have all the cards I need. I often only have to make a couple, and even if I have to make a bunch, that is rare and I can do it quickly.
 
The premade vs. self-made Anki decks is an interesting argument.

All my grades dropped when I started using premade decks. And when it came time to study for boards, the stuff that was in decks I’d made myself came back much quicker, or I still remembered it, vs. stuff I’d learned off of premade decks. Even thinking of how to best ask the information in a card is reinforcing it at a deeper level than answering a card someone else wrote. The whole if you can teach something, you really know it thing applies to making your own cards IMO.

For the record, I’m lazy and was never able to keep up with my reviews on anything. Maybe if I’d kept up with my reviews on premade decks I’d think differently, but I abandoned all premade decks for my step 1/level 1 dedicated and did fine.


I’d also vote for first aid if it was on the list. It’s just a text wall, and I hate text walls. Never even opened it once and I don’t plan on starting now that I’m in my third year.
 
calivianya said:
The premade vs. self-made Anki decks is an interesting argument.

All my grades dropped when I started using premade decks. And when it came time to study for boards, the stuff that was in decks I’d made myself came back much quicker, or I still remembered it, vs. stuff I’d learned off of premade decks. Even thinking of how to best ask the information in a card is reinforcing it at a deeper level than answering a card someone else wrote. The whole if you can teach something, you really know it thing applies to making your own cards IMO.

For the record, I’m lazy and was never able to keep up with my reviews on anything. Maybe if I’d kept up with my reviews on premade decks I’d think differently, but I abandoned all premade decks for my step 1/level 1 dedicated and did fine.


I’d also vote for first aid if it was on the list. It’s just a text wall, and I hate text walls. Never even opened it once and I don’t plan on starting now that I’m in my third year.
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I dunno, I don’t keep up with the reviews at all either and I still remember a good amount. The stuff I do forget that comes up again in later modules comes back really fast, and I mostly use premade decks. But I also really heavily sandbag my reviews. I make it so I see the card as often as possible during the module even if I know it cold, so I end up seeing them a **** ton.
 
I knew it would spark rage. Anyway premade decks are geared toward straight memorization instead of actually learning content. They give you so much information each anki card that it often does not require much thinking. Just my two cents
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
I knew it would spark rage. Anyway premade decks are geared toward straight memorization instead of actually learning content. They give you so much information each anki card that it often does not require much thinking. Just my two cents
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But memorizing is learning. It's also what allows us to be able to think and apply the information. If you don't know the information, it doesn't matter how much thinking you do, you're screwed on step. Moreover, knowledge is the currency of medicine.

Also, you're talking about clozed cards which are found in Zanki. Other decks like Lightyear give you no info and that forces you to come up with the answer entirely by yourself if that's more your speed.
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
I knew it would spark rage. Anyway premade decks are geared toward straight memorization instead of actually learning content. They give you so much information each anki card that it often does not require much thinking. Just my two cents
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I straight up don't understand this argument. Nothing against you personally, I've just heard so many people make it. Memorization is learning content, I don't see what the difference is. Anki is a baseline foundation, upon which you build your learning further. Sure, you likely won't be super successful if all you do is Anki and nothing else. But Anki combined with practice questions to build your actual learning and thought processes? Priceless.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
I straight up don't understand this argument. Nothing against you personally, I've just heard so many people make it. Memorization is learning content, I don't see what the difference is. Anki is a baseline foundation, upon which you build your learning further. Sure, you likely won't be super successful if all you do is Anki and nothing else. But Anki combined with practice questions to build your actual learning and thought processes? Priceless.
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It's an argument made under the false pretenses that medicine involves learning anything legitimately complex. It's just simply not true. This isn't electrical engineering or whatever. It's literally memorize easy facts and learn judgement/art.
 
fldoctorgirl said:
I straight up don't understand this argument. Nothing against you personally, I've just heard so many people make it. Memorization is learning content, I don't see what the difference is. Anki is a baseline foundation, upon which you build your learning further. Sure, you likely won't be super successful if all you do is Anki and nothing else. But Anki combined with practice questions to build your actual learning and thought processes? Priceless.
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Neopolymath said:
It's an argument made under the false pretenses that medicine involves learning anything legitimately complex. It's just simply not true. This isn't electrical engineering or whatever. It's literally memorize easy facts and learn judgement/art.
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I have heard this argument countless of times too. I think it has to do more with some people's approach to studying more than anything. They prefer to learn bigger overarching concepts and fill it in with facts. They're focused on the why and the how. For them, this is where they get their conceptual framework from. For someone like me, the why and the how are just more facts explaining other facts, lol.
 
