LEARNING THE CONTENT
In your pre-clinical years (year 1&2 of med school), you need to learn a TON of material. You need to learn material from lectures so you can, first and foremost, pass your classes, but also pass your boards -- mainly Level 1/Step 1 -- before starting clinical rotations in third year. Having a strong foundation in your classes will go hand in hand with passing boards and make dedicated so much better and less stressful.
So, start by going to class or listening online (whichever you prefer). I would download the lectures before they began onto my iPad, previewed the lectures the night before, went to lecture, annotated the presentation on my iPad, and reviewed the lecture again after class to make a summary one-sheet of what I found to be the most high yield info. Do what is right for you -- some people would make flaschards during class or after class, I did not find this as helpful as actually writing down notes in my own words. I love using the app Goodnotes on my iPad because I feel it's much more organized than Notability, because I could organize my notes into folders.
I highly encourage you supplement lecture material with the online resources because they do such an amazing job of presenting the information in a way that is memorable, clear and concise. There are SO many resources out there, I'll list some of the most popular ones here:
BoardsandBeyond
Osmosis
Pathoma
Drawit to Know It
Lecturio
Dr. Najeeb
Amboss
Sketchy
Picmonic
DirtyMedicine
Online Med Ed
NinjaNerd
Pixorize
I had to review Osmosis for a class recently & I realized that even though others love this resource, I don't and that's ok! & that's been an important lesson for me. As a first year, I
remember being really overwhelmed by all the recourses out there and I would hop from one to the other and it was NOT productive. Pick one or two resources and stick with it! But if there are so many resources, where do you begin and how do you choose?
I would start by knowing what TYPE of learner you are. I didn't know I was a kinesthetic
learner but when I took a quiz last year I realized how much moving while I study helps me. Take this quiz my school had us do to find out what kind of learner you are:
I recently made a poll of top resources based on your learning style I asked current med students what their learning styles are & what their top resource is in med school. this is something I always wondered & am hoping it will help those of you starting out
to get a good jumping point for your studies :) ps - plz keep in mind that this was a small sample size (n=64) & everyone is different!
Visual learners: Sketchy
Read/write learners: Osmosis
Auditory learners: Pathoma and Sketchy
Kinesthetic learners: boards&beyond (but be active/move/use whiteboard while you learn)
Mixed modality: Anki
Use the first month of school to trial which resources work with your learning style. Most resources cover the same topics but in different styles so it's ok to just pick a few &
stick w them.
My personal preference: Boards and Beyond for all content, Pathoma for pathology, Sketchy Pharm, taking notes and writing/drawing on my whiteboard.
With all that being said -- Anatomy is its own animal and I don't include it in the same category as the material above. My favorite Anatomy resources:
BlueLink UMichigan Anatomy: https://sites.google.com/a/umich.edu/bluelink/curricula/first-year-medical-curriculum?authuser=0
Complete Anatomy or E-anatomy app on the iPad for visual learning
REINFORCING THE CONTENT:
So once you feel you have the basic understandings down using the resources above, you want to reinforce it. These were my favorite ways, along with many other students:
Anki: People either love it or hate it. I personally love it for reinforcing, not learning. I love the pre-made decks and do not make my own. This saves so much time and they are really well done. There are tons of youtube videos that explain the proper settings and how to navigate Anki if you've never used it before.
My favorite is using the ANKING deck, and unlocking topics as I go
IE: Lecture on Ovarian Tumors --> Watch/Listen Pathoma video --> unlock "pathoma ovarian tumors" on anki (Cntrl-J) --> Watch/Listen BnB video --> unlock "BnB Ovarian Tumors" on anki and review
Purchase & use First Aid and read through it at least at the end of each block. If you're feeling ambitious -unlock the Anki deck concurrently. I started doing that this year and wish I had started sooner. Protip: most people either spiral bind First Aid or put all the pages in a binder so they can add their own notes. I spiral bound mine at Fedex for $3 and highly recommend
Podcasts on Spotify/Apple Podcasts: I would listen to Podcasts while driving or going on walks/or downtime:
Daddy Golijan
Divine Intervention Podcast (better for Step 2/clinicals)
TESTING YOUR KNOWLEDGE:
QBanks, Qbanks, Qbanks!
Again, using Q banks in accordance with your classes is a great way to assess gaps in your knowlege. These resources also have excellent explanations. It gets you in the mindset of how to test well. Something I wish I had done was a "first pass" of Uworld during my first/second year, and doing a second pass during Dedicated.
Best for USMLE: Uworld
Best for Level: Comquest, Trulearn/Combank
If you are in need of a white board, best blank notebooks, pens and planners, or any other office essentials, I have made a list on Amazon of my personal favorites! Happy studying! xoxo- HQ
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