I have 2 ½ months left until my Step1 exam. I’m 75% through my UWorld and planning to enter a dedicated study period now. I have done my Anki cards on and off and have been religiously making, adding to, and extensively personalizing my Yousmle step1 deck during my review period. Now that I’m done with my full review (with a review course), I pretty much have UWorld and Anki deck left to work through (Also planning on doing another Qbank in my last month). I do however have around 7000 cards in my deck with 2550 unseen, and have to be honest that I do feel slightly overwhelmed by the number. What is your advise on most effectively learning these cards during the remaining couple of months?

Also, does your Step2 card contain CS content as well?

Thanks

Thank you for your message. You can get microbiology cards if you sign up for the newsletter. You can make your own cards, or you could also use some of the cards I have created, at the following link: yousmle.com/step1anki.

Great question. Honestly, I don’t read too much into the percentages on your UWorld/Kaplan/Qbank blocks, and to look more at things like improvement in NBME practice scores.

Great question. You can find the answer to many of your questions here:

https://www.yousmle.com/anki-best-practices-medical-school-and-usmle-step-1/

As far as the pathogenesis to presentation information, it came from a variety of sources, including a lot of information from class, Robbins, Goljan, Costanzo, FA, or sometimes even primary literature.

I appreciate the time you spend in helping others with board prep.

I have been using Anki for some time, but am unsure the best settings to use for spaced repetition. Do you recommend just keeping the “Default” settings and going through cards that way? I feel as though when I am using Anki to study for class I am not seeing all of my cards enough before an exam. I guess I am looking for advice on how to adjust the settings to study for class vs step 1, or if I should just leave it all on default.

PS – where do you obtain your pathogenesis information for your cards? Pathoma, Robbins, Goljan?

Some people just use the deck, but I personally would recommend to add cards for the topics you are weakest at, since the information covered in the decks won’t always be the same. You can do the subject-specific cards first (e.g. do the cardio cards), then if there are other things you’ve learned, then you can add cards. That way you won’t be duplicating information!

Does your deck for Step 1 is enough to increase my score and make a big jump or should I add more flash cards?

Thank you

Hi Dick,

Thank you so much for your question. I definitely would recommend turning missed questions into Anki cards, even if they are not pathogenesis to presentation. If you look at the sample cards that I share from my Step 1 deck, or the Yousmle.com Step 1 deck, you will see how I did this.

Best of luck!

Alec