I do think making your own cards is better active learning than pre-made decks, but in practice there's not enough time in the day to make high-quality cards and review them. I don't know how the original authors did it. This is where the pre-made decks shine since they still get the job done on much higher efficiency.
 
slowthai said:
Just get out of my thread.


Kidding, lol. But seriously, we already corrected this false opinion a few posts back, so...yah
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Sorry but this is a hill I’ll die on. There’s a reason so many people religiously do Zanki and whatever the new ones are and are surprised they Still do poorly on boards. And it’s because they memorize the cards and can’t put the info into context. Part of the reason is because The cards almost give you the answer. My favorite example is a card I got that was along the lines of “ACEs and ARBs are associated with __kalemia”.

This card is leading because a ton of students start associating it with hyperkalemia, sure, But if given a question about what Specific electrolyte abnormality in a grossly abnormal BMP was most likely to be caused by the drug they can’t make the association because it’s not in the context They learned it in.

Ive tried a number of these premade decks and they all do the same thing. Best case scenario if you compiled a list of people that used these decks is that you’d see a standard bell curve.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
Sorry but this is a hill I’ll die on. There’s a reason so many people religiously do Zanki and whatever the new ones are and are surprised they Still do poorly on boards. And it’s because they memorize the cards and can’t put the info into context. Part of the reason is because The cards almost give you the answer. My favorite example is a card I got that was along the lines of “ACEs and ARBs are associated with __kalemia”.

This card is leading because a ton of students start associating it with hyperkalemia, sure, But if given a question about what Specific electrolyte abnormality in a grossly abnormal BMP was most likely to be caused by the drug they can’t make the association because it’s not in the context They learned it in.

Ive tried a number of these premade decks and they all do the same thing. Best case scenario if you compiled a list of people that used these decks is that you’d see a standard bell curve.
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Weird hill to die on, but sure.

1, there is more than just one premade deck. They are not all like that. Cheesy lightyear is mostly question and answer.
2, there are plenty of people who score incredibly well on Step just using premade decks
3, people learn differently, but doing practice questions is shown to be the most effective at improving your score, and using premade decks gives you more time to answer more questions.
 
scrublyfe21 said:
Sorry but this is a hill I’ll die on. There’s a reason so many people religiously do Zanki and whatever the new ones are and are surprised they Still do poorly on boards. And it’s because they memorize the cards and can’t put the info into context. Part of the reason is because The cards almost give you the answer. My favorite example is a card I got that was along the lines of “ACEs and ARBs are associated with __kalemia”.

This card is leading because a ton of students start associating it with hyperkalemia, sure, But if given a question about what Specific electrolyte abnormality in a grossly abnormal BMP was most likely to be caused by the drug they can’t make the association because it’s not in the context They learned it in.

Ive tried a number of these premade decks and they all do the same thing. Best case scenario if you compiled a list of people that used these decks is that you’d see a standard bell curve.
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Premade decks are just a tool. A tool is only as good as the person using it. It's like saying UWorld is overrated because everyone uses it and a ton of people still do poorly. Did the person use it correctly? Did they have a poor foundation pre-UWorld? These are the kind of questions that should be asked when a person uses all the "right" resources and still underperforms.
 
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Sketchy micro is fantastic

Sketchy pharm without the zanki pharm deck is almost useless in my opinion.
 
I used to make my own cards in MS1, straight from school lectures and rarely from the supplements. I emphatically did not find that it improved my learning experience or retention; it only added a ton of work. This year, I'm using premade and am willing to make a few cards just for class if I have to and I far prefer it.

I think FA is kind of dry and I don't get how people honestly "read" it. I think a skim for review makes sense but some people really center their review around it. Regarding sketchy - I didn't consider myself a "visual learner" (I blame my messed up optic columns) at all, but sketchy with flashcards is honestly excellent. Even the pharm videos like NSAIDs are superior to just memorizing stuff cold.

I really vibe with BnB's concision, the thought of going back to long af school lectures makes me want to scream. Board resources are just better learning tools.
 
Neopolymath said:
It's an argument made under the false pretenses that medicine involves learning anything legitimately complex. It's just simply not true. This isn't electrical engineering or whatever. It's literally memorize easy facts and learn judgement/art.
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It this kind of arrogance that causes issues in this profession. Of course medicine is complex. It isn't "memorizing easy facts" unless you are a top student who can memorize like a computer. The truth is learning the why behind the what makes it so you don't have to memorize as much because you can reason. Some are gifted with both already meaning they have a high capacity to both memorize and are excellent reasoners. Not all of us are so gifted.
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
It this kind of arrogance that causes issues in this profession. Of course medicine is complex. It isn't "memorizing easy facts" unless you are a top student who can memorize like a computer. The truth is learning the why behind the what makes it so you don't have to memorize as much because you can reason. Some are gifted with both already meaning they have a high capacity to both memorize and are excellent reasoners. Not all of us are so gifted.
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Sorry, dude but that's not arrogance. Did you not take any legit hard classes in college to see how much easier preclinical classes are? I don't know how else to tell you that memorizing cytokines and the high school physics behind the heart is not complicated. Medicine is hard because of judgement calls and juggling tough situations in which neither treatment decision is really the right answer. It's not because the first two years take some brilliant mind lol.

Being a worse memorizer doesn't discount the fact that the things you are learning aren't complicated or particularly challenging.
 
Neopolymath said:
Sorry, dude but that's not arrogance. Did you not take any legit hard classes in college to see how much easier preclinical classes are? I don't know how else to tell you that memorizing cytokines and the high school physics behind the heart is not complicated. Medicine is hard because of judgement calls and juggling tough situations in which neither treatment decision is really the right answer. It's not because the first two years take some brilliant mind lol.

Being a worse memorizer doesn't discount the fact that the things you are learning aren't complicated or particularly challenging.
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Yeah it’s not especially difficult material. Some of it is, but most of it is only difficult because it’s so voluminous.
 
Neopolymath said:
Sorry, dude but that's not arrogance. Did you not take any legit hard classes in college to see how much easier preclinical classes are? I don't know how else to tell you that memorizing cytokines and the high school physics behind the heart is not complicated. Medicine is hard because of judgement calls and juggling tough situations in which neither treatment decision is really the right answer. It's not because the first two years take some brilliant mind lol.

Being a worse memorizer doesn't discount the fact that the things you are learning aren't complicated or particularly challenging.
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100% arrogance as few hold your opinion. Best of luck to you as a physician
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
100% arrogance as few hold your opinion. Best of luck to you as a physician
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You realize that an argument of exclusively logical fallacies is not a legitimate argument right? If you’d like to make a valid argument why you think he’s wrong, please do. But just calling someone arrogant because they disagree with you isn’t the way to go.
 
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
You realize that an argument of exclusively logical fallacies is not a legitimate argument right? If you’d like to make a valid argument why you think he’s wrong, please do. But just calling someone arrogant because they disagree with you isn’t the way to go.
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This really is not worth my time. If you think medical school is THAT easy then you are bashing everyone who struggles through it and who fights to become a physician. It is indeed arrogant to say medical school is ultimately easy because it simply is not, which is not hard to prove just look at the stress levels and board scores across medical students. There is a skewed view on this website where an odd amount of really intelligent people like to comment and forget the rest of the 90% of medical students that are fighting to become physicians every day. Show them some respect.
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
This really is not worth my time. If you think medical school is THAT easy then you are bashing everyone who struggles through it and who fights to become a physician. It is indeed arrogant to say medical school is ultimately easy because it simply is not, which is not hard to prove just look at the stress levels and board scores across medical students. There is a skewed view on this website where an odd amount of really intelligent people like to comment and forget the rest of the 90% of medical students that are fighting to become physicians every day. Show them some respect.
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You’re arguing against straw men and tilting at windmills here.
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
This really is not worth my time. If you think medical school is THAT easy then you are bashing everyone who struggles through it and who fights to become a physician. It is indeed arrogant to say medical school is ultimately easy because it simply is not, which is not hard to prove just look at the stress levels and board scores across medical students. There is a skewed view on this website where an odd amount of really intelligent people like to comment and forget the rest of the 90% of medical students that are fighting to become physicians every day. Show them some respect.
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No one said med school is easy. Neo just said that what we're learning is not inherently hard to understand for the most part. The difficulty of it really comes from the overwhelming volume.

I don't understand how saying something is easy is disrespecting someone else. I'll give an example. Imagine that you told me that you find physiology easy. Honestly, that subject doesn't come naturally to me, so I have to work harder at understanding it than someone like yourself. I'm not offended by the fact that you said that it's easy; if anything I'm jealous, lol.
 
treatem-and-streetem said:
This really is not worth my time. If you think medical school is THAT easy then you are bashing everyone who struggles through it and who fights to become a physician. It is indeed arrogant to say medical school is ultimately easy because it simply is not, which is not hard to prove just look at the stress levels and board scores across medical students. There is a skewed view on this website where an odd amount of really intelligent people like to comment and forget the rest of the 90% of medical students that are fighting to become physicians every day. Show them some respect.
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Chill. No one’s arguing that med school isn’t hard. It’s ridiculous. But each individual concept isn’t crazy. But keeping 10+ concepts like that straight at once is initially very arduous. That’s all.
 
Yeah I took differential equations in undergrad... that’s hard. Med school is just a lot. Not conceptually difficult, but you have to have thick skin to work as hard as you have to for med school. Just different
 
Cornfed101 said:
Yeah I took differential equations in undergrad... that’s hard. Med school is just a lot. Not conceptually difficult, but you have to have thick skin to work as hard as you have to for med school. Just different
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Med school is more like figurative boot camp. It's why people who played sports and dug ditches aren't whining about sitting in AC watching stupid cartoons for step 1 or 3rd year half measured hazing nearly as much IMO.
 
Cornfed101 said:
Yeah I took differential equations in undergrad... that’s hard. Med school is just a lot. Not conceptually difficult, but you have to have thick skin to work as hard as you have to for med school. Just different
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This.

I got my undergrad degree in mathematics. That was very hard. Nothing I’ve learned in med school has been conceptually as difficult as complex analysis, abstract algebra, etc. But trying to learn the entire endocrine system—anatomy, physiology, pathology, embryology, pharm, etc.—in 10 days was difficult in a completely different way.

Neopolymath said:
Med school is more like figurative boot camp. It's why people who played sports and dug ditches aren't whining about sitting in AC watching stupid cartoons for step 1 or 3rd year half measured hazing nearly as much IMO.
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Yeah I’ll take studying for exams over getting literally gassed any day.
 
I highly recommend the Anking deck and using the filter option. The deck is broken down into Pathoma, Sketchy, BnB, FA, and a bunch of other resources I didn't use BUT, the best part about that deck is that you can watch a video with any of those resources and juts do the cards dedicated to that video after you watch it. It really solidifies the information you learned in the video. This is the only way I think I did alright on step 1
 
MedScat said:
I highly recommend the Anking deck and using the filter option. The deck is broken down into Pathoma, Sketchy, BnB, FA, and a bunch of other resources I didn't use BUT, the best part about that deck is that you can watch a video with any of those resources and juts do the cards dedicated to that video after you watch it. It really solidifies the information you learned in the video. This is the only way I think I did alright on step 1
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yeah I really like the Anking deck for that reason. I don’t think I plan on maturing everything, but it’s really nice to use any major step 1 source and have a card already made and filtered perfectly. Organization at its finest
 
